There is something to be said about an out of body experience.  I think we all have had them- for good reasons or bad.  And it becomes a situation where your instincts take over and your brain follows behind.  I have to say I’m not entirely comfortable with public speaking.  Yes, I do believe I understand the irony on that being that my job requires public speaking on a daily basis.  This has been something that have grappled with for years.  I used to throw up before classes when I started teaching and now I just have the flurry of butterflies that occupy my stomach from time to time.  It’s an improvement, at least but get me into a scenario where I have never been- well, those butterflies are flutter a bit more crazily.

Last Friday, I debuted my work in my new hometown of Presque Isle.  My exhibit was at Cafe Sorpreso and part of the First Friday Art Walk.  I put up 18 or 19 pieces from my Iniciar show.  It was an absurdly hurried day since I had only slept about 2 hours because of worrying about 2 of the pieces coming off the Fed Ex plane just in the nick of time of putting up the show.  It’s a long and convoluted story not worth telling here- but I am reconsidering my use of the services of Fed Ex.  (ahem)

So I rushed about my day until finally the opening arrived….  like any other First Friday I have been to, people scurried from one thing to the next and for me being the newbie in town, I didn’t expect so many to come out, which set my expectations rather low.  I pumped up the show in my classes all week and even though many students nod their heads and sound like they will come- I am realistic and it IS a friday night.  Would that actually happen?

I was due to speak at 8:15.  I barely ate dinner.  People started to trickle in- more and more were faces I recognized.  My last count, close to the time I was to speak, was around 70 people.  I’ve had very few situations where I have spoken to a room more than 30-50 people.  Let me just tell you, the extra 20+ bodies REALLY up the anti!

8:15 rolls around- Judy turns off the music- Cliff leans in and tells me we’re going to get started.  After his introduction, people applaud.  But then the applause continues, and someone whistles, and someone yells out- I don’t know what happened to me however I somewhat think for the first time in my life that I can relate to Arsenio Hall.  Something in me had me jump up and down and then where a fleeting fist pump came in, I couldn’t tell you.  Again- mind out of body, body working on it’s own- I am sure that is how Arsenio Hall started his fist pump/crank and “roo roo roo” (I wiki-ed that because I did not know how to spell the sound associated with his fist pump).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenio_Hall

Ok- WHY DID I DO THAT???  Quite honestly, never in my life have I had such a reception.  I have had some enthusiastic clapping.  I’ve turned around a room with speaking but never as I was introduced did I have such warmth.  This makes Presque Isle so much different.

I am not quite sure how long I spoke- maybe 15 minutes.  I hope I sounded articulate.  I don’t think I “roorooroo-ed” but hopefully I made some sense.  One can only hope.

Let me just say, moving to Presque Isle has not been without it’s difficulties, but as I have settled in, I am daily reminded that this was a great choice.  Will I continue fist pumping?  I’m not sure.  Stranger things have happened- it just may be my new thing.