What Is In a Weekend Anyway?

This weekend was so fun for me, I can hardly stand it! On Saturday I spent the entire day with Toastmasters friends, some long-time friends and some of my newer friends I've made as Area Governor to seven fantastic clubs.

One of my best girl friends is currently serving in a Top Three role for the District, and she asked me after her election if I would serve as her mentor. Having been her campaign manager in her successful bid for LGM I simply couldn't say no. After all, we had worked so closely together to get her elected, I felt responsibility to help her deliver the results we spoke with our membership about. It has been a true blessing getting to know her so well and watching her passion for the organization I love grow and grow.

This weekend she had a conflict with her professional association's conference, and she asked me to represent her as LGM at the conference. It was somewhat bittersweet to speak to the membership on her behalf. I was extremely active in Toastmasters before I had Jana, and after I had Jana cut back on my commitments to Toastmasters significantly. As I was telling my mentor at the conference, it seems with me and Toastmasters you either love me or you hate me. So, it was interesting with so much having happened in the past to be representing a Top Three office again.

Of course, our LGM is so smart, so organized, and so efficient, my presentations on her behalf went off without a hitch! It was fun to give awards again, to present marketing results to the membership, and to update the membership on what great things our LGM is doing. It made me slightly nostalgic, but then I snapped out of it quickly. One thing I did realize that day is my Toastmasters friends are the friendships that make me happiest-- professional women and men who seek to better themselves in leadership and communication. Good people, all (well, OK ... most!)

You might be wondering what Little Jana did while I was at my meeting. She spent the morning with her best friend's family and they had a very fun picnic in the park by their house. Her daddy picked her up after lunch and they spent the day together. After they went to a friend's house for the evening, and I picked Jana up late in the evening. She was definitely glad to see me, and she fell asleep on the way home, so I didn't get the chance to say goodnight to her.

This morning we woke up and Jana eagerly helped me clean the house to get ready for her best friend to come over today. Her best friend's mom was treating her husband to the new James Bond film, so we got the absolute pleasure of spending the afternoon and evening with Jana's best friend. Don't tell her best friend, but I also suspect Mom and Dad did some Christmas shopping for her while they were out. We played at home for a while (mainly, baby school, Jana's favorite activity), headed to the park because today was an awesome day of cool, sweatshirt weather, but bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky. I always say, weather like this is why I choose Texas! The girls were feeling so photogenic it was fun to snap pictures of them being funny and cracking each other and me up. It is probably the first time in their four year friendship they posed for pictures and smiled at the camera together. It is usually one smiling and one complaining, or neither of them smiling and both complaining!

After playground time we headed to dinner and then off to shopping. I was crazy enough to take two four-year olds to a department store! Besides doing things typical four year olds would do in a department store (let's just say, "Girls ... inside voices ..." came out of my mouth more than once) they were very good girls, as always.

Her best friend went home about 8:00 and off to bed we went. It was a great, great weekend for everyone!