magic city post – Sherri Ross

Tag: magic city post

04
Feb
2013

Dragon Dancin’

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.

21
Jan
2013

Ride Like the Wind

categories: birthday

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rowdykittens/8335280678/in/photostream/ — Image by Rowdy Kittens via Flickr/Creative Commons

In honor of my goal #3 for 2013 – and my birthday wish fundraiser – here are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs – “Ride Like The Wind” by Christopher Cross. It is even more pertinent now, even though I’m not going to Mexico. 😉

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my first two supporters – Emily from Magic City Post and Erika E. Ladies, I can’t thank you enough for kick starting this fundraiser. You both get tons of hugs from me, bike rides galore, something handmade by me, and a link in the sidebar of my blog. If you can think of anything else you might like, just let me know. It’s yours!

And with that, I leave you on this “Blue Monday”. Come on, be honest, was it really that blue? I think not! It was a glorious day to serve in the MLK Day of Service, more of which will be in a post to come.

Ride Like The Wind
by Christopher Cross

It is the night
My body’s weak
I’m on the run
No time to sleep
I’ve got to ride
Ride like the wind
To be free again

And I’ve got such a long way to go
To make it to the border of Mexico
So I’ll ride like the wind
Ride like the wind

I was born the son of a lawless man
Always spoke my mind with a gun in my hand
Lived nine lives
Gunned down ten
Gonna ride like the wind

And I’ve got such a long way to go
To make it to the border of Mexico
So I’ll ride like the wind
Ride like the wind

Accused and tried and told to hang
I was nowhere in sight when the church bells rang
Never was the kind to do as I was told
Gonna ride like the wind before I get old

It is the night
My body’s weak
I’m on the run
No time to sleep
I’ve got to ride
Ride like the wind
To be free again

And I’ve got such a long way to go
To make it to the border of Mexico
So I’ll ride like the wind
Ride like the wind

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.

11
Jan
2013

Best Week Ever

categories: See Jane Write, women, writing

This week has been positively amazing. The energy, creativity, and ambition of the people I’ve been around has left me completely in awe of them and – my favorite word to wear out – INSPIRED. I realize that I use that word a lot, for a multitude of things, but it’s the perfect word to describe those events, people, organizations, music, that get me so pumped up..about Birmingham (Emily from Magic City Post – who was also a panelist at last night’s SJW event), writing (Javacia from See Jane Write), fitness (Daniel and Tanya), volunteering (Scott), fashion (Jennifer) and a million other kindred spirits in this city. Let’s recap the week for those of you playing at home:

Started volunteering with a theatre that I adore – Theatre Downtown
The WOD (workout of the day) from hell at Iron Tribe Fitness. My legs were shredded for 3 days, but I did those 150 squats!
Goal Setting Workshop at ITF – can be applied to ANY goal(s) and it was life-changing. I can’t wait to share the notes with you in separate blog post.
Lost 1/2 pound. I’ll take it!
My first Paint the Town Red meeting (PTTR) – it’s a digital arts festival benefiting the Jefferson Shelby Chapter of the American Red Cross. The art and events in the works for this year’s event are going to blow you away!
See Jane Write event – “Blogging and the Future of Community Journalism” One word – AMAZING!
Interview of PTTR folks for a Magic City Post article I’m working on
Tonight we are going to a loft warming party
Tomorrow (Saturday) is my fiance’s birthday! I will let him have “game time” with our new XBox while I rearrange my bedroom to create a very private, very “me” writing nook. It will be full of inspiration, perspiration, and hopefully good words. I’ll be sure to post pics when done. I am uber excited about this change of scenery and the timing works out well because he loves to game. 🙂
Tomorrow evening we are going to have dinner with friends to celebrate his birthday and then off for drinks and shuffleboard. (Do you know where we’re going?)
Sunday I am going to the Southern Bridal Show with a fellow bride-to-be (Jennifer mentioned above) and then off to a music jam at Das Haus.

This week and weekend couldn’t get any better. I will be sure to fill you in on all the details of the weekend. Be sure to wish @socialmediabham a very “Happy Birthday” tomorrow if you know him. Tip: If you don’t know him already, meet him. He’s amazing. Also, don’t forget the next Birmingham Dance Walk is coming up on Feb 2nd – you can get details and RSVP here. Can’t wait to dance down 2nd Avenue with all you lovely people! And lastly, be sure to tell your friends and family you love them. Today is an especially amazing day…don’t let it go by without telling them you care!

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.

10
Jan
2013

Tornado Alley

categories: See Jane Write

Things have been moving at the speed of light these days at work, in my personal life, and extracurricular activities. I am not complaining – staying busy keeps my mind engaged, especially when I’m working with the creative talents behind the Jefferson Shelby County Chapter of the American Red Cross‘ Paint the Town Red event scheduled for April 20th right here in downtown Birmingham. I went to my first meeting last night – I’m volunteering as part of the Social Media team – and let me just tell you, they are planning AMAZING art for Birmingham. I cannot wait to go to this!

I have been busy with meetings and meet ups with See Jane Write, Theatre Downtown, Paint the Town Red, Magic City Post, the next Birmingham Dance Walk, and working my my goals and fitness thanks to Iron Tribe, losing weight, and seeing my man! Whew – I’m tired just thinking about the past few weeks and the weeks coming up. But they are worth it – these are some great organizations that do so much for our community.

The past two days of challenges for 31 Days to a Better Blog have been to 1) be more engaging on Facebook and Twitter and b) sign up for a blogging conference or seminar. Well, I’ve already blown #1 out of the park apparently as my sister, who I adore, posted on Facebook that I was updating too much and she was a little tired of it. lol! There are worse things, but it does tell me that I’m engaged. I loved Javacia’s tip today on posting more quality and not just quantity on social media – you can read her post here. And I’m also attending the See Jane Write event tonight: Blogging and the Future of Community Journalism. So I’ve got those two covered. I am still working on a new header, as well as whether I want to change my URL, title or platform. We shall see, but they are great tips in the series.

More tomorrow, lovelies! Until then….

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.

15
Nov
2012

Announcement: Big goal! Can you help?

categories: goal, non-profit, writing

Today’s writing prompt for #bloglikecrazy is “Why I blog.” I have been on GREEN for so long that often times I just ‘do’ and don’t think about ‘why.’ Lately though the BF, books, and my lovely Janes have caused me to stop more than once and ask myself ‘Why do I feel that way?’ ‘Why am I doing this?’ ‘Why does that make me happy or sad?’ The last one has weighed on my mind a lot lately, but in a good way. I feel as though I may be the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. You know how you hate to say something officially out loud for fear that it’s all in your head and it will go to pot justlikethat? But, I am slowly evolving my mindset into that we make our choices and our behaviors. We choose to react certain ways to certain people or situations and BF has been helping me see how I can positively change my reactions to situations with time and effort. To be completely honest, I fly off the handle and overreact A LOT. And actually, that might be an understatement. I tend to get heated and let very little things bother me in a very big way. I don’t know the root cause of that behavior (yet), but I am learning to recognize it and, when I think about it ahead of time, choose to react differently. I may talk to him about it or just simply let it go if it’s not even worth the breath. I am starting to “choose my battles”, as it were, but more importantly, I’m choosing what is worth hashing out and what just doesn’t matter in our life together. And – surprisingly – a lot of the stuff I let get to me simply doesn’t matter. That’s not to say that I don’t discuss or stand up for what I believe in, but so does he. We’re equally stubborn in our convictions, but that’s what I love about us. He has helped me realize my behaviors, think about them ahead of time (when I remember), and choose to live a happier life. It helps that he is the exact opposite of me in that he’s very easy-going and doesn’t sweat the small stuff while I am tightly wound and sweat everything. Still it works for us and that, in turn, has helped me learn and grow a lot in the last year. I don’t know if he’ll ever know how grateful I am to him for his patience, understanding, and gentle guidance when I get “girl crazy.” We both have our faults and we are doing a great job in learning the other’s, working with and accepting them, and helping each other where we can.

All that to say this, I blog because sometimes (most of the time), I write better than I speak. I hate confrontation and I also hate getting too sappy in person. I prefer to put it on digital paper. I express myself clearer and more eloquently in writing than I ever have face to face. I enjoy getting things off my chest on this blog, as well as share the latest and greatest in my world with you all. I’m still struggling a bit, internally, with what I want to do next goal-wise. I have ideas, I just need to cull them a bit and get them down. You saw my 4 short term goals for the rest of this year in yesterday’s post. In keeping with that, I worked out yesterday at Iron Tribe, am planning on going today after work, and will do a WOD (Workout of the Day) at home this weekend. I’m also going to count my volunteer shift working as the guest bartender at the Kitschmas opening tomorrow night at Naked Art as 1 of my 2 volunteer goals as I am donating all my tips to the Crisis Center of Birmingham and will likely be volunteering with them in the near future. Please come by Naked Art tomorrow night between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to say Hi, introduce yourself, let me pour you a free drink, get a FREE HUG with your drink, and start your holiday shopping at one of THE best stores to buy beautiful, unique, LOCAL art! Also, I started on my book yesterday so am doing well there. And I’m working on my next piece for Magic City Post which will, hopefully, be a story on the German Christmas Market coming up. I’ll be sure to let you know when I get it done and it’s published. As far as goals for the new year, I’m still working on those as well. But one that I KNOW in my heart that I want to accomplish is to set up a non-profit here in Alabama. I want the sponsors, prizes, and other vendors of Birmingham Dance Walk to be giving toward something besides just the wonderful people of Birmingham. I want them to be able to write their generous donations off and I also want to raise money with this non-profit to donate to other charities in our area that need help. I haven’t started the research on this, but I have a good idea of what I want and am going to start looking in to the paperwork soon. I want to give back and I think this would be a great way to start. If you have any ideas or advice on how to get this puppy started, I am all ears and would appreciate the help! You can reach me at sherri at yougotrossed dot com. I think it takes quite a bit of $$ to file non-profit paperwork here, so I’m still mulling that over too. I may start a KickStarter or Indiegogo to raise funds if needed. There are so many places in Birmingham that could use additional help…would you consider helping me help them? I would love your thoughts!

As always,

Love yourself.
Find peace inside.
Share happiness.