Easter Supper, The Young and the Restless (her story), All in the Family (or, as she passionately referred to the show, Archie Bunker), the Jeffersons, and Family Feud. Those are a few of the things I remember my grandma by as I mourn her loss one year later.

Tonight, we had raviolis for supper with garlic toast and salad with Olive Garden dressing. That’s a meal she’d be proud of cooking. Katie and Annabelle live in her house now and they’re keeping it up well. We ate Thanksgiving dinner there last year and I think she’d have been happy knowing we celebrated the holiday as a family.

Her favorite tradition was going to the Olive Garden for Great Grandma’s birthday. The whole family got together to celebrate. We ate great Italian food, laughed til we cried, and enjoyed each other’s company. She missed the tradition when Great Grandma passed away in 2006.

How about the surprise 80th birthday party at Persichetti’s? She knew nothing about it. We walked into the room and were greeted by family all wishing her Happy Birthday. Grandma was definitely surprised that night.

She took me in when Katie gave birth to Annabelle (the original plan was them living there and I continued living at home). I’d live there for several years. Eventually home would be calling me back.

We thought she’d beat her cancer last spring. When she took that fall in her kitchen, and she would hospitalized, and eventually put in hospice, we knew it was the end. We wanted to believe she’d get through this, but we knew better. She took her last breath the weekend I was at Hersheypark. I got the news coming home that she died.

Family and friends came to offer their condolences. Even some of the Gaffrons paid their last respects. Aunt Sue always thought of Lucille as family. Mr. Clougherty even came to the viewing to be there for me. After the funeral and burial, we had a celebratory lunch at Denunzio’s restaurant in Jeannette.

It was a lonely summer without her and I’d feel that loneliness even into the fall. Between seeing my coworkers happy together and my grandma passing away, I’ve begun longing for someone myself. But that’s another story that I blogged about last fall (one of my favorites to read).

I’ll close the blog with some advice to you. Love your family and don’t take them for granted. You never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

A great turnout by our Achievers club today with four exceptional speakers. These women spoke very well. The speeches were well-prepared and had our attention. But first…

Before we began the meeting I introduced our guests and we had a lot of them for today’s open house. Four from McKeesport (Yasmin, Daryl, Anna Lisa, and Vasco); two from Eriez (Mike Cortes and Mukesh); Sarah from Cranberry High Noon; Shanda and Manda from Elk County; Sanchita from Monroeville; and Isabelle and Emily from Woman 2 Woman.

Fred Vornbrock served as Toastmaster and introduced our speakers. Shanda Kelsch was our first speaker. Her speech was titled “Start”. Very powerful and encouraging. Hearing some of the inspiration from that speech, I may want to close off the blog with it. She made great use of the stage and rocked the red dress well. I gave her some small suggestions for improvement and let the round robin evaluators handle the rest. My challenge to her was to use that speech to be a blessing to someone, to be the lift that they need.

Manda Shaw, Sanchita Sarkar, and Yasmin Brown also gave great speeches. Manda shared her amazing journey with us and taught us to party like it’s 1999 (classic Prince song). She taught us to live life intentionally as well. Sanchita used dialogue in her speech and communicated to us well. She talked about a time where she stood up for what was right and was applauded for her direct style of communication. She would make a great mentor to someone trying to find their way in Toastmasters and in life. She was the champion of our Area contest. Yasmin rounded out the speaking portion by telling a personal story. What she spoke about took courage and the club and I praise her for stepping up like that. Check out Yasmin’s books when you get a chance.

All of our speakers hit a home run today with their speeches. The feedback was phenomenal and when I asked for guest comments, I can tell everyone learned a lot, even those who didn’t speak. I heard that a lot of people took notes. Fred addressed the club and our guests and encouraged them to come back. I see some potential new members out of today’s open house. Patti Thor (incoming District Director) promoted club officer training which will take place June 20. I ended the meeting at 5pm. Thank you to everyone who came out today.

Time to close off the blog. In light of the recent protests, I have to commend my city (Greensburg) for how they handled theirs today.

“Greensburg, you are not without your flaws; we are not without our flaws. However, today, you – we – showed up in the most flawless of ways. Today, you – we – breathed life into a peaceful protest. Thank you for your individual and collective voice!!”. Thank you Patricia and Kim. Greensburg set a great example today. I’m think all cities should follow their lead. I love my city.

There are three things in life that are constant. Those are death, taxes, and change. We can only control change. It takes courage to choose to live the life we deserve. We feel that we’re stuck, but we’re not.

Anything is possible. Believe in yourself. Forgive yourself. Love yourself enough to hold people accountable, to express yourself, to follow yourself.

Love yourself enough to say enough is enough. Great speech today, Shanda.

I’m posting to the Greensburg Toastmaster Reporter tomorrow. Look for my stuff there as well on here.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

These last three weeks have been great. We’ve reopened the church to 25 or less (others have opened up their homes to have church). However, this weekend we got the good news from Pastor Donn and Pastor JD that we’ve been moved up to Yellow. This means that we are able to attend church in the sanctuary (or the Loft). While this is very good news, it will come with limitations. Social distancing guidelines will still need to be honored. Those serving on the front lines will need to wear masks and gloves. People will also need to get a ticket if they plan on attending Cornerstone next Saturday night or Sunday morning. This is the same procedure that the church has in place when they have Christmas @ Cornerstone.

After three weeks doing Cornerstone @ Home, I am grateful for Don and Mary Ann Walczak opening up the church for us. I had some great fellowship these last three weeks with the others who attended. The Walczaks always made us feel at home. We had free coffee and donuts as well as bottled water. The first time we couldn’t get the sound to work but we became old pros at it by tonight’s meeting. As I said a few weeks ago, I am thankful for our friendship (which goes back to my high school days). Don led the invocation at our swimming banquets every year.

We finished up the series on Confidence in Chaos. Pastor Donn highlighted a couple of tragic events tied to being courageous. Tonight we learned that our faith calls us to be courageous. We covered a lot of ground in the Gospels on this. Courage has its enemies, and one of those is Fear. Before closing tonight’s sermon, we were taught to stay courageous to LOVE ❤️. It’s something we covered last Spring and the scripture spoke volumes (1 Corinthians 16:13-14). Perhaps we could memorize this verse with all the looting and rioting going on in big cities across America right now. We also were told to stay courageous to OBEY and to STAND. I enjoyed this series and look forward to the new one that starts next Saturday, just as we return to a regular routine at Cornerstone.

Time to close off the blog with some encouraging words of wisdom. Today is a day that will never come again. Be a blessing. Be a friend. Encourage someone. Take time to care. Relax. Use your words to heal not hurt. Love ❤️ yourself.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

Warm weather is here and that means wet weather can pop up and ruin your outdoor plans. The heat and humidity can sometimes trigger strong thunderstorms. The National Weather Service will post a watch or warning if conditions favor severe weather. But some of us may be confused as to what the difference is between what a watch is and what a warning is.

Let’s start from the bottom up. A severe thunderstorm watch means conditions are favorable for severe storms. Don’t take shelter just yet but be prepared.

A severe thunderstorm warning means that storms are occurring. Get to the lowest floor of an interior room and avoid windows. If you’re at the beach or in the swimming pool, get out immediately at the first sight of lightning. Avoid trees as they can act as a lightning rod and even catch fire.

A tornado watch means that tornadic thunderstorms are possible. Be ready in the event one should happen.

A tornado warning means a tornado is happening or is imminent. Seek shelter immediately. Go to the lowest floor of a building or your home. If you’re in your vehicle, get out and lie flat in a ditch. Don’t stand under an overpass during a tornado. It’s one of the most dangerous places you can take shelter as the flying debris can seriously injure or kill you.

This severe weather safety tip and others will be coming to you on the Greensburg Toastmaster Reporter. It’s not just Toastmasters, it’s everything else you need to know too.

I’ll be designing a logo soon. But for now here’s a picture from my Slippery Rock walk yesterday afternoon. Bye everyone ❤️ you.

No matter how long I’ve been out of college, Slippery Rock University will never get old for me. Today I worked at the Rite Aid in town so a trip to the Rock would happen afterwards.

I got done at a decent hour and headed over to campus. I parked in the lot near the old University Union. I walked through the quad and ran into a family who was visiting the school. Their daughter was starting school in the fall so they were taking a tour.

I walked up to the north end of campus over to Old Main. Work is still being done on the new performing arts center. I didn’t plan on staying long because I wanted to get home and prepare for tonight’s McKeesport Toastmasters virtual meeting. I got some pictures of my brief walk on campus though. I came back down past Spotts World Cultures building and the Physical Therapy Building.

I’ll be back sometime this summer and hopefully for homecoming. Look for my SRU Shoutouts on the Stylish Traveling DTM and the all new Greensburg Toastmaster Reporter this summer.

So what will be coming to my new blog? Look for weather updates as well as recaps of my Toastmasters meetings and other segments. McKeesport had a nice meeting tonight. Short but sweet and they’re pulling for me with the new blog. I talked up my blog and thanked everyone for having me the last four years serving as their club coach. They helped me achieve my goal of becoming Distinguished Toastmaster.

Look for my first piece in the new blog June 1.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

Don’t worry. The Stylish Traveling DTM isn’t going away.

Five months into this blog, you must think I’m crazy to start a new one. But that’s my plan.

The Stylish Traveling DTM you know and love is staying, but it will focus more on the first two things mentioned. Look for more style and travel posts here with a little bit of retail thrown in for good measure.

My new blog, which launches June 1 will cover Toastmasters and other things. It will also be on a separate network.

The Greensburg Toastmaster Reporter is my new project. Fittingly, it will launch on the ninth anniversary that I joined Toastmasters (June 1, 2011). I wanted to give it a professional name. In June, I will be covering Toastmasters events like our usual meetings, plus our club open house and the upcoming club officer training. I will also post Toastmasters related content such as the requirements for the Distinguished Club Program as well as the many paths that Pathways has to offer.

I will plan on posting some content to both blogs as well when necessary.

Also look for weather updates on the new blog. It’s always been a sporadic thing on Facebook but I feel now I have a good platform for it. If you remember watching cartoons in the 1980s and early 1990s, you heard a safety message at the end. You’ll be seeing that in the new blog as well. Look for shoutouts too. Hopefully there will be back to school shoutouts coming later this summer. We’ll see what happens.

Six months ago, I wasn’t sure I was going to keep with this. But hundreds of blogs later, this has become a passion of mine.

Have a great night. Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

Today was a complete day from beginning to end. I started with my virtual Earlybirds meeting (my third with the club). Three great speakers and three great topics. I heard the Gift of the Magi, learned about different leadership styles, and figured out how to work an abacus. I took part in Table Topics and was asked if ever planted a garden. I talked about my Mom’s tulips 🌷and my late Grandma’s marigolds. From there it was on to planting corn 🌽 as a youth and picking tomatoes 🍅 to use for making pasta sauce 🍝.

I did a Target run and picked up a few things for tomorrow’s cookout. Target is my spirit animal. Later on it was off to church. For the second week I was attending at Cornerstone with the same people. We had a nice turnout with coffee and donuts to go around. Pastor JD Lowry gave a great message on staying confident in the chaos of all that’s going on. The Walczaks were gracious hosts and made everyone feel welcome. I’m grateful for my friendship with Don and Mary Ann, going back to my high school days.

After much contemplation, I have a new name for my blog. Now I will say that Sarah Souri gave me a creative name, The DTM Divo of District 13. Divo is the male form of Diva 💁‍♀️. As cool as that sounds, I wanted a more professional spin on this.

I’ve decided to call the new blog “The Greensburg Toastmaster Reporter 🎤”. It’ll center on Toastmasters functions in Greensburg and events across District 13. I’ll be covering the upcoming open house for our club on June 17 and the virtual District TLI on June 20. Plus any club visits I make on Zoom. Don’t worry, the Stylish Traveling DTM isn’t going anywhere. It’s going to focus more on style, travel, and fashion. Now I need someone to capture me doing that “lean back arms folded” pose that made me famous.

Time to close off the blog. Remember the real reason for Memorial Day. It’s about the men and women who died protecting our freedom. While you’re enjoying your family cookout, thank those who let you have that opportunity. Proudly display that flag this weekend and all its colors.

Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go. Don’t forget to laugh because laughter is the best medicine. Enjoy the weekend.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

Another night, another virtual zoom Toastmasters meeting. Tonight was another special Greensburg meeting. We had two awesome guests, International Speech Contest competitor Rich Hopkins and our incoming District Program Quality Director Bob Johnson. A great meeting lay ahead for us with three speakers and an awesome table topics session.

Greg Burcz opened the meeting as backup Sergeant at Arms. We said the pledge and then we got underway. President Jim Teague introduced this evening’s Toastmaster, Faerie Grace. Since it was her first meeting, Sam and Michelle helped lead the way for her. She introduced our guests, Rich and Bob, went over the roles, and then called up our first speaker Greg. He talked an easy to access app

Michelle was up next, and gave a presentation on how to navigate base camp and figure out your progress in Pathways. Later on, Mike Dalton called it one of the best talks on Pathways he’d ever heard. It would have shored up a lot of the questions people had early on. Rounding out the speaking session was guest Rich Hopkins. His speech was on chess ♟. He talked about how well he mastered the game and referenced chess master Bobby Fischer.

Claudette Kane served as Table Topics Master. The theme was all about flowers 🌺. Which one gives you rest? All the participants had great answers, whether or not they had green thumbs. Bob stepped up to the plate and talked about lilacs and Michelle Teague spoke on crocuses. The two best speakers for the session right there.

Chuck Dietz served as General Evaluator. He introduced our evaluators for this evening. Jim Teague provided suggestions for Greg to improve his camera position and how to avoid “bridge words”. I picked up on those as well serving as the meeting’s grammarian. Diane Svec and Sam Wieder gave great feedback for Michelle and Rich’s speeches. Faerie called for my Grammarian/Ah Counter report and Denise Pullen’s timer report. She then called for guest comments.

Bob and Rich were impressed with our meeting. It was Rich’s second meeting of the day and he was a speaker there too. Bob told me our meeting was top notch and he’s going to promote our upcoming June 17 open house on social media and the district website. He returned the favor for our club by paying a visit after I’ve done the same for his Cranberry High Noon chapter. He also visited Achievers on Sunday and attended the tribute to Charlie Wilson before our meeting.

Time to close off the blog with my encouragement to you as the weekend nears. Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK OUT because you are worth it. Make your own sunshine. Don’t forget to laugh because laughter is the best medicine. A smile is your best accessory.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

I missed my visit to Cranberry High Noon yesterday afternoon for the first time in a month. On top of that, I also missed their speakathon. It’s all good though. I was working yesterday so I wasn’t going to make it anyways. I do enjoy my visits with the club though and I hope to do another virtual meeting soon. Hopefully we can do in person visits soon.

This week I made plans to attend the Cranberry Area Toastmasters meeting. I logged on around 6:20pm and was greeted by club president and past district governor Stephanie Scott. Big thank to Vice President Membership and newly Distinguished Toastmaster Lana Ott for sending me the link to tonight’s meeting. I congratulated her on her recent achievement. Vice President Education Elizabeth Carter (past District 18 Director) had the word of the day as her background.

We had one speaker tonight (Lana Ott) and she spoke about her family history. After that we jumped into table topics. Topicsmaster Kathy Kuznicki had a grab bag of items (six to be exact) and we picked a number from 1 to 6. All the participants had great answers. Michael Nelson had the best TT answer with the Steelers gnome.

Michael Nelson gave a great evaluation of the meeting and called on Meg to evaluate Lana’s speech. Kudos to Meg and Stephanie for tag teaming the timing portion of tonight’s meeting. Parliamentarian Jim Hulings handled the election of new officers for 2020-21. Some positions would stay the same and others would be filled by new leaders. We wrapped up the meeting at 7:30 and had a little happy hour 🍷 🍺 🍹. I got the opportunity to socialize with the members. I had the opportunity to meet Dan Barch’s wife and their little one. I also learned something new from Jim about the Bloody Mary

Time to close off the blog with my advice to you as we head into the middle of the week. Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it.

Don’t forget to laugh because laughter is the best medicine. A smile is always your best accessory. Even if the forecast doesn’t call for it, always make your own sunshine 🌞.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

Today was a special day for our Achievers club and District 13 Toastmasters. We honored longtime Distinguished Toastmaster Charlie Wilson. We started the meeting at 2pm and some of our best Toastmasters got a chance to speak about the legacy that Charlie left in the District. Mike Dalton spoke first and talked about their longstanding friendship. November 1991 at the Fall Conference was how far back Mike knew Charlie. They served on the District Trio. Many others got the chance to speak on how Charlie touched their lives. Some from State College talked as well. Charlie was a fixture in clubs out there, like Pingers, Nittany, and the State College chapter.

Melissa McGavick gave the best testimony about how well she knew Charlie. It was hard not to hold back tears over hearing how special his friendship was to her. He helped her with her speech as she was running for Lieutenant Governor of Marketing. She won the nomination and served on the trio with some exceptional leaders in the District. She’s also thinking about planning a nice thing for the new DTMs since we didn’t get to run the gauntlet this year at Spring Conference. Patti Thor and Michelle Teague did a great job planning this event. We have some wonderful leaders in District 13. A big thank you to all the guests we had today who came to hear about how special Charlie was to us all.

The meeting went very well. Two great speakers and a nice PowerPoint by Virda in honor of Charlie Wilson. If Achievers had a theme for today’s meeting, it would be called “Remembering Charlie Wilson”. My best memory of Charlie Wilson was that he was a regular at the District conferences. I first met him in the summer of 2011 at an Achievers meeting. He and Mike Dalton were both speaking. It was a summer picnic at Moraine State Park. I was barely two months into my Toastmasters journey. I thought he did a great job up there on “stage”. I also remember him competing at all the District contests. He was very polished and very well dressed. I’m proud to have had him in Achievers and I learned a lot just from hearing him. Charlie, you will be missed and your Toastmasters legacy will be honored.

Here’s to a great week. Live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Don’t be afraid to try something new.

Make this week lovely. Bye everyone. ❤️ you.