I decided last week to take some vacation days for a long weekend (Friday, Monday, and Tuesday). At least, that was the plan. I’m also going to be off today for a dental appointment. It’s an early morning appointment, so I’m taking the whole day. I rarely go back to work when I have an afternoon dental appointment, so for morning ones, I take the whole day. I do this because usually when I have dental work done, it gives me a bad headache. So, I was supposed to be off from Friday through Wednesday, but as I said, things didn’t quite work out as planned.
Monday night, just before 10:00 pm, I received an email from a professor who wanted to confirm details for a tour I was supposed to give the next night (Tuesday) at 6:30 pm. I had completely forgotten about it and did not have it on my calendar, so I looked back at the email thread. The professor had emailed back in early May about giving a tour for about sixty students who’d be at the university for a special program. I had agreed to do the tour and had asked him to firm up some details, which he never responded to. I can only assume I’d planned to put it on my calendar once he’d confirmed things. A lot was going on during the first week or so of May, and I completely forgot about the whole exchange. So, it was a bit of a surprise when he finally emailed me back Monday night.
I ended up going to the museum last night to give these tours. I gave three tours from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. My tours usually take more than the 25-30 minutes I was given for each tour last night, but I got everything in and the students (most of them anyway) actually seemed interested. They were a nice group of kids, and everything went fine. Some even asked some good questions, and they were all very polite.
I have to say though, public speaking of any kind whether tours, presentations, or teaching has always taken its toll on me. I love doing it, but I think because I’m a shy and quiet person that when I have to be loud and outgoing, it’s really exhausting. Still, I love what I do. While I wish I had not needed to go to the museum in the evening to give tours on my day off, it all turned out fine.
Joe
The Closet Professor 
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