Melissa,
your defense was very nice. unfortunately, had you given this information from the beginning, instead of posting one of those "i exist, hire me" or "where can i find a job" or "what am i worth" messages, you could have avoided all this nonsense and saved all of us a lot of time and space in our mailboxes! You may be a very conscientious employee, doing your career 'homework,' but we do not know that. Plenty of people post messages to the list such as "i just graduated. anyone got a job?" So when someone gives little background information, it is a sign that you are one of those people, and we shut you off. You have to present yourself as the intelligent woman you are, and then bill and i will be nice ;)
good luck in the meeting,
beth