Grand Slam Communication
I CAN’T POSSIBLY BE THE ONLY ONE
I seem to be the only person in the Keller Communicators Toastmasters Club who ever misbehaved in school.
They all claim to have been angelic, well-behaved children.
I am the only one who confessed to ditching school to go to the beach.
We need another round of interrogation-style questioning.
I can’t possibly be the only one.
AT A RECENT TOASTMASTERS MEETING
At a recent Toastmasters meeting, an interesting discussion broke out about a certain location.
I had never heard of the place.
But apparently everyone else had.
The conversation turned in a hilarious but slightly inappropriate direction.
Well, I couldn’t just let that pass me by.
I had to Google it.
And, oh my, it certainly is inappropriate.
But in an entirely different way than the conversation would have led me to believe.
Some of our Toastmasters members have some explaining to do!
The Grammarian Report
At our Elite Toastmasters meeting, Tim Mullins’ grammarian report was totally bogus.
Haha, just kidding.
Bogus was the word of the day.
Tim’s presentation was totally bodacious.
I FAILED
At a recent Toastmasters meeting, I was assigned to tell a joke.
Using my Grown Sons as role models, I thought that if I did a bad enough job, I would never be asked to tell a joke again.
Much to my disappointment, they all laughed.
One guy said that he was going to steal my joke to use at another event.
I failed at failure.
I guess I should have examined my sons’ methods a bit more closely.
This particular strategy has never worked for them.
Why in the world did I think it would work for me?
A SOLUTION FOR WRITER’S BLOCK
It’s NaNoWriMo.
National Novel Writing Month.
The challenge is to write 1667 words a day.
Every single day.
For an entire month.
Many writers are complaining of writer’s block.
I have the perfect solution for that.
Join Toastmasters.
At Toastmasters, you will learn how to do impromptu speaking.
You can apply everything you learn about impromptu speaking to your writing.
Not every speech, and not every piece of writing, will be great.
But you can rework those less-than-perfect pieces into something better.
You can edit a rough first draft.
You can’t edit a blank screen.
Join Toastmasters to find a solution for writer’s block.
BEST SPEAKER RIBBON
Yay!
I won the Best Speaker ribbon.
Thank you Keller Communicators Toastmasters Club.
That was fun!
I’m starting a blog.
Facebook is easy.
We’re already friends.
I don’t have to explain myself.
I write my goofy stories.
And everyone knows what I’m talking about.
I don’t have to explain a thing.
Blogging is different.
People don’t know me.
I have to explain.
But explaining ruins the rhythm of the story.
It’s kind of like explaining a joke.
If you have to explain it, it’s not funny.
So I will write this first post to introduce myself.
After that, I’ll just write.
I am a mom and an empty nester.
I have two grown sons.
Both of my children are diabetic.
Diabetes is a nightmare.
But it is also our completely new-normal status.
I have a wonderful husband.
Who fixes things around the house and generally makes himself useful.
And is occasionally the subject of some hilarious stories.
I have a dog.
She is lazy but very cute and cuddly.
I often remind my family that the dog is my favorite child.
I teach English as a Second Language to adults, on line, around the world.
I am a Toastmaster.
A Distinguished Toastmaster.
Being a Toastmaster has definitely made me a better English teacher.
And a better script reader which is my second gig.
I love to write.
I’ve been reading and writing as long as I can remember.
My favorite toys, when I was a kid, were my books, a spiral notebook and a pencil.
A pencil, not a pen.
I’ve always preferred a pencil.
I was born and raised in Southern California.
We recently moved halfway across the country to Texas.
This move was not nearly as traumatic as I anticipated.
I have made lots of new friends in Texas.
I am keeping touch with my old friends through social media.
I plan on making lots of new friends through blogging.
Why am I starting this blog?
Because I’m tired of Facebook.
I’m tired of all of the ads.
I’m tired of all of the political wrangling.
I’m tired of the algorhythms that may or may not be connecting me with the people I want to be connected with.
I want to control my own platform.
I want to control my own intellectual property.
Although I use the term “intellectual” loosely.
Why do I write?
Because, to quote someone whose name I can’t recall, but I don’t want to be accused of plagiarism, “I write because I can’t not write.”