ThornhillFest 2008 Day 5

The skies looked very threatening on Day 5. Even though Andrew updated the Fest website, I received a few phone calls from people wondering if ThornhillFest would be canceled if it was raining. Rain or shine, ThornhillFest is happening at its regularly scheduled time. That's one of the great things about it...it can be so unpredictable, so spontaneous and it calls us to be flexible and to adapt. I arrived at the Fest hoping that the shots of Starbucks espresso would kick in. The Swanson's returned with their beautiful daughter who was sportin' one of the brand new, special edition, highly anticipated ThornhillFest 2008 black t-shirts. The Texan BBQ was delicious and someone baked some nifty cowboy-like cookies. Will Eric Wang make us a trifle this year? Nick came back to the Fest and made sure to take part in the little powdered donuts...which are always a featured cuisine. I found out that Charlie Bohm was ditching his return to Arizona or at least just delaying it in order to attend ThornhillFest. We were made aware of a "compromise in safety" when we found out that a certain police officer we knew was just a little bit late to work earlier that day. Jesse Scinto and his posse were grabbing a quick eat before we brought all their gear from the porch and had them set up amongst the garbage cans and food spread. How urban! Despite the rain, thunder, and lighting, the show must go on and Jesse accompanied by 4 other fellas soon began to tear up the joint with their jazzy blues sound. They played several well know tunes such as, "hand jive" and "saw her standing there." Led Zeppelin and Elvis also made the set list. I guessed the song "Istanbul not Constantinople" (view video here) for the first of many CD give-aways. Everybody was having a great time! Sad for the people who didn't come directly following the message at One Thing. Those people missed out! Dot Kee however was one of the few who attended One Thing and rushed over to Barrington to hear the band. Great job Dot! After seeing Joe Panicker drool over the Cannon Rebel, I of course let him test out the camera. Anne, this may be a good birthday or Christmas present for Joe...hint hint. There were people doing the hand jive, swing dancing, and a Mexicasian doing the Pee Wee Herman dance during the song "Tequila." First time ThornhillFest 2008 appearances were made by Mike (dance with your women) Solecki, Maria Diaz, and Brad Michalak. Will they come back for more? There were several photo shoots this evening including, "see you at the pole," the 4 Italians and some female ninja/banditos. A hot, new, radio-active-like, fragrance was premiered..."Accidentally Ramona." Todd made a modeling comeback sportin' a youth large ThornhillFest shirt. He asked me why I haven't been wearing my signature Ramona hat lately. Those coming on Day 6 may get a glimpse of this fashion so have your cameras ready:) SoHee, Eric, and I impersonated Tom. Marshmallows were roasting on the grill in place of cotton candy. We were extremely excited when HEATHER AHN showed up, but wondered where Patrick went. Did he make a Day 5 appearance? Lots of speculation as to his whereabouts were made. Just before leaving the Fest, I received a phone call from Julie and was extremely delighted to find out that she left her black shoes! Will she leave us anything on day 6...?

ThornhillFest 2008 Day 4

Today was a throwback to the old school days of ThornhillFest. Ah, the memories that were relived by those who have been attending the Fest year after year. Since I strategically took a day off of work (it's not easy writing blogs at 2am and going to work the next day...I'm not getting any younger!), I decided to head over to Barrington a little earlier to take a dip in the pool. I was joined by Jody who I brought with after bike riding with her on Chicago's lake front. What a simply gorgeous day! We immediately jumped in the pool and played a few games of "catch and release" aka "Thornhill ball" with the Thornhill family. As Julie joined us, a game of marco polo began and I decided to become a fish outta water. Upon my return to the water, a conversation was had on the topic of snooping and booby traps. This was a very old school moment. We listened to about a 30 minute version of the song "funky town" while floating around on those nifty pool noodles. Tanya and Nate Roth made their first ThornhillFest appearance. This was Nate's maiden voyage on the ThornhillFest ship and what a good day to start on. He immediately was schooled in the history of how the Fest began and we were reminded of the 4 Pillars of ThornhillFest as well as how the "concept" came about. Greg Swanson was grillin' like a banshee! I think...no wait a minute...I know I had the best burger ever to have been cooked on the grille de Thornhill! Sorry friends, but I had to take that burger...it was calling my name:) The bbq food represented the menu of years past and really the only type of food we would eat the entire week. We typically would need to do a detox at the end of the week and several of us remember considering the master cleanse. The "quest" bag of Doritos made an appearance and so far, we think it has a lime and ginger flavor. As I was leaving for small group, I remembered to give my camera to Jody and entrusted her with the duty of my ace reporter for the evening. I don't just give my Canon Digital Rebel XSI to anyone! While I was gone, Todd gave a great acoustic guitar/piano performance from the porch in old school ThornhillFest fashion. He was accompanied by the "one man band" saxophonist Russ Nardo on the eharmony tribute. Pictures of a smooch were documented. A banshee reference was made. To my disappointment, I missed out on his ridiculously amazing version of Rhianna's umbrella song. Apparently, Julie didn't even know it was coming! Did someone get video of her reaction so I can upload it to youtube? It is very old school for us to have a "theme song" for Julie. Upon my return to the Fest, I was delighted by sight of a big, blow-up projection screen on the porch and "the Princess Bride" playing with excellent pixel clarity and Dolby-like stereo sound. In the old school days, we would watch the movie while floating in the pool...and more than once, the movie would always be Ghostbusters (watch a Latvian band's cover of the song here). The cotton candy machine was out, but was napping. Nick was roasting marshmallows by candle light. Christina, Heather, and I talked about taking Latin dance lessons. Todd was singing old school worship music. And at about 11:30pm, most of the crowd left, with some of us making a dash for Lifetime Fitness for a midnight workout. I wonder if Julie left anything behind tonight...that would be very old school:)

ThornhillFest 2008 Day 3

It's 2:13 am. I probably left ThornhillFest Day 3 a little after 1am. Hopefully my blog entry will be adequate at this early hour. This blog had 96 views on July 7th! A ThornhillFest blog record! At about 5pm, I had to do a double shot of Starbuck's espresso in a can in order to survive another late night. I was delayed in my arrival, but all for a good reason. I coordinate the English as a Second Language (ESL) program for Harvest Bible Chapel and on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, we teach English to the migrant workers at the Arlington Heights Racetrack. As I was making copies of materials for the classes at the church, I ran into Lynda Nickels who said she may show up tonight. Dave Learned inquired about last night's Indian dancing and wanted to know who was dancing. Jeff Collazo heard me say that tonight was lounge music and he quickly changed his mind and came. SoHee and I traveled to Barrington post ministry responsibilities. We were warmly welcomed by Jody, Becky, and Nick who were just a few feet away from the amazing hors d'oeuvres and then welcomed again by the lantern lit, concert crowd, chillin' in the backyard. Lookin' good Julie Kresl who is the best choir buddy ever, made her first appearance to the Fest last night. I asked Miss Notariano to be a quasi ace reporter for the early part of the evening and to debrief me of the pre- 9 o' clock ThornhillFest moments. An opening game of croquet was played and Julie had noted that she won both games. The lounge act sang "it's cold outside," which was very opposite of the actual temperature. The mosquitoes were back....boo! There was swing dancing on the lawn, and Lydia Revoredo came back once again! She is the youngest attendee and with perfect attendance! Those Rev's are doing a stellar job in raising the little peanut:) And actually, there were several friends who have P.A. at this point! Julie, Andrew, Patrick, Karen and Marina decided to go for a late night swim. Andrew did a nice cannonball into the pool which got mostly everyone wet. As a result, I couldn't resist the alluring, pristine, inviting, salty, water, and decided to seize the opportunity myself and strolled back to my car to grab my swimsuit. On the way there, I heard Todd playing his guitar. While in the pool, we played a unique volleyball game in which I was smacked in the face by a volleyball...thank you Andrew! We attempted to make a whirlpool by running around the pool in a circle. It worked out okay, but we are really excited about trying it tomorrow with lots of people. I wonder if anyone was taking a tally of how many times I snorted while in the pool. Pool fun always makes me laugh:) The topics of late night discussion included types of modeling such as hand or eye, CBOT, throw -away guns, chocolate rain and other you tube hits. Jonathon Thornhill joined us and I think this was his first night staying up with the late night talkers. Todd gave us 2 of his best runway walks- will there be a fashion show at lunch? Then played a sample of an acoustic song by Rhianna. The "party til' ya drop" crowd was very excited as Julie managed to leave behind something finally! We've been waiting for the past 2 days for her to leave and forget something. Tonight, she left her pool clothes behind. Another "umbrella"hater was identified, the best cake in the world was shared and put in the garage, then put back in the house, and Fest food was delivered to a local hospital. I made sure to sample the lovely Barbie pop-tarts before leaving the Fest. Cari Grobart returned and we hoped she was going to party some mo'. A great night, but I'm definitely looking forward to kickin' this party old school tomorrow with a movie in the pool and BBQ. Will the cotton candy maker make a comeback...?

ThornhillFest 2008 Day 2

If Monday was this good, what will we say of the other days of ThornhillFest 2008? WOW! If you missed Day 2 of ThornhillFest, I hate to say it, but you really missed out on one of the greatest nights in ThornhillFest history! Unfortunately, this blog will fall very short in being able to describe such an amazing night of reggae/Indian/Latin fusion sounds, bollywood style dancing, authentic Indian cuisine, and breath-taking Indian attire. During the day, I was constantly checking weather.com for hourly forecast updates as the atmosphere looked threatening. Of course Andrew had me beat by checking weather underground with on the minute updates. We completely lucked out and had no precipitation in view. As I was driving to the fest, I made sure to download the umbrella song by Rhianna, just in case we needed to remind Julie of it during the week. Actually, we've tested out a new song by Natasha Bedingfield, "Love Like This," on Julie...one that Patrick and I hear all the time at Lifetime Fitness. With only 4 notes to the whole song which constantly repeat over and over again, it was the perfect candidate to annoy Julie with this year. Joe Panicker was telling us about how he was up all night at HBC helping tear down the "stones of remembrance" fountain using a jackhammer. The evenings Indian theme was all executed by the planning skills of Pyary Sebastian...and it was her 25th b-day as well! Mariam also shares a b-day with Pyary. The authentic Indian cuisine came from India House and included traditional dishes like samosas, tandori chicken, chicken marsala, paneer, and naan bread. Heather Ahn was well pleased with the selections. Pyary came to the rescue to dress up her caucasin, latina, and asian friends in Indian fashions, helping us look a little more like brown sugar:) Stephanie Minervino gave me insight into what really happened at GreekFest while I complimented her "made in Greece" t-shirt. Apparently, Patrick knew the guitarist in this evenings band, Funkadesi. The guitarist played percussion at New Trier High School (where Patrick attended) for the modern/ballet dance classes. Who else might Patrick randomly run into at ThornhillFest 2008? Maybe one of the brothers Ponce? Funkadesi began to play and delight us with their extreme talents and fresh, fun sounds of an Indian/reggae combination. Lydia Revoredo came for her second night in a row protected by a mosquito net. Speaking of mosquitoes, Andrew's foggin' skills paid off as I noticed a serious decline in the mosquito blood drive. While the band took a short break, we learned some serious Bollywood dance steps and were blown away by the 3 person dance team, with their youngest member being only 13. Whoever thought "changing the lightbulb" could be so much fun! The dancing continued as Funkadesi played. Most of us probably made a dent in burning off the samosas we consumed. Pyary showed off some great dance moves which we all tried to imitate. We then sang happy birthday and presented Pyary with an extremely detailed and very delicious birthday cake. It took 4 hours to decorate and only organic ingredients were used. At this point, the dancers were all begging for a cool breeze to come through. It was definitely a hot night! Patrick's wallet was stolen by someone....but then returned. Contrary to Patrick's belief, Joe Panicker had nothing to do with it. As the evening began to wind down, we congregated under the tent talking about cow bells, Eric vs. Andrew in a shoot out, Boo yahs, the umbrella song, Pyary's hottness, flat tires, Christina's shooting range experience, etc. We heard Patrick's version of a Dark Crystal Skeksis as well as Patrick and Eric doing Ghostbusters and Ferris Bueller's Day Off lines. We were reminded that this was the 5th year of ThornhillFest and Andrew gave us a break down of the 4 pillars: It's free, it's a week long, entertainment and food are provided, it starts when Andrew wakes and ends when he goes to bed. The night ended with lots of rain and lightning, more beef jerky and Eric scooping up the rest of the birthday cake and placing it inside a shoebox. This was the latest I've stayed thus far...1am! It will be hard to top this night....

ThornhillFest 2008 Day 1

It was the 6th day of July. The year 2008. The sun was shining, the temperature was a bit on the caliente (which means "hot" for all you gringos out there) side...all pointing to the perfect start of ThornhillFest 2008! Before arriving to the fest, I made sure to burn a couple hundred calories playing Ultimate Frisbee in hopes that it would help combat all the high caloric, authentic, yet oh so delicious consumption of Mexican cuisine. Thankfully, my roommate Dot decided to attend day one. I think she missed out completely on the festivities last year and could only live them out through reading this blog. With Dot closely following my Chevy Lumina up Barrington Rd, we arrived at the Fest a little after 5:30pm. Our first encounters were of Andrew, Jonathon, Mark, Karen, and Jason near the pool. We discussed this years' schedule of events and decided that Monday night, Indian night, would probably be one of the best. Soon we were joined by Jen Grabsky, Marina, Heather Ahn, Jennine, Trevor, and SoHee. The pool side party kept getting bigger. Jason was nicknamed "cabana boy" after offering to bring drinks to all the pool side ladies. With Andrew on the mic, an announcement about the food was made and the crowd started to congregate amongst the burritos, tacos, and sopes. This spread could put "Old Country Trough" or "Old Country Feedbag" out of business fo' sho'! All I gotta say is if you have an appetite, you betta' bring it! Several of us unashamedly, returned to the grazing area and had a second helping of out of proportion, calorie intake. Looking down at my cell phone, I realized that it was almost time for the mariachi band to start performing so I rushed out to my car to get my favorite Walmart, red, chair. As I walked through the gate, I ran into some of the mariachis and said "hola" to one of them. I think they were happy that I tried to speak some Spanish:) Los Palmeros were requested to make a comeback appearance at ThornhillFest because of how we loved hearing them the previous year. The song "mariachi loco" did get a little loco with the dancing at one point. There were some interesting "Elvis" like pelvic moves by our favorite soloist. Stephanie Minervino and I did not take another group picture with the band like we did last year. At the end of their performance, Cori Bouska made an announcement about Rich Chang's birthday and as a reward, she got to dance with one of them. We all sang him a happy birthday tune with the help of Los Palmeros and Leeanne presented Rich with a lovely chocolate cake. A huge round of applause is due to Christina Minervino for booking the band and the food and her excellent negotiation skillz. Lydia Revoredo made a first appearance at ThornhillFest and probably should receive an award for being the youngest attendee at the precious age of 8 weeks old! She is a cute little peanut:) The mosquitoes were out in full force looking for victims. They certainly drained a lot out of me! And now you know why I don't usually participate in blood drives. I give enough away to the mosquitoes each summer! Karen and I tried to escape the mosquitoes and headed towards the pool area. We were then joined by Mariam, Jason, and Margie. Mariam was bummed about not being able to be at the Fest on Monday due to prior birthday celebrating engagements. The evening drew to a close in a traditional fashion with me, Andrew, Tom, Patrick, and Eric, hanging out until midnight. Eric impressed us with his version of Tom Akert. And actually, Andrew and Eric are probably still hanging out as I'm writing this blog because they are delivering all the leftover food to police departments in two counties. Concept...perhaps we can bribe them to let quiet hours end not at 10pm, but get a 12am extension?

God at Work on the Racetrack

I am so blessed that God has given me the opportunity to serve in the ESL ministry at Harvest Bible Chapel! Today, God took his soldiers and equipped them with the skills they needed to face his people on the Arlington Heights Racetrack. We arrived on a hot and humid evening at the heels of jagged rain clouds forming above our heads ready to serve the people God was going to bring us. Hoping to see swarms of interested ESL students, we only interviewed 8 with in the first hour. Ernesto, the racetrack chaplain, had made a couple announcements on the loud speaker to help us out and also mentioned that we may not see a lot because it was a race day. That's when the Lord prompted me to give one of our tutors, Julio, a special job:) I asked if Julio could begin walking around the dorm area and start mentioning the classes to whoever he would run into. The rest of us were doing the same thing, just a little more timidly since many of us could not speak Spanish. A couple walked past us and I asked while they were walking if they wanted to take ESL classes. They kept walking...but about 2 minutes later, they turned around and signed up for the classes!!! PRAISE GOD:) With in a half hour, we had 10 more interviews! We still didn't see as many sign up for the classes as we would have liked to see, but God certainly encouraged us by sending very enthusiastic students of which some were returning from a previous year! God has begun a great work at the racetrack and this summer is going to be simply awesome to see how God is going to challenge, use, and stretch us in our walk with Him. To Him alone be the glory!!!

Hot, Humid, Hilly, Highland Park Half

Before I begin writing this blog, I need to give mega props to the big man upstairs, my Lord, my Savior, my Healer, my Comforter, my Redeemer, the Tres en Uno, Padre, Dios, el Unico, the Alpha and Omega, Creator, etc. Thanks be to God! If it wasn't for the Sovereign King who reigns on high and his grace and mercy and love, I wouldn't be able to type this right now!

At 8am this morning, SoHee, Marc, Nancy, and I started off on a journey through the lush, luxury surroundings of Highland Park as we paced ourselves through the North Shore 1/2 Marathon. Was it 13.1 miles of torture? Some miles were definitely harder than others:) For your reading pleasure, a recap of the 3 hours of cardio is to follow...

Marc, SoHee, and I managed to start together and kept up with each other for about 7 blocks. Then speedy Marc decided to continue his pace and Slow-Hee and Slow-Ro (new nicknames for me and SoHee) decided to remain at our slow but steady pace. At about mile 1.5 we encountered the first hill. Not bad. It was a gradual increase so all we had to do was push forward, keeping the same pace.

At about mile 3, we hit our first water station and then headed onto a nice non-asphalt, heavily shaded trail (parallel to the train tracks) until we reached mile 4. During our time on the trail, SoHee and I managed to speak out a couple of worship tunes to keep our minds off of the humidity and heat. The Lord provided several moments of relief as he directed some gusts of wind over our perspiring bodies.

During miles 4-8 we must have picked up 2 water bottles from every water station which was placed almost at every mile from 4 until the end. One bottle was used to shower and stay cool where as the other was carried and used as a thirst quencher. After drinking at least a gallon of water during the race, I was surprised that I didn't need to pee like a banshee! I guess that only means I was sweating like a banshee instead:) So far we had kept running with a quick stretch at mile 4. Then when we arrived at mile 8, we walked about a block before heading towards "the hill."

Since we are from the Midwest, we usually don't see many hills. And probably what we consider a "hill" is what someone in San Franciso would call "nothing." As we got to mile 8.6, a lady sitting on a lawn chair began cheering us on and telling us to enjoy the way down the hill. She chuckled when I asked her if the hill that we were going to be jogging down would be just as steep of a climb going up. She confirmed that it was going to be a doosey:) On the ground at the start of the decent was a spray painted happy face. The best part of the decent was the fact that we were staring at Lake Michigan the whole way down. Reaching the bottom of the hill with no problems, we saw the road curve to the left and then right when we turned, saw the smiley face with a big frown. For the next block, we were on a steep climb. Good thing it didn't last for too long:)

Several times during our run, we were called to pray for our fellow runners like Nancy and Marc. It felt really good to know that we were being prayed for as well and helped us keep strong. We were so happy to reach mile 10 and it only took one foot step past that mile marker to have gone as far as SoHee and I have ever ran in our lives. Our adventure was hardly over. We did manage to see something very typical of "front running" marathon athletes.

After passing mile 10, a volunteer on a bike who had been encouraging us for most of the race came by to tell us to keep our pace or the old man was going to pass us. We really didn't care who was going to pass us. I had some blisters developing, a weak right ankle, and SoHee was cramping up! I was running a little ahead of SoHee just past mile 11 when I noticed over my right shoulder that SoHee wasn't the one huffing and puffing near me. It was the old man! And as he passed me up, I looked at him and noticed he did not make a pit stop at the port-o-potty:( And being down-wind from him at this point in time wasn't a great strategy. Needless to say, SoHee and I dramatically decreased our pace and increased the distance between us and him.

At mile 12, we ran into an issue with the directional cones disappearing. At one point we had to choose whether to turn right or left down a street. I figured we would go left and for about 500ft, ran in the wrong direction until a car passed by and told us to turn around. My lungs immediately shut down, my face turned pale, and my rhythm was beginning to fall apart. I immediately called upon the mighty, mighty most high for an intervention. Greatly, he delivered and got me through the last mile. I couldn't believe that I even took the 50 yard dash at then end like a 50 yard dash.

Praise God for his presence during this race! It was definitely bearable, knowing that God's strength was sustaining us and fueling us to endure it to the very end:)