March 28th meeting

We would like to thank everyone who volunteered for a position, especially Laimons and Viki who were given jobs as they sat down to have breakfast.
Peter was the Toastmaster of the Day, giving us the history of April Fools day. He talked about how April 1st used to be the first day of the year, until we switched which calendar we used to make January the first month. Therefore people who had not changed over to the new schedule were fools. Paul was the general evaluator today, who commented on the nice tie in between table topics and the Toastmasters theme.
There were two speakers today. Brian gave his first advanced manual speech called Lost in Translation. He talked about his adventure as a manager for UPS where he had too much money to cross over into Mexico. During his speech, he talked about how usually the boarder patrol into Mexico is relaxed but that day they were alert, so he was searched then sent to another person to search him, then the boss's boss who opened all of his mail and searched through his car after Brian mistakenly said that he had his suitcase, mail and hooker in the car, instead of suitcase, mail and pillow (cohen). Laurie was Brian's evaluator, who asked if you can really evaluate stand-up comedy? She talked about how he brought in his life experience to the story to make it personal and fun. One suggestion Laurie did have was to start when he is ready so he did not use an audible pause to begin his speech.
Lauralee was the second speaker, who lead everyone through a guided imagery session set at the beach. In her speech, Lauralee invited everyone to lean back, relax as we enter into our vacation. She explained what the beach looked and felt like, then used the waves to allow the audience to let go of the worry and stress of life, and focus on the beach. Another thing Lauralee explained was the benefits of guided imagery, such as lowering the blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as relieving muscle pain. River was Lauralee's evaluator, who said the speech was very relaxing and painted pictures for everyone to go on a mental vacation.
Lee was in charge of table topics based on April Fools. He asked Brian what he would do with green jello as a practical joke and he said he could think of several morbid jokes he could do with it. Paul said that a practical joke that was played on him was being given a cake made of toilet paper that the group could not cut through. Laurie won Table Topics by using saran wrap in the bathroom as her practical joke, saying April Fools is a reminder that we should not take ourselves so seriously.
Laimons was the timer of the day, and Vicki was the grammarian of the day with the word bilik.