At the end of a long day…

…the best thing in the world is to be greeted by two happy children!  Today I made my conference debut, speaking at SplunkLive! Raleigh.  I’ve been so busy over the past few weeks, with a major upgrade project among too many other things, and I wish I could have had a little more time to prepare for this..!  I didn’t feel that great about my performance, there were some A/V glitches that sort of messed up the flow, and some slide issues that had to be fixed at the last minute..  Not exactly the polished, flawless delivery I expect of myself, but the audience was kind, and lots of folks wanted to talk to me afterward.  Brandon was in attendance, and he and others told me later that it really was a good talk, and I guess I’ll try to believe them. 🙂  It was really stressful for me, and honestly, I’m just glad that I didn’t throw up on my shoes!  At the same time, it was also sort of fun.  Next time (if there is a next time!) I will pull a diva attitude and demand a test of the A/V setup before going onstage. 😉  I only have one photo of myself at the talk, a panorama that someone sent me.  I’ll also include some marketing photos that Red Hat took of me during their “Red Hat Certified Professionals” photo shoot.  It took them awhile to get them to me, and I received them too late to use for the promotional materials for the conference, but I put one in my slide deck!  I wasn’t too pleased with these either, but other folks say they are good, so, I’ll include them just because.  I had a sinus infection and was in the middle of a tough certification class the week that these were shot!  I’m not sure if they’ve used me in any advertisements, but I know they used Brandon! 🙂

Anyway, I really needed to see my energetic, happy babies after such a day!  It did wonders for me to just watch them run around at Goddard on the playground.  Afterward, we went to the Lynnwood Grill for dinner outside on the patio, since it was such a nice day.