Well, to make a short story long...

Ok, so it's been how long since I've last posted? Oh well. I have a good excuse: homework. Although, I do know some people who manage to post despite their homework. I'll just tell myself that I'm getting better grades than they are so that I can make myself feel less guilty about my lack of posts. Ha. Well, whatever works. ;-)

So last weekend was... interesting. (But first- a preface.) I work in the Foundation department at my university. Basically, they do fundraising, keep track of donors, and fun stuff like that. Well, they put on these fundraising banquets, and hold them in fancy and fun places like the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The president of the university attends, as well as the trustees and those who donate a bunch of money. Prospective donors are invited as well. So it's a pretty big event. It is important to make a very good impression on all these people. Usually, an alum from SU will be asked to speak about how SU prepared them for what they are doing now, and a current student also speaks. Last year, a guy named Levan spoke. He is from the country of Georgia, and has an amazing story to tell in how he came to SU. He is a great leader, a great speaker, and was the student body class president. Everyone knew who he was, and was in slight awe.
So this year, the event was going to be held at the Queen Mary. And I was asked to be the student speaker. YIKES. I am not a student leader, I am not a public speaker, I do not have a crazy story about coming to SU from Georgia. Very few people even know who I am. And I am to speak at a hoity-toity scholarship banquet? I think not. So I said yes.
I was supposed to write my speech at the beginning of Christmas break, and practice throughout the month, but because I am lazy, I didn't write it until the night before I left for school. Hehe. I read it over some, and a practiced even less, so I was pretty stressed about the whole thing. (Please note: When doing something important like this, do not procrastinate. It is bad for your health.)
Well, the school flew me down last Friday morning (direct flight from my college town to LAX- pretty sweet), and Mom picked me up at the Queen Mary. I got to spend the day with the fam; we went to Claim Jumper for lunch, and the girls had basketball games that evening. (Sorry I couldn't see any of yours, Gwen. *sad face*)
After we got home from the games, I totally freaked out. I had to give a speech the next day on the Queen Mary in front of almost 100 people and the president of the school, as well as my boss and the important donors. Have I mentioned that I don't really like public speaking? So I freaked out, saying things like:
"Mom, why did I ever agree to this???"
"I am such an idiot!!"
"What the heck was I thinking??"
"I wish I could back out."
"I'm so stupid."
"What was I thinking???"
"Why didn't I just say NO?"
and, most emphatically,
"WAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

As you can tell, I was not in the best of spirits the night before. And my spirits had not improved by the next morning. And I was still pretty emotional that afternoon. Someone shoot me now. I made it down to the Queen Mary (all by myself! and I didn't even get lost!), and found my room after fighting through the crowds of cheerleaders. Once I unpacked, I helped set up the event for a few hours, and then went to get ready (and take a quick nap...). I was starting to feel nervous again, but I pushed it all out of my mind. The best thing to do is to not think about it- right?
My parents got to come to the banquet, so that was fun. The food was good, too. Well, it should have been- it was the Queen Mary! The salad was actually pretty good: quality greenery, with dried figs and roasted nuts. The boneless, skinless chicken breast was topped with crab and some sort of sauce. The veggies were pretty good as well. They were just the way I liked them- slightly crunchy. The bread was a little hard, and the potatoes were average.
I gave my speech mid-program; let me just say that the song the choir sang right before my speech was great, but I felt absolutely terrible.
As the song ended, I stood up and walked over to my assigned place. I took a deep breath and plunged right in. "My name is Stephanie, and I am from Corona." My hands shook, as did my voice did part way through, but I didn't race along like I had while I was practicing; I got through the speech just fine. Everyone clapped and said that I did a good job. *phew* I am SO glad that it's over. Over, over, over. The event was quite nice, I just wish I could have appreciated it more w/o my stomach being in knots.
I got to spend the night on the Queen Mary that night. Talk about cool rooms! I stayed with one of the girls from the admissions office. We had a room with windows that looked out over Long Beach. It looked so cool, all lit up! I took pictures, but alas and alak, I put my disposable camera in my large suitcase, which went under heavy x-rays, which I hear develops your pictures. Has anyone had any experience with that? I really hope it's a myth cuz some of the pictures were from Christmas break, as well as fun stuff here at school. And a couple attempts at creative-photography-with-a-disposable-camera.

So that was my weekend. I'm glad I did it- I feel much more confident for if I ever have to speak again, and it was good to be home again, even if it was for just one night.

I hope you are doing well, my faithful readers! Apologies from your unfaithful writer. *dramatic arm-raising-to-forehead in a fake swoon pose*