Dance Walk – Sherri Ross

Tag: Dance Walk

08
Nov
2013

What’s in your bucket?

NOTE: I started this yesterday, but didn’t finish it before midnight. But it’s still yesterday’s #bloglikecrazy post. 🙂

Today’s #bloglikecrazy writing prompt asks us what we want to be when we grow up. I’m kidding. It does ask us to talk about what’s on our blogging bucket lists. To be honest, I don’t have a blogging bucket list and had never heard of it until this prompt. And I’ve read a few friends’ posts today and they are outstanding! Since I don’t have a blogging bucket list, this post is done.

I JEST! I will say that I’d like to integrate this blog into more of a web site that highlights my various activities and invites people to get involved. I would like to brand YouGotRossed a bit more, make it a landing page for the Dance Walks, the Birmingham Girls Club, my blog, and whatever else I create. So, that’s what I will be working on in the new year. Stay tuned!

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.

29
Apr
2013

Did You Miss Me?

categories: goals, happy

I PROMISE I am still here. For those that know me in real life, I am still very here, very busy, and very happy.

The weight loss is going ok. I fell off the exercise wagon a bit, but have gotten back on and am very happy. I went to spinning twice, walked a 5k, and dance walked my booty off last week. I’ve also joined Weight Watchers online to help keep track of calories, points, and activity.

I’m also now a columnist for the new Women’s Voices Magazine launching next week! I will be writing about social media and online stuff, all with a little humor and hopefully a cocktail. 😉

I’ve recently started the Birmingham Girls Club and we kick off on Wednesday! It’s a new club in Birmingham to help the amazing women in our city grow their minds, bodies, & souls – all while giving back to the community.

I also kicked off a little campaign called Buy Boston A Round to thank the first responders and folks of Boston during that harrowing ordeal. Let’s show them we care!

And we just had our latest Birmingham Dance Walk…soon to be renamed Dance Walk Party. I’m hoping to get more companies involved in the Dance Walk Parties and bring them to organizations and groups that need some team building fun! And take it everywhere, not just Birmingham, hence the new name. 🙂

There’s one more venture in the works, but that’s top-secret for now.

More soon, but I’m still here.

Hugs!

24
Mar
2013

Whirlwind of Awesome

categories: bham dance walk, birmingham girls club

A million things have happened since I wrote last. First of all, please forgive me for the lack of posts. Sometimes real life gets in the way of technology and computers and I gladly embrace it. I’ve had a ton of meetings with some of Birmingham’s most innovative and creative women, gone on many a bike ride to work on my fitness, think, explore, cache, and love my city even more, been writing for some friends and new ventures (more coming soon!), and planning the next few Dance Walks.

There are a lot of amazing things on the horizon for me, Birmingham, and everywhere. I know that’s cryptic and I do apologize, but I will be able to tell you soon. All of them have to do with personal projects I am working on and no, I’m not pregnant (in response to a best friend who texted me that question after I posted a similar cryptic status update on Facebook the other day). Life is moving at the speed of light right now, but I ASSURE you I am documenting, enjoying, remembering, and living it. I am not letting it pass me by even in its fastest hour.

We had our first unofficial meeting of the Birmingham Girls Club last week. I hate to use this word, but it’s the only one I can think of: epic. It was a meet and greet to introduce some of our finest women to each other. The response and turnout were more than I could have ever imagined. I asked for feedback at the meeting to help determine the direction the women wanted to take the club and it was overwhelming and positive. I will be working this week on details for the official club and then launching it – in its entirety – very soon. Stay updated on the newest and, hopefully, most amazing club for women that Birmingham has ever seen. We want to provide a fun, safe network for Birmingham’s amazing women to grow their ideas, minds, spirits, and bodies while also giving back to the community. I’m working on a new website, set up a newsletter (sign up here to stay in the loop!), and have our Facebook page and Twitter set up. Come say Hi!

Next up is the Birmingham Dance Walk this weekend at Avondale Park with an egg hunt after. Please join us on Saturday, March 30th at 2 p.m. for a dance walk around the park with a free Easter egg hunt for ALL AGES after the walk. You can find details at www.bhamdancewalk.com and also RSVP on the Facebook event page here.

I hope to see you all Saturday at the Dance Walk!

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.

22
Feb
2013

Covert Operations

categories: birthday, wedding

18431226_b7f132d511_m — Image courtesy of ThenAndAgain via Flickr Creative Commons

I apologize profusely for my lack of blogging lately. A lot has been going on and I simply got away from the computer when I wasn’t at work (that is NOT the time or place to blog). Side note: I am now mentally checking and correcting my grammar and, more importantly, my punctuation when I write now thanks to Tanya Sylvan’s “Grammar Police” post a few days ago. Agggh! I’m still going to be me, but now I’m freaking out at her watchful eyes. And her dad’s!

Back to us. The last thoughtful post was the night before my birthday..eve of 38..where I talked about looking forward, not back. And how this year was already the best year of my life, due in large part to growing in myself, with the love of my life, and loving who I am and where I am RIGHT NOW. Wow, had I know how the next two weeks were going to play out, I would have written more. 😉

My birthday was amazing. It was a Friday and I spent the day working and received a delicious Edible Arrangement from Daniel. That night we went to the birthday party of our dear friend and See Jane Write Fearless Leader, Javacia Harris Bowser. After visiting with the birthday girl and her million friends, a few of us headed to dinner. I had the most delicious birthday dinner at Bettola and fell in love immediately with the cocktails and the cuisine. I had never been there before and was glad it exceeded my high birthday expectations. After dinner it was off to see a show at Al’s on Seventh. They were kind enough to reserve a table for us and I felt like a queen. After the show we realized we still had some energy to burn off so headed to the Quest for some after-show dancing. We spent the next few hours dancing in a trance and just living in the moment. We definitely danced off the extra energy and tumbled into bed about 3 a.m. It was a PERFECT night. Saturday was spent relaxing and then off to a joint birthday brouhaha with the fabulous Jen West. I rode Elektra over to introduce her to everyone and we spent hours in the park playing games, riding bikes, hanging out with the Birmingham Pedicab, friends, animals, children, and great food. It was a perfect picnic and just the party we envisioned. Then Daniel and I got ready for dinner – just he and I at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Or so I thought. When we arrived, I was greeted by a huge group of friends in the back room..a surprise party! I had no idea and was touched beyond words. That man of mine is amazing. We shared stories and got to know each other over margaritas and tacos. Another perfect dinner. After that we were off to Theatre Downtown for a comedy show and play. Perfect end cap to a wonderful birthday weekend. Sunday was a rest day (I had planned it that way), but I woke up itching to get on Elektra so I took her out for a few hours. The rest of the day was spent relaxing with Daniel, catching up on our shows, magazines, and writing.

Picnic at Avondale Park for Jen West and myself

That brings us into Valentine’s week. Daniel and I knew we were headed to Mobile that upcoming weekend to see our friends Paul and Sara. She is pregnant and they invited us down to visit and also join them as they found out the sex of their baby. Let me back up a bit to Thanksgiving weekend. They came up from Mobile to spend the weekend with us. During the long weekend, we let them in on the news that we were engaged. Right before they left to head back to Mobile on Sunday, they found out they were pregnant. It was a weekend of celebration and happiness. In keeping with that sharing, they asked us to go to the ultrasound visit with them. We were delighted and honored. As the weekend got closer, Daniel and I started talking about what kind of wedding we really wanted. We didn’t want any stress so the less people who knew about it, the better. We knew we wanted to get married at the beach in a very simple ceremony. We were going down to the coast to celebrate with our friends anyway…why not share our own special moment with them again? We called them to propose the idea and they were ecstatic. Daniel and I went to the courthouse the day before Valentine’s Day and got our marriage license and headed down to Mobile that Friday after work. Saturday morning we headed to their ultrasound appointment in Pensacola. We found the perfect coffee shop next door to the office called The Drowsy Poet and bought the largest coffee mug ever to commemorate their baby and our wedding day. I also found this sign in the shop that perfectly expressed how I felt that day:

After the amazingly touching – and funny – ultrasound visit, we went to a nearby seafood place and I had my favorite food..crab legs…with some of their family and Malcom, the little man growing inside her. 🙂 We said our goodbyes to her family and headed back to Mobile. We detoured down to the coast to find a perfect spot for the wedding. After we crossed the state line, we found a beautiful stretch of beach in Perdido/Orange Beach. We piled out of the car, high tailed it down to the sunny, but very windy, beach and Paul set up the video camera. We had the ceremony on the beach, full of love, jokes, and Mulligans. 😉 It was exactly what we wanted and a true reflection of us. After the ceremony, Daniel and I walked down to the beach for a few moments of quiet time and reflection.

Then we all piled back into the van and headed back to their house. I think we were all pretty tuckered out from such an amazing day. We rested for a few hours and then went out for dinner to celebrate. I couldn’t stop telling everyone I saw. It was nuts. That night, after dinner, we recorded a crazy video on Paul’s green screen to tell everyone the big news. Sunday we posted it and the sweet wishes started flowing in. They haven’t stopped since. We are so grateful to Paul and Sara for asking us to come down to share their special moment with us. We also can’t thank them enough for being a part of our day and capturing it perfectly. We love you.

That brings us to now. It’s been a week of telling friends and family, changing my name (Sherri Ross Walters…I still have to ROSS people obviously), and basking in the newlywed glow. We are definitely still doing the large Birmingham Bash at some point in the future and will go all out for it. Right now though, since quite a few people have asked to celebrate with us, we are going to piggyback a wedding celebration potluck picnic off the next Birmingham Dance Walk on 3/30 at Avondale Park. The Dance Walk and Easter egg hunt will be at 2 p.m. They are both free events, open to everyone, and there are 144 eggs to find after. Please please please come, bring your baskets, and help me find all these eggs. Later on, at 4 p.m., we will have our potluck picnic and we invite everyone to come by and say Hi. 🙂 We had so much fun at the birthday picnic that we thought it would be a perfect way to celebrate us, you, and Birmingham. The invitation is below and we hope you can come:

Picnic Party Invite — Potluck Picnic Wedding Party invitation courtesy of the FABULOUS Sarah Miller

That’s all for now, folks. It’s been a busy few weeks…but the most amazing of my life. I can’t thank you all enough for the birthday and wedding wishes. And please pray for Daniel…he now has my birthday, Valentine’s Day, and our anniversary back to back each year in February. JACKPOT! 🙂

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.

04
Feb
2013

Dragon Dancin’

categories: bham dance walk

This past Saturday we held the 3rd Birmingham Dance Walk in the streets of downtown. The impending rain moved the start time up an hour to 1 p.m., but we still had a wonderful turnout.

I always get nervous before these events, even when they don’t require a lot of preparation like this one. I had music from the previous dance walk that we didn’t use so decided to stress less and go with the flow. I had the music, I had the jambox, and all I needed (wanted) were the people. We had a special surprise guest coming and I wanted a good turnout for her.

I arrived a few minutes early so decided to stop by Urban Standard for water before people arrived. I never made it inside because Mary Jean was headed my way about the same time. After her came Erika, Rachel, Javacia, Amy, and Edward. More and more people started walking up as we milled around…waiting for the music man to appear with the speakers. Soon came Pierce, the music man, with Elaine, Andrea, Bobby, Matt, Olive, Katie, Paula, Bailey, Tanya, Heather, Drew, Jasmine, the other Drew, Jennifer, Shira, Ginger, Nathan, Emily, Clark, Larry, Lauren, and lots of others. We soon had a call from our special guest that she would meet us up the street so off we went. Birmingham’s 3rd Dance Walk was underway!

We rounded the corner at 23rd Street South and danced in place for a while, waiting for our special guest. Soon after we stopped to “break it down”, she appeared.

Madge, the Magic City Dragon, was coming over the hill toward us. The squeals from the dance walkers were audible for blocks. Many had never seen Madge before nor knew that we had a new dragon in town. Madge is the brain child of Carrie Hill and was created with the help of local artists and friends. She is a 31 foot long dragon that takes about 11 people to handle and maneuver. There were walkers on the outside directing and guiding her and a boatload of people inside her pushing and pulling her along.

Madge joined us for the entire dance walk which lasted about 4 city blocks down, around the block and back up 4 blocks – all the while stopping traffic and garnering honks from passing cars and trucks. There were close to 60 dance walkers – we picked up some along the way – and quite a few talented photographers capturing the Dance Walk and Madge. The dance walk lasted about 20 minutes total and we danced to Queen, Unk, Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Michael Jackson, Metro Station, Pink, Snap, Justin Timberlake, Vanilla Ice (I had to), Will Smith, and finished off with the full length “Praise You” by Fat Boy Slim. After all, we HAD come a long, long way together. I think some people underestimate the workout you get from dance walking – I came out panting and sweating.

This was the most successful Dance Walk to date and it was in large part due to our guest of honor, Madge, and word of mouth from our wonderful friends and fans. So many people helped make it possible or better including Daniel, Emily, Pierce, Elaine, Jeanne, and our talented photographers Larry, Clark, Tanya, Rachel, Sarah, Emily, and Madge herself along with video from Jennifer. Those behind Madge were Carrie, Daniel, Justin, Wade, Billie, Bruce, Mandy, Kelly, Wesley, Drew, Kelsey and a few others. What an amazing crew and a wonderful addition to our Dance Walk. I hope she’ll consider joining us again – she was a huge hit!

Extra special thanks to Javacia for letting us make it a See Jane Move event, and to Edward for this awesome article on al.com and to Emily at Magic City Post for always being our biggest fan and writing a wonderful recap which you can read here.

For more information on the next Birmingham Dance Walk, keep an eye on bamdancewalk.com and be sure to ‘like’ our Facebook page here. For pictures from our Dance Walks you can check out the bhamdancewalk Flickr stream here. Hashtag on Twitter: #BhamDanceWalk

For more information on Madge, the Magic City Dragon, you can check out her Facebook page here or her Bham Wiki page here. She’s also on Twitter as @MadgetheDragon.