Music Theatre Wichita Tour
Posted on July 25, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.
It’s probably been a good year or so since I was last able to attend a Women of Rotary Wichita social. Either I’m working late or I’m teaching a class or I’m playing pickleball. Something is usually going on that prevents me from attending.
When Gayle sent an email about this last one, I knew I had to go even though I had to teach Aqua Zumba and Water Walk that night at South YMCA. I had to make it happen because our social consisted of getting a tour of Music Theatre Wichita from Wayne Bryan. I had to leave work right at five o’clock and I had to leave the social right at six thirty so I basically only had a 1 – 1.5 hour window. However, I was bound and determined to make it work because I love MTW so much and I’d never gotten a tour before.
Here are some of the pics that I took during our tour last week.
We toured the bowels of Century II and saw the inner workings of MTW from costumes to props to storage. It was so cool. My favorite part was being able to watch the actors rehearse one of the numbers for Chicago. Both Brian and I really wanted to see it but it just so happened to be showing the same weekend that we are in Orlando. We are so bummed. I guess we will just have to catch it on the next round. At least I got so one of the numbers during rehearsal.
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Le’s Noodles and Sandwiches
Posted on July 24, 2019 by Ching under Food and Drink.
I discovered a new Vietnamese restaurant a couple of weeks ago. It’s been around for a while (at least four years) at the current locations. I’d just never known about it before. I found it one Sunday after working out with the girls at VASA. I got done around ten thirty, elevenish, and had a bit of time before my 12 PM Aqua Zumba class at North YMCA. I took Woodlawn up because I was looking for something quick to eat but, having worked out for a couple of hours that morning, I was also starving so I wanted some real food.
I went to Central and Woodlawn because I knew there was an Asian restaurant there that was decent. However, they turned out to be closed. Le’s was next door and open so I walked in.
Here’s what I got that day — spring rolls and pork and rice.
It’s a lot of food before a workout but I was hungry!
The food is actually quite good so I went back a week later. This time with Brian. Predictably, I ordered the exact same thing.
Except they gave me some soup this time, which I wasn’t offered the last time. Not sure if it’s a lunch vs. dinner thing. I was there for lunch the first time. When I went with Brian, we went for dinner.
Brian had the bbq pork bahn mi but he forgot to tell them to hold all of the crap so he didn’t enjoy it as much.
I think the food is pretty good and the place seemed to be quite popular. It’s a bummer that Brian didn’t like what he got. I think we need to give them another chance though because he really liked my pork chop thing.
On our next visit, I’m thinking we will just order what I normally get and share it. Or we could get some pho, which seemed to be the thing to get there. If you tried the food there, let us know what you thought in the comments.
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Group Fitness Instructor Social
Posted on July 23, 2019 by Ching under Events.
Here are some pictures from our group fitness instructor social hosted by Genesis Health Clubs at 6S a couple of weeks ago. It was an event for the West 13th and West Central instructors.
I’m glad it was held on a Friday because I’m teaching pretty much every night of the week now and Friday is my only free night. And, I really wanted to go. Since I started teaching at West Central at the end of April, I haven’t really met any of my fellow instructors (besides Gina who I’d know from way back). I was looking forward to this opportunity to finally meet them.
Here are a few of the pics from that night.
I had a really nice time bonding with my new Genesis family.
Can’t wait until we do this again!
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Drink Up
Posted on July 22, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.
I love summer because it’s always a fun time for pub crawls and drink tours. Summer is when the #WickedBrew and the Carlos O’Kelly’s ladies drink tours happen. Those are my two favorite to do and I look forward to them every year.
This year I managed to complete both tours twice before #ZINCON. It’s a feat that even I am impressed by. Who knew I could drink so much? LOL. It helped that we had a lot of opportunities to drink with friends over the last few weeks.
The #WickedBrew is actually not too difficult to complete because both coffee and beer count. And, you only have to get eight stamps. Brian and I completed ours about two weeks after it officially started last month. Although, when we were at Wichita Brewing with our friends, the bartender said that he had some people come in for their final stamp on June 15, the day the tour launched.
Brian and I probably could have done that too, if we really tried, but I’ve been burned by finishing too soon before so I try to finish about a week or two out. One year we finished early and they didn’t have the shirts in yet so we had to wait. The downside of that is we might lose track of our cards (or accidentally wash them – true story, this actually happened to Brian one year – he was almost done and had to start over) in the meantime.
The Carlos O’Kelly’s ladies summer drink tour runs through Labor Day. They usually have different prizes you win each year but it always consists of hand-blown glassware from Mexico. Last year we got two very nice hand-blown margarita glasses and a bottle of their margarita mix. This year it’s three hand-blown shotglasses a bottle of the margarita mix.
Last year I completed most of my drink tour with my Zumba besties. This year I convinced some friends that we bonded with in Costa Rica earlier this year to do it with me. Since you only need five punches this year, it didn’t take much to complete the tour. I’ve actually completed it twice already.
Here’s my two sets of shotglasses. I didn’t need them but I did the tour anyway. I don’t know. I guess it’s just something fun to do.
Speaking of fun, it’s a lot of fun to do the tours with friends. In years past, Brian and I usually do the #WickedBrew tour on our own. This year everyone was into it.
The night we were all supposed to hang out at Chicken N Pickle with our doggos, a storm came so we had to regroup and switch to Plan B. We didn’t really have a Plan B actually but we needed to be indoors. Brian and I took our girls home and the six of us agreed to meet up at Wichita Brewing for dinner and drinks instead.
Jay and Becca had been out of town and needed to catch up and get their cards stamped so we ended up doing an impromptu pub crawl. We didn’t really need more stamps because we already got our shirts. In fact, Brian wore his that night.
Anyway, since I was going to be buying drinks, I figured I might as well get credit for them so I started a new card. However, since it’s only one shirt per person, I decided to use my second tour to get my friend Tom a shirt. (He’s supposed to be working on earning me a free shirt from the Wheel Barrel in Topeka.)
After WBC the six of us went to Central Standard (also known as CSB). If you see some random faces you don’t recognize in these pics, it’s because we picked up some stragglers along the way. LOL.
CSB is so fun. They have all sorts of board games and card games you can play. They also have coloring pages.
Here are a few more fun pics from CSB.
After CSB we went to Hopping Gnome around the corner.
The storm had already passed by then and it turned out to be a beautiful evening.
Next stop: Churn & Burn.
Churn & Burn was the final stop for me and Brian that night because it was late and I had an early workout the next morning. I’m not sure if the rest of the group continued on to Aero Plains as they had talked about. I think we got Jay and Becca pretty much caught up in one evening.
The summer drink tours are so fun. Brian and I really enjoy it. We enjoy it even more when our friends do it with us. Can’t wait to do this all again. Oh, wait. We will. A bunch of us are doing the Crawl for Cancer next month! Stay tuned!
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Zumba, Zumba and Even More Zumba
Posted on July 16, 2019 by Ching under Zumba.
Zumba has been keeping me pretty busy lately. I originally only taught Zumba classes on the weekends at Andover YMCA. I taught Aqua Zumba and Zumba on Saturdays and then Zumba on Sundays. Then I picked up a Monday night Zumba class at VASA Fitness. VASA opened their first location in Wichita last summer. I actually taught my first class there the Monday that we arrived home from ZINCON. Brian thought I was nuts.
In September when my Andover YMCA Aqua Zumba class ended, I started teaching a Saturday morning Aqua Zumba class at VASA. I was still maintaining the status quo of only teaching classes on Mondays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Oh, I did briefly teach on Wednesday nights until my friend Amanda completed her YMCA group exercise certification training. I was basically just holding that Wednesday night schedule until she could take over.
Anyway, I realized I really liked the Aqua Zumba and Zumba combo I do on Saturdays so, when an opportunity came up to teach Aqua Zumba at North YMCA in January, I took it. Now I have an Aqua Zumba and Zumba combo on Sundays too (Aqua Zumba at North YMCA at 12 PM and then Zumba at Andover YMCA at 2 PM). I am back at Andover YMCA for the summer. My friend Victoria is covering my Aqua Zumba classes that occur at the same time at VASA until the water park closes (around Labor Day) and my Andover YMCA Aqua Zumba class basically ends. Then I will be back teaching Aqua Zumba at VASA on Saturday mornings.
This pretty much the status quo. During the week, I either try to hit other people’s classes or play pickleball. I ended up getting completely addicted to pickleball over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday because I got to play a lot while I was off work. Anyway, I started playing almost every day at various places.
My friend Gina told me an opportunity to teach Aqua Zumba at Genesis West Central on Thursday nights (because two of their instructors left recently and they need to fill some time slots). Despite Brian’s protestations, I ended up snapping that up. I really love teaching Aqua Zumba. I love it so much that, when the coordinator asked me for a three-song audition, I talked her into inviting members so I could do a full one-hour class. I taught a free class basically but, when you’re doing something you enjoy, you’ll do it for free.
In the meantime, we went to Costa Rica with a group of friends so I was out of the country while she was deciding whether or not to hire me. We finalized the details when I got back and that was pretty much it. I joined my third gym this year. LOL.
It worked out perfect because the I was playing pickleball on the West side of town on Thursday nights (either at West Heights United Methodist Church or at West YMCA) so I was actually able to do both. I would teach my Aqua Zumba class at Genesis and then drive on over either to the church or West Y for some pickleball. I had the best of both worlds.
As I got into pickleball, I started skipping out on my Tuesday and Wednesday night workouts to go play pickleball instead. Apparently, I was playing too much because I developed tennis elbow. It sucked. I didn’t play for two weeks and then when I started playing again I could only play once a week.
As luck would have it, an opportunity to teach Zumba at Genesis Rock Road on Tuesday nights opened up. I couldn’t play pickleball and needed something to do so the timing was perfect. I picked up that side gig and was now teaching classes five days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
I was back to taking Step Aerobics and Zumba on Wednesday nights since I couldn’t play pickleball but then my friend Angie moved to Missouri and needed a bunch of her classes covered. I ended up picking up her Wednesday night Aqua Zumba at South YMCA out of that. She also teaches Water Walk on the same nights and, while I don’t normally teach that format and they did find someone to teach it, the person who picked it up isn’t available to teach it in July due to a schedule conflict so I do have to teach it three times this month. I went from teaching only three days a week to almost every single day of the week.
This month I’m teaching nine classes a week, which is the most number of classes I’ve ever taught it in a week. Next month that will drop down to eight when Lindsey takes over the Wednesday night Water Walk at South YMCA and then it will drop back down six classes a week after Labor Day when the water parks close.
As crazy as it has been, I have loved every minute of it. It’s also helping me keep my weight under control while I continue eating all of the bad foods I love. Anyway, I’m contemplating picking up some classes at VASA 2 when it opens this fall.
Here are some of the fun things that happened this month:
We had a couple visiting from San Diego pop in to class.
Loretta and Hank showed up in their matching shirts. It was super cute. She is a Zumba instructor and he used to live in the Wichita area. He left for greener pastures four years ago and they just happened to be in town over the holiday weekend. I’m so glad they picked my class to visit. Loretta said she found my class on Zumba.com. I think that’s how most visitors find me. So I always tell all of my ZIN friends to remember to keep their class schedules up to date and verified on the Zumba website. You never know who will be in town looking for a class.
Another thing I started recently is Sunday workouts with Liz, Nikki and Jessie. I was playing pickleball on Sunday mornings but since I really can’t play too much because of my janky elbow, I found another way to expend all that pent up energy. We start our workout at 8:30 AM and then we stay for Jessie’s 9:30 AM Zumba class. Then I have my 12:00 PM Aqua Zumba class at North YMCA, followed by my 2:00 PM Zumba class at Andover YMCA. After all that, when the sun goes down I can play some pickleball. Sundays are pretty awesome. It is hands down my favorite day of the week because I get to do all the things I love to do.
Thursday night Aqua Zumba at Genesis West Central is starting to pick up. I was actually at risk of losing the class a few weeks ago because we had schlew of bad weather and there were a few consecutive weeks where I only had two participants each time. My coordinator talked to me about a possible format change and since I only want to teach Aqua Zumba and I don’t want to teach any other formats, we’d have to give the time slot to someone else. She was super nice about it. I think she was worried about hurting my feelings but, honestly, I was thinking I would just go back to playing pickleball on Thursday nights. My arm had started to feel better and I was about ready to increase my playing time to twice a week. Anyway, the weather is better and my attendance is up so I’m still teaching the Aqua Zumba classes on Thursday nights. I am now back to playing pickleball after class also. Now that it’s summer and we can play outside, we’ve been playing at Seneca Park on Thursdays. It works out perfect because it’s on my way home.
Since I’m only teaching at Genesis West Central one night a week and I’m usually just there for class, I hadn’t had an opportunity to meet my teammates. I know Gina because we go way back and I know my coordinator because she hired me but I’d never met anyone else. I finally got this opportunity last Friday when we had our team building event at 6S, a fancy steakhouse on the West side of town owned by the same company. I’d only been there once before when Brian’s boss Rune invited us to have dinner there.
Here’s a picture of our good looking group. We are all West 13th and West Central group fitness instructors. Various class formats are represented her not just water exercise. Below is a pic of some of the aquatics team.
(From bottom left) Gina, Trinity, Cris (our fearless leader), and Aline (top right).
Unlike my Genesis West Central Aqua Zumba class, my class at North YMCA is pretty solid. We always have a great turnout, no matter what the weather is doing. If it’s bad outside, we take the class inside and still have our workout. We don’t cancel and people always show up. These guys are hardcore.
The attendance of the Saturday morning Aqua Zumba class at Andover YMCA is not as good as the Sunday afternoon at North YMCA but still very good. It’s actually beginning to pick up as we the summer heats up. 8:45 AM is a little early for most people but I’m getting some good numbers. Much better than previous years.
Our workout this past Sunday at VASA was super fun. Great workout with Liz, Jessie and Nikki and then Liz was subbing for Jessie but Jessie still attended class. Liz didn’t have a set playlist so I got to do my new warmup again (which was extra practice for me). Jessie did songs and Lauren who was in town for the weekend to celebrate Ella and Shirley’s birthdays also did songs. It turned into an impromptu Zumba party. Zumba class is always a party but this past Sunday was more so than usual. Anyway, we had a great time!
So, I was initially really bummed about my tennis elbow and not being able to play as much pickleball as I want. I love it so much. I love it almost more than Zumba. I’m doing more Zumba as a result but I’m still having fun. As they say, when life hands you lemons… I’ve gotten pretty darn good at making lemonade!
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