Yes, I’m Going to String Out This All-You-Can-Jet Saga for One More Blog Entry: 2009 in Review, Part 8
Note: This was the essay I submitted for JetBlue’s “All-You-Can-Jet Tales” contest. Two winners won the grand prize of one free round-trip JetBlue flight for each month of 2010. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them.
lim⋅i⋅ta⋅tion [lim-i-tey-shuhn] –noun: A limiting condition; restrictive weakness; lack of capacity; inability or handicap.
The JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet Pass changed my life by shattering the limitations I had set on myself and what I believed I could accomplish within the span of one month.
I didn’t have tons of money. I didn’t have tons of vacation time. I didn’t have five other countries to cross off my bucket list. What I did have was an idea: pick eight to ten cities where I could see myself relocating, do my best to network and apply to job openings in those cities, and make myself available for interviews at any time during the month as I visited those same cities.
I was looking for my dream job, but I found much more: myself.
I was reminded again how many great people are still in this world. Without a place to stay in New York City one night, I was invited into the home of two generous fellow Jetters who had almost zero notice. I didn’t think I’d leave the airport that night, but instead I saw the Statue of Liberty. All of a sudden I was placed in a sink-or-swim situation, and I felt like Michael Phelps.
The situation repeated itself two weeks later – ironically, in the same city. It takes six degrees of separation to connect everyone on this Earth, and I used half of them to find a roof.
The next morning, I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge with 75 pounds of luggage in tow. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to honor the anniversary of the founding of my professional business fraternity. I made it to my gate twenty minutes before my flight to Portland, but missing my flight would have been worth it. After all, I had already learned how to swim.
I saw breakdancing on Fisherman’s Wharf. I saw the unveiling of an electric car in Portland. I saw the sun set over the Space Needle. I walked eight miles in one day, most of them with my luggage. I slept in six different places on six consecutive nights – twice. I flew from Maine to California to interview for an internship.
A friend told me to prepare for the worst-case scenario if I really wanted to embark on All-You-Can-Jet. The “worst-case” for me as I stepped onto the first plane was no new job, a loss of my old job, and leaving my current city to move back in with my parents. All of these things actually happened; the day after returning from All-You-Can-Jet, I was laid off. But whatever I lost, I gained much, much more.
My trip was originally a nationwide job search. It turned into a discovery of self, a discovery of America and what it can offer – not just in job opportunities, but in moments and people to remember and experiences to last a lifetime. I’m glad I realized it before it was too late.
20,000 Words: 2009 in Review, Part 7
Note: This blog is a photo essay illustrating 20 moments of McCallYouCanJet. It is not intended to be a “greatest hits” collection, so please don’t fret if I saw you during the trip and don’t mention your encounter. Doing the entire trip justice in words would take forever! And I am beyond grateful for EVERYONE who accommodated me in any way, shape or form during those 28 days. 
For a slightly more complete rundown, check out my Facebook and Twitter pages, view my YouTube video blogs, and check out my website.
(1) September 19, 2009, 2:22 PM
Kirby’s Korner, Seguin, TX
Aida and I left her Houston place that morning and we made the 3-hour drive west on I-10 to Seguin. We met up with JR and got some authentic Texas burgers at Kirby’s Korner. A few minutes up the road was downtown Seguin, where the three of us met Courtney for the first time. The handoff occurred and I was on my way to Austin. But for a brief few minutes, residents of four cities – four brothers – talked and laughed like we had known each other for years.
(2) September 26, 2009, 10:00 PM
Pike Place Market, Western Ave & Pike St, Seattle, WA
On a gorgeous Saturday night, I walked down from Capitol Hill to take in the glittering Seattle skyline and explore downtown. I love this shot — taken on an iPhone, mind you — that is lighted almost perfectly and captures the reflection of the neon “PUBLIC MARKET CENTER” sign on the car below.
(3) October 3, 2009, 5:17 PM
5th Ave & 23rd St, New York, NY
Andrew and Monica: the epitome of brotherly trust.
(4) September 23, 2009, 11:15 AM
Pioneer Square, Portland, OR
KGW-TV’s Joe Smith interviewing 23-year-old wunderkind Eric Stafl as he prepares to unveil his new electric vehicle, the Arcimoto Pulse, to the public. I was one of the couple dozen interested onlookers who either drove hours to get some face time in with the company president (as one teenager eagerly described himself) or just was wandering around to kill time before their train to Seattle and stumbled upon the hubbub. Either way, we all became a small part of a very important day for a lot of people.
(5) September 15, 2009, 5:56 AM
Somewhere in northern Virginia
I was about 50 minutes removed from touchdown at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly. I boarded the first shuttle train from the airport. A few minutes after I took this picture, I was stunned to find a full bus worth of passengers board at the Herndon Park ‘n Ride stop. I was just going to the Rosslyn station, where Aaron was going to pick me up… but all these people were going to work, most likely in downtown DC. Out of the house before 6 AM.
Maybe I didn’t have it so bad in Chicago after all…
(6) October 5, 2009, 4:22 PM
Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth, ME
When seeing a sight such as this doesn’t even merit consideration as the most spectacular sight you’ve seen that day… you know it’s been a pretty good day. Becoming the 23rd state I had seen in my 25-plus years on this earth, I crossed Maine off in style — and New Hampshire and Massachusetts as #24 and #25 before sundown. I have Ethan to thank for not turning around before the Massachusetts border.
(7) September 13, 2009, 5:13 PM
Directly in front of the USS Midway, San Diego, CA
At 1:13, I had never even heard of Athena, let alone have the pleasure of her company as a personal tour guide. But Jennifer, a brother in Indianapolis (and former San Diegan), had run across my Facebook status of “headed downtown on the trolley” and immediately offered to make use of her connections in the city. Good thing, because I had resigned myself to spending the afternoon alone. Several phone calls, several hours, several miles walked, and several cups of yogurt later, I saw more of “the big SD” than I would have imagined — and met one more person who makes me glad I made the best decision I’ve ever made (rushing AKPsi).
(8) September 17, 2009, 11:33 PM
On the Staten Island Ferry, Upper New York Bay, New York
This was the night it officially got crazy for me, the night when I first started to notice that not only would this trip not go exactly according to plan, but that I liked it that way. Why not spend two hours lugging my bags through a subway, through Battery Park, across a bay on a huge boat, and knock on the door of two generous strangers who would gladly pick up the slack after midnight for someone who obviously knew nothing about airport security?
And yes, that is the Statue of Liberty in the distance.
(9) September 24, 2009, 1:54 PM
On top of Safeco Field, Seattle, WA
Brooke told me later that this was when she knew. “I could see it in your eyes.”
She’s always picked up on those type of things a little quicker than I realize it myself.
(10) October 7, 2009, 4:25 PM
Huntington Beach Pier, Huntington Beach, CA
I cared enough about this shot to stage it… but that was the extent of my caring that afternoon. I had achieved one of my milestones earlier that day — interviewing for an internship on the last full day of the trip. I spent the 45 minutes before and after this shot doing absolutely nothing. On my back on a bench, phone off, eyes shut, looking around occasionally to soak it in. To the left of me was 6,000 miles of ocean. To the right of me was 3,000 miles of America — an America I had finally seen.
(11) September 21, 2009, 10:53 AM
Golden Gate Bridge, 245 feet above San Francisco Bay, California
I still get a bit of vertigo sometimes from looking at this picture, let alone reminiscing the experience.
(12) September 26, 2009, 6:00 PM
Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it some more: I’m a sucker for sunsets, more than most. But this shot was so good that Alexa and Kristen both readily admitted it kicked ass. And so did a chill (but not chilly) Saturday evening where you could see skyscrapers, summits, the Space Needle and the sea in a singular scan of Seattle. Sweet.
(13) October 2, 2009, 3:26 PM
JFK International Airport, New York, NY
JetBlue’s All-You-Can-Jet Meetup/Happy Hour event drew dozens of jetters from all around whose itineraries happened to place them in the Big Apple on that day. Among the several I met and conversed with were a number of interesting characters whose stories were as diverse as the cities they came from. Among them: Nathan Black. Yes, those are tattoos showing every airport he had hit thus far during the trip. He would add the JFK tattoo a few days later.
(14) September 12, 2009, 4:24 PM
La Jolla public beach, San Diego, CA
Miguel, Nicole and I remarked that this guy must have the best job in the world. It was still very early, but I realized there was a touch of irony in my envying his situation.
(15) September 26, 2009, sometime after 2:00 AM
Adam’s apartment, Kirkland, WA
This is my good friend Matthew Allen’s picture (he’s on the right), not mine. But when he posted it on Facebook, I couldn’t help but notice the look of pure happiness on my face. I’ve always been shy about smiling in pictures, partially due to the fact that I wore braces for 6 years. And yes, this smile was aided a bit by alcohol. But I’m talking about the eyes, anyway. As Brooke alluded to later (and as I mentioned earlier in this entry), the eyes are the window to the soul. They can’t lie.
(16) September 21, 2009, 8:53 AM
1709 Broderick St, San Francisco, CA
Whatever happened to predictability? The milkman, the paperboy, evening TV? You miss your old familar friends, but waiting just around the bend… Everywhere you look, there’s a heart, a hand to hold on to. Everywhere you look, there’s a face of somebody who needs you. When you’re lost out there and you’re all alone, a light is waiting to carry you home… everywhere you look.
(17) September 16, 2009, 12:51 PM
The Ellipse, Washington, DC
This was as close as we could get, since Obama was holding a press conference that day. So I did the only logical thing: do the cheesy old “forget about your depth perception for a second and imagine the White House an inch tall” trick and took a picture. But no matter its cheesiness, it’s still fun. Especially when you imagine you just picked up the President.
(18) September 14, 2009, 9:50 AM
Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego, CA
OK, so I am a big geography and map geek. I also love aerial photographs. So several years ago, when I stumbled on a website called CaliforniaCoastline.org, I was stoked. Tens of thousands of said aerial photographs running down nearly the entire coastline of the state (the parts that aren’t within a military base, basically). I spent hours skimming through some pics of the gorgeous scenery, and one of my favorite sets of shots happened to be way down near the Mexican border. There was this peninsula that jutted south for several miles, it seemed. At the very tip was this shot. I figured that if I ever somehow made it to that spot personally, I’d be in for one of the best views I’d ever seen.
Well, I got close. (As it turns out, I had been looking at a naval base called SPAWAR all that time.) But did I get close enough? …Let’s just say that no picture would truly do it justice, save for a panorama that I had neither the ability nor the inclination to attempt. You can also view my YouTube for a video scan.
(19) October 5, 2009, 10:27 AM
Brooklyn Bridge, New York, NY
It was non-negotiable.
There was no way I was not going to be in New York on October 5th, AKPsi Founders’ Day, and even though we had already done it the day before, there was no way I wasn’t crossing the bridge on October 5th. Even if I had a flight out that afternoon.
Not seen: 70 pounds of luggage. Not indicated (by the fact that I’m stopping on a bridge to take a picture): how close I came to missing my flight due to utilizing the Bridge in my trek to JFK. (15 minutes.)
(20) September 25, 2009, 11:07 PM
The Parlor, Bellevue, WA
“If [a] picture’s worth a thousand words, then your touch is worth them all…”
–Anberlin, “Dance, Dance Christa Paffgen”
As usual, the eyes knew first.
Never Forget, Never Afraid: 2009 in Review, Part 6
Note: This is a re-posting of a blog I wrote on September 11th, 2009, the first day of McCallYouCanJet.
Most of you know me by my tweets as @McCallYouCanJet, which are 140 characters or less. What you’re reading is slightly longer – enough to fill 45 of my tweets. I might as well get into the habit of being productive with my time while I’m on these flights – especially the long cross-country ones like this one from Chicago to Long Beach (4 hours). As great as JetBlue is (probably the most spacious seats I’ve ever had on coach, DirecTV and XM radio, and actual snacks instead of the standard cookies-and-peanuts fare you get on other airlines), there’s no WiFi available during flight.
As I type this, I am traveling at an elevation of 37,740 feet and a speed of 475 mph over northern Kansas (according to the LiveMap, channel 13 on JetBlue +TV). In fact, it looks like I am near the exact geographical center of the United States. (I think that’s in Lebanon, but I can’t check right now to make sure).
But as I watch the History Channel’s 9/11 retrospective “108 Minutes That Changed America” on my in-flight TV (which has to be one of the most surreal things I’ve ever experienced), I can’t help but note that it is, in fact, September 11th. I’m a sucker for symbolism, so there’s a certain amount of satisfaction over being right smack in the middle of the country I love, eight years to the day after two planes hit the World Trade Center towers, another one hit the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania headed for DC.
It’s by no means an intentional statement, though. My original plan was to depart on September 8th, the first day that the All You Can Jet pass was valid. But due to concerns about financing, I decided to stay another week and work to get some extra money. The original change was to leave on Saturday, September 12th after a full week of work, but later I decided leaving the day before so that I could spend the full weekend in California. (The only flight from Chicago to the West Coast leaves at the same time every day, 5:45 PM.) So the change and the new date of departure just happened to fall on the 11th.
A little while ago I was flipping channels. As I passed CNBC (and one of their prime-time financial shows), a graphic at the bottom of the screen happened to catch my eye: “DOW AT SAME LEVELS AS 9/10/01.” Sure enough, the DJIA finished today near the exact point it closed the last full trading day before the attacks. You can look at that two ways. The first is the “glass is half-empty” way: Our economy is down so much that 8 years later, we haven’t gained a bit. The second is the viewpoint that Dennis (I don’t know if that was the CNBC commentator’s first or last name) espoused: The fact that we can rebound from one of the most devastating events of our or anyone’s lifetime is significant, and speaks to the resiliency of Americans. His lasting point:
If we can recover from 9/11, we can recover from anything.
And so it is with air travel. For the past several years now, the airline industry has been aching. Seat-miles are down and gas prices are up, and carriers have been racking their brains trying to get people back in the skies. And sometimes it’s the newer, less-established companies with less to lose that have the most ingenious ideas. Two of them in particular have done just that, and I owe thanks to both of them for indirectly (or directly) causing major positive changes in my life.
One of them was AirTran in 2005. They partnered with Wendy’s to print AirTran points on Wendy’s cups. One soft-drink purchase meant 1 point, and 64 purchases meant a free round-trip flight anywhere AirTran flew. (The numbers are probably off, but the gist of it is the same.) My friends and I all loved the idea, and soon enough Wendy’s became our favorite restaurant. Some of the more daring ones among us even dumpster-dove to find Wendy’s cups and rack up their AirTran points. Ironically, even though I wasn’t one of them, I persisted more than most. I made it about two-thirds of the way to my round-trip flight, and on my 22nd birthday, December 9th, my Dad went to Wendy’s and brought me back a surprise: 24 cups – enough to reach 64 and my round-trip flight anywhere in the country.
Eventually I would turn that into a free round-trip from Mobile, AL to Washington, DC in August 2007 for the biennial AKPsi convention. It was there that I would meet dozens of fantastic brothers and start to truly discover myself. Out of the several people that I stayed in touch with, one of them was Angela Brandenburg. She lived in the Chicago area, and several months later in the winter of 2008, she helped facilitate a chain of events that resulted in me moving to Chicago and starting a new life.
And now, on September 11th, 2009 – 18 months to the day after I left Mobile to move to Illinois – I have started another chapter. This one, of course, is with the help of another forward-thinking airline: JetBlue and their ingenious “All You Can Jet” pass. I have yet to figure out if this is the start of a chapter somewhere else entirely, or just an entertaining intermission. The next month will help determine that.
But for now, I’m going to enjoy this as much as possible – being proactive in networking and job-hunting, of course, but savoring the moments whenever I can… because you never really know what’s just around the corner in this life. It never helps to excessively worry about what lies ahead. I woke up this morning in Chicago not knowing where I was going to sleep tonight in California, but a CouchSurfer named Stefanie stepped up on hours’ notice. I’ll admit I did my fair share of worrying about the potential outcome, and I’ll probably expend some energy fretting about several other bumps in the road.
But deep down, I know that I’m going to be a better person on October 9th, because I went out there and chased after what I wanted, with no regrets. And eight years later, I’m glad I have the peace of mind to take to the skies. America bounced back from 9/11, we’re going to bounce back from this recession, and people are going to stop saying “when” and start saying “now” – because tomorrow is never guaranteed.
Let’s roll.
-Matt McCall
McCallYouCanJet
September 11, 2009
East or West? 2009 in Review, Part 5
If only she knew. If only *I* knew…
I had been back in Chicago for three days after the AKPsi convention in Orlando, and I was restless. I had met so many awesome brothers at Convention that five days wasn’t enough. I got the itch to travel some more, to see those brothers again and maybe even more I hadn’t met yet. I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to work or how many trips I could make (at the time, I didn’t even have a car), but I really wanted it to happen. This was a feeling I didn’t get even after the DC convention, which I foolishly thought might never be topped.
The next day, August 13th, I still didn’t have much of an idea. I rarely post on Facebook specifically to get responses, but that morning, I did. It was just a simple question.
If you believe in fate, or believe that everything happens for a reason… then you’ll get a kick out of this.
25 minutes after my last comment shown there — 25 MINUTES AFTER — this was posted by a friend.
Unlimited travel on JetBlue flights between September 8th and October 8th for $599. From that moment on, for the next couple of days, it was almost literally all I could think about. I had been putting it out into the world that I wanted to travel and connect more with brothers… and this was the perfect opportunity.
Well, maybe not so perfect. For one, there would be next to no chance I would be able to keep my job if I went on the trip. But maybe I didn’t care. I didn’t come right out and say this to myself, but it was always true: I was looking for a way to escape my conundrum of a commute (extremely long) and a job situation (extremely tenuous), and this was my chance.
So, at that point I knew two things: (1) I wanted to buy the pass and travel the country, and (2) I probably needed a new job. Thankfully, I figured out what I needed to do a little quicker than Homer Simpson did.
Thus was born… McCallYouCanJet. Most people know about the idea by now: select several cities where (a) I wanted to visit brothers or other friends, and/or (b) wanted to consider as places to relocate, and hop around the country for the entire month.
It was a huge decision to make. But I couldn’t ponder it for too long — the pass was only valid for about another week. After lots of talks with close friends and family, I decided to go with my gut, bite the bullet, and get the pass. I was prepared to quit my job, but just for the hell of it, I decided to see if my supervisor would let me take the time off — five weeks — and come back if I needed to afterward.
To my shock…
I got the time off from work. OMG I’m so happy
11:55 AM Aug 28th, 2009 from Twitterrific
I reasoned with my supervisor that since I was a temp employee (and since work was going slow, but expected to pick up), they probably didn’t even need me for those five weeks, but would probably need me back upon my return to Chicago (if in fact I didn’t find another job out of the trip). Incredibly, that half-baked logic was good enough for her.
Between August 16th (the day I bought the pass) and September 11th, and even beyond, my life was McCallYouCanJet and preparing for McCallYouCanJet. I created a Twitter account, a Facebook page, a YouTube account, and talked to anyone from JetBlue (and as it turned out, the Chicago Sun-Times) who was willing to listen to me. Nearly every hour of free time was spent selecting the cities I would see, arranging those cities in a precise order (possible relocation cities during the week, “having fun” cities on the weekend), contacting brothers in those cities to arrange get-togethers and sleeping arrangements, and (of course) applying for jobs.
Except for a decision to postpone my departure date from September 8th to September 11th to accumulate more working hours, everything somehow seemed to start coming together to at least set the foundation of the trip. And for most everything else, I had confidence that my AKPsi network wouldn’t totally fail me.
Seriously – all I had to do was take it one city at a time. Get on the plane. Have someone meet me at the airport. Do as much as I could, for business and/or pleasure, within the constraints of the situation (money, distance, time, transportation available). Profusely thank my host(s) for their time. Get on another plane. Rinse and repeat.
Simple enough, right?
13.1 Miles to Brotherhood: 2009 In Review, Part 4
“So, Sultan and I had this idea…”
Alison spoke as I prepared later that night to celebrate possibly the biggest tangible achievement yet of my 15 months in Chicago. I was up for Vice President of the AKPsi Chicago Alumni Chapter, and I was unopposed. Showing up to most of the chapter’s events and almost every meeting since I joined the chapter; the hours and hours I spent making the Year-In-Review DVDs we sent out to every chapter in AKPsi; and all the work I had done on Professionapalooza… it had led up to this. Of course, these things were significant in their own right, more important than just means to an end. But my impending election wouldn’t have been possible without all the hard work I had done up to that point.
But my drift away from Chicago would begin downtown, pacing (as I tend to do while on the phone) outside that Kinko’s on that uncharacteristically warm evening.
“We thought maybe you would be up for Alexander giving you some mock interviews at Convention. There are a lot of great jobs in DC and we know you’re looking for something more long-term…”
Ah, yes. Convention, as in the biennial AKPsi convention in Orlando coming up in 8 days. I was going, Alison and Alexander were going. The offer took me by surprise, but I was definitely interested. My commute wasn’t getting any shorter (holding steady at 3 1/2 hours round-trip for the past 8 months). My actual work situation wasn’t getting any more secure (for the past 6 months, we were operating under the assumption that some of the jobs in our department were in danger due to an outsourcing experiment that the higher-ups really believed in, despite initial failures). The economy in Chicago wasn’t getting any better. So I told Alison I’d definitely like to talk further with her in Orlando.
But first, I had some unfinished business in the Windy City. 13.1 miles of unfinished business.
AUGUST
12 miles in 2:21:38 #rnrchicago http://twitpic.com/cie2g
9:25 AM Aug 2nd, 2009 from Twitterrific
Somehow, I live-tweeted the whole half-marathon, from the 4 AM wakeup to the 9:30 AM finish line: here, here, and here.
My finishing time was 2 hours, 32 minutes and 21 seconds.
Still on a high from one of the biggest individual achievements I had ever accomplished, I flew to Orlando three days later for the convention. But where would I be staying? My efforts to find another group of alumni (or even a student group) in need of one extra roomie had proven unsuccessful. But I think I didn’t put quite as much effort into it as I could, because for the past few months there was always a backup plan: Camp AKPsi.
David Johney, who I met last October when I did Brothers to Brooklyn, had rented out a condo at Vista Cay Resort, a couple of miles from the hotel in Orlando where the conference was being held. It could sleep 8 or 9 people, and when divided up that way per person per night, was about 50-70% cheaper than the cost of staying at the hotel. I was one of the first people he told about it, but one of the last people to confirm their stay as I somewhat-reluctantly cast my lot in with the alumni group at the Camp a few weeks before the convention.
Orlando was my third convention, after DC in 2007 and Las Vegas in 2005. Las Vegas was like getting my feet wet. I was still a college student. I mostly hung out with my chapter; outside of it, the only people I really met were those few that other brothers from our chapter saw, as well as some I talked to during our regional night out.
In DC, I dove in. It was my first convention as an alum. Although I traveled with my old student chapter, I met so many people within our region and even across the country. It’s where I met Angela, who is still the best connection I’ve ever made due to the events that followed: namely, my move to Chicago and becoming so much more involved in AKPsi than I was (able to) as a student brother.
In Orlando… I was already in the pool. It was an incredible feeling to walk into a room and see 20 or 25 people you know within the first 5 minutes. This was my element. My biggest group of close friends wasn’t in the city of Mobile, or in the city of Chicago. It was in the city of AKPsi. But the worst thing about it is that it only exists for 5 days every two years.
RT @MattThomasProds thought DC couldn’t be topped but Orlando did it. See everyone in Phoenix
10:31 AM Aug 9th, 2009 from Twitterrific in reply to MattThomasProds
I already knew so many people going in that I didn’t meet as many “new” brothers as I did in DC. But still, that list was long: Allison, Amber, Annie, Ansa, Arielle, Brandon, Brianna, Chesney (disregarding a VERY brief encounter in DC), Christopher, Eric, Erin, Ernie, Fiona, Holly, James, Jeff, Jocelyn, Joe, Josh, Kyle, Lacey, Lisa, Manny, Marc, Melody, Nica, Nick, Nikki, Pam, Pete, Sharon, Tom, Vanessa, Warner, Whitney, and Zach. That’s not even counting the brothers I met at Camp AKPsi: Haylee, Nichole, Mindy, Adrienne, Sherah, and Brooke.
…It was about 10:30 on Saturday night, an hour after the Grand Banquet ended, wandering and lost somewhere on the grounds of Vista Cay Resort, when I realized that something about Brooke was just a bit different.
I had gone with her back to the condo so she could print out the boarding pass for her flight out the next morning. With it being dark outside and both of us rather unfamiliar with the layout of the area, it took us about 30 minutes to find the clubhouse. The more we looked around, the more lost we seemed to become… and the more we’d talk and laugh about it. Just another story to reminisce about.
They’re little things, but the things I remember the most about Orlando. Thursday afternoon, while sipping on — no, nearly slamming — some wine that Adrienne had bought from Wal-Mart that was some of the cheapest in the city but (somehow) probably the best. On Friday, as Brooke was driving us to the hotel for meetings when, at a red light on International Drive, someone literally ran up and knocked on the driver’s side window to tell Brooke that her gas cap was off. For a second, she thought we were going to be hijacked. Later that night, a little after 2 AM, with Adrienne, Brooke and me hanging out in the kitchen of the condo, and me finding it funny how much Brooke enjoyed wearing my tie. Heh, this is *cute*, I thought as I snapped the picture. The next day, as Brooke drove me, Dave and Mindy to the Grand Banquet finale, Brooke remarking that Dave and Mindy were each other’s dates and how she didn’t have a date… and me glancing over from the passenger seat and somehow finding the right response to that question-in-the-form-of-a-statement.
Those, and somewhere inside the gates and along a dark sidewalk in the warm night air, my realization that it was so easy to talk to Brooke that I didn’t even have to try to be charming. It never entered my mind.
For some reason that night, I thought of the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Although we had spent increasing amounts of time around one another that week, including nearly the entire last day of the convention, I felt that the connection I had with Brooke was something that didn’t need words to cement. (Much like Napoleon and Pedro, whose words were few but whose bond was oh-so-authentic.)
Brooke’s flight was at 8 AM the next morning. As I said my goodbye to her, I thought I had found my Pedro. But Brooke had found something else.
To be continued…
Dry Cool Chicagoan Summer: 2009 In Review, Part 3
JUNE
June had finally arrived, and with it the culmination of weeks and months of preparation: Professionapalooza was here. My role was Director of Production. Throughout May, I posted snippets from interviews of speakers at the event (along with all that other stuff that happened above); stayed up until about 5 AM the night before putting together the materials; and filmed the entire event from start to finish.
Afterward was a lengthy period of exhaustion.
“I need time to just STOP. I’m not asking for much… just 2 or 3 days.
11:34 PM Jun 9th, 2009 from web”
With it, I think, went much of the drive and momentum I had made furthering my efforts to increase my video-production business (ironically). Progress on the fashion show video barely got started, and then pretty much stopped. I was also quite stressed out in attempting to reach my fundraising goals for the half marathon (and trying to find a roommate for the AKPsi convention in Orlando in August). But I got my iPhone. So that was good. And I did end up making my acting debut in a video for WhatCollegeForgot.com playing a bouncer (yes, it’s up on the site right now).
The last weekend of June was when I got a bunch of help in my fundraising efforts. I joined up with Sharon, who was also training for the Rock ‘N Roll Chicago Half (except with Team In Training) and had a fundraiser at Zella. Most of the people who came out were from the suburbs ironically, but we ended up combining to raise $457.
JULY
“Jackets in July… wow.
7:58 AM Jul 1st, 2009 from TweetDeck”
What happened?
The summer never really got going like it did in 2008. For one, it wasn’t very hot, at all. Not that I’m one for 95-degree weather every day, even coming from the South. No, it just… didn’t have that magic like the year before. And I go back to my observation from the January recap. The core group of AKPsi alumni I called some of my closest friends in 2008 were, by and large, becoming less-than-close friends in 2009. No one’s fault, of course; people change. Or move (like Alison in May). Or become motivated by something else (Erika starting her golf career). Or start a family (Abby). I could go on.
The trick, though, is to grow and change along with them, meet new people, and increase your “core” group of friends even as others drift out of it. It was a gradual realization for me, but made too late: it was so easy to make friends my first several months in Chicago because 90% of them had AKPsi in common. There was an instant bond. Left to my own devices, I found that I was a minnow in Lake Michigan.
“DAMMIT MATT. PULL THE TRIGGER. WHAT THE HELL?
1:52 AM Jul 18th, 2009 from Twitterrific”
The highlights of July mostly came through successes on the half-marathon front. I reached my $1600 fundraising goal on the last day before I thought they would kick everyone out who hadn’t made it yet (which it turns out was false, but whatever). I completed a 10-mile training run for the first time ever (followed that night by oversleeping the L.A.T.E. Ride, which would have been an overnight 25-mile bike ride through the streets of Chicago that I thoroughly enjoyed in 2008 and was looking forward to in 2009), then a 12-mile run. (The cool summer ended up being perfect for the early-morning Saturday runs.)
On the 22nd, I was lucky enough to attend a listening party for one of my favorite bands, Mute Math. They were previewing their new album Armistice to us weeks before its release.
“@mutemath #armistice Overall: very good disc. 2nd half better than first. Would love Goodbye, Electrify, and Armistice as singles. <3 MM!
11:10 PM Jul 22nd, 2009 from web”
On the AKPsi front, I probably saw more out-of-town brothers than local ones. I met up with at least five visiting brothers: Dan, Jennifer, Shannon, Paula Elaine, and Christen. Dan caught a Brewers-Cubs game (I didn’t go with him, but we hung out afterward), Jennifer and Shannon were there for the Taste of Chicago, and P.E. and Christen did the L.A.T.E. Ride.
The most pivotal part of July came on the 28th, the day that I was elected Vice President of the AKPsi Chicago alumni chapter. But not because I was elected VP.
I had made it downtown, and I was at a Kinko’s at 5:56 PM trying to get some stuff printed out for the meeting that night when I got a call from Alison. I hadn’t heard from her in a couple of weeks, and we hadn’t really talked a whole lot since she moved to DC, so I was curious to hear about the idea she said she had for me.
It’s not quite the butterfly effect, but what she had in mind would seed a desire that radically changed the entire rest of my year just weeks later, in ways I never knew existed or thought conceivable.
“August just got (potentially) even more interesting than it’s been scheduled to be…
6:47 PM Jul 28th, 2009 from Twitterrific”
To be continued…
Snuggies and Weddings: 2009 In Review, Part 2
APRIL
“Here goes nothing…
8:57 AM Apr 4th, 2009 from web”
I went out on a date. I never saw the girl again…
(What, you thought that story would be better based on the cliffhanger? Sorry. I just needed a cliffhanger.)
I discovered a great restaurant called John’s Place when I went there for Sharon’s birthday party on the 10th. Baseball season started, and I continued my efforts to get to know the Tau Chi chapter at DePaul. How better to do that than by joining them at a White Sox game? And better yet, my old Mobile friend (and brother) Uyen was in town, so I was glad to hook her up with some Midwest-style brotherhood.
I was already starting to burn when that picture was taken. It was cold but extremely sunny. And the Sox? Do I even need to tell you that they beat the Twins?
April is also known as the month of the Snuggie Pub Crawl. For the uninitiated, it is exactly what it sounds like: a pub crawl where everyone is wearing Snuggies while they drink. I was definitely ALL about it. Unfortunately, the day was also a showcase for that nagging trait that keeps popping up for me every now and then: complete social ineptitude.
I mean, it started off all right: thinking I’d see a few friends out but other plans getting in the way for all of them, I ended up tagging along with what seemed like a nice group of girls just hanging out. But a few bars in, I went to the restroom and came back to find them gone. I was a little confused, but eventually found them again in the next bar. A little bit later, I turned around for what only could have been a few seconds, then turned back to see them walking out the door AGAIN. It turns out (as one of the nicer girls ended up telling me) that they were out to try and meet guys. Basically, I was cockblocking them… well, whatever the opposite-sex version of that is.
I then proceeded to walk a mile and a half back home… and I don’t remember if I was still wearing my Snuggie at the time. (And that’s a story that no one had ever heard before, until now.)
Finally, April was also the month when I decided to embark on something I had never even come close to achieving before: running a half marathon. This is otherwise known as “almost exactly 10 miles longer than, and more than 4 times as much as, the longest distance I had ever run or walked before at once”. And I have to chalk it up to persistent advertising. Just about every day in March, I saw those unmistakeable yellow placards on a bus or inside a storefront window on the street. They were advertising the AIDS Marathon Training Program: a three- to five-month journey involving running (of course), coaching, and fundraising for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. At the end, you were able to run a half-marathon or a marathon… even if you had never run before. I figured I wasn’t really doing much else with my life at that point, so why not try it? I decided I’d train for the half, and the first training run was late in April.
MAY
The month started off with witnessing the AKPsi Tau Chi chapter’s annual fashion show fundraiser. Although still a fairly new event, they have already made it pretty incredible. Eager to test out the new video camera I had bought, although Angela had already used it a lot preparing footage for Professionapalooza (see the next post for my June recap), I had convinced the organizer of the event to let me shoot the fashion show. I gathered interviews, footage of preparation, and the event itself with the intention of turning it into a bona fide documentary. Unfortunately, the big plans never panned out due to lack of time.
The next day was a one-of-a-kind event that intrigued many, confused some, but was enjoyed by all who took part: the AKPsi Wedding.
Not mine, mind you. It was something devised to promote Professionapalooza (see June), the Chicago Alumni Chapter’s conference and charity event headed up by Alison and Angela. Rather than make a lengthy explanation, here’s a bit of a visual break. I put together some footage collected by Angela and myself leading up to and on the day of the event, and I must say it came together pretty well.
One of the other people running in my half-marathon training group, Brooke, worked for a non-profit film company called Split Pillow. She told us about the latest edition of their short-film series, Chicago360, and their premiere party on the 29th. It was free, so I went. I got to meet a couple of local filmmakers and generally had some great conversations. But it just so happened that it was the same night that Third Eye Blind, a band I had been waiting to see for 12 years, was playing up on the North Side. I split Split Pillow a bit early and caught the 3EB show. I called that night an “11 out of 10”.
The next day I went to the Hideout to catch one of the initial screenings of the aforementioned film, “Chicago360 Vol. 4: Play”. It consisted of five short films focusing on some unconventional ways that Chicagoans got their jollies. While the films were certainly very-well done, I thought I could make something just as good myself if I put the time into it.
As the month drew to a close, I was thinking to myself that this was a niche and a community in which I could see myself getting a lot involved. (I still wanted to finish my doc about the fashion show at the time.) Along with the “OTHER Place” opening for the summer, and my half-marathon training going well, I felt pretty good about the direction of my life in Chicago going into June. And oh, that Chicago summer.
To be continued…
Shivering In Chicago: 2009 In Review, Part 1
2009 had a lot to live up to. A LOT. 2008 was far and away the best year of my life up to that point (as evidenced by my twelve Facebook notes lauding each month of the year for its highlights). Could 2009 come close to the previous year’s greatness? In a lot of ways, it did… and even surpassed ’08.
In contrast to last year’s review, which recapped each month in reverse order of greatness, I’ll take this year’s chronologically.
JANUARY
I spent New Year’s in style – in downtown Chicago at a high-rise condo with beautiful people, dance music, and champagne. Lots of my AKPsi alumni buds were there too: Dan (+ Marilyn), Erika (+ Chuck), Ben, Charles, Ronan, Lidia, and Miral.
Unfortunately, it would probably be the last time I saw as many of us alumni together all at once outside of a meeting. The “core” group of the alumni chapter that I got to know and love in 2008 seemed to be gradually drifting apart.
Mid-month, I was the only alumni representative at the AKPsi Tau Chi chapter’s Yellow Rose Semi-Formal. I was my usual stiff, wooden self, but it was cool. The holiday festivities would conclude the next weekend with a quick trip up 94 to Milwaukee for the AKPsi City of Festivals Alumni Chapter’s holiday party. Low-key, but lots of fun in its own right. That weekend ended up as a double dose of AKPsi when the Chicago alumni chapter kicked off the year with a quarterly meeting the next night, followed by free drinks at Trader Todd’s, something I was able to hook up for the chapter.
January concluded with two get-togethers in two very different places: Chicago and Naperville. I decided to forego the start of a shindig at my own house to go out to Angela’s birthday party, but made it back home in plenty of time to mingle with the guests at Jorge’s “welcome back from a month in Guatemala” party.
The rest of the month… I think my brain was too frozen to develop any long-term memory. It was by far the coldest month I’ve ever experienced. The entire month was spent below 38ºF, including an 18-day stretch between the 4th and 22nd when it failed to crack the freezing mark even once for a high temperature; 43 hours below 0º; and a bone-chilling -18º on the morning of the 16th.
FEBRUARY
February started as January ended: with a party. I went out to Plainfield for Abby and Brian’s Super Bowl party (and their 120” projector screen in the basement). Great times, even though I lost what would have been $25 in the squares game when James Harrison ran back an interception 100 yards just before halftime. Damn Steelers.
I made it to Millennium Park’s ice skating rink for the first time, just before it closed down for the winter. The next night was Wayne’s ridiculous 21st birthday party; any time you get that many people packed into one apartment at Lincoln Station, it’s gonna turn out pretty well.
And how could I forget: February is an AKPsi junkie’s favorite month. Five PBLIs and the opportunity to go to as many as three of them! I was content just to have a PBLI in my home city for once (which meant I wouldn’t need a hotel room). It didn’t disappoint, either. Lots of brotherhood (including an inter-student chapter get together the night before at UIC) and making memories with my favorite new superhero crew. 
No pics of just the crew, but here are some awesome brothers from the University of Kentucky who made the trip up.
The next weekend I walked 2 blocks down the street to Schuba’s to watch The Airborne Toxic Event play. The show was great, but I almost got even more of a kick out of Christen’s reaction to seeing her favorite band for the second of what would be three times that night (including their acoustic set earlier in the day and the show immediately after the one I saw).
Sadly, this was one of the only a few shows I got out and saw my whole time in Chicago. Most weekday shows were out of the question due to my hellish public-transportation commute from Naperville (an hour and 45 minutes each way, if you’re curious), and my weekends were mostly spent recuperating and catching up on chores I had put off during the week.
MARCH
I finally started to thaw out. And a St. Patrick’s Day party here (followed by what was apparently some awful karaoke), a St. Patrick’s Day parade there, and two birthday parties: Dan’s in the early part of the month, and Yolanda’s later in the month.
Yes, that is a faux-hawk.
Some of us also caught the Bulls vs. Nets game on the 26th. The Bulls won, of course, making them 2-0 in games I’ve seen (and 3-0 up to that point for all Chicago teams I’d seen in person.)
That night, I asked a girl out on a date.
To be continued…
