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How to Make Southwestern Chili

Profile of a Teenage Mother

By Karissa Martin

A sliver of dancing light peeked out of the curtains of a welcoming, little yellow house on Oak Street in Arthur, Ill., on the chilly evening of Nov. 23. The humming sound of voices spilled even onto the concrete front steps in the dark.

Inside, children’s shoes were strewn along the wall opposite a couch, television, and Marchita Garza, 17, feeding six-week-old daughter, Laila Marie Sanchez. Seven-year-old Alex Garza played on the computer nearby, and Maria Garza, 9, played in the kitchen, straight ahead.

Laila cooed and kicked her little legs in her pink-and-white onesie as Garza attempted to continue feeding her. A smile crept onto Garza’s lips as she looked down at her squirmy daughter, and a sheet of dark brown hair fell into her eyes.  

“I think she does a really good job, and I think she’s a very good mother,” said Elizabeth Garza, mother of Garza, Alex, Maria and Hannah Leal. “At the beginning I helped her out, but I kind of pulled back now,” Garza’s mother said. “I make her do more of it so she realizes what work she has to do and what’s required with taking care of a little one.”

Even with her mother’s help, there is still a lot of work that Garza, a teen mother and high school student, has to put into caring for Laila. Despite the hardships of having to balance school and parenting, she is determined to succeed at being a mother and in life.

“I usually get up around six every morning and I feed her, and then we fall asleep again,” Garza said. She said that the baby sleeps and eats throughout the day, and, “I try to do homework in between.”

“I’ve been getting a lot of it done,” said Garza of her homework. Though she was allowed to stay at home from school six weeks after the day of birth, Oct. 13, Garza was expected to make up all of the work she missed while caring for Laila.

In addition to the new duties added to Garza’s daily regimen, she has had to make sacrifices.

“I haven’t really been hanging out with any friends at all,” Garza said. “And if I want to go to a basketball game or a volleyball game or anything like that, I don’t do that.”

“It’s definitely a big change from what I was doing, hanging out with friends a lot,” she said. “It’s not too bad, but I do miss it.”

Garza isn’t the only one who has had to make a few changes since the arrival of the little one. The whole household dynamic has changed, according to Elizabeth Garza. “It’s changed quite a bit,” she said. “I think it’s calmed down.”

Hannah Leal, 12, agreed with her mother.

“It makes me change because I used to be a roughhouse person,” Hannah said of Laila’s arrival. She said she is “more careful because I know there’s a baby around.”

One person who has not yet been affected by new baby duties is Tyler Sanchez, Laila’s father, who is in the navy and is currently stationed in San Diego. He hasn’t had the chance to meet his daughter yet.

“It has been very hard being away from both Laila and Marchita,” Sanchez said. “With Laila, it’s hard because I haven’t been able to see her or hold her.”

Sanchez said that he is looking forward to seeing his fiancé and daughter when he returns home in mid-March. In the meantime, he thinks that Garza is doing well under the new pressures of raising a child.

“She seems very happy to be a new mother and doesn’t seem to be stressing out as much as I thought she would be,” Sanchez said in an e-mail. “It is such a blessing to have a woman like Marchita in my life; I am very lucky to have her.”

When Sanchez returns home next spring, the couple plans to get married and share the baby duties. He said “things will get a lot better when I am able to come home and help take care of Laila.” 

“I really just hope that all stays well until I am able to come home and share happy times with my family,” Sanchez added.

Until Garza and Sanchez are reunited, Garza still has a lot of hard work ahead of her. She returned to school on Nov. 29, and she was nervous about the coming weeks and leaving Laila at home.

“It’s going to be hard, especially leaving her with the babysitter and coming back and trying to do homework in between feeding her and staying up late nights,” she said. “But I’ll make it,” she said, pausing, then adding, “hopefully,” she laughed.

Dearly, Garza held Laila in the crook of her arm as she settled into the brown recliner. Laila’s eyes began to close as she sucked on her tiny, pink-and-white pacifier and nestled into her mother’s body. Her tiny fists curled up as Garza watched her daughter quiet and relax.

The other members of the household continued on with their activities, while Garza and Laila settled into their quiet moment together as mother and daughter.

M2 Boutique: Shopping in Lakeview

By Karissa Martin

The pink- and brown-striped awning over the entrance to M2 Boutique fluttered in the light breeze in Lakeview late on a Saturday morning. A dry erase board informed passersby of the 20 percent discount with a purchase of two items of jewelry. The expansive window displays invited customers in with the promise of purses, hats and every accessory imaginable.

Inside, several customers bumped their way through the petite shop, trying to get a look at every item in the store. The overwhelming array of purses, clutches, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and more was covered with every shade of purple, pink, green, red, and every color of the rainbow. Along one wall, a large collection of silver and gold jewelry sparkled brightly, an eye-catching display in M2 Boutique.

For the accessory-lover, this could only be heaven.

“I really enjoy shopping at M2,” said Amy Ponto, a shopper, of Lakeview. “I think they have really cute and stylish accessories for reasonable prices.”

The staff is “very helpful and friendly and can assist with finding specific accessories that you are looking for,” Ponto added.

Melissa “Mel” Nelson, the owner of M2 Boutique, said that this is exactly what she had in mind for the store when she started it seven years ago.

“I started this store with the intent that this is a business where we’re going to be 100 percent hands-on,” she said. She wanted to “treat customers like friends.”

“I always knew that I would do this,” Nelson said of running her boutique.

She started working in the jewelry business at 16 and has kept with it ever since.

Although she knew at 19 that she eventually wanted to open up her own store, Nelson, a chicly dressed, blonde-haired woman with an ever-present smile, attended Columbia College in Chicago. After receiving an entertainment management degree, Nelson began bartending and working at a high-end jewelry store on Michigan Avenue.

In 2003, after much experience in the jewelry industry, Nelson opened up her first store, M. Boutique, in Lincoln Park. She had no help with her store―she said she had to use odds and ends to create displays, and she even painted her own kitchen table to add to the mix.

“I’ve worked with jewelry my entire life,” she said when asked if she knew what she was getting herself into. Nelson said she was prepared for it, but there was still a lot of work that went into starting M. Boutique. “There were times when I slept on the floor because I couldn’t get up to go home,” Nelson recalled.

Nelson has come a long way from sleeping in her little shop in Lincoln Park. Forced to expand her booming business after three years, she said that she closed M. Boutique and opened M2 Boutique at its current location in Lakeview.

With its vast array of colors, trendy merchandise, and ever-changing selection of gently priced items, ranging from about $5 to $250, M2 Boutique is a mirror image of Nelson’s personality. She said low prices are important to her because she thinks that a woman should not have to pay ridiculous amounts of money for stylish accessories.

She said she works hard to be on top of the current styles and to keep a steady cycle of new merchandise. As M2 Boutique’s Web site states, “Buy it when you see it because it’s gone before you know it.”

In addition to its current location, M2 Boutique is also in Naperville, and Nelson has a store called M4Men right next to M2 in Lakeview.

“I think success is a state of mind,” Nelson said when asked about her growing success. “I look at this as this is what I’m supposed to do.”

Nelson said she is not satisfied, even after her expansion to multiple locations. “I’ve become a glorified office manager,” she said.

Indeed she spends her days at work cramped in the tiny, cluttered room at the back of the store, working with numbers and inventory instead of with customers.

“I want to get back on the floor,” Nelson said.

Right now, Nelson’s employees like Kelly Feldmiller are the ones on the floor interacting with the customers.

“I like being able to work one-on-one with customers,” Feldmiller said. That is what makes people keep coming back time and again. Feldmiller said it’s “the fact that we personally help customers.”

Feldmiller said that working for Nelson at the boutique is a lot of fun. Not only do you get to know the customers, but you “get to know people you work with,” she said.

“We all like working here,” Feldmiller said. “A lot of people that work here end up staying here for a long time.”

“It’s kind of fun to be at work,” she added.

On a recent day, a customer waited at the counter as Feldmiller placed her new purchase in a little pink box, wrapped it in pink tissue paper, and dropped it into a crinkly, clear bag with a little pink shopper on it.  With a smile, Feldmiller handed the customer her merchandise, and the customer turned to leave, a satisfied sparkle in her eye.

Lip Synching at Roosevelt University

By Karissa Martin

Every seat in room 232 at Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Building was filled on Tuesday evening.

The crowd shifted in their seats, stood up to stretch their stiff limbs, and chatted loudly, as they tried to drown out Kesha’s “Take it Off,” blaring from the loudspeaker. About an hour into the event, there had already been seven acts at the Lip Synch Competition put on to celebrate Roosevelt’s homecoming week.

The crowd awaited the final performance of the night, though not very patiently. The audience had already selected their favorites, apparently not needing to see the final act to decide the winner.

Annie Crews, 19, said that her favorite act was, “Robot Boy.” Her roommate, Katie Raginis, 19, agreed with her and said that Neo Sun’s performance of “Number One” was, “hilarious,” and, “very entertaining.”

But neither knew what was still in store for them.

The free event, sponsored by SPEED or Students Programming for Enrichment, Enlightenment, and Development, was one of a host of events held by students during homecoming week. The event was intended to be good old entertainment and also a chance for those on the homecoming court to introduce themselves and lobby for votes.

Matt Cooney, spokesman for campus programs for the Center for Student Involvement, said that since this event was successful last year, they decided to put it on again. He added, “We’re not going to try to reinvent the wheel, just try to improve on things that are already done, then try new things out.”

Finally, the performers arrived for the final act of the evening.

Channing Redditt, secondary education mathematics major at Roosevelt University, stepped into the room with a smile spread across his face as he ran up the steps of the small stage at the front of the room.

Redditt appeared jitter-free and right at home as the beginning beats of the song started.

“I’m actually comfortable on the stage,” he later said. “I sing and I play piano, so I’m used to being on stage, performing for people. So, this was just like another home for me getting up there.”  

The music started with Usher and R. Kelly singing, “Yo Ush. What up Kells? Wanna introduce you to this girl; think I really love this girl.”

Redditt nailed every word, and when the song got to “we messin’ with the same girl,” his expression was one of complete surprise and sheer horror. The audience roared with laughter.

The crowd graced Redditt and his partner with a standing ovation as, “the same girl, the same girl,” faded into the background. The audience had chosen their winner, with the enthusiasm of their applause and yells.

One of the judges, Cheytaya Brown, Roosevelt University’s residence hall coordinator, agreed with the loud audience. Her favorite performance was Redditt and his partner.

She said she liked, “the fact that they were so animated and they didn’t necessarily have props, but they used themselves, and they used their emotions and expressions.” 

According to the Lip Synch Competition scoring, Redditt’s act had the best overall score, which included criteria such as originality and creativity and ability to lip synch with the words to the song. In addition, the performers were judged on attitude, accuracy, teamwork, choreography, and audience response.

Besides deciding on the scoring criteria, there was a lot of behind-the-scenes work that went into putting on the competition. Before the performers worked on their “mad skills” at lip synching, SPEED was hard at work, preparing for the event.

“Planning for this starts in about May or June,” Cooney said. “We do a lot of our planning in the summer.”

“The board’s been working hard since they kicked into full gear starting in August, so they’ve been doing stuff for about two months straight,” Cooney added.

“They’ve been working hard non-stop,” he said, “and I can’t be more proud of them.”

All the hard work apparently paid off for the diligent students involved in the SPEED program.

“I think it was really well put together,” Brown said of the Lip Synch Competition.

Crews added, “It was very funny and entertaining.”

The boisterous applause and standing ovations from the general audience seemed to agree with Brown’s and Crews’ assessment.

“At the end of the day it’s all about the students celebrating their school, and I think that they did a really good job with that today,” Cooney added.

Autumn in Chicago

By Karissa Martin

Channelle Oleski, 19, who lives downtown, stared longingly out the glass doors in the lobby of Roosevelt University on Thursday. She drummed her fingers on the green tablecloth and crossed and uncrossed her ankles as the sun shone teasingly in her eyes.

The laughter from people across the street seemed almost audible, smiles on their faces and the sun in their hair. But the revolving doors and noisy talk in the lobby made it impossible to completely sail away to the beautiful outdoor scene almost within her grasp.

“It’s really nice outside today. It’s a beautiful day,” said Oleski who was stuck inside Thursday, working as a student ambassador for campus safety.

Because duty called, her enjoyment of the great outdoors could not extend past the sunshiny view from her seat near the ADA or American Disabilities Act door.

Oleski’s temptation on Thursday was a sunny day when the temperature reached a high of 69 warm degrees. According to the National Weather Service, this was significantly lower than the record high of 92 degrees in 1971, but it was right at the average temperature of 69 degrees.

Wednesday’s high temperature marked a 10-degree rise from last year’s recorded high of a mere 59 degrees. The record low for Sept. 30 was 32 degrees in 1974—a temperature Chicago has not yet reached this season, though those bitter cold winter days are approaching.

For Oleski and others, the approaching winter means there are precious few warm days left to enjoy. Oleski made plans to take advantage of these days, even though she did not have the opportunity on Thursday.

“I may go to the park or something,” she said. “I may spend time outside while it’s nice.”

A fellow student at Roosevelt University, Nicole McCoy, 21, of the South Loop, also made plans to enjoy the last bit of summer weather.

“The only thing that I have planned to do is, well, I can’t wait for homecoming to come up and I have a concert,” she said.

McCoy, unlike Oleski, was able to soak up some sun on this warm Thursday. The sun shone brightly on her book and seemed to dance on her skin as she read on a bench across the street from Roosevelt University.

“I do like this weather,” McCoy said. “I do like when it’s hot because I was born in the summer.”

Tommy Stoll, 19, shared the views of his fellow Roosevelt students.

“I like the weather, I guess. It’s sunny, not too hot, not too cold,” Stoll said. “I like that it’s becoming fall, too.”

Stoll did not have plans for the select warm days left. He said he would, “just take them as they come.”    

While forecasters say there still may be time to enjoy the last bit of sweet, summer heat, Oleski, McCoy, and Stoll said they are ready for the bitter cold months ahead for the most part.

“Oh yeah, I’m from Michigan,” said Oleski. “We get cold, cold weather.” She added, “I’m kind of worried because it’s going to be really cold, and I have to walk home in it.”  

McCoy agreed.

“Yes, I’m ready for it. I’m from Wisconsin. I’m always ready for a horrible winter,” McCoy said.

“The weather actually hasn’t been as bad as Iowa,” Stoll commented. “They’ve pretty ridiculous weather extremes.”

But even with the days of warm weather this season dwindling, it was clear on Thursday that at least for some the days of summer are already beyond their grasp.

The sun shone through the windows of Roosevelt University’s Congress Lounge as Stoll replaced his headphones in his ears and watched the sunlight skip across the green, leafy armrest of his chair.