Finished

The poster is finally done and printed.  It doesn't look half-bad and really, using Illustrator wasn't as mind-numbingly awful bad as I thought it would be.  There were only a few times where I was ready to toss the laptop out the 3rd floor window a tad frustrated.  I just realized, though, that there is a lot of data on the poster.  But it is what it is and no way to change things now.

So, the poster is done, Big Boss Man's talk is finished (and saved on two different thumb drives and on the laptop-just in case) and the realization that we are leaving on Sunday is starting to sink in.  Even though I am only giving a poster, I am still as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  Could be because Big Boss Man has forewarned me that he will lob all questions from his talk to me .

There are a lot of big names in the field that are going to be there-people who are going to review my papers, and someday soon, my grants.  I have to admit that my boss is absolutely fantastic about "putting me out there" and I am looking at this conference as not only a way to see some really cool science, but to network the hell out of people.  They won't know what hit them. 

I am leaving Mr. Dr. Zeek at home for this one (the next conference in January he will be tagging along--more to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather than anything else) and he commented yesterday that this will be the longest that we have been apart since we moved in together almost 6 yrs ago.  Maybe that is adding to my nerves a bit.  That and I hate- no detest- flying.  Not so much the flying, but the taking off and landing is really a problem for me.