(caution: this post contains reference to Jagermeister)

Our Toastmaster this morning, the ever funny Anne King, had a theme. It was “Why I keep coming back to Toastmasters” (after eight years).

Is it that she needs the speaking practice? Hardly. She did comedy improv for several years. She has no problem being in front of people. And she has a great sense of humor–timing and a great sense of exaggeration and body language.

No worries, I won’t keep you guessing. Answer: You learn things, laugh, find out about people’s lives and passions, challenge yourself… It’s good clean fun.

[Side note: Typically, I like 'good clean' adventures except when it's the 'good clean living' that Mark rubs in my face as a reason for beating me at cribbage. As if he would win just because of that. As if.

Of course, if I win, he claims I've made a deal with the devil. See what I have to put up with? Geez.

But then if I just accept that the real game in cribbage is talking smack, I can usually get the 'good clean living' smirk off his face within a comment or two.

It's a thin line to walk though. Talk big enough to keep from getting buried, but not so big that I actually say something mean. It can be easy to get carried away in the name of questionable sportsmanship.

Not that I usually set out to engage in "questionable sportsmanship". Like I said, good clean living is a plus in my book. Waking up with my face in the gutter doesn't make for good impressions with potential clients. Even when I flick the gravel off first thing. Somehow they just know. end side note]

Back to this morning’s Toastmaster’s festivities. I was called on for Table Topics, the spontaneous speaking part of the meeting. My subject was my sister Erin’s birthday this weekend. Or more accurately, the 24 gorgeous and delicious cupcakes that Erin’s husband bought for her birthday weekend from Kara’s Cupcakes, and that Mark and I got to partake in.

We ate so many that I think the caloric intake of the cupcakes exceeded the caloric burning of our 6 mile birthday hike on Saturday at Foothills Park in Palo Alto. The obligatory birthday shot* ofJagermeister might not have helped, but that’s not proven to date.

[* ref. last year's romp in the city for my birthday when Erin and I ducked into a bar for a shot of Jager while waiting for a streetcar that was just too slow in showing up.]

But I digress. Not sure from what. Instead of continuing on, I should go scan my first published article. It’s so old the second one has already been published (in the Nevada City Advocate), but I have a proprietary preference for the first article.

Have a great week!

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Note: the image is not from Kara’s cupcakes. Check out their website for that artwork!

Photo credit:
Henry Leo’s 1st Birthday Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Kelly Sue