Come and Gone

I glanced at my note card one more time before walking in through the door, my throat completely parched--a typical bad start to most of my speeches. Looking up, I noticed there was only one judge. There it was, just me and him, and I started with another speech about something I knew nothing about. Without reason, big fat tears started to well, then fall down my cheeks. I was still able to speak, but my face completely betrayed my terror of speaking in front of people. I'll never forget the speech trip where I placed 7th out of 6 contestants. It pretty much solidified my belief that I would never be able to speak in public.

Today, I got up on a stage in front of fifty children, one hundred relatives, and was the foreign Master of Ceremonies for today's kindergarten graduation. No tears. No real gaffes whatsoever, really. Reading from the script, shuffling kids around to get positions right. Alice and I tripping over each other only once or twice.

It all went a lot better than I expected, and the kids did a good job of remembering their lines. I got several presents, and I was a favorite for pictures today. I'm glad my mom had sent me a beautiful orange shirt to be photographed in! Several hours later, all of the adrenaline that had kept me going the last two weeks had faded, and I was left with dozens of blog posts of memories of my kids, a few hundred pictures, and three little coffee mugs I'll be damned if I ever get rid of.

The fight's gone out of me, and most of my energy, too. I'm grateful that Monday and Tuesday, kindergarten isn't real class--just preparation for the new year.

In other news, what with my recent obsession with a coworker, and recent text messaging fun, Chris decided it'd be fun(ny) to sign me up for a dating service. It's been a day, and I have had more interest than a year on e-Harmony. Funny how the world turns, hm? (And now I've gone and said the e-Harmony thing, so let me throw this out there: it was probably good at one point in time, but they, too, were turned by the almighty dollar. Don't do it!)