I'm working on Week 6 of the personal development plan. It includes goal setting and dreaming.
I'm dreaming. It's fun putting down on paper what I dream to happen soon in my future.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Onward and Upward
Yesterday was pretty full. At least for me. I started by going to an advanced Toastmasters meeting. It was a backward meeting. Everyone was so nice, and the meeting was a lot of fun. Slick Talkers did a backward meeting about 17 years ago, and we had a blast. It was a great lesson in listening and especially thinking on your feet. I'm so shy that at Beyond Basics, I really had a hard time the one time I had to talk. I was under the impression I would get to pick my topic, so I decided on the drought. When the Table Topics master called on me, he asked about spring flowers. I could have woven the drought into my answer easily, and I actually did start to, but I got so nervous and didn't do well. Then at the end, the President asked us for some comments. Neither of us (Laura or me) answered well.
Laura was there, and she was tongue tied and nervous like me. Unlike me, she got to talk to Heather about some ideas for Membership. I got into a conversation with a member I'm not too crazy about. Actually, conversation means it was mutual -- I didn't get a chance to talk. And I couldn't break it. She started by telling me she was glad I was active in Toastmasters again. She told me she wanted to start training members about things in TI other than speeches. Blah, blah, blah. She as actually a consideration for checking out this club. I figured she belonged to another advanced club, and she didn't belong to this one. I found out she belongs to 10 clubs, so the odds of running into her are pretty high. I guess I'll just have to get over myself and consider it a learning lesson. The only way I could stop her talking was to leave.
Then I went to my daughter's house and got some chop sticks that she had left over from her wedding. We visited for a few minutes and I came home, ate lunch, and slept for 2 hours. We went to Wal-Mart to get a birthday present for my granddaughter and some windshield wipers, and we headed to my ex's for dinner, combination birthday party, and family time. We had fun.
Before I went to bed, I went through the excursions for the cruise and found some I was interested in and sent the list to my buddy. Hopefully, we'll have some interest in common.
Laura was there, and she was tongue tied and nervous like me. Unlike me, she got to talk to Heather about some ideas for Membership. I got into a conversation with a member I'm not too crazy about. Actually, conversation means it was mutual -- I didn't get a chance to talk. And I couldn't break it. She started by telling me she was glad I was active in Toastmasters again. She told me she wanted to start training members about things in TI other than speeches. Blah, blah, blah. She as actually a consideration for checking out this club. I figured she belonged to another advanced club, and she didn't belong to this one. I found out she belongs to 10 clubs, so the odds of running into her are pretty high. I guess I'll just have to get over myself and consider it a learning lesson. The only way I could stop her talking was to leave.
Then I went to my daughter's house and got some chop sticks that she had left over from her wedding. We visited for a few minutes and I came home, ate lunch, and slept for 2 hours. We went to Wal-Mart to get a birthday present for my granddaughter and some windshield wipers, and we headed to my ex's for dinner, combination birthday party, and family time. We had fun.
Before I went to bed, I went through the excursions for the cruise and found some I was interested in and sent the list to my buddy. Hopefully, we'll have some interest in common.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Making Changes
I decided yesterday that I am going to change my Weight Watchers meeting. I've been going to a Weight Watchers @ Work program where I work, but I seem to have lost my motivation. It may be the lecturer, it may be me. I'm going to see if someone can make me think about things differently. Maybe our lecturer is too much about herself. I like to share. I like to talk. We don't get bravo stickers. When she finally asks us if we have anything to share, she catches us by surprise, and no one speaks up. If she'd ask us regularly, we'd have something to say. At least I would.
I took a friend to lunch today to Cheddar's. I had the chicken pecan salad. It was delicious. I took half back to the office. Then about 3:00, I finished it off. My son and I went to have Chinese for dinner, and I only ate half. I tried to eat with chop sticks, but I was so clumsy and my hands started to cramp. But it did its job. I felt full before I finished, so I took the 2nd half home. My daughter has a box of chop sticks from her wedding, and I have been wanting to get some from her so I can eat with chop sticks. I think it will make eating salads easier, and I'll definitely eat more slowly.
Tonight I'll check in to the ship so that is taken care of. My cruise buddy and I want to sign up for the Murder Mystery for sure. It's a little more than 2 weeks!
Yea!
I took a friend to lunch today to Cheddar's. I had the chicken pecan salad. It was delicious. I took half back to the office. Then about 3:00, I finished it off. My son and I went to have Chinese for dinner, and I only ate half. I tried to eat with chop sticks, but I was so clumsy and my hands started to cramp. But it did its job. I felt full before I finished, so I took the 2nd half home. My daughter has a box of chop sticks from her wedding, and I have been wanting to get some from her so I can eat with chop sticks. I think it will make eating salads easier, and I'll definitely eat more slowly.
Tonight I'll check in to the ship so that is taken care of. My cruise buddy and I want to sign up for the Murder Mystery for sure. It's a little more than 2 weeks!
Yea!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
A Day in the Life . . .
of me. I finally got a chance to check out the YouTube video of my mentor, and it didn't work. What do you do when a YouTube video doesn't work? I was sooooo disappointed. I really wanted to see it. Another disappointment yesterday was my inability to publish a book I'm working on to Kindle. I'm not writing the book, I'm publishing it. Once I got the HTML file done and saved it, it replaced several images with black boxes. Soo disappointing.
I went to the memorial mass of a co-worker yesterday. It was so sad. He was here one day, and had a brain tumor the next. He went through 6 months of diagnosis, treatment, health issues, and he finally died. We really miss him. I noticed a bit of mail that I didn't recall seeing before and when I went through it yesterday morning, there was a note from his wife thanking me for sending cards to him. It really lifted his spirits.
I talked to my sister yesterday. This is another part of personal development that I need to address -- being there when someone is hurting or needs help. And having a life that is so stuffed that I don't have time to do things like visit someone in the hospital. Saturday after the Beyond Basics meeting, I'll go wherever the family is. My nephew had a baby with health issues, and they've been in the hospital since her birth March 21. I haven't been by at all. My sister said I couldn't visit her, but I could probably visit them while they're waiting. I don't know. I could take food to them because they spend all their time at the hospital after work. I feel helpless and like I'm letting them down.
I went to the memorial mass of a co-worker yesterday. It was so sad. He was here one day, and had a brain tumor the next. He went through 6 months of diagnosis, treatment, health issues, and he finally died. We really miss him. I noticed a bit of mail that I didn't recall seeing before and when I went through it yesterday morning, there was a note from his wife thanking me for sending cards to him. It really lifted his spirits.
I talked to my sister yesterday. This is another part of personal development that I need to address -- being there when someone is hurting or needs help. And having a life that is so stuffed that I don't have time to do things like visit someone in the hospital. Saturday after the Beyond Basics meeting, I'll go wherever the family is. My nephew had a baby with health issues, and they've been in the hospital since her birth March 21. I haven't been by at all. My sister said I couldn't visit her, but I could probably visit them while they're waiting. I don't know. I could take food to them because they spend all their time at the hospital after work. I feel helpless and like I'm letting them down.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Rest Makes Me Thoughtful
By thoughtful, I mean full of thoughts. I could have gone to sleep at 6:00 last night, but I held off until I kept falling asleep on the couch. At 9:00 I gave up and went to bed and was asleep by 9:02. I slept soundly. Since the first of the year and beyond, I've been going, going, going. I felt guilty because I hadn't talked to my dad or called my nephew about his new daughter who is still in the hospital. She was born March 21 with a hole in her heart and other complications. My dad called yesterday to make a lunch date with me for today in Kerrville, and I sent a message to my nephew to see how things were. I'll go to see them tomorrow during lunch or after work, whichever is best. They're at the Christus Santa Rosa downtown.
As I lay in bed sort of sleeping, sort of thinking (actually, thinking and snoring), my mind drifted through all parts of my life.
I realized that in my Toastmasters club, I'm the senior active member. I'm the one who's been a member the longest, and I've progressed through the communications track more than any other active member. We have a DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster), but he isn't able to attend our meetings more than twice or so a year. This means I don't have a mentor in my club. I don't have anyone to push me. Luckily, David has sort of adopted me as a protege, and he has helped me tremendously in the last 6 months. What's sad is I didn't realize until this morning that having a mentor was what was missing. Because I don't have a mentor and I've been sort of wandering around aimlessly, I feel our club has languished. We have to have someone in our club to keep things moving. I can be that catalyst, but I have to have someone helping me. I really appreciate David more than he'll ever know. At the speech contests yesterday I picked up a flyer for the Beyond Basics club. It is for advanced Toastmasters (who have achieved CC or more), and the flyer mentions some of the club's achievements: 4 Past District Governors, 9 DTMS (and counting), 9 past and current Area Governors, willing mentors, top-notch evaluations. Wow! That's just what I need. And they meet on Saturday mornings. I'll have to step out of my comfort zone and check them out. April may be a bad month for them because they meet the 1st and 4th Saturdays and we had a contest on the 1st and the 4th is the Saturday before Easter. I'll email and find out so I can get started right away.
Another thing I thought about this morning is the hole in my kitchen cabinet where a drawer should be. For some reason, the track that the drawer ran on pulled away from the wall way in the corner of the cabinet below it. I didn't realize what the problem was until it was too late. I'm thinking a wooden dowel shoved under it will keep it place. I'm meeting my dad in Kerrville, and he's going to Home Depot and Wal-Mart afterward, so I'll probably go with him to get the dowel. I'll also take the drawer to see if he can fix it for me. He's fixed another before.
My cat is getting better according to the vet. Monday night I noticed his eye was red, and by Tuesday night, it was really bad. I took him to the vet, and $353 later, we had no diagnosis, but we did have 2 ointments to put in his eyes. That's money from my fun time on the cruise! Oh well. It'll just keep me from drinking as much wine as I did before. I know where the money went the first time. It was on impulse spending on the ship and in the ports. I'll curtail that this time because I've been there before, and I know how things work.
Got to get to the yard. It looks terribly messy and needs to be trimmed.
As I lay in bed sort of sleeping, sort of thinking (actually, thinking and snoring), my mind drifted through all parts of my life.
I realized that in my Toastmasters club, I'm the senior active member. I'm the one who's been a member the longest, and I've progressed through the communications track more than any other active member. We have a DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster), but he isn't able to attend our meetings more than twice or so a year. This means I don't have a mentor in my club. I don't have anyone to push me. Luckily, David has sort of adopted me as a protege, and he has helped me tremendously in the last 6 months. What's sad is I didn't realize until this morning that having a mentor was what was missing. Because I don't have a mentor and I've been sort of wandering around aimlessly, I feel our club has languished. We have to have someone in our club to keep things moving. I can be that catalyst, but I have to have someone helping me. I really appreciate David more than he'll ever know. At the speech contests yesterday I picked up a flyer for the Beyond Basics club. It is for advanced Toastmasters (who have achieved CC or more), and the flyer mentions some of the club's achievements: 4 Past District Governors, 9 DTMS (and counting), 9 past and current Area Governors, willing mentors, top-notch evaluations. Wow! That's just what I need. And they meet on Saturday mornings. I'll have to step out of my comfort zone and check them out. April may be a bad month for them because they meet the 1st and 4th Saturdays and we had a contest on the 1st and the 4th is the Saturday before Easter. I'll email and find out so I can get started right away.
Another thing I thought about this morning is the hole in my kitchen cabinet where a drawer should be. For some reason, the track that the drawer ran on pulled away from the wall way in the corner of the cabinet below it. I didn't realize what the problem was until it was too late. I'm thinking a wooden dowel shoved under it will keep it place. I'm meeting my dad in Kerrville, and he's going to Home Depot and Wal-Mart afterward, so I'll probably go with him to get the dowel. I'll also take the drawer to see if he can fix it for me. He's fixed another before.
My cat is getting better according to the vet. Monday night I noticed his eye was red, and by Tuesday night, it was really bad. I took him to the vet, and $353 later, we had no diagnosis, but we did have 2 ointments to put in his eyes. That's money from my fun time on the cruise! Oh well. It'll just keep me from drinking as much wine as I did before. I know where the money went the first time. It was on impulse spending on the ship and in the ports. I'll curtail that this time because I've been there before, and I know how things work.
Got to get to the yard. It looks terribly messy and needs to be trimmed.
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