Another day off? Do I even work at all??
I hit the gym hard this week! I did manage to run 25 miles!
Next week starts the first week of February in which I will try to run more than 30 miles a week. Need to find motivation somewhere! This week I've got some great days off, and after two months of promising myself I would, I'm going to that kickboxing class at the gym! (Its only on Tuesday nights).
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Books, bikes, and burritos
Today I had a day off! A whole day! I worked 60 hours this week (crammed into the first 6 days of the week). So today I took myself out on the town. It was a beautiful day, and I wish I had gone running in the park (maybe tomorrow). But I did spend a sweaty hour at the gym. Then I put on a T-shirt. And sneakers. Clothes that I like, and reflect who I am! YAY! It was great.
The first thing on my to do list was to bike over to "mutiny now" the used book store and browsed the shelves for ages before buying some yellowing Piers Anthony books. I love the way used books smell! Then I headed around the corner to Senor Burritos where I celebrated Molly's excellent report by buying her a burrito. Unfortunately Molly is in Connecticut, so I had to eat the burrito for her :)
Then I biked to Starbucks where I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sunshine and drinking a chai. It was delicious, and a stranger walking by told me he liked my shirt. (Sonic the hedgehog, in case you were wondering).
When Noel got out of work I went home, and we went out to dinner, where we ate more Mexican food, and had a brisk evening bike ride before we returned home to watch "Legend," an old Tom Cruise movie, where he wears a lot of glitter, but no pants!
Best Day Ever!
The first thing on my to do list was to bike over to "mutiny now" the used book store and browsed the shelves for ages before buying some yellowing Piers Anthony books. I love the way used books smell! Then I headed around the corner to Senor Burritos where I celebrated Molly's excellent report by buying her a burrito. Unfortunately Molly is in Connecticut, so I had to eat the burrito for her :)
Then I biked to Starbucks where I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sunshine and drinking a chai. It was delicious, and a stranger walking by told me he liked my shirt. (Sonic the hedgehog, in case you were wondering).
When Noel got out of work I went home, and we went out to dinner, where we ate more Mexican food, and had a brisk evening bike ride before we returned home to watch "Legend," an old Tom Cruise movie, where he wears a lot of glitter, but no pants!
Best Day Ever!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Living the dream
This past week has been great! Last night we celebrated Liz's 25 B-day by biking through City Park at Midnight, drinking beers covered by a mitten, and listening to the Patrick Stump Channel on Pandora. I have an awesome life!
This week I went to the gym, working on training for the Colfax Marathon in May. In five days I ran over 31 miles. Hopefully I can run more and more each week, but for the next couple weeks I'm going to be picking up more hours at Omni. For the month of January I want to run at least 25 miles a week (not counting that first week).
This week I finished reading "Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country" By Rosalind Miles. It was a great Arthurian fiction. It was a feminist view with Guenevere as the heroine. Many of the feminist Arthurian books style Morgan le Fey as the protagonist, and Guenevere as a weaker female, or the paragon of acquiescent femininity. I enjoyed it, and hope to read the rest of the trilogy.
This week I went to the gym, working on training for the Colfax Marathon in May. In five days I ran over 31 miles. Hopefully I can run more and more each week, but for the next couple weeks I'm going to be picking up more hours at Omni. For the month of January I want to run at least 25 miles a week (not counting that first week).
This week I finished reading "Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country" By Rosalind Miles. It was a great Arthurian fiction. It was a feminist view with Guenevere as the heroine. Many of the feminist Arthurian books style Morgan le Fey as the protagonist, and Guenevere as a weaker female, or the paragon of acquiescent femininity. I enjoyed it, and hope to read the rest of the trilogy.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
AMI 2012
Happy New Year!
I just got back from the Alliance Management Leadership Institute (AMI) conference in Kansas City, MO. It was such an interesting experience, I learned a lot, and now have a few things to think about, especially in regards to continuing education, and my path in the future. I attended several sessions that gave me an introduction to topics I had never considered before, and others gave practical tips for nonprofit work, and marketing yourself in the nonprofit sector.
The first session I attended was "It is time for an ethical upgrade." The speaker mostly talked about nonprofit status and gave examples of how nonprofits, and heads of some organizations are exploiting their status for tax breaks, or currying political favor. It was interesting, but I didn't really find it relevant to me.
My next session was "When to Let Go and How to Hold on: Managing Staff/Volunteer Turnover and Retention." The entire session taught a "get to know others teambuilder." As a self reflective person I found the teambuilder interesting. I may post my personal notes on it as my next blog. As a former teamleader I didn't really get anything new out of the session.
Then I attended "Recognize the Hidden Rules of Economic Diversity" which was a really interesting session. It showed practical differences in social behavior in different socioeconomic classes. The lecture was based on A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne, which I really want to read and keep learning about.
My 4th session was "Personal Branding: How to stand out in a Competitive Job Market." The speaker, Duane Hallock talked about the importance of what prospective employers find when they google your name. He recommended that everyone be findable using social media, allowing employers to find you personally (facebook), professionally (linkedin), and as a dynamic creative individual with ideas, hobbies, and a life that is more than the one dimensionally portrayal that appears on your resume/cover letter (blogs/twitter). While I am proud of the accomplishments you can find when you google my name (most of which are newspaper articles from various Americorps NCCC articles) I also now see that it would be beneficial to make this blog findable, so my name and email address are now attached to this blog, I've updated my facebook, and linkedin profiles, and I invite the public to follow me on Twitter @KatieHanchuruck.
My fifth session was the most entertaining speaker. The social media outreach rep from Garmin (Jake) talked about using social media in nonprofits to facilitate communication, and stay connected. His talk is really what motivated me to get on Twitter.
Thursday was case study day, and my team went to the Youth Volunteer Corps National headquarters and heard about their organization, and what direction they are heading toward, and their plans for increasing their number of affiliates. We looked over their plans, and what they have in place, and gave them advice and strategies to move forward in meeting their goals. Doing a case study was such an interesting way to gain a practical experience. Based on the discussion from the people I was working with it seems that theoretical case studies done in class are a big part of the classes people take. Anyway the staff at YVC said we had given them several new ideas to work on, and several ideas they had previously considered, which helped to validate their ideas, which was pretty cool to hear. YVC seems like a really cool organization, and I wish they had an affiliate in Denver, because I think I would love to work for them someday!
My last session was "Never wear your PJs to the Grocery Store: How to work with and empower your board." Which gave some practical advice for working with a board of directors. The speaker had many stories and examples from her professional experience which were entertaining, and informative. I hope to be able to use this knowledge someday.
The conference was really educational, I really started thinking about starting classwork, and going back to school. I do miss being a student, and I'm excited to start taking classes again (hopefully this fall).
I also had a great time connecting with other NCCC alums, at the conference and during my free time. I'm so grateful for friends that let me crash at their house, and will join me for entertaining evenings of catching up and reliving the best years of my life!
I just got back from the Alliance Management Leadership Institute (AMI) conference in Kansas City, MO. It was such an interesting experience, I learned a lot, and now have a few things to think about, especially in regards to continuing education, and my path in the future. I attended several sessions that gave me an introduction to topics I had never considered before, and others gave practical tips for nonprofit work, and marketing yourself in the nonprofit sector.
The first session I attended was "It is time for an ethical upgrade." The speaker mostly talked about nonprofit status and gave examples of how nonprofits, and heads of some organizations are exploiting their status for tax breaks, or currying political favor. It was interesting, but I didn't really find it relevant to me.
My next session was "When to Let Go and How to Hold on: Managing Staff/Volunteer Turnover and Retention." The entire session taught a "get to know others teambuilder." As a self reflective person I found the teambuilder interesting. I may post my personal notes on it as my next blog. As a former teamleader I didn't really get anything new out of the session.
Then I attended "Recognize the Hidden Rules of Economic Diversity" which was a really interesting session. It showed practical differences in social behavior in different socioeconomic classes. The lecture was based on A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne, which I really want to read and keep learning about.
My 4th session was "Personal Branding: How to stand out in a Competitive Job Market." The speaker, Duane Hallock talked about the importance of what prospective employers find when they google your name. He recommended that everyone be findable using social media, allowing employers to find you personally (facebook), professionally (linkedin), and as a dynamic creative individual with ideas, hobbies, and a life that is more than the one dimensionally portrayal that appears on your resume/cover letter (blogs/twitter). While I am proud of the accomplishments you can find when you google my name (most of which are newspaper articles from various Americorps NCCC articles) I also now see that it would be beneficial to make this blog findable, so my name and email address are now attached to this blog, I've updated my facebook, and linkedin profiles, and I invite the public to follow me on Twitter @KatieHanchuruck.
My fifth session was the most entertaining speaker. The social media outreach rep from Garmin (Jake) talked about using social media in nonprofits to facilitate communication, and stay connected. His talk is really what motivated me to get on Twitter.
Thursday was case study day, and my team went to the Youth Volunteer Corps National headquarters and heard about their organization, and what direction they are heading toward, and their plans for increasing their number of affiliates. We looked over their plans, and what they have in place, and gave them advice and strategies to move forward in meeting their goals. Doing a case study was such an interesting way to gain a practical experience. Based on the discussion from the people I was working with it seems that theoretical case studies done in class are a big part of the classes people take. Anyway the staff at YVC said we had given them several new ideas to work on, and several ideas they had previously considered, which helped to validate their ideas, which was pretty cool to hear. YVC seems like a really cool organization, and I wish they had an affiliate in Denver, because I think I would love to work for them someday!
My last session was "Never wear your PJs to the Grocery Store: How to work with and empower your board." Which gave some practical advice for working with a board of directors. The speaker had many stories and examples from her professional experience which were entertaining, and informative. I hope to be able to use this knowledge someday.
The conference was really educational, I really started thinking about starting classwork, and going back to school. I do miss being a student, and I'm excited to start taking classes again (hopefully this fall).
I also had a great time connecting with other NCCC alums, at the conference and during my free time. I'm so grateful for friends that let me crash at their house, and will join me for entertaining evenings of catching up and reliving the best years of my life!
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