Friday, finally!

This week has been quite hectic for me and I am glad it is winding down now. At the beginning of the month I volunteered to give a talk for our Biomolecular Structure Program. At the time I had no idea what my schedule was going to be like, but I was interested enough to go out on a limb and say that I would do it. Originally the date was set to be the 28th of September, but fortunately it was moved to October 5. As all of our housing problems went down, the fact that I had to give a talk always was dwelling in the back of my mind, but there was nothing I could do about it. When we finally closed last Wednesday I breathed a sigh of relief and then realized that I now had only a week to prepare. But I figured I could make it. Then Thursday and Friday went by and so many things had to be dealt with at work that the talk got pushed aside. Oh well, I thought, I'll just work on it on the weekend. Well the weekend went by with chores and shopping, and still no talk. Ugh! Thankfully Monday and Tuesday were relatively quiet on the job front so I was able to dedicate two solid days to making the slides and practicing. When Wednesday came I was back in the groove and gave a good presentation. It wasn't one of my best talks (I caught myself using the word "basically" way too much) but it was pretty good and it seemed to engage most of the audience. I think the hardest thing to get over when giving a scientific talk is the fact that someone will always be drifting off during the talk. It doesn't seem to matter how good your talk is, some people just aren't interested and can't keep awake. That's my expereince at least. I did manage to keep the important people awake though and had some great questions at the end (that's always the best way to gauge if your talk hit home or not). I'm glad to have it over now though, and as this Friday winds down I'm really looking forward to relaxing this weekend. Sure, I have the lawn to mow, but that will not deter me from enjoying myself. Plus, I get to have pancakes tomorrow, and take Elijah to see the local fire station!