Sacramento

Still Playing catch up on some posts, forgive me.

I went to Sacramento last month to attend an interpreting conference. To maintain your national certification one must attend workshops and other professional development classes for which you are given credit. 

While there two of my friends/co-workers and I presented a workshop about interpreting genetic information. I was really nervous. I've presented quite a few workshops locally but never at this large of a venue.  It was the region V conference (the US is divided into 5 regions). I was unsure of how is would be received because

1. We presented the first day of the conference
2. Not only first day but first time slot- 1:00 pm.  People would still be arriving
   
3. There were other workshops to choose from
4. My co-workers and I are fairly young in the interpreting field.  Having newbies teaching you isn't everybody's cup of tea.
5. When I talk about working on a genetics research team people think I'm involved in creating the perfect baby-so not true.  (that is such a small part of genetics but of course it gets the most attention.  Not wanting to go off on a genetics rant I'll just say this; many of us have had genetic test as part of our medical treatment and just didn't know it.  It's not crazy voo-doo. At least my involvement in it isn't)

Having the above concerns I decided to make my expectations as realistic as possible.  Maybe even a little low to avoid disappointment and humiliation.  So I hoped for 20 participants figuring friends would take pity and come even if the topic wasn't appealing to them.  But being the optimist I am I made 50 copies of our hand out just in case.  

You can imagine how surprised and delighted I was when we not only ran out of hand outs but when every chair was taken and people started sitting on the floor!  It was a wonderful experience personally and professionally. We got a lot of good feedback and are now submitting a proposal to present at the national conference in Philadelphia next August!!! Ahh, I must be crazy.

Yoko, Loriel, and yours truly

These are the lovely ladies I presented with (friends first, co-workers second)  We meant to take a picture of us at the presentation but things were crazy.  This is us in Downtown Sacramento after celebrating Loriel's birthday at a yummy restaurant by the river.

Me & Dallass

While in my workshop I was walking around during a group activity and saw a familiar face.  I covertly signed D-A-L-L-A-S-S?  To which the lovely lady responded yes!  Dallass is a dear friend and my roommate while in the interpreting program I haven't seen her in ....oh forever!  Seriously though it's been like 6 years.  It was so wonderful to visit with her.  I was able to go over to her parents house one night and visit her family and see her two adorable children.  So glad you were there Dallass.