TFT! House of gifts! Bye-bye 2009!

Posted under Le Blog by Cesua

I’ve been a bad blog-daddy.

Well, rather than mush a bunch of stuff together and I’ll see if I can catch up with one or two posts, one of which I use to end 2009.

2009 ended pretty cool because one of my favorite times of the year arrived. Our annual Toys for Tots party.

A little recap…

Twelve years ago, a small group of us decided to have a winter bbq Toys for Tots party in someone’s courtyard. The deal: come to our party with one new, unwrapped toy, and drink and eat for free all night.

I think it was just an excuse to have a silly bbq in winter and drink with our friends. To our surprise it was a big hit and somehow we managed to continue doing it every year to the point we had to keep getting bigger and bigger venues to host the party and somehow became an actual charity group along the way (‘Big kids for Little Kids’).

This past December we held our 13th (!) annual toys for Tots party and like always, it was a lot of fun. This one was little more special for me because the people that help put this together is made up primarily of my Cubs season ticket holder group/friends.

Like I pointed out in an earlier entry, due to financial issues, I wasn’t able to participate in the Cubs season this year. And that meant I didn’t see most of these great group of people for almost an entire year. That was no fun.

So that’s why this year’s party was a little extra special to me, because for one night I’d get to see most of my old friends that I shared a lot of good times with.

To be honest, I was little nervous as well.

See, after I left my job a couple of years ago, the plan was to take off to L.A.

Most of these people knew that and were incredibly supportive of me.

Well, stuff happened and I wasn’t able to go. It’s been two years now and part of me wonders if they think any less of me for not taking the plunge or for not landing the sweet jobs that once seemed pretty close.

So I was a little nervous about seeing my old friends for fear of looking like a failure. But like the good friends they are, I didn’t get any shit from them and instead they made me feel very welcome and missed.

So this night was a little more special this time around because I got to see people I truly respect, love, and miss.

*

This is going to be OLD news to my fellow improvisors, but for you normal people…

In early December, my friend Adal contacted a bunch of us to pull a prank on our dear friend, Louie.

Louie was out of town and left Adal his keys.

So the night before he got back, about 20 of us took part in wrapping pretty much EVERYTHING in his apartment in xmas wrapping paper.

The whole thing took approximately 7 hours to complete.

Since almost every one involved was in and out helping when they could, Adal decided to tape our handiwork so that those that participated would be able to see the final result. The next day, after Louie got back, Adal, posted the video on youtube so that we could see it.

It must have been sometime around midnight.

He checked the video early the next day and it had somehow gotten about 30 hits. He was kinda surprised and figured people started viewing it early.

When he checked it again later in the day, it had about 300-plus hits.

Adal was a little more surprised and just figured a bunch of us were sending it to friends.

Within a week of the video being posted, it had gotten close to 50,000 hits and was number one in the Netherlands. (yeah, weird).

By mid-December, two weeks after it was posted, the video had surpassed 100k hits, was featured on CNN, Fark, The Huffingpost, some British media outlet is used it to show on commuter trains, and MTV had bought the video to be featured in it’s show “Pranked”.

The cool thing about this whole thing is that the video –or the prank for that matter- wasn’t made for that purpose at all.

The prank was made out of our sweet devious care for a dear friend, and the video was made as an afterthought in order to show those that participated the end result before Louie unwrapped everything.

Here is the video along with Louie’s reaction captured by his girlfriend when they got home:

His Reaction

My favorite part was Louie telling us he was going to try to unwrap things only when he needed them so he could exclaim: “It’s exactly what I was looking for!”

*

2009 was a roller coaster in more ways than one but despite the dips here and there, it was still a good year filled with wonderful friends, memories, lessons, and aspirations.

I would like to send a VERY special Thank You to those that helped make 2009 better than it could have been.

Analie and Natalie, my sisters Gaby and Patty, my Mom, Rafi, Holly Beaudry, Charna Halpern, Steve Krull, Tristan Tanner, Molly Hall, Laura Personick, the Tuesday night Poker gang, Min-aha Beeck, Tierza Scazzia, Emily Radke, John Cates, Bob Kulhan, Timmy Mayse, the TFT gang, Kate Duffy, Jeff Pacocha, The Resendiz Family, and last but not least, my furry kids Frosty and Lucky.

EACH and EVERY one of you had a hand in helping make 2009 a better year for me. You truly helped me endure the lows and enjoy the highs of the year. Without your love, friendship, support, kindness, help, and care, 2009 would have been a huge sack of suck.

I can’t tell you how incredibly happy –and proud- I am to have you in my life. From the bottom of my heart, Thank You for making me smile, for being there when I needed it the most, and for just being You.

Now let’s go make 2010 our bitch.