I’m back! The last 6 days I’ve spent in the British West Indies on the island of Anguilla. It was a blast. I went out to see Vodori co-founder’s Scott and Stacy get married.
A complete photo gallery of the entire trip is available here.
Archive for the 'Personal' Category
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Every year the Triangle Neighbors Association of East Lakeview put on an amazing Halloween parade. The parade consists of people dressing up in their scariest costume and walking in the parade. Judges then choose the best costume in a variety of categories. There were over $5,000 in prizes in addition to winning 2 free airlines tickets to anywhere in the continental US. Gabe and I have been somewhat involved in the planning for the last few months but the real people behind the parade are really John Becvar, Jim Ludwig, and Steve Bingham. There are MANY others who are involved that make this happen as well and each play an integral part of pulling off this amazing event.
Without further ado, here are some highlights of the evening: (See full album!)
Gabe and I have been looking for a new puppy for a few months now and today we decided “we’d look” but of course we both knew we were getting a dog if we found the right one. May I present to you, Bella, an Italian Greyhound who is 3 years old. We adopted her from an animal shelter called Paws. They have an amazing facility and Gabe and I were both impressed with the staff and the cleanliness of the dog suites.
Here are pictures from Bella’s first night
Isn’t she the cutest? She’s only 11.5lbs. View the full album
Wow it’s been quite an amazing summer – dare I say one of the best. This summer was one of the best because I had the love of my life with me, Gabriel, and we were able to share it together whether it was traveling to California for 10 days, going to a wedding in Kansas City, or shopping on Michigan Avenue. As I write this, Gabe is just about to land at O’Hare from his 3 week visit to Brazil to see his family.
Additionally, Vodori has been doing extremely well and I’m very excited and proud of what we have accomplished. We have expanded from a small group of four people to a slightly larger 7 people and we’re still looking to add one more person this year. We’re looking to double our size this year alone. On of the most exciting aspects of Vodori is our clients. They are amazing. The work is exciting and challenging and the they are a delight to work with. We have been looking at offices around the city and I think we have a spot we really like which is coincidentally literally next to our first client at Vodori, The Rosenthal Group. How exciting and random! We might be knockin’ on their door for some amazing food while they knock on our door for enhancements to www.sopraffina.com. I think it’s a fair trade 
.
Leaving off from my last post, our family took a trip to NY to celebrate my dad receiving an award from the ADL and to celebrate USTR being on the stock market for 25 years. Arriving back home from the NY trip, was pretty hectic because the annual Gay Parade was in full swing. I had a lot of trouble getting back home because streets were closed off and there were thousands of people in the streets watching the parade. I was blown away by the size of the parade. It was actually my first pride parade and I had a blast. It was a little over the top but I guess I wasn’t expecting anything different.
I honestly could not believe how many people came out for the event. The vibe in the crowd was amazing. Everyone was very happy and celebratory. The other thing I was impressed with is that that very night, street cleaners came in hosed down the streets and everything was completely cleaned up 24 hours after the event. It’s nice to see that people really care about the cleanliness of the neighborhood. If you haven’t ever been to a pride parade, it’s a must see. Hit me up next year and come along!
Heading into July, Gabe and I traveled to Newport Beach California for my birthday and to celebrate the 4th of July. We both stayed on Bay Island in Newport where my parents have recently bought some property. They are planning on making it their retirement spot — no complaints by me! The house that is there now will be torn down in a few years once they finalize the design plans for their final home. It’s such a great location. You are literally right on the water in the bay and there are only about 20 homes on the island. You cannot drive on the island so you end up parking your car right on the peninsula and either walking over a little foot bridge or driving a golf cart to get to your house. It’s pretty neat. The people on the island were all very very nice. I think Gabe’s favorite part of the whole trip was driving the golf cart back and forth to the car. That thing is a lot of fun! We both were able to get some sun which was great!
On the 4th of July everyone was outside enjoying the amazing weather and the boat parade. Gabe and I joined a volleyball game in the sand with a group of the other young people from the island. It was a blast. My good friend Jeff Richter and his girlfriend Cindy also joined us. On the 4th I was really able to talk to a lot of the neighbors one and one which was great. I think my parents have found a really great spot with great people surrounding them.
One of the first things Gabe and I did when we arrived in California was to drive through Hollywood, Westwood, and Santa Monica looking at the homes and stores.
Some of the houses we saw in LA were absolutely HUGE.. well that is if we could actually see through the guard towers, 20 foot tall gardens surrounding them. At one point driving through Hollywood hills, this neighborhood watch car started following us. They probably thought we were paparazzi. Of course me slaloming through the streets at high speed probably didn’t help. I kid I kid!
The trip to California was a great escape even if I ended up working about a 1/3 of the time. Gabe and I made sure to hit all the required destinations like: In and Out Burger, El Ranchito, Fashion Island, and Balboa Pier to eat Ruby’s. We actually ate Ruby’s for lunch on my birthday and there were a group of about 10 dolphins swimming right off the end of the pier. Of course I didn’t have my camera with me. Oh well.
The other great part of the trip was that I was able to introduce Gabe to all of my friends who are still living in California. They all loved him.. I mean was there any doubt?! He’s great! The last night there, a big group of my friends went to dinner together at El Torito. The group included my good friends: John Hering, Jordan Wilday and his wife Erin, and Mark Bentley. It was nice to see everyone back together again. It brought back a lot of memories and having Gabe there with me made it all the better!
Gabe and I also went to my cousin Peter Goss’s wedding in Kansas City. I was so happy that Gabe both decided to come with me and was able to fit it into his schedule before he had to fly back to Brazil. The wedding was very nice and I introduced Gabe to a side of the family that might not have even known I was gay so I’m sure it was a bit shocking to them. All in all, it went great and we both had a blast. My sister met up with her biological sister Trish and also was able to meet many of her extended biological family including her biological father. It was really nice to meet them all.
Before the wedding started, my family, Gabe, and myself went to the Kansas City art museum and saw some pretty amazing works of art. The first 3 photos below are examples.
The rest of July, Gabe and I relaxed in Chicago and toward the end of July, Gabe traveled back to Brazil to visit his family. The following weekend I went to Las Vegas for Defcon 15. I have been going out there every year with a group of guys I’m on a list serve with called “The nerds List”. It was a list a few of us started back in 2005 and has since grown to over 20 people. It’s an amazing list because of the range of guys on it and their skill sets in the tech industry. Well about 16 of us from the list went out to Vegas to go to Defcon and basically have a good time going out. The con was amazing.
| Credit for some of these images go to Preston Lee and Riyad Kalla | ||
One of the highlights was this undercover reporter who tried to “hack” defcon. She was a reporter from NBC’s dateline but she denied press badges saying she was not a reporter. Long story short, she got caught and chased out of Defcon (although she was offered to stay as long as she wore a press badge which she still declined). You can read more about it here. The crazy part of the story is that I KNEW the reporter. She was a college friend of mine and I ran into her when the Defcon goons were chasing her out. I was even on the YouTube video that circulated: View Video. You can see me around 3:30 through this video. I am in there for a quick second or two. It was pretty crazy and exciting to see all of this go down. Other than that random highlight, it was a blast to go out and hang out with guys I regularly talk to on a daily basis through the list. It’s one of my favorite trips each year and I plan on continuing to return to Defcon each year.
The following weekend in Chicago was Market Days. Just as I finally recovered from my Las Vegas trip, Market Days hit the next weekend. Market Days is a HUGE street festival that goes on all day Saturday and Sunday. There are people who come from all over the world to drink, socialize, look at the art, and party! It was my first Market Days and again, it was just down my street. The biggest reason Market Days wasn’t as good as it could have been
was because I wasn’t with Gabe since he was still in Brazil. I met quite a few people and mostly hung around my good friends Jim Ludwig and Patrick Maloney. Coincidentally Jim owns my favorite bar in the area called Roscoe’s and is also very involved with the neighborhood. He is in large part responsible for making the area a better place to live.
I actually got ahead of myself a bit. The Thursday before Market Days was an event called “Take Back the Night” which was a community walk to show the police and the surrounding residents that we need more police at night in the area. Recently there has been an increase in the crime in the area happening after 12am and people are started to get fed up. The walk was to show unity and a little bit of a protest to the police department that we need more police. I walked with Jim Ludwig and Sandra Klein.
While seeing my dad open NASDAQ (see post below this), there was plenty of time for sight seeing New York. It was quite an experience as this was really my first time being able to explore the city and only my 2nd time in NY.
The other reason we had as a family gone to NY was to attend the Anti-Defamation League dinner which honored my father for raising money for ADL. It was quite an event and many United Stationers employees attended. The event was hosted at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel which is quite old, fairly famous, and very fancy.
This event was on Thursday. Friday morning was NASDAQ. Friday night my sister and I decided it was our duty and responsibility to go out and visit some bars and clubs in NY.. You know, to make sure they are up to par with Chicago standards. . Since it was pride weekend, both in NY and Chicago, we decided to start at a couple gay bars which were very nice. We eventually walked around stopping in various different bars with the ultimate goal of ending up at Pacha. Pacha is an internationally known club. There is one in NY, and one in Ibiza, Spain.
The next morning we took a tour of the city. We were able to visit many of the highlights but of course there is no way you can see everything in an afternoon. We were able to walk through Central Park,visit many of the areas of NY: Little Italy, SOHO, Downtown, Upper East Side, Chelsea, and most importantly Ground Zero. I think we all really wanted to make sure that we saw it. Now everything is wrapped in construction fences and there are huge construction trucks all where the towers were standing. It definitely gave a sense of awe to be there. Just thinking to yourself, wow, this was the place it all happened.
Ground Zero:
Central Park:
There are a TON of pictures so if you want to see more, definitely check out the entire album
Last Friday, June 22nd, United Stationers celebrated 25 years on the NASDAQ. To celebrate this amazing feat, my dad was asked to open NASDAQ on that Friday. The whole family flew to NY to attend the opening bell. The whole experience was amazing. The first thing I noticed is that the NASDAQ floor is really just a television studio. There are no people running around like crazy holding tickets, yelling out orders, or any craziness. Instead, there is just a small little studio in Times Square where everything is digital and produced.
As you walk into the building, the first thing you notice is how cool the lobby is and the blue soft lighting. There are many screens some of which are within tall glass showcases
After getting settled my dad was interviewed. Once the interview was over, we all went down into the studio. The idea was that all of the executive officers of United Stationers and our family would be behind my dad as he signs his name which officially opens the NASDAQ. Again, since this is a studio and everything is computerized, he literally signed an electronic signing device which immediately put his signature up on Times Square. It was very neat to see him write his signature as it appeared on screens that tower over the entire times Square. Of course, we joked with him that he should have written www.vodori.com as his signature so we could get a little free press but he didn’t go with it . We even joked he should have had some Vodori hat on or a Vodori t-shirt that he could just fling open at the opportune time. Either way, it was pretty neat standing in front of the camera and seeing yourself on the huge Times Square screen.
Definitely an amazing experience!
