A/N I know it's early, but life, such as it is, intruded.

The Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center and The Omni Hotel (they are connected by a walkway), mentioned in this, and the next couple of chapters, are real. As are the restaurants and other stores mentioned. For those who know something of Dallas and history, they are within a few blocks of Dealey Plaza.

While this chapter (and the next couple) focus on Penny at the convention, it's not all about her. For example, Dr Kulkarni, who is mentioned in this chapter, is a real person, who was a former director of Palomar observatory, and current professor at Caltech, who will be recommended to one of the gang. Enjoy.

Chapter 30

Tuesday 14 January, 6:30 PM

Penny and Karen were walking around their booth, making sure everything was placed, where Penny wanted it. After the final walk around they both agreed, their booth was ready. About the only thing they would have to do, in the morning, was to move the tables from inside the booth, to outside the booth. They would put the various pamphlets they had for Embryno, on those tables, for those who didn't want to stop talk about it, but did want some information on it. Penny was puzzled as she looked around and only saw two or three other companies putting up their booths. Did I start putting this up too early? Could I have taken some time, after getting here?

After getting in at 2 PM, they had gone straight to The Omni, their hotel, and dropped off their luggage in their rooms. Then, they took the walkway, attached the hotel, to the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center. Penny had called their Dallas office, before their flight, and arranged to have all their material delivered, prior to their arrival. Upon arriving at their booth, they spent some time checking the materials, as they took it out of the boxes. They had then spent the next three hours putting everything up. Banners, pamphlet pockets, and sales brochures, and scientific information, were all put on the counter of the booth, along with the two tables. The rest were put behind the counter, or in their storage area, to refill as they ran out. One thing Penny was grateful for, was the booth was near one of the bathrooms. Although, for now, she was only peeing a bit more than usual.

After that, Penny closed and locked the booth, and told Karen and Roger that it was time for dinner, she was buying. Penny took them to one of the restaurants within the hotel, Bob's Steak and Chop House. They all sat down and ordered drinks, Karen gave Penny a sideways look when she ordered cranberry juice. Penny was unfazed and leaned over to whisper to Karen that she had a UTI, and the doctor had suggested she drink cranberry juice with her medication. She reached into her purse, and took out her pill for her nausea, and took that, using the cranberry juice to wash it down. Karen, was convinced, nodded knowingly and everyone started looking at their menus.

Penny offered a toast, to a great convention, and then they ordered their food and spent the next hour and a half eating, and talking about the convention. Afterward, as they left the restaurant, Penny said she wanted to pick up a few snacks and some tea to drink. Karen again looked at her strangely, and pointed out that she had a stocked fridge in her room. Penny reminder her of the medication and how she didn't want to pay seven dollars for a can of tea, just to take pills. Karen and Roger left for their rooms, while Penny stopped at the convenience store across the street of the hotel, then went back to her room.

She got undressed and then prepared for bed. After getting in bed, she made a FaceTime call to Leonard. Leonard answered right away and said, "Hi Penny, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, sweety," said Penny. "Just finished getting ready for bed, and I'll talk to you for a bit, before trying to get some sleep."

"You tired?"

"Yeah," said Penny, "I didn't sleep as much on the plane as I wanted, and as soon as we got in, we started getting everything set up. Tomorrow, I have one presentation to give, then another on Thursday. These are for anyone at the convention who wants to come. I will have to do one for the Dallas sales team from Zangen either Friday or Saturday. After that, it's basically manning the booth, although I might have to give another presentation to Zangen's Houston and San Antonio groups, if they decide to come."

"Wow, sounds exhausting."

"Not really," said Penny, "I'm making sure I'm not pushing myself to do something. I'm just giving the same presentation. Anyway, I just wanted to check in with you, cause I am tired, so I want to get to bed early and get some sleep, to be my best for tomorrow."

"Okay, sweety," said Leonard, "you get your rest, and call me tomorrow, and let me know how it went."

"I will," said Penny, "goodnight, I love you."

"I love you too," said Leonard, "goodnight."

They both disconnected, and Penny turned off her light and rolled over, falling asleep quickly.

Wednesday 15 January, 12:45 PM

Penny was standing at the podium, on the stage of the ballroom, and she was feeling nervous, as she watched the ballroom fill up, thinking about her day so far. Her, Roger and Karen had breakfast at 7:30, and had gotten to the exhibit hall, C hall, of the convention center at 8:30. They had opened their booth, put the tables out, then set the brochures and pamphlets for Embryno, on the tables. As the convention open at 9 AM, her and Karen took their places behind the counter, while Roger took the excess material back to their storage area. Penny smugly looked around, noting that except for one or two other competitors, the same ones that were preparing the previous night, their's was the only booth fully ready, other booths were scrambling to get everything ready. I must have done the set up right, thought Penny.

As a result, Karen and Penny were both busy. Since their booth was one of the few that were fully open many convention goers came along, asking about Embryno. They would answer question, or give out brochures or pamphlets. Sometimes, there would be a scientific question that Karen couldn't answer and she would call Penny over. By 11:30, Roger had to get another box of material, as they were running out. Penny and Karen wanted lunch early, due to the presentation, and there were several places for food, within the convention center, and Roger volunteered to go to one of them and get everyone lunch. Both women asked for a salad, Pennys with chicken, and Roger also got one. They each took turns eating and covering for each other, as people continued to drift by during lunch.

At 12:30, Roger took over the booth, with instruction to have people come back later, if he couldn't answer any questions. Penny and Karen gathered their presentation material and walked out of the hall, across the lobby, and into the ballroom, which had been converted into a room for presentations. Theirs would be the first presentation of the afternoon, so they took out their materials, Karen taking her flash drive to computer connected to the projector and Penny placed her notes on the podium. People were there when Penny arrived, and even more were starting to arrive. As Penny was looking over her notes, and whenever she looked up, she could see that the place was filling up, and there were still ten minutes to her presentation. More and more people came in, and she got more and more nervous.

Finally, with ten minutes to go, she walked back to Karen and said, "I'm freaking out, look how many people are going to be here."

"Don't worry about it, Penny," said Karen, "you've given this plenty of times and know it by heart. It isn't going to change, just because there are people here. Think of them being an audience in a play. You've done that before and you have the notes and give the presentation very well, I've got the visuals, together we'll kick their ass."

"Yeah, except you'll be in the back, and no one will know who you are," said Penny, "I'll be the one everyone else will see fuck it up. But, thanks, I do feel better."

Karen was surprised by Penny's use of language, but she gave a short laugh. "You will be great. Go get them," said Karen.

"Thanks, I will," said Penny. She held up her hand, Karen high-fived her, and Penny headed back toward the stage. The person who was to introduce her was waiting at the bottom of the steps to the stage.

"Hi," she said, "my name is Edith Wrest, I'm in charge of presentations. You are Penny Hofstadater…er, Hofstandet…"

"I'm Penny Hofstadter," said Penny.

"Ahhh, that's how your pronounce it," said Edith. "Well, once the lights go down, I'll go up on stage and introduce you, then you'll have a half hour, to speak, and then ten minutes for questions, okay?"

"Yes, that's fine," said Penny. "I should finish in about 20 minutes, and leave 20 minutes for questions. Is that all right?"

"Yes, that's fine," said Edith, "just don't go over forty minutes or I'll have to stop you, we have to prepare for the next presentation." Just then, at 1:00 PM, the lights began to dim and Edith walked up on the stage. She waited for the crowd to become quiet, and said, "Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Wednesday afternoon presentations of the 2020 Dallas Pharmaceutical Sales Convention. I'm Edith Wrest, and I would like to introduce Penny Hofstadter, of Zangen Pharmaceuticals."

Edith walked away from the podium, and Penny, with butterflies in her stomach got to the podium, look around as the applause died down. She adjusted the microphone, took a deep breath, and said, "Hello everyone, as Edith said, my name is Penny Hofstadter, and I would like to talk to you about our new morning after medication, Embryno."

Wednesday 15 January, 11:15 PM

"You may go in, Dr Koothrapolli," said Dr Gablehauser's secretary.

Raj rose, walked to the door knocked and entered. "Ahhh, Dr Koothrapolli," said Dr Gablehauser, walking toward him, and shaking his hand. "Please have a seat,"

Raj sat down, as Dr Gablehauser moved behind his desk and sat down. "So, what brings you in here today?"

Raj paused for a second, and then said, "I wanted to talk to you about tenure. I was put on the same list as Dr Cooper and Dr Hofstadter, six years ago. They now have tenure, and I don't. What do I need to do?"

Dr Gablehauser looked at Raj "Frankly," said Dr Gablehauser, "it comes down to they have advanced in their careers, and you haven't. Dr Cooper won a Nobel, Dr Hofstadter has become the lead investigator on an experimental team, and has taken on graduate students, to assist them with their PhD thesis. They have both been publishing papers every year. You, on the other hand, found that Kuiper Belt Object, but that was years ago, and nothing really since then. Oh, you discovered that comet, but had to share credit. There's nothing wrong with sharing credit, but claiming it for yourself and then having to retract it, hurt your credibility."

Raj looked down, and didn't say anything.

Dr Gablehauser continued, "After the Kuiper Belt Object, you didn't find anything else and you lost your funding, and then found a position with Dr Cooper. But, but your search for dark matter hasn't panned out, and you haven't published anything with that in the last few years, and you got involved in a silly twitter feud with Dr Tyson. Dr Cooper moved on to his Nobel work, and you are about to lose your funding again. If that happens, and with no teaching load, you won't have a position. You have published some interesting papers about transiting variables and we have good reports from your planetarium job at Griffith Observatory, but, we've also heard some things about some UFO or alien nonsense. However, except for a liaison we don't have any connection with Griffith, so that doesn't really help you with the university."

Raj still didn't say anything.

"You obviously have some skill in organizing, because the staff at Griffith has said since you changed and reorganized the talks, they are the best they've been in years. But, again, what have you done for the university? See, that is where tenure comes in."

"Thank you Dr Gablehauser for seeing me…" started Raj, as he was standing.

"Hold on, Dr Koothrapolli," said Dr Gablehauser, "we may have something for you, but it would be a change in the direction of your career. The current director of the Palomar Observatory is looking for a new assistant director. This is a tenured position, as it comes out of University funds, however, you would have to take on some PhD students, and the position requires you stay at the observatory. There is a nice group of both Planetary and astrophysical students, right now, that I feel would benefit from your experience. I would like you to contact Dr Kulkarni of our astronomy department. He is a former director there, and will be able to give you some information, that will be useful for your interview. After you talk to him, come back and see me."

"Thank you Dr Gablehauser," said Raj.

"Don't thank me, I had nothing to do with the assistant director position, coming open. Thank Dr Hernandez for deciding to transfer to Columbia. Remember, this will not be a full professorship, as Dr Cooper and Dr Hofstadter have. The position is the equivalent of an assistant professorship, but it does come with tenure, and it will allow you to continue on the tenured path, and possibly, in a few years, become a full professor. But, like I said, come back and see me after you talk to Dr Kulkarni."

"Yes, sir, I will," said Raj, as she reach over the desk to shake Dr Gablehauser's hand, "Thank you again," said Raj as he turned to leave.

Wednesday 15 January, 6:45 PM

The exhibition hall would be closing at 7 PM, so Penny already had had Karen and Roger move the tables back into the booth, and she was taking the pamphlets and brochures off the counters, while Roger was putting them away, in their boxes.

Penny was thinking of her afternoon, how well the presentation for Embryno went. How she was able to answer all but one of the questions, off the top of her head, and was able to answer the other after only a few seconds of looking. The Dallas sales team were right there as Penny came off the stage, to congratulated her. What Penny thought to be the leader of the team, a guy named Roy, invited them to the Biergarten, across from the hotel at 7:30, and Penny agreed.

She received quite a few congratulations on her presentation, as her and Karen made their way back to the booth. By the time Penny and Karen got back to the booth, Roger was swamped with a huge crowd, asking about Embryno. Karen hurried behind the booth, and Penny stood in front and started answering questions, and for the next several hours, their booth was busy.

But, now, it being near closing, the crowds had thinned out, and they were now closing the booth. Penny told Karen and Roger that when they were done, to go ahead and freshen up, then meet her in the lobby, and they would head over to the Biergarten for dinner, explaining the Dallas group had asked her to come over. Everything was now back into the booth, and Penny closed it up, and all three of them went back to their rooms. About ten minutes later, Penny walked into the lobby, and saw Karen and Roger. They met up and walked out of the hotel, and across the street. Walking into the Biergarten, Penny saw the sales team from Dallas and waved.

The leader of the team got up and walked toward Penny. The guy looked puzzled, and leaned over and whispered to Penny. She shook her head and pointed at Roger and Karen, and whispered back. The guy said something else to Penny and she straighten up and said angrily, "This is my team, they are with me, if you don't want them, then you don't want me."

They guy walked back to the table, talked to someone there and they both returned to the entrance to the restaurant. The new guy said, "Hello, my name is Al Denizon, I'm in charge of sales here in Dallas. Roy tells me there's a problem, what's wrong?"

"Roy here said to come to dinner with your team tonight," said Penny, still with a touch of anger, " Well, here we are, but I'm being told that only I am supposed to be here. If you don't want my team, you don't want me, is that clear?"