Surprise Party
Posted on May 24, 2008 by Ching under Family, Flickr, Life.
Brian threw me a surprise party last Sunday. He had been acting weird the days leading up to it so I kinda-sorta knew something was up. After we picked up Jan at her house, it looked like we were driving to his parents’ house so I knew where he was taking me even though he had Jan blindfold me half-way through. He didn’t drive around to various places to disorient me. He wasn’t tricky about it or anything, so I could tell where we were going.
It wasn’t fun being blindfolded. That’s for sure! It actually made me feel somewhat queasy. When we got there, I was surprised by Bill and Lisa (their kids, Mia and Charlie were there too), April and Corey, Grandma and Grandpa, and David and Donna. Chad, Jay, and Becca came too, but they did not arrive until later. I really didn’t think we were doing anything special because we had just celebrated the previous Sunday (for Mother’s Day) and we were celebrating again tonight. I figured we would just skip last weekend. As it is, we have been celebrating for various reasons three weeks in a row. I can’t argue, though, because I love celebrating. I think everyday is a reason to celebrate.
Here are pictures of Brian and Jan leading me to the door blindfolded:
Click here for other pictures.
Brian and I continue our post graduation celebration today by getting a well-deserved hour-and-a-half couples massage at Beau Monde. That’s this afternoon.
SIDE NOTE: I deserve it for going to school full time and work full time, nonstop, since 2003. Brian deserves it for putting up with me.
After that we are picking up Grandma and Grandpa and taking them to the Brubakers for one final family dinner before David and Donna leave for their thirteen-day Baltic cruise. They leave on Tuesday and will be celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary on the trip.
As for Brian and I, we are going to see the last balcony showing of Indiana Jones after dinner. Then we’ll have to get up early the next day to drive to Kansas City. We are hitting Legends Mall, playing a poker tournament at Harrah’s on Sunday, spending the night there, and then playing another poker tournament on Monday before heading back. There may be some other gambling and other activities mixed in, depending on how quickly we get knocked out of the tournament. Hopefully, that won’t be the case though. I’d like to be able to make it to the final table and maybe even win the whole thing. That would be nice.
It’s going to be a long weekend, one that we will probably need to recover from at some point. Ugh. I tried to talk Brian into waiting to see Indiana Jones until next weekend, but he whined and moaned and groaned and protested that it will not be in the balcony next weekend so we must see it today. I hope the movie doesn’t disappoint because we didn’t even get my favorite seats =P and we are having to watch it late so we can squeeze in into our tight schedule this weekend and it will probably make us really, really tired.
I shouldn’t complain, though. Brian and I have been looking forward to this weekend for several weeks now. Please be sure to check out my photostream on Flickr, as I will post pictures as the weekend progresses. Have a wonderful and safe Memorial weekend, everyone!
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Commencement Videos
Posted on May 20, 2008 by Ching under School.
The commencement videos from Wichita State University’s 2008 spring commencement are now available online. Check them out:
- Liberal Arts and Sciences
- College of Health Professions
- College of Education
- College of Engineering
- College of Fine Arts
And finally..
- W. Frank Barton School of Business
I’m about an hour into the video (in case you guys want to fast forward).
Commencement was probably boring for all the spectators but I had a blast. It felt good to be finished with school finally. I look forward to going back in a few years but, right now, I’m just glad it is all over.
Here are some stills from graduation. Enjoy!
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Ching with Ann Konecny
Posted on May 19, 2008 by Ching under Flickr, Life, School.
I had a chance encounter with Ann Konecny at Stooges on Saturday night. Konecny was this year’s keynote speaker during the spring commencement ceremony of the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University.
Ann Konecny is president and chairman of Foley Equipment Company, president of Foley Rental, and president of Foley Rebuild Center. She serves on the board of the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas and the board of the Cooperative Association of Tractor Dealers, as well as other industry groups. She is a member of the the Wichita State University Foundation’s Advisory Council, the WSU Barton School of Business Advisory Board, and Wichita Downtown Rotary. Amazing, right?
Being the nerd that I am, I took advantage of the photo op. Movie stars don’t really do anything for me. Successful business people are the ones who really impress me.
Had Brian and I left with everyone else — Mike was getting bored so Darcy, Mike, Joni, Travis, Lori, and Wade all left Stooges to continue the party elsewhere — we would have missed the chance encounter. Brian and I were going to go home after everyone left, but we decided to stick around for another set so we could dance.
When Konecny walked in to meet her friends, Brian and I instantly recognized her. Brian urged me to say hello and introduce myself, so I did. She was nice enough to agree to getting a photo with me. I thought that was really neat. I mean… How many people can honestly say they got a photo with their graduation ceremony’s keynote speaker at a bar on the same day as commencement? Not many, right?
Anyway, Stooges was doing a fundraiser for a veterans’ association that night and so they were raffling off free hotel stay in Vegas. Brian and I regretted having forgotten to ask for the others’ tickets before they left. That would have been six extra chances. Then, we thought that we’re not lucky enough to win anyway so six extra tickets probably wouldn’t have made the difference.
Ann Konecny arrived just in time for the drawing. Sure enough they drew her ticket. What are the odds? She is super nice, though. Not only did she give Brian one of the cigars she brought with her, she gave us the free three-day and two-night hotel package.
Stooges was the perfect end to the perfect day. Receiving the prize from Konecny was way better than winning the raffle outright… And I got a photo with her to boot! I am so glad that I introduced myself!
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Mission Accomplished
Posted on May 15, 2008 by Ching under Life.
I finally got Brian to do pump class with me at the gym. After all the begging and pleading and pouting and whining, he finally agreed to go. It’s funny because after we restarted our gym membership, I was going consistently for a while. I vowed that I would start going regularly again. Then finals came around and our group project was due, so I dropped out again. Last Saturday was the first time I’d been back in about two weeks.
Ken goes, “Hello, stranger. You back with us?” I had to explain to Brian that he’s one of the regulars who’s at the gym practically everyday. I had told him that I would be going to the gym more frequently so he had to pick on me.
After class ended I told the instructor that I had accomplished my mission. He jokingly replied that I needed to set my goals a bit higher. He’s probably right.
After our workout, we stuffed our faces at The Good Egg per usual. We must stay away from that place, seriously. We really need to start cutting back on eating out and start saving more. =P
We ran some errands and ended the day with Speed Racer, which was better than I expected. We went to the final show so that there wouldn’t be as many kids. There were still some kids, but the theater was not at all packed. Anyway, I was thoroughly entertained. There are so many good movies coming out lately. This weekend Prince Caspian comes out. I doubt we will have time to watch it. We’ll see.
We got home from the movie and took a long time to wind down. It must have been three o’clock in the morning before we went to bed. The next day was spent at the Brubakers to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Brian says that we’re going to start really buckling down and working on the house on the weekends, instead of doing stuff like going to the movies and such. He’s right. We’ll do as much as we can during the week also. However, that won’t be until after Memorial weekend because we’ve got big plans.
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Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
Posted on May 7, 2008 by Ching under Life, School.
I can’t believe graduation is less than ten days away. Grad school has gone by pretty quickly. As Etaf mentioned in a recent note, it seemed like we were at MBA orientation only yesterday. Everyone has been like, “You won’t know what to do with your time” or “What’s next?”
I don’t know, really. It was such a relief to get my bachelor’s degree. After dropping out of college the first time, I felt really satisfied to have graduation. I thought, this college thing really isn’t too bad. I should go to grad school. LOL.
I sometimes joke that my primary reason for going to grad school is to postpone paying for my student loans. To some degree that is true. But I also set a goal for myself to get my MBA before I reach the age of 30. If you want to be technical about it, I really didn’t achieve that goal. Although, I am still 30. So if I revise the goal to say that I want to get my MBA by age 30, then I made it.
So what’s next? Well, I realized that I really enjoy going to school. So I’m thinking that I will eventually go back for my doctorate. Dr. Ching has a nice ring to it. Let’s set this goal for by 40. I’ll have to think about this one, though, because it will require a two-year sabbatical from work — probably more. I don’t think I can afford to not work, with all of our bills and my student loans and all. Anyway, I’ve got at least five years to think about it so I’ll let you guys know what we decide on that.
For now, Brian and I need to finish up our home remodel so we can finally get out of here. Maybe we can make a lot of progress in June — if we don’t get bogged down with other stuff, which always seems to happen. It seems like there’s something going on every weekend.
Last weekend we had Iron Man. Couldn’t miss that. Brian said he’d been waiting for it to come out for the last two years! This weekend we’ve got Mother’s Day plans. Next weekend is, of course, commencement. The weekend after that we’ve got a couples massage and then we are heading up to Harrah’s in North Kansas City for a post-graduation celebration. Hey, it’s Memorial weekend!
Then Brian’s parents are leaving to go on a 13-day European cruise. They leave the day after Memorial Day. That’s basically their anniversary celebration this year. Their wedding anniversary is on June 2nd. They return the day before Brian’s birthday, which is on June 13th. Then we’ve got an exhibition on the 14th where I’m supposed to dress like a Viet Cong soldier… And on and on and on… You get the picture. Things just always seem to come up.
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to being done with school and seeing what “free” time is like. Although, as you can see — there’s really not much “free” time even with school out of the picture.
Hope to see you all at commencement! If you can’t make it, then you can watch the ceremony on the web at shockervision.tv — my undergrad commencement from May 2006 is still on there actually. =P
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