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.

Today was a breakthrough day. After we went yellow yesterday (which for me included some quality time shopping at Majesty), today saw my church, Cornerstone Ministries, open its doors for the first time since the lockdown. We had our men’s group meeting this morning, with some deciding to play it safe and attend the meeting at home via Zoom. That’s ok. Whatever you were comfortable with is up to you.

We continued our study in the Daniel Dilemma with Pastor Chris Hodges of the Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. We read through Psalm 139 in the Bible and talked about what was discussed in the video. We also talked about the Coronavirus and how we’re handling it. It was nice to get out this morning, and you know what, masks were optional.

Later this afternoon I came back to Cornerstone and had church with Pastor Don Walczak and his wife, Mary Ann. We’ve known each other since my high school days, when I was helping coach Kevin Clougherty as a manager on the swim team. Our friendship is just as strong in 2020 as it was in 1997. Don used to do the invocation at our swim team banquets.

We had fellowship when we arrived and I made some new friends, just as I did before the lockdown. We had donuts and coffee (left over from this morning’s men’s meeting). We had some technical problems early but we got it working just time to hear Pastor Donn preach. We went through the gospel of Mark and heard some great examples of compassion. We also took in communion (we made sure it was served in a safe manner). Mary Ann closed the meeting with a great question. How has COVID 19 helped us grow in our relationship with God?

I’ll be back next Saturday for another edition of Cornerstone @ Home. Same bat time same bat channel.

Speaking of compassion, my close to today’s blog. Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

We have a new tradition for the blog for Fridays. I will be doing my rewind for the week. You’ll hear about some of the events in my life from the past week that were big. Whether it’s work, or Toastmasters, or what’s making news for me will appear on the Week in Review. I’m calling this segment Friday Night Dinner with the Stylish DTM.

This week it was back to work for me at the Pittsburgh office. I came back on Saturday and it was a quick day. As a matter of fact it was a pretty easy week. I didn’t work more than four hours a day at all this week. Perhaps that’s just what I needed as I transition back to the WIS routine. Hardest thing this week was waking up at 2am a few times for the 5am Dollar Trees. But those flew by pretty fast. It’ll hopefully get busier from here and eventually we’ll get some more people back.

As work was getting added to the schedule, I went back to my academic roots. I opened my accounting textbook and began learning some of that information. The basic stuff still comes pretty easy to me but I know it’ll eventually get harder as time goes on. I’m ready for it this time. This past week I learned about deferrals and accruals and adjusting accounts for prepaid expenses as well as depreciation. It’s all coming back to me now. Why am I doing this, because I don’t want to stop learning nor do I want to impede that growth that I’ve worked so hard to build over the last few weeks I’ve been off work.

Today downtown Greensburg opened its doors back up. The shops along Second Avenue as well as Pennsylvania Avenue opened back up. Coming back from the office I stopped at dv8 Cafe for a matcha 🍵 latte and a cinnamon roll. I went home for a bit and relaxed (sleeping off that early start this morning). I went to Majesty Christian Store this afternoon. Despite how small it is, I was in there a while. I came away with some CDs (a couple from Michael W. Smith and one from Passion) and another wood sign for my room.

Time to close off the blog as I discuss some upcoming changes. You’ll still see content on the Stylish Traveling DTM but I’m moving Toastmasters off of here onto its own blog. I have yet to come up with a good name for the new page but it will be something Toastmasters related. I’m thinking about a June 1 launch (my ninth anniversary with Greensburg Toastmasters)

Remember this weekend to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Do everything in love 🥰. Don’t forget to laugh because laughter is the best medicine. Remember your smile is your best accessory.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 😘 🤗.

Let’s go back to 2000. It’s my senior year at Hempfield Area High School. I’m thinking about the next phase of my life, which is likely going to be college. I just don’t know how I’m going to go about it. While I looked at schools like Robert Morris and Point Park, they were going to be a little bit out of my price range. There was also the option of attending WCCC for two years in order to save money. In fact I remember one morning, as I walked the halls, talking to Mr. Clougherty about my future plans and mentioned WCCC. He was all for it and said it was a smart choice.

My OVR counselor and I went over the options one morning. One was to go to WCCC and then maybe transfer to a four year school. Now we had talked about this school in Johnstown that I was going to be overqualified for. But we would have a couple of opions tied to going to school there. I would attend the Hiram G. Andrews Center and get my education there or attend one semester before transferring to the local Community College to get my Associates degree. I learned that students at “the College” could live at HGA while attending classes at the college. That last option was going to be the plan we agreed to.

My mom and I looked at articles about HGA and she thought it was a good idea for me to go to school there. She wanted me to learn to be on my own. Community college and being close to home is a nice start when you’re 18 or 19, but I think we had my best interests in mind here. I would study Accounting (once I transferred to the community college). I would start out in Pre-Baccalaureate classes at HGA to prepare myself for the next step.

May 8 was the day we would take the tour of Hiram G. Andrews Center. I was excited but a little nervous thinking about the next chapter of my life. We got lost looking for the place. I think we wound up in Cambria City at one point looking for the school. We found our way though and signed in as visitors. We met our tour guide in the lobby of the center and we were on our way.

We saw where the dorms were located. One of them I was going to call home later this Summer. There was a dorm dedicated to students with physical handicaps (H-Dorm or the Transitional Living Dorm). We saw the cafeteria next. Students that study Culinary Arts (one of the degree programs) work in the cafeteria along with the staff. Lockers were located on the other side for commuters who attended the school. We saw the gymnasium, which had tinted windows, and across from there was the rooms that students would go to for Occupational or Physical Therapy. From there we found the Student Union (or the Annex as I would affectionately refer to it) and the student stores where Retail students attended classes and worked. Outside was the “Courtyard” where students hung out on their break if the weather allowed for it.

We then turned around and walked back down the hall. We saw the classrooms, three wings each. I was going to the first wing on the right for my classes. At the end they had a room for the Watch and Jewelry Repair students (these majors have since been eliminated). The Medical students also attended classes in this wing. We found where the counseling department was located. There were classrooms at the far end for drafting and building maintenance students. The OVR District office and Seminar Theatre was located here too. Let’s not forget the Driver’s Ed classroom. I’d be seeing a lot of that room and the instructors in the future. I’ll talk about the Rec Hall in a future blog. This was my hangout after classes most days.

Mom and I left the school confident that I was going to do well here and being on my own. It was going to be scary but we knew I’d make the most of my time here. My 18 year old self had butterflies thinking about it though.

We ate lunch at Eat’n Park on Scalp Avenue in Richland. We talked about HGA, my upcoming graduation, and we planned my graduation party. Then we visited my cousin who was living in Johnstown at the time and we talked about the tour. My mom is always close to her family, especially her nieces. She loves being the aunt to all my cousins though. I miss the picnics and parties we used to have, especially in summer.

Can’t believe it’s been 20 years since I graduated high school and went off to college. That’s what’s motivating me to do better for myself now.

Time to close off the blog. While today is the anniversary of my HGA tour, it’s also graduation week for most college students. Of course this year is awash but I remember attended Slippery Rock graduation on this day in 2004. It was a better day than today is. Ed Rendell was the keynote speaker (in 2004 he was governor of Pennsylvania). As you virtually accept your diploma this weekend, I give you the best of luck in the next phase of your life. I attended for a friend of mine who was graduating with her education degree. Of course Slippery Rock is a great school if you want to go for that field.

Remember today and this weekend to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. I put ROCK in all caps for as reason. I’m proud of my green and white Alma mater. Think of the places you’ll go as you graduate and decorate that mortarboard 🎓 with something nice. I know it seems different this year but it’s still graduation 🎓.

Share the love today and every day.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you. X’s and O’s.

Last night we had our last Financial Peace University. One in person meeting and then the last five were via Zoom. We still got it done and we had a lot of great interaction with everyone. Our facilitators did an excellent job keeping everything going. I made the most of my money and the website. Time to take advantage of my membership and use it. Time to use that everydollar.com app as well. The class will be offered again in the Fall.

Eventually I’d like to be a small group leader. Ed and Pam have done it for a long time and with me coming back to my roots academically, I’d like to take the lead someday. But I also need to practice what I preach too. That’s why I really want to get this working on the budget down pat, plus I need to be serious about having money put away for retirement every month. Maybe it’s time to take Dave’s advice and put some of that money in mutual funds.

Deb Close commended me for participating in FPU as well as sticking with it when the lockdown hit. I commend all the leaders for making me feel welcome and for having a vast knowledge of the subjects. I would have been happier with more time dedicated to the budget (two classes worth learning about it would helped those novices in the class). I think my favorite part of the course was Dave Ramsey’s humor in helping us live like no one else, hearing Chris Hogan give a completely different spin on how millionaires live, and Rachel Cruze’s passion for doing the monthly budget.

You’ll see why I went with the title I did today as I return to the routine of work this Saturday. I got word that things were going to be starting back up on the 9th. But with us coming back, rules are going to be put in place to keep our customers and us safe. I can abide by that. For one thing, masks and gloves will be mandatory. Vans and equipment will need to be sanitized and only eight people to a van. Most of our crew drives anyways except for Uniontown. I came back briefly in late March and early April to help out Rite Aid with stocking their shelves. For my safety, I abandoned it on Good Friday and for the last month, I’ve been off. I miss my coworkers even though they haven’t reached out to me and I’ve done the same. But I’m sure they missed me regardless. However, there are things I haven’t missed being off for this extended time.

First off let me say I’ve seen a lot of personal growth in my life since I haven’t been going anywhere. I’ve grown spiritually for one. I’ve taken time in the morning to read the Scriptures along with some inspirational reading. I’m even taking to the time to pray before I begin my study. With the virtual Toastmasters meetings and the luxury of having the Zoom app at my disposal, I’ve had the opportunity to attend multiple Toastmasters meetings and not have to go anywhere. But I make it seem like what if in the blogs. Therefore I’m growing socially in addition to spiritually.

Mentally, I’ve read a lot more books on my time off. For example, I’ve looked at Chris Hogan’s “Everyday Millionaire” and Rachel Cruze’s “Love Your Life Not Theirs”. I’ve learned a lot from those reads and they’ve tied in to the lessons I’ve learned in Financial Peace University. I’ve built a routine that I’ve honored the last few weeks. I’m not going to go into detail but I encourage you to do the same. I’m interested in learning more from John Maxwell too. I always find something positive to close off these blogs with, so that helps me out mentally and it should help you too.

As jobs return to my schedule, I’m happy to get out of the house. But at the same time I don’t want my growth of the last few weeks to be impeded by old habits. I’m not looking at the schedule anymore than once a day or every couple of days. This will lessen the worry a bit over who confirms and who doesn’t. I’m just going to do my work and at the end of the day move on. I will also respect the social distancing guidelines.

What I’m worried about is becoming complacent. Being off has put things into perspective for me. I didn’t have an effective ground game in place when I was applying the first time around. With me approaching 40 (scary I know) I want to better myself academically. That’s why I want to come back to my roots. It’s never too late to correct a mistake. Not that my professional life has been a mistake, but I know I can do better. I saw that in myself yesterday afternoon when I opened an old accounting textbook. I CAN do better. Obviously the content will get harder but if I felt as confident as I did last night I know I can continue to prosper at this.

It’s time to embark once again on this journey. This time it’s for real.

I missed the Midday meeting because of technical issues with my iPad but I got them worked out for tonight’s Greensburg meeting. We had a great turnout tonight with 14 people showing up. Four speakers participated and the speeches ranged from serious to downright funny. It made for a good flow.

Michelle Teague led a great Table Topics session asking us the question “Never Have I Ever…”. Those who participated gave great answers. I took part in the discussion as well. Never Have I ever purchased an Xbox or PlayStation. I’m a Nintendo guy.

Our evaluators did a great job and provided great feedback. Diane Svec’s topic was very important and her message should be conveyed to everyone. Other groups would benefit from hearing what she has to say.

We have great news that Jim Teague shared with us and that is we have achieved President’s Distinguished status in Greensburg. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we need to get our membership up to be recognized for it. We’re scheduling an Open House on June 17. I remember the last one we had. I achieved my Distinguished Toastmaster at that event on October 2 of last year.

Time to close off the blog. I’m experiencing personal growth but to maximize it, I need to get out of my comfort zone. I’m off to a good start as I come back to my roots. But I need to stay focused. I’ve come too far in this time off to look back and to go back to the way things were. I’m worked too hard for that division lead to give it up now.

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. Faerie Grace taught us to laugh tonight with her speech. Make tomorrow lovely and don’t forget to rock the heart shades ❤️ ❤️ . That will help you share the love.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you. X’s and O’s.

I attended my ninth Cranberry High Noon meeting this afternoon. This includes six in person meetings as well. Before I elaborate on today’s meeting and look ahead to Friday’s milestone blog. Let me tell you a little bit about myself.

This is my 98th blog on the Stylish Traveling DTM. The milestone is coming very soon and I’m excited to share it with all of you. One thing I want you all to know about me is that, in addition to Christian and Country music, I am also a fan of late 90s pop music. That includes boy bands. It all started in early 2000 when I bought both Backstreet Boys albums (self-titled and Millennium). I am also a fan of 98 Degrees and Nick Lachey. I wish I’d have attended that concert in Spring of 2001 because I would have enjoyed myself. Then there was that My2K tour in summer of 2016.

My country music CDs came today as well as some books that I’m interested in reading. I’ve made the switch over to country music in the last few weeks. It started with Rascal Flatts and Martina McBride and then moved on to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. I’m into the classic country but one of these days I’ll get into the modern country hits. What better to make use of my CDs than take a road trip and listen to them on the way? All of them are gems. Funny little story but “Carlene” by Phil Vassar was the song I woke up to my first morning at college in August of 2000. It still sounds good 20 years later. My mom used to have the Collin Raye CD and I got hooked on it during my college years. Now on to today’s Cranberry High Noon visit.

Today’s Cranberry High Noon meeting almost didn’t happen. I wasn’t feeling it and didn’t want to be a burden. Like every meeting before today’s that I’ve attended, it was a blast. The theme today was Welcome Guests! I know I’m always a welcome guest at this chapter and every other Toastmaster club I visit. The Word of the Day was Genial. The members of Cranberry High Noon are very genial. My last in person visit in December definitely exhibited these traits. Every Toastmasters club should follow this example.

Dipali Gupta served as Toastmaster and introduced the role players. They gave a description of their roles. Afterwards, Dipali introduced Rashmi Tavate as the first speaker. Rashmi spoke from the traditional manual. Her speech was from Communicating on Video, titled “CHN TV, Where Positivity Never Ends!!!!”. Rashmi interviewed Dipali on her “show” and the subject was homeopathic medicine and all things COVID 19. One of the questions that was brought up was “How are folks handling the quarantine?” and “How long before the vaccine comes in?”. Dipali talked about ways to stay positive. For me, I’ve been staying positive by blogging, taking walks, and having a routine in place. I shower every morning, find time to grow spiritually by reading the Bible and something inspirational, and rock a nice outfit instead of lounging around in sweatpants all day. I’m also watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix. One piece of advice that Dipali had was to cut down on the amount of news you watch every day.

If CHN-TV was a real channel, I’ll definitely take a job there. I’d love to produce or report for them. CHN-TV… where positivity never ends!!! I love visiting this club and I love my Cranberry High Noon family.

Judy Wang was second up and her speech was titled “21 Day Habit”. I learned from her speech that it takes 21 Days to Make or Break A Habit. Let me elaborate on my routine which has become my habit. Since I’ve been off, I usually wake up around 7:30. I get some breakfast (which is a bagel or cereal 🥣 and my usual cup of coffee ☕️). I need my coffee like I’m Lorelai Gilmore. I then either spend time with Jesus in his Word and with an inspirational read or I shower first and get dressed. Most of you have been wearing your favorite sweatpants or gym shorts, I was lounging for the first part of my layoff. After I took my second layoff and heard a good speech from Christina in my Achievers club, I followed her lead. I put together a nice outfit and rock it all day. For me, that’s a colored V-neck top and jeans, but sometimes I’ll throw in a leather jacket and boots 👢)

Judy gave some great tips to create a good habit or break a bad habit. Can you form a good habit in less than 21 days though?

Both speakers did an exceptional job with their presentations. Now I’m really glad that I decided to come to today’s meeting. It only gets better with every visit. I look forward to the next time I can make an in person visit).

Rahul Bagal served as Table Topics master. He had six questions prepared for those who were interested. All six contestants did really well with their answers. The messages they conveyed were of good use too. “You get knocked down, but you get up again”; Learn to be courteous of others”; If you don’t report someone for performing something illegal, I feel you are going to be held accountable for letting that person get away with murder.

Our evaluators did well and gave great feedback. A lot of positive energy in the speeches. Speakers were attentive. Tina Kramer commended Judy for being very genial in her speech and for giving useful information. She offered good suggestions for improvement as well. In her evaluation of the meeting, Diana Lomelin suggested we could improve on greeting our guests. But after nine visits I’m not a guest anymore. I’m a member of the Cranberry High Noon family. Tina Kramer went over education awards in the club. Ale Perez completed her level 2 in Effective Coaching, Shawndra Holmberg completed her level 3 in Visionary Communication, and Tina Kramer completed her Presentation Mastery Level 5, and Dynamic Leadership Level 1. Earlybirds has helped out too with her successes. A speakathon is coming up soon in the club.

Let’s talk about 💯. My blog on Friday will cover my tour of HGA from May of 2000. It’s 20 years since I graduated high school and started college. The school is still special to me despite its faults. I still remember taking a tour of the place all those years ago. Since it’s Mother’s Day weekend, I’ll talk about how my mother had a hand in planning my future. Why did we decide that this was the place for me to go instead of say, WCCC?

I’m also going to hit on some past Mother’s Day memories that I have. We’ve had many traditions over the years and many fun picnics. It’s not the same now that we’ve lost many loved ones and we’ve all grown up and started families of our own. I’ll take you to my favorite places and show you some of our games we used to play.

Remember to live your best life this week. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Sometimes in life you will get knocked down. It’s your job to get back up again. Be courteous of others. If you feel something is wrong, don’t do it even if it makes you the laughingstock of the group.

Collage coming soon for 💯 blogs.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you. X’s and O’s. Stylish DTM.

What a great day to go for a walk. I did about 3.5 miles at Twin Lakes this afternoon. I also ran into a fellow Toastmaster on the trail. Michelle Teague and I elbow bumped and took a selfie. She’s so excited for my 💯 Stylish DTM blog this week. I don’t know what will get the 💯 treatment yet. I have something in mind though. For now let’s take a look at the week ahead.

It’s another off week and that means more Toastmasters Zoom visits. I’m looking at another Cranberry High Noon visit tomorrow plus my Greensburg meeting this Wednesday evening. I will be attending Midday’s open house in the afternoon and Elk County this Thursday night. I’m hoping to do a third Earlybirds visit Saturday morning. I’ve got this down.

In addition to Toastmasters Virtual meetings, I’m wrapping up Financial Peace University on Tuesday night with the rest of my group. The leaders have been very friendly and helpful. I’ve taken it a little more seriously than I did back in 2008. Live like no one else so later you can live like no one else. The final session will cover real estate and mortgages and giving. Dave Ramsey says it’s wise to pay off your home early (15 year mortgage instead of a 30 year mortgage).

It may be back to work soon for me at WIS. I’ve spent the last few weeks at home (I was off for a week and a half before temporarily helping Rite Aid stock shelves). Since Good Friday I’ve been home. I’ve got a little routine going but we’ll get to that in a minute. I think this recent round of time off has put things in perspective for me.

While I’ve been off, I’ve grown spiritually. I’m taking time to read the Bible every morning. I’m also studying John 15 and learning about the True Vine and the branches. I also started The Daniel Dilemma (part of my Saturday morning bible study). I’m also reading books related to Financial Peace University by Rachel Cruze and Chris Hogan. I’ve started listening to country music 🎸 Plus I’m catching up on season five of Gilmore Girls. You jump I jump Jack. In omnia paratus.

I shower every morning in addition to studying the Bible. I now change into a nice outfit instead of lounging in sweatpants all day like most have being home all day. I find time during the day to walk too. Sometimes I go to Twin Lakes, but occasionally I do head up to Ligonier. If I’m feeling lucky I’ll drive up to Westmont. Nostalgia trip I know.

I’ve changed mentally. I’ve gone back to my roots and remembered where I came from and what I studied. I fear that I’ll lose all that and go back to my old habits once I get back into my old work routine. There’s going to be new rules in effect to keep everyone safe and healthy, which I understand. I don’t seem as emotionally attached as I once did. I feel I’m on a different path than everyone else and I feel I need to move on for good this time. It almost happened in 2018 with Giant Eagle but it didn’t work out. I think I need to have a better game plan in place. I have my reasons for wanting to leave but I’m not sharing them in this blog out of respect for myself and my coworkers.

Some of the things I want to highlight in the blog this week include my tour of HGA from May of 2000. It’s 20 years since I graduated high school and started college. The school is still special to me despite its faults. I still remember taking a tour of the place all those years ago. I want to explain the reasoning behind why we decided that this was the place for me to go instead of say, WCCC.

I’m also going to go back in time and hit on some past Mother’s Day memories I’ve experienced. We’ve had many traditions over the years and many fun picnics. It’s not the same now that we’ve lost many loved ones and we’ve all grown up and started families of our own. I’ll take you to my favorite places and show you some of our games we used to play.

Time to close off the blog. I can’t believe we’re closing in 💯 blogs on this page. Thank you all for your support of the Stylish Traveling DTM. I couldn’t have done it without you all encouraging me. Lots of 20 year celebrations this year with graduating high school, starting college, and the premiere of Gilmore Girls.

Remember this coming week 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. Life happens, coffee helps. What makes you different makes you stand out.

Bye everyone. Love you. X’s and O’s. STYLISH DTM

I just came off two Toastmasters meetings in under 24 hours. This Zoom app has been a godsend as much as the social distancing aspect has been a bummer. I’ve been able to visit meetings without leaving the house and still see my D13 Toastmaster fam. I’ve also been able to complete my Financial Peace University class as well despite not meeting in person.

What I’ve missed about not being able to go out is that I was becoming more social at my favorite hotspots (White Rabbit, Sun Dawg, Majesty). I enjoyed talking to a couple of women over a matcha 🍵 latte that morning at the Rabbit. What started out as a disaster when my friends ghosted me turned into a great day. I was also building my friend base at Cornerstone, getting to know some great people. My friends I’m taking FPU with have become more like family as well and I would usually see them at church. Let’s talk about the Toastmasters meetings then we’ll look ahead.

I attended my second Next Step meeting. The attire for the meeting involved wearing a robe or pajama top. With a five second walk to my room, I changed into my pajamas and enjoyed a great meeting. Lisa Leonard served as Toastmaster and introduced her husband Michael as the first speaker. Speaking from the Professional Speaker manual, he gave an entertaining but serious speech. Alicia Kordistos did a Research speech on San Jose, a ship that wrecked off the coast of Colombia in 2015. We took a few minutes after the meeting to talk about the speech and the buried treasure that went down with the ship. It made up for the socializing that I’ve missed not attending these meetings in person. Next meeting will have a Cinco de Mayo theme. Following the Next Step meeting, I reached out to Patti Thor and Michelle Teague about us planning a special memorial time for Charlie Wilson at the May Achievers meeting.

I was up this morning at 6:15 to get ready for the Dawn Patrol meeting. I got showered and fixed breakfast and logged in at 7:11, a few minutes before we started. Jackey Collier welcomed me to the meeting as did Mac and Doug. Jackey gave a award speech for her Division Director of the Year award. She thanked all her area directors for their hard work in helping her achieve her goal. She also thanked Stephanie Scott (longtime Toastmaster and Past District Governor) for her encouragement. We have some dedicated leaders and Toastmasters in the Pittsburgh area. Division Dynamic. Tim Tallon gave an impromptu speech about the Four P’s of losing your phone in your house. A funny speech yet it’s something we always do. Pocket, Purse, Pedestal, and Pain were those four keywords in the speech.

We did evaluation next and one of our guests was local (Aliquippa) but had since moved to Washington D.C.. She also served as a speech evaluator for Tim’s speech. We finished with Table Topics (first time Ive attended a meeting where we evaluate before we do impromptu speaking). The theme was looking ahead. After this break, let’s take a look ahead.

Stuart Strickland served as our Table Topics Master and his questions centered on looking ahead. I answered a couple myself on what I plan t do when things are back to normal and what will happen in a few years. This is what I plan to highlight in today’s blog.

Next week, I plan on attending my own meeting as well as Midday’s open house (they meet in Oakland) and Elk County’s meeting next Thursday. In terms of blogging, I’m going to take you back 20 years to my high school graduation and when I made a decision on college. It still seems like yesterday to me. I plan to dedicate ate those blogs to my good friend, and my former teacher, coach, and mentor, Kevin Clougherty. I’m wrapping up Financial Peace University Tuesday night and I’ve seen myself grow over the last few weeks. I just hope that the growth doesn’t get lost due to old habits.

Work is starting back up soon and new procedures will have be in order to keep everyone safe and healthy. I hope this rollout is pain free but I doubt it. Over these past few weeks of being at home, I’ve had a taste of freedom not traveling. I’ve missed some of the people I work with. But as I make my way back, I want to show that I’ve changed. Part of that change may mean it’s finally time to move on. We’ll see what the summer holds.

Last fall was great but to me it also set the table and built a new foundation for the next phase of my life. I’m approaching 40 and not only do I want to grow professionally, but socially and emotionally. I’m longing for someone to spend my life with and it showed last fall.

When everything opens back up, I plan to support small businesses. I look forward to having a burger and a beer at Oliver’s Pourhouse with Mr. Clougherty. I want to enjoy a matcha latte at White Rabbit and breakfast at Sun Dawg. I want to buy books at Majesty or Second Chapter Books. I want to shop in my own little Stars Hollow (as you can tell I ❤️ Gilmore Girls). What will the impact of COVID 19 have on our shopping malls and department stores? We’ll have to wait and see there.

Time to close off the blog. As I said I want to grow professionally, but in this time off I’m also starting to grow spiritually. I’ve been taking time in my Word reading inspirational books (I look forward to the Daniel Dilemma). I’ve started off my mornings in Scripture and learning about the True Vine in John 15.

The weekend’s here. 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. Remember that your smile is your best accessory.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 😘 🤗.