Baby Steps

I spent last night downtown with my aunt, Lori, my uncle, Ben, and my boyfriend, Austin. We went to Mike Ditka's for dinner. Unfortunately, we only went to his restaurant...not his house. The four of us ordered the pot roast nachos and let's just say they were AMAZING. For my entree, I ordered the BBQ baby back ribs and they were humongous. No joke, they were they length of my forearm and incredibly delicious. Da Coach got it right. I ate so much food I was stuffed to the max. Usually, Austin will finish my food for me but even he was ready to be done eating. We got boxes but since Lori, Ben, and I were staying at a hotel, we knew we couldn't keep them. As we were walking down the Magnificent Mile, we saw an elderly homeless man with a young boy sitting by his feet. I asked Ben if we could give them the food, because honestly, we didn't really need it. We gave them the bag that contained an almost full rack of ribs, a steak, a twice baked potato, jumbo shrimp, corn, and mashed red potatoes. The little boy took the bag and shouted "YES!" and started unpacking the boxes as we walked away. There's a lot of debate about homeless people and if they're faking it or if they really need help. I can't really tell most of the time but I know in my heart that these people needed help. The fact that we were the ones to help just made my heart so happy. They sure ate well that night and I don't think either of them went to bed hungry.

Time to shift gears a little bit. Unless you're allergic to the internet (which doesn't even make sense since you're reading this), I'm sure everyone has heard about the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Today, I was challenged by my wonderful uncle Dom (more affectionately known as Uncie). Uncie decided he was going to do a handstand and dunk his head into the bucket rather than simply dumping it on his head. He likes to be fancy in the most awesome way possible. Tomorrow, I will be attempting the challenge side-by-side with Popi. That video will be on Facebook and I'll link it to my marvelous blog as well. I'm sure you are all looking forward to watching me embarrass myself.

This whole thing has been under some negative fire from the Debbie Downers of the world. Some people say that isn't actually helping anything. I am well aware that dumping a bucket of ice water on your head is by no means philanthropic, but it's a start. I guarantee that the majority of the world had no idea what ALS even was. At the very, very least, this whole ice thing is raising awareness. It's definitely closer to a cure than we were a few weeks ago. Baby steps, guys. Baby steps. We've gotta start somewhere, whether that somewhere is with some extra food or a bucket of freezing cold water.