Definitely look into localbitcoins.com.
Where are you located? If you are anywhere near Chicago, I might be willing to meet up with you and give you cash for the bitcoins.
If you aren't near Chicago, I may be willing to send you cash in the mail (or a U.S. postal money order that you can cash at most banks and any U.S. post office) in exchange for you sending me the bitcoins.
Any of those methods is likely to be faster and possibly cheaper than trying to exchange at MtGox and then withdraw the cash.
Not in Chicago, but will keep in touch. You do escrow? Do you have a site that shows more details like exchange rate, etc?
Yes, I've held escrow for several transactions here at bitcointalk.org.
As for my exchange rate when purchasing bitcons, my typical ad can be seen at localbitcoins.com here:
https://localbitcoins.com/ad/7839Depending on how many bitcoins you are trying to change, what payment methods you are willing to accept, how many times we've engaged in transactions in the past, and how much of a hurry I am in to get the bitcoins, I'm usually willing to negotiate the terms of the exchange a bit.