35 Day Project: Sharing the prize

On Sunday (the day the project kicked off, which I find to be less than coincidental) I got some very exciting news.  My friend and fellow Pittsburgh social media maven Sue contacted me to let me know I had won a contest on her blog.  She had two tickets to the Tuesday night show of the Pittsburgh Opera's production of Madama Butterfly.  As soon as the contest had been announced, I relentlessly entered every single way offered (daily tweets, blog comments, etc.).  It was pretty clear I wanted to win.  And, as it turned out, my tenacity paid off, because I did indeed win the tickets.  I was pretty over the moon.

The show would begin at 7.  I knew that it was unlikely Steve would want to, or be able to go with me, so I asked him if I minded if I shared the prize with a friend.  Another fabulous Pittsburgh woman, Becky, had entered to win the tickets as well.  Becky is, in short, awesome.  She is a hard working mother of two, she is training for the Pittsburgh half marathon, she is a weight loss champ, and she is just a good person.  I felt like she deserved to have a night of operatic magic.

So, my act of kindness yesterday was that I shared my prize, and invited Becky to go with me.  We met after she was done working, and sat in some amazing seats for 3 hours of sheer brilliance.

As we were talking, Becky mentioned that she had mentioned the contest to her husband, and he, like my husband, seemed less than interested in attending.  So, in the end, it all worked out.  My act of kindness to Becky was a night at the opera, and my act of kindness to our husbands was a night NOT at the opera.

35 Day Project: Make Room For Kids

Image courtesy of That's Church.

There is an amazing organization championed by one of my most favorite Pittsburgh folks ever, Virginia Montanez, of the awesome blog That's Church.  The organization is called "Make Room for Kids", and it is an extension of the Austin's Playroom Project at the Mario Lemiux Foundation.  Their mission is to bring video games, and dvd/entertainment equipment to the kids staying at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.  These are kids who are bravely battling some serious illnesses, often confined to their hospital rooms for very long stays.  Make Room For Kids provides the hospital with gaming equipment that these kids can use during their stay, helping them pass the time, and for a little while, just feel like kids.  There is so much more to their backstory, which Virginia has outlined here, and I really encourage you to read it.

The program continues to expand and grow, and with it, so do the needs for additional equipment and movies.  Remember, these are for sick kid.  How does one say no to that?  They answer is, you don't.  Today, in her blog post, Virginia made an appeal.  An Amazon Wish List has been created, with some of the items they were hoping to add to the collection for Make Room For Kids.  So, for the second day of the 35 Day Project, I decided to purchase and item off of the wish list.  It was something small, a movie.  And I was able to use some Amazon points we had accumulated.  It was a simple act; to me, it was just a movie, but to a sick kid, it is a few minutes of happiness.

Yet another example of why Pittsburgh is so great, and why I am proud to be a part of it.

35 Day Project: Acts by my friends

I am super excited that already, several of my friends have begun performing acts of kindness as part of the 35 Day Project!

A close high school friend, Laura, made a donation to our college alma mater, Ohio University, in my honor. I cannot tell you how deeply touched I was!

My friend Becky blogged about how she paid for the person behind her in the drive thru.  What a great example she is setting for her kids!

My author friend Lily told me she gave blogging awards to several of her blogger friends.  I hope it made their day!

Great work friends, the project is off to a smashing start!

35 Day Project: Richard G. Snyder YMCA Triathlon Volunteer

Hopefully by now, most of you have read about how I am celebrating my upcoming 35th birthday with 35 days of kindness, and that many of my friends are also performing acts of kindness during that time to help me celebrate.  Well, the kickoff for the 35 Day Project was today.  I decided to kick this project off with style (and a little early) by spending both mornings this weekend volunteering.  

I live very close to the Richard G. Snyder YMCA campus, and this beautiful new facility is such an asset to our community.  I am also a board member for the United Way of Armstrong County, and the YMCA is one of our recipient agencies, so I was excited to be able to support them on a personal level.  The YMCA held its very first triathlon this weekend, and I was pretty excited to be helping out.  The event was being broken into two days.  Saturday, March 16th, was the adult triathlon.  It consisted of a 5k run, 300 yard swim,  and 10k bike ride.  I woke up Saturday morning and it was cold and wet, and I was wondering how these athletes did it.  I had no idea what was in store.  When I got to the event, I helped with the registration process.  Once all participants were registered, and the run portion had begun, I then moved out to help make sure all runners crossed the finish mat, to ensure their times were correctly recorded, and direct them to the pool area. Once they finished swimming, I helped direct them to the start line for the bike ride.  Then I got to stand at the finish line and watch all the participants finish.  What. A. Rush.  I was totally in awe of every single participant.  The weather was certainly not pleasant, as rain/snow/ice fell intermittently, and parts of the bike train were muddy and mushy.  But they pushed on.  I have so much respect for the tenacity of these participants.  After everyone was finished, times were tallied, and awards granted.  All in all, it was a great morning.

Today, the second half of the event was held, a kids' triathlon for children 14 and under.  Their event consisted of a 1 mile run, 100 yard swim, and 5k bike ride.  These kids were hard core!  Our youngest participant was a 6 year old girl!  I helped for registration again this morning, then I moved out to the running and bike trail to help as safety patrol.  There are spots where the trail intersects with a street, so I was positioned at one of those points to stop any car traffic and allow the kids to safely continue along the trail.  This meant that I got to see each participant twice during their run and twice during their bike ride.  I was so tickled to see these kids pushing themselves, and they seemed like they were having a total blast in the process.  To see the looks of accomplishment on their faces made standing in the cold totally worthwhile.  One of the perks of being stationed on the trail was the fact that I got to cheer for each and every participant as they competed.  And the thing that impressed me was, as I cheered, nearly every single child thanked me for the encouragement.  (This whole kindness thing is totally working.)  I even got a hug from one girl after it was all over.

What a great resource the YMCA is to our community, offering a wonderful facility and fantastic events such as this to help support a healthy lifestyle.  It was such an honor to help out with the triathlon, and I can think of no better way to have kicked off the 35 Day Project.

To see more photos from the triathlon, view my flickr set here (sorry they are grainy, all I had was my iphone and it was so cold out!)

Tiffany's Soapbox: Inbox Zero

By now, the term "inbox zero" is a buzzword in tech and social media circles.  The first time I ever heard about it was from Merlin Mann, who was the first person talking about it, and he first started talking about it years ago.  The idea is that people need to reclaim their lives, and their email.  By having your inbox consistently having zero messages in it, you have nothing hanging over your head.  All things are in their proper places, and dealt with in a timely manner.  Merlin Mann's original ideas had a lot of depth, and wisdom.  I could never ever be mad at Merlin Mann, he is simply too awesome.

However, this idea has been morphed into several phone applications that promise to lead you to the land of the mythical inbox zero, and in the process a lot of Merlin's original wisdom has been glossed over.  For example, the Mailbox app has been raising a lot of eyebrows, and claims it will have you "winning at email" in no time.  First off, can we let the whole "winning" thing die already?  No?  Ok.  Moving on.  In order to download the Mailbox app, you had to wait in a virtual que with other potential users.  When I signed up, there were over 600,000 people ahead of me in the virtual que.  My place in line moved about 15,000 spots a day.  Finally after waiting over a month, probably close to six weeks, my turn to become a Mailbox user came this week.

Guess what?

I hate it.  First off, it only works with gmail, from what I can tell.  While this is primarily what I use, I do have other email addresses as well.  Second, all of the preset filters and folders I created in gmail do not show up. Instead, all my old emails are archived (without being organized).  And the solution to getting to inbox zero is basically to have messages delayed until you are willing to deal with them.  There is a "later" option that lets you determine how long you want to delay them.  You can also make lists to add emails to to sort them and get them out of your inbox.  But that is what I already did by having filters and folders set up in gmail.  I was so annoyed that I gave up on the app completely.  In fact these issues I state may be easily fixed, I was just too annoyed to bother.  It just seemed like it was not going to work for me.

Here is the rub: if I delete the app, I have to start all over in the virtual que.  So, instead, I kept the app, but do not use it.  How crazy is that?  It has actually made my email more complicated!

This app may be great for business people, who live and die by email.  However, for the everyday man on the street, I am not sure this is a real solution.  This version of inbox zero, taking emails and delaying them or shoving them, unanswered, into lists, just to have an empty inbox?  It sounds like a five year old pushing their toys under the bed and claiming to have cleaned their bedroom.

I will stick the system I already have.  Until the next big thing comes along of course.

Cartoons by Hubby: The Beans Got Burned

The Backstory: I had a bit of a cooking catastrophe today, which is pretty rare for me.  I wanted to make black beans as part of dinner.  I had dried beans, but forgot to soak them overnight.  However, I know you can cook them in the pressure cooker without soaking them first, you just need to cook them a little longer.  Apparently, I judged poorly.  The beans burned, and charred bean residue was stuck inside my pressure cooker.  Hubby had a unique suggestion on how to clean it.  A suggestion, as I pointed out, that could have messy consequences.  As a result, he drew an entire comic strip dedicated to the Burned Bean Issue of 2013.

Announcing the 35 Day Project

For months now, I have been thinking of ways to celebrate my upcoming 35th Birthday next month.  While a trip, or a big party, would be fun, I am really feeling the need to do something bigger, something more, something....for others.  After much thought and consideration, I have decided to undergo a large scale kindness project for the 35 day leading up to and including my birthday.  And I would like your help.

Presenting: The 35 Day Project

Here are the details:

• The 35 Day Project starts on March 17th, and ends on April 20th (my 35th birthday).

• The idea is to spread kindness to others during these 35 days.

• I am asking each person who wants to participate to engage in at least 1 (one) act of kindness during the 35 days (March 17-April 20).  If you want to do more, great, but I am only asking for 1 act, on 1 day, sometime during this time frame.

• Those who are on Facebook can ask to be added to a group I set up for the project here.

• Those who use Twitter, when taking about the project, make sure you use the hashtag #35DayProject

• If you do participate, and would like me to feature your act/acts of kindness on the blog, contact me.  I would like to share your stories!

• If you want to participate but want more details, either join the Facebook group or email me using the links above.  I am happy to bounce around ideas!

Throughout the 35 Day Project, I will also be doing acts of kindness, both for people I know and people I do not know, and I will be talking about them in future posts.  I really hope this inspires you all to join in.

One of my friends suggested I make up cards that can be handed out by participants, explaining this project. I am working on this, and will be happy to provide any of my readers with the completed resource.  Just contact me.

My biggest wish for my 35th birthday is to put kindness out into the world.  Will you help my wish come true?