bluebacon

AHHHHHH! I DID IT!!!!!! Yes, that's right! Nailed my first Toastmasters Icebreaker Speech at 5 minutes and 54 seconds. Okay, yes it was a relief to finally get the first one out of the way, but as much as I delivered it, I know I didn't deliver it well. I wrote a fantastic essay about myself that didn't go over the required length, but I didn't do a good presentation. My writing was great and I achieved the objective of the very first Toastmasters speech in the manual, which was to introduce myself and make sure the audience learned something about me. But as my Evaluator pointed out, I read most of my speech, as quickly as I could (because I wanted to make sure I didn't go over the time...), but didn't give the audience a chance to react. I was too busy making my time that I neglected to interact with the crowd as I was delivering my speech. Guilty as charged. Everything he said was true, including speeding up my speech on purpose. But I have learned my...

I got to take time off from work last week to watch the kids over Spring Break. I wasn't feeling very well and suffering from one of those coughs everyone seemed to have this year, otherwise I would've planned more fun things to do. Not that we didn't do anything fun, because we did. The highlight of the week was our first chance at using the awesome Parks Canada Pass, which will allow everyone free access to all of the country's national parks in celebration of Canada 150. It was amazing to visit Fort Rodd Hill and the Fisgard Lighthouse after nine years! The first and last time I was there was when Bell was just two or three weeks old and we still had to run after on-year-old Raine who just went pretty much anywhere and everywhere with zero direction. With the exception of the lighthouse, no wonder I didn't remember most of what was there! The other awesome thing that this week brought was a chance to finally practice my newly-developed photography skills...

Once again, no photo to capture the moment... but tonight I came home after working all day, then attending the opening session of the Victoria Family History Conference, then brought home the biggest sashimi order I could find at that time of the night on my way home, then had a picnic dinner on the bed while binge watching one of my favourite tv shows. Kids are at grandma's and Eduardo away for a week, reffing the provincials in Langley.  Glorious alone time.  This was my idea of a great time on a Friday night. Seriously, I don't know how my parents could've ever thought that I could cause trouble. Just saying...

When this year's choral season was announced last year, I was super excited. Four concerts of guaranteed beautiful music, three of which I had already sang before so in the back of my head, I knew that I could technically slack off until March and still turn out okay. What I didn't count on was how bored I would get rehearsing something I already knew how to sing. I already had the sinking idea that I had this tendency after singing Messiah many, many times... but it never really hit me for real until this year with Mozart Requiem and Carmina Burana . I don't dislike the music, I just realized that I have less motivation to rehearse when my brain doesn't think it has to do any work. At one point during one of our Carmina rehearsals, I thought maybe I should look into taking a break from choir. Maybe if I took a break, when I come back I'll be excited again. I remember the first time I learned Carmina , I was giddy excited. The music itself had its challenges b...