#35 - Volunteer for a cause.

Thank you much to Rachel Felson for introducing me to The Pirate Store (a.k.a. 826 Valencia) last October during my half marathon / visit / vacation in San Francisco. I'd like to explain what all 826 is, but their website does a better job:

"826CHI is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
Our services are structured around the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.
With this in mind, we provide drop-in tutoring, after-school workshops, field trips, in-school tutoring, help for English language learners, and assistance with student publications.
All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student’s power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in his or her individual voice." http://www.826chi.org/about/mission_facts/

There are now 8 chapters born out of 826 Valencia: Boston, Chicago, LA, DC, Michigan, NYC, and Seattle. Yes, that's right. Michigan. Ann Arbor, to be exact. I'll get to that.

Each of the 8 chapters have a store front that is a front for the non-profit space (as was required in San Francisco when the first one opened) that raises money for the tutoring centers in hilarious was. 826 Valencia is The Pirate Store. When visiting The Pirate Store in San Francisco, I bought myself a little telescope in a pretty wooden box and a book, I Found This Funny, editted by Judd Apatow. (I love editting, by the way. But I have no idea if there are one or two t's in editting, and edited. Neither looks right. And I never look up what is right, which is very unlike me.) The book, by the way, is a brilliant compilation of stories, but is actually rarely hilariously funny. There's some irony. Or Judd Apatow just has a really weird sense of humor. Which would be weird since I find his work hilarious.

Anyways, once I realized that Ann Arbor had a chapter, I racked my brain for what the store could be that housed 826 Michigan. There had to be some place in Ann Arbor that has perplexed me for years with its oddity, but I just couldn't think of what it was. Fortunately, when I was back in Ann Arbor for my birthday about a month later with my parents, Chris, and Casey, I convinced them to find this place with me. It turns out the Ann Arbor chapter is the Liberty Street Robot Supply and Repair Store, which has INDEED bothered me for years! Did residents in Ann Arbor really have SO many robots that there was a need for a robot supply AND repair store?! The answer: no. It's 826. And the store is full of lovely little robots and robot-themed things. Hilarious. The store had so perplexed me that I took a picture of a robot with a very long mustache when I was there for spring break one year. Those photos were taken April 7, 2009. That's a good year and a half of wondering. I enjoy that.

The other stores, in case you're curious - and if you're still reading by this point, you probably are - are The Bigfoot Research Insitute of Greater Boston, the LA Time Travel Mart, the DC Museum of Unnatural History, the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company, the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company, and the Boring Store of Chicago.

"The Boring Store?" you might ask. "Chicago's is just the Boring Store? Really?" Well, if you stop there and just read the title, then, yes, that's all it is. It's definitely not a spy store. No way. You probably shouldn't even go there. I mean, there's no way that The Boring Store is a front for a spy store which is a front for 826. That would be way too sneaky.

I got a little more interested once I realized my buddy Hassan Ali works at the Boring Store. He risks being in the world of hipster in Wicker Park, but really, the hipsters just copy everything he does. He spends some good time in the Boring Store and has even been spy of the week!

So I applied online to do some voluntering. I went to the orientation, where I learned all about 826 Chi. It was lovely.

They have an incredibly convenient way to volunteer and a variety of ways to volunteer as well. I just had to go on the online calendar and pick what I wanted to do that still had openings. I decided to go to an in-school workshop on July 19.

Angela Mioglionico kindly drove me to Wicker Park, dropped me off, and I caught a ride with Kait and Billie to Pilsen, where 5 of us worked with kids in small groups to write stories of their own creation. We started with a character and then wound up with stories they illustrated, which would then be published at 826 and brought back to the school.

My group was quite vocal and funny. There were some fits, which 6th graders are wont to do. They were SO close to being hilarious in the story, but they were more prone to violence. I kept reminding them that the audience of their story were first graders, so we had to keep it tame. They claimed the first graders in their building loved blood. That was hard to argue against. My favorite part was when they decided one of the characters would have a police dog. What kind of police dog? A chihuahua. What was his name? Clockwise. Comic genius. Clockwise, however, was cut from the story in favor of a big, black-and-brown dog with a white belly whose name was Fiery, pronounced "fury." Oh well.

We wound up with a lovely story where 2 friends made up with an old friend who had been chasing them as they escaped jail, where they had been imprisoned for double dipping a spoon while making soup. They made up despite the fact that they all wanted to date the same girl. Way to overcome adversity and choose friendship, new friends. Good work.

It was a lovely experience and I will definitely do it again. I think the volunteer leader was nervous since I was a new volunteer and it was quite a rambuctuous group, but I explained later that I was a PE major and could handle a lot of chaos and silliness.

I can't wait to do more with 826!

#76 Don't drive for at least 10 days

I'm on day 11!

The one plus to my battery dying and being broke is that it made this item more than doable. I had to do it.

I've been biking to work every day and walking or roller blading everywhere else: out, grocery store, etc.

I've taken the train and gotten a few rides places.

The toughest part was when I came home one day to find that there would be no parking on my block for 14 days. And my battery was dead. So my new list leader Nader came by to jump my car and move it for me so I didn't have to drive nor got a ticket or towed. Thanks, buddy.

#50 Learn a Killer New Recipe

Like the mac & cheese and soup recipes, I decided I need to have at least 3 tries before I decided 1 was awesome.

My first attempt was by myself. It was bacon-wrapped, goat-cheese stuffed chicken with tomatoes. I don't love goat cheese. However, I learned something new about myself in this endeavor. I think. I seem to like warm goat cheese but not cold. I like goat cheese with marinara, and I liked it stuffed inside chicken. This ended up being a meal with just a little bread on the side and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My second attempt was with company: Chris Zann, Holly Munk, and Drea Stoit. I roasted an entire chicken! An entire chicken! Good for me. I also made bacon-wrapped stuffing and some asparagus for the side. The chicken turned out quite good and was way easier than I anticipated. The stuff was okay. Asaparagus is always good.

We enjoyed some pinot grigio and then opened up a bottle of late-harvest riesling I picked up in Napa years ago. No big deal. Ha. The lovely Drea brought angelfood cake and berries for dessert. Yum!

My last attempt was again alone. I intended to make us an appetizer when Zann, Holly, and Drea were over but I failed to notice that both the chicken and the potatoes took an hour and a half to roast, so I just stuck to the chicken. So I made myself potato skins for dinner on a Wednesday night. They were potato skins with blue cheese, bacon, scallions, and chive-sour cream that I mixed up myself. Yum. I would make these anytime... Anytime that I have over an hour and a half to prepare an appetizer anyways. Maybe when I have a big screen and can invite people over for football again, we'll do potato skins and stuffed mushrooms. I'll be an appetizer goddess one day.

#82 Visit the Sears Tower Observation Deck

I had lots of volunteers but it took an out-of-tower to actually make me go to the 103rd floor.

I have never gone up in the Sears (yeah, it's Willis now, but not in my heart) Tower before because

1. I have tourist anxiety and there's not much more touristy than going high up in the air of the tallest building in North America just to look around.

2. I have an elevator phobia. Don't worry. It's not a disorder (yet). I will never say no to something if there is an elevator, but I won't seek them out and I would definitely prefer the stairs. (We'll see how that works out when Zann & I climb those 103 flights later this year). But I really don't like them. Thanks to South Quad, where I stayed for volleyball camp in 7th and 8th grade and the elevators were always broken, so we'd get stuck in them and the big high school wrestlers would pry the doors apart between floors.

So after a lovely Italian dinner and before a night at Second City, Alan Fortunate and I weaved through the maze of rooms they make you go through before getting there and waited to be crammed into elevators with the rest of the small crowd.

I did okay on the elevator. Just sweaty palms. No freak out. With that much build up, I was nervous.

Weirdly, I'm totally cool with heights. Well, mostly. We went around and saw the views from all four cardinal directions: saw the aquarium, Soldier Field, Komisky, the lake, the Chicago Match Race boats (hey guys!), and on and on. It was cool. I guess.

We then waited for a giant family to take 250 pictures on the little overhang glass window things. I didn't do as well there. I could only squat just on the glass. No sitting. No standing. Definitely no lying down like Al did.

Done.

# 83 Have Dinner in 3 Neighborhoods I Have Never Been To

I thought this would be an easy one. I like food. I like new neighborhoods. Chicago has lots of fun neighborhoods. Cake. (Yum.)

It was not easy.

It turns out I've been to pretty much all of the neighborhoods on the north and west sides. Yeah, I was surprised too.

The dinners had to be in neighborhoods I had never BEEN to, so as long as I could say, "I played sofball in Pilsen" or "I've been to the DMV in Jefferson Park," they were just as off limits as "I live in North Center." (Yes, that's a place. It's where I live. I swear. It's between Lincoln Square and Roscoe Village. I swear. I know you've lived here all your life and you've never heard of it. It's a thing. No, really. It's a thing. There's a big pillar at Damen, Irving, and Lincoln that says "North Center." Yes, I know you remember seeing that now. That's the neighborhood name. Yep, weird.)

The first new neighborhood was a double dipper, so I already wrote about it. Edmund Cruz, Edric Cruz, and NAdar Elmasri accompanied me to Chinatown where we had a lovely but rushed meal. You can read about that back a few posts.

The second new neighborhood was Little Village with Edmund Cruz and Chris Zann. We had some delish Mexican food. I don't remember what they all were except that mine was a combo of delicious things and Ed had stuffed peppers. And we had margaritas. And then we went to see Lefko.

The third new neighborhood was Little Italy with Alan Fortunate (appropriate). We had a lovely, romantic 5pm dinner at an Italian tapas-type place. I had a hearts of palm salad; Al had some pasta; and we shared a pizza. Yum.

New neighborhoods: explored. I do think I'll try to eat in some of the ones I've just BEEN to, like Pilsen. I've heard good things. And this whole city is delicious. Might as well keep eating my way through it.

I am so hungry right now. Bubble tea, anyone?

#100 Go to Milwaukee's Summerfest

Well, we had some trials getting to Summerfest that fateful Thursday... My car wouldn't start. Norris was worried about his car. As was everyone else about their cars. Drinks went flying. Some of us spent money shopping that we didn't have. (Me.)

You can see some of the travel trials tension in the pre-concert pictures. We'll leave it at that.

But we made it. Though we were a bit late for Kid Cudi. Sorry. Kid Cuuuuuuudddiiii. So he might have put on a good show. I'm not sure.

Kanye killed it. (Is that how the kids say it?) So much fun. He even brought the ballerinas!

As you can see, there is a lot more glee in the post-concert pictures. Thanks, Ye! And thanks, Nader, Edric, Jessica, Norris, Ahmed, and Adrienne for accompanying me!

Two days later, I went to see Airborne Toxic Event with Zann, Holly, Lindsay, and Sahil. I don't really know them - Airborne, I mean, I know the people I went with - and they were lovely. I now want to listen to more of their music. (Make it happen, Ang!) They were fun and engaging and delightfully dance-worthy. Plus, during this trip I got to walk around Summerfest some.

I'd go back if someone I wanted to see was playing a smaller stage, but otherwise, I'll stick to the little street fests in the city. It was fun though!