The Countdown to Conference is on, now just a week away and even less when we pass Easter. My schedule is up for next week, and the light at the end of the tunnel will be when I check into my room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel next Friday. The success of next weekend will depend on my mood. Even as I was in person last year for the first time since COVID, I wasn’t feeling like I wanted to be there. Part of it was adjusting my sleep schedule which is always tricky, but the bigger culprit was an empty list of notifications on social media which left me feeling discouraged and dejected. It set the tone for Spring and part of Summer for me. As last year’s Spring Conference ended, I saw the date for 2025’s conference and wasn’t sure if I was going to come back for this one. As time has gone on, my discouragement has turned into encouragement and I’m ready to take it all in next weekend.
Earlier this week, my friend posted a headshot she had done at her work. She’s come a long way in her time there. She hasn’t updated her social media in a while and disconnected her Facebook a while back. Looking at her recent post, that first sentence hit me.
While some of us go months without checking or updating our Facebooks and Instagrams, I’m checking mine every day…. multiple times. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I do cry for attention a lot. When I don’t immediately see comments or likes (especially on my outfits), I get discouraged and eventually depressed. Part of me is still upset over the Republican backlash on the LGBTQ community over the Bud Light controversy. I nearly quit being me a few years ago because of all the nasty 💩 being said.
While I struggled through Spring and part of the Summer in 2024, what really became a turning point for me was my involvement in my local Toastmasters clubs. I stepped up and starting giving more speeches. In August, I started to finish the path that I began in the Summer of 2020 during COVID. By September, I had it all done and began the next path a few weeks later by giving my ice breaker. When you give it a third time, what do you even talk about? Some of my speeches over these few levels included the history of Eat’n Park (I was currently reading the book on the company’s 75th anniversary at the time) as well as what I talk about in my blog. I also talked about Cutie’s and looked back at when we began quarantining during the early stages of COVID in March 2020, and that not everything was cancelled.
January was the only month in which I didn’t speak but aside from that, it’s been nice to have some consistency in my Toastmasters journey. I’ve now completed two levels in Presentation Mastery and now I’m looking ahead to Level 3, which I hope to have completed by the end of the 2024-25 Toastmasters year. I’m even thinking ahead to what my next path will be when I get there. I have planned for back to back weeks of giving speeches in May and June, leading up to Summer TLI and vacation. With the success that Laurel Highlands and Western Maryland are experiencing this year, how can I make Greensburg great again? My home club is good but it needs help and more members.
Thursday was my day off and what better place to spend the best day of the week than Cutie’s, where I got the Bunny Peep Latte. The marshmallow fluff was giving me a foodgasm and the bunny peep didn’t stand a chance. The weather on Thursday and Friday, like Cuties’s special coffee menu, has been in bloom. The battle between colder and warmer weather is shifting the other way now as we head into late April. Unfortunately, the spring like weather can also fire off some strong thunderstorms, of which a few can be severe. A wet April in 2024 led to a dry, hot summer. What does the future hold for the Summer of 2025? Hopefully the coming month won’t see any tornadoes 🌪️.
Here are some selfies from yesterday’s trip to Cutie’s as well as from Sunday. The shirt and vest despite the being the same color are not the same pieces of clothing.
Stylish 🍒 