55 Hours Of Living Fully: Part Four

Today I share the fourth part of my latest epic personal story. Where I left off yesterday, I had just lost two speaking contests in Pasadena, and was heading home. I got home from the contest around 11 that night, staying up  until about midnight. There was to be no rest for the weary, however. I  attend a second Toastmasters club which meets at 7:30 in the morning on  Fridays, and for this meeting I was scheduled to give a speech. I'd  missed a few meetings, so I overrode my tendency to cancel at the last  moment when I have a late Thursday. The vagaries of the public  transportation timetables would compel me to get up at four in the  morning. I could have slept another hour, but would then have needed to  rush to shower and get out the door. Even when getting up at an early  hour, I prefer to allow myself time to prepare at a leisurely pace. An  hour wouldn't have turned indecently early to reasonable.

I got up at the intended hour and negotiated the commute well enough. After I got underway, I realized that my legal pad was missing.  I do much of my writing in legal pads, and this one contained some  stuff I felt was important. I panicked for a few minutes as if I had lost my birth certificate. I tried to imagine where I might have left it and how I might retrieve it. I had used it at the contest, and realized I left it there in my distracted state. I calmed down, decided that neither the pad or its contents were irreplaceable. I decided to just re-write what had been in there instead of ever going back to get the pad, as there wasn't so very much written in it that I needed.

The bus that I was on put me at the site of the  meeting far too early, so while waiting for the prescribed hour, I  rambled around as the sun rose. I don't like leaving the house while it's still dark, but there is a payoff to that hardship. The neighborhood is very quiet at that  time, there being just nothing open. I had a vague desire to get  something to eat or drink, and maybe replace my lost legal pad. All that  was silly as I'd had my coffee, wasn't hungry, and would do myself no  good by buying a new legal pad just to have one a few hours before  getting home where I have more legal pads anyway. My conscious mind has  to fend of such irrationalities often.

The meeting was all  right. We met in the home of a member. The home was lovely, as was the  street it was on. It was one of those areas I talked about where I feel  out of place. Attendance was low, the adherance to schedule and agenda  was lax. My speech was poor, and it was not a shock. I was tired, not  all that prepared, and already had moved on to my next agenda items in  my mind. I'll do the speech over. After the meeting, I headed out to  catch the bus that would careen around and wind its way through narrow  neighborhood streets before depositing me near my home an hour and a  half later. Knowing there wouldn't time later, I got on the bus, sat  down and went to sleep. It was restless sleep, but was of some benefit. I got off the bus mildly refreshed just as I would have to undertake my next task. Tomorrow I shall tell of that task and the fruit it bore.