chicago stimulus club

Every first Wednesday of the month, a new charity and a new fun bar are picked and people (mostly singles in their 30s-ish) come together to drink and donate to a charity. It costs 10 bucks to get in and you get your first drink free. I would guess that the whole 10 bucks goes to the charity and then I would guess the bar gives a portion of the drink proceeds to the charity as well. I’d never heard of this until last month when my friend, mark, asked if I was going. To what? I asked and he told me about this thing called ssc. It was being held at the landmark on halsted last month which is an easy bus ride and so I decided, why not… get out and just go. So I did. And I had a lot of fun! I met some of his other friends there too and hung out and drank for a good cause: imerman angels. The ssc raised about 5k for them on this occasion.

Imerman angels is a one on one cancer support system. It was founded by a good friend of my former boss’ b/c in his 20s he found out he had cancer, but there was no one he could just talk to. So what imerman angels does is set up cancer patients with others who have been through it before and can answer questions and be of support to them. Or parents of cancer children can find other parents in the network to talk to. I think it is an awesome cause. They are in all 50 states, so if you know of anyone…. Put them in touch with imerman angels… they are truly amazing!

This was taken by one of the photographers wandering around the place taking pictures…

This past Wednesday was another ssc event. This time it benefited the food bank of Chicago and again it raised more than 5k and 500 pounds of food for the charity. What a wonderful idea! And, even better… the guy I happen to have a total crush on was there! But, let me back up...

Earlier in the afternoon, the crush called! Just as he said he would! Wow, I’m impressed. Yes, little things like this are beyond impressive… and he mentioned that he had a few commitments already this week and then he was working on a big case (he’s an attorney) and so how about going out next Friday (a week from today)…to which I said…no, sorry… haha, just kidding. Of course I said yes. Do you gals realize how long it has been since I’ve truly been interested in getting to know a guy?!?! Too long… so we made plans to go out then and he said he’d call next week to finalize plans. And then I went about getting ready to go out… when…

The barrage of calls started coming from my banks telling me my cards were on hold b/c of strange activity…since this was the first wed of the month, I was planning on meeting some friends for the ssc event that evening. And since I had no wallet, I had to scrounge up some bus fare and head over there after talking to my various banks. I met my friend mark there and he had to be my sugar daddy and give me the 10 bucks to get in and the 3 bucks to check my stupid coat… and then my friend stefanie showed up and we had a drink or two.

i borrowed this from the ssc fb page... an view of the party from the upstairs part of the bar/restaurant.

But to my delight, john (the crush) was there! So I told him that after I’d talk to him, he’d never believe what happened and I told him the story of my wallet… and he was beyond sweet and later that evening even bought me and my friend stef a drink. He was there with some of his friends from the board (geez, I’m behind…I’ll tell you how I met him in the next story) and so I floated between him and my friends and had a great time. At one point, I thought that he had left since I didn’t see him anywhere and I was kind of bummed that he didn’t say goodbye… but no need to worry, he hadn’t and when he did leave he made a point to say good night and that he was leaving and he was looking for to our Friday date. A hug and a kiss on the cheek and he left… stef and I were starving so the sweet girl she is drove us to get some yummy thai food and then paid since I had zero dollars and drove me home even though she lives nowhere nearby. I am a lucky girl… and so that was my second ssc event.