Toastmasters, Scrabble and Goals…

I was all set to join the one Toastmasters group I’d been attending…I even filled out the paperwork. But before turning it in, I decided to try and find the Coralville group one more time. Since I hadn’t had any luck contacting them through the National Toastmasters website, I had to get creative. I knew that a couple of members of that group had won some awards at a district speech contest, so I googled one of those people, found an e-mail address, and contacted him that way. Since I had to work a little harder to find these people, I wondered if maybe they were an “exclusive” group and wouldn’t be as welcoming. But, not so! I tell you, if you have self-esteem issues, you should visit a few Toastmasters clubs! People at Toastmasters are SO friendly! I’ve done this twice now…walked into a Toastmasters group where I didn’t know a soul. Both times, people came up and introduced themselves to me (they knew I was coming ahead of time, so somebody from this Coralville group even met me outside!), told me how glad they were I’d come, offered to answer questions etc. Nobody sits forgotten in a corner at Toastmasters!

The only problem with visiting two groups, is now it’s hard to decide which one to join. Even though they’re doing the same things, the two groups seem very different! The Coralville group is smaller, but they’re a little…louder. They laugh more. And WOW! There are some really experienced speakers there! And in addition to a grammarian, they have an “ah counter,” (who counts more than “ahs” and “ums,” he also counts “ands,” “sos” and “lip smacks.”). I think this group is a little more intimidating than the downtown group, but it’s possible I’d learn more from them. I’d step a little further outside my comfort zone, I think. And their meeting time/place is a little more convenient for me.

They didn’t do the “thought of the day” or the “joke of the day,” though. I kind of missed that. And personality-wise, I probably fit better with the people downtown. So, I don’t know…

After Toastmasters, I went to what may be the beginning of Scrabble club at the Coralville library! I’m so excited!!! I love Scrabble. So one day Mike (one of the librarians) and I were talking…and Scrabble came up. He likes to play, too. So we got to talking about how it might be nice to see what happened if we organized Scrabble night at the library. So that’s what last night was all about. I was afraid it was going to be just the two of us (the last time I went to a “Scrabble club,” it was at Barnes and Noble, and it consisted of me and three B & N employees who were paid to play Scrabble with me). But there were around fourteen people who showed up at the Coralville library last night! (And I know of one other person who’s interested, but couldn’t come last night…and Mike said there were 2-3 people who had come in to the library and said basically the same thing) Some of these people want to play regulary! (And they know words like aa and qat and faqir…my kind of people!) I forgot how much fun it is to play Scrabble WITH OTHER REAL LIVE PEOPLE…IN PERSON!!! (Usually I play against my pocket PC) Anyway…I think I found some new friends.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot of writing that happened yesterday. But I set a goal. I said I was going to write five pages yesterday, so I decided I wasn’t going to bed until I’d done it. Fortunately, it only took me until 11:30 p.m. I’m going to write five today, too. I really don’t like staying up late to write, so hopefully I’ll get those pages done earlier today.