match point, set, love

I flew to Alabama. i have not been back since Christmas. Just stepping off the plane was refreshing. The weather here in Chicago has been topping off around 40 degrees. It was a beautiful (and shockingly not humid) 80 degrees in Mobile. I never thought I would be so happy to walk down the tarmac of the mobile airport/post office. I was actually supposed to arrive in Mobile early in the day, but due to factors ( I would like to blame on other things than me, but lets be honest) I missed my flight and did not touchdown until 4pm. I still just got to chill and hang out with my parents before the festivities began.
Friday morning was the first part of the Tournament. Let me start from the beginning. In honor of Kerri and to benefit St. Judes, the Kerri Castello Foundation, consisting Kerri's parents, my parents, my friend Hallie, and some other rock stars, put together this fundraiser. It was a three day tennis tournament, a big party at Felix's Fish Camp, and a silent auction. I was hoping that there would be more people from our graduating class to support Kerri, but only a handful showed up. That being said, there was still about 350 at the party Saturday Night. Some people were flashy givers and some did not want to be recognized at all. Either way it didn't matter. The most important thing is that at the end of the day, after costs, the foundation sent St. Jude's a check for over $80,000! Can you believe that?! I had complete confidence in the committee and people's willingness to give to a worthy cause, but I would have never guessed that in three days time, in little ole Mobile, Alabama, we could do something like that!
It was an amazing weekend, and I was on a high all weekend. I loved seeing my family, even though it was a short trip. My parents worked their butts off. They made sure everything was in place for the Castello's and no one had to stress. My dad even became bartender for awhile. I got to spend some good quality time with Hallie, whom i totally admire. She deferred med school for a year to work on this fundraiser and at Camp rap-a-hope. Plus, she's just fun to hang out with and shares my same appreciation for red wine!
All in all the weekend was a success, and yes it was in fact a whirlwind trip, what do you expect.

cross town clash

The weekend does not end there. Julie Haferkamp, the one and only, got us tickets to the Cubs- Cardinals game at Wrigley. I was the o nly one wearing Chicago attire, I was afraid I was going to get punched by one of the St. Louis girls. Yes, I cheered for the Cards last year when they won the World Series, but lets be honest, I'm a Chicago girl at heart.
It was just fun to spend the day with Julie, Nina, and Jenee. And it was fun to drink beer and eat hot dogs, I think Nina was more excited about that than the actual game. By the second inning, she had downed two hot dogs, she may look petite, but it just an act.
So the cubs lost, but thats just kind of par for the course. Wow, I sound like such a Chicagoan, I doubt them, yet I love them.
I had to leave early because I had to work, but I was just as excited to go to Second City because this week is the 10th anniversary of the Chicago Improv festival. Troupes from all over the world were here performing and anyone who got their start in Chicago was in town for the week. Couple members of the MADtv cast performed this week, the cast from Boom Chicago,and some random celebrities were here too. It was a fun week to be at work. It was so surreal to me to go out after work as we always do and be sitting next to Ike Berrenholtz or Nicole Parker. They were very humble and ten years ago were all in our same shoes, but it was still pretty cool to be sitting next to them having a beer.

On Your "Mark", Get Set, Go!

A great end to the weekend. Friday night turned out to be perfect and I really did need the night off.
I had taken Saturday night off too. It was the first annual Make Your Mark Foundation Fundraiser benefitting pediatric cancer research held at White Sox Park. I never knew Mark Staehley, the boy behind this fundraiser who died of nueroblastoma just over a year ago. However, I thought it was a good outlet for me to get involved with a children's fundraiser that mirrors Kerri's organization. The Fogltons (my second family), knew Mark personally and told me about his battle with cancer and what his did for Chicago Childrens Hospital. I will try to do his story justice, but forgive me if a skip something. He was a patient there for almost 5 years; even though he was just a kid when he was going through chemo, he wanted to make sure he got to help the other kids at the hospital. He started collecting donated toys to bring to the kids so that any time they were having a surgery, procedure, or just a bad day, they could choose a toy to have. Well in short, he collected thousands of toys for the kids o n his floor. This past Christmas, the first since he passed away, his family and friends helped collect over 25,000 toys in his honor. So many toys that they were able to expand their territory and send toys over to Northwestern, where some patients have procedures done. So the fundraiser last night helped raise money to continue the toy chest as well as a scholarship in Mark's honor and money towards pediatric cancer research. What I'm telling you is all in a nutshell of course and I am leaving so much out, but I wanted to give you an idea of what an amazing person this 17 year old was, and what a "mark" he left on everyone. There are so many things about his story that relate to my friend kerri, it's hard to ignore. I'm so happy I got to be part of this organization and help his family in anyway. I feel like by working with the Staehleys I am continuing Mark and Kerri's memory. Kerri passed away five years ago this week. If I can't be home being a bigger part of her foundation (which is having its big fundraiser next weekend) and I am so glad I can do what I can for Mark. The night was a huge success. Somewhere around 400 people were at the ball park. We watched a video about Mark on the score board and had the whole club house to ourselves. Open bar, lots of food, and most importantly, lots of money that went straight to Children Hospital!

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, don't cry

I'm going to be totally honest: I was having a bad day. I was going to drive down to Columbia for Tap Day. My plan was to leave late thursday night or really early friday morning, the catch is, i would have to be back first thing Saturday. Tap Day is one of my favorite memories from Mizzou and QEBH means so much to me. Yet, at the last minute on Thursday I decided it would be really hard to drive six hours only to turn right back around. Basically I would have been driving longer than I would have actually been in Columbia. I did that a couple weeks ago for Stuth's wedding, and while it was totally worth it, gas is expensive and it took me like a week to get caught up on sleep. I thought i would be ok with the decision, but once i had made up my mind and offered to work for someone else, I immediately regretted it. Too late by that point. As the night went on I got even more angry with myself for not trying harder to go. And not to pull others tragedy into my on life, but i think its been a rough week for everyone. How can you not relate to the tragedy at Virginia Tech? Now more than ever i just really wanted to be back at Mizzou, among other students and the friendly comaradery of the University. Plus, I just really really miss my friends. I've made some great friends here in Chicago, don't get me wrong, but I just miss the people I can totally be myself with. It took four and half years to get there, i know these things don't happen over night. None-the-less, i just miss them.
I'm getting to my point, don't worry.
So, now i have all day friday off. I knew i needed to do something to keep my mind off of not being at Tap Day. It was a beautiful day, so i had decided that whatever i did, it was going to be outside. Out of no where I decided the best thing to do would be to go to the zoo! Yeah, i'm aware that I am 22 years old, but its free and just down the street. So Nina and I hiked up to Lincoln Park Zoo and spent the afternoon with the animals. It worked! maybe i just needed some sunlight, what ever it was, i don't care. Plus, we were older than everybody there by a good twenty years, but it was cute to see all these little kids screaming when they saw a giraffe or getting to pet the seals. You know where i'll be the next time i'm having a bad day.
It continued to get better. Since I had the night off anyway, i figured I would take advantage of it. My friend Nicole and I went to see our other friend Mary Beth in the opening night of her show, "Cowlick! The Musical!" I am thoroughly impressed. It was an hour-long show of completely improvised singing. Kudos. Next we hit up the playground theatre, where we saw my friend Dave's two man show "Baby Diego". Also quite funny. It definitely makes me want to work harder, these kids are good. And so, it was a day well spent. Things are good and I don't feel so bad about missing Tap Day. about 5 of the 7 Q's couldn't make it either. I will try harder next time. While I will always bleed black and gold, chicago is growing on me.

Midnight train to Aurora

So these are the yahoos I spend all my time with these days. I usually work 6 nights a week at the Second City, not just because I enjoy making money but because I thoroughly enjoy spending time with everyone there. I don't have many friends outside of work, and going to work is like playtime. I get paid to talk to people and see the show basically. So, now you can put some faces to names with these pictures.
We went on a feild trip together out to the casinos in Aurora. We took the last rain out at 11:45pm and the first train back to the city at 4:30am. Before we left, Rumsin and I had a midnight picnic of McDonalds and wine at Union Station. That was the first gamble of the night, eating Mcdonalds, but apparantly, it was my lucky night, smooth sailing!
We had the whole train car to ourselves to run a muck. I'm happy to report that nobody got totally spanked. Well some people lost the money they came with, but luckily nobody went to the atm to get (and lose) more money. Lee was the big winner with something like $600! He won it all on the two cent slots! Mary Beth doubled her money and i came home with $50, not too shabby. I was actually up more than that but after a while it got to feeling like play money and i just kept putting more into he slots. I also took my bosses advice and played roulette, thanks alot mike conway, I've never lost $10 so quickly. So, I cut myself off and walked away. I'm pretty proud of myself, I only brought the money I made that night which was only $30.50, by far the least amount since I've been a server. I thought it was a bad sign but turns out it was just enough to come out a winner.
So these last pictures are from the other night at work. Once again, thought it was going to be a no-money night but i was paid in full and laughed until I cried, totally worth it. First of all, Mike Kelley forgot his work shirt, so i gave him my extra one. Um, we're not exactly the same size, but he made it fit. Then, Bryan the bartender was walking behind the bar and his pants got caught on the ice cream cooler and ripped a huge hole in his pants. Now if that wasn't good enough, he was wearing tie-dye boxers. How could he have know this was going to be the day that he was going to need to wear special undergarments? Just lucky i guess.
The highlight of the evening was Joyce Sloane, The producer of the Second City who has been these forever (literally), was giving her jewelry away to the women at the Second City. I know she probably doesn't even know my name, and it might be cheesy to say this, but I will always cherish that I have something of hers. She is like the grandmother of this theatre, she has seen every actor come through here. I hope I get the opportunity to work with her but if not, i will always have this beautiful silver ring she gave me. I haven't taken it off yet, mainly because its a little too small and its stuck on my finger, but also because I like it.

Orphan Easter

Nina and I decided to have our friends over for an Easter dinner. Since we can't go home and be with family, what a better way to celebrate with the other people in our life that we care about. It was kind of selfish of me, i mean, I had a party at MY apartment with MY friends so I wouldn't have to be alone on the holiday. It was worth it! We cooked a big ham ( a must), chicken, lasagna, and broccoli. Some of our friends brought other sides and desserts. I attempted to make a carrot cake but i left it in the oven to long and it looked kind of funny, so i just put some marshmellow peeps around the sides t distract from the odd shape and missing chunks (some fell off in transfer, oops). Thankfully our friend Jenee brought a funfetti cake too, we were set.
Most of us had to work that night so we headed straight to the Second City. People were pretty generous since it was easter and it was a busy night. In all honesty, if i couldn't be home with my family, I was happy to be at work. I thoroughly enjoy everyone at the second city and i never get sick of watching the show. Its like getting to watch everything we've been taught in our improv classes go successfully. No complaints here. Plus, our managers hid easter eggs all over the theatres for us to find. Most of them had candy in the, but a few had lottery tickets and one really well hidden one had $20 in it. I found 11 eggs, eyes like a hawk. I'm lucky to have such nice people to work for, it made my night.
Hoppy Easter everyone.

I drove down to Columbia for my friend Stuth's wedding. I was in town for less than 24 hours! I couldn't stay long because I had already agreed to work, but also, it was Mizzou's spring break, so most people weren't even in town. I did get to spend some quality time with a few of my favorite people though in the short time I was there. I left after work friday afternoon and pulled into the parking lot at 7:25 (the wedding started at 7:30!) I put my dress on in the car, I had to have a random wedding guest zip up the rest of my dress as the brides were walking down the aisle. But hey, I was there and that's the most important thing, right?
We dances, we ate a lot of cake. The cake had legos on top: a doctor lego, a camper lego and a tent. It was so cute, and totally appropriate for the couple.
before i knew it, it was time to drive back to Chicago and made it to work Saturday night. Once again, it was a refreshing trip, with all my friends who are so encouraging and wonderful to me. Whirlwind trip well worth it.
Congrats Stuth and Megan, We are so happy for you!

A tribute to Betty.

As many of you reading this already know, Grandma "Cranma" Betty passed away on March 20th. While she had been ill for a while, it was a surprise to all of us that she was gone so soon. Thank you to everyone who came to the services and who sent flowers and such nice cards. I hope I told you all how much I appreciate your love and support.
One great thing that came our of this unfortunate event was that it brought the entire family together. There were family and friends around I haven't seen since I was a little kid. Everyday more people came over with more food and fun stories. It was hard to say, "it was nice seeing you" since it was a funeral, but it was nice to see everyone. Cranma had been pushing us to all get together: she got her wish. Most importantly, Cranma is at peace, with her husband who she missed so much. So we should at peace for her too. We will miss you Gram.