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.
On Friday, I picked up where I left off with my 2024 Christmas shopping. Instead of an unprecedented third day in a row at Westmoreland Mall, I took to Pittsburgh for the next round and visited the South Hills.
This is something that I’ve done since 2016. The first trip was memorable and it kickstarted a tradition for me. Every year since then (save for 2020), I’ve taken turns shopping in either the South Hills or in Robinson. I also venture into the North Hills and Cranberry as well when I’m visiting Toastmasters clubs.
I like to travel because of my previous work experience where I’d be in the Pittsburgh area counting inventory at various stores. Even as I started working closer to home at Giant Eagle, I still enjoy making these trips to Pittsburgh on occasion. However, I also know why I wanted to switch jobs and not have quite a commute anymore. The reason I enjoyed traveling to other Toastmasters clubs was because back then, I had that leverage working for me. Of course, I was a recipient of the Spirit of Toastmasters award in the Fall of 2020.
Every shopping trip has to include a trip to Market District, thus why I like going to the South Hills or Robinson (or sometimes Wexford). I used to go to buy seasonal beer from Sam Adams. More recently, I’ve began to pick up some things at the store for Christmas Eve for my mom like candied dill pickles and chicken crackers. These things were a staple at my Grandma’s house on holidays. Today at Market District, I also picked up a bag of Sarris Pretzels and some Peppermint Bark. I also got some mustard and some little sausages. This is all stuff we can have for our guests on Christmas Eve, besides the main course. I wonder if we’ll do charcuterie again.
In the first year that I started this tradition, I pulled out all the stops and began my shopping trip at Kohls before going to Michaels and the former Toys R Us. These are all located in the Village Square Mall in Bethel Park. After that I spent some time in the mall before going to the Market District along the way and eating lunch that consisted of hibachi. This was a few years before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, so it was safe to do this. On that trip, I also got my niece (who was four at the time) at gift card for Build-A-Bear workshop because I thought it was cute. I did it twice, also getting her a gift card for her birthday the next year when she turned five. After that I stopped because making your own precious memories aren’t cheap. I guess my family doesn’t take to shopping in Pittsburgh like I do.
Wednesday night we held our Greensburg Toastmasters meeting. I thought about the weather as the forecast was calling for snow in the evening. Luckily, it held off until later that night. If I needed to, I’d have suggested that the President make a decision to hold the meeting online.
We had our old room back for our meeting. The jury room had been our home for the last few months, it seemed, because our normal room was always in use. In November, we were fortunate to have a room for our meeting. Otherwise, we would have held our club meetings online. If that had been the case, I’d have considered visiting the DuBois Toastmasters club online. On Wednesday, we had five attending in person and three plus one attending online.
If there was a theme for Wednesday’s meeting, it would be something medical because that’s what the topics centered around. Our Table Topics Master taught us that there are a lot of holidays in December, besides the usual ones we celebrate. Every day in December is National (insert title here) Day and so we talked about how we celebrated this special day, whatever it might be. Our evaluators gave great feedback to help our speakers, and mine even gave me some food for thought. I’ll be giving that speech that I gave on November 20 with some of the suggestions I picked up in my evaluation from that meeting. We have a great agenda planned for our final meeting of the year.
Thursday night, I braved the winds and the snow flurries and began my Christmas shopping at Westmoreland Mall. I checked out the bookstore near the casino and found out where the Cutie Cart is located. I hope to see them at the mall sometime but I’m overdue for a few visits next week. I had dinner at Primanti’s and ordered the DangeRUSS sandwich. Overall it was good. The lunchmeat helps give it flavor and I put some hot sauce on it as well. You can really taste the salami and other meats.
Since Black Friday, I’ve gone into my routine of watching Christmas specials and movies. In honor of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’s 60th anniversary, I’ll have to watch the special. I might watch it on Youtube or another streaming service to avoid the long list of commercials. That and I’m not a fan of NBC showing this special after so many years on the Tiffany Network.
Thus, I began my Christmas special and movie marathon by watching Muppet Family Christmas on Friday. I completed the Muppet trifecta watching John Denver and the Muppets holiday special and the Muppet Christmas Carol on Tuesday and this afternoon, respectively. You can still find the Muppet Christmas Carol on Disney+ and Amazon Prime. Muppet Family Christmas and the John Denver/Muppets Christmas special are lost gems as are a few other specials which I’ll highlight in the blog this month.
My favorite thing about Muppet Family Christmas is how all the Jim Henson creations come together during the special. It starts with Fozzie Bear going to his Mom’s house for Christmas. Doc and his mutt Sprocket (from Fraggle Rock) come to spend a nice, quiet Christmas at the farmhouse. Pretty soon all of the Muppets (minus Miss Piggy) crash the party and then the Sesame Street gang arrives. Some of them you don’t see on the show anymore. Hilarity ensues during the show, and everyone rallies when Miss Piggy has to get rescued during the blizzard. It was cold enough to freeze your winnebago. When everyone is together for Christmas, they break into song, with some classic Christmas songs. It’s bittersweet to see Jim Henson at the end of the special, as he would pass away a few years later at age 53.
Recently, my cousin did a review on Maple Bacon oatmeal from Quaker. Seeing this posted had inspired me to a review of my own for another seasonal brand of oatmeal. I’m reviewing the Hot Cocoa Oatmeal from Quaker. It’s funny that I almost bought the Maple Bacon oatmeal on Tuesday when I was at Walmart with Mom on her errand run. I picked up the Hot Cocoa Oatmeal at Giant Eagle one morning after working all night. It’s sweet but not too sugary. The chocolate adds a nice flavor to the oats. It gives off Maple and Brown Sugar vibes. I have a few packets left and will finish them before Christmas. Katie, enjoy your Maple Bacon oatmeal. The Hot Cocoa oatmeal gets five stars.
I’m at the halfway point of my vacation which began Sunday. I had to take care of some business during the week, including an ultrasound for my kidneys. Everything was good, so no need to worry. It was worth a 7am trip to Independence Hospital in Greensburg. This morning I had to have back tires put on my car and what perfect timing with the snow that came this morning. With these two things out of the way, I can focus other things what I want to do, and that’s Christmas shopping and TLI. I may not have the warm weather of my June vacation. Plus, it’s too cold to swim or do anything fun outside. At least I’m getting into the Christmas spirit.
Finally, in my music travels yesterday, I listened to some of Perry Como’s greatest holiday hits. Mr. Como was a Canonsburg native and had some great hits along the way. I don’t know too many of his other songs, but his Christmas songs are just as great. Just another artist to add to the list of favorites.
This morning, I had the opportunity to go on my Mom‘s errand run with her. It all worked out perfectly with the timing. I had an ultrasound that morning at Independence Health in Greensburg but it was done almost as it was getting started. I had breakfast at McDonald’s, and was surprised at how different it looks inside. Those remodels do kill the soul of the chain. It probably would have been more worth it to go to GetGo by my house for breakfast and use my discount. Oh well, everything worked out and I enjoy a nice morning with Mom.
I got to experience a ride in Mom’s new car, which has a lot of great features. I hadn’t gone up to Somerset because I was sleeping later on Thanksgiving Day due to work and because I had a bad cold. Our first stop was Walmart so Mom could make some returns and she got a few other things. She knew to avoid Giant Eagle because I worked there (though we could have gone to Irwin). After Wal-Mart, we went up to the Sam’s Club plaza and stopped at Aldi (formerly Staples) for some more food before we walked over to Marshalls/HomeGoods. I hadn’t been in there in forever (last time was when it was just Marshalls in 1999). It was a nice experience and Mom got to knock out some Christmas shopping. We finished up with Sams Club and Mom picked up chicken and a mix of different chips, among other things. The Sam’s Club was the old Wal-Mart from the early 1990’s until 2005 when it moved into Greengate. It felt nice to get out and for Mom to have some company and so this morning felt like a win.
I continued my Christmas viewing with another lost special, John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. This aired around the time that the Muppet Show was on TV (1976-1981) and when the first movie came out to theaters.
The Muppets run big in my family and were a huge favorite of my Gramma Hilde. It’s been forty years since all the movies in the Muppet trilogy were released. I watched Muppet Family Christmas on Friday and I’m thinking that Muppet Christmas Carol is next on my list of Christmas movies. I’ll start on the big ones soon (Elf, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone) but I don’t want to forget the ones I missed last year. I finished another Holiday Baking episode last night and it’s now down to the final two to see who wins the title of Holiday Baking Champion.
