So in my excitement to share my Chewbacca dream, I forgot to mention that my Toastmaster Club Competition went extremely well! I did a great job of running the contest... and I WON!!! YAY ME!!! I will now go on to compete in the Area Competition coming up in March. So I thought I would post my speech here and have you guys (meaning the two people that read my blog, Tammy and Stephanie!) help me spruce it up a bit. It's supposed to be an inspirational speech. I think, and was told by some friends, that the ending needs to be a little jazzier. Any help is appreciated!! I just realized that it's kind of in outline form... the three examples I didn't write out on purpose because I want to "read the room" and give examples from the heart. So this may be a pointless pursuit.. but at least you can see some stuff I've been up to :)
Time is Precious
Time is precious.
Just ask someone who has just been diagnosed as terminally ill.
Ask any mother who looks over at her baby, only to realize they are now a man, or woman.
Talk to my Grandma who was married to my Grandpa for 59 years and 4 months and at the end of his life was hoping and wishing for one more day, one more hour with him.
Time is precious.
The time you give to others is even more precious.
Before I moved to Maui my time was way too precious to give to others. Once I moved here I decided that I might just have a few minutes to give, as long as I received something in return. I admit I started out just to meet guys…
I want to tell you about three experiences that changed my mind about volunteering. What I found, when I volunteered my time, was that it was fun. Not only that but it was rewarding.
First trip - Mauka Volunteer Service Trip.
When I told mom she thought I was crazy.
Didn’t like pulling weeds.
Once I got up on that mountain, I fell in love.
It was FUN!!
I didn’t even meet any single guys that day… and I still had FUN!
Second trip – Makai Volunteer Service Trip.
Snorkeling – Picking up trash – Mom thought I was crazy again.
Learned to snorkel, taught by Megan.
Made new friends, learned something else to fall in love with. Had a great day.
Third trip – Habitat for Humanity
Been wanting to do this for years.
I got to hang out with a group of my friends for the afternoon.
I got to work the CHOP SAW!!
I talked with the lady whose house we were building and heard the gratitude and longing in her voice for her own home.
By the end of the day I was totally exhausted and was on cloud 9!
Time is Precious.
But so are the West Maui Mountains. By volunteering, I helped maintain one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen on this earth.
Time is precious.
But so is the Maui coastline, beaches and reefs. By volunteering, even if I helped only one fish, then I did something great.
Time is precious.
But so is the family that I helped. By volunteering, that family that WILL live in a HOME that they OWN because I helped build their dream.
Volunteering can be fun, but even more than that it IS rewarding!
I understand that time is precious. But what you will get back is even more precious than time…. You are giving of yourself and that comes back to you.
Find something that you are a little bit interested in, or something that you are curious about.
Even if you only give one day a month to something or someone, volunteer your time for something you believe in.
Who knows, you might meet some great people, fall in love with a new activity, or just walk away feeling great.
Thank you.
Interested in any thoughts you may have!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
What a way to start the day!
So I don't usually have all that much to say on a daily basis. Most people don't seem to realize that although I live in Maui it's kinda the same as it was back in Sacramento. I get up and go to work, sometimes I do stuff after work and sometimes I don't, go home and hang out with my roommate, go to bed... and it all starts over the next day.
But today was a little different. Today was kinda special.
Last night my roommate John left for his 3 week vacation. I really have mixed feelings about this. One one hand I'm kind of excited to have my apartment to myself... on the other hand I'm a little bummed that I won't have him to hang out with for the next 3 weeks. But it's the first time he's been home since he moved here so I'm mostly just really excited for him! So I had the place to myself last night and stayed up WAY too late playing on the computer and catching up on recorded tv shows. I went to bed around 12:00.
This morning around 4:30 I woke up. Actually I woke myself up. I had a dream....
First to set the stage... I am part of a Toasmasters club here in Maui. Toastmasters is the club that helps you become more comfortable with public speaking. I am the VP of Education actually. It's a new role for me and it's still a bit overwhelming. We are having a competition next month for the whole island of Maui and today we had our club competition. Because I am the VP of Ed, it is my job to run the competition. I have never even seen a competition let alone run one! Oh and my friend Jennifer convinced me that I should do one of my speeches and compete. So here I am a lot nervous about running the competition and also nervous about giving my speech. I haven't had a lot of time in the last week to work on my speech and was getting very agitated about today. This all must have been on my mind when I went to sleep last night.
So I dreamt that I was standing in this huge auditorium with roughly 500 people (keep in mind that the competition I ran today only had about 12 people!) and I was running this competition. I was doing so well. I am killing the crowd!! They are laughing at all the right times, and they are with me! It's great!
I tell everyone that we are going to take a break and go outside. So we all walk outside (yes it's ridiculous that all 500 of us go outside but it was a dream so what can I say!?) and someone takes out a "Skip It". Suddenly it morphs into a ball on the end of a long string. We are all standing around, playing with this ball on the end of this long string. All of the sudden this ball on the end of the string morphs into a ball on a string tied to a pole... Oh Tetherball! So here we are... standing outside of this competition and we are all playing tetherball!
I am standing at one of the courts and playing with a few people. I am getting super competitive and really getting into it. Then someone on the court morphs into someone I am quite surprised to see... I am playing with all my heart. I HAVE to win this tetherball game!! I swing the ball high... I swing the ball low.... round and round the pole it goes....
I look over at my oponent and it dawns on me how improbable it is...
I am playing tetherball against Chewbacca.
Yes. Chewbacca. Of Star Wars Chewbacca.
The ridiculousness of the situation enters my consciousness and in my dream I start giggling. Pretty soon I'm laughing... then I am TOTALLY CRACKING UP!!
I was laughing SO hard that I WOKE MYSELF UP!!! Yes, that's right... I woke myself up at 4:30 in the morning... LAUGHING.
What a way to start the day!!!
But today was a little different. Today was kinda special.
Last night my roommate John left for his 3 week vacation. I really have mixed feelings about this. One one hand I'm kind of excited to have my apartment to myself... on the other hand I'm a little bummed that I won't have him to hang out with for the next 3 weeks. But it's the first time he's been home since he moved here so I'm mostly just really excited for him! So I had the place to myself last night and stayed up WAY too late playing on the computer and catching up on recorded tv shows. I went to bed around 12:00.
This morning around 4:30 I woke up. Actually I woke myself up. I had a dream....
First to set the stage... I am part of a Toasmasters club here in Maui. Toastmasters is the club that helps you become more comfortable with public speaking. I am the VP of Education actually. It's a new role for me and it's still a bit overwhelming. We are having a competition next month for the whole island of Maui and today we had our club competition. Because I am the VP of Ed, it is my job to run the competition. I have never even seen a competition let alone run one! Oh and my friend Jennifer convinced me that I should do one of my speeches and compete. So here I am a lot nervous about running the competition and also nervous about giving my speech. I haven't had a lot of time in the last week to work on my speech and was getting very agitated about today. This all must have been on my mind when I went to sleep last night.
So I dreamt that I was standing in this huge auditorium with roughly 500 people (keep in mind that the competition I ran today only had about 12 people!) and I was running this competition. I was doing so well. I am killing the crowd!! They are laughing at all the right times, and they are with me! It's great!
I tell everyone that we are going to take a break and go outside. So we all walk outside (yes it's ridiculous that all 500 of us go outside but it was a dream so what can I say!?) and someone takes out a "Skip It". Suddenly it morphs into a ball on the end of a long string. We are all standing around, playing with this ball on the end of this long string. All of the sudden this ball on the end of the string morphs into a ball on a string tied to a pole... Oh Tetherball! So here we are... standing outside of this competition and we are all playing tetherball!
I am standing at one of the courts and playing with a few people. I am getting super competitive and really getting into it. Then someone on the court morphs into someone I am quite surprised to see... I am playing with all my heart. I HAVE to win this tetherball game!! I swing the ball high... I swing the ball low.... round and round the pole it goes....
I look over at my oponent and it dawns on me how improbable it is...
I am playing tetherball against Chewbacca.
Yes. Chewbacca. Of Star Wars Chewbacca.
The ridiculousness of the situation enters my consciousness and in my dream I start giggling. Pretty soon I'm laughing... then I am TOTALLY CRACKING UP!!
I was laughing SO hard that I WOKE MYSELF UP!!! Yes, that's right... I woke myself up at 4:30 in the morning... LAUGHING.
What a way to start the day!!!
Friday, February 8, 2008
OH MY GOSH!!
How could I have forgotten to blog about my recent HELICOPTER RIDE!!!
That's right... my brother and I went on an hour long helicopter ride around Maui, to Molokai and back... It was amazing and breathtaking... So beautiful!!
OH!! And we saw WHALES from the air!! It was SO SO SO cool!!
That's right... my brother and I went on an hour long helicopter ride around Maui, to Molokai and back... It was amazing and breathtaking... So beautiful!!
OH!! And we saw WHALES from the air!! It was SO SO SO cool!!
One of the pictures I wanted to show seperate from the slideshow because it's just that cool!
Look at the left hand side of the picture... now count two buildings along the water... the building right behind the second building is MY APARTMENT BUILDING!!! How cool is that!?! SO VERY COOL!!!
Thanks Dom for taking me!!!
Slideshow below!
Thanks Dom for taking me!!!
Slideshow below!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Living in Maui is so Cool!
Guess what I did tonight after work?? I took Hula lessons!! One of the ladies at work teaches hula and she invited some of the ladies from the resort to join her for some hula lessons. So tonight was our first lesson. It is HARD!! There are steps that you have to learn, each called a different thing in Hawaiian, and each of those steps goes along with specific words to the song. So not only do I have to figure out how to make my feet move, I need to learn all the words to the songs! AND THEN!!! You have to put in the hand movements. The hand movements are like sign language and they go with the words. So then you have to put all those together! It was really fun, it's amazing the things you can say with your body!! Not only that but for various reasons, no one else showed up... So I got a private Hula lesson!!!
It really gives me a new appreciation for the hula dancers I have seen!!! Maybe if I get halfway decent, I'll have someone take a video and I'll post it!
Just another reason that living in Maui is so cool... I get to learn hula!
It really gives me a new appreciation for the hula dancers I have seen!!! Maybe if I get halfway decent, I'll have someone take a video and I'll post it!
Just another reason that living in Maui is so cool... I get to learn hula!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
I'm Green!
You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!
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