Season 6 What's The Dream? Blog 9: The Scroll

 The Scroll

As I was getting ready to leave for Cadillac, Michigan, after the brunch with Paige, Kid, and August, August and Kid were texting me, telling me how much they loved her. Arden called me, asked for updates, and after I caught her up, she advised that I ask Paige to be official. While I wanted to, I was worried that it was too soon.

On Tuesday, March 28th, I called Paige from the cabin. During our talk, I jokingly mentioned that I had tried to get my revenge for the brunch situation by finding her best friend, Nicole, on Instagram. However, she followed like five Nicoles, and I wasn't going to go through each one. On Thursday morning, a few hours before I was supposed to leave for Chicago, I got a notification that Nicole had followed me. We spent the morning messaging and setting up a hangout at Topgolf for the Tuesday after Easter. When I was about to end the conversation, Nicole messaged, "Also, what's the hold up on making it official?"

I realized that if her best friend was asking me about it, Paige was ready to make it official. Nicole and I were scheming the entire time I was in Chicago, and Paige caught on to it. Nicole and her boyfriend had a date on the night of Tuesday, April 4th, and Paige and I had coincidentally, separately, planned a date. The day before, Nicole told Paige that she was going to get a cute dress for her date the next afternoon, and she asked Paige if she wanted to come along and do the same.

They didn't have a set time for when they would hang out, but I was picking Paige up at 5:00. Having not heard anything yet when my students left school, I panic-called Nicole, but unfortunately, Paige was with her. I was going to buy Paige flowers, but by the time I finished all the work I needed to get done, I just had to get dressed and pick her up. To my surprise, she handed me flowers when she came to my car!

We went to a restaurant called Pelino's Pasta. After our waiter sat us down and walked away, I told Paige I had to go to the bathroom and stood up to follow him. He walked to another table, so I awkwardly changed course, hoping any employee would make eye contact. A waitress did, and I motioned for her to follow me. "Hi," I explained, pulling out a small scroll, "I'm asking my date to be my girlfriend tonight. If you could put this in her dessert, that would be perfect!" The waitress took the scroll, and I hid in the bathroom for 5 minutes.

Pelino's serves three or four-course meals (depending on your preference). Paige and I got a three-course meal. Once our first two courses were over, I started getting nervous because I knew dessert was up next. With how much Nicole and I had been talking, me panic calling her in Paige's presence, and the fact that Paige had bought me flowers, I assumed she had to know it was coming (she didn't).

I was expecting the Tiramisu we had ordered to come on a plate; instead, it came in what can only be described as a fancy watering can. The scroll was in the spout, and our waiter faced the spout toward Paige. I assumed she saw it, which she did, but she thought it was just part of the aesthetic. All this girl wanted was to eat her dessert, as I launched into a heartfelt speech about how good of a time I'd been having with her. "... And I want to see what happens next," I said at the end of my speech. "But it might just be easier if you read the scroll!"

"The Scroll?" she asked. I awkwardly pointed to her dessert. She looked at mine, realized there was no stroll in it, looked back at me, and exclaimed, "When did you plan this?!" As if I'd just pulled off some big bank heist. She pulled the scroll out of the spout, unrolled it, and read the calligraphy, "Will you be my girlfriend?" She smiled, looked at me, and said, "Yes!"

Have a Greattastic Day and be Safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 What's The Dream? Blog 8: Meet (Half Of) The Andersons

 Meet (Half Of) The Andersons

I spent the next two weeks after Cousin Simple played at the Newport working on publishing my second book, "Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam." As a result, I could not hang out with Paige until St. Patrick's Day. We went to Seesaw, which is a local restaurant and Bar/club, and it was here that we had our first kiss. St. Patrick's Day was on a Friday this year, and Paige and I set up dates for that Sunday (March 19th) and the following Thursday (March 23rd).

Now shortly after my "sister" August broke up with her boyfriend, Ben, last year, she started dating a guy named Daniel. Well, in late February, August found out that she was pregnant! On March 25th, August flew to Columbus for the weekend to tell Kid, their parents, and me the news. However, once she was in town, she decided not to. I went over for dinner that night, and August said she'd given up alcohol for Lent. This wouldn't have been a big deal, but we are a very suspicious group of people. I think August was worried that we would figure it out if we thought about it too much. So she turned the focus on my love life.

"So Mitchie," she asked, "how are things going with you and this Paige girl?"

"Really well!" I said. After that, I told them about the wonderful three dates that we had had.

"When are we going to meet her?" Kid asked when I had finished.

When I first introduced the girls to my friend Noah, all four of my "sisters" were in town. Each girl is crazy on her own, but when they're together, they feed off each other and get crazier. When Noah first met them, he didn't like them because it was overstimulating. But after he's met them individually, everyone's cool. After this event, I decided to only introduce my friends and or significant others to my "sisters" one at a time. So out of the previous two girls I've dated in my adult life, Aspen is the only one who has met one of them.

Not wanting to miss out this time, August found Paige on Instagram, followed Paige, and once she accepted the request, August Dmd her. She asked if Paige would be willing to go out to brunch with her, Kid, and me, and Paige said yes. Mostly to mess with me; after the date was secured, August and Kid started chanting, "We're gonna steal your girlfriend, we're gonna steal your girlfriend!"

The following day, when I picked Paige up to go to Northstar, I told her, "Okay, so I don't think they're going to be too crazy because we're going to be in public, but just so you know how potentially crazy this could get, last night they were both chanting, 'We're gonna steal your girlfriend.'"

She immediately responded, "Well, they might!"

If I'm being completely honest, August would have done this whether or not she needed to distract us from her big news. This is just the kind of thing that she would do… But the day after this brunch, I went on spring break to Cadillac, Michigan, for the week, and then Chicago that weekend. August would finally call me the following Sunday (April 2nd), right when I was getting ready to head to O'Hare Airport, to tell me that she's pregnant. All this to say, during my entire spring break, I didn't know August's intentions for the branch. Since I thought it was just normal August behavior, I thought it was only fair that I get my revenge and meet Paige's best friend.

To Be Continued…

Season 6 What's The Dream? Blog 7: Not Just A Background Character (Part 1)

 Not Just A Background Character

My brother Ryan and his friends (Will and Mitch) went to St. Charles Preparatory High School. While there, they became friends with another guy whose name also happened to be Ryan. Will, Mitch, and Ryan have been playing music together since their eighth-grade year and started Cousin Simple their junior year. Shortly after the band was founded, they performed in a battle of the band's competition. It was here that I officially met the other Ryan and, more importantly, for the sake of this installment, his sister Paige.

I give off, as the kids say, main character energy, and I always have. I have grown up a lot, but in 2017, when the Battle of the Bands happened, the world revolved around me. Paige is a lot quieter than I am, so even though I've known her for six years, she has been a background character in my life for most of that time. As a result, while I'm sure we did talk, none of our conversations escalated past small talk.

In Season 3, I released an installment called "The Kid Kronicles #1-Jimothy." In it, I mentioned that in December 2019, I went to an ugly Christmas sweater party, dressed up in a Grinch costume. Well, this ugly sweater party was hosted at the house of someone who went to St. Charles with both Ryans, Will, and Mitch. So naturally, Paige was there too. She was drinking a little bit, and it was, under those circumstances, she and I had our first legitimate conversation. I remember almost immediately being attracted to her as we conversed, but I caught myself. Mitchell, I thought, she's Ryan's friend's baby sister. It could be really awkward if you make a move. And so I squashed any feelings that could have developed into a crush. Not gonna lie; the pending pandemic did help!

At the beginning of March, Cousin Simple played at Newport Music Hall. As mentioned in the installment, I wrote about that show (Columbus Against The World); my grandma (Nimba) signed a Cousin Simple groupie's T-shirt. When I was still recovering from the awesomeness that was that moment, I looked up and saw Mom charging at the railing toward me. Since so much was happening, I was a little overstimulated, and it took me a bit too long to realize that Mom was dragging Paige with her!

Because I had been worried about making things awkward in Ryan's friend group, I hadn't told Mom about how I had almost developed a crush on Paige at the ugly sweater party. She just thought Paige would like to see a familiar face. Fortunately, Paige misread Mom's intentions and thought the only reason Sandra would be dragging me toward Mitchell was if he had a crush on me!

I helped Paige under the railing and into the mosh pit, and as we talked between bands, I thought, oh yeah, I definitely like this girl. Because she had already assumed I had a crush on her, she picked up on what I was thinking and started flirting with me. After Cousin Simple played their set, I turned to Paige and said, "We should hang out sometime."

"Absolutely," she replied, "What's your number?"

To Be Continued…

Season 6 What's The Dream? Blog 6: Legend

 Legend

As I mentioned in my second book, "Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam," Mat Kearney was S.M.'s favorite musician. When she was in the hospital, she did a cover of one of his songs, "On & On," for her mom, Nikki, for Mother's Day. In 2018, Mat Kearney played a private show for Sam's Fans, and in 2020 he played a virtual show. On January 30, 2023, Sam's Fans announced on their social media that Mat was returning on April 20 (last Thursday).

At the 2018 show, there was a VIP ticket that allowed you to meet Mat. Unfortunately, I did not get that ticket and regretted it. So when I saw that the VIP ticket for this show offered the same experience, I bought two tickets. One for me and one for a girl named Paige, who I will go into more detail about in my next three installments (stay tuned).

On Thursday, I parked my car, and Paige and I walked into the Fives, where the event was. We said hi to Nikki, her best friend, Mandy, and S.M.'s oldest brother Finn, and afterward, we were directed upstairs for the meet and greet. We mingled upstairs on the balcony, and I introduced Paige to all of S.M.'s friends and family. Eventually, we got in line to meet Mat. Because he knows who S.M. is, and I listen to his music pretty regularly, when I explained how I knew her, we had a conversation I don't think I was prepared for… but we'll get back to that.

Thursday also happened to be Mandy's 50th birthday. Toward the end of the meet and greet, Nikki, Mat, and the Sam's Fans social media director, Avery, brought a cake out, and we all sang Happy Birthday. The wind came in from the balcony, so Mandy had to blow out the candles while we were still singing. And in a perfect display of slapstick, Mandy's hair caught on fire for a second!

After we sang happy birthday, we started following everyone downstairs for the public show. Paige and I mingled for about another hour while an opener played. Then Nikki got on stage and introduced Mat. The whole show was Greattastic, and about halfway through, a bunch of people got up front and started dancing, and Paige and I joined.

I'm not saying that Mat didn't talk between songs at the 2018 show because he did, but at that show, he didn't say anything before he played "On & On." This time he came back on stage after what, in his own words, was "the easiest encore ever," and as he started playing the On & On strumming pattern, he explained how he met Nikki for the first time and, more importantly, how much being part of S.M.'s story means to him.

Even though he hadn't said it directly when I had talked to him a couple of hours before, it was obvious that he loves how much he touched S.M.'s life. Because of all the good work Sam's Fans does, S.M.'s legacy has outlived her, and her story and spirit have grown so much more than I could have ever imagined. Despite this, I still see her as the girl I met all those years ago on my first day of kindergarten. The only part of her story that is a legend to me is her recording "On & On." All of this to say, to hear the living embodiment of that legend talk about how the story affected him personally was so surreal, and I'm thrilled I got to see it!

Have a Greattastic Day and Be Safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 What's The Dream? Blog 5: Spring Break 2023 Part 2: Chicago

 Spring Break 2023 Part 2: Chicago

Ryan picked me up from Cadillac, Michigan, on the morning of March 30th, and we drove four hours to Chicago, Illinois. After dropping my stuff off at his apartment, we took the train downtown and saw the bean in Millennium Park. Afterward, we went to a restaurant and got Chicago-style pizza!

On Friday, we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo in the morning, got lunch, and returned to his apartment just in time to meet Ryan, and Will's bandmates, Mitch and Dave, and their friend Mark, who came into town for a Cousin Simple show that night. We all hung out at the apartment for a couple of hours with Will and Ryan's roommates, Zak and Patrick, then we went to the bar for the show.

The next day, Ryan, Mitch, Mark, and I went to Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs play on opening day. I'm not a big sports guy, and it was frigid that day. Despite these factors, I enjoyed spending time with Ryan and his friends at such an iconic location.

After the game had ended and Mitch and Mark returned to Columbus, Ryan and I went out for the night. Our first stop was The Signature Room. It's a lounge/restaurant on the 96th floor of the building that used to be called the John Hancock building. We each had one drink, and after going out to get more pizza, we went to a dueling piano bar.

Finally, on April 2nd Will's parents, David and Tracy, who had come into town for the show and to celebrate David's birthday, took Ryan, Will, and me out for bagels. After that, Ryan and I went to Mass, went out for lunch, and I took the train to O'Hare Airport. As I mentioned in Part 1, I haven't gone anywhere for spring break since 2020. So I'm very happy that I got to spend my first break post-Covid with good coworkers and my brother and his friends!

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 6 What's The Dream? Blog 4: Spring Break 2023 Part 1: Cadillac

 Spring Break 2023 Part 1: Cadillac

As you may recall, for spring break 2020, Marshall and I flew to Colorado to surprise August and Arden. On the return trip, Governor Mike Dewine shut down Ohio in response to Covid-19. At the time, I worked in the after-school program at News Story (formerly known as Haugland Learning Center). Since classes transitioned to Zoom, I was let go. While I would inevitably return to New Story as a teacher support, that was not until the 2021-22 school year. In other words, spring break 2020 lasted approximately a year and a half for me. All that is to say, I didn't go anywhere for spring break in 2022 because there was too much PTSD.

Because Ryan moved to Chicago last summer, I was planning on spending my spring break there. However, Ryan didn't think my spending the whole week there would be a good idea because he couldn't come up with an entire weeks worth of stuff to do. So when a few coworkers invited me to come on a cabin trip with them, I decided to go on that trip for the week (Monday to Thursday morning) and go to Chicago for the weekend. The coworkers that came were Libby, Scarlett, Tara, Carly, Violet, Xavier, and Mark.

We left Columbus on Monday, March 27th, and got to the cabin in Cadillac, Michigan, at 7:00 p.m. After doing some shopping and picking up food, we returned to the house for the night. We spent Tuesday relaxing more than anything, and so on Wednesday, we did the activities that we had planned.

We planned to have Brunch, do a painting activity, watch a few movies, and then have a fancy dinner night for pictures. As I’ve mentioned before, my dad is an artist, and he owns an art studio called Kobolt Design Studios. Ryan, Luke, and Josh have always been better at art than I am, so I assumed I didn't get Dad's art gene.

For Brunch, we all made mixed drinks, mainly because we needed to get rid of the alcohol we had bought before leaving the following morning. I'd never made mixed drinks before, so I watched my friends and copied what they were doing. The problem was my alcohol-to-mixer ratio was off, so I got way drunker at 11:00 in the morning than anyone has the right to be. Next, everybody got a canvas for our painting project, and our prompt was "spring break." We set a timer for 7 minutes, and when that time was up, we would pass our canvas to the right until everyone had painted on each one.

I learned a while ago that the drunker I get, the more autistic I get because I can't mask it as well (not that I mask it a lot, anyway). As I created my painting and added to everyone else's, I realized that the thought that I wasn't good at art was, in fact, stopping me from being good at it. I needed to let go and not worry about it, and after that, I was pretty decent!

To be continued…