Staying Humble

I belong to a dog writer's list-serv group.  Here's a posting that came through recently:

 "Do any of you have a friend/neighbor/contact whose dog eats poop (their own or another dog's) who might be willing to answer a few questions and be quoted for an article I'm doing?"

 
I love being part of a group that posts questions like this. Just lends a bit of perspective to one's place in the Universe.

Cheers,

Dena 

Grandma Playboy

My nephew calls my mom "Ba." It started when he was just learning to talk and that was one of the few sounds he could make. For awhile, everyone was "Ba," but now it's just grandma. We think it's here to stay.

One of the things Jake loves above Ba is that she wears nailpolish. He's always pointing to the colors on her fingernails and toenails. So yesterday Mom goes in for a manicure and, since it's Easter weekend, decides to do something special for Jake.

 "Do you have a rabbit decal?" she asked the nail tech. It's an Asian salon and the owners and staff spoke minimal English.

"Rabbit?" the man repeated.

"Yes, rabbit. Bunny.  Hop hop." 

"Oh yes, yes! Bunny.  Yes."

"Great. Can you please put it on my index finger?" Mom settled back into the chair, thinking what a kick Jake would get seeing the "Easter Bunny" on Ba's finger.

So the guy's applying the decal and Mom notices the ears on the rabbit look a little pointed.  She's a little disappointed as she was hoping for rounded ears and more of a cute, cuddly bunny look but whatever. Jake will get a kick out of a regular rabbit as well. 

So the guy finishes up and indicates Mom should look. She brings her finger to face her and almost chokes. The Playboy bunny decal is on her index finger. "Oh! It's the Playboy bunny!" she spits out.

"Yes, yes.  Bunny!" says the man, looking pleased.

It was all she could do to pay the man and keep a straight face. So now my mother is walking around with a Playboy Bunny decal on her index finger.

"Classy," I remarked when she told me.

"Oh, Jake won't know.  He'll just know it's a rabbit.  I'll show it to him then take it off."

"And you'll see him...?"

"After my work shift tonight."

"Classy."

So here is Ba in her full fingernail glory. Moral of the story? Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it! 

Patricia Ryan Madson

Look how cool this is.  Click HERE to see an entry I wrote last week where I copied a quote from a wonderful little book called Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson. Yesterday I just happened to be going through some old blog entries and noticed there were 2 comments listed on this post when I only remembered there being one. So I clicked on it and found--to my surprise--that the author herself had chimed in on my blog.

 What a thrill! I'm guessing she Googled either her name or her book title and the blog entry popped up. But I'm overjoyed she took the time to log in and say hello. She's written an extraordinary little book which I recommend to anyone. I took an improv class last year and was horrible at it.  Really really really bad. (Which was a shock, as I thought I would be pretty good at it.) But the class was loads of fun and I wrote an article (not published) about applying the principles of improv to writing. Madson has taken these principles and expanded on them in her book and applied them to life.

So, now that I know authors will flock to my blog when I write about them I'm inspired to start reeling off lists of names.  Let's see, I'll do a shout-out to Stephen King, David Sedaris, Anne Lamont, J.K. Rowling, and Scott Adams (Dilbert cartoonist).  What's up, people!

Can't wait for the signatures to start rolling in. =)  Have a good day.

Speech Contest Comes To An End

The Toastmasters International Speech Contest came to an end for me last night. I placed 3rd in our District 37, Division B contest. Oddly for someone as competitive as myself, I'm extremely pleased with my placement.  Everyone who spoke gave excellent speeches.  So much so that as I was sitting in the audience listening to them and awaiting my turn I was thinking, "Uh-oh, uh-oh," having one of those moments where you wonder if it's possible for you to slip out of the building without anyone noticing.

I was pleased with my performance though. I held my own against some very advanced speakers. And from watching them, I know now what I need to do to go further the next time around. Use props and visual aids. Get the audience involved. State more clearly a direct tie-in to how the content of my speech affects the audience personally in their lives.  

 The winning speaker, Simon Whitaker, was phenomenal. He did some fancy boxing footwork and demonstrated amazing jump-roping ability in his speech and never missed a beat. I was winded just watching him and his heart had to be pounding but you'd never know it. It was an inspiring speech and he had the whole audience participate in it. I think he'll do well at the next level.

And, it's nice to be in the clear. No more practice for the next level. Now I have an inkling how the bronze medal winners at the Olympics feel. Gold is great and silver leaves you wondering what you could have changed and how close you maybe came to winning. But for those of us in third, we're just happy to be recognized for our efforts. =)

My applause and admiration for all the speech speakers AND the amazing table topic speakers. They had to speak extemporaneously on a question that would have stopped me dead in my tracks and I'm a pretty good table topics speaker. It was HARD and they all knocked it out of the park.  It was inspiring to watch them speak.