PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 21, No. 9, Nov. 1, 2001

Vidoni enjoys family time, honing his culinary skills

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
(217) 244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Photo by Bill Wiegand More time for family Dennis Vidoni retired in August after a 17-year career with the university's Counseling Center. He was a clinical counselor and the center's assistant director. He has found more time to spend with family and enjoys spending time in the kitchen.

Unlike some retirees, who may feel their identities have disappeared along with their job titles, Dennis Vidoni is relishing his liberation from the workaday world.

Vidoni, who retired Aug. 20 after a 17-year career with the university’s Counseling Center, was a clinical counselor and the center’s assistant director.

Retirement has been even better than he had expected, Vidoni said.

"It’s just relaxing," Vidoni said. "It’s not boring. It’s a sense of freedom. It’s good. It’s a ‘10’."

Vidoni also has discovered unexpected rewards to retirement – rewards both culinary and kindred.

Now the household chef, Vidoni has improved his cooking skills. Although he cooked a few meals a week when he was still working, Vidoni said now that he has more time his repertoire has expanded beyond slapdash, defrosted meals to more time consuming fare.

"My cooking is really pretty good," Vidoni said. "I can marinate stuff for three hours instead of three minutes. I can take my time. I can follow the recipes. That’s one big change."

Another unexpected bonus to his retirement is that Vidoni has found himself drawing closer to other family members, particularly his three siblings.

"One of my brothers is retired, and he and I have communicated more in the last two months than we did in the whole previous year," Vidoni said. "We’re talking probably two, three times a week. It’s very nice."

When Vidoni went to visit his other brother in Denver recently, Vidoni said he enjoyed the freedom of being able to extend his stay a few extra days without having to be concerned about work piling up at the office.
Vidoni also has used his retirement to continue an expedition he and his 22-year-old son, Eric, started more than a decade ago: canoeing the entire length of the Kaskaskia River in short sections. Vidoni estimates that they have traveled approximately 80 to 90 miles of the river and have about another 150 miles to go.

"We started when my son was 10 and did it in five-mile segments and I did most of the work," Vidoni said. "Now he’s 22, and he does most of the work – in 20-mile segments."

Without a job to dominate his time, Vidoni no longer has to rush through household projects and is enjoying them more. However, Vidoni cautioned people nearing retirement against tackling monumental tasks; he is now undergoing physical therapy for a shoulder injury he incurred trying to scrape and repaint his two-story Urbana home by himself. With winter looming, the house-painting project is on hold until spring while Vidoni mulls over whether to forge ahead by himself or delegate the task to professionals.

Despite the injury, Vidoni was able to stay active and continue his sports and fitness activities, tennis, running and golfing, at least until the cold and dreary autumn weather intervened.

All in all, however, Vidoni said he’s enjoying his retirement so much that he really can’t think of any negative aspects to it.

"I kind of miss the helping dimension of my work and miss being around the students, mentoring and counseling them," Vidoni said. "I guess that’s the down side of retirement. But it’s not enough to outweigh the benefits in my view."