The World According to Angie

Miscellaneous Personal Updates

Happy Tuesday, my friends.  Obviously, the blogging bug hit tonight.  Or I'm avoiding the pile of laundry in the other room.  Maybe it's a bit of both ... whatever the case, I'm making up for lost time these past few weeks.  I figure my final post for the evening is just going to be a series of miscellaneous updates all mis-mashed together, for whoever is out there, and reading, and actually cares.  Here goes...

I'm back at work this week.  Part-time, anyway, but 8-12 at the office is way better than all day in my pj's.  (Remind me I said that three months from now, okay?)  My MD is going to re-assess on Friday how I'm doing, and decide if I'm ready for full-time next week ... but the last two days have been slow, easy, and pretty good.  It was reassuring to see my office was still there, if you know what I mean.  Three weeks is a long time...

I'm Contest Mastering the D50 International Speech Contest next weekend.  Is that cool or what?!?!  After having to pull from the Evaluation contest at the Division level, which I was totally bummed about, I figured my chance to stand on the District stage this year was entirely shot.  Not so, apparently ... Les Guse, our LGET, gave me a call and asked if I was willing (and able) to step in and be Contest Master at Saturday night's speech contest.  I cannot begin to describe my excitement.  Now I'm wracking my brains, trying to think of all the past contests I've seen, and what the CMs did well - and what they didn't do well - so I can do a good job for both the contestants and for the audience.  The biggest thing I know is to remember that IT'S NOT ABOUT ME.  (C'mon, you know contest masters like that ... be honest!  Where they think the whole show is about them ... right?)  If I do my job well, I'm just there to warm 'em up and keep things running smoothly.  And I will NOT play "stump the chump" during contestant interviews.  I promise.

I got suckered into serving as an officer again next year.  I really shouldn't put it that way, but if the members of my home club read this, they'll just laugh, and nod their heads knowingly.  I'm handing over reins as VP-Ed (thank God! that job is the toughest, requiring unflagging work on a weekly basis, and it's the single most important role to keeping a club running smoothly, and IT'S WAY TOO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY FOR ME TO HAVE ANY LONGER) and I'm taking on VP-Membership instead.  It's something I've never done before, and we didn't have anyone volunteer for the spot.  And our current President, who is picking up those VP-Ed reins, asked me really nicely.  VP-Ed ... or VP-Membership.  For a club that has added something like 10+ new members this year.  So ... looks like I get to give it a try.  Oh well, there's always something new to be learned, right?  Even for PDGs.  Or, should I say, especially for PDGs.

I have a new addiction, and it costs $2.50 a box.  But it's totally worth it.  If you have allergies, sinus problems, a head cold, bronchitis, or heck - if you just like to blow your nose and get a little bit of a head rush, you MUST go to the store NOW and buy yourself a box of Puffs Plus with Vicks.  I'm serious - some genius figured out a way to not only put lotion in the tissue, but to also put Vicks Vaporub.  And it is AWESOME.  So you blow your nose, and it's all nice and soft and doesn't scratch your poor face ... and then you breathe in ... and whoooo - head rush!  And it's like you can TOTALLY breathe.  Jim and I are fighting over the box I bought.  Ssshh... don't tell him about the secret stash I have in my studio.

There's lots more to tell in the next few days, including cool stuff coming up this weekend, more photos to share (I'm going to have to buy another external hard drive at the rate I'm shooting RAW files!), and probably some wedding stuff too.  But I've deluged you with enough rambling nonsense for tonight.  Oh, but one more thing...

Vote for David Cook.  Tonight's first song might not have been his best performance, but it was still good, and the second outright rocked.  And while Archuletta is cute, and young, and all "Baby Elmo", I dig me the rocker.  So vote for David Cook.  And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, be proud: you have withstood the siren call of this season's American Idol.  I certainly haven't.  Sheesh...

So, I competed on Saturday...

I made a promise some time back that I was going to compete in the Toastmasters contests as soon as I was eligible again.  Okay, to be specific, the promise was made during my outgoing District Governor speech at the Spring 2006 District 50 Conference ... and it was something about how if you're afraid of something, maybe you should do it because there's a growth opportunity in there for you ... and my next growth opportunity lies in competing.

Anyway.  I had originally planned to compete in the International Speech Contest, but once the whole Dealer Meeting thing panned out for this year, I realized I was insane to even think about doing that at the same time ... I couldn't in good conscience try to prepare adequately at the same time I was traveling and speaking for work ... oh, and planning a wedding.  Yeah.  So this isn't my year for International Speech.

But they're doing the Evaluation contest, too, so I agreed to represent our club.

And whaddya know?  I took First Place at the Area 42 Contest Saturday morning...

Talk about a surreal experience, being the one standing in the middle of the photograph, holding the trophy, instead of all those years I was the one handing the trophy to the winner.  Bizarre ... but cool.

So now, I go on to compete at the Plains Division Contest on Saturday, April 19th.  We'll see how it goes ... for now, I'm having a really good time.  Evaluations are my FAVORITE thing to challenge myself with in Toastmasters, so this is all ... well, it's pretty cool.

Accountability: Yes, I'm going to do it.

  In May of 2006, in a North Texas ballroom, I stood on stage in front of 300 District 50 Toastmasters to deliver my outgoing District Governor's address.

And I quite promptly put my four-inch stilletto heels in my mouth.

You see, that night, I talked about the idea that we should all do things that scare us.  That as long as we're staying within our comfort zone, we're not stretching.  We're not learning.  We're not growing.  I was trying to challenge our members to look beyond their current, comfortable position to next year's boundless opportunity.  What scared them?  Because that was exactly what they needed to be doing.

And I told them all that competing was what scared me.  That I'd stayed safely ineligible to compete by serving as a District leader for the past three years... but obviously, since it scared me, that was my next growth opportunity.

And I got a freaking standing ovation.

So it was right then and there, in front of a room full of Toastmasters ... my friends, my peers, my critics ... those I had served under, with, and for ... that I shoved those beautiful bronze heels between my glossy lips.  Total case of foot-in-mouth.  Because I promised them that I would compete, just as soon as I became eligible to do so.

That gave me a year of breathing room.  As Immediate Past District Governor, you're ineligible to compete.  But on July 1 of this year, I ceased to be "immediate-" anything, and I just became "past".  Which means, yes, I'm eligible to compete.

I had intended to try my hand at the Humorous Speech contest this fall, or break myself in with Table Topics.  But it came down to a question of scheduling, and my insistence that I must be able to finish that which I begin.  You see, my Area contest fell on Jim's moving day, when we were neck-deep in boxes.  Even if I had managed to coordinate around that, my Division contest is scheduled for a day when Jim and I are holding theatre tickets, to an event we've been planning for nearly five months.  (I can't post anything more about it just yet, because it's a big surprise for someone who may or may not be reading my blog.  You'll learn more about it in a few weeks when it happens...)

But for those two reasons, competition this fall was out of the question.  Which gave me an immense sense of relief, if you want to know the truth.

I don't do competition real well.  Actually, that's not true.  I don't lose well.  I mean, I lose well when I don't care whether I win or lose.  When it comes to card games, or board games, or stupid stuff like that, I don't have a bit of trouble losing to Jim or Veronica.  Big whoop - it's a game - entirely unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

But when it's something that's really important to me ... I don't handle losing well.  Not at all.  And that, my friends ... that is my growth opportunity.

Jim made me laugh, when I shared that with him... my fear of ever looking like a poor loser, and not ever wanting to appear that way ... his solution was simple: don't lose.  Um, yeah.  Sure.  Easy to say.  (Especially coming from him, right?)

But a few days ago, I dug up a copy of our District calendar, and compared it to my own for this spring.  I was more than a little nervous that the timing of our Lennox Dealer Meetings - which has me on the road for nearly six weeks straight in March & April - would pre-empt me from even trying my hand at competition this spring.  That is not the case ... and I can't decide if I'm relieved, or more anxious now that I don't have an excuse.

The Area 42 Contest is on Saturday, March 15th.  I'll arrive back in Dallas on Friday night from our meeting in Nashville, God willing there aren't any travel delays.

The Plains Division Contest is on Saturday, April 19th, one full week after the end of our Dealer Meeting tour.

And the District 50 Contest is on May 16th & 17th.

So ... I guess this is the first official step.  We'll call this "blogging accountability".  I, Angie Flinn, hereby make public this proclamation: I will, to the best of my ability, prepare a speech to compete in the International Speech Contest this spring.  I'll give it everything I've got, and we'll see just how far this will take me.

I don't have any delusions of grandeur, but I'd like to think I have a reasonable shot at making it to the District stage.  For now, I'd better get started with writing.  Lots and lots of writing.  And I'll have to see if I can't find myself a coach who knows about this whole contest thing ... hmm ...

Expect to hear at least a little bit about this particular journey here on my blog.  I even added a new category for it.  Gulp... I guess this means I'm really gonna do it!

Me and my big mouth...