Jenny Lamberson: The Pinball Wizard of Champaign

What's cooler than being cool? If you answered the Ice Cold, Jenny Lamberson, you are correct. Friday's meal with Joe was such a success, I thought I would start this next week with his better half.

Jenny chose one of her favorite places, Yatai restaurant on University Ave in Champaign. And, as usual, I had never been there, so it was another new place for me. I got the Pork Cutlet Curry Rice, and she got a Sushi Burrito. I loved the pork cutlet. Nice and crunchy exterior and tasty inside. The curry was a little too spicy for me, but I am glad I tried it. Lots of water helped calm it down. Jenny had no problem with the heat. Her dish also had the pepper symbol to indicate it was spicy, but she said she could have used even more spice! They are going to kick me out of the Spice Girls fan club if I don't up my spice game soon.

Also got the Mini Bao Pork, which was a dumpling with a pork filling. She shared one with me to take home, but I have been too busy to eat it. Looking forward to trying it after I finish writing this up.

Jenny lived up to the hype that Joe set up for her last week. She was so interesting. I didn't really know her going into the meal, so it was interesting to learn more about her. She was as complementary of Joe as he was of her, and she made a great observation, that the two of them are the same. I have to agree with that. They are both wonderful, kind people who are full of joy and make you happy to share a space with them.

The best thing I learned about Jenny, was her laugh is the most wonderful thing in the world. I don't know how anyone could be upset when you hear her laughter. She brings light into your heart, and it made me feel better all day.

Another thing I learned about Jenny was that she says she loves Halloween, but she does not in fact love pumpkin spice. I may not be able to handle the spice from the curry, but I have a weakness for pumpkin spice. Not sure how a person can claim to love the greatest holiday of the year and at the same time not love pumpkin spice, but I am just going to have to believe her on this one. After all, I didn't make my child 31 different Halloween costumes, so they could dress them up in a different one each day of the month. That was something that she did with her kid was little, so she has me beat on that. So, I will graciously accept that she is a bigger Halloween fan than I am. And she did say she liked apple cider, so that makes up for not loving the pumpkin spice (I guess) Ha.

I know Jenny through Joe, but here on the Face of the Book, I have a bunch more friends in common with her than I do with Joe. She's a video person, so she knows all of the local video people in town! Film and Video people are the best people. If you want to have a good time, hang out with filmmakers, art designers and actors. Don't know what it is, but it is a blast. (Or possibly it is just a blast to me because I love talking about camera and lighting gear for hours on end)

We didn't talk about any camera gear today, but I did learn about Jenny's history in the TV world. She went to school down at SIU, which has one of the best TV production programs in the nation. I know so many people who went to school down there. What a gem of a resource right here in Illinois. Shout out to Eleanore Stasheff, who both of us have worked with on projects in the past.

Currently, Jenny works at the U of I doing media work for some department with a long name in Engineering. Her job sounds very interesting. She showed me some pictures of the set design and graphic design that she does for her job. She is very talented. She described her work using the Japanese word Ikigai, which seemed appropriate for the setting of the restaurant. Ikigai describes a way of life where you strive to live a purposeful life consisting of four different concepts: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. If you find something that satisfies all four of those ideas, you will have a joyful life. Seems like Jenny is sitting right in the middle of all of those, which explains why she is doing so well.

We also had an interesting discussion about saying yes. On the one hand, it is an amazing adventure when you say yes to new things, like being invited to a fancy-dress girls’ night out with a new friend and having a wonderful time. On the flip side, saying yes to too much can be exhausting. Between work and a kid, time is already at a premium, so adding other things, even if you really want to do them can just be too much. I really feel her on that one. I have so many things that I want to do but just don't have time to do them all. (But I will definitely make time for a fancy-dress girls night out if the opportunity ever presents itself.)

And, now for the info that you have all been waiting for. Jenny is in fact an internationally ranked Pinball player (I like to say Pinball Wizard). She plays for a league here in town. At their events they play five different pinball machines and get ranked based on the scores of each of them. There used to be so many pinball games in different locations around downtown Champaign that they could make the rounds and have a fun night of playing, but it seems like a lot of places have gotten rid of their machines, which is kind of sad. She said that nowadays she goes out to Triptych to play because they have quite a few machines.

One of her favorites is Star Trek: The Next Generation, although we both agreed that World Cup Soccer is the best pinball game ever made (actually we didn't agree. I just made that part up because that is the only game that I ever played consistently, so it is my favorite, Ha). My advice to pinball players is to shake the machine a little bit, but I think her advice may be a little better. This is not an exact quote, but it was something like: shoot for the flashy, blinky things - they score a lot of points. So, there you have it from the expert.

Thank you so much, Jenny. I really enjoyed our conversation. Next time we will have to take the whole family out to Monical's Pizza, so we don't leave the kid out of the It's My Treat fun.