Category Archives: Chicago

Joining forces with WE at WORC!

I spent half of my college career as the media advocate for PAVE, a student organization dedicated to ending sexual assault and dating violence on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus through education and activism. My time spent with the group remains one of the most rewarding opportunities of my college years, if not my life as a whole. Doing work that not only leveraged my skills but also benefited the community around me was simultaneously challenging and exhilarating, and I have missed the passion it stirred within me from the moment I graduated.

WE at WORCWell, I’m excited to announce I have found an equally gratifying, significant endeavor: I will be joining forces with Women’s Empowerment at WORC as the assistant director of communications and media.

WE at WORC is a branch of the Worldwide Orphanage Relief Coalition (WORC). WE takes WORC’s mission—to empower children by providing resources and opportunity and reestablishing human rights where those rights have been violated—and applies it more specifically to the lives of women and girls. WE focuses on giving young girls and women the opportunity to express their needs, desires, concerns and hopes for themselves and their communities, while aiding in the formulation of a more fulfilling, stable and self-sustaining future.

The group’s standard of work is established foremost upon the identification of various existing barriers that prevent underprivileged women all over the world from achieving their truest potential and from living a life they deem fulfilling. By standing in the gap, offering her support, resources and a pathway to education and selfdefined success, Women’s Empowerment at WORC aims to create positive change, establishing opportunity through community one voice at a time.

I ask and invite you to “like” WE at WORC on Facebook and follow us on Twitter as I navigate this venture and collaborate with my new team members to further the mission of empowering marginalized women and girls all over the world.

Music to cook dinner to

I’m about to sign the lease for my first “big girl” apartment. Hip hip hooray!

Although I’ve yet to move a single piece of furniture into my new place, I can already picture myself coming home from work, turning on some tunes and making a delicious meal. Maybe this. Or this. (OK, probably this.) Fine. It’ll be a Lean Cuisene. Regardless, the music will reflect the cozy nature of the food I long to cook.

Naturally, I’ve already made the playlist, because why pack up all of your belongings when you can browse Spotify for three hours? Priorities, people.

Anyway, I’ve included the playlist here and below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do (and cook better meals while listening to it than I do).

  1. “My Little Corner of the World” – Yo La Tengo
  2. “Sex Tourists” – French Kicks
  3. “There Goes The Fear” – Doves
  4. “My Life” – Best Coast
  5. “She’s Bound to Get Hurt” – Summer Fiction
  6. “Right Moves” – Josh Ritter
  7. “Butchie’s Tune” – The Lovin’ Spoonful
  8. “Magic” – Girls
  9. “King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1″ – Neutral Milk Hotel
  10. “Wind and Walls” – The Tallest Man on Earth
  11. “Cowboy Boots” – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
  12. “Dreams” – Fleetwood Mac
  13. “Back to Front” – Eliza Doolittle
  14. “Hold On” – Alabama Shakes
  15. “Between the Cheats” – Amy Winehouse
  16. “Let’s Do It” – Billie Holiday
  17. “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today” – She & Him
  18. “Night Windows” – The Weakerthans
  19. “World News” – Local Natives
  20. “Worry Dance” – Diet Folk

A Chicago Cubs fan in New York City

Everywhere I go, I find myself having to defend my love of the Chicago Cubs. New York has not proven itself an exception. A few weeks into my new job, I’ve had to explain to a slew of Yankees, Mets and Red Sox fans why they “just don’t get it.” (You’d think the Red Sox contingent might get it, but Boston fans are not known as the worst, most obnoxious  group of sports fanatics in the country because of their understanding or reason.)

With the Mets in Chicago this week, I figured now was a fitting time to whip out an article on my unwavering Cubbie loyalty I wrote for The Daily Cardinal earlier this spring. Enjoy!

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“Do they still play the blues in Chicago / When baseball season rolls around? / When the snow melts away / Do the Cubbies still play / In their ivy-covered burial ground? / When I was a boy they were my pride and joy / But now they only bring fatigue / To the home of the brave / The land of the free / And the doormat of the National League.”

—“A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request,” Steve Goodman

I have a lot to look forward to next week. Obviously, it is spring break, so myself and three of the most beautiful Cardinal ladies the world has ever seen will be piling into my Honda CRV and road tripping through the South. Additionally, I get to spend Easter Sunday with my family and a minimum of seven chocolate bunnies—no complaints there. Still, neither of these events are what have me beaming from ear to ear. What does have me beaming is Thursday, April 5: the date of the Chicago Cubs’ home opener. (Please save all heckling and tomato throwing until the end of this column. Thank you).

Yes, I am one of the cursed, destined to root for a team that—and it pains me to say this—probably will not win next year. Regardless, I love my Cubbies more than words can say, but this is a column, after all, so I will give it whirl.

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