July 19th:  At what point do you put the crown on when you're driving to an appearance?   If you put it on before you start driving to an appearance, you're bound to run into some interesting characters on the road wondering why on earth some girl is driving around with a crown on her head.  If you arrive without a crown on, people may say, "Shouldn't Miss Florida have her crown on?"  After much thought and consultation of those who know more than me about these things, I've come to the conclusion that you should find a secret place to park your car and put it on right before you reach your destination.  Problem solved.

Once I finally got my crown on today, I attended the Westminster Shores Groundbreaking Ceremony.  Westminster Shores is a retirement community in St. Petersburg and they are opening a new building for residents to move into soon so this ceremony was honoring their addition.  We did a full on breaking of the ground which meant I had to shovel some dirt with the Mayor, city council members and some other contributors.  Apparently I didn't know my own strength because I dug the deepest hole of anyone and had to quickly fill it back in before anyone noticed I had broken too much ground.

My tip of the day: if you're going to any appearance that may be outside or may require standing in dirt, it's wise to wear wedges.  This may seem like a no brainer but I wished I had used my brain when getting dressed as I sunk deeper and deeper into the sand.  The man next to me said, "Are you getting shorter?"

One of the speakers at the ceremony said a great quote: "Striving for excellence is inspiring.  Striving for perfection is demoralizing."  His point, of course, was based around building this new complex but I love this quote because it's something I struggle with every day.  Always trying to be perfect is simply exhausting whereas excellence is attainable and motivating.  Learning to accept that you can't do everything perfectly is a big step in the right direction on the path of excellence.