April Faulkner: The Woman Who Started It All

Very special It's My Treat today. The super energetic and joyful, April Faulkner was my guest at The Himalayan Chimney. I'll come back to those adjectives about April in a minute, but first I'll go into why April is such a special guest. The reason April is special has nothing to do with it being my birth month, (but that is pretty cool too), but instead it is because without her, this whole It's My Treat project would not exist.

Before this started, I had offered to take a few co-workers out to lunch, but none of them took me up on the offer. I don't think any of them took it very serious as an offer. The only one who did take me up on my offer was April. We went to The Literary in downtown Champaign and had a nice meal and a good conversation. It was such a fun experience (at least for me, you'll have to ask her how it went on her side). When I brought up that no one else had taken me up on the idea, so suggested that I make more of an effort at it and make a goal of taking out one person per week.

What a great idea! Setting that intention really changed the way I looked at things. It made it more of an active invitation instead of just a passive offer. If someone said they were up for it, I'd circle back with them until we made concrete plans. That was not something that I was doing before. So, if you like reading these write ups, be sure to thank her for the initial push to do them.

Ok, let's get started. First off, the choice of restaurants, The Himalayan Chimney. One of the challenges that April made when she told me to set up the weekly meals, was that whoever I went with got to choose the location. So, April made this choice and since it isn't a burger place, I had never been there. The one thing April did not know is that I love Indian food. Well, maybe not love, because when I was thinking about it, I don't think I have had Indian food anytime in the last ten years. That oversight is something that is going to change. I had my go-to meal, the Tikka Masala and April had the Chicken Vindaloo.

I've always thought of myself as someone who liked spicy food, but I must be getting older and whiter because even this mild dish was pretty spicy for me. Needed lots of water and Diet Pepsi to calm the heat. April on the other hand had no problem with the much spicier Vindaloo. I think she has had more experience with it recently, so that is probably why she handled it better. That just means I am going to have to get back in practice that try a rematch. (Anyone up for Indian food?) I loved the food. Missed it so much. One thing I felt good about was introducing April to the Mango Lassi. I knew she liked mangos, so it seemed like a no brainer, and I think she liked it.

Enough with the food. Seems like I spend too much time talking about the food and not enough time talking about the guest. So, since I wanted to focus on the guest, my first questions to April was what it is like to have such and amazing friend like me. Her answer was the very truthful, "Strange." She knows me better than most, so strange is definitely a correct answer. If you don't think that I am strange, you probably don't know the real me very well. Ha.

Those of you who know April, probably have a pretty high opinion of her. She is a hard worker, very bright, passionate about the things she cares about, and very professional. Incredible to have co-workers who are that good. When seeing how successful she is, it is easy to assume a privileged upbringing, but I was surprised by her humble upbringing. She was adopted early on by a single woman who worked as a librarian at a public library. But from there, she worked hard, was exposed to lots of books, and did well in AP classes in high school and went on to become the woman she is today. Some people really have that drive to better themselves, and they usually go far. Being raised by a librarian probably didn't hurt either. Have I ever mentioned how much I love librarians. Amazing people.

One thing that probably rubbed off from her mom is her love of books. She read 50 books last year and has a goal of one a week this year. I'd be lucky to read 50 pages in a year. I am the worst English major ever. But it's not like April is just some sort of book nerd, so also has a lot of interesting hobbies and side things that she likes to do. Learned today that she was into gymnastics when she was growing up and was even doing adult gymnastics as recently as last year. She can even do Aerials (no handed cartwheels). How freaking amazing is that? When she talks about it, her face lights up with glee! Love seeing that.

Another passion that she has is animals. She does a lot of work with Hospice Hearts Animal Rescue (hospiceheartsanimalrescue.org). It is an amazing organization that gives a second change to older animals who have been left behind for various reasons. April has even roped me into giving their website a refresh. Of course, it isn't hard to rope me in when it is a good organization and the type of work that I enjoy.

April's love of animals started early on with her childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian. I'm always sad when I hear about people not living their dream, but April seems to have come to terms with it. She is living a new dream. I guess a good job, buying a house at 25, a nice herb/vegetable garden, a great fiancé, and a wonderful dog isn't such a bad life. (and I say, I guess, because I don't have any of those things, but it seems pretty cool, right?) And she can do Aerials and is a kick ass friend.

OK, so let's get back to those initial adjectives that I used to describe April. Energetic, Joyful, Excited, etc. If you have been around her, I am sure you would use those same types of adjectives to describe her. One insight into her though is that she doesn't just wake up like that. It is a conscious decision that she makes and tries to live her life by. There are times where she is tired as hell but still kicks it into gear and goes. It is hard work to make it seem so effortless. Probably a good thing to remember about everyone you run into who seems like life is easy for them and they have it made. Maybe there is a lot of hard work going on to make it that way.

Of course, we talked about other things. April getting rejected by a kid in 4th grade when he checked the "no" box on the note she sent him asking him out. My newfound selectiveness when it comes to asking people out. I am now only asking amazing people out (which is a good thing), but I'm still having trouble coming up with reason's that these amazing people would ever want to go out with me. Self-esteem problems, anyone? Ha. But this is getting long, and I need to close things up and get to bed, but I want to get serious for a moment.

In addition to suggesting doing the weekly meals with people, April also gave me two other recommendation/challenges. One was to see a therapist. I was tired all the time, and she thought it might be a good idea to check to see if it might be caused by depression. Weekly sessions with the therapist have helped me in many ways. She helped me realize that I had a lot of things that were blocking me from doing the creative things that I was wanting to do and offered options to overcoming those blocks. It feels like a creative rush has flowed through me in the last few months. So much happier about what I am doing with my life.

The other thing April said I should do was to start taking Acting classes. I've been doing that for the last month or so, and it has been glorious. Glorious as in a spiritual awakening that reaches into my creative soul and is bringing a new enlightenment to my life. These three things (meals, therapist, and acting classes) have made such a big difference. I feel like I am a different person than I was when I started the year.

I'll always be grateful for April pushing me into a new life, a happier life. No idea how to repay someone for doing such a big thing for me, but I guess buying her lunch today makes us pretty much even. Ha. Thank you, April, for choosing such a good place and going to lunch with me today. Thank you everyone else for reading all of this. Have a good night or day or whatever is appropriate for the time you read this.