Ode to the Charity Walk

If you've ever been up at 4:30 on a weekend morning using car headlights to see in a damp field and wiping down dew-covered tables, then you've experienced the joy that is running a charity walk.

I too have experienced this joy in various stages of involvement: from working for a charity and being in charge of the event to working for the charity and only being in charge of a small portion of the event to be a hired hand working on a portion of the event. I honestly prefer whichever involvement lets me sleep in the latest.

I haven't worked for a non-profit for two and half years, but have the joy of working with one now. It's fun and after almost a decade with the American Heart Association, I'm pretty sure that I'll always be involved with one or multiple charities throughout my life, in some way or another. This time I was involved at a local walk for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California. A different charity, but just as important in its work.

Here's my latest event in pictures:

I had to wait about an hour after getting to the location for there to even be this much light to take the picture.

The money shot: this is when everyone who worked on the event breathes a sigh of relief because 90 percent of the heavy lifting (literally and figuratively) is over. 

I've been to more than 50 walks in my day, but have only walked as a walker in  less than 10, and that's the Evansville  Komen Race for the Cure, as you might imagine. Here I am walking in spirit with my Porter Novelli work team.

This is the first time that I've ever seen miniature ponies (there were three) at a walk, but there are two words that can explain that: Orange County.

If you want to support my efforts, there's still time. Feel free to donate to this great cause HERE. 

But I'm always the Tire Girl

I got asked to be the Nashville Start! Heart Walk team captain for our AHA office again this year. It started out as a good idea and then we had to go and up the ante. Instead of just having incentives for the top walkers and prizes and all that usual crap, we also added in a team challenge. The losing team has to wash the winning team's cars. In our parking lot. In October.

While Nashville is further south than my previously beloved home, it is not south enough to be warm in October. It's quite cold. And I'm still the shortest (at least non-pregnant shortest) team member. Why do I bring that up? Because when doing car washes for other things (namely softball team fundraisers), my height dictated that I wash the tires. I hate washing tires. I always scrape my knuckles and then get soapy water in them. It's horrendous.

So, this is where I need your help. You can do one of two things to save me from soapy, stinging, bleeding knuckles and frigid October wet t-shirt contests:

1. Donate to my Heart Walk campaign. Click here and you can do it in 2 minutes. I would greatly appreciate it. If you want to donate less than $25, feel free to email me at ashley.wrye@gmail.com and I'll send you an envelope to make it happen.
2. Join my team. Don't have money to donate? No problem. Just join my team and email your friends and family to help support the cause. Click here and click on "Join My Team" to be an official Walka Walka (that's our team name--it's an homage to my favorite comedian--Fozzie Bear).

Seriously, I can't thank you enough for helping out because I know that I have the best friends. Way better than the Walker Nashville Ranger people!

It's a Beautiful Day because U2 Told Me. . . Repeatedly

Today was one of the days that I look forward to every year because it's the day that I finish a big annual project. It's partly my fault that I have to do this project, because our interim VP asked if I had the ability to do it and I was too stupid to lie.

Sure, I could coordinate all of the pictures and successes of the last year and put them into a slideshow that timed up to music. The quest is: Do I want to?

Frankly, no, I don't. However, it's amazing what you can convey in 4 minutes of musically timed Microsoft software that can take you 30-40 minutes to explain. The slideshow is useful for the board, volunteer trainings, Heart Walk kick offs and has gotten WAY more play than the first year that it was primarily ignored at a cocktail party (which pissed me off to no end).

So seeing as I'm the primary user of this slideshow and that I don't think that anyone else cares enough to do it (or if they do, they haven't had months of training at GE in the intracacies of manipulating power point for ANY thing), I do it. It takes me about a full day or more to do and now it's over. And because of it, I'll have U2's Beautiful Day stuck in my head for the next 12 months.

How Do You Motivate the Unmotivated When You're Unmotivated?

I've eaten significantly less today, but I think that has more to do with the fact that I wolfed down some chicken nuggets and fries yesterday in my feeding frenzy. Now said menu items are sitting like a rock in my stomach and making an average day's food consumption infinitely less enjoyable. Although I'm managing to choke down my favorite flavor of Yoplait Light (It's lemon cream pie for the curious or nosy).

• Chef kicked my butt hardcore in the weigh in yesterday. I knew he was going to win, but I didn't think that he would beat me so handily in one week that my other weeks worth of work are now gone. He's ahead of me in the contest by less than 0.1%. Which means it's on. Of course, I think he's been lulling me into a feeling of security all these weeks and now just turning it on. Either way, I've got to stop eating or I'm going to be out some significant duckets.
• Second, I'm trying to motivate my co-workers for our Heart Walk team. We're getting schooled by the Walker Nashville Rangers right now (our competition) and as the leader of the Walka Walkas, I don't want to end up washing our opponents cars. Plus it would be nice to hit our company goal of $20,000. No pressure though. Help me out by sending me ways to motivate our team, cash or joining us. All would be appreciated and can be done here.
• Lastly, I'm getting motivated to go to the grocery store. I do it every week, so it's not that big of a challenge, but some weeks are tougher than others to get hyped up for. Partly because the produce section of our local Kroger is not all that fabulous. Everything else in the store is great and I know if I went to the Kroger in Green Hills, I'd have my choice of nearly all produce in the world PLUS valet parking, but I just can't do it. So, I go to the Harding Road (aka Ghetto Kroger) and know that I'll never have to struggle for parking but that the green beans will always have brown spots.

Any ideas from people on how to motivate the unmotivated when you're unmotivated too would be greatly appreciated.

Bite-Sized Being the Operative Word

So lately the idea of sitting down and writing a long blog post has scared me into just writing nothing at all. Yet, I'll twitter all day because 140 characters is way less intimidating. So in the essence of keeping the blog going in the true spirit it was meant to have, I've decided to go with shorter, more random information in a setting.

• At work, we have these posters on the bathroom mirror that say "You are the Key" but every time I look at them, I think that I am the keymaster and then feel like Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters.


• This is what happens when I listen to Paris Hilton and try to pose for pictures. I couldn't even keep it long enough to have a straight face. I look lopsided.
• The squash casserole I made for Laura's baby Shower was delicious because I loaded it with butter and cheese, which to me are the staples of all great female chefs (Julia Child, Paula Deen).
• I'm the Heart Walk captain for my office team which is tasked with raising $20,000 this year and I'm feeling the pressure. So if you're reading this, you're now obligated to follow this link and either donate to my efforts or join my team and convince others to donate. Go. Now. Or I end up washing others cars in the cold October sun.