I’m past the halfway point on my Stylish Summer Vacation 2025 with just a few days left to enjoy my time off. The past weekend was great. How did midweek go? It’s been a little more laid back, with some great dining experiences along the way.
Tuesday night, we celebrated the success of the Laurel Highlands Toastmasters club during this past year. The club made history by achieving Presidents’ Distinguished, making history in their young existence. We met at Bud Murphy’s from 6-8 on Tuesday, ordering appetizers for our group with a few of us getting an entree as well. I had a grilled reuben and it was really good. Bud’s is a very packed place and does great business. It’s recommended you try their pizza. We celebrated our success, and we made plans for the 2025-2026 Toastmasters year which begins July 1. We’re looking to make history again and finish Smedley Distinguished (achieving all 10 goals, having 25 members)
Wednesday, my family and I indulged in lunch at the Olive Garden and while it could have been an uncomfortable experience with the heat, it was a good lunch nonetheless. For the six of us, we got a lot of food for what we paid, including my sangria and our appetizers. It was a humid day and the summertime thunderstorms made their return. The contrast in the temperature and the weather between the end of May and the end of June has been outstanding. We were cool and damp towards the end of May, but we’re coming out of June warm and humid. It almost wrecked my Spring but I made a nice turnaround in June even with the severe weather. The wildfire smoke hasn’t been as bad either.
These last few days have been about swimming and also eating out. Thus, trying to beat the heat. I’ve swam for five straight days, and we’ve reached the 90s five straight days. Two streaks that will be snapped today as we hit 86 or 87, and I’ll be engaging in some retail therapy and may not have time for a swim. I enjoyed my monthly dinner with Kevin which doubled as my birthday meal. I kept with last year’s tradition with dinner at Hibachi. It’s so cool watching them make your food and getting entertainment up front. I’m quite used to it by now. I might be trending towards downtown next month and the Pourhouse since the Night Market will be a week later.
I’ve been enjoying my Obama reading as the third time will be the charm with “A Promised Land”. I plan to read the whole thing this Summer. “Becoming” is just as good the second time around. I plan to finish “The Third Gilmore Girl” tomorrow.
Yesterday, my cousin sent me a link for an article in the Tribune-Review about small-town coffee shops. A few in Greensburg were mentioned (DV8 and Steep Mountain). I’m biased, but Greensburg is the city of cute little cafes. I was going to do a coffee tour last summer, inspired by some of those Instagram influencers I follow, but couldn’t quite get an effective ground game going. The other cafes mentioned were 1833 Coffee and Tea in Freeport, and Empress Coffee in Avonmore. I think I’ll be making a trip to 1833 as well as Latte Lane in Cheswick are in the plans this summer. It’ll be nice to try something different once in a while. Here’s the link to the article if anyone’s interested.
There are opportunities in opening up a cafe in a small town like Freeport, Avonmore, and even Ligonier, but the threat of Starbucks and Dunkin’ is always there.
Going ahead in Toastmasters for 2025-2026, my schedule is set for when I want to give a speech through September. As it looks right now, I might be set to complete my Presentation Mastery path by this Fall. Once I complete this path, the plan is to start on two more paths. I’ll do one at Greensburg, and the other I’ll do at Laurel Highlands. This is something I picked up from the Vice President Education at Laurel Highlands and Western Maryland, Gary Imes.
But I need to start thinking about the Leadership portion as well as there are requirements for me to get my second Distinguished Toastmaster award. I was one of the last in 2019 to get my DTM the traditional way, through the manuals. About six months before COVID we celebrated my achievement at Greensburg. With my participation in Toastmasters much improved over the last couple of years, I would like set the goal to achieve my second DTM and I know I have the support I need to reach it.
Stylish 🍒 