I got the sad news last night after my church prayer meeting. In an email for the Achievers club from Patti Thor, I got word that our loyal club member, Charlie Wilson, passed away from a brain aneurysm.

The loss of a longtime Toastmaster, district leader, and mentor is big for District 13. Charlie Wilson was always a regular at the speech contests, advancing to the District finals every time. You always learned something from Charlie every time you saw him. He also advanced all the way to the World Championship of Public Speaking.

Charlie was a two time District Governor (in the mid 1990’s and early 2000’s). Mike Dalton, another longtime Toastmaster and faithful Greensburg member, was great friends with Wilson. Both served in the District Trio at one point. I also had the opportunity to serve in the Achievers club with Charlie. Both him and Mike had a wealth of knowledge to share with us in their long Toastmasters journeys. Mike will celebrate his 30th anniversary in Toastmasters and in the Greensburg chapter this November.

Charlie was always proud of his Penn State education and was a fixture in State College. He represented multiple clubs in the area as well as in District 38, where he also competed in contests and served as a member in their respective clubs.

The passing of Charlie Wilson is devastating to District 13, State College, and even in theatre 🎭. He was involved in many plays in addition to his work in Toastmasters. Reading through the posts last night and this morning on Facebook, it looks he touched a lot of lives. There’s a picture of some of District 13’s finest from a past District Conference. Dan Rex is also in the picture. He was the keynote speaker that weekend. My heart goes out to Charlie’s family, especially his wife Caroline.

My best memory of Charlie was always running to him at the District events. Seeing him, Mike, as well as Calvin and Ruth Ray (in Toastmasters since 1976) together was like looking at the Greatest of All Time or a Who’s Who of Distinguished Toastmasters. I wish I’d have gotten the opportunity to run the DTM gauntlet with them this Spring.

There are many words to describe Charlie Wilson. All of them great. He was a class act who could uplift you, teach you a thing, or just make you laugh. He always made a big impression wherever he was. He had a positive impact on you from the first time he met you. His advice has rubbed off on other Toastmasters, like Dave Jones. His first speech contest, Dave was nervous and flustered. But Charlie calmed him down and told him to relax and enjoy the experience. That is a great example and one Dave now shares with the new contestants. Talk about paying it forward.

In conclusion, District 13 lost a legend yesterday.

This blog is entirely Toastmaster themed. I attended two meetings today. One in Cranberry and later, I attended a meeting in Erie. Well, it was virtual but still it’s fun to pretend now isn’t it?

I arrived for the Cranberry High Noon meeting around 11:45 this morning. Mike McKivigan, the club president, asked me to step up today and be an evaluator which I happily agreed to. He served as Toastmaster for the meeting and introduced his role players. Linde Riley served as Grammarian. She wowed us with her speech on last week living in New Mexico. Cristina Sanchez served as Timer, and Gauri Mengane served as General Evaluator.

Dipali Gupta was our first Speaker. She gave a great motivational speech on how to stay positive during the pandemic and having to be on lockdown. I picked up some great points from her speech. Diana Lomelin taught me a new word today and that is wanderlust. It’s a passion for wanting to travel. She spoke on some of the places she’s traveled, including Alaska, Hawaii, and the Grand Canyon. I really enjoyed hearing about her trip to Europe. A lot of work went into her speech and she provided some great pictures along the way. I would definitely visit France 🇫🇷 and Italy 🇮🇹 but would also throw in Germany 🇩🇪 and Switzerland 🇨🇭 on my trip. As her evaluator, I suggested using the part on France as a marketing vehicle for the convention in Paris which will now be next year. Ale Perez rounded out the speaking portion by talking about Toastmasters mentoring. Let’s have a Speak off to see who can talk about mentoring better. Ale vs. Walter J from Earlybirds.

Our soon to be Program Quality Director, Bob Johnson, gave an outstanding Table Topics session. Only three speakers participated to keep the meeting running on time. Rahul, Don, and Amit all gave great answers to the questions. The theme was Tell A Story Day. Almost everyone wore a hat today too. Shoutout to Tina Kramer for coming up with this great idea. If we had a contest for best hat, I think Judy would have won first prize. Mike had the best background. Went great with his hat.

Mike wrapped up the meeting at 1pm and thanked me for attending.

Let’s take a trip up Interstate 79, stopping at Slippery Rock and grabbing a late lunch at North Country Brewing before walking around campus. I ate outside and watched the traffic go by. Around 3, it was back on the road to Erie for the Eriez Toastmaster meeting.

I arrived around 4:15 and killed some time downtown before heading to my destination around 6. Division B Director Terye Carney and longtime Toastmaster Tom Quiggle (we go back to 2012) greeted me. The Eriez chapter also celebrated National Tell A Story Day. As Table Topics Master, Terye had us give our favorite stories. I talked about how I came up with the name for my blog.

The stylish part came to me during a trip to Ashtabula for work. We were going to dinner after work and we all met up in our motel room. It was a casual trip and we were all just hungry. One of the girls who was with us came into the room and was rocking a pink dress. While no one cared how I looked, I felt upstaged. Seeing her look so stunning made me start paying attention to my appearance. I was also feeling lonely after my Grandma passed away that summer. Seeing two of my colleagues happy together made me realize that I longed for someone myself.

I started dressing nicer and thus the name would soon be born. I was really flattered when Sarah Souri referred to me by my blog name when I visited Cranberry High Noon. The blog has been going strong since November.

Our speakers all gave exceptional speeches tonight. I learned in Alexis’s speech that even the biggest successes have had to deal with ADHD. She was courageous in speaking about her struggle with it. Swati’s speech on pranking was great. I think she could gave us a great campfire speech if the vocal variety was improved a little bit. Are You Afraid of the Dark material.

Our evaluators did well and stayed within time. Despite the small turnout it was a very productive meeting. Lots of awards and leveling up coming to the club. Terye has been hard at work running Division B and serving as the Education lead for Eriez. Her and I were both disappointed we couldn’t run the gauntlet this Spring. Hopefully we get to do it soon. Time to close off the blog.

I’ll be attending Meadville’s virtual meeting soon and plan on checking out Midday, Next Step, Elk County, South Hills, Mercer County, and Cranberry Area in the near future. Lots of virtual meeting on the agenda. Now time for my words of wisdom.

Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

Whether it takes you to Spain, Nashville 🎸, New Orleans 🎭 or up PA 271 to Westmont (PA), enjoy the ride and experience.

If get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance 💃.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 🤗 😘.

Today was a great day to get out. I took another nice road trip to a very special place. I also have some exciting, magical plans for next year 🧚‍♀️ 👸 But first…

I started off the day by attending the Earlybirds Toastmasters meeting. Well, breakfast 🥞 🍳 first and then the meeting. We had a great turnout with 16 people in attendance. Guests included myself, Linde Riley, and District Director Denise Etter. Tina Kramer served as Toastmaster. All three of these Toastmasters belong to the Cranberry High Noon chapter of which I’m a recurring guest.

We had three great speakers up to bat this morning. Linde was first and gave her New Mexico speech the second time around (it’s required in Pathways). I learned a little bit more the second time. Amanda Okon spoke about how the Coronavirus pandemic is affecting productivity and business. Restaurants are even shuttering permanently because of the pandemic. Walter J. Smith closed out the speaking portion by highlighting mentoring. He had a wealth of experience to share with 20 years in Toastmasters. He talked about how mentors can help benefit us. Walter J has amazing storytelling skills.

Bill Reynolds led the Table Topics and went with the theme of the meeting, which was Earth Day. The four participants all gave great answers on how they would help take care of our planet. Dianne Barnhouse served as General Evaluator. She called on the evaluators and asked for reports from the role-players. Rob Corbett evaluated Linde’s speech and gave some great tips for improvement. Tina reviewed Amanda’s speech and gave her insight on the speech that related to the times we are dealing with right now. Roger King gave feedback on Walter J’s mentoring speech. For a first time evaluator reviewing a veteran Toastmaster’s talk, Roger did excellent.

Everyone was within time according to the Timers’ report. I learned from our Grammarian October Lowe that kids means baby goats 🐐. Walter J and Jing completed new levels in Pathways and Earlybirds is well on their way to achieving Presidents’ Distinguished honors. Well done Jing and the club for your dedication and leadership.

I took a road trip today and my first stop was in Ligonier. I stopped at Sheetz first and got lunch. As soon as I pulled in, I took my food to the diamond and and enjoyed myself. Afterwards I walked around Main Street, passing by the Ligonier Tavern 🍺 and the Diamond Theatre 🎭. After my walk, I got a cone at the Creamery. As I walk through the Diamond, the fire whistles go off and fire trucks 🚒 and ambulances 🚑 start driving through town. I finish off my ice cream 🍦 and continue on my road trip.

Yesterday I gave a shoutout to the Hiram G. Andrews Center as it was supposed to be graduation 🎓 for the students. Due to the pandemic, the school is closed and students are home. I decided today to drive up to Westmont and look at my old home. I took a walk around the grounds and reminisced about the good old days. It felt like that day when I moved in way back in August 2000. I have plenty of great HGA stories to share in the blog with this being 20 years since I started college. Stay tuned.

We are planning to go to Disney next year when my aunt retires from teaching. I went in 2015 so this would be my second time there. It’ll be a nice sendoff to my aunt as she begins the next phase of her life. My cousin is planning this adventure and I’m happy to get on board. I’m already excited and it’s still 500 days away. I think you’ll be seeing a lot more Disney from me in the near future in these blogs. I’m watching Mary Poppins tonight, so I’m already starting on the Disney fix even though the trip is more than a year off.

Time to close off the blog with a shoutout to my favorite green and white school. Even though the school is closed, that doesn’t mean the flowers aren’t blooming. Just look at this beautiful shot of Old Main on Wednesday (Earth Day)

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 your best accessory. Be sure to have it on hand with you.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 🤗 😘.

This blog is a recap of the past week. Despite being home every day, I managed to keep myself busy.

I continued to attend my virtual Financial Peace University meetings. This week we knocked out the rest of the baby steps (4 to 7). Number four is putting 15% of your money away for retirement. Number five is saving for your kids’ college. That’s two nest eggs 🥚 right there. Number six is paying off your home early (15 year mortgage instead of a 30 year mortgage). Number seven is unlimited giving. I learned that numbers 4-6 work together. But how great is it when you have no debt and you can just give? Live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else.

I finished up some inspirational reading that I’d been stuck on for several months. I bought these books at Majesty and read a little. It but got sidetracked. Well I made a plan and got those books read. I finished Defined this morning It’s a book inspired by the movie Overcomer to encourage you to live the life God created you to live. I’m hard at work reading Everyday Millionaire by Chris Hogan and Rachel Cruze’s book on seven money habits you can adapt to live your best life. I’m also plowing through Shotgun Angels by Jay DeMarcus. You may remember him from such country bands as Rascal Flatts. Oh and I have been listening to more country in the past week.

Last week I bought some classic country CDs with my Amazon gift card. They’ll be here soon. But while I’m waiting for them, I downloaded some to iTunes. I have Tim McGraw’s Greatest Hits as well as some Martina McBride on there. I was singing along to Suds in the Bucket on Monday as I took a ride up 711 towards New Florence and Seward. How can 18 years just up and walk away? That classic country music reminds me of being young and going to school in Johnstown, listening to 96.5 The Mountain (before it became Froggy 🐸 95).

These upcoming lessons in Financial Peace University have encouraged me to go back to my roots. I studied Accounting and Finance in college so I do have knowledge of numbers. Insurance, Investments, Retirement Planning, and Real Estate and Mortgages will be some of the lessons we cover the next two weeks. I’m downloading some ebooks to help me understand the topics better. Some of these subjects I’ve learned in school. I do recommend the Dave Ramsey team though. These guys are outstanding.

I took it upon myself to attend another virtual Toastmasters meeting this week. I was at Cranberry High Noon on Monday (and I may return this coming week). I have plans to attend another Next Step meeting next Thursday and I’m going to consider going to Midday’s virtual meeting on Wednesday. Future virtual meetings include Elk County, South Hills, and Cranberry Area. Now back to last night’s meeting.

We had some amazing speakers last night. Pinakin Patel gave his ice breaker and I learned a lot about his passion for photography. Michael Leonard spoke from the Professional Speaker manual giving a sales presentation. He was selling Toastmasters. Michael served as our club coach at Greensburg from 2017 to 2019. He has served as an area and division director in District 13. Stevie Hosler and Alicia Kordistos served as speech evaluators and did an excellent job. Susan Guerreri served as General Evaluator and I appreciated her inviting me last night. She took a picture of the group and posted it on Facebook too.

Time to close off the blog and today’s shoutout is to the place where I had a lot of great life experiences. I’m talking about the Hiram G. Andrews Center. Today was supposed to be graduation 🎓 for the class of Spring 2020. Because of the pandemic, they weren’t able to walk and receive their diplomas. The school will always have a special place in my heart because it helped me become independent in my early adult years. I could have attended WCCC but my family insisted on sending me here so I could learn to be on my own. ❤️ you HGA and you’ll be open soon to help enrich our students and prepare them for the real world.

Weekend’s here. Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Never lose your sense of wonder. Get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger. May you never take one single breath for granted. God forbid love ever leave you empty handed.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 🤗 😘.

On Sunday at our Virtual Achievers Club Meeting, Toastmaster Christina Keener presented a speech that could prove to be very helpful. She gave us five tips for remaining positive and productive during the global pandemic. I really felt like she made some great talking points and today I’m here to share them with you in my blog.

The first point she shared was that we need to get outside at least once a day. Of course, we still need to practice social distancing. A great example here involves taking a walk. Yesterday I took advantage of the beautiful late April sunshine and drove up to Ligonier. I sat in the diamond and ate my food from Sheetz before taking a walk around town. I always enjoy in my own little Stars Hollow and eating like a Gilmore. After my little stroll and some time reading a book on my iPad, I took a ride up 711 through Oak Grove, towards New Florence, and into Seward before turning left onto 56 and heading back home.

The second point is we should call at least one friend or relative per day. I prefer texting on going on Facebook (I’m not really a phone person) but I am turning into an old pro with Zoom meetings. I post these blogs and share the link on Facebook so that everyone can see them. I text my old teacher and good friend Kevin Clougherty every day just to make sure he’s doing all right. My cousin Katie posts quizzes on Facebook a couple of times of week and I participate in them. One of these days I will place in the top five. We also read each other’s blogs through social media.

The third point she talked about was that we need to give ourselves something to look forward to. I have plenty of things that I can look forward to even in these difficult times. I have my virtual Toastmasters meetings that I attend (I’m going to Next Step on Thursday and Earlybirds on Saturday morning). I’m still doing my Financial Peace University class on Zoom the next couple of weeks. I always look forward to blogging for you guys as well.

I’m watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix and I’m already on season five. I wear my shirt and drink my coffee when I watch the show. I even have my GG calendar on my door. I have plenty of books I’m reading as well. I talked about them in prior blogs. I’m also listening to Country music more than I have in the past. Today I’m listening to some Faith Hill, including the duets with her husband Tim McGraw. I also have my inspirational Christian music and worship songs as well. The two genres go hand in hand.

The fourth point that Christina highlighted in her speech was that we need to acknowledge our feelings. Let’s face it. Most of us are frustrated, we’re expressing disappointment, sadness, as well as anger. It’s ok for those of us who need to get it out to feel this way. But don’t just focus on the negative aspect of things.

Express feelings of gratitude. Count your blessings and pray. Write down in a journal what you are thankful for. Show appreciation to those people, places, or things whom you took for granted but would give anything to have them back right now. Personally, I’m someone who likes to be virtuous. Not only am I wanting to express feelings of gratitude, but also humility. I like to show compassion towards people and live a life of integrity. Those are just a few of the virtues I like to display. I want to practice living a “good vibes only” lifestyle.

The fifth and final point that she talked about was something a lot of us aren’t doing right now. Especially if we’re living our lives at home. We need to shower first thing in the morning and put on clean clothes. I’m someone who lives by good personal hygiene and I will admit I did get lazy during my time off. I spent the day in sweatpants or pajamas because it was convenient and it was in my comfort zone.

When you practice this number one tip, you’ll feel better in spite of everything going on in the world. Have a nice outfit ready to go. I’ve done that the last couple of mornings. I’m not the Casual Stay at Home DTM after all. Yesterday at my Cranberry High Noon visit, I was rocking my usual jeans, leather jacket, and scarf 🧣 .

Time to close off the blog. I’ll do so with a Green and White shoutout. Despite Slippery Rock University being shutdown due to the COVID 19 pandemic, flowers are still blooming. This is on the south end of campus near Boozel dining hall.

Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Keep calm and carry on in these trying times. This too shall pass.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 😘 🤗.

Today was lucky number seven. It was my seventh time using Zoom and my seventh time visiting the Cranberry High Noon Toastmasters chapter. I arrived to the virtual meeting at 11:55 AM. Mike McKivigan started the meeting at Noon sharp and told us it was going to be a full agenda. Amit Grover served as Toastmaster and announced who the role players were. They gave a description of their role. Afterwards, it was time for Amit to introduce our speakers.

Linde Riley was up first and her speech was about her experiences living in New Mexico. She highlighted some key points, such as the Hot Air Balloon festival in Albuquerque, and White Sands State Park in the southern part of the state. She mentioned at the beginning of her speech that she lived in Santa Fe.

Rashmi Tavate was next and she spoke to us from India. Her speech was from the traditional manual. Her objective was to sell us a product. That was a 3-in-1 software package. She talked about its features, the price, and whether it was worth it or not. She had our attention and I was able to understand the speech very well.

Cristina Martin was our last speaker and she did a speech that required evaluation and feedback. She hit on videoconferencing and it couldn’t have come at a better time than now. I’m familiar with a few of the programs that she talked about. Messenger is probably the best one for me.

Up next was Table Topics and Shawndra Holmberg led the session. She went along with the theme for the meeting, which was practicing gratitude. We were pressed for time, so only three speakers were able to participate. Kathleen, Rahul, and Sarah all gave great answers to the questions that Shawndra provided. I’ll post some appreciation in the closing.

Dipali Gupta served as General Evaluator. She introduced Gauri, Bob, and Rahul as the evaluators. All of them provided some wonderful points of praise in their evaluations. They also gave the speakers things they can improve upon. Dipali gave her evaluation of the meeting and Tina evaluated Shawndra’s performance as Topics Master. Mike then closed the meeting with a little business and thanked me for coming. I’m not really a guest anymore as this was my seventh time visiting.

Time to close off the blog with some key points. I took these from today’s meeting. The things we take for granted we need to appreciate. We need to learn to be more content, especially if we identify as introverts.

To express gratitude, send a thank you note 📝 to a friend or colleague showing how much you value their presence. Keep a gratitude journal. Count your blessings and pray. Also, try meditating on passages of scripture in the Bible.

Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Make tomorrow lovely. Put together a nice outfit and rock it even if no one’s paying attention.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 😘 🤗.

This was supposed to be my weekend. I was going to be living it up at the Hilton Garden Inn in Southpointe. I going to run the gauntlet at the dinner on Saturday and have my Distinguished Toastmaster medal awarded to me by the former Toastmasters President. I was going to practice my 2000 dance moves, learning the steps to Bye Bye Bye by ‘NSync and forming my own DTM huddle that bettered the one that Cranberry High Noon had last year. I was going to celebrate my achievement with my District 13 Toastmasters family over a couple drinks 🍹. I was going to show off my medal to everyone at work and church. Oh what could’ve been.

In reality, I spent this week getting ready for new lessons in Financial Peace University. I read some of the books I downloaded onto my Kindle app. Shotgun Angels by Jay DeMarcus highlights his early life as well as his years with Rascal Flatts. I just downloaded their Greatest Hits CD onto my iTunes. Other books I downloaded included Everyday Millionaire by Chris Hogan and Love Your Life Not Theirs by Rachel Cruze, both good books pertaining to Wealth and Money 💴. Perhaps I’m going back to my roots. Both books are very informative and will help me as I work to achieve my future goals.

I’m starting to like country music again. I ordered some CDs last Monday that aren’t fairly new but it’s “classic” country that takes me back to my high school and college years. I’ve always been an on and off listener of country music. My parents listened to it a lot for years before switching over to classical music (Mozart, Beethoven, Bach). My sister has listened to country longer than most of us.

If you know me, I’ve always been a Jazz 🎷 🎺 listener and boy band/girl band enthusiast. I have a special place in my heart for the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, and other groups that most people find cheesy. That kind of music is special and you don’t want to wear it down.

Getting into Financial Peace University now. Plans for Tuesday night include lessons four and five. We’re going to wrap up the baby steps and go into Buyer Beware and the Art of Negotiating. On Wednesday night, I will return to Cornerstone and take part in the prayer meeting for our country. Now back to tomorrow, I am going to attend the virtual Cranberry High Noon meeting. I’ve already reached out to Tina Kramer and Bob Johnson and told them I’m coming. Plus I also plan to come to Saturday’s Earlybirds meeting.

Today we had our first virtual Achievers meeting. 13 people showed up including Area Director Sue Mals. I served as Toastmaster with Fred Vornbrock and Christina Keener speaking. Christina’s speech had that Faerie Grace ring to it. It was very motivational. After the meeting ended, my officers and I, as well as Area Director, Program Quality Director, and Club Coach discussed the upcoming open house and other club business. We also hit on dues renewals and where our club stood stood with getting awards. We just need to get the membership up and we will get to Select Distinguished once again.

Time to close off the blog. I’m turning into an old pro with the Zoom meetings. It’s fun to visit Toastmasters meetings without leaving the house. I’ll be checking out the Cranberry High Noon chapter tomorrow afternoon. Not my first rodeo 🐎 there either. I’m also going back to my roots learning some of that personal finance and accounting that I studied in college. It took a while to get back to it but I’m excited to learn from Dave Ramsey in the coming weeks.

Monday is coming. Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. Make this week lovely. Remember that life happens, but coffee helps. Be positive and realistic in your endeavors.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 😘 💋 🤗.

I think I’ve begun to get the hang of these virtual Zoom meetings. I attended my second one for Greensburg Wednesday night. We had a great turnout with 12 people in attendance. Faerie had a little bit of trouble with the audio but figured it out. With that out of the way let’s have a meeting.

Denise Pullen served as Toastmaster and introduced our speakers, Greg Burcz and Michelle Teague. While both their speeches were amazing, I want to commend Faerie Grace for her Table Topics theme.

She gave us questions that pertained to the COVID-19 lockdown. The object was turn our answers into a motivational speech. Faerie is an exceptional motivational speaker herself. I loved where she was going with this. She had six participants answer her questions.

Greg went first and hey, hats off to him for being on the front lines during this pandemic. Claudette was next and between her, Sam, and Greg, their questions really related to them. Faerie somehow knew the questions had them in mind. It was funny that most of them were odd numbered. My question was not so relevant to me since I don’t work from home but I answered it very concisely. Chuck and Mike rounded out the session. While my answer was well thought out, I feel that Mike was the best Table Topics speaker.

Yours Truly was next up to bat as General Evaluator. I introduced Jim and Chuck as speech evaluators. Sam gave a thorough Grammarian report and Ina gave her Ah Counter report. Michelle served as Timer. Everyone came within time this evening. We planned May’s meetings and I agreed to serve as Toastmaster on June 3.

My review of the meeting was to the point. We’re figuring out our best practices for these meetings still. Our speakers gave great talks. Faerie’s Table Topics session was motivational and amazing. Our evaluators hit on main points of the speech and provided room for improvement. We adjourned the meeting just before 8pm.

Time to close off the blog by encouraging all of you to be grateful for everything you have in this difficult times. Don’t forget to laugh because laughter is the best medicine. A smile is the best accessory that you can own. Use it.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you.

I arrived at the North Hills Toastmasters meeting around 6:45. Before that I did a little shopping at Kohl’s and Target and this little bookstore in McCandless Crossing (not really). I was greeted by the president of the North Hills chapter, Karl Matos, and a few other longtime members (Linda and Beverly). Dan Hurley remembered me from many of our other District events. Karl went over the theme for the meeting and had his officer meeting. It looks like he has a great slate of officers.

As Toastmaster, Rick Ley provided some great tips for these virtual meetings. He then introduced his role players for tonight’s meeting. The word of the day was Gloaming. Amir and Indra would serve as Topicsmaster and General Evaluator, respectively. We had three speakers on the agenda tonight.

Mike Hess talked about human trafficking and provided some alarming statistics. I learned tonight that Pittsburgh is #10 in the country in human trafficking. The call for action was to take 21 minutes a day to study this issue. Susan Meyer talked about the difference between being an introvert and extrovert. Both have interesting traits. After listening to her speech, I can say that I happily identify as an introvert. Joann Walk did a speech fromg the Better Speaker Series. She gave a thorough and detailed explanation of the roles and responsibilities of club officers and provided great examples. She closed with a great quote by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Next up was Indra serving as General Evaluator. He’s looking for a couple of books to read this summer. Karl evaluated Mike’s speech. He commended Mike’s call for action and suggested he improve his vocal variety to match his passion. Beverly evaluated Susan’s speech on introvert vs. extrovert. How does being an introvert affect your time management was the question she had. Mike Bummer evaluated Joann’s speech. Suggestions included balancing audio with video. She was super thorough and well invested in the topic. He included a quote by Elon Musk to counter hers by Huckabee.

Amir served as the Table Topics Master. He provided us with a great list of summer reading. A lot of good responses from our members and guests. I gave my take on The Audacity of Hope and other books I’ve read. Rick then called on his role players to give their reports. Tonight’s speakers were motivational from Mike’s speech on preventing human trafficking to Susan’s speech on introverts and extroverts. I was very polished as well.

I was impressed with tonight’s meeting and all the role players did an excellent job with their jobs. Chad Hudson closed out the meeting with some good humor. Karl adjourned the meeting at 9pm exactly.

I’ll close off the blog by encouraging you all to live your best life. Thanks Karl and Susan for the invite. I’ll be back soon.

It was a good Easter holiday, all things considered. I watched Cornerstone’s Easter service online (a majority of the members went to the parking lot to hear the drive in church service; however I stayed home). We ate Easter dinner around 3pm. Mom made Grandma’s stuffed chicken and mashed potatoes with stuffing. It felt like those past Easter Saturdays over at her house. It was a bittersweet holiday this year remembering those no longer with us. Annabelle had a nice Easter and got a couple of Easter baskets.

I did my Financial Peace lesson Sunday night. Chris Hogan and Rachel Cruze (the daughter of Dave Ramsey) taught me the importance of putting three to six months into an emergency fund. I was looking forward to the budgeting lesson Tuesday night with my group from Cornerstone. More on that later in the blog.

On the 11pm news, my wonderful Toastmaster friend Sarah Souri was interviewed on the way people have dealt with the Coronavirus and having to be in quarantine. She is a psychotherapist in the Wexford area. She said that staying connected to loved ones during this time would be crucial. Finding alternatives to typical Easter traditions like attending a church service online helps as well as keeping a schedule while at home. I’ve been reading, working on my blog, and just recently shopped on Amazon. Sometimes I get out and take a ride and that helps calm my anxiety.

Sarah’s Toastmasters and improv experience really came in handy during this interview on KDKA. We enjoy each other’s company when I visit her at Cranberry High Noon meetings. She loves my blog and my stylish attire.

I finally used my Amazon gift cards on Monday. Before that, however, I downloaded some books onto my Kindle app. A couple of them were by Chris Hogan and Rachel Cruze. I also downloaded another leadership book by Robert Iger and one by Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts fame.

The books I ordered included another country music book (Nashville Songwriter) and one about the history of Dick’s written by the son of the founder of the sporting goods chain. For those who don’t know, Dick’s Sporting Goods is based in Findlay Township and I believe they have a Toastmasters chapter in my District. I also decided to order some country CD’s. It’s mostly music from the late 90’s into my college years. I’m an on and off listener while my sister has always liked country.

Last night’s Financial Peace University lesson was done very well. Ed Malinowski led the discussion on budgeting. He went into detail on how to use the Every Dollar App. We all had questions on how to do a budget and he and Larry Klinger did their best to help ease the confusion. The first three baby steps are done. Time to move onto steps four through seven. It’s two lessons to cover them and they are important to know if you want to Live Like No One Else.

Time now to close off the blog. Part of having Financial Peace includes paying with cash. Where better to do this than when you eat out? I do that a lot, going to Chick Fil A, Sheetz, and my local establishments where I’ll spend a lot of my money once they reopen. I encourage you all to take an envelope ✉️ with cash in it next time you go to the grocery store or the coffee shop. I guarantee you’ll experience less pain even though it’ll hurt initially.

Remember to live your best life. Be your best you. ROCK out because you are worth it. You are born to fly, and in dreams you remember the soul has wings.

Bye everyone. ❤️ you 😘 🤗.