9:03 p.m. - 2007-02-28
why is the education world dominated by men..
Tonight I was sent on a mission that I wasn't sure I could complete. I won't bore you with the details, but my boss sent me to this big, semi-boring meeting where I had to somehow corner the keynote speaker and casually bring up this one little thing that would hopefully have the desired effect. It felt very James Bond. I felt so nervous all day, thinking surely something would go wrong....he was sure to be surrounded by people MUCh more interesting than me, he might not receognise me from the one or two times we've met, or he might and realize I am not important at all relative to the other people who go to these kinds of meetings. I worried he might leave right after his speech. i worried that I wouldn't say the right thing in the right way, or even if I did, it was all about his response, which could have been uninterested, offended or bored.
The amazing thing is that it actually went perfectly. And then...riding high on my confidence from doing something I thought I couldn't, I marched right up to the mayor of pittsburgh and introduced myself. He actually had a mouth full of food at that moment, so I caught him kind of deer-in-the headlights - which was funny and a teeny bit awkward but we both laughed about it and that was nice.
Tomorrow I have a meeting with another important person and i am going to ask him for a crap load of money. He will probably say no or try to say maybe but actually mean no. But I'm feeling pretty confident at the moment...watch out Mister....
