Ultimate Victory!

I've been playing Ultimate Frisbee for the past couple of months. Continuing to work hard at my technique, I've pretty much reached a plateau...until...today. Oh yes! I caught a frisbee in the end zone! And it wasn't even intended for me to catch:) I even jumped in the air to reach out for it. Of course when I caught it I almost cried and instead, droped to the ground and rolled around throwing the frisbee up in the air. Quite a celebration for those who were able to witness it. I'm finally moving up in the world!

A Not so Venetian Night

The day started out pretty cloudy and looked like it was going to rain. I met up with Lisa Lewis for breakfast at 8:30am at Eggclectic and had a tasty Mediterranean omlet. I haven't seen Lisa in a long time since she got married to Mr. Peter Lewis, one of my homies from the old small group. Actually, both Lisa and Peter were in my first HBC small group. It was nice to catch up with her and share stories and updates about what is going on in our lives. Her and Peter are doing well out in Elgin, but are thinking about moving into a single family home in the future. Following breakfast, I did a bunch of errands and made it over to Lake Arlington to go for a very hot and sweaty run. The sky was starting to turn and the clouds had disappeared. Jody and I hopped into the "squad car" aka the Lumina and voyaged to Alex Nuekomm's condo off of Sheridan to hangout and eat before Venetian Nights. I attempted to parallel park the squad car and Jody just laughed at me. I guess I need some training:) When we arrived at Alex's, there were several people there whom we didn't know...and actually I found out from Alex later on that he didn't really know 75% of the people there as well. One of his friends from YAM, Sara, brought a bunch of her out of town guests over. Nice people from Ohio and Georgia. As 8pm started approaching very quickly, Alex, Jody, and I jumped into a taxi and headed down to Buckingham fountain to meet up with the rest of the Yammers at Venetian Night. The taxi ride was probably the most expensive ride I've taken in a long time! But at least we got to our destination quickly and without delay. A few moments after we arrived, Josh Chen radioed in to Alex and told us where everyone was at...Balbo and LSD just a little north of Balbo on the lake side. Josh or someone he was with, picked an excellent spot. You could see everything pretty well. Jody and I are trying to figure out why thy called it Venetian Night. There was a really lame boat parade. Boats were lit up and decorated with an all things Chicago theme. You had a boat representing each sports team, a blues brothers boat, a Marshall Fields boat, and a boat with a bunch of cows? They were singing "who let the cows out...moo..moo..moo..moo." When you think Venetian I think Venice and Italy and lots of decorations and vendors and dancing and music...kinda like an upscale trendy carnival or festival. Not a lame boat parade. The Chicago Cubs boat almost tipped over and capsized at one point as the wind blew the scoreboard, which doubled as the boat's sail. Well at least the fireworks picked up the slack where the boats lacked. The fireworks were AMAZING and so unique. Unfortunately, the only thing to complain about there was the lame XRT music it was choreographed to. Other than that, we couldn't complain much. At the end of the evening, we wrapped Alex up in his blanket like a burrito and attempted to drag him down to the lake. He's pretty heavy for a small guy:) I guess you've got to have some weight to be able to run 18 miles in a couple hours. As soon as the fireworks were over, we hopped on another expensive taxi ride and headed home. A not so Venetian Night but a good one none the less.

Baila conmigo!

Rushed down to Summer Dance today to work on some photography and to hopefully work on some dance moves. Took the blue line in and got off at LaSalle. Tonight's live music was Salsa, Merengue, and Latin Jazz...quite a fabulous combo! It was a gorgeous evening and it would have been even better if I would have gotten asked to dance within the first hour. After the band took a break, finally, a nice short older gentleman by the name of Alverado asked me to dance. Sweet guy. He named every nationality I wasn't before I revealed my true heritage. He actually thought I was Colombiana! That was his first guess. And then he ran off every other Hispanic country. What an honor! I truly am an "honorary" latina! Al and I danced to some merengue and he asked me what clubs I go to. Didn't really have a whole lot to tell him about there:) After that about 2 songs later, a nice, larger, younger gentleman asked me to dance salsa. I think my feet were tired from standing most of the night as I wasn't as graceful as I normally am. Poor guy. He was dancing with Ramona 2-left feet. Finally, I got the honor to dance with an african american civil engineer named Teddie? I think that's what he said. He danced the last dance with me which was salsa but he was doing merengue to it. That sucked. It was like I was going against my instinct or something. My hips kept trying to move naturally to the rhythm and I kept having to tell them to do something else. When we finished, he asked if I wanted to grab lunch sometime. I smiled and said, "Naw" and walked off into the crowd. I think I snagged a few good pics this evening. My commute back to the burbs was a lot better than last week as I didn't have to transfer to a bus at all! Yay Chicago CTA! The ride home was pleasant, spent listening to the iPod and songs like "Dimelo" and "A Dios le pido." Next time, I need to bring some muchachos(boys) with me. Ones that will dance with me so I don't waste too much time standing around. Necesito mas practica! Dancing with the stars or bust!

A Day Off?

Today I took the day off. However, it didn't really feel like it. I began the day with a trip to Walmart's Vision Center for a follow up appointment to make sure my contact lenses were fitting properly on my eyes. Then I took a quick trip to Whole Foods to pick up some yummy organic food. Immediately following that, I hoofed it back to mi casa to meet up with Jody so we could journey into Chicago via the blue line together. Jody's artwork had been selected by Synovate to be displayed in their building on Adams and Riverside Plaza. We hung out and toured the artwork for about an hour, then busted back on the train. While on the train, we played a game of "trainspotter" which is where you pick an activity that people are doing while driving and then yell it out every time you see it happen. For example, every time we saw someone talking on their cell phone we would yell "cell phone." Gotta find someway to pass the time. We saw a "Fred Durst" look-a-like in a BMW on 90 and that's when the game got a little more fun. Jody started to wave at him while I just looked at him. We definitely made eye contact and then all of a sudden we lost him as the train sped past. Then as we finally approached Cumberland, we found him again and this time we got a HUGE smile from him. I wonder if he was the real Fred Durst. Back in the car and in rush hour traffic, I quickly drop Jody off at home, change and then head to HBC to meet up with Luis Peralta to discuss the plans for the ESL ministry. I agreed to continue to do ESL out in Elgin at Harvest House because I love the working with the people out there! So it was great news to know they still wanted me to help out:) As soon as our meeting was over, it was time to head out to the Racetrack for ESL. We had a great night of food and fellowship with Luke from the food ministry providing us with a meal. Then as the night ended, Lynda, one of our tutors, gave an amazing testimony about how God has really brought her through some majorly difficult times. It was a blessing and encouragement to us all. As the night ended, I headed back home to reunite with Jody and watch an episode of a ghost hunter show. That pretty much puts a cap on that day, thank goodness! I don't think you could cram anything else into it:) I'm just making the most of my singleness while I've still got it!

Sister, Sister

I received an e-mail from Tina Osbourn yesterday stating she needed some singers to volunteer for the "Sister Summit" better known as "What Not to Wear" this Wednesday which was today. So I giddy yapped my way up to Harvest Bible Chapel for a time of sisterhood filled with a skit, worship, message, and everyone's favorite, lots of sugary food! First, Ellen McInerney and someone else acted out an episode from "What Not to Wear" which was absolutely delightful. Ellen plays a great "Stacey." Following that, me and the gals headed up to the mics in the worship center and lead a time of worship under the direction of the very talented Tina Osbourn. Finally we heard a message from Lina Abujamra about putting off fear and putting on freedom. She is a physician who works in the emergency room and has just recently graduated from Northwestern with a Masters in Business. Why isn't this girl married? Anyways, the scripture she focused on was Matthew 14:22-33 the story of Jesus walking on water. It is amazing that even after 2 years of a ministry filled with miracles and seeing Jesus do all kinds of amazing things and yet the disciples are sitting in a boat, fearful of facing this storm of a lifetime. God allows the fearful circumstances in your life because it serves to test your faith. 1Peter 4:12 says "do not be surprised when faced with trials." In Hebrews it says that our salvation was made perfect through Christ's suffering. God allows fearful circumstances as it reveals our heart, Luke 6:45. God is aware of the fearful circumstances we are in. He knew his disciples were freaking out as he went up to the mountain to pray. He knows about it. Then He delays on purpose to give us an opportunity to show our faith. There is no doubt though, that He will deliver you but He wants you to recognize Him during those fearful circumstances. Just like Peter did as he was walking to Jesus and started to sink. "Save me" he said to Jesus and sure enough Jesus reached out his hand. Our God is a jealous God. He wants us to know that we need Him beyond anything else first and foremost. God wants to abolish our fear. We sometimes think that our freedom will come when the bad situation finally goes away. God wants us to experience that freedom now! During the storm. The way to freedom is through faith. So we need to ask for freedom and be willing to be obedient to God and take the first step. We need to keep our focus on Jesus by spending time with Him and other Christians. Develop the habit of looking at Jesus and going to the Lord first and not a human source. We must be willing to ask again and again. There are obstacles to the freedom God is ready to give us. We are distracted by other people, by the circumstance itself, and by even our ownselves. Finally, God's Will is accomplished when you are free Galatians 5:1! He wants to grow your faith. He wants you to get to know Him. He wants to be glorified! What are some practical ways we can apply this message? If you are fearful of your finances, give more. If you are fearful of a relationship and are having difficulties, love more. If you are fearful of health circumstances, live more. If you are fearful of what other people will think, reach out more. The evening ended with another time of worship and then out to the foyer for food and fellowship. Thank you God for never letting go of us, through calm and through storm you are always there. Whom then shall we fear?

Goodbye Yong Tak

On Sunday immediately following the water skiing experience and before small group, I ventured over to Michelle Thomas's condo to bid a farewell to a dear friend, Yong Tak. Yong will be moving to Arizona at the end of the week where his girlfriend and daughter reside. I helped out by the pool with a game of "find the keys at the bottom of the pool." I threw the keys into the pool while Yong, Chip, Michelle, and Carlos went to find them. We went back to the condo for food and hangout time which ended at 6:45pm as I had small group to attend and Yong, Michelle, Chris, and Carlos were off to the Schaumburg Improv theater. I will miss Young as he always knew the right things to say to cheer up this lady. Buena Suerte mi amigo!

Hello Lake Como

It's 4:45am on Sunday morning...what am I doing? Not sleeping! I'm up getting ready to go out on a speed boat with my friends and attempt water skiing for the first time!!! I wake up Julie, using the chipper sound of my voice, who is sleeping on the couch in my living room. Out of the house by 5:30am, we drive out to Palatine to meet up with Steve and Mark(aka Steve aka Mike) and then head out to Crystal Lake to pick up Jason. As we approach Jason's house, we decide to give him a call to let him know we were in his driveway. To his surprise, he wasn't expecting us to be so punctual. I don't think anyone on the trip expected me to be so "caffeinated" without the intake of caffeine. As we travelled, Steve managed to blow off one stop sign. He politely acknowledged its presence only slowing down slightly and then accelerating to epic proportions once he couldn't hear another vehicle within earshot. We traveled past a farm that had scary cut-outs with artistic renders of various vegetables. As we rolled into Lake Geneva, we stopped at a Starbucks to pick up some coffee. When I went to order my grande iced white mocha, the cashier asked if I wanted an extra shot of espresso. I told her that the people I was driving with would hang me if I had any more boosts of anything, especially espresso! From Lake Geneva we traveled just a little bit more before we reached our destination of “La Casa De Verano De Holvay” which is in Lake Como, WI. We unloaded our gear from the SUV and brought in onto the SS Holvay, which was parked ever so valiantly next to the pier. I didn’t know what to expect other than to have a lot of fun with a bunch of great people the Lord has blessed me with:) We were out on the water from about 8am-10am cruising around at about 20-30mph. No one was out on the lake! Que perfecto! Both Steve and Jason had no problems getting out on the wakeboard. Mark(aka Steve aka Mike) made some pretty daring attempts but didn't make it out of the water completely. We decided to head back to shore a little bit after 10am as we needed to refuel the boat and refuel our stomachs. I had to pee and everyone told me that was what the lake was for. I still managed to use the bathroom facilities several times before returning to the boat. Steve, Mark, Julie and I headed into town to get lunch and gas leaving Jason behind to watch the house. Mark tried to go into Subway with no shirt on and they totally kicked him out. We returned back to the casa, ate, and hopped back into the SS Holvay at about 11:30am. Then Julie attempted to both wakeboard and ski. Good attempts, no success. Then it was my turn. First off, I tried to suffocate myself by making the ladies large life jacket as skin tight as possible. I did not want to fall out of that thing! Then I tried to gracefully exit the boat. Wasn't prepared for that. I think I forgot to hold my breath and swallowed about a 1/2 gallon of water once I got in the lake. For there it took me about 10 minutes to get my skiis on. Finally, I floated out to the end of the rope and very casually cued Jason and company to "hit it." And we're off, and the rope is yanked out of my hands, arms are still attached to the body and skiis are seen floating next to me, not on my feet anymore. A second attempt was made and this time, no skiis came off, but I still never made it out of the water. After the 3rd time and the skiis coming off again, I called it a day and decided I need to fast and pray before I attempt to ski again:) Since skiing was not a natural talent of mine, I tried to entertain the ship with by serenading them with several renditions of classic rock tunes like Bohemiam Rhapsody, Come Sail Away, Sweet Child O' Mine...etc. Mark again attempted the skiis and wakeboard and this time came so close to being up on the water for about 3 seconds. He also took a nice face plant and was drag in the water for about 3 seconds probably swallowing about 3 gallons of water. Both Jason and Steve got another turn and showed off their professional skills jumping wakes and holding onto the cord with one hand putting all of us spectators to shame. I'm jealous and hope that someday I can be as cool as them:) We headed back to shore around 2pm, cleaned up boat and house, took some pics, fed some ducks, and headed back towards home. On the way home, I pretended to be a DJ and played some Indian, Polish, and Latino music off of the iPod. I think we've got some new fans of world music! We dropped off Jason first who I'm sure was ready to collaspe and take a nice nap. Steve and Julie headed off to a softball game and Mark headed home. My day had only just begun as I was off to a surprise going away party for my good friend Young Tak. More about that in the next blog. So here's to Lake Como, Jason and his hospitality, Mark(aka Steve aka Mike) and his massive video camera and sunblock, Steve and his stellar wakeboard, and to Julie and her multiple attempts. I am determined that next time I will succeed!

An Explosive Saturday

I did a lot on Saturday. I even woke up early...which for a Saturday is anytime before 10am. When I woke up, I began furiously writing blogs as I was behind by a couple of days. After that, I ventured out to Lake Arlington for a very lame 2mile run that I almost pooped out on. Gotta build up the endurance again and shave off some time to my mile splits so when I run the "Bucktown" in September, I can get a PR(personal record). Before I went to the lake, I went to Ritz camera on Rand and Arlington Heights Rd because I needed them to develop one of my photos to give to a friend for their b-day and also for a sale that I just made with a REALTOR. It's kinda a tradition of mine now to give a photo I personally took to friends on special occasions. The Burkett's, Revoredo's, Eric, Jene't, Jonathon Bueno, Dot, etc...all have a Ramona Ruskuls original. I've got another friend who I owe a picture to who just had a major b-day about a month ago. Now I'm going to add to this list, not by choice, but because Ritz doesn't understand how to print out an enlargement properly. If you want the details of this horrific event, please ask as to disclose them in this article would take up a lot of space. Ritz screwed up before, but I believe in 2nd chances. Now they took advantage of that and ruined the integrity of one of my favorite pictures because they couldn't understand and follow through on simple instructions and develop a photo properly. Needless to say, I am planning on dealing with them on Monday or Tuesday and will have an update as soon as I follow through. The rest of the evening went well as I attended church services again on Saturday night. Dr. Stowell focused on Psalm 73, where David cries out...why do good things happen to bad people? After that, I chatted with Joel and Mark about work and college. Then I had Joel carpool me to the Harris Bank lot where I met up with Julie, Steve, and Jason. We jumped into Steve's Blazer and headed down to Harry Caray's in Chicago to celebrate Jason's 27th b-day. Liam and Christina Burkett were there and gave Jason a lovely glow necklace. Perfect attire suitable for all the rave dancing he has been doing lately;) We enjoyed a very tasty meal of big prices but of big portions too so we had enough to take home and eat for another meal. I'd like to go back and take a tour of the place next time and really look at all the articles and memorabilia that was on the wall. Jody joined us for a little bit as well but had to leave as she wasn't feeling so good. I wish she could have been well enough to give us her Harry Caray impersonation which is priceless! On the way home trying to get onto the expressway we ran past the "singles" block party and forgot to drop Jason off. I don't know why we didn't just park the car. All of us could have attended and gotten married to someone at the party all in one night! As we continued on our way home, I tried to teach Jason some techno dance moves with the glowstick and Steve let us listen to various radio programming as he drove. Julie followed me home and spent the night at my casa to prepare for the early 5:30am wake up call to go out on a water skiing adventure the next day. Despite Ritz camera, the day turned out quite well wouldn't you say?

Krystal Waters in Chicago

Last night was such a GORGEOUS evening! The weather was perfect for a night in Chicago. I traveled into the city because my friend Krystal drove in from Grand Haven, MI to visit some Chicago friends for a day. I met Krystal through Kim Klotz-Webster. Kim was a camp counselor at Lutheran Summer Music camps and Krystal was one of her campers. Kim eventually recruited Krystal to go to Valpo and pursure her Bachelors in Music- specifically, Vocal Performance. She is a girl after my own heart as she is not a chirpy sorprano voice but a nice, rich, mezzo maybe even really a contralto. This girl is good when it comes to singing and it really stunk that her senior recital was on the worst day of weather in my entire lifetime! Now I just need to wait until she is singing on stage with the Lyric Opera. It was awesome to see Krystal and walk around downtown. We stopped by the Summerdance festival and listened to some live swing music and watched some great dancers cut the concrete in grant park. I took some pictures which turned out okay, but would have been a lot better if i had a digital SLR with mega zoom on it and at least 10 mega pixels:) From there, we hiked it up to the Grand Lux Cafe which Krystal had surprisingly never been to before. We had great conversations about our future career direction, relationships with boys/girls, Chorale, etc. Then Michael Beaver arrived to the scene to join us. He is a friend of Krystal's who also went to Valpo. The conversation got really good then as I heard stories of how the Phi Delts are now kicked off campus and the Phi Mu Alpha's were under probation. I miss college:) Krystal had to leave unfortunately and return back to Grand Haven where many Harry Potter parties were raging strong as the new JK Rowling book was released last night. I returned to the "el" but made a few stops along the way to take some night time snap shots of the theater district. I got on the blue line at Randolph at the Daley center and then had to get off at Clark and Lake which was the next stop. Because of construction, part of the service is down so all those who needed to go in the direction of O'Hare had to take a shuttle bus from Clark and Lake to get back on the blue line at Western and Milwaukee. So my typical 30 minute train ride turned into a 5 min ride to a 7 min walk and wait to a 10 min bus ride to a 40 min train ride to a 15 min car ride. Needless to say, i returned home at about 1:30am. Despite the commute home, the night was fantastic and I am so blessed to have Krystal as a friend:)

A Chilly Night on the Racetrack

It was cold on the racetrack tonight! But it didn't keep all of our students from staying home. I got the opportunity to substitute teach for a level 1 Beginners class as both tutor had previous commitments. It was great working with Rodrigo, Oscar, Ilda, and Guadalupe. They are willing to take risks and learn lots. The most memorable part of the evening was the comment that Natalie and Shawn made as i was getting their parking pass from them. "I Love this!" She exclaimed! They didn't want to leave the track. God has definitely blessed me with an amazing group of tutors who don't complain, who are obedient, and whose love and joy for the Lord is always expressed in their actions and shining upon their faces.

A Trip to Wisconsin

On Wednesday afternoon, I treked it up to Gurnee, IL to visit my best friend Marisol Garcia along with her sister Sophie. I've know this boricua since the second grade! So I hopped onto 294 and all its glory and booked it up North through a mild coverage of rush hour traffic. Apon my arrival, we exchanged quick greetings and then began our journey to Oak Creek, WI. Not a bad drive as we took Waukegan Ave. aka Hwy 41 to meet up with 294 to avoid the tolls. It took us about 30 mins to meet our destination which was the Oak Creek Assembly of God...the church that the Garcia's attend. The reason for my visit this evening other than to spend quality time with Mari and Sophie, was to help Mari figure out whether or not she should be a part of the "singles impact" ministry or the "crossroads" ministry. We decided to check out Singles Impact because if its the equivalent to HBC's version of SAM, she will need to have a friend there for back-up. Sophie headed into Crossroads which is geared towards those 18-25 years old. I knew Mari would rather go to Crossroads after the worship team started to play. Or maybe that was me:) They weren't horrible and we certainly were able to worship God. Their interpretations of some of the modern worship tunes was very interesting. Like the "bosa nova" version of "How Great is Our God." It was a challenge to accept it and not be jealous of the Hillsongs-like praise going on at the Crossroads ministry. Pastor Laurie of the Singles Impact ministry gave a message about making excuses which really tugged at a lot of our hearts. She used the story of Moses and the Burning Bush, when God tells Moses that he will bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses is like, wait up God, who am I that I should do such a thing. How many times has God asked us to do something we don't think we can do? Our tendency is to be like Moses and just come up with excuses, reasons why we aren't qualified or why we shouldn't do something He asks of us. As the story continues in Exodus, Moses continues to question God about approaching the Israelites, what if they don't believe me...I can't speak in front of people...I'm no eloquent speaker...How many times have I said that to God in the last year? LOTS! But somehow, I managed to realize its better when God asks us to do things we "think" we can't do. This allows God to truly show us how BIG He is. God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called. As our evening ended, i think Mari made the decision to check out Crossroads next week as she would like to develope friendships with Christians in her age group so she can have some hang out buddies as well as accountability partners and such. Since the weather wasn't so great, I spent the night and when I woke up the next morning, I had a great conversation with Mari's mom, Lillian. She loves being a bilingual teacher! She was telling me this heartfelt story about a student, Humberto, who she recently had in her class this past year. He suffers from seizures. He just came to America and had never been in a school before. She had to start from ground zero with him and teach him just about behaving properly in school really before academics came in. It was a touching story to hear how God used her to minister to this child. The other teachers knew there was something different about the way she teaches. Praise God for her and for her love of the Lord which she shared with little Umberto.

Jesus Rocks on the Racetrack

God did some amazing things tonight on the Racetrack! Numero uno...He kept the skies clear so we could meet with our groups outside. Numero dos...ONE OF THE STUDENTS ACCEPTED CHRIST!!!! How coolio is that? At about 8:30pm we all gathered into the racetrack auditorium and Terri, one of my tutors, shared her testimony as Ernesto, the racetrack chaplain, translated for her. At the end, he asked if anyone had any questions or if anyone wanted to accept Christ. One of our students, Luis, spoke up and said he would like to pray to receive Christ. And so, Terri prayed with Luis while Ernesto translated. It was very awesome to see God use Terri as she was feeling a little inadequate in her abilities to give a powerful testimony. This just shows you how God will use you as a messenger when you least expect it. You need to have a weak moment so that the true strength of God can be seen! Soli Deo Gloria! To God alone be the Glory!

A very late night ride

Directly following Thornhill Fest Day 7, Jody, Julie, and I threw 3 bikes on the back of Julie's car and rushed off to Chicago for the annual L.A.T.E. ride. The LATE ride is a 25 mile bike trip that starts off by Buckingham Fountain and travels west to Foster Ave before making it's way back north long the lakeshore bike path. Yes 25 miles of fun! And at 2am! Woo hoo:) In order to prepare myself for this trip, I made sure to jook up on as much caffeine as humanly possible. So by the time we got downtown, I was wired but it seemed to wear off quickly. Seeking free parking, we parked the car and unloaded the bikes on Lake street over near May St in the West loop. Jody guided us to our meeting spot where we were to join Alex Neukom and Todd Ackland. I almost got killed on the way as there was a car that missed hitting me by a foot. Safely reaching our rondevous point, we gathered the rest of the "registered" crew and headed to our start point to wait some more. Me and the 2 "J's" saved some cash by not registering for the ride. It wasn't a race so we really didn't feel the need to pay $40 for the t-shirt we weren't going to wear and the breakfast we didn't want to eat. We started biking at about 2am heading up roosevelt up to Elston Ave in Greek Town. As I tried to change gears on one of the hills, my chain came off so I had to pull over. Luckily, Todd and Julie called me on the cell and I was able to reunite with my fellow bikers. There were about 10,000 people biking so the streets were swarming with huffy's, treks, and schwinn's. At the 7 mile marker, we stopped at a 24 hour CVS to buy some caffeine and jook up some more. At about mile 10, Todd asked me to lead the group in a sing-a-long of "Bohemium Rhapsody." Others ended up joining us in our sing-a-long and strangely enough as we started to sing..."mama just killed a man, put a gun against his head...." we heard gun fire in the distant or at least what sounded like gunfire. At the 12 mile mark, we stop at the rest stop which looked like another Mecca for bikes. There were thousands and thousands of bikes. Lots were decorated with christmas lights, glow sticks, banners, pinwheels etc....The last leg of the trip was the best because there was at least a 1-2 mile gap of open space to ride at a more appropriate speed. The challenge of the ride was trying to ride your bike amongst 10,000 bikes on the narrow city streets. We all had to share the right lane together. On top of that, you had young kids weaving in and out and slow slow SLOW bikers all around you. It was AMAZING at 4:30am when the sun started to peak up over lake michigan. If I wasn't so tired, I would have stopped my bike to get a better look. I'm saving those "sunrise" moments to share with someone special:) While I reached the museum campus, a guy looked over at me and said "you aren't singing anymore...i really enjoyed the singing." I'm glad that me and my biking crew were able to meet the needs of one of our fellow bikers and provide some entertainment along the way. We finally finished 3 hours later at 5am. At this point, me and the 2 "J's"hobbled back on our bikes and slowly rode off into the sunrise. Despite the back and butt pain I'm feeling right now I would so want to do something like this again!

Thornhill' Fest Day 7

Twas' the seventh day of Thornhill Fest and all through the yard...
All the Yammers were chatting about the hair clippers on guard...
The "regulars" returned, one more round of croquet was played...
Our stomachs were happy as another Eric Wang trifle was made...
On the seventh day of Thornhill Fest a great sight did we see...
Mr. Patrick with a mowhawk, a handsome look we all agree...
So ends a stellar time, another chapter of Thornhill Fest...
The 2007 edition will go down in history, me thinks it's the best!
Detox from BBQ, back to work, back to reality, back to the routine we all fear...
Don't you fret, the Fest will return bigger,better,louder, can't wait til next year!