Wortschatz Panik

I have been struggling with the best way for me to refresh my German language skills, since I booked my air travel. Today, on my way to work, I went into somewhat of a panic.... I was listening to my favorite morning radio station, Q100's The Bert Show and I realized that most of the simple sentences they were saying I could not translate into German. How am I supposed to survive if I cannot translate a simple sentence?!?!?! I began to breath and really listen to what they said and was able to do a few words at first, then I was able to work on a couple of sentences. If I just take that approach to my standard vocabulary (Wortschatz) and translate my most common words, then my most common phrases, then my not-so-common words and then my not-so-common phrases, I should have a pretty decent Wortschatz in six months (im sechs Monaten)!! Viel Glück zu mir!