Joking aside, Andy has spent much of her life helping people

Cathy "Andy" Hotal has finally figured out what she wants to be when she grows up.

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It only took her 54 years to decide.

Andy, winner of the Dispatch's "What's your dream job?" contest for the annual Labor Day Salute project, wrote that her dream job would be becoming a rich and famous writer and a comedian. She's enrolled at Central Lakes College as a start to that dream and she's determined to make it a reality.

"I'm doing it," said Andy, a Brainerd resident. "This is my dream job. I'm in school at 54 and now I'm doing it.

"This is it. This (contest entry) is a paper about Andy," she said, using the first name she goes by at school and the name she plans to use in her writing and stand-up comedy. "It's not a paper about a dream some day. I'm doing it now."

Not that Andy's been complacent up to this point in her life.

Cathy "Andy" Hotal's dream job is being a rich and famous writer and stand-up comedian. Last semester she started at Central Lakes College with a goal of making her dream job become a reality. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls» Purchase reprints of this photo.

She's held several jobs during her lifetime. In San Diego, she worked as a volunteer developing programs with police departments and prisons about gangs.

She helped start the Scared Straight prison program in the 1970s and helped gang members find work and deal with family issues once they were released from prison.

"But it wasn't about a career," she said of her volunteer time. "It was just helping people."

She served as a nurse's aide and started her own company. She met an 88-year-old man at a senior center once and became his caregiver for a year. Within six months, his health deteriorated to the point he needed total care, so Hotal brought him home. The man had played baseball for the Cleveland Indians in the 1930s.

"What else was I going to do? We had a spare bedroom so the guy lived with us for six months until he passed on," she said. "His stories were incredible. He told us all about Shoeless Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth, all these fascinating little things."

She's worked as a bookkeeper, operated heavy equipment in a gravel pit, laid sewer pipe for a crew in Crosby and worked as a bartender.

Throughout out all those jobs, Andy said she never forgot the stories she witnessed or heard.

"Everything I do is involving people and they're always fascinating," Andy said. "I figure if I write a few books I've got a lot of material to work off of."

As a girl, Andy wanted to be a professional writer but gave up the idea when she was 15. That didn't mean she didn't write, however. She's collected boxes of notebooks tracking her thoughts throughout the years.

And, the idea of returning to writing was always in the back of her mind.

"I've had three book titles I was going to write over the years. At 20 it was 'Oh God, Here We Go Again.' At 30 I was into more of a healing process, and it was 'Oh God Let the Healing Begin.' A couple years ago, we sat down and started making notes. This is the book I want to write, 'I was Just a Housewife, but I Worked for the CIA.'"

All fiction writing, of course.

But raising a family and taking care of her husband always came first. With the kids grown and her husband retired, Andy said it was being laid off as a pizza delivery driver at a Brainerd establishment that provided the spark to enroll at CLC. With the help of the TRIO and ACE programs at the college, she is on her way with classes in writing and comedy. She hopes to finish her four-year degree in California or Arizona.

As far as being a stand-up comedian, Andy has yet to take to a stage and entertain a crowd.

"But I'll be honest with you, I've been doing stand-up comedy my whole life," Andy said. "I have routines, I have my jokes. Every time I get in front of people, even in just a group like this, I'll zoom in somewhere and try to be in the limelight, pump my jokes and try to tell funny stories."

Even her submission for the Dispatch's "What's your dream job?" contest is full of inside jokes. In the winning dream, her manager, Mel, is actually her husband, Scott Hotal. Her entourage is the middle names of all her grandchildren. The first line, "Picture this" is a nod to "The Golden Girls" television show and the last line, "Hollywood, Standard, Rich and Famous Contract" is taken from an Orson Welles' line in the "Muppet Movie."

"I'm on the same dream," she said with a laugh. "You can't beat it."

Ask Andy to describe herself, she comes up with "energetic" "outgoing" and "a leader." Her husband tosses out "versatile" and "take charge." Scott believes his wife will make her dream come true.

"She's going to become a legend, not a hero," Scott Hotal said. "Heroes are remembered but legends live forever."

"There it is," Andy said, a smile widening across her face.

MATT ERICKSON may be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.