broomball
BROOMBALL!
trivia
zbag dj-ing
gail, j.so, gail, tommy
adam & ryan !
Violetta !
union square
chrismukkah!
canadian @ sushi thai garden
liz + beer = snowboard break
ski rack
stowe
ahhh, snow
blue skies
Ilana & Elyse
@ the lodge
tele-brother
skidmore girls
family fishes 
is that bottle big enough?
new year's eve
girlies
wechter & j.so
fun!
It is amazing how much I have done and how fast time has passed since I last posted an entry in this blog.
I started graduate school. I am in a program called 2+ at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. It is typically a 2 year Master’s program, but for us two plusers, we have three years. The seven of us in this program do not have a background in psychology, and thus we have a few extra classes and an extra year of internship to place under our metaphorical belts. This program gives us an MA in Counseling Psychology. So no, I am not studying art.
Here are some highlights from the last couple few months to bring us up to date…
Odin takes me to a white sox game - awesome seats! Red Sox disappointed him.
kayaking! Famer brought a bunch of us down the Chicago river...
brewing beer @ Schwartz's...
Azy & I eat at PingPong one more time before she moved.
new school haircut!
In September, Skyway had the pleasure of playing in the Chicago Heavyweight Championship, a.k.a. Heavyweights, which is a tournament held annually in nearby Naperville, IL.
she-J & he-J
lisa checks out kate's fine ghetto booty
Skyway also had the pleasure of partying at Dan’s Michigan house, once again, when a team from a far away region dropped out of Regionals and and no other team wanted to take their place. We made it to Regionals after all!
matt & matt... one is a pirate.
I also had the pleasure of photographing the pirate’s, I mean Matt’s wedding the first weekend after school started. Vicki Tseng & Matt Snoap we wed over a weekend of fun in Cape Cod, MA. The Tsnoaps organized a bachelor/bachelorette night out in Provincetown and then had a ceremony on a beach in South Yarmouth. The reception was at the local art museum. All in all a fine weekend, seeing many friends, some of who have moved far away. Check out the photos: here.
In additions to shooting weddings and DePaul community music this Fall, I also had the privilege of photographing the premier of “Where the Wild Things Are” for 826.
Dave Eggers interviews Max
Spike Jonze
Catherine Keener
The weekend of October 17th, I was able to fly home for Allison Campell & Dodgeball Boy’s wedding… okay, his real name is Richie Angel. I made it just in time for dinner at the rehearsal dinner (I was a reader in the wedding), which was held at a lovely restaurant at the ground floor of their apartment building.
myself & allison @ her rehearsal dinner
my favorite chalkboard wall
The wedding was held at the Metropolitan Building in Long Island City. I brought the best wedding date ever, Mr. Alex Leininger. We had a great time and I got to see some of my closest Skidmore friends.
ACL, myself, EFlath
great friends from my undergraduate days...
Allison <3 DBB
The next morning, Alex and I made it down to Brooklyn to meet up with Adam, his friend Yvonne, Caroline, and Evan for brunch at Buttermilk Channel. Adam claims that they make the best bloody-marys in NYC, and I might have to agree. After an hour and a half wait! (we were originally told 3o min… but some large table wouldn’t get up…), we ate a lovely meal that was super tasty. The good people at Buttermilk felt so badly that we had to wait for so long, that while we stood in the crowded front of the restaurant we were served free bacon almonds and bloody-marys. MMMMMmmm!
bacon almonds!
Halloween was a couple weeks later, and that was an amazing weekend as well! Friday night Taylor had a party in his new “Dungeon” apartment. Then on Saturday Odin organized a party bus, per usual, and Alex, Baker, Edelen, Tim, Praveen, and Ralph flew out! Fijis and ultimate peeps partied it up classy limo-bus style. Per usual, we started at Odin’s home bar, the Aberdeen. We played flip-cup at the first bar, entered a costume contest (and WON! – go ninja, go ninja, go!) while drinking cheap pitchers at the next bar, and finally entered the back door of the dance club Evilolive. Sunday morning, we used our winnings, thanks boys, to eat brunch at Twisted Spoke.
I do not have many images from this weekend because, sadly, the party bus and its madness caused the loss of my camera…. pictures with it. I did purchase a new camera with it… and I am impressed by the advanced technology now in point and shoots. I got a new, and improved, cybershot to replace my old one.
This is the first photo I took with it:
Other Gail and I study at Noble Tree...
Here are some more:
my awesome cat, Parker
this is Adam... he is gross after seeing AFI... we are on our way to a houseparty... fun weekend.
where i like to grocery shop - the 3rd biggest whole foods in the country!
Liz and I went out for beers @ Simone's
NerdBird, by Amanda Whited
November was also a month of birthdays. I convinced Jen Song and Zach Higgs to celebrate their birthdays with me by throwing a party at the 44th Ward Dinner Party.
It is a great place to have a party, and I definitely stole the idea from Rachel and Sean. They serve an amazing assortment of grilled cheese, and the bar is a good size and has a DJ later in the evening. Odin also topped off the night (because I happened to throw this extravaganza on his actual birthday) by hiring an SUV limo to drive a bunch of us around the city and, of course, have a couple of drinks while we were doing so.
birthday party!
And yet again, Cathy Kim hosted a lovely Orphan Thanksgiving…
Thanksgiving!
After finishing all of my finals last week, I had a pretty fun weekend. First, after the new LUSH opening, I took Monty to see Zero 7 at the Metro, where we ran into a few other ultimate players and a NU classmate of mine. Then, on Saturday, we went to goaltimate and Mo’s housewarming party before seeing Ned, and his band, the Red Wigglers. And on Sunday, I went to Rashel’s very impressive baby shower in Lincolnwood before experiencing the lovely a cappella sounds of Invox at Fizz.
rashel's baby shower
Invoxication.
I know I have missed a lot… but I am trying to get back to blogging more often.
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of going out on a Tuesday night to the Hideout to see the very talented Mayhem String Band. Cathy knows the guitarist from highschool… so Leanne, Higgs and I tagged along for the visit!
mayhem string band!
And the next day I had the pleasure of lunching at Terzo Piano, thanks to Jen Song who hooked us up with the reservation (best hostess ever!). Higgs, Lisa, Sam and I ate some yummy food and checked out the view from the top of the new modern art wing of the Art Institute.
grilled vegetable salad
terzo piano interior
our delicious dessert
The rest of this entry will be a tribute to my awesome friends. I was not sure I would stay in Chicago, but I have met some great people who great friends… and we have a ton of fun. Here are photos from a late night out at the Aberdeen and a girly night at Jerrys.
courtesy of Wassef's iphone
look how fun we are
paris
jerrys
inside
j.so
sam cain
leanne
goodbye lunch for karen
our sweet SKYWAY jerseys
WTE rocks his kickass Abusement Park jersey (notice: full matching outfit)
Chixie Dix
summer CUSL mon/wed team
playing with bubbles during the shearwater/shellac concert
the amazing Kait of 826CHI
phish @ toyota park
leanne & alia
my fellow skiddie, Ian
Zbag & me
i <3 phish
Leanne getting three dudes to give us nice beer in the parking lot, chilling in my car, jennie being awesome and giving us 3 more free tickets, running into John from Jerrys and chilling with Ian and his friend. All in all… a pretty awesome concert. Yeah, and Phish definitely rocked out – sounded great!
view from the bleachers
It has been a while… so it is time for a photo update:
andy & shayna visit!
some july 4th beach ultimate to get ready for sandblast
j.so, vicki and taylor are creative with their grilling
tuesday night beach pick-up on Montrose
initiation by the roller derby girls at the Hoosier Hoedown party in Bloomington
Skyway takes 3rd @ Hoosier Hoedown!
movie in the park after Skyway track workout (Sunset Boulevard)
the wonderful skyline right next to the movie screen
my summer league team loves games. especially princess, cowboy, spoon (and skydiver).
pre-sandblast bbq @ my apartment
bbq!
Gladiators Ready!
gails!
ready to kick ass @ SANDBLAST
disc fencing for the pull
some of my other visitors gerrick, karen and lucky
AMERICA %@*# YEAH!
taylor <3s his singlet
akey!
boxed wine can be dangerous
what happens if you play against Zima Gun
I am quite busy between lots of ultimate, photographing weddings and figuring out details with school… but I will definitely update more soon!
I feel like I do nothing, but I am currently feeling pretty overwhelmed. I am trying to organize some ice hockey stuff for next year, my financial situation with school, photographing weddings, replacing my computer, and lots of ultimate frisbee. I am doing something productive everyday, yet without instant solutions, I am a bit doubtful lately.
Two week ago, I managed to escape for a weekend of fun at Poultry Days in Versailles (pronounced: ver-sales, awful, i know), Ohio. I drove Schaben, Liz and Higgs to the lovely camp grounds. Liz and I picked up with a Tulane alumni team, which coincidentally had some of Monty’s friends on it. We were called Nutria: Chicken of the Swamp. It was a super fun tournament with lots of people we knew there… and well, the best part: chicken dinners.
the lovely grass to camp on
Chicken Dinner!
Nutria: Chicken of the Swamp
team photo
One of the best bonuses of the weekend was that team USA, Canada, Great Britain and Taiwan all played for us to watch and then filtered into bracket play on Sunday.
Tigers’ Spring Mixer is over and ended with a nice Mixer Mixer at Mullen’s…
myself, melodie, dreea
I’ve decided to take a break from ice hockey for the summer and focus on ultimate. It will probably feel pretty nice to come back in the Fall after a break. In between ultimate, I had the pleasure of hosting my good buddy Andy Linn and his girlfriend Shayna for a few days while they were in town to see the Harry Potter exhibit. We toured Chicago on a boat, drank in the Signature Lounge of the Hancock Building, and explored the Museum of Science and Industry. The weather was nice and we consumed some good food and beer along the way.
under the bean
my visitors!
the fountain kept us cool
the view north from the Signature Lounge
On a boat!
Harry Potter exhibit
dissect an eye @ MSI (cow eyeball)
Then this past weekend I had a great time at the Southbend tournament: Down with the Clown. The team stayed at Dan’s awesome beach house and played pretty well. We went 2 and 6, but definitely can see our faults as well as our potential. It was a good time.. photos can be viewed.. here.
Skyway chilling at Dan's house
Two weeks ago I went to Saratoga Springs, NY for my 5-year Skidmore College reunion. It still feels like home to me up there. The weekend was nice… I spent some time with my parents that drove up to see me and my brother who lives nearby. I had a photograph framed in the alumni art show and got to see my local friends as well as my classmates. Hillary drove up from Connecticut so we could have our almost annual Downtowner evening on the town. It was nice to see all of my friends and family and spend a few days in a city I have grown to love. Everything was great except Sunday afternoon. Maddie and Natalia were in a bicycle race which I went over to watch and photograph. It was a 20 mile race with 1 mile laps on residential streets. Unfortunately, to make a long story short, Natalia never finished the last quarter mile. She collapsed on her bike and crashed it into the curb. We ran over… Craig gave her CPR, but Mo said that she passed out with no pulse after a mere 30 seconds after her fall. None of us witnessed the actual crash. Maddie, Karen, Craig, Mo and I watched as the EMTs tried to revive her and take her to the hospital. I was already late to meet my parents because I needed to fly home, but everyone else managed to go to the hospital. I got the call shortly after. Apparently, Natalia had a heart defect from birth, which none of us knew about, and apparently died of a massive heartattack. It was surreal… and it is still. I have never seen a dead person let alone have a close friend die. I feel for you Ryan (her 10-yr old son)… Creamed Asparagus is sad.
campus
Reunion was fun… saw some good friends like Meera, Evan, Hillary… and missed some friends that I wish would have been there. I met a fabulous woman on my cab ride over from the airport who was attending her 50-year reunion. I attended a panel discussion aboutu Obama and ate in the new dining hall. I was visited by Kaelyn and played trivia at DAs. I ate at Longfellows with my parents and Marc. I went out to Gaffney’s and ate Esperantos and Ravenous. We had fireworks and a dance party with a photobooth. We had a mini Fun Day and I went on an awesome hardhat tour with Hillary of the new Arthur Zankel Music Building. A geo-thermal building with a glass backdrop to stage that has an orchestra pit with a motorized stage lift for more room… and bamboo.. and tons of classrooms… glass, copper, black granite… with an outdoor amphitheater. Skidmore has a big place in my heart and I can’t wait to go back for another reunion.
Punk... I mean Kaelyn
painting studio... brings back memories
me & hillary
alumni artshow
maddie
maddie & natalia
My computer has been living at the Apple store for a while due to a broken internal power supply. Thus… here is an entry of just photographs in an attempt to catch up in posting:
three person drum set rockband
Cinco de Mayo cupcakes from MORE
Guacs with her cupcake
other gail
mack (sp?) line in millennium park
pizza crusts after last night of women's league
tasting drinks for gender blender
gails
spring league!
Dan's house in Michigan
z and dan by the water
ah... fresh water
the gang taking a morning walk to the bakery
cooking breakfast
chillin
2-ply: winners of the paper league beer pool!
alumni opening of the new modern wing
This past week was a ton of fun! I have had lots of little odds and ends to do, but managed to get out a lot at the same time. Monday I got to see Rose and had a nice dinner at Goose Island. I also caught a glimpse of the Blackhawks game on my tv with Alia and Bird. Tuesday night was girls night with Karen & Erika… we celebrated us all getting into schools (Karen: doctorate program for art history at USC, Erika: grad program for architecture at UIC) with Sangria and lots of food at Quartino. Later that night, I cheered on J. So’s co-worker as he performed in a Drag Race at Roscoe’s. Jen Song, Higgs and I enjoyed quite a ridiculous event with a pitcher of cosmos! Wednesday included a lunch with Tommy & Zarin downtown after a doctor appointment and an evening of silly escapades with Odin & Taylor… food with Z at Plan B and good beer and pool playing at Lemmings. On Thursday I had a pretty intense hockey game with my spring mixer team: Blue Steel after drinking all day at the Cubs vs. Reds game. Twirley invited a bunch of us to join him with tickets he found on craigslist and Higgs happened to already have one…
yay for wrigley being in walking distance from my apartment!
me & higgs enjoying the bleachers
nice view in the sun
the outfield
most of our group
Friday was a lovely day for biking! I got some stuff done and then met Monty at the Bourgeois Pig and then got some bike shorts at REI. Not as productive a day as I would have liked, but quite enjoyable. That night, in the wind, we had women’s league at the UIC fields and I followed that with partying it up with Liz Langer and her fellow UIC students. It was great fun. Saturday night I saw my good friend Seth perform with his sketch group LongPork at the Apollo Theater. The performance was impressively thoughtful and quite hysterical! Erika, her man Joey, Karen, Gerrick, Cathy Kim, Schwartz, Alia and Liz Langer joined me in watching them. After swinging by a shindig suggested by Tommy and Wassef’s bday part, a few of us ended up at the Four Moon Tavern and thus a long night begun. Sunday, yesterday, was pretty slow after a nice brunch at Kitsch’n and ended with an evening at Jerrys with just the original three sitting outside, enjoying the night air.
I wanted to mention a couple of cool things that I have not had the pleasure of mentioning yet. My good friend CJ, a roommate from Skidmore, just got a new kick-ass job at Killington Mountain School and everyone should read the article about it: KMS. Also, a year later, the Sun-Times posted an article about my awesome Paganello team: American Gladiators. Despite the fact that they spelled disc: “disk” and they focused a little too much on the 40 oz. beverages we brought with us, it is pretty great that our ultimate experience was shared with the world.
I will end this photoblog entry with an image I randomly took of my workspace:
from where I blog
After my return from Steamboat, I spent many days and hours fretting over my graduate school decision making. I visited both Chicago schools that I applied to ( I decided that I wanted to stay in Chitown ) and finally decided on Northwestern University. My three year program in counseling psychology starts this September, and I feel smart again after getting into a six person program (it is really a 25 person program, but they only take 6 individuals that do not have a background in psychology).
While I was in the process of deciding, I had the pleasure of enjoying two seders… one here with my friend Seth and his very funny friends (like I did last year) and one in New Jersey with my family.
The first day I arrived, I got to spend some quality time with my younger brother and his dog Bowdin.
brother
Bowdin looking scary while running
dog decoy on PHS football field
bonding on the kitchen floor
The other great part of visiting home is seeing my friends. After Shabbat dinner, I was able to go out to Morristown with ACL, Andy and Shayna. I was also able to take a quick trip to the mall on Friday with Hillary who was in NJ for Passover as well.
Hillary!
Despite having to deal with the rain, I managed to have a lovely day in NYC on Saturday. I spent most of the day with Allison… having brunch, going to three stores to try to find Matzo cak mix and baking a Passover cake for her easter dinner the next day (ironic, I know). The City Bakery was my next stop to spend some time catching up with my Chicago friend Adam who recently moved to NYC. Known for their hot chocolate, it is also a really interesting place with baked goods, macaroni and cheese (I think I remember a sign), a chocolate room and a bar! I finished up my evening with Jessica and Miles for dinner and a lovely walk from St. Mark’s all the way up to their apartment in the 40s.
getting teased with "Happy Passover" signs in the bread section
lettuce?!
Passover cake!
I had a great few days home! I was happy to be back in Chicago afterward to talk to some more friends about my decision that had to be made. I even fit in some trivia with Wassef and some watching of LOST with Cabby & Guacs.
