Widder Lunch And Toastmasters

Kimball: yes. Breakfast: yes. WinCo for veggies: yes. After all that, I dressed for the widder group lunch.
We had a ball yesterday. There were eight of us, all very high-spirited and congenial. I took my usual tangerines, got my Chardonnay, and--unusual for me--ordered a glass of red to follow it. I had a good talk with Sharon, a kindred spirit, and Barbara, who's a devil-may-care type like yours truly. I was happy to see that Nancy came (I was embarrassed because I had thought she said Sunday that she wasn't going) and my pal, Carolyn was there. After most left, several of us stayed to chat. We decided we'd all go on the bus trip to the Getty Musuem in L. A. the county is running in December.
Went home to change, then immediately drove off to town for my second walk. I've been reading John Updike lately--damn, he was good--and I delved into one of his books of short stories. Walked back, went home, and had an early (5:30) dinner, so I could get to the Toastmaster's thing at 7:00.
That turned out to be a find. When I walked into a largish conference room shortly before 7:00, there were six people (the officers, I was later told), who meet before the membership meeting--or something. In fact, only one other regular and two newcomers came in, so the group--not sure if it's the usual--consists of only ten, if you count me. Anyway, I was greeted with great warmth and welcomes. Stayed for the whole session and I was included in the exercise called "table topics." We broke into teams (my partner was Ken, evidently a mover and shaker in the group) and one of the members (Rachel) had us pick from slips of paper. The idea was to link together three things that have something in common. Ours were "whale, wildebeest, and walrus." This is improv and right down my alley and Ken's good at it, too. They vote on presentations and we actually won.
Anyway, lots more went on, plus I distributed flyers for my acting class, we chatted and laughed and I'm going to continue. I did find it odd that the meeting started with the pledge of allegiance. Why in the world would it be included in a little twice-a-month gathering? It's one thing at a government connected group, but this always strikes me as nationalistic overkill. More than that, I was taken aback when the secretary, "C.C.," a woman who gave one of the talks later, quoted "our president"--at first, I thought she meant the president of Toastmasters--with an "inspirational" snippet of what he said in response to the Vegas horror. Geesh, if she can't find anybody other than Trump for a quotable quote, it is to gasp.
However, I greatly enjoyed the evening and will continue with Toastmasters.