Facebook memories are always good for reminding you what you were doing on this day in 2008. For me, bringing up a snowy weather forecast on the week before Christmas in 2009. Another was spotting the joy in everyday situations during the pandemic year of 2020.
In today’s blog, I’m going back to 2019. It was a time when I had big plans for my newly launched platform. I put together a list of ten things people should know about my blog as a PowerPoint presentation. I didn’t do this as a speech but for my own personal records. My blog was new and I should learned early on that everyone starts small. That’s what I said in my speech when I commemorated the five year anniversary on my blog in my speech on November 20.
Just as I got excited about 2020 and hoped that it would be a repeat of the previous year, life happened. COVID hit and everything was cancelled. I still blogged but I came back down to earth and cut my content down to 15 or 16 posts a month. That’s still a lot of content but in early 2020, I was on cloud nine. By the end of the year, I was doing very little content.
The excitement that I built up in 2019 was fleeting and I should have seen the warning signs. No one knew a pandemic was coming though. I was excited and a little too overconfident. I shot too high in January and February and got myself burned but I was still determined, nonetheless.
Even though I didn’t stick to the original script, I’ve been very successful with my blog. It’s more of a day in the life platform though I’d love to do other things as my life isn’t that interesting. That makes it hard to find good content to post sometimes.
This blog was developing while everything was shut down. One thing I could have done with it would be to provide an encouraging word or write a blog post once a week. I’d do this just to remind people that it’s OK to be afraid.
I went through my seasons during the initial stages of the pandemic. These coincided with my Toastmasters journey just after I achieved my Distinguished Toastmaster award. These also tie in to my journey as well. If you know you know.
Five years and 700 blogs later, I’m pleased with how this writing journey has turned out. Can I do better? Absolutely. Is there anything I wouldn’t change? Well, they always say to be true to yourself and not to change for anyone.
As I prepare my speech Wednesday, I’ll take that feedback and apply it to make my blog stand out more.
Saturday, I had a night off. So, I took advantage of a free night and the forecast, which was rain-free, and drove to Ligonier. I wanted to see the Ligonier Diamond all lit up at Christmas. I made my way towards town on PA 711 and driving up Market I was pleased to see the beautiful white lights adorning the gazebo.
The Christmas Tree was up and the presents were underneath it. I missed light up night on Black Friday wasn’t too disappointed. I’d been to Ligonier earlier in the Fall to walk around town.
It’s a treat to come up here during the holidays, whether it’s during the day or at night. I was up here a lot during COVID and spent a lot of time in the Diamond. Here is a small photo dump of Ligonier from Saturday and from past trips over the years.
The Top Ten of 2024 will be out next Saturday Coincidentally, it will also be my 200th blog of the year. I have begun listing some of the events in my life that made news for me in 2024. There is a change from the previous top ten countdowns that I’ve done. I’m not writing a detailed post for every event. If you want to know more, then I’ll post either the link or the day that the blog post was published.
The Top Ten post will be pictures only. They do say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and so I wanted to try this instead. I’ll write a sentence or two describing the “event”
Thank you for your time and continued support of my blog.
Week 15 in the NFL is here and, the playoff race is getting serious. Last night, the Rams won at San Francisco and thus, Los Angeles is still in the race for the NFC West. I see the week 18 game vs. Seattle being flexed to Saturday afternoon or evening or Sunday night.
The Packers and Seahawks have had their memorable share of games since 2002, especially in the postseason.
Speaking of Seattle, Sunday night’s game vs. Green Bay is looking like a preview of the NFC Wild Card playoffs. These two teams have had some memorable matchups in the regular season and postseason. The 2003 Wild Card where Matt Hasselbeck’s words came back to haunt him, Fail Mary in 2012, and that memorable comeback a few years later in the NFC Championship game. Sunday’s game will be no different. Don’t sleep on the NFC West.
The NFC South will once again have a 9-8 division winner. No matter who it is, their chances in the Wild Card playoffs don’t look good. Minnesota or Green Bay will finish with better records in a division dominated by Detroit.
The #1 crew of Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady will call the Steelers game Sunday at 4:25pm on FOX.
CBS and FOX are sending their A-crews to Detroit and Philadelphia in week 15 to call what maybe a preview of the upcoming Super Bowl. I’m hoping it’s Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia in New Orleans on February 9 on FOX. It’ll be hard for me to pick that winner.
As much as I despise the social media algorithms and what they throw at me, Instagram has surprised me with a couple of NFL themed pages that I like. I get my information from NFL Round Table more than I do ESPN or The Sporting News. This page provides better insight too.
Cameron Heyward and the Steelers face a difficult three game stretch.
While possible Super Bowl matchups dominate this week 15, next week has a couple of great Saturday matchups. Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Houston all have three games in ten days. Out of the four teams listed, the Steelers have the toughest stretch. The schedule is living up to its preseason billing for Pittsburgh with all the tough games in the second half of the season.
Next Saturday will be interesting, and so will Christmas Day with Kansas City coming to Pittsburgh and Baltimore playing at Houston. In 2024, the NFL has given us many great games and story lines. Included has been a season for Pittsburgh where two quarterbacks have been getting it done in Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. Also, the Steelers defense is playing lights out. Let’s see how these next three games go. Maybe Buffalo’s defensive meltdown was a wake up call for them or maybe a door opening for Pittsburgh. After Detroit, the Bills can feast on the weak Patriots and Jets. This postseason is looking to be really good too.
Finally, we’ll go back to last year and one of my favorite games during the 2023 season. The Steelers played host to the Cincinnati Bengals in week 16. Both teams with their season on the line. Pittsburgh had lost three straight including two at home to teams with 2-10 records. Kenny Pickett was injured and Mitch Trubisky was ineffective, so the Steelers had to turn to their third string quarterback, Mason Rudolph. It turned out to be one of the best offensive showings all year for the Steelers and I wish they’d have played like this all year. As it turned out, Rudolph saved Christmas for the Steelers (I loved how the play by play guy Noah Eagle said that at the end of the game). Pittsburgh played lights out and won, 34-11.
I followed the college game a little bit more in 2023 and NBC had some really good games. It was a memorable year for Michigan, winning their first national title since 1997. Jim Harbaugh won his elusive championship and went on to the NFL to coach the Los Angeles Chargers in 2024. The Steelers won out, beating Seattle the next week and the Ravens in week 18 (both on the road) and clinched the #7 seed in the AFC. The Steelers lost at Buffalo in the Wild Card round in a rescheduled game due to a snowstorm the day before. In the offseason, Pittsburgh completely restructured its quarterback room, parting ways with Pickett, Trubisky, and Rudolph. They picked up Justin Fields and Russell Wilson.
It was skeptical how either QB would execute, but Pittsburgh has done well as they lead their division at 10-3. I’m hopeful they’ll go far in the AFC playoffs provided they get there. These next three games will be a barometer for the Steelers.
Through the power of social media, I pick up quite a bit when it comes to Toastmasters news in my District. Even when I can’t attend.
On Wednesday night, District 13’s oldest club celebrated a huge milestone during their meeting. The Pittsburgh Toastmasters club 144 turned 85 years old. They meet on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month in Mount Lebanon. The club has had much success, including finishing Select Distinguished in 2023-24. They had met in Bridgeville at the library but due to changes, relocated to Mount Lebanon. Pittsburgh is a hybrid club that meets in person and online. Some of the district’s best were also in attendance including a Past International Director and some Past District Governors/Directors. Many past and present members attended and lots of stories were shared. There was a lot to celebrate looking back at the past, present, and future. I wasn’t able to be there, but I was there in spirit.
In other news, the penultimate Holiday Baking Championship was as good as advertised with great challenges and amazing twists. Jesse Palmer is quite the comedian, having greeted the six remaining bakers in his Christmas pajamas. The judges wearing their PJs was also gold, especially Nancy Fuller, who slayed it in all red.
Monday night is the Finale, which we’ll watch on Thursday night as my family and I have things going on next week. There couldn’t be a better Baking Fab Five to root for as they compete for the title of Holiday Baking Champion. There’s two I like who are in the Final, and one whom you can’t get rid of. She continues to stave off elimination and is a dark horse to win the Holiday Baking final.
After a busy stretch, it’s back to Christmas movies this week. I want to watch The Santa Clause since I missed it last year as well as both Christmas Story films. I may watch the original on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Of course, I still have some shopping to do as well before I begin the process of wrapping next week.
Last night, our Laurel Highlands Toastmasters group had a different approach to their meeting. Instead of our usual agenda, we had a brainstorming session to think of ways to grow membership. It was like a round table and different clubs were represented including Laurel Highlands, Western Maryland, Greensburg, and Monroeville. We talked about ways to promote Laurel Highlands (and our clubs) including having chili before our January 14 meeting at Laurel Highlands. I talked some of the refreshments we had at socials following our Campus Crusade meetings (a blast from the past). We have speaking roles lined up for January at Laurel Highlands.
I finished my Dynamic Leadership path in September. In one of my speeches in level 5, I talked about some of the seasons that I experienced after I earned my Distinguished Toastmasters award in 2019.
If things were always meant to be easy, then they aren’t worth the trouble. I say that about my Toastmasters journey and also my fashion journey. It’s so easy to give up when either things don’t go the way you want them to or when the critics have their say. One thing that I’m still learning is that I need to validate myself and not depend so much on approval from other people. I think I had a breakthrough on Saturday at Club Officer Training though it all depends on me too.
Queer Eye is back and starting their ninth season. This season, the Fab Five is in Las Vegas 🎰 and they are welcoming their new design expert, Jeremiah Brent. I think that Jeremiah will be a welcome addition to an amazing group that I’ve been watching since 2022. The show began in Spring 2018 and is the sequel to the original 2003 Queer Eye that aired on Bravo. Jeremiah replaces Bobby Berk who has moved on to other projects. He and his husband Nate Berkus are well known in the design community. As always, I’ll watch one episode a week. With ten episodes for season nine, I will be watching into February.
Finally, it’s the last two weeks of the Holiday Baking Championship with the Finale set for Monday. We’ll watch it later in the week but I am hoping for a great end to the baking season. So far, it’s looking very exciting as the heat is on (no pun intended) to see who the Holiday Baking Champion will be.
Last week when I was off, Mom was hard at work baking Christmas cookies. She made her usual cookies and will put together some new creations, including lemon bars. She also made her raspberry thumbprints, with the jam she bought at Moo Echo in Somerset. When she ran out of raspberry jam, she used some apricot filling and that tasted just as good. She’s working apricot rolls and nut rolls that were always a staple of my paternal grandmother at the holidays.
This holiday isn’t as chaotic as it was last year for our family. We’re not making trips to Children’s to visit Benny, like I did last year a week before Christmas. My aunt has a tree up in her house for the first time since 2022. We’re past the COVID-ravaged Christmases of 2020 and 2021, when our plans were to stay home and stay safe.
I still have a lot of holiday specials and movies on my list to watch. Monday, I watched Elf and, Saturday night, keeping warm under my blanket, I enjoyed the Polar Express. If I wasn’t full from dinner and all the food I ate at club officer training, I’d have poured myself a big cup of hot chocolate. I want to watch the Christmas Story Sequel and the original too. I missed watching the Santa Clause last holiday so I’d like to watch it. Like last year, I’ll wait to watch Christmas Vacation and Home Alone until a few days before Christmas.
Charlie Brown Christmas can only be seen on Apple TV, if you have the subscription. To me, that’s a crock of shit and I hope they get a lump of coal in their stocking and a flaming bag of dog feces. It’s a classic that should be on network TV, and fines should be handed out if it’s not. Rant over.
I’ve played my share of Christmas music since the middle of November. It either helps or it doesn’t that my place of employment has had holiday tunes playing since midnight on Thanksgiving. The hustle and bustle and the struggle is real this holiday season but, two weeks from tonight is Christmas Eve.
Monday night marked the end of my holiday vacation. Fall will be over soon. The trees are bare and Pumpkin Spice has given way to Peppermint Mocha. So now what do I have to look forward to? With the Hershey trip and Trans Siberian Orchestra in my rear view mirror, the Countdown to Christmas is on!
Schedule permitting and weather permitting because it is December, I hope to attend a few end of year parties at a couple of the clubs in the District. On Monday, Cranberry High Noon will have their yearly Tastemasters meeting. This is where the members bring something to share and talk about it. I attended last year as well as the year before COVID. Johnstown is having a Christmas party next Tuesday. They won’t have a meeting on the 24th because it’s Christmas Eve. If I’m available next Monday or Tuesday, I might go to one of the parties.
My home life is busy right now, as we’re getting ready for Christmas. Mom is baking cookies and I’m thinking about making Chex Mix. With a lot of sweets on the lineup, I plan on making mine savory.
I’ve been invited to Christmas dinner again this year. Last December my adopted family asked me if I’d be interested in eating Turkey on Christmas. Jumping at the opportunity, I said yes. We had a great time last year and everyone was happy to see me. I won’t have to rush out like last year and I might buy something nice that I’ll slay in.
Finally, I’m closing in on 200 blogs for the year and, at the rate I’m going, I’ll have it done before Christmas. Coming into October, this feat still seemed impossible to get. While getting to 140 would have been good enough, I wanted to make 2024 an exceptional year.
Sometimes it’s hard to come up with enough content to fulfill my goals on. But, it’s safe to say that I got this.
This morning, I made my first visit to Cutie’s in three weeks. I wanted to go, but life just happened to get in the way. I was busy preparing for my Hershey trip. I was sick and I still managed not to call off of work. Also, I had other things to take care of. When I walked in, I decided to get the Eggnog Latte and ordered it iced.
Sunday mornings at Cutie’s are very busy, and I saw a couple of people get their coffee flight themed after “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. It was called the Cutie Lou Who coffee flight. This will be my first of three visits this week. I’ll be back again midweek as well as on Saturday. I’m thinking about getting the Sugar Cookie Latte too, and even a matcha latte or hot chocolate drink the other day.
Since I’m off on Saturday night, I will think about taking a trip to Ligonier and be in awe of the Diamond, as it’s all lit up for Christmas. Santa may even make an appearance as well, taking his spot in the gazebo and asking kids what they want for Christmas. I’m also planning to do a day trip just before the big day.
With my vacation coming to an end, the next thing to anticipate is Christmas Eve. That is about two weeks away and a lot will be going on. It’s also time to look back on my time off this week and ask myself, was this time away worth it?
The week started off with me trying to nurse myself back to health after dealing with a nasty cold all through Thanksgiving. Early in the week, I had to take care of some things. One of those was an ultrasound for my kidney. Because I take medication, they just wanted to make sure it wasn’t affecting them. The timing worked perfectly and I was able to join my mother on her errand run. It’s not often this happens, so I wanted to make the most of the opportunity.
Wednesday morning, I had to have new back tires put on my car. Those came in handy as we saw some intense snow showers during the day on Thursday. I began to take care of my Christmas shopping with more to come on Friday. Not wanting to go to Westmoreland Mall three days in a row, I would continue my holiday plans in Pittsburgh.
I couldn’t control the snow and cold during the week, and made sure that I stayed warm when I went out. I drove out into the suburbs of Pittsburgh on Friday and continued my holiday shopping in the South Hills. Included in my travels was a stop at Market District. Compared to the week off I had in the summer, my attitude had improved greatly this week. It really showed on Saturday as I made the most of my time at Club Officer training at Westmoreland County Community College. I didn’t set myself up for disappointment. I “validated” myself and that made all the difference on Saturday.
Finally, this week begins the last two episodes of the Holiday Baking Championship. Thus, the season finale will be next week and we will see who gets crowned as Holiday Baking Champion. I’ll watch this week’s episode later in the week as I prepare to watch the season premiere of Queer Eye on Netflix. Season nine begins Wednesday night and it takes place in Las Vegas. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?
For Christmas, I’m planning to make Chex Mix. Since we already have a lot of sweets, I’m going to go the savory route with it. I plan to look up a recipe for it and make my list of what I need to get at the store. When I have it together, I’ll post my Chex Mix recipe to the blog.
Saturday morning, I attended club officer training at Westmoreland County Community College. We had a split amount of officers attending in person and online. I arrived super early to help our Logistics manager out. I put signs up reminding folks where to go. It reminded me of the job I had as District Sergeant at Arms, when I braved the cold and snow in January to put up signs at Seneca Valley High School. In 13 years of Toastmasters, I still haven’t figured out how to delegate (LOL!).
Our speakers all impressed, from the Toastmaster to the presenters to our trio and past district director. I got to introduce myself to the Toastmaster of the day, who belonged to the Beaver Toastmasters club. The Regional Advisor was the first presenter of the day and she presented online. She was from District 83 in New Jersey and she gave us some great words of wisdom to take back to our clubs.
The next presenter talked about AI and, how it works to our advantage but can also land us in a sticky situation. I learned about how stuff searched for in AI ends up in the “landfill”. I also learned that ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are two most popular AI programs and both have their respective pros and cons. They all do no matter what you use. Also mentioned was Google’s AI tool, Gemini. Since my laptop has many Google Apps to use (Google Docs being one of them), Gemini will be the one I familiarize myself with the most. The presenter did an excellent job keeping us engaged in the material. He talked about how his home club is using AI in their meeting agendas. Maybe when I write the next meeting’s agenda for Greensburg this week, I can follow the lead of Johnstown and that also includes my Duolingo bestie.
During the lunch part of our club officer training, a big book was passed around for everyone to sign. The book covered the one hundred year history of Toastmasters since its beginning in 1924. It made me think of the book I picked up at homecoming in 2012 that covered the history of Slippery Rock University, even going back to its days as a State Teachers’ College. The book was authored by the Director of Student Life Emeritus, who served as Director while I was a student there. The book covering the hundred year history of Toastmasters is available online on toastmasters.org.
Other presentations included a couple at the end. One was by our past International Director, past District Governor and, another of my Duolingo besties. The other one was by our District Historian. Our past International Director talked about finding out what our leadership superpower is. He has a new book set for release in early 2025 and has authored a range of books that include poetry, photography, and leadership and personal growth.
Our District Historian has taken on this project covering the history of Toastmasters since 2021. With a hundred years of Toastmasters history, there’s a lot to go over. So, the presentation was abridged. He is going to continue with the history of the organization from the 1990’s and beyond. That includes 2020 and all of the madness that year brought with it. I think you all know what I’m talking about here, people.
The program wrapped up at 2:00pm and soon after, it was time for the Hall of Fame festivities to start. Awards were handed out to the best clubs in District 13, as well as to the clubs that had the most success in the past Toastmasters’ year. Also, area and division directors were honored for their success, as well as those in the division. Even the Toastmaster of the Year was picked. Whether it’s this or the Spirit of Toastmasters, it seems like someone from Greensburg wins this award. In 2020, that someone was me.
After the Hall of Fame and the distribution of the awards, we were treated to some appetizers. Our DJ played some music for us, including some classic disco tunes. I left the event at 3:30pm, making sure someone found the signs and left them with the Logisitics manager. Today felt like a great day, as I left with my heart and my cup full. As this time off is beginning to come to an end, everything I felt worked out for me. Look for a review of the week off tomorrow on the blog.
Some of my takeaways from Saturday’s Toastmasters Leadership Institute include the presentations. I have a deeper meaning about AI from the morning presentation and have plans to understand it better. The closing ones were good too, from two amazing district leaders. I’ve been on board with the history of Toastmasters since I’ve been seeing it pop up in my social media feed every week since 2021. I can’t wait to see the new updates on the history from the 1990s and onward. I’ve been a member of 2011 and while I’ve felt tempted to leave many times, I’m still there and doing as much as I can. Finally, it’s good to give yourself a refresher in the club officer breakout sessions and that’s what I did while attending the Vice President Education session.
I will close this blog by saying that I finally validated myself yesterday with my fashion sense. That made all the compliments I got seem very worthwhile. One of the people attending really loved my sweater and wish she’d have worn hers. That shows I’m doing a good thing in this journey that I’ve been on since 2021 and that it’s definitely better to give and be pleasantly surprised when I do get.
Stylish 🍒 