Well, wish me luck… tomorrow we are leaving for the Chicago Tea Festival.  I am presenting one program on Saturday – The Tea Horse Road: Ancient Trade Route to Tibet and two on Sunday – Tea, Tearooms and Women’s Suffrage and Sharing Your Passion: “Growing Tea” within Your Local Community.

I must admit I am really nervous about it.  At this point there is no telling how many people will be attending each of my sessions.  They have sold a ton of advance tickets, but who knows what attendees interest’s are. I consider two of them, are of historical interest and present another aspect of tea that perhaps many people are not aware of.

So, I’ll just have to wait and anxiously wonder and worry about the number of people attending each of my sessions.  I am used to speaking in front of people – I’ve taught colleges classes, spoke to groups of parents and presented programs at several tearooms, etc. – you know relatively “small” groups of people.  However, one of my presentations is listed to be in the Wolf Point Ballroom. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of ballroom I assume BIG . YIKES!!! Yes, I do hope to have more than ten or twenty people in each session, but not a hundred or more!

Also, another thing, that makes me nervous, is that I am really the only person speaking that is not directly involved in the tea industry in some manner or the other.  Plus, there are numerous REALLY BIG NAMES in the worldwide tea industry that will be presenting.

So, I got a haircut, got my nails done, had my eyebrows shaped, bought some new clothes and will wear makeup, so at least I will hopefully “look” the part of a cool, calm, collected and confident person, while I’ll secretly shaking in my boots as the saying goes!