Its all about the hot pink…

Little known fact about me: I used to do public speaking competitions as a kid. And I did really well at it. I would work tirelessly at being the best I could be, spending hours writing and crafting and re-writing every sentence of my ten minutes of competition glory. I came up with catchy titles, I used witty examples, and I ran through my notecards hundreds of times in our living room, talking to the wall or to the cat or our lazy old dog sleeping on the floor. Instead of PowerPoints (which didn’t exist yet for a ten-year-old farm girl in the early nineties), I carefully drew out my key bullet points on hot pink poster boards with thick permanent markers, using a ruler to make sure every letter lay straight and even. It was blissfully addicting for a pre-teen perfectionist like me.

The year my best friend and I took our duo speech to the district competition and beat everyone in the Advanced category even though we were technically listed in the Intermediate level due to our age, I decided to end on a high note, retire my poster boards, and move on to other things. Like junior high. My speech days were officially over.

So when I found myself standing in front of 62 photographers crammed into the living room of Me Ra Koh and Brian Tausend this week, I had two urges: (1) to run, and (2) to reach for my hot pink poster board. Thankfully, I did neither. Mostly because the crowd of photographers was blocking every exit.

Jeff and I would like to say two things after our experience with speaking at the Tacoma PUG on Wednesday. First, thank you to every single amazing photographer that came out, and second, thank you to every single amazing photographer that came out! We love you guys! Our good friends and Tacoma PUG leaders, Airika and Gerald Pope, took some great pictures of us speaking and as much as I cringe at pictures of myself, I’m so glad we get to share them!

The room was PACKED. I think the final count was 62 people in attendance - that's a lot for a living room to hold! Yes, there are people sitting out on the patio to listen to our talk, although I'm not sure how much they heard between the yummy salsa and snacks that were outside...

Also, big thanks to Mark Lea of maginashun for the following awesome images! It was awesome meeting you after being Twitter buddies!

A huge thanks goes out to Gerald and Airika for inviting us up to Washington, and also to Brian and Me Ra Koh for hosting all of us at their home! We felt so blessed by all of you!