Perseverating…

As per usual the day before a presentation, I spent most of the day perseverating about it. My diversity presentation, to approximately 23 people, is tomorrow at 1:00, and these are the things I ruminated about:

  • How does the presentation itself look?
  • Are the speaker notes right? Numbered to match slide? One for every slide? Just contain salient points? Font size big enough to read with a glance?
  • Should I read this part, or just “talk from the heart?”
  • Is the content of this presentation, overall, too gay?
  • Can I click on these places on the screen without it being how obvious my hands are shaking?
  • Etc., etc., etc. [superfluous et ceteras sic – to emphasize the sickness of it all]

Robert arrived at around 4:30, and at about 5:30, we set out to Crossroads Plaza, with the intention of stopping at Target and Best Buy.

At Target, I purchased:

  • Mold and mildew cleaner
  • Hair gel (liquid spray)
  • Toothpaste
  • Chip clips (which took way too long to find in the store)
  • Shaving cream (actually a “twin pack” – buy one, get one free)
  • Chewing gum
  • Face-cleansing pads
  • Some nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, sore throat, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, sleep better to feel better medicine.

The cashier rang up the Nyquil first, and squealed, “What???” when she saw that the register would not let her proceed until she had done this: “Verify customer age from identification, and key in birth date.”

We said together, “For some Nyquil?

She keyed in my birth date, and it seemed to agree that a 48-year-old could take some cold medicine responsibly.

I said to her as I grabbed my bag, “I’m going to drink the whole bottle on my way home.”


While in Target, I, just for fun really – not expecting them to, asked in the electronics section, “Do you sell iPods here?”

“Two aisles over is ‘the iPod aisle,'” he said, but then added, “But we don’t have much of a selection right now. You might want to try over at NC State, as they have a special contract with Apple, and they usually get them before anyone else.”

“Oh?” I responded. “That’s great, because I’m a student at State, too, so I might get some kind of student discount. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks!”

“Go to the student book store there, and check them out,” he said.

Armed with this information, we skipped the planned stop at Best Buy, because even if they do have some in stock, I want to check out what State might have first.


We had planned to eat healthy tonight, but succumbed to Taco Bell on the way home. Robert had the “Nachos Grande,” and I had “The Number 3 Combo: Three Taco Supremes and a soda.” Yum!


We took an hour nap before dancing. Well, I took an hour nap. Robert was not able to fall asleep.


Dancing night at Flex started off very slowly, but picked up as it went along.

At the end, Curt said to Robert and me, “I’m glad I arrived in time. One of my favorite things is watching you two waltz.” How sweet.

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