Fantasy Football and a Reprieve!

Yesterday's theme was "Fantasy Football."  You would think, being that it is October, in TEXAS - home of the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, and Friday Night Lights - as well as our being located in Austin - home of the UT Longhorns; a lot of people would have had something to say about Fantasy Football...

...but you would be wrong, lol.

Never have I been more aware of the fact that I work in a 'geek' field.  I'm fairly sure that *I* knew more about fantasy football than 90% of the rest of my club.  And again, I was one of few people not called on, which amused me to no end.

However, I think the lack of knowledge about the theme actually made Table Topics more interesting, more thought provoking, and gave greater insight into my colleagues than one would have expected.

For Table Topics, if this hasn't been explained yet, a question related to the theme is asked, and a person is called upon, at random, to answer it... for one to two minutes.  Filling one to two minutes with the answer to one question is much harder than it sounds...  Table Topics is, if we're being honest, the reason I joined Toastmasters.  I SUCK at small talk.  I can answer questions, but concisely.  I've never really learned how to fill in the spaces in a conversation or how to think on my feet to give thoughtful responses.  Table Topics is my favorite part of ToastMasters...

For example, one of the questions asked was what nickname we would like to give a current player, and why.  My answer?

Methuselah.  Which I would give to Brett Farve.  Because he Just. Won't. DIE. Already.

How long did it take you read that?  15 seconds?  Twenty?

With that brief answer I assume that my audience knows the joke there.  I assume that they too are tired of the retirement/unretirement shenanigans assaulting sports news broadcasts every August for the last three years.  I don't say that these shenanigans irritate me more than the average sports fan, because I am rather of the opinion that the sports news broadcasts could put that time to better use, for example, by covering what the UNC Freshmen are doing their first few weeks on campus.  I don't clarify that by saying that I might be a tad bit biased given my fanatical leanings regarding UNC's basketball program, or that, by the way, UNC is the University of North Carolina, the home of the Greatest Basketball Player Ever, the Tar Heels, and the reason one of my wedding colors was baby blue.

TYPING that paragraph took me four minutes.  Table Topics will teach me to think more quickly and thoroughly.  It will help me in future interviews as well as random conversations with the smokers I tend to shy away from unless they prod me into painfully stilted conversations to fill up the empty conversational space between us.

Anyhow - by being asked questions about a subject they didn't know as well, my fellow ToastMasters were forced to think even harder about their answers.  I learned alot about the people I work with, things that surprised me, things that made my day a little brighter.

Our Toastmaster meetings are filled with laughter, which, honestly, everyone could use a little bit of at noon on a Wednesday.


Our first speech this week was an Ice Breaker.  (4 -6 minutes about yourself; every person's first speech)  It was given by a lady who reminds me of my little sister.  I've spoken with her a few times, here and there.  She is outgoing and happy and personable.  Her speech was entitled "How Karaoke Changed My Life."

I KNOW!

To be honest, I had a moment of bitterness.  Even though I had already decided I was not going to give my speech on karaoke, or how I met my husband - I felt envious when someone else stood in front of us all and told her story, which is eerily similar to my own.  She, too, met her fiancée at karaoke.  *I* could have given that speech, and I was bitter that she beat me to it - which is ridiculous.

To be fair, it was only a moment of envy and bitterness.  And, in a lot of ways, it has helped me settle on what I want to use as fodder for my own Ice Breaker.  She also did an amazing job, which helped - since I couldn't, and cannot, rightly claim I would have given it better lol.  If you're going to be upstaged, it's nice to have it done well lol.


While the speeches were being given, despite my best attempts to be a good listener - I found myself drifting occasionally.  I found myself thinking about my own speech... and the three people who had seen me before the meeting and asked when I'd be giving it lol.  I found myself using their speeches to settle in to an idea for my own.  By the end of the meeting, when normally a piece of paper is passed around for people to sign up on - I was ready to sign up and devote myself to a furious week of speech writing and practicing and annoying my friends with phone calls to practice...

...only to find out that we aren't doing speeches next week.  We are (GASP!) devoting the entirety of next week's meeting to Table Topics!  (/queue Squish Happy Dance)

Which, I have decided, is a good thing.  I should probably write the damn speech before I sign up to give it anyway - so that there's less pressure on me lol...