My 21st Birthday

Driving back from the Blue Chip Casino with my parents and Brendan on the night of my 21^st, I suddenly had the realization that alcohol is not nearly as cool as I thought it was.  It’s funny; I guess I always thought I would think that alcohol is fun.  And it is fun, but not in excess and not really to me.  Throughout the night I tried a variety of beverages.  I had a lemon drop shot with my dad, a cosmopolitan that I traded in for a pina colada, a fuzzy navel, and a white Russian.  They all tasted good or I wouldn’t have drunk them, but at the end of the night I didn’t like the slightly sick feeling in my stomach.  Despite having drunk them over the course of the entire night with food and water, I still felt a little queasy.  I didn’t throw up, and I didn’t wake up with a hangover, but I really didn’t enjoy that slightly sick feeling.  That got me to thinking that drinking isn’t really for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m still really enjoy having wine with dinner or even maybe going out with my girlfriends and have a strawberry daiquiri, but I have no desire to go to a bar, and I especially am not interested in fraternity parties.  I’m sure I will still have moments where I feel excited about alcohol, like when I buy liquor at a store for the first time or when I go out for a professional event and am able to drink or maybe even at a family reunion when my aunt gives me a glass of wine.  But for the most part, I think I’m going to lay low.  And I think that works for me; I’ll save money; I’ll remember my nights, and I will certainly have just as good of a time as everyone else.  I think the biggest reason people drink is to loosen up, but after considering social situations I have been in, I have never felt uncomfortable.  In fact, I feel more uncomfortable when I’m drinking.  I don’t like not having control over my body.  And, I don’t need alcohol to interact and talk with people; I’m crazy all on my own.  In fact, I don’t even need alcohol in my system to get up in front of a group of people and sing karaoke or dance like a moron.  That can be proven by the night of my homemade birthday meal.  On the 4^th, my mom made hot chicken casserole, apple sauce, cheese, pineapple and Hawaiian rolls for dinner.  After dinner, my family, Nicole and Brendan sang to me while I blew out the candles on the funfetti cake Nicole made me.  Once the food was finished, my family planned activities for me.  Eric sang and danced to “Believe” and insisted that I join in.  I did.  There was no alcohol involved.  I loved it.  After the song and dance routine, my parents had set up a scavenger hunt for me.  The first gift I found was a bag of Eric’s nipple hair.  I was a little nervous about the rest of the gifts, but they turned out to fun.  The last gift was one my dad hid, and it was almost impossible to find.  It required me taking a drawer out and reaching my hand back under a little ledge.  After activities, my Aunt Val brought my gift over.  They got me a really fun birthday girl martini glass.  After opening my gift, Brendan and I played my parents in bid euchre.  On my birthday eve, Brendan and I went out to breakfast with Stacy and Jake, traveled to the South Bend Museum of Art, went shopping, played cards with Poppy and had card night with Sarah and Mark.  On my actual birthday, Brendan woke me up with breakfast in bed and gave me my gifts.  He got me lotion, a homemade cook book and an alcohol almanac.  After breakfast, we got ready, got my license renewed (with a mean looking picture) and watched Fever Pitch.  After watching the movie, Stacy and Sarah came over to make me lunch.  That was a really nice surprise.  We drank sangrias and played Rummikub.  After lunch, Nicole and I got ready to go out, and then my Nanny and Po came over to give me my gift.  My parents also had me open their gifts; I ended up with some very nice presents.  After opening gifts, Nicole helped me finish getting ready and then we took pictures before leaving for Hacienda.  It was a very enjoyable 21^st birthday.  

Chicago for New Year's 2010/2011

Chicago-bound, enthusiastic and a tad bit tired, Nicole, Brendan, Eric and I started our New Year’s trek at 8:45 a.m.  The drive to the Dune Park train station was full of Cher jamming by Eric and eye rolling by the rest of us.  We pulled into the train station parking lot just as a train was pulling away.  I insisted that that train wasn’t the one we wanted anyway, and we passed the 45 minutes until our train was scheduled to leave by playing cards in the car.  Once we finally got out of the car and walked the short distance into the train station, I realized by reading the sign that the trains were actually running on a normal weekday schedule instead of a holiday schedule.  That meant we passed the next hour by playing cards in the car and that we should have run for the train that was pulling away as we had been driving into the parking lot.  Oh well, it really wasn’t too big of a mistake.  We ate our packed lunches on the train and decided to get off at the museum campus stop instead of the Millennium Station stop because our first destination was the Shedd Aquarium.  Right when we stepped off the train, Nicole and Eric were in awe.  They loved the skyscrapers and the view of the skyline.  Despite the rain and wind, we took a few cute pictures on our walk to the Shedd Aquarium.  The line to get in was out the door and then some, but we probably only waited 20 minutes outside and 20 minutes once we got inside.  We opted to buy the $32 ticket, which allowed us full access to the aquarium as well as a 4-D show and the Fantasea holiday show.  We left our stuff in the lockers and then set out to explore.  The first tank we came to had a sea turtle named Nickel, stingrays and a bunch of cool fish.  We got there just in time to see a diver feed the fish.  The two couples then split up, and throughout the day we filled out a blank map with our top ten favorite animals. Brendan and I didn’t come up with exactly ten, but the ones we chose were: the beluga whales, the California sea lion, painted anemone, bat star, hedgehog seahorse, otter, clown anemone fish, Congo River puffer fish, blue poison arrow frog, ringed sawback turtle, black eyed goby, and the Corte rainbow wrasse.  Our favorite exhibit was the polar play zone where we touched star fish, and we also loved the 4-D Polar Express show and the Fantase holiday show.  Eric and Nicole really enjoyed their first 4-D show; at one point Santa cracked the whip at the reindeer, and we could feel it in our backs.  We also had water misted in our faces and snow falling from the “sky.”  Plus, every time the train moved so did our seats.  Throughout the day, I learned that there are 17 different kinds of penguins in the world.  I also took a particular interest in the beluga whales and learned that when grown, they can be 3,500 pounds, and when they are born they’re about five feet.  I also learned that when they’re grown, they’re stark white but growing up, they’re gray because that keeps them more camouflaged since they stay in their mother’s shadow.  I loved listening to their shrill calls and seeing them spit water from the blow hole on their head.  We also saw them perform at the Fantasea show.  In addition, we saw the dolphins do tricks and a California sea lion walk and wave.  The show didn’t start until 5:30, so that meant we spent all afternoon at the aquarium, which worked out wonderfully because there was so much to see, and the weather wasn’t too great outside.  After the aquarium, we walked through the park to Michigan Avenue to get to Congress Parkway where our hostel is located.  I’ve stayed at a lot of hostels, but the Chicago one is by far my favorite.  Everyone is so friendly, and it has such a fun atmosphere.  Nicole and I went to our room to freshen up and put our stuff down.  We had roommates from Maryland and South Korea.  They were all really nice.  After relaxing for a little bit, we walked the three minutes to Edwardo’s, the pizza restaurant Brendan and I went to for our one year anniversary.  Our waiter, Miles, was quite a character, and he kept us laughing the whole meal.  We had an appetizer and deep dish Chicago style cheese pizza as our entree.  Miles even threw in some free cookies for dessert.  I’m telling you, every time Brendan and I go somewhere, we get free things.  I really don’t understand how it happens.  After dinner we walked back to the hostel, relaxed for a little while and then caught a bus to Navy Pier.  The bus was packed because Chicago decided to offer free public transportation for New Year’s in order to cut down on DUI’s and traffic accidents, which I thought was a great idea.  Plus, we got free public transportation.  When we got to Navy Pier it was packed, and Eric was starting to get a little tired.  We were all surprised it didn’t hit him sooner, but he did a really good job not complaining.  At the pier we did a toast with our sparkling champagne, took some pictures, and walked the length of it before midnight hit.  At midnight we did another toast, watched the fireworks for a few minutes and then got out of there to get on one of the first buses back to our hostel.  After going to New York for New Year’s last year, you would think big crowds wouldn’t faze me, but I think there were more people at Navy Pier than Times Square.  We made it back to our hostel fairly quickly and were in bed by one.  We all met for the hostel’s self-service breakfast at nine and then started the walk to the Hancock Observatory.  Along the way, we stopped at the bean and Millennium Park to take pictures and to show Nicole and Eric what the bean is.  From there it was just under a mile to the Hancock Observatory.  The walk wasn’t too bad, but the wind was pretty nippy.  We were happy to finally be inside once we got there.  We didn’t have to wait in line since our hostel sold discounted admission tickets for $11 and we had purchased our ice-skating tickets online. On the way to the 94^th floor, we rode the fasted elevator in North America.  It only took us 40 seconds to get up there.  Once we got to the top, we all received headsets to hear about we were looking down at.  I learned that the bean is actually named “The Cloud Gate” and despite the fact that it’s now Chicago’s “symbol,” it was not actually put in Millennium Park until 2004. I loved the view of looking down on the city, and as were leisurely strolling around the upper level, Brendan bought us a nutella espresso to share.  At 11:30 we ice-skated on the highest ice-skating rink in the world.  The rink was pretty small, and only 15 people could skate at a time for 30 minutes each.  The synthetic ice was much easier to skate on than regular ice and was a really good starting point for first time skaters Nicole and Eric.  I think there were several points where they actually let go of the wall. I especially loved the view as were skating; it was breathtaking.  After we were done skating, we walked back to Millennium Park to meet up with Brendan’s brother Sean and his girlfriend Jill.  They went with us to McDonald’s, and we caught up with them for an hour.  I always love spending time with them.  After chatting, we took the South Shore train back to Dune Park and then drove the rest of the way home.  Although we were exhausted and in need of showers, it was the best New Year’s I could have imagined.  Nothing went wrong, everyone got along, and we did so many fun and exciting things.  Brendan and I really enjoy travelling with Eric and Nicole, and I hope we can do it more in the future.