PRIDE

This past Saturday was the annual PRIDE competition for NorCal DeMolay up in Sacramento, CA. I used to go every year to support my brother when he competed but now that he's just another advisor, there hasn't been a whole lot of incentive for me to go and watch people I don't know compete. This year is different as it is my first full year as the Sweetheart Advisor for the Bay Area Division.  If my two girls were expected to go, I thought I should be there as well. 

Turns out - not a whole lot had changed. There were still last minute schedule changes, drop-outs, no-shows, and awesome ritualists. Being as I'm not actual a mom, I was a bit surprised to find how maternal I felt to the folks in my division.  Our Master Councilor (the Bay Area's president) competed in several different sections and I wanted him to win so badly.  I wanted him to make the judges cry, to pull at their heart strings with his Flower Talk (it is a wonderful speech that talks about how mothers are very important and how much they should be respected and loved) and to have them in awe of his Ceremony of Light (an inspirational speech geared to the boys to talk about the 7 principals they live by).  He did wonderful and placed 3^rd place all over the board.

One of my girls competed as well and while I missed her speech (I was flipping through the biggest book of wedding invitations I’d ever seen, thanks Mom), she scored great – a 936/1000. The section she did was something that was just re-written and changed around, so I think it’s pretty darn cool to score that well on something you have only seen done once.

In other news, steam hurts. A Lot. I now hate microwaving frozen broccoli while trying not to burn pad thai noodles. Lesson learned – serve with raw broccoli instead.