Old Town Rotary Map Project and Feeling Grateful
Posted on May 21, 2016 by Ching under Community, Events, Family, Things to Do.
Brian and I got to help with our first Rotary map project over the weekend. Well, Brian got tricked into helping and I wasn’t going to go at first. I didn’t find out about the project that Misty’s Rotary Club (Rotary Club of Old Town Wichita) was working on until the day before. I told her that I was teaching Zumba that morning and couldn’t make it. I really wanted to help but my Zumba class fell right in the middle of the time we were supposed to be be painting. She said they would start at 9 AM and, since Prairie Creek Elementary is right across from the YMCA branch that I teach Zumba at on Saturday mornings, Misty somehow managed to convince me to help. I figured I could go right before my class and then come back to continue helping right after class.
Brian was initially going to just stay home and do house chores while I went to help with the map project and teach my Zumba class. However, I managed to talk him into “dropping me off” at the school. I told him that he could “drop me off” and then I could just walk across the street to the YMCA when it was time for class. I also bribed him with Scooter’s Coffee, which he couldn’t refuse.
Because we are sickeningly punctual, we arrived at the school right at 9 AM. There were only a couple of people there. I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough people to help and so I asked Brian, who was only supposed to “drop me off” at the site, to stay and help us. A good number of people showed up to help a little bit later that morning so Brian probably didn’t even need to stay. I think he was glad he stayed though, because the painting project was right up his alley. He’d be reluctant to admit it, but I would venture to say that he actually had fun. Besides that, doing volunteer work every once in a while (despite being tricked into doing it) is good for the soul.
Even though we started late, they made good progress while I was in Zumba class. By the time I walked back to the project site, they were almost completely done. Here are some pictures of our map painting adventure…
Getting the map template to stay down was kind of tricky because of the wind. Lucky for us, we had a few people who worked on these map projects before so they were pros. They knew exactly what to do and were prepared with milk jugs filled with water to line the perimeter of the template and keep it from blowing away.
With the template down, we had to chalk all of the holes. This would leave dots that would serve as an outline for us to follow for painting the map.
Based on experience, they knew that the East Coast would be tricky so those lines had to be drawn before removing the plastic completely.
Lots of going back and forth between the ground and template happened to check and double check that the lines were drawn properly and no states were missed.
It’s not difficult to mess it up because the East Coast consists of a bunch of tiny states.
The lakes are also tricky so those lines had to be drawn before removing the template as well. The template tried to fly away a few times but we managed to hold it down long enough to get all the tricky parts out of the way.
After the lines were drawn the rest of it was cake.
When I returned from my Zumba class, we had way more volunteers than paint brushes.
Having lots of people there to help paint made painting the map go quickly.
The map was complete before long. It just needed a few touch ups to make the lines more crisp and the colors pop.
Another cool thing about last Saturday was meeting Andrea and Donovan’s handsome dog Tank for the first time.
They live right by the school so it wasn’t a long walk.
Tank is a bit of a ham as you can tell. LOL.
Anyway, last Saturday reminded me of how truly lucky I am to have Brian in my life. I have often complained about not being able to be at two places at once so, even though I want to participate in everything, sometimes I just have to pick and choose and then I feel bad for having to say no to people or missing out. Well, with Brian’s help, I can be at two places at once. I really wanted to participate and help with the map project but I knew I couldn’t be there the entire time. Brian was there to help when I couldn’t be and they actually got an upgrade because Brian is far more talented at that stuff than I am.
Today, it was much the same. I had multiple things that I wanted to do: attend my friend Cari’s party, spend time with Nickira, participate in Zumba in the Square, and get some yummy dinner from the Kamayan Truck. Brian helped me so I could do it all.
I made an appearance at Cari’s party before picking up Nickira from her house. We went home so I could change into workout clothes and pick Brian up. Brian dropped Nickira and I off at the Zumba in the Square event while he went to pick up dinner from the food truck event. We got to enjoy a delicious dinner and then had ice cream for dessert at Churn & Burn after.
As an added bonus, I even got to spend time with my mom. Dad dropped her off at the Zumba thing so she got to hang out with us the rest of the evening and we gave her a ride home. She went with us for ice cream after Zumba and then to drop off Nickira back at her house. Then it was mom’s turn to be dropped off.
Double bonus, I got to see dad as well because we stayed a little while to check out dad’s basement project when we dropped mom off. Anyway, I am super blessed to have such a loving, supportive husband without whom I couldn’t possibly do everything I want to do. Thank you for being awesome, baby! You make my life – correction, our life – great!
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Shaking it for a Cause
Posted on May 19, 2016 by Ching under Zumba.
I participated in a Zumbathon a few weeks ago in support of my friend Jen Cole’s bid for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Woman of the Year. If you’re going to do volunteer for a cause, it might as well be a fun one! Right? Right!!!
Brian even helped by taking photos and videos.
We didn’t have the door code so we had to wait for Abby to let us in. We made good use of our time by taking a bunch of photos.
We had six instructors — Jen, Missy, me, Andrea, Charis, and Nick — teach four songs each plus a warmup song from Nick and a cool down song from Jen. Everyone picked out some awesome songs. I put together the playlist and I was astounded by how well everyone’s songs worked together. It was 90 minutes of nonstop party and the best playlist I’d ever put together.
These are the instructors who happen to be some of my favorite people: (clockwise from left) Charis, Andrea, Jen, Nick, Ching, and Missy.
This is definitely my kind of volunteer work!
Obligatory “before” photos with our Woman of the Year candidate, Jen Cole.
Look at these guys and their matchy-matchy shirts!
I love Missy. She’s so vibrant!
We had a pretty good turnout also.
I don’t particularly enjoy squats but I recently realized that almost every song I do in class has squats in it. If we’re not squatting, we’re doing a bunch of jumping jacks. I guess that’s why they say it’s exercise in disguise. You’re having a great time dancing around and don’t realize that you truly are exercising.
Here are some videos of us in action.
Nick warmed us to the tune of Damelo.
Meghan Trainor’s Better When I’m Dancing with Jen.
This is the song with a bunch of squats in it.
Merengue Choque. I love watching Charis and hearing Nick’s laughter.
Konsey, Konsey, Konsey!
Andrea led us through Lindsey Stirling’s Roundtable Rival.
There’s a ton more videos on YouTube. I won’t post them all here. Just head on over there to watch the rest.
Courtney and Andrea won Zumba shirts!
A few people had left already by the time we remembered to take a group photo. It was such a great turn out. I’m grateful that I was able to be there and support Jen and help raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
If you missed this event and want to shake it with us, don’t worry. We have another event coming up. Come join us for Zumba in the Square tomorrow night — Friday, May 19 — at 6:30 PM. We will we right in front of the Warren Theater downtown.
Hope to see you there!
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Kansas Leadership Center
Posted on May 18, 2016 by Ching under Things to Do.
Have you ever been inside the Kansas Leadership Center?
It’s a beautiful building on the corner of Douglas and Topeka. As you know, my office building sits between Topeka and Broadway on Douglas. I’ve been staring at this building for a long time but have never been inside. The building looks amazing during the day but it’s even more majestic at night when it glows from within.
I made a friend at the Kansas YP Summit a few weeks ago. She gave me a tour of the building and even let me take pictures. None of my photos are as good as the two photos from the Opus Group above but it gives you an idea of what the inside of the building is like. My pictures really do not do the building justice. You’ll just have to go and check it out for yourself one of these days, if you haven’t already.
This art installation is supposed to mirror the one in the Ruffin building.
There’s a large commercial kitchen where a chef prepares healthy meals for the employees everyday.
Beautiful wood stairs that lead to the second floor.
Here are some pictures of a couple conference rooms.
This is a great collaboration room.
Here’s a picture of the cubicles. All offices have them.
Here’s the second floor kitchen area so you can make yourself feel right at home.
One of the training rooms.
All of the walls are painted with dry-erase paint so you can scribble anywhere.
Another training room on the same floor.
This is the library area between the two training rooms.
They used to let people borrow books but they don’t anymore because some of the books never came back.
The top floor is a blank slate.
I couldn’t get a picture of the auditorium because there was a leadership training in session that day. I grabbed this one from the Opus site also.
The Kansas Leadership Center building is so beautiful, inside and out. I hope that you all get a chance to check it out. Huge thanks to my new friend Amy Nichols for letting me swing by and taking the time to show me around. I really should have taken notes because I can’t remember most of the interesting factoids she told me when I was there. Oh, well. I guess that means I’ll need to have a do-over. LOL.
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YMCA Strong Community – Champion Social
Posted on May 15, 2016 by Ching under Events.
Since I doubled my pledge to the YMCA (pretty much giving up all of my paychecks this year), Brian and I were invited to our first YMCA Strong Community Campaign Champion Social. The social is basically an event to thank and recognize the donors and supporters of Greater Wichita YMCA. We’ve never been invited before so I’m think you have to donate at least $1,000 to get on the guest list.
That’s kind of a nice, unexpected perk. When I committed to pretty much not earning any money from my Zumba side-gig at the Y this year, I didn’t know I was going to be invited to a cool social. I just figured I was helping to make YMCA programs available to those in the community who might not otherwise be able to afford it.
Brian wasn’t exactly thrilled when I told him last year about the level of commitment I made for this year. Even though he’s not putting my YMCA paychecks in our checkbook register, we’ve been counting on it as a source of “magic” money. It’s “magic” in the sense that when your checkbook register balance dips below zero, you’re not really overdrawn because your “magic” money has you covered. Then periodically, like every three months or so, he rebalances everything and moves a portion of the “magic” money to our savings account.
Because I doubled my commitment from last year, there’s pretty much nothing left of my YMCA paycheck which means little to no “magic” money coming from that source. We wouldn’t have felt it if I was still teaching seven classes a week but I dropped to just teaching on Saturdays and Sundays almost two years ago so I could be more involved at work and not have to worry about looking for subs when I have to be out of town. That was a decision I made, which I still stand behind, because it makes sense for me professionally. There’s no way I could be part of the current project I’m on at work and still teach all of those Zumba classes during the week. Anyway, I am adding two more classes each week this summer (Aqua Zumba outside in the waterpark) so I can at least contribute to the “magic” money fund for a couple of months. That should pacify Brian until I drop back down to just two classes a week again in the fall.
The whole “magic” money thing helps us out but I’m not too bummed about not having it. We weren’t really counting on it so I feel like we’re actually putting the funds to better use by helping others in the community and that, I think, is magical.
The social was actually great. I’m not sure why Brian has this look on his face. LOL. I guess this is the same look Brian gives me whenever I ask for his approval to donate money to various causes.
My YMCA paychecks may be my money but Brian and I are partners so we always make decisions together. This approach works really well for us and we actually end up making better decisions, for the most part. There was that one time that we were a bit impulsive and ended up buying a puppy from a live auction so it’s not completely fool proof. At least we decided on it together so we can’t point fingers.
The best part of attending the social was running into my former coworker Cody and his wife Lacey. I haven’t seen Cody in ages. We used to run into each other a lot at leadership conferences and other work meetings but I hadn’t seen him since he left the company last year. It was a nice surprise running into the two of them. He is one of those easy going, cheerful people who’s fun to be around. I really miss seeing him at work.
Anyway, I have the champion social to thank for this chance encounter. If we don’t see each other at all this year, at least I’ll have the champion social to look forward to next year. Hey, maybe I’ll even see you all there.
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SALSA 2016
Posted on May 15, 2016 by Ching under Events.
Brian and I attended SALSA for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t the kind of “salsa” event I expected. LOL. SALSA stands for Supporters and Leaders Against Sexual Assault. It’s a benefit for the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center (WASAC).
The food was delicious and they had a great turnout.
I even ran into one of my Leadership Wichita classmates, Michelle Stroot.
We spent most of our time inside because it was cold that night and I didn’t have the foresight to bring a jacket. There was a fantastic band some and raffle drawings going on outside, on the Brickyard side.
Lamphouse was there so, of course, we took some photo booth photos.
I didn’t realize they had a pinball machine at Public. The times I’ve been there, I’ve been too busy enjoying the food.
Brian and I also played some shuffleboard.
Brian and I had a great time but we didn’t stay too late because we both had to work the next day. The event was well-run and the food was great so, even though it’s not the kind of “salsa” party that I was expecting, I definitely wouldn’t mind going again.
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