Season 5 Who Am I? Blog 21: Sam's Fans Returns And So Do I

  Sam's Fans Returns And So Do I

As you might recall growing up my best friend was a girl named Samantha McCarthy, but I call her S.M. Unfortunately, she had a disease called Fanconi Anemia and she died on October 15, 2009, after a year or so in and out of the hospital. While she was in the hospital, the only thing that really kept her going was music therapy. So in 2014, her mom Nikki started a nonprofit that supports music and art therapy in Ohio hospitals, called Sam’s Fans.

The Hills market is a local grocery store that has two locations. I’ve never been to the downtown location, but the location I have been to has an outside patio with a little bar on it. Each Wednesday (I think… don’t quote me on how often it happens) that Hills market location has a charity happy hour benefiting a different nonprofit each time, and every September Sam’s Fans gets a night. The event goes from 6-8.

Last Wednesday, September 21, was the night of the charity happy hour. I got off work at 4:00, went to the store to get a few things, got to my apartment and I changed out of my long pants into shorts. After that, I wrote a little bit and finished getting ready.

I got to the Hills market at 6:10-ish. Nikki, her best friend since high school, Mandy, their friend and colleague, Allie, and Averi, the Sam's Fans social media director, were behind the bar serving. “Hey, Mitchell!” Nikki said when she saw me. I greeted her and the others and reached into my pocket to grab my wallet, but it wasn’t there!

I panic padded myself down and I still didn’t feel it. I knew that I had had it at Kroger, so I guessed that it had to be at my apartment. I ran back to my car, and raced back home! After looking everywhere else, I ran to my room and saw the pants that I had been wearing earlier in my laundry basket. I laughed at myself and reached into its pocket and sure enough, there was my wallet.

When I returned to the Hills market I realized that I hadn’t told anyone what was going on, so from everyone else’s perspective, I just vanished causing a slightly dramatic return. While I only had about an hour left of the event when I got back, I realized that my return to Sam's Fans in this installment is exactly what I’m doing in this series as a whole. 

I am very aware I haven’t talked about S.M./Sam’s Fans as much as I did back in Season 1 and 2. My plan was that I would have a guest blogger/podcaster each year on her birthday. I also had a plan for how I was going to depict Sam’s Fans from the beginning of this series all the way to a big event that is happening next March! While covid caused complications for both of these plans, this big event is still happening. In preparation, I am marking this installment as a return to form for my writings about Sam’s Fans!

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 5 Who Am I? Blog 20: A Wedding In Wooster

A Wedding In Wooster 

On the same day in 2019 that I was interviewed for the after-school program at New Story (formally known as Haugland Learning Center), in another office someone else was being interviewed, let’s call her Savannah. Savannah was originally hired as a teacher support (the same job that I have in the present day). Basically, she ran around the school and made sure that all the kids and teachers had what they needed. I’m pretty sure I saw her leaving the school a couple of times, and she remembers seeing me at a hockey game that all staff attended, but other than that we had no real interaction.

When Covid hit, Savannah was promoted to teacher and she taught online until we returned to in-person for the summer school program before the 2021-2022 school year. It was at this point that Savannah and I finally met each other for the first time.

Savannah is incredibly empathetic. She’s literally always there when you need her! In fact, Savannah, along with our coworker Lucy, and her girlfriend (who also used to work with us) Clo, helped me through some personal stuff that was going on last year. She is also an amazing teacher. For the sake of student privacy, I can’t really give any examples but every student that works with her loves her.

Very early on in our friendship, I learned that Savannah was engaged. While the wedding was about a year away at that time, she had gotten engaged in 2020. Despite the pandemic interfering with the wedding, I assumed that she had at least solidified the guest list.

One day in March of this year, I was sitting in Savannah’s room after school.  “Hey,” she asked, “would you like to come to my wedding?”

“Of course!” I said completely shocked. Soon after this Savannah would also invite Clo and Lucy and the three of us decided to carpool. Last Saturday, September 10th, I drove to Clo and Lucy’s apartment at 10 a.m. After they finished getting ready, we packed up my car and I drove to Wooster, Ohio, which is about an hour and a half away from Columbus.

The wedding was outside of a greenhouse and the reception was inside. The wedding party processed in and when it was just Savannah and her soon-to-be husband Liam standing in front of everyone, his dad who was officiating, started talking about their impressive 10-year-long relationship! When they got to their vows… I was very glad that I was wearing sunglasses because on the outside I could look completely composed, but I may or may not have cried a little bit.

The reception was really fun! Clo, Lucy, and I mingled with Savannah and Liam‘s friends and family, and we all decided that we should lightly harass the bride and groom later to host a group hang out. While it was an amazing night, it was a little weird for me. This was the first wedding that I’ve been to that I wasn’t in or wasn’t a family member's. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy not having responsibilities, but every once in a while I would panic because I felt like I should be doing something other than partying. After I would have a little panic, I would feel a bit socially awkward and out of place for a second.

It’s going to sound really backward, but my socially awkward moments made me feel more secure. Savannah has known me for a year now and so she knows how weird I can get sometimes. So when I would feel out of place I understood that I was wrong since I knew that she knew that it could happen and she invited me anyway!

Congratulations Savannah and Liam! wishing you luck on your Greattastic Life together! 

J. Mitchie Ulibarri