Long story short: If I raised a lot of money for Northwestern University Dance Marathon, I promised that I would get my eyebrows done. Because of the support of generous friends, families and total strangers, I did raise that money, and I did keep my word. Enjoy the video!

I’m still in a bit of a whirlwind from DM so I’m letting everything in my brain settle before I blog about the whole experience. Expect a long-winded eulogy in the next few weeks as I bid farewell to DM and come to terms with my last quarter of college.

I had what seemed like an insurmountable challenge placed before me last April; As a member of the DM Executive Board, I had to raise about $2,000.  I’ve always had to raise money for Dance Marathon, but never have I had to raise so much. This was leaps and bounds from the $400 I had to raise as a dancer my Freshman year, and the $200 I had to raise as a committee member my past two years.

How could a poor college student like me, whose network consists of other poor college students, ever find a way to come up with, or “fund raise” that much dough?  For the longest time, I assumed I couldn’t. I just envisioned myself cutting a fat check from my savings account on March 1. Sometimes, I even thought that the time and work I put into DM was worth more than any monetary contribution (and in retrospect, this view is embarrassingly conceited).

As a college student, I often look for shortcuts, corners to cut, and easier ways out of inconvenient situations.  But was this really an inconvenience?  Was raising money for children battling cancer something I should have just taken the easy way out of?  After all, money is money, no matter how it gets there.  But I asked myself these kinds of questions for a while, and ultimately, I knew I had to challenge myself.

Young people have done much greater things than raising two grand in cash, so I at least owed it to myself to try.  I did things that made me uncomfortable, and I did things that brought much more attention to me than I’d like.  But what amazed me was that people listened.  People who I didn’t think I could count on, not to mention people whom I didn’t even know, heard me out, listening to me explain DM, my passion, and why I was doing what I was doing.

This morning, I found out I didn’t meet my fundraising goal — I surpassed it.  Was part of it because I am an extraordinarily lucky individual?  Absolutely.  That’s probably not part of it, it’s most of it.  But I like to think that at least a small part was fulfilling a promise to myself and to the things I care about.  I’m not trying to preach, but this is what I discovered to be true: people can do amazing things if they dare to try.

For those of you out there that saw me trying and gave me a chance, thank you.

The saddest part of my week, every week, is Tuesday night.  It’s when I write the weekly Dance Marathon newsletter which is sent to all the DM dancers and supporters, telling them about upcoming events, preparing them for the weekend of DM, and raising awareness about our primary beneficiary, The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation for childhood cancer.  But that last pat is what breaks my heart.

To remind dancers why we dance, we include one fact about the sheer ugliness of childhood cancer each week.  And each week, unfortunately, I have too many to choose from. Do I choose the one about how cancer is the number one cause of death by disease for children and teenagers? Or maybe that 46 children are diagnosed with cancer everyday?  What about how 7 children will lose their valiant battle tomorrow?

I’ve been writing these newsletters since last April and it doesn’t get any easier with every passing week.  These newsletters may be someone’s weekly reminder to continue fundraising, or a weekly reminder to panic about spending 30 hours in a tent.  But for me, they are a weekly reminder of how blessed I am, not only for my health, but for the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of these children through DM.

Sure, the money we’ll raise for The B+ Foundation will undoubtedly go a long way, but what I’m more thankful for is being able to put a smile on the faces of these kids; I’ve been lucky enough to meet and play with them numerous times during my year on the DM executive board.  And what strikes me the most is that though I like to think I’ve sacrificed a lot for DM, I know that I’m ultimately getting so much more out of it than I’m putting in.  A lot of people from B+ thank us for the work DM does, but the real thanks we owe is to them.

Barack Obama’s Facebook account posted a link today about their new yard sign for the 2012 presidential campaign.  I took a look and was stunned by what I saw.

It costs $15.

This really caught me caught off guard.  I know in 2008, once Obama had attained “rock star” status, his campaign office phones were ringing off the hook with people asking for Obama yard signs. Eventually, the offices became tapped and didn’t even bother making more; why would you if your candidate has 100% name recognition across the country?

But in a bygone era, yard signs were something else.  Campaign staffers, or even shameless politicians themselves, would have to come to your house and ask you for permission to just take one of their yard signs.  They’d even take three minutes to stick it in the ground for you because they were that desperate.  And there’s no doubt that in 2000, congressional candidate Barack Obama may have found himself doing the same.  Publicly supporting a candidate was a favor you did for them.

But for any high profile campaign where name recognition is not an issue, yard signs have very little utility, aside from telling your neighbors how wealthy you are.  So what exactly is happening here with the Obama signs?

Any political marketer will tell you that the Obama campaign has recognized (for some time now) that political campaigns have finally made the two-decade-long crossover into consumer goods.  Campaigns aren’t just selling a candidate and public policy anymore — they’re selling a brand that people feel they need to own, and show others they own.  And they do this with all sorts of products and goods that in the past served some sort of populist/grassroots purpose, but today are nothing more than a trademarked logo.

How can a candidate (not just Obama) ask the media, public and all his/her stakeholders to just “talk about the issues” when their campaign is fueled and funded by anything but?

These yard signs have no value for the campaign in the traditional sense, but in the consumer sense, every $15 they make is going toward the $1 billion they’ve pledged to raise for the 2012 cycle.  And if that last number isn’t an indication that campaigns are now big businesses, then what is?

Spicy deviled eggs

I love deviled eggs. Hard-boiling and peeling was a little difficult because the eggs were brand new, so we (my sister helped out) only suffered a few casualties before all was said and done. I wanted to make these with a little kick so I used spicy mayo, spicy Dijon, horse radish, and my mom’s assortment of ground Indian spices. They turned out great!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Maple Cinnamon Sage Brown Butter

I want to lie and tell you this was delicious, but this gnocchi came out just awful. A friend showed me this recipe online and got me really excited about it. Right before I tried making the gnocchi, I saw all the horror stories under the ratings and reviews. I basically used too much flour, didn’t cook them long enough, and completely ruined the sauce. Additionally, the sage leaves shouldn’t have been charred like they are here. I tried sucking it up and shoving these down anyway, but I just couldn’t. Oh well, I’ll try again another time.