Trevor and I are in Austin, TX for a vacation/teaching conference. I'll be writing longer posts with more information once we get back to Chicago on Wednesday night, but for now, I wanted to share with you all a little bit about our trip.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Mom's the Word
Happy Mother's Day!
To all the moms in our life: you're wonderful and deserve one million high fives and an afternoon to yourself so you can go to the movies, eat an ice cream cone, and then sit alone in a quiet house with a bottle of wine. But since that will probably not happen, just know that WE LOVE YOU!
Here are some of my favorite moms:
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| Mother's Day, 2013 |
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| Maureen with her Power Posse in the '80s (and obviously, Trevor's in the 'coon skin cap) |
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| My cousin Cathy with her flying niece |
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| Grandma and Grandpa Madel |
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| Auntie Desiree (mother of three girls [the youngest of whom just had her own baby girl! Congrats and love, Maddie!] and one boy) and her second youngest, Audrey |
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| Grandma and my cousin Michael |
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| My cousin Erica, Cathy and her daughter Jana, and my cousin-in-law Rebecca |
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| Ella and her pretty mom Kate! |
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| Simona with a baby "in" |
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| Simona with a baby "out" |
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| Grandma, Mom, Auntie Carol, and Auntie Mary |
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| Marianne and Paula |
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| Me with my gorgeous mom-friends Angelica and Robyn |
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| Fran, Angi, and me |
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| Kevin and Margaret Walsh (hint: Margaret is the "mom" in this picture) |
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| Fran |
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| Fran and Mom |
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| Auntie Char |
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| BRAND NEW MOM JULIE! |
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| Congrats on a beautiful little Henna, Julie! |
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| Another Julie (mother of Maxie Five Cents) with her mom Peggy |
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| Angi as a brand-spanking new mom |
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| Grandma, doing a super mom-type thing: baking |
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| Not all of these gals are moms, but most of them are, and they're all hot |
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| Marianne with a tiny Bo |
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| Some almost-moms |
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| Paula and some tiny cow person |
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| Mom, not very happy that I'm making her put her grandson in a tiny chair for a funny picture |
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| Our friends Martha and Meagan at our wedding. Meagan told us on this night that she was going to marry her new boyfriend, Michael |
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| And she sure did! Meagan and Michael, dancing at their own wedding, and soon to be parents of Owen! |
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| Me and Fran, at her bachelorette party |
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| At the wedding |
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| And at a baseball game (I have a lot of amazing pictures of Fran) |
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| My friend Lisa and her tiny Violet |
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| Lisa with our friend Shiela, both amazing moms |
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| Me and Mary, supermom and superwife |
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| Caren, our amazing friend (and realtor!) with her youngest, Lindy |
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| Talia and Emily, two of the coolest moms in McHenry County |
Of course there are tons of other moms in our life, so if you're not pictured here, know that you're pictured in my mind and I'm giving you one of those one million high fives you deserve. Thanks, moms, for all you do!
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
A Power Party
We got together Saturday afternoon to celebrate some belated Power family birthdays, and although there's not much to report, other than we had a great time (as usual), ate a lot of food (as usual), and didn't play any games (that was unusual, but we were okay playing with Sadie and watching the Bulls beat the Brooklyn Nets instead), I wanted to share some shots from the day.
We left our place and headed to Sean and Angi's for some pizza and more Sadie time. Roo had a great adventure playing in the backyard grass.
And she's currently recovering.
I think she's got a good idea. I'm going to join her. See ya.
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| The Power Men |
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| The Power Gals: Two Frans and an Angi |
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| Sadie and Pop |
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| We will be sad to say goodbye to our roof deck when we move |
We left our place and headed to Sean and Angi's for some pizza and more Sadie time. Roo had a great adventure playing in the backyard grass.
And she's currently recovering.
I think she's got a good idea. I'm going to join her. See ya.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
All Hail the King
Last Friday night I participated in my college's second annual Drag Show, which was put on by our Pride Club (LGBTQ).
It was, hands down, one of the most fun events I've participated in since starting to work at MCC seven years ago. The only events that come close--and I'm going to say that it's an even three-way tie--are the Alternative Spring Break trips I took in 2009 and 2010.
The students organizing the drag show were out to raise awareness and celebrate the LGBTQ community. And they absolutely succeeded.
They started planning the event in the Fall and it was beautifully organized, with seven "kings" (five female students, me, and the student life coordinator), four amateur/student "queens" (the gutsiest four kids I've met in a while) and two professional drag queens. The MCC dance team also performed, and a half dozen Pride members spoke about serious issues among the LGBT community. The house was packed almost to the brim (our conference center seats 350, and it was nearly there), and they raised almost $2,000 for scholarships and various community support groups.
But, of course, being well organized and early to promote an event also means that crazy people in the community hear about the event early and decide to "protest." The College got almost forty calls and e-mails from people speaking out against the event. Some people were diplomatic, and some people were outright hostile. But none of them actually came out to the event itself, which didn't surprise me one bit. It takes a lot more effort to come to the school and march with a sign (flying your bigotry for all to see) than it does to pick up the phone and anonymously spout homophobic rhetoric. So nuts to them! The show went on and it was fan-flipping-tastic!
Here are some of the backstage photos I took:
The Northwest Herald (the local paper) also had a photographer there to capture more of the behind-the-scenes action, and you can check out the online photo album here.
And the amazing Trevor, best husband in the world, came out to the show and took some videos of our performances. We're still hoping for a full length video (apparently someone was recording the whole show, but it will probably take a while to be ready), so when that's done I'll be sure to share it. In the meantime, here are two snippets.
This first one is Don Alejandro Guerrero Montoya de Venegas (a.k.a. Kaitlyn) with his back-up trumpet player, Papi Chulo.
And this one is me as Papi Chulo with my back-up Kingettes, the best back-up dancers in the world.
I will absolutely be participating in next year's show, and if you're sorry you missed it and want to get a little slice of drag, go to one of Cee-Cee's shows at Hamburger Mary's in Milwaukee or Nautica's shows at the Office Niteclub in Rockford.
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| Papi Chulo, ready for action |
It was, hands down, one of the most fun events I've participated in since starting to work at MCC seven years ago. The only events that come close--and I'm going to say that it's an even three-way tie--are the Alternative Spring Break trips I took in 2009 and 2010.
The students organizing the drag show were out to raise awareness and celebrate the LGBTQ community. And they absolutely succeeded.
They started planning the event in the Fall and it was beautifully organized, with seven "kings" (five female students, me, and the student life coordinator), four amateur/student "queens" (the gutsiest four kids I've met in a while) and two professional drag queens. The MCC dance team also performed, and a half dozen Pride members spoke about serious issues among the LGBT community. The house was packed almost to the brim (our conference center seats 350, and it was nearly there), and they raised almost $2,000 for scholarships and various community support groups.
But, of course, being well organized and early to promote an event also means that crazy people in the community hear about the event early and decide to "protest." The College got almost forty calls and e-mails from people speaking out against the event. Some people were diplomatic, and some people were outright hostile. But none of them actually came out to the event itself, which didn't surprise me one bit. It takes a lot more effort to come to the school and march with a sign (flying your bigotry for all to see) than it does to pick up the phone and anonymously spout homophobic rhetoric. So nuts to them! The show went on and it was fan-flipping-tastic!
Here are some of the backstage photos I took:
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| Four of my fellow kings--amazing ladies, all of them |
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| Makeup backstage |
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| Backstage gang with Cee-Cee LaRouge, one of our amazing professionals |
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| Nautica Nero, our other professional, ready to wow the crowd |
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| Hugs! |
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| Paola and Nautica |
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| Ivana Deek, practicing her moves |
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| Jack Zero (Brianna), Papi Chulo (me), and Slovick (Shauna) |
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| Don Alejandro romances Paola |
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| Now THAT is a wig. |
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| Caroline (our Drag Mama!) and Jon |
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| Mr. Drag 2013, Jasmine! |
And the amazing Trevor, best husband in the world, came out to the show and took some videos of our performances. We're still hoping for a full length video (apparently someone was recording the whole show, but it will probably take a while to be ready), so when that's done I'll be sure to share it. In the meantime, here are two snippets.
This first one is Don Alejandro Guerrero Montoya de Venegas (a.k.a. Kaitlyn) with his back-up trumpet player, Papi Chulo.
And this one is me as Papi Chulo with my back-up Kingettes, the best back-up dancers in the world.
I will absolutely be participating in next year's show, and if you're sorry you missed it and want to get a little slice of drag, go to one of Cee-Cee's shows at Hamburger Mary's in Milwaukee or Nautica's shows at the Office Niteclub in Rockford.
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