The moment has come...voting is wrapping up for the Next Top Credit Union Executive contest and I need your vote, if you have not already. Voting ends July 31st!
Please take a moment to visit the voting page, and vote for me, Bruce Ulrich. I stand to win some great education scholarships.
NOTE: You can read more about the contest AFTER you vote for me. ;)
I was recently nominated to participate in a competition called the Next Top Credit Union Executive. It is put on by CUES (Credit Union Executive Society) each year. This year, I was 1 of 113 nominations and had to prepare a YouTube video (see below) describing a project that I am working on at my credit union or an idea I would pitch to help change my credit union or the industry as a whole.
After getting the video application sent in, I ended up being 1 of 31 applicants (I would say in the nation, but there are people from Canada and even Australia!). Now, each of us is trying to gather as many votes as possible to move on to the next stage. The top 15 with the most votes collected will then be required to write a 500-700 word blog post telling of the progress of their particular project, as well as another video.
Then, judges will help select the top 5 to be finalists that will then travel to Florida in November to present at the CUES' conference.
This is an honor for me to compete head-to-head with some of the brightest minds in the credit union industry and I would appreciate your vote.
Don't worry, I will be mentioning this some, but not all of the time. I won't bug you to death about it...it is not a "daily vote" kind of thing. Each legitimate email address can vote once. That's it.
So please, spread the word...send this to your friends that owe you a favor...oh, and watch my short video. I'd love to know your thoughts!
Thanks!
I start packing our bag. The anticipation is killing me. I am giddy and fully of excitement. The next day comes, and we are both ready, checking the phone and door often for any sign of Grandma.
Rebecca's mom genorously agreed to keep our two little ones this past weekend so that we could have a weekend hereaway. What in the world am I talking about? Am I making up words? Well, for this particular post, yes. That's exactly what I'm doing.
We wanted to get away, but we wanted to stay here. Therefore, we declared it a hereaway and went to the Old Capitol Inn here in Jackson. It is technically "away," but it is only like 20 minutes from my house, so we were also still technically "here."
It was so nice though.
Friday night, we "left town" at about 7:00. We went to the little bed and breakfast and checked in. Then, we went straight to Bravo Italian restaurant for a nice dinner. That was later than we were used to eating, and we didn't finish there until after 10:00. It was so nice to enjoy a nice glass of wine with dinner and just each other's company.
We went back to the Walter Anderson room (yes, a room full of Walter Anderson's art and decor to match...for those of you that don't know, Walter Anderson is a well-known Mississippi artist that paints mostly in black and white.) to enjoy a bottle of champagne that we had brought and put on ice the entire time we were at dinner. We threw on one of the Redbox movies that we had rented and just relaxed.
The next morning, we wanted to see what the included breakfast of this "bed and breakfast" was all about. We went downstairs at about 8:30 and checked it out. They had quite a spread, but we found that so much of it was just too rich. Very heavy butter used in the eggs, the cheesy grits and just about everything else. The coffee was good and hot, so we enjoyed it nonetheless.
After that, we saw that it was actually not raining...for the first time in a week...so we hit the big city of Jackson for a walk. We walked over to see the War Memorial and the Old Capitol. Then, we just saw some of the neat, old buildings that are interspersed downtown, many of which are dilapidated and uninhabited. On our way back, we started to get a bit hungry. We walked toward Congress St Bar and Grill because they have a mean burger. Closed. Everything we came across on this mid-Saturday was closed. We even ran across three Irishmen visiting our city. They were headed toward the Congress St Bar and Grill and, after we saw that the lights were not even on at the restaurant, we told them about most places being closed that day. One of them said in a great Irish accent, "This is the quietest city in the world." We instructed them on how to get to Sal and Mookie's and then headed back to the Old Capitol Inn to get our car.
We were still craving a burger so we hit up Rooster's. We wanted to "eat light" so we split a burger, but got a whole order of fries and whole order of onion rings. As usual, we left there so full we could barely move.
After that, we did a bit of shopping and then headed back to the hotel to just watch some tv and unwind. We soon got ready for dinner that night at The Parker House. First, we went downstairs to enjoy some wine and cheese in the lobby of the Inn. There we were met with two other couples about our age, celebrating special occasions and getting away from their kids, much like our situation. We were not celebrating any occassion necessarily, but definitely getting away from the kids. Also, we were met by a lobby full of elderly ballet-attendees. There was a ballet competition in town and they were there to see it from Mobile, AL.
After our delicious meal at Parker House, we convened back at the Old Capital Inn where, at this point, it was beginning to feel a bit like home.
The next day, we had a lazy morning and finished it off by seeing The Amazing Spider-Man, of which we were both very fond of.
Overall, it was a great experience and I would definitely recommend the Old Capitol Inn for anyone here in town wanting a weekend hereaway or anyone from out of town to stay at an old, classy place with a lot of character.
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Anne Marie, my second child, is progressing right along in her first stages of life. It seems like yesterday that we were in the hospital with her. Yet, here we are, three months later, looking at her in awe.
I cannot believe how beautiful she is already! She has such a personality. Just tonight, she was crying and crying as Rebecca dressed her. I went in there to see what was happening, and talked to her a bit. She quieted right down. That's not to say that Rebecca wasn't doing a good job, I really think it is because she had not seen her daddy all day pretty much and just wanted to talk to me. She started cooing and grunting and gave me a few smiles. It definitely made my day.
Three months old...and she's already strong, holding her head up quite well. I cannot wait to see some of her other accomplishments in the coming months!
