Whew. Made my big presentation yesterday to the C-TRAN board and their executive staff and all that. I haven’t presented to a public board since I got out of school. The last time was to get money for a project involving huge banners which would hang over Reno’s temporary ice rink. I had all these designs printed and presented them. I don’t think any of them knew what to think, but one of them I remember wanted me to instead do something festive since the christmas season was at hand. I told them that “Virginia, there will be no such thing as Santa Claus.” I was so nervous presenting that work...stuff I had spent months on, and then to have it so misunderstood. The project finally got approved, probably because my professor pulled some strings.

I wasn’t quite as nervous yesterday, except when I realized I’d forgotten the presentation books. Luckily the board had some business before our presentation, and Jon was able to run back and get the missing stuff. The rest went fine, Greg and I split the work in half. I had prepared for three days a kind of speech, had a bunch of set lines, but Greg pulled me aside yesterday and told me to forget it all, just tell the story of how I got to the work I was presenting. That shook me up but I think it worked out. Preparing a speech but delivering something ad lib. I kept the lines in my pocket for Q&A or for if I got stuck, like a safety net. Erin's magic pen, of course, helped as well.