VWrite Update & Some Selfish Feel Good News

So, anyone who volunteers knows that the only reason to volunteer is a selfish one: to make yourself feel really good.

But the good and wonderful people at Open Books, where I've been volunteering, have gone above and beyond making me feel good and have named me their November "Vol-Star," which is a huge honor for me. You can read about it on the Open Books Tumblr page.

But when I got the e-mail from them, I realized that I'd neglected to write a post about the college visits I went on with Angelica, my mentee in the VWrite program, so this seemed like perfect timing.

Last month, Angelica and I took a campus tour of Columbia College Chicago, where she's interested in going after she graduates in 2014. She's thinking about studying television and movie directing, but she was also really interested in the music program they have at the college.

Getting some tour tidbits from our guide (who may be on Saturday Night Live in the near future...)

Angelica, in the music performance theater

Why, hello. Yes, I'll be going here soon.

After the tour, Angelica and I went to say hi to the Bork parents since they were so close. My mom thought Angelica was "adorable," which was not surprising, and after a chat we took a picture on the deck.

But our collegiate visits weren't over; Angelica was embarking on Gage Park's fall break, so the first Monday she had off school, she came with me to MCC. She'd visited the campus with me before, but I'd forgotten to take any pictures. I didn't make the same mistake this time.

Angelica, looking super studious in the MCC library

We had a great time, and it was so much fun to show her off to my colleagues. And my students in the Monday class (17 male/3 female) were also very excited to meet her. The boys may have showed off a bit on her behalf; they were a lot chattier than usual--and they're usually unbelievably chatty.

Angelica and I are almost through the official VWrite program--it's just one semester--but we've decided that it would be weird to not see each other anymore. We decided this over noodles at Urban Belly the other weekend (she really wanted to try traditional ramen and I didn't need my arm twisted to go with her).

Us, in front of giant bowls of noodles and some wrinkle beans, which were good but even more fun to say. WRINKLE BEANS!

You can't see it, but she's enjoying the delicious ginger candy they gave us after dinner

A. showed me the "good" way to take a picture of yourself: from above

We have a VWrite potluck after Thanksgiving, and then we made plans to get some crepes later that week. It's probably meaningful that many of our outings revolve around food. It means that we like food (mystery solved). We did decide that the post-crepe get together would be to work on her job applications, so there will be some work done. But we'll probably have to work on her applications over some cookies. Or banana splits.

All in all, working with Open Books and Angelica in this program has been a terrific experience. And if any of you are interested in volunteering, you should check out what they've got to offer (which is a lot).

Have a wonderful, turkey, potato, stuffing, and pie filled Thanksgiving!