This recap blog and look ahead is a little bit late coming to you as I am typing it on the 9th of April. Content was a little hard to come by in March and with other things going on at home, I didn’t feel up to blogging much. But, that’s not to say that March wasn’t eventful.
March was the beginning of the major speech contests in our Toastmasters District. The Area round wrapped up early in the month and it was time for the Divisional contests to begin. They ran every Saturday from March 11 to April 1. Due to my schedule, I only attended one contest, the March 18 Division A contest in White Oak. There were some hiccups in the beginning but, after those were taken care of, the contest would run smoothly. Best of luck to all those competing in the April 15 District Speech Contest which will be held alongside the conference at the Doubletree Hotel in Washington, PA.
Continuing with Toastmasters news, on March 15 I agreed to serve as the President of the Greensburg Toastmasters chapter beginning July 1 when the 2023-2024 Toastmasters year starts. I also have plans to attend club officer training, or Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI), on June 24. The training will be held at Westmoreland County Community College, its usual spot, and will be hybrid (online and in-person).
After a year and a half away from church, I returned to Cornerstone Ministries at the end of February. I started attending regularly and enjoyed a great sermon series on the book of James, encouraging us to be doers of the Word of God. A new series begins Saturday night, covering the book of Acts.
I made a couple of visits to Children’s Hospital to visit Benny. His health is improving little by little. We had to cancel our trip to Delaware which was scheduled for the second week of June to give him time to heal. I moved my work vacation back to September due to the trip being cancelled and will likely do some fall-related activities. Last year was my first paid time off from work since the summer of 2007, when I was employed by Kings.
Looking ahead to April, our conference will be coming up this week. Even though I will not be attending in person, I will be there in spirit Saturday to cheer on Greensburg Toastmaster Jim Teague as he competes in the District Speech contest. He hopes to advance to the World Championship of Public Speaking this coming August. Along with club officer training this Summer, I also hope to attend the 2023 Fall Symposium.
The Super Mario Bros. movie is out in theatres now and I will be planning to see it sometime this week (either Thursday or Friday). Even though it’s technically a movie made for kids, I consider myself a kid at heart and still enjoying playing Nintendo. The film has some great voice actors in it as well, with Chris Pratt, Jack Black, and Seth Rogen all having main roles. My review of the film will be up this week as well. I’ll make sure I post no spoilers either.
This week marks one year of Duolingo for me. I started doing it on April 10 last year and in the beginning, taught myself Spanish. As the platform changed, I also began to teach myself other languages, moving away from Spanish and on to French, Italian, and German. When I hit 365 consecutive days, I will get another Streak Society Award. Duolingo is a great tool to work with if you want to brush up on your foreign language skills. They do send you reminders to do your lesson though, which can either help you or annoy you.
2023 marks the 20th anniversary of me getting into Slippery Rock. I did something nice to celebrate ten years back in 2013. I was in town for a friend’s memorial service; afterwards, I took the time to finally appreciate my experience there. Coming to the blog throughout 2023, look for posts that take a look back at my college years (Hiram G. Andrews Center included) and give praise to the Rock. Recently, I posted about College Transfer Day and how I decided on going to Slippery Rock (over IUP and other schools).
After some time away, I’m ready to get back to my writing and back on the road to 500
Stylish 🍒 