My last month of 41 is here. So today we will take a look back at how it’s gone and what’s coming up.
It wasn’t a spectacular birthday unlike the year before. But 41 has had its bright and shining moments. I started it with a trip to the Gaffron farm for the annual Fourth of July picnic. In August, our store had a cookout for all of its night turn employees as a way to appreciate the hard work they did. All the higher ups even attended.
In September, I discovered Queer Eye on Netflix and fell in love with the show. I’m currently on Season 7, which takes place in New Orleans. In October, we celebrated Annabelle’s tenth birthday and had the Gaffron Family Reunion all in the same weekend. I took a few Sundays during the Fall to go to Ligonier and just sit in the Diamond.
Our family had one of the best Thanksgivings I’ve seen in a while. We usually go to Somerset but moved it to our house and it turned out well. In December, I celebrated my first paid vacation since 2007, when I worked at Kings. While Christmas was cold, it was a better holiday than the last two years were. I even found two new Christmas movies to watch.
I got back to blogging in January thanks to a new laptop gifted to me from my cousin and her family. I sent them gift cards for Starbucks (for the parents) and Chick Fil-a (for the boys). Unfortunately, the first half of 2023 has also seen us make several trips to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh as Cousin B has dealt with numerous health issues (he was there for two weeks in August and before Christmas as well as a few days in January).
When they went again in February, we figured it was time to nip this thing in the bud. They just got home last week.
It was a quiet Spring for the most part. I accepted the nomination for President of the Greensburg Toastmasters club in March. I saw the Super Mario Bros. movie in April. In May, Aunt Sue and I saw the Billy Porter floral exhibit at Phipps. I visited her on Mother’s Day. Other than that and work, not much else has gone on.
I tested the waters of gender nonconformity and dressing non-traditionally but now I know what works and what doesn’t. I’ve enjoyed my journey and will continue to support the LGBTQ community like Mama Tammye from Queer Eye has. It’s not going away, just being restructured. With me becoming President at Greensburg next year, I wanted to shift back to dressing more traditionally.
I’ve gradually gotten back into going to church again and I will be there this Saturday night as Cornerstone honors the graduating seniors. I attended earlier this year for the Doer series covering the book of James.
I hit a bump in the road with my church back in 2021 but now I am ready to get back to it. I was having a lot of other problems then but the church wasn’t one of them.
This week I began to take on the process of decluttering. I have a lot of stuff I don’t use so why keep it around? Progress has been made but there’s still a lot of things to go through and get rid of. That will take place most of next week. I would love to finish this by either Father’s Day or before Summer TLI on June 24.
As I alluded in the look ahead, it’s a big Toastmasters month for our club and for the District. Wednesday night is our open house and we’re hoping for a nice turnout in person and online. It’s crunch time this month for clubs to achieve their goals so they can qualify for the Distinguished Club Program or achieve high honors. Greensburg is trying to qualify for Select Distinguished status in 2022-23.
June 24 is Club Officer Training for our District as new officers to learn to do their roles effectively and apply what they pick up at their upcoming meetings. I’ve been to many of these events and with the exception of one Winter TLI, we’ve always been at WCCC.
You’ll see food posts this month from me as I am going to French Express and maybe the Kitchen on Main. I’ll be doing my birthday dinner at Burgatory on June 29.
42 will be here before I know it.
Stylish 🍒 