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.