Looking Glass

He's back! The x is in the area. He landed at the Portland airport a couple of nights ago, closer to "her" than Seattle. Guess he left his truck and camper in AZ to fly back to our little area for the holidays. Crap! In viewing his calendar, he only has one booking in Eastern WA in mid January. Nothing else booked at this time other than his webinars which he presents while sitting on his butt in his camper. So lord knows how long he'll be around. I am concerned we may cross paths at some point as my friend (and his) invited me to a "Box Lunch" the day after Christmas. It is a party where everyone attending brings their Christmas dinner leftovers, and a buffet of the odds and ends is laid out. Of course, it is BYOB and it looks like fun. My friend has hosted these before, but the x never wanted to attend, so we didn't. He will likely take every opportunity to brag about his travels of OR, CA, and AZ. He still claims on his bios, that he is an internati...

It's a typical, rainy Sunday here. Of course, the rain wets my thoughts as it does the outdoors. My spirit is not dampened though, despite my real estate friend/agent, needing to cancel our first day of house searching due to sickness. The day has been close to dark since waking up this morning. There are mudslides and roads flooding in the region. I am on call for my company and have had a dozen or more pages with caregivers and clients needing supervisor's assistance. But, my spirit is still not dampened. I intend to go to a local restaurant at 6pm this evening to listen to some friends perform their music. It will be relaxing and enjoyable, whether anyone from Toastmaster's shows up or not. I am okay attending gigs and functions on my own. One of my more enjoyable days this summer was spent by myself attending a couple of parties and that garage sale of a friends'. Last weekend I volunteered at the little community center where I had been secretary for 2 1/2 years....

As I sit at my desk this evening, with a stomach full from a delicious Thanksgiving meal, I am in a reflective mood, looking back at the last couple of weeks, and relaxing with today's thoughts fresh in my mind. My youngest son, who still resides in the little town I moved from, could not join our gathering today, as he is iced in at his house...an aftermath of the sudden snow storm which befell our area two days ago. He did have a family friend, who lives within walking distance, extend a Thanksgiving invitation to him. He was undecided when we spoke, if he was going to accept. I hope he joins them, it would be his first holiday without family or friends if he declined. I spoke to my daughter in Houston at length this morning, and bless her heart, she has little sadness about being alone over there, as she was digging out her Christmas decorations to "deck her halls", knowing she'll be here for Christmas vacation. She reminded me that last year was the first year in...

I completed my third speech at my Toastmaster's meeting this evening. The goal of this speech was to inspire. I invited the audience to feel comfortable with writing in a journal, feeling confident in rereading their personal book and accepting those thoughts and feelings as a form of therapy, much like my counselor explained to me. I did pull blog posts and pretended they were journal entries. I was more nervous with this speech than my first, the "Icebreaker". I imagine it is due to sharing inner feelings to the group. I was selective on my "entry" choices and kept my voice at a steady pace. I did not belittle the x at all...he and his title were barely referenced.(smile here). The speech was well received and many people shared compliments and notes of improvement for next time. A few people shared how touched they were. I can rest easy now that I completed this project and am looking forward to #4. I am finding myself busy with Vice Pres of PR duties, and ...

This has been a very boring week. I have been on vacation from work and quite often, found myself rattling around the house with not much to do. I have revised my Toastmaster's speech and sent it to my mentor for critiquing. I am waiting for his suggestions. I have gone for a few walks as the rain has dissipated and the sun came out for a few days. I did not end up going to a Halloween party as I intended, my girlfriend couldn't make it. I was going to go alone, but...I accomplished some reading and some cleaning projects and have spent too much time tinkering on the computer. We all know what that means...at least the x is in Oregon heading to California. He has one or two gigs per week lined up down there and will be gone until the end of December. It appears "she" is traveling with him, at least for now. Reminding myself, I divorced him for a reason. Whew! I need to quit being curious and checking on his whereabouts. I am surprised I still check, though I know it...

I have been deliberating recently about the content and delivery of my next speech to be presented at the Toastmasters meeting in a couple of weeks. The point of the speech is to inform or inspire enough that your audience will take action. I have been debating about trying to inspire my audience to write either a journal, a blog, or just keeping a notebook of their inner thoughts and feelings, as a tool for personal therapy or relaxation. Remember, my counselor even said this was great therapy. I am interested in this as I have been writing my blog this year, such a pivotal year, and have felt release of many emotions in doing so. I do not want to share with the club however, that I actually have a blog. I will refer to my postings, simply as entries. I have decided to pull some excerpts from some of the postings, (entries) as a way to tell my story this year. I will try to have some chronological order and end my speech in stating, "writing has been a release and personal thera...

I am thoroughly enjoying the Toastmasters club I have joined. They are positive people and a warm atmosphere surrounds them. They recently voted me to be Vice President of Public Relations. I was a bit stammered in reading some of the roles expected, but I know I have accomplished leaders to question when needed. I am looking forward to having some tasks to help inform the club of events & information. They want to maintain their "distinguished" status. There is a criteria to meet to maintain that, so I am trying to learn those steps. Last Saturday I attended a district, breakfast conference and met many, many area Toastmasters from surrounding clubs. What fun! Then Monday night, I attended a district speech competition, of which two of our members competed. One moved on, as he took second place in Table Topics, an off the cuff question and answer segment. Our other member placed third in the Humorous Speech contest, so she did not "place" to move to the next co...