Proven Winners Extravaganza: I Drank the Kool Aid

Last spring I had the chance to speak at one of Proven Winners’ Extravaganzas. It was the Year of Saying Yes- so I did.

(This is now the Year of Saying No, so don’t even bother trying)

I’m not sure what sort of person gets asked to do public speaking and says,“Hey, that sounds awesome!”, but apparently I’m one of them. I mean, it’s a lot of work putting together a slide show and an interactive spiel to go with it. Then there’s the terror of the actual public speaking...

I dunno. Maybe I’m masochistic.

So, I flew to Boston, watched a few other speakers, had a lovely lunch (that I barely ate because I was too busy jibber jabbing with other gardeners) and then gave my presentation. It went well enough that ladies praised me in the bathroom afterwards and villagers didn’t chase after me with torches and pitchforks. It was a tricky spot, because P Allen Smith was next to speak. They really wanted him but couldn’t help but be mildly amused by me... Because I'm mildly amusing.

There were free plants abound and goody bags at the end- I now have a Proven Winners license plate holder that never fails to get a chuckle out of all the right people. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better way to spend a day that was too cold to garden in at home. I wish there were more things like this, where gardeners could get together for the day, learn stuff, get free stuff and jibber jabber together....

So I think I’m going to haul my cookies to the Proven Winners Extravaganza in Milwaukee this April. If you go, I’ll be the realllllly pregnant one there, so stop by to point and laugh at me.

If there’s an event in your ‘hood, think about picking up some tickets for you and your best gardening pal. You may really enjoy it, I did- and I think everything is lame.