Outdoor Movies

This weekend Cliff and I spent a significant amount of time in our $1 garage sale lawn chairs watching movies outside.  I must say, I think movies might be better when watched outside with a group of folks.  Maybe it is just the magic of summer or frozen drinks (thanks Sonic!) but either way, outdoor movies are pretty great.

So I'm the lucky gal who gets to plan our Movies in the Park series at work.  It is pretty cool as it is the first thing that I have ever programmed all by myself.  It is totally my baby.  If it succeeds or fails it is all on my shoulders.  My goal this year was to pick movies that would get a variety of folks out to our parks.  I wanted classics that would hopefully bring out more than just families with small children.  In addition to families, I wanted kid free couples, folks on dates, people with friends.  My goal was to get a diverse group.

Last weekend was our first of the series.  We showed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or "the good one" (sorry Johnny Depp fans out there but his was atrocious).  I got to the park early to help our new crew get the screen up.  Once it was up, I treated myself to my first Crisp Bean Burrito of the season from Taco Time.  Last summer Kerry introduced me to them and they became a staple for the event crew.  In fact for Haunted Hayride I ate Crisp Bean Burritos four out of five days.  That is actually quite disgusting but I will wear it as a badge of honor.  I was really pleased as we got a good number of people out to the park on a weekend where everyone and their mom's second cousin were out of town due to the fourth of July holiday.

This week we showed Back to the Future.  I was really excited about this one as I had several coworkers tell me they were coming.  And they were all folks without kids!  Not that there is anything wrong with kids but this just goes to show that I am approaching my goal.  Well, on Friday we had awesome numbers and so many of them were our non traditional viewers!  One elderly couple got there around 7:30pm to get a good spot and no kidding they must have been 75 years old.  Victory!   I'm hoping the momentum will continue throughout the rest of the summer.  Fingers crossed.  Check out our website if you want to see the rest of this season's movies.

Last night we were invited to a friends house to see a movie in their backyard.  How cool is that?    They bought their own screen off Amazon as it is going to be a yearly tradition.  They rented a snow cone machine (with kid syrups and adult syrups like mojito, peach daiquiri, and margarita), had a fancy popcorn trolly, and a candy concession bar that was out of this world.  Cliff and I both ate so much candy.  M&Ms.  Red Hots.  Starbursts.  Rice Crispy Snacks. Skittles (did you know the green is no longer lime but instead green apple?  Gross.).  They showed Up (which is oddly enough our next Movie in the Park).  To help get people in the spirit, they even had a bunch of balloons tied to the top of their house (note on the top left/middle part of the photo below).  Pixar really has made some quality films.  My favorites being Finding Nemo, WALL-E and Up.  I always cry several times throughout the movie.  It is just so sweet and real.  It was a great date night.  Cliff and I need to one day be as cool as Sarah and Isaac.  It was a beautiful night and their hospitality made it even better.

On a side note: their backyard had the most amazing grass ever.  Seriously.  It was like a think lush head of hair.  We just kept running our toes through it.  It was so green.  So soft.  We've never gotten the appeal of large grassy yards.  Now I think we see.  It was impressive.

Outdoor movies are so much fun.  Cliff and I went to one on the Hopkins Campus during the 14 days we lived there together in the summer of 2005.  Before this weekend we hadn't gone to one together since.  Big mistake! My hope is that it will become a favorite summer date night.

Biggest Loser 5K/15K RunWalk

A few weeks ago a team from my work participated in the Biggest Loser 5K/15K RunWalk.  Apparently Biggest Loser has a group of former contestants that travel all around the country and promote these races.  It was a pretty big deal as it brought 1,700 plus their families to our facility to participate in a variety of wellness activities.  My work sponsored a team of about 25 of us.  We showed up decked out in out "Live It!" staff shirts to run, jog, or walk the 3.1 miles. 

Well, let me just say that it has been a really long time since I have ran.  I mean, a really long time.  Cliff and I ran all the time last year as we were both unemployed and looking for something to keep us from going crazy.  Since starting work, Cliff has been climbing a lot, I have been swimming regularly, and we both have not spent our fitness time running.  In fact, the last time I ran anything more than 3 minutes on the treadmill was back in June for the Moonlight Five.  No worries as I threw myself back into the saddle at the Biggest Loser run.  I had high/low expectations for myself.  I was hoping that I would be at the same level as I was last year based on all of the swimming I've been doing BUT I knew that I probably wouldn't be as I have not run in 10 months. 

Cliff was awesome as he came along to cheer on our group and document with photos.  He also signed up to belay at the climbing wall after the race to get folks interested in coming back to do it again.  There were so many people there.  According to the bibs there were over 1,700 walkers/runners.  The best part was the amount of first time runners/walkers.  Dan and Jackie from Biggest Loser 5 (the mother son duo) were there to start the race and cheer people on.  They asked the crowd at the starting line to raise their hands if this was their first race.  SO MANY HANDS WENT UP.  I saw people pushing walkers.  I even saw one amazing man walking and pulling his oxygen tank.  It was such an amazing thing to experience as all of us participating in the race cheering for others as we saw them on the route.  Tears.  I was emotional the whole time. 

I was pretty pleased as I ran the entire time.  I guess according to my time you could say that I jogged the entire time.  I don't care as I was able to keep it up for 3.1 miles after not running for so long.  I guess the swimming is paying off as my cardiovascular ability has improved.  But sadly my legs and body had forgotten what to do.  I was soooooo sore the next two days.  My body was confused as to what had happened.  I pretty much had to fall into every chair I tried to sit in.  Pretty hilarious but well worth it as look how victorious I was....

After the race I happily ate my little cutie, banana, and cheese bagel.  We listed to Dan from the Biggest Loser sing some country music and then we got our photo with him.  Really nice guy and he is doing great at keeping the weight off.  Five people from my work placed in their age group (nice!) and one of those folks won the whole race.  Way to represent.

 

It was a really great event and I am so happy that we got to be apart of it.  Everyone was so happy and excited.  Biggest Loser sold all sorts of mech including some pretty inspirational t-shirts.  Once again, tears.  I sadly can't help myself.  I love it when people feel proud.

Cliff and I think we might participate in a few 5Ks every year just to have something to help keep us in better running shape.  I think I am going to do Bark in the Park next month which benefits the local humane society (plus Rudy would get a fun bandana).  My work has a Summer Solstice Dash and Bash 5K coming up on the summer solstice (aka June 21st).  I will be behind the scenes so I won't be able to run but Cliff will do that one again (he placed in his age group last year).  Who knows what we will end up doing.  We are just pretty excited that we are getting out there. 

Oscar Party

Last year in honor of the Oscars I posted about why I love movies.  This year, I was apart of a small crew that organized an Oscar Viewing Party.

We had almost 40 people come to the event.  People dressed up, walked the red carpet, gave autographs, posed for photos, played bingo, cast their ballots, and ate and drank until their hearts were happy.  I sadly didn't see any of the show (except for the last 15 seconds of the Les Mis performance and Anne Hathaway's acceptance speech) but everyone had a good time so that is all that mattered. The event was a lot of fun and it gave me an excuse to go to Value Village and purchase a 46 vintage cocktail dress.

Oh, and I did I mention that I got to be on the news?  I did!  Click here to watch.  Plus, two of the newscasters got dressed up and served as our emcees for the night.  All of this put together made me feel like a minor, minor, minor, minor, minor local celebrity.

Fun times.