What We Learned

One of the pieces of feedback I got when I gave my Ice Breaker speech last week was that my public speaking is already at an advanced level. I attribute that to a combination of experience, of doing two-minute presentations at Twenty First Century Leadership, my community theatre experience, and my experience in MDI presenting the What We Learned segment at the end of Division meetings.

I have been doing What We Learned for about two years as part of my role on the core team as Chief of Staff. This spring I completed as Chief of Staff and stepped down from the core team in order to take on a new role as Team Captain.

By request from the current core team I reprised my performance at last night's Division meeting. The core team had prepared a great meeting and the men who were present gave me a lot of good material to work with for my presentation. I really felt on top of form as I delivered last night.

Yesterday was also my birthday. For anyone who is keeping track, I'm now 45. I've decided to count backwards from now on, so I'm looking forward to turning 44 next year.

At the end of the meeting all the men spontaneously sang Happy Birthday to me. Wow. And they were all in the same key. They sounded like a men's choir. I scanned around the circle to see how many men were present and I counted 44, though there may have been 45.

I like the thought of 45 men singing Happy Birthday to me on my 45th birthday.

Roasted almonds

Was at another Legacy Discovery weekend couple of days ago. How many have I now been part of? Enough to have lost track.

Got home from the event early in the evening on Sunday. Felt like I had missed church, found out about a cell group meeting being held that night at Vern's house, and still had enough energy to get myself out of the house and on my way there.

Grabbed some snacks on the way out. A bowl on the kitchen table, a large round ceramic bowl, full of weird shaped roasted almonds. Or so I thought. My housemates must have gone grocery shopping while I was away. I grabbed a handful and popped them into my mouth as I headed for the door. Munch munch, chew chew, swallow swallow.

It didn't take long to realize that these were not nuts. Nuts have a kind of salty flavor, these did not. They crunched differently than nuts do. They tasted kind of fishy.

Decided to go back into the kitchen for a glass of water to wash down the taste. Then it hit me what these snacks really were. I confirmed my suspicion back in the kitchen when I noticed that the area on the floor were there are normally two bowls was vacant. The two bowls that the cat eats out of. Looked at the kitchen table. Saw two bowls there. One had the dry food to which I had just helped myself. The other was the little bowl with the picture of a cat on it, and contained his wet food. Why these two bowls were on the kitchen table I do not know.

The glass of water didn't help wash away the taste. I got to Vern's house and he offered me a crisp which I accepted. He also offered me ice cream. I declined, he offered again, I accepted. Ate the crisp, ate the ice cream. It helped kill the taste of the cat food. Not for long though. By the time I was on my way home I could feel the after taste again.

I came home and told Jan that those dry roasted almonds on the table had gotten stale.