Having a Bagel at Cutie’s!

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon going down to the Driver’s License Center. I was there to renew my license and get a REAL ID. I’ll need one of these if I’m boarding a flight in the future. My driver’s license expires on my birthday, so I’m glad I got that taken care of. It was a warm day and I found myself waiting for a few hours until my number got called. Patience is most definitely a virtue if you’re getting your picture taken or obtaining a REAL ID. Luckily, the building didn’t close until the last customer was called, they just locked the doors. I left at 5:30, so I was there for a while, having arrived  just after 3:00. It’s all done and now I’m set for the next four years. 

I began my rewatches of The Office and Gilmore Girls once again. I tried to start in mid-April but got sidetracked. I’m determined to watch them both once again and celebrate their milestones in 2025. I also started rereading A Promised Land by former President of the United States Barack Obama, and I promise myself that I will read it until the very end this time. I’m also rereading Becoming by Michelle Obama. I bought this book in November 2018 right after it came out and it was the best $56 I spent, as I also got the picture book about the former First Lady. These are my summer reading projects and this Fall, I might buy her new picture book that not about politics, but some of the fashion choices she has gone with throughout the years, including her time in the White House. The book is simply titled, “The Look”, and it comes out on November 4. The question is, do I buy it then, or ask Santa and wait until December 25? 

I made a trip to Cutie’s this morning and, for the first time since my initial visit in January 2024, I did not order a featured coffee from the seasonal menu. Cutie’s has evolved with a limited breakfast menu on the weekends and recently started serving New York style bagels. The flavors consist of plain, blueberry, and cinnamon raisin, and will vary as Cutie’s tries different ones. I got the blueberry bagel with cream cheese and an iced coffee. 

It hasn’t been a trip to Cutie’s this Spring without reading a chapter in “The Third Gilmore Girl”. I’m into the Gilmore Girls part of Kelly Bishop’s story, learning about the passing of Edward Herrman and Kelly’s experience on the show. I read about how she dealt with the loss of her former co-star and how she processed that grief. I also learned about how Netflix produced the four episode series to show where everyone’s character was since the show’s ending in 2007. I’d sit in the Ligonier Diamond and read this book or watch an episode of the series, thus enjoying myself. This show did deserve at least one more season in my opinion.

Bible Study is still on for Monday evening unless they say otherwise. You never know with this weather pattern but it doesn’t look to be a total washout this weekend into next week. I’m feeling Carnival/County Fair vibes with my upcoming coffee choices, including the Funnel Cake and Nutty Drumstick latte. I’m also trending towards Cutie bites next Sunday, a precursor to my afternoon agenda as I plan on going to Kennywood for Bites and Pints. Here’s one of my blog titles for next week: “Cutie’s Bites and Kennywood Pints”.

Finally, the countdown to vacation is on. Shit’s getting real as I’m a week away from my first vacation of the year. The other will come in mid-October as the colors change and fruity refreshers will be replaced with pumpkin spice lattes. My plan for the speech I’m giving Wednesday night will have me talking about how I’m spending my summer vacation. One of those scheduled events on the agenda is Summer TLI next Saturday morning at Westmoreland County Community College. I’m looking ahead to reuniting with my Toastmasters friends, applying what I learn at the officer breakout sessions to my role in my home club, and enjoying a nice lunch. Is my speaking streak going to continue? I believe so as I have speeches scheduled for the first few months of the new Toastmasters year (so, for now through September).

Transformation at Laurel Highlands Toastmasters!

Tuesday night was our final Laurel Highlands Toastmasters meeting of the year. I’ll explain that a little later. The meeting started at 6:05pm due to some technical issues but we made up for it at the end as Cosmas gave his evaluation of the meeting.

The theme of the meeting was transformation. I pulled triple duty tonight, serving as the joke master, topics master, and timer. My joke centered around the theme of the meeting, as did my Table Topics questions which were about change. Do we see change as good or bad? I remember learning about that in the book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” in my first semester at Slippery Rock in the Fall of 2003. I threw in some great questions at the end, especially the one about Daylight Savings Time which I saved for our guest.

Our husband and wife team from both Laurel Highlands and Western Maryland Toastmasters were our speakers for the evening. Gary gave a presentation on Pathways and his handout was very helpful. Sharon spoke on love languages and emotional intelligence. At the end of the meeting, I made reference to my speech I gave at Greensburg Toastmasters from three weeks ago on my speaking streak. With next Wednesday’s speech at my home club, I’ll have given a speech at least once for ten of the last eleven months. The lone month in that streak when I did not speak was in January. I didn’t bring up the fact that getting up on stage and speaking has also helped elevate my mood, as my summer started off with me feeling discouraged. As I stepped up to the plate and presented my speech, it led to a great Fall season.

Our guest who was in attendance was at the launch meeting for the prospective club, which was held in Morgantown on Friday. A relatively new Toastmaster, she will be taking on the role of presiding officer for the Country Roads Toastmasters club. At last check, the club was at 12 members so it may have grown since then. Clubs need 20 members to charter and so far, things are looking good.

Our June 24 meeting will be an end of year celebration at Bud Murphy’s. It will be a great time for our club to get together and look back on the previous year and all of our achievements. Before that, we will get trained on June 21 at the District 13 Summer Toastmasters Leadership Institute. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and kicking off my vacation week. This coming Tuesday we will meet up on Zoom and transform our officer roles to our successors. In the plans for October is the Fall Symposium, and there will be more news on that as we move through the Summer. At the end of the meeting, we talked about the importance of applauding our speakers every time they come up to talk as well as a strong handshake. We highlighted this at the end of our last meeting.

But, what a difference two weeks has made in terms of the weather. At our last meeting, it was cool and damp and we were stuck in the 50s. To be fair, I’d have taken mid to upper 30’s with snow flurries (in October or November). Yesterday was partly sunny and in the mid-70’s. Today has been even better, and that motivated me to take my first swim of the year. We opened the pool exactly one month ago and it took me that long to take my first swim, no thanks to the cool, wet weather. Thursday is looking just as promising for me to get back into the water. Friday may bring a few showers with it and start a pattern where we rain chances, but every day won’t be a washout. I’ll be making a Cutie’s visit Friday morning (I’m off Thursday and Friday). I’m trending towards a bagel or even a strawberry eclair crunch cinnamon roll.

This coming Monday is Bible Study at Cutie’s. The weather forecast for early next week is trending toward showers and thunderstorms, but it won’t be a washout. Despite the threat for wet weather, I’m still going list the event as questionable leaning towards probable and it will be a game time decision. Looking ahead, it will also become more humid, which could fuel those afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Air you can wear. Welcome to Summer.

An Amazing Launch in Morgantown!

On Friday evening, a launch was held at the Panera Bread in Morgantown for a prospective new Toastmasters club. This club can help the community as well as the students and faculty at West Virginia University. The response was amazing as it attracted many guests in person and online (from all over the world). The incoming District 13 Trio was in attendance helping out with the launch, as well as members from Laurel Highlands and Western Maryland Toastmasters. Country Roads Toastmasters could very well charter as Friday’s launch turned out to be a huge success. If I had this week’s schedule last week, I would have made the drive down to Morgantown and had an opportunity to meet some new people; thus, growing my Toastmasters network.

I was planning my upcoming Cutie’s visits as well as what I’m planning to order. Originally, I was going to wait until Thursday since it was my next day off but I have some things to take care of. Nice to see that I have my priorities in line. Therefore, I stopped this afternoon after waking up around 2:30. That helped me determine what book I wanted to read today. If I stayed home, I would be starting my reread of Michelle Obama’s Becoming. If I went for coffee, I was going to continue in Kelly Bishop’s The Third Gilmore Girl. I went with the latter and I was in luck as today’s chapter talked about her time on Gilmore Girls. As you know, Gilmore Girls and coffee go hand in hand. I ordered a Caramel Pretzel Latte, in case anyone’s interested. Next, I want to talk about the crazy weather that I dealt with while enjoying my cute coffee. That too was a deciding factor in how I planned my Sunday afternoon.

While at Cutie’s, the rain was coming down in sheets. In fact, there was a tornado warning until 4:15pm for Westmoreland County. I decided it was best to wait it out until the storm passed. I was sitting near the garage door window and that wasn’t safe either if rotation started to occur. Was it worth the risk going out on a Sunday afternoon. Well, I knew that it was raining but I had no idea it would get this ugly. As I left Cutie’s to head home, I got soaked head to toe by passing motorists who were hydroplaning going up Otterman Street. I waded through the rushing water getting into a car and drove through a downpour going up Otterman Street. Just as I got onto US 30, the rain came to an end and all of a sudden, the sky brightened up. I’ll be back on Friday morning to try a bagel.

Vacation is now less than two weeks away. Some things may already be set in stone like our last Laurel Highlands Toastmasters meeting of the year at Bud Murphy’s, and dinner at Hibachi with Mr. Clougherty for my birthday. I’ll be doing Bites and Pints at Kennywood and engaging in some retail therapy later in the week. There’s a chance that I’ll make it to 800 blog posts by the end of June as I give a report on my adventures every day on this platform.

I just hope that this summer vacation is an opportune time to cut down on screen time and enjoy life. I just ordered some activity books to keep me occupied. I also hope that I can stay healthy and not make myself miserable, or act out for attention.

Feeling Like Summer at Greensburg Toastmasters!

I follow a few friends on the socials who live in West Virginia, and on their pages I’ve seen these iconic swings that the state is known for. They say almost heaven and there a sign in the shape of the state next to them. I’m from Pennsylvania and we boast of the mountains as well as many hills and valleys (and there are a lot of hills in Pittsburgh if you look at some of the Instagram pages that I follow). Sometimes it’s nice to poke fun at it all. These Almost Heaven swings can be seen all over West Virginia, primarily at the state parks like Blackwater Falls, at Oglebay, and even near the state capitol. This is something that I might end up putting on the bucket list. For now, on to today’s blog.

Last night was our Greensburg Toastmasters meeting at the Courthouse. Unlike the last meeting in the hallway, this time we were down in the jury room. The weather was much better than two weeks ago and thirty degrees warmer. We won’t like those 70s we’re seeing in the look ahead this weekend and into next week. We began on time and ended before our 8pm run time. Two speakers led the way with their amazing speeches, the first being on Chinese medicine given by our Sergeant at Arms, and an awesome Storytelling speech given by our Club President. That speech was on a young girl and Jamestown (VA) in 1607. When I heard the names, I knew she was referencing Pocahontas.

Our Table Topics master gave us some wonderful summertime topics to talk about and everyone fully participated. We spun the wheel and talked about the topic that was picked for us. My choice was the mountains, and that’s what inspired me to come up with this open to the blog. It’s always fun to come up with something when your topic is something you’re not familiar with. It’s like when we pick a number and have to give our own meaning that we don’t know the definition. It’s good for many laughs, sometimes. I saved the day and made sure we planned our agenda for the final meeting of the Toastmasters year, which is on June 18.

We registered everyone who is going to Summer TLI on June 21. It’s a hybrid event so there will be some attending at Westmoreland County Community College and others learning from home. I like going there to learn and meet up with old Toastmasters friends while meeting new ones. I made an impression back in December with my fashion (everyone loved my cheetah cardigan).

Will I slay my fashion at the upcoming TLI? More importantly, will I stay out of my own way and avoid a repeat of last summer‘s event? Stay tuned on June 21 to find out.

It’s a wrap for two of my books this week. I bought both of these at Majesty earlier this Spring and got a lot out of them. One was by Rebecca St. James and her husband that talked about their lives including their music careers and what growing up in Australia and California was like. Two of Rebecca’s brothers form the band For King and Country. I’ve seen Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert, and from what I’ve read, For King and Country also put on a great show. The book ends with Rebecca and Jacob (Cubbie) talking about marriage and raising their young family.

This weekend begins my summer reading project with Becoming by former First Lady Michelle Obama, and a Promised Land by former President Barack Obama.

Enjoying The Third Gilmore Girl!

Enjoying a cute coffee drink and my new book on a beautiful day in downtown Greensburg.

The forecast for this week has done a complete 180 compared to last week. Wednesday’s high is slated to hit 87. What a difference a week makes, or even five days. It seems like the cool, wet weather went out with the month of May when I turned the calendar over to June on Sunday morning.

I was concerned that the haze from this latest round of wildfires would add insult to injury but so far, that hasn’t been the case. Monday and Tuesday and even today have been downright spectacular. I wonder if any locations hit 90 today. We had great weather for Bible study on Monday at Cutie’s and I got out and took advantage of the sunshine by engaging in a long walk at Twin Lakes Tuesday night.

Last night, I went to Chick Fil-A and got a chicken sandwich meal to take for a little picnic dinner at Twin Lakes. I also got those famous waffle fries and a Coke (Zero), enjoying it with a side of music and dogwatching 🐕. My friend Autumn from Western Maryland Toastmasters recommended the pineapple 🍍 dragonfruit lemonade so I hope to get that next time I’m there. Thank you Autumn for that tip. I put in three miles on Tuesday night and I enjoyed the latest chapter in one of the books I’ve been reading. That would be The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop, and that’s what I’m going to cover next.

I began reading Kelly’s memoir in April and learned lots about her Broadway 🎭 career including her best show, A Chorus Line. Last night, I learned about her role in the iconic 1980’s film Dirty Dancing. This movie is still very much a favorite even in 2025. She went from a small role to playing the mother of the main character (Jennifer Grey). If you’re a Gilmore Girls fan or a Patrick Swayze fan, this is your movie. It was also one of the first projects that Wayne Knight was in (before making us laugh as Newman on Seinfeld). I finished the chapter early this morning. I’m taking this read nice and slow and next week, will get to learn about her best role in my opinion, and that’s playing Emily Gilmore on Gilmore Girls. I want to make sure I’m reading that chapter while enjoying coffee somewhere, preferably Cutie’s.

Fun fact: I was going to read Dylan Mulvaney’s Paper Dolls book when l changed my mind and ordered this instead. While I appreciate Dylan and her journey (yes, I called Dylan a girl), Kelly’s story is worth the money and I’m glad I made the switch!

So far this June is shaping up to be better than the last two or three have been. But this is me we’re talking about after all and something will put me in a bad mood, whether it’s a social media post or something else.

First Summer Drink of the Year at Cuties!

June is here and warmer weather is coming. After last month which saw below average temperatures during the second half of the month, things seem to be looking up. This Spring has seen me do better emotionally but the last couple of weeks due to the cool, wet weather have taught me that Spring is going to Spring for me (just like haters are gonna hate). I’m on vacation in a few weeks and I almost have a full agenda lined up, including Bites and Pints as well as my birthday dinner. I’m not going to let my cries for attention ruin my plans.

Monday night was Bible Study night at Cutie’s and the subject was out of Jeremiah 7:1-11. It was a message that we all needed to hear, which is that we need to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. We need to be accountable and we must take up our cross and follow Him. We can’t call ourselves Christians and gloss over what’s required of us.

I arrived early (around 5:15) to set up my chair and get my coffee. As I said last week, my first drink from the Cutie Summer menu was going to be the Strawberry Shortcake latte and I was true to myself. But, I didn’t get the scone like I saw on the social media post. I stayed for a little bit and socialized after the study, though a suggestion for improving my experience would have chatting at the beginning of the night before we got together and prepared our hearts for worship. I ran into a girl I graduated from high school with, whom I follow on Instagram. We remembered each other and I’m surprised she didn’t pull the birthday trick on me (where I tell the person what day of the week they were born). Maybe we’ll meet up at the high school reunion scheduled for August.

I had been excited for Monday night because the weather was looking promising and I was looking ahead to my first drink on the Cutie Summer menu. My mood was beginning to improve after the cool, wet month of May that I endured. But I still felt discouraged and almost didn’t want to go Monday night. I got it all together though and ended up enjoying myself. I’m too hard on myself, and that goes back a long time for me. I almost even broke down at our picnic last Fall because of that attitude. Sometimes, I feel like I can’t help it though.

During the study on Monday night, our speaker hit on some key points, one being that as Christians, it’s better to be hot or cold in our walk with God. This took me back to 2001, when I was a new Christian and living at the Hiram G. Andrews Center. It was there that did Bible studies with a friend of mine. I was new in my walk but one thing that I learned was never to be lukewarm. In the 2015 Christian film War Room, I picked back up on this practice. The next Bible Study is June 16.

I’ll close off this blog by talking about the video that an Instagram user/influencer posted about Cutie’s. I was quite impressed with the work that was put in to this video.

Jess, a realtor from the Murrysville area, promotes local businesses around Westmoreland County. On Friday, she posted a video promoting Cutie’s and in it, I learned about the history including the building they bought that became of Greensburg’s best coffee shops. The before and after is absolutely astounding. She interviewed the owners and a regular customer about the things that make Cutie’s special. Shown at the end of the video was the bible study. Overall, the video was well produced and I found a new person to follow on the socials.

An Unlikely Collab and Look Ahead to June!

I’ll be looking ahead to the month of June and what’s coming up, including my upcoming week off just before my birthday. But I’ll begin with this cold open as I listened to a great podcast collab between two great shows for their time.

On Friday morning, as I was walking out at Indian Lake, I listened to a podcast collab featuring two popular rewatch pods. Pod Meets World (the Boy Meets World rewatch podcast) and Office Ladies (The Office rewatch podcast) got together and the hosts all shared a lot about their shows and talked about their careers. These two rewatches have done well and have paved the way for others. The Office ran from 2005-2013 and became well-loved by its audience, and viewed heavily during the unique events of 2020. The Pod Meets World hosts picked an episode for the Office Ladies to watch as they’d never seen the iconic TGIF show before.

Angela’s character on The Office was very prickly, but on this pod she’s very friendly and her and Jenna do an amazing job with the podcast, which has run since October 2019. This was part one of the collab, as the second part will be broadcast on Office Ladies on June 11.

Now, on to my feature presentation.

I had published 23 Blog Posts last June, paving the way for a record setting 2024 as I ended up writing 200 blogs. Do I repeat that feat in 2025? Time will tell but I’m still planning on taking it easy this year. Will I write my 800th blog post in June? I’m not sure but we’ll see how moved I am to post in the next month. I do need to post more pics so I have a nice collage or two at the end of June to share on the socials, that’s for sure.

I’ll be on vacation the last full week of June (just like last year). I was excited to be off and I really showed it Thursday night as I was counting down the hours at work. I set myself up for disappointment, at least early on. The theme for Spring and the first part of Summer was lack of self-love and feeling ignored and wanting attention. When I didn’t get it on the socials, I felt discouraged. 

Keys to a successful June/beginning of Summer:

Limit Social Media Use. Nothing wrong with spending time on Facebook and Instagram, but too much time on the socials could impact my mental health. I was craving attention and it put a damper on my vacation for at least the first half and up through July, I was feeling discouraged. It’s even worse post-election, even with all the anti-Trump posts. 

Embrace every day during vacation and take it one day at a time, not looking ahead to when it’s over. 

Don’t worry over what the voices in your head may be telling you.

June will usher in the new summer menu at Cutie’s and I’m going to try the Strawberry Shortcake Latte Monday night when I go for Bible Study. All the choices look amazing as per the Instagram posts and stories. I can’t wait to try the Nutty Drumstick. At some point, I will try a refresher (on one of those hot days in the middle of summer).

Next week, I’ll begin rereading Michelle Obama’s first book, Becoming. The third time is the charm, but I’ll finally read A Promised Land by her husband and this time, finish it. When I take my vacation at the end of the month, I’ll be engaging in some retail therapy and picking up a few more reads for later in the Summer.

Also during my vacation, I’ll be kicking it off by going to Summer TLI on June 21 at Westmoreland County Community College. I always go twice a year to get credit for my clubs and reunite with some of my other Toastmasters friends. Monday, I’ll take a road trip to Butler County starting with a visit to the Cranberry High Noon Toastmasters club and then driving up to Slippery Rock. There’s a cafe I want to go to while I’m there and afterwards, I’ll walk around the campus as well. I’ll celebrate the end of the Toastmasters year with Laurel Highlands when we go to Bud Murphy’s and, on the weekend, I’m going to Kennywood for Bites and Pints. I highlighted my vacation plans in my blog earlier in the week.

What is Transition?

According to Webster’s Dictionary, transition refers to a change or shift from one state, subject, place, etc., to another. It can also refer to a period of phase in which change is happening.

In my previous blog, I recapped our Laurel Highlands meeting from Tuesday night. I talked about transition as we were in the process of nominating our new officers for the upcoming Toastmasters year which begins on July 1. My home club did the same thing at Greensburg a week earlier (we had the slate of officers ready to go at our first May meeting). For the first time in my Toastmasters journey, I will be serving in the role of Treasurer for Laurel Highlands. I have a longtime treasurer in my home club whom I’m sure will answer any questions I have. In Greensburg, I will be taking over the Vice President Public Relations role. I’ll get into the habit of posting pictures on social media, and will blog about the meeting as well.

On Sunday, Cutie’s will transition from their In Bloom menu to their “A Cutie Summer” menu to kick off the season and the first of the month. There will be a market that morning as well with some great vendors. Shop small and support your local everything (my theme for 2020). I loved the choices that the In Bloom menu had to offer and I’m deciding what to get Monday night at Bible Study. My first choice from the “A Cutie Summer” menu. I’m leaning towards the Strawberry Shortcake latte. I will make room for refreshers this Summer and get a nice picture of that window Monday night to add to my frame.

Finally, Friday night is graduation at Hempfield Area High School. The class of 2025 will celebrate the end of one era and begin a new one in the Fall, whether that entails going to work, heading off to basic training, or starting school at the university of their dreams. 25 years ago (next Friday to be exact) I was on the field at Spartan Stadium receiving my diploma on that chilly June night. One journey was coming to an end while another was beginning that Fall. I would be off to the Hiram G. Andrews Center in August and my future was looking bright.

But I still wish that “Graduation” by Vitamin C was our class song!

A Time of Transition at Laurel Highlands Toastmasters!

Last night was an big night for us at our Laurel Highlands Toastmasters meeting. We were going to be nominating new officers for the 2025-26 Toastmasters year. Our President, Sharon, will be representing the District beginning July 1 as our Program Quality Director and I look forward to seeing what she has planned. We’re already looking ahead to Fall as well, more to come at a later date. Ryan will serve as President and he could very well be tasked with the goal of leading our club to Smedley Distinguished. That’s one of the new designations coming into the new Toastmasters year. It will require the 10 goals that would get the club to President’s Distinguished but a minimum of 25 members. We will get there at Laurel Highlands next year.

For the first time in my Toastmasters journey, I will be serving as Treasurer. I have plenty of people to answer my questions if I need to know what to do to properly carry out my duties next year. Our club Treasurer at Greensburg will become President of that club next year.

We had a nice speaker mix last night with an ice breaker and two mentoring speeches. Four guests attended as well, with two online and two in-house all excited to learn more about Toastmasters. Our President got us fired up for the meeting and stressed the importance of attending the meeting on this night. Out of our 14 members, we had enough in attendance for a quorum. The election of new officers did not take long at all, and it was a very smooth process.

Looking ahead, we have Summer Club Officer Training on June 21 at Westmoreland County Community College in Youngwood, but members will have the choice of attending online as well. Thus it is a hybrid (in person or online) event. Our last meeting of the year will be at Bud Murphy’s on June 24. I’m hoping we will celebrate as a President’s Distinguished Club.

Next Friday there is a demo meeting at the Panera Bread in Morgantown which is putting together by our Area 3 Director/Club Growth Director-Elect , along with one of our members at Laurel Highlands. This club will bring Toastmasters back into northern WV, if it charters. It will also benefit West Virginia University and the surrounding community. If I’m off, I’ll consider taking a drive down to Morgantown to attend this event. What’s needed to get this club off the ground: 20 members and so far a good number of people make up part of that magic number. Some volunteers are still needed. I’ll be reaching out to Greensburg via email tomorrow and get the word out about this event.

We are a great club representing many nations, achievements, and interests at Laurel Highlands. We will make history this year when we get to President’s Distinguished, and next year when we get to Smedley Distinguished!

How I’m Planning to Slay my Summer Vacation!

Last year’s summer vacation saw me take a trip to the Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana.

Today is Memorial Day, and vacation is less than a month away. For me it will be the first of two weeks off in 2025 with the other vacation coming in October. For next month, I already have some fun events planned, including Summer TLI at Westmoreland County Community College. This kicked off my fun summer break last year. Yesterday, my family spent the day at Kennywood, even though today would have been a better day to do it. I was given the option to go but declined as I wanted to do my own thing. Bites and Pints started this past weekend and runs through the end of June. I thought about going last year but never got around to it. This year, I’ll make up for that loss and go during my week off.

That Monday of vacation I plan on doing one of my two visits to Cranberry High Noon that I do every year. I missed going in December as I was getting over a cold at Thanksgiving. Afterwards, I hope to make it a nice afternoon by driving up to Slippery Rock where I’ll stop at a little cafe in town called Rooster’s Coffee Bar. Then I’ll spend some time on campus. It seems it’ll be a carbon copy of last year with the addition of Bites and Pints.

In the cards for my Summer 2025 vacation is Kennywood and Bites and Pints. I smell a good blog and social media stories.

That Tuesday marks our final Laurel Highlands Toastmasters meeting of the year and as a club we plan to celebrate. Hopefully it’ll come with being named President’s Distinguished Club. We’ll be getting together at Bud Murphy’s in Connellsville. I have two more speeches to give for Level 3 in Presentation Mastery. I’m looking forward to what 2025-26 has to offer I celebrate my 15th year in Toastmasters.

That’s just a few of the things that I have planned for my week off. I also plan on reading and one of the projects I have planned is a revisit to Michelle Obama’s first book, Becoming. I was so excited to buy this book when it came out in November of 2018. I read it in less than a month. It was during that time I was reading through the Harry Potter series, until I quit after Prisoner of Azkaban. Both Obama books are on my radar this Summer. I plan to finally read Barack Obama’s A Promised Land front to back and get it done.

During my vacation, I also plan on engaging in some retail therapy as well. I have a few new authors in mind as well. I heard Tina Knowles (mother of Beyoncé) on Michelle Obama’s podcast and may have to give her book, Matriarch, a go. Also catching my eye is a book on NPR called On Air which is a history of National Public Radio from the highs to the lows. This takes me back to my college days and post college days, before the blog and before fashion and style won my heart, when I was a media and politics junkie.

That’s true. So is getting up and speaking, as I’ve done over the last year. Of course, writing in this blog is also great therapy as well.

I can’t forget about Thursday night dinner with Mr. Clougherty, as I’m going to follow the lead of my aunt and niece and celebrate at Hibachi. I treated my aunt on her birthday here for lunch last September and was introduced to place two years ago. It was here that we made plans for our November trip to Hershey to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Last year on my birthday, Kevin and I went to the Olive Garden on a very hot first day of Summer. I was counting down the hours that night at work until vacation started.

Me enjoying a Sangria for my birthday at The Olive Garden last year.

In the past, I’ve celebrated my birthday at Burgatory. I love the Murrysville location, but parking is very hard to come by as that plaza is always packed. Another location in Pittsburgh, next time? I digress though.

So far this Spring has been good for me. It’s still not my favorite season and anything can happen. I had a close call last week with the weather but I should move on from it this week as we inch closer to June.