public speaking and the danger of doing it solo

We just got done with our weekend being “celebrity chefs” at the Women’s Expo. It was quite surreal. I wasn’t nervous at all getting up on a stage in front of 100+ people. I think that when I am doing something with my hands, and am talking about something that I know and feel comfortable talking about, I do better. Anyway, these demos are much much easier than a straight book signing where we don’t actually get to cook.

Sometimes I wonder if I really do know more about cooking than the average person, and then I meet someone like I met this weekend, a very nice single woman who was amazed when I told her that she could easily cut any of the recipes in half to make one serving. She asked me to explain how, and I was taken a little off guard, but recovered quickly and nicely showed her how you just halve all the ingredient amounts, or write it in the margins, and make the recipe with that instead. So 2 tablespoons becomes 1 tablespoon, and 2/3 cup becomes 1/3 cup, etc. I think that it wouldn’t have actually occurred to her to do that otherwise.

Arushi and Shyamal might move to Seattle. They will probably know this week. I keep telling her that Seattle is a great place to live (and for me to visit), and that would expand our market to two major cities instead of just the one, but that I am NOT, I emphatically repeat NOT, doing any of this stuff by myself. No solo signings, demos, classes. I just can’t do it on my own. I do OK in front of a crowd these days, but it is only because she is there standing beside me and I trust her to pick it up when I need her to. Without her watching my six, I’m screwed. I’ll revert back to the old deer-in-the-headlights stuff, the throwing up from nerves, not eating for two days beforehand type stuff.

So… YES to Seattle! NOOOO to Seattle! Yes! No! Yes! No! Sigh.