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.

I'm Rethinking Having a Cat

OMG! The visit to the vet cost $353! And she doesn't really know what's wrong with him. His blood pressure was high ($36), she took a blood test ($177), gave us 2 meds ($79). And she wants to see him again next Monday.

My boss and I had a good meeting this morning. We talked about the QR code that can be scanned by SmartPhones. We're really excited about them and their possibilities. I have lots of research to do so we can figure out how we can use the code to our advantage and to help our internal customers figure out how to help their customers.

I'm judging 4 speech contests this Saturday, 2 international speech and 2 evaluation contests. That means I'll have to be there at 8:00 in the morning. I like judging contests. It's an opportunity to network and hear some good speeches.

I got an email from the Division H Govenor nominee saying she wanted to be able to consider me for AG if I was still interested. I told her I was. So, it's true, you back off, and if it's meant to be, they'll be there.

I Got Busy

Well, my heart just sank. I had a full page of stuff, and I accidentally hit a key (a bad key), and everything went away. I had some profound stuff here! It was all about whining last night about being busy and then I actually got busy and did 2 loads of dishes (I'm NOT Susie Homemaker), 2 loads of laundry, blah blah. I wish there was an undo key with this blog. This has happened more than once.

Oh well. Suffice it to say (what does that really mean?) I worked out a couple of issues while blogging. I know that it helps to write my thoughts out so when I read them, I can actually see the error, and insight suddenly appears to help work out issues.

My plans for today include taking Sox to the vet to see what's going on with his left eye. Monday night it was sort of orange instead of white, then it started looking cloudy. Now it's really red and cloudy. I pray it's nothig too serious or expensive.

Then I'll give my library a thorough cleaning. I wish there was some place to put Sox's box. But the library seems to be the only place. That's not really the problem. The problem is that he thinks because his box is in there, it's his room. His dander is everywhere in there. I have new vacuum bags that eliminate odor and allergens. I hope it helps.

I'll probably stop by the clinic today to have my left eye checked. It's been bothering me since Sunday. I haven't had my blood pressure checked in months either; so I'll do that as well. They're just down the hall! You'd think I'd be there more often.

A Bit Sidetracked

Ok, I'm seeing my pattern begin again. I get excited about something and become consumed with it. Then I get busy with something else and I can't seem to get the momentum back. It happened with weight loss, now it's happening with learning public speaking. I've been so busy, yet I can't tell you what I've been busy doing. Maybe it's because I'm a Gemini and I have a hard time with patterns or routine.

I have a grandniece in the hospital and a friend going through chemotherapy. I should be visiting them, but I'm too busy. Busy doing what? I don't work in the yard, I'm not cleaning the house. I'm not blogging, I'm not reading, I'm not getting enouch sleep. I guess I'll have to start keeping a time card of my activities to see what I'm spending my time on.

I got some disappointing news today. The Division H Governor nominee said she has more applicants for the area governor jobs than she has positions. So, I decided to wait another year or so to try again and maybe do a better job than I would if I was to be an AG this time around.

I may even have to rethink the idea of DTM for now. In the meantime, I'll continue to do the projects, achieve the levels I have to achieve and, then when the time is right, I'll be an AG or maybe there'll be a better position for me.

I am really enjoying the Connie Podesta CDs I'm listening to. She made me realize how people manipulate others using anger or sadness. I work with someone who is sad all the time. She actually has the best of both worlds. She keeps her door closed and isolates herself from us even though she's our secretary and she used to be such a help. Now no one asks her to do anything. She comes and goes as she pleases, and we're answering her phone instead of her answering ours. We're letting her get away with it.

We made it 2 miles!

My walking buddy and I walked 2 miles today. I had to take a few breaks to catch my breath because I didn't stop talking the whole time. But we made it!

I got my income tax check today, and a check for extra escrow showed up today!

I just checked an old att.net email account and deleted 902 emails! I thought I told everyone about my new account, but old habits die hard.

Life has been so hectic that I'm behind in listening to my Steve Siebold videos and Darren LaCroix has been put aside as well. I've been reading Jim Rohn and listening to Connie Podesta and reading Stand-up Comedy: the book by Judy Carter.

I babysat my grandson Saturday night. He wasn't thrilled to see me because that meant his mom and dad were leaving. He's pretty smart.

The Cruise Is On!

Not the cruise to Barcelona, but my buddy and I are going on a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise. We booked and paid for it this evening. We'll be able to do it for the same price as getting back home from Barcelona. I found out today that there's a shuttle from SA to Galveston, so we won't have to drive and worry about parking or getting from the bus station to the dock.

I'm counting down the days! I've been so busy! Today I was very productive at work. I solved a problem that has plagued me for 4 years! Then I showed two coworkers how to do a task that I just don't have time to do, and I think they're already done! We had a problem with one of our websites going down, but that was only temporary, and I updated our intranet home page to include some featured news that's happening like road construction that's affecting several roads all the buildings around me at work. I've been having fun!

I had Altar Guild this week, so I had to be there Saturday, Sunday, and this evening. Now I'm off duty until the week before Easter.

Changes

I had a brainstorm yesterday that my son should swap some furniture so he'll have a better place to store his clothing and stuff. We originally put a desk in his room, but it really didn't serve him well. We had an entertainment center in the library that had shelves deep enough for boxes that he could use as drawers. We switched the entertainment center and the desk, and now I have a place to work, study, write, think in the library. I don't have to use my messy office, bedroom, or dining room. I really like it. The desk is just the right height, unlike my dining table. I still have the office for newsletter and web publishing, and now I have this room for learning and thinking. I'm so excited!

Now I'm by most of the books I've been collecting my entire adult life. I still have more to move in here. Now I'm right where the information is instead of across the house. I can't believe it took me this long to get this right. But I finally did.

Now to the speech front. I think I have a mastermind group to help me with the High-Performance project for my DTM. They said they'd be willing to be a part of it. I have the manuals, and I'm ready.

I also have the speech manuals to get started on my next level. I read the humorously speaking manual, and I'm ready to get started on my first humorous speech. I was telling someone this morning about being a wedding coordinator at church, and that's when I decided to talk about the adventures of being a wedding coordinator. It'll be fun!