<p>Nicole:<br />Welcome back to Talking Cities Aurora. I'm Nicole Astra.<br /><br />Joey:<br />And I'm Joey Thurman. Nicole, it's nice being next to you again.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />He's such a charmer. Although it has been a couple days.<br /><br />Joey:<br />It's been [crosstalk 00:00:13]<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Since we've seen each other.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Feels like forever.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah. Well, a day without me, Joey.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah, it feels like a lot longer than a day. All right, let's get to Aurora's top stories. Mayor Richard Irvin announced on Monday he's running for Illinois governor. The former veteran and prosecutor made an announcement and video released on his YouTube. According to his campaign website, state representative Avery Bourne from Montgomery County is his running mate. The Illinois primary elections are scheduled for June 28th.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />I really liked his video. I have to say.<br /><br />Joey:<br />There was a lot in there. It was nice to find out more about him.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah. His background. And he's always been so for community and especially the east side. Did you know he's a grad?<br /><br />Joey:<br />I did not. I know now.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />In fact, our next story is about East High. Big round of applause for East High's seniors. School district 131 announced the Tomcats were recognized by the College Board Recognition Program for their academic excellence. The students earned awards as well from the National African American recognition award, National Hispanic recognition award, National Indigenous recognition award and National Rural and Small Town recognition award.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Wow. Nicole, you have some theater chops. Don't you?<br /><br />Nicole:<br />I do.<br /><br />Joey:<br />You do?<br /><br />Nicole:<br />I do.<br /><br />Joey:<br />High school, all over, just you're still doing it? [crosstalk 00:01:26]<br /><br />Nicole:<br />I still do it, in fact, at Frisco's Community Center, one of my most favorite places.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Okay. Look at that shameless plug right there.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah. Yeah. [crosstalk 00:01:32].<br /><br />Joey:<br />I did some theater myself when I was in middle school.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />You did?<br /><br />Joey:<br />Uh-huh (affirmative) I did. I sang to my wife at our wedding. Yeah.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />What?<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah. Her brother played the guitar. I got out in front of 300 people, about 280 Greeks in 20 mutts like my family and [crosstalk 00:01:45].<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Joey Furman is a Renaissance man, people.<br /><br />Joey:<br />I am a Renaissance man.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />What did you sing?<br /><br />Joey:<br />It was a Keith Urban song called "Making Memories of Us". Yeah.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />I love it.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />But you do know now you're going to have to sing for us?<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah, that's not going to happen. Apparently she still loves me because we're together. I love you, honey. All right.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Okay. I promise you. I will find a clip of him singing. Stick to social media for it. We have to. [crosstalk 00:02:10].<br /><br />Joey:<br />This was pre-social media [crosstalk 00:02:11]<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Although I better be careful because then you're going to look up some of my old theater.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Everybody, look it up. Speaking of theater, the Alive Center on LaSalle opened for registration classes starting soon. And that's really cool. Because these things are free. Subjects like theater, special effects makeup. Ooh like some scary makeup.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah. Latex. They're going for it.<br /><br />Joey:<br />That's right. They provide mentoring services, opportunities for teens through both clubs and drop-in services. The best part is these are all free, as I mentioned. So reserve your spot as soon as possible at livecenterdotrecdesk.com.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />And I love that because it gives it's an opportunity to just see what sparks.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Let them dabble in different things. They have a lot of programs. And then they get to see what they love.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Would you do scary or [crosstalk 00:02:52] ethereal makeup?<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Oh, I love the gross. I have three boys. We love the grotesque makeup so we go all out on Halloween.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Grr. She's got to read this now. [crosstalk 00:03:02].<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Again, you heard it here, people. This one though is for the dog lovers. There's a new place that opened just for our four-legged friends, Hounds Town. The state-of-the-art facility offers doggy daycare, overnight boarding, full-service grooming and, get this, a taxi service. Hounds Town is located at the former McDonald's building in West Plaza. I'm sure we're going to see a whole lot of wagging tails.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Okay. Speaking of wagging tales, when I moved here in 2006.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yes.<br /><br />Joey:<br />I was a model and it was for a place called Pocket Puppies. Not just that. And I was shirtless [crosstalk 00:03:33].<br /><br />Nicole:<br />The tinies.<br /><br />Joey:<br />And I have a picture.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Okay. Joey.<br /><br />Joey:<br />I don't know if you guys can flash this on the screen, but it's me shirtless in jeans. Not quite sure what it has to do with puppies. And it says, "Find your dream companion at Pocket Puppies Boutique."<br /><br />Nicole:<br />So I think the reason is because they're deciding which is cuter, Joey.<br /><br />Joey:<br />[crosstalk 00:03:52] Oh, that makes sense. Yeah.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Joey or the pups.<br /><br />Joey:<br />I wanted to forego my pay and take 20%, but you can't take 20% of a puppy.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Oh.<br /><br />Joey:<br />That [inaudible 00:04:00] makes sense, right?<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Are you a dog person?<br /><br />Joey:<br />Big dog person.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Ooh. Okay.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Did you not see the pooch parade thing?<br /><br />Nicole:<br />That's true. He's all fours, people.<br /><br />Joey:<br />All right.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />I'm learning so much about you.<br /><br />Joey:<br />From wagging tales to pandemic. You're a mom. How have you been handling the pandemic?<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Oh yeah. We're switching serious gears here. I think it's easier now, but in the beginning and for a good year, it was hard. It was really hard. The kids were at home learning. You were not going places. We weren't seeing our families. It was hard. Yeah. It was hard.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah. And speaking of hard, I spoke to a local mother and she created an app where moms can get together. They can bring their kids together and they can really embrace one another. Let's take a look.<br /><br />Diane:<br />MomSub is an app that we've developed to help moms to deal with their stress, their guilt and their self-criticism that so many moms go through. But especially now with the pandemic more than ever.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah. And what really brought this idea about? I mean, you're a mother yourself. You're working, you've got probably a hundred different jobs at once, right? What was the point where you're like, "I need to do something."<br /><br />Diane:<br />I was spending between two and three hours a day driving my children around. We had moved to a place that was 20 minutes from their school. And this was an incredible amount of time for someone who's also trying to run three different businesses. And I said, "There's got to be a better way." I thought, wouldn't it be great if there was an app where I would know if another mom was already going to the school and I could say, "Hey, I'm at a meeting and it's running late. Can you pick up my kid?"<br /><br />Diane:<br />Or maybe even a mom that I knew hadn't been on a date with her husband in three years could say, "You know what, how about if I watch your kid on a Saturday night and the next Saturday night you watch mine." So that was where the idea came from.<br /><br />Speaker 4:<br />And it feels like I kind of have a social life and I'm not just with my child. How much can you talk with a three-year-old about life all the time. But having an adult conversation with another person, just getting that opportunity really made a difference.<br /><br />Joey:<br />You like coming and playing at the mall?<br /><br />Speaker 5:<br />Yes.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah. What's your favorite part?<br /><br />Speaker 5:<br />Jumping.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Jumping. His favorite part is jumping. If you see him jumping.<br /><br />Speaker 6:<br />At home, we get to be on the TV the whole day or being with the same programs. But if you're with a mom, you get to talk about ladies talk and taking care of our kids as well.<br /><br />Diane:<br />Just the other day, where there were a couple moms here who were both saying, "At the end of the day, I feel so frustrated because I had all this time and I didn't feel like I got anything done." And the other mom says, "Well, you cared for your child. You fed your child, you loved your child. You gave them hugs. You did do something."<br /><br />Diane:<br />Just hearing that is a huge boost to a mom. It can be the difference between a good day and a bad day. You can go to MomSub.com and right at the top of a website is a pink button that you can click to get the app. And once you get the app, you create a profile. You can put in the information that you are comfortable putting in and you can create your own event.<br /><br />Diane:<br />That's the cool thing. You could say, "I really want a play date on Fridays when I'm off work. I want a couple other moms with their kids to come to my house."<br /><br />Diane:<br />You can put the date, the time and the location that's convenient for you. And then if you don't want to list your home publicly on the app, you can just put my house and then the moms can get in touch with you to get that information one on one. We're in the suburbs of Chicago, but we have a strong community here in Aurora, in Naperville, in Woodridge and Downers Grove. A lot of moms in that general vicinity.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Well, as a husband to a mom, thank you from all the husbands out there for giving moms a little bit of a stress relief because I know that I love you, honey. I can cause lots of stress. MomSub.com.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Now I'm not a mother, but I am a father. And it was really nice to see these moms getting together. And I think that moms are really forgotten in the pandemic and their mental health as well. So there was even people on the package that I spoke to that didn't want to be on camera and how they really enjoyed just getting together with moms in person, even if they had to do business. [crosstalk 00:08:14]<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah, I was going to say that's what I love about this. I see online very often [inaudible 00:08:17] groups like, "Hey, we're new or just looking for friends." And my own network of moms, we were dropping stuff off in the driveways for each other or having that text thread really keeps you alive when you can't see the people that you love. But if you don't have that support group, then I'm so glad that this exists for people to network.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />And it's important to reach out. It is important to reach out. And there are definitely people ready and willing in the Aurora community to support you. So use the resource.<br /><br />Joey:<br />It's quite beautiful.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Okay. So you are not from Aurora.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Well, no. I mean, [crosstalk 00:08:49]<br /><br />Nicole:<br />You are very quickly becoming one of us, right?<br /><br />Joey:<br />Yeah.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />I mean, we dish. he loves our town.<br /><br />Joey:<br />I do. Full disclosure when Talking Cities called me up talking plant protein. It's our other website. Check that out. It's nice, right?<br /><br />Joey:<br />So when they called me up and they go, "Aurora", I said, "What's in Aurora?"<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah.<br /><br />Joey:<br />I had no idea what was in Aurora and I came here [crosstalk 00:09:08].<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Little did you know.<br /><br />Joey:<br />I drove through and I told my wife, "I think we should move here. Check this out. Look at this straight. BG's beautiful."<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Amazing people. And I'm slowly considering myself Aurorean.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Is that the correct term?<br /><br />Nicole:<br />That's it. That is.<br /><br />Joey:<br />All right.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Well, I wanted to take us out and I wanted to show you as well, because I know you know how beautiful our city is now, but I was online and sounds found some beautiful pictures. So Joseph Weber is the photographer and he is allowing us to give him a shout out and just show you our beautiful city from a different angle.<br /><br />Joey:<br />I want to skate on that river.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />I know. It's gorgeous and it's been so cold so this was last week.<br /><br />Joey:<br />Really?<br /><br />Nicole:<br />And, of course, a beautiful shot of the sunset downtown.<br /><br />Joey:<br />It's really nice to see all of that. And the color gradient that that he is doing. I don't know what he's messing with, but it's really cool. And normally I'm not one to sit there and look at it. Oh, how beautiful that photo is. But yeah, it really captures Aurora nicely. [crosstalk 00:09:59].<br /><br />Nicole:<br />Yeah, it is. Gorgeous. Yeah. So great shoutout. Thanks so much, Joseph. We appreciate it. That's all we have for you today on Talking Cities. I'm Nicole Astra.<br /><br />Joey:<br />And I'm Joey Thurman, the future and current Aurorean.<br /><br />Nicole:<br />That's right.<br /><br />Joey:<br />That's right.</p>