....and Happy 21st Birthday to the Most Awesome Bro in the Universe!!!!
Ryan,
It's hard to believe that you are already 21! I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday and you have continued to amaze me since that day in 1987.
Funny story about when you were born:
I was adamant that I did not want a little brother. Mom and Dad kept telling me that it would be cool for me to be the older sister to either a little brother or sister and I just kept telling them that they better bring home a girl or a green baby (an actual green baby mind you because my favorite color was green). You were due on April 1st and for about two weeks, I would not budge on my demands and I kept telling Mom that if you were a little boy she better leave you there (stubborn little bugger!). Somehow though I got my wish and you were a green baby! Not in the sense that you were actually "green" but by being born on St. Patty's Day, the hospital had you in the cutest little green outfit and when I got to see you for the first time that evening, I was content that you were "green" enough and you could come home with us a few days later.
Sure we've had our ups and downs over the last 21 years but I could not ask for a greater brother or friend! I hope you have a very special day and even though we can't go celebrate tonight, we'll definitely find time to party soon! (You're actually much more responsible than I am because I would not have put writing a paper for school before going out...and I'm really proud of you for doing that and having your priorities straight!)
To everyone else, have a safe St. Patrick's Day!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Chicago will never be the same!
Last week at this time, I was just getting ready to take a short nap after staying up partying in Chicago all night long. Quite an accomplishment for me if I do say so myself!
Our weekend in Chicago started last Friday afternoon about 1 when I picked up the Explorer and all of the girls met M and I at work so we could load it up and head out for our long awaited weekend in the Windy City. Let's just say we had a few issues before we even left St. Louis. First off, we didn't have all of our tickets for the Bon Jovi concert, secondly we weren't sure if Joe was going to be able to help us get a car because he didn't think they had anything available to rent that was big enough for all of us to go in the same car and then to top it off, it was a bit icy and starting to snow when we were getting ready to leave. Well, we ended up having one girl cancel on us, so Joe was able to hook us up with something a bit smaller and it worked perfectly and it was also big enough that we didn't have a problem driving as the weather continued to spit out all sorts of precipitation.
We got on the road around 1:50 and made the trek up north. Perhaps one of the funniest and most talked about part of the weekend happened just a few miles outside of St. Louis. My phone started ringing while I was driving. It was Joe calling to find out how the car was working for us so far (Awesome customer service if I must say so! Of course, it's probably because we are friends too!) and we got to talking and I blurt out "Cool Beans" and no one would let me live that down! I was given the nickname CB and every time something happened on the trip, all the girls would say, "Cool Beans." I'm not even sure what he and I were talking about when I said that...but we got carried away with saying it the rest of the weekend!
We made decent time driving up to Chicago and after checking into our hotel and getting ready we decided to head to dinner about 8. After asking the door man and the concierge about places to eat and party in the city we decided to go to Tavern on Rush. Dinner was pretty good but we had a better time when we decided to hit the martini bar there after dinner. I'm sure that you can imagine that seeing 5 girls sitting at a table often times causes a stir and we had a ton of people coming up to us and talking throughout the night....many of which were pickup artists who just wanted to impress us but we did meet a few nice guys that told us a little bit more about the city and wanted to know why we drove up from St. Louis for the weekend. One guy was even nice enough to buy our table a round of martinis! (All of the girls made fun of me for this too....supposedly because they thought he liked me because I was talking to him about being a pilot for much of our time there. I was just interested in what he was telling me especially since I don't know any pilots!) After Tavern on Rush, we decided we either wanted to go dancing or go sing karaoke. The karaoke bar closed at 1:30 and it was already 12:30 so we decided on going to Jilly's because we heard they had dancing....we didn't know that when we got there we walked into the piano bar, so we sat in there and had another drink and met a few of the off-duty Chicago police officers who frequent there. Nice enough guys also....one even though he could help us get backstage at the Bon Jovi concert because they provide security for one of the production companies in town....come to find out, it was not the production company that was sponsoring the show. We finally made it downstairs to the dancing spot, but as luck would have it they closed at 2 and the DJ was already packing up. So we sat and talked to more people until 2:30 and then decided to head back to our hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, most of the girls were tired but Bryanna and I decided that we wanted to see what the 4 am bars looked like, so we set back out for a bar a few blocks from us.
Again...we met more interesting people including the owner and manager of another bar and grill in town and I spent a good portion of my time talking to the manager (who was about my age) about our jobs and what we like to do in the little bit of spare time we have. I think I talked more to unknown people in my night in Chicago than I have ever here in St. Louis! Finally about 5 and only because the bar was finally ready to close for the night, we headed back to our hotel. We were both still wired though and trying to figure out what was opened between 5 and 7 am. After talking to the clerk at the desk we found out that there is not much open in Chicago at that time. We could drive to Indiana to go to the casino but considering that cab ride was about an hour and a half it wasn't really worth it. She did ask us why we were in Chicago for the weekend and we told here about the Bon Jovi concert and how one of our friends was a major fan and you know what....she told us that 8 bus loads of his crewhands and band members had checked in earlier in the night! I was thrilled, especially since I had seen a guy in a tour jacket when we checked in and I had a hunch (since it was a very ritzy place) that they could be staying there. So Bryanna and I decided to check it out. We went up to the top floors to see if anyone was up at 5:30 in the morning that we could schmooze with and see about getting M backstage. Well, those guys aren't nearly the partiers that Bryanna and I were and that floor was completely silent, so we went back to our floor and woke up M and told her that the guys were staying in our hotel and we just might run into them. M was not nearly as excited as we were....could be because it was extremely early in the morning and she had just gone to bed like 2 or 3 hours before that. In any case, Bryanna and I decided that we'd go back down to the lobby and sit and wait for The Original Pancake House to open for breakfast since we didn't want to be quiet and sleep. Dozing and talking for about and hour, it was finally time for breakfast and since the other girls were not up, we decided just to go ourselves.
Breakfast was good and exactly what I needed after drinking all of the Cosmos, Bud Light and shots on Friday night. Around 7:30 we made it back to our hotel and decided to just rest for a bit since we had a big day of shopping ahead of us. By 9 am cell phones started going off and everyone was getting calls making sure that we made it up to Chicago alright so we decided to get up and get ready to hit Michigan Avenue for the day. We spent most of the day hitting all of the department stores and designer shops up and down Michigan Avenue. Around 3, I felt absolutely miserable from the lack of sleep and vodka reacting in my system and I decided to go back and lay down for an hour before I had to get ready for the concert. That helped TREMENDOUSLY!!! And once again, I was pumped up and ready for Bon Jovi!
The concert was probably one of the best I have ever seen and it was well worth the money I paid for the ticket. He rocked with his old stuff and his new stuff and put on an excellent show. I was on my feet most of the night singing and dancing. The only thing that was not so good was trying to get a cab after the show. It took an hour and a half to get a cab from the United Center back to our hotel downtown and we finally got back to our hotel at 12:30. Everyone was exhausted by this point, but I still wanted to go out. It's not all that often that you get to go to Chicago and hit the town. For me, it was a first going to Chicago as a mini-vacation and being of age that I could get into all of the places that I wanted to check out. Since I couldn't get anyone to go out with me, I decided it was just best to stay in the hotel and make it an early night. Nothing like getting lost by myself in another city!
We all woke up Sunday morning and got ready to leave and decided that before we left town we'd go to Navy Pier for lunch and to look around for souvenirs. Around 3, it was time to get our Explorer and drive back home. I must say, the drive home was not nearly as fun as the drive there...probably because we were all sad that the weekend was ending and we had to get back to real life in a few hours. We made good time coming back and I got all of the girls dropped off and the car back by 9:30 and I came home to unpack and crash.
Overall the weekend was a complete blast!! I think I've told just about everyone about the crazy antics and how much fun we had in the city. Derick called me about 6 on Monday morning and wanted to see how the weekend went and I know I talked non-stop for 20 minutes about the trip even while I was half-asleep.
It was difficult going back to work on Monday, especially since it was the last week of the month and I was still extremely exhausted from the weekend, but I made it through and even completed month-end yesterday. Of course, I must say, this weekend can't even compare to last weekend. I'm back in the real world taking care of laundry, grocery shopping and running other errands. Ugghhh!
Hope everyone else has a pleasant weekend! We should have nice weather for a change...which is a major plus! Catch ya later!
P.S. Pics from Chicago are posted on my Photobucket page. There is a Chicago album and then a Bon Jovi sub-album for the concert.
Our weekend in Chicago started last Friday afternoon about 1 when I picked up the Explorer and all of the girls met M and I at work so we could load it up and head out for our long awaited weekend in the Windy City. Let's just say we had a few issues before we even left St. Louis. First off, we didn't have all of our tickets for the Bon Jovi concert, secondly we weren't sure if Joe was going to be able to help us get a car because he didn't think they had anything available to rent that was big enough for all of us to go in the same car and then to top it off, it was a bit icy and starting to snow when we were getting ready to leave. Well, we ended up having one girl cancel on us, so Joe was able to hook us up with something a bit smaller and it worked perfectly and it was also big enough that we didn't have a problem driving as the weather continued to spit out all sorts of precipitation.
We got on the road around 1:50 and made the trek up north. Perhaps one of the funniest and most talked about part of the weekend happened just a few miles outside of St. Louis. My phone started ringing while I was driving. It was Joe calling to find out how the car was working for us so far (Awesome customer service if I must say so! Of course, it's probably because we are friends too!) and we got to talking and I blurt out "Cool Beans" and no one would let me live that down! I was given the nickname CB and every time something happened on the trip, all the girls would say, "Cool Beans." I'm not even sure what he and I were talking about when I said that...but we got carried away with saying it the rest of the weekend!
We made decent time driving up to Chicago and after checking into our hotel and getting ready we decided to head to dinner about 8. After asking the door man and the concierge about places to eat and party in the city we decided to go to Tavern on Rush. Dinner was pretty good but we had a better time when we decided to hit the martini bar there after dinner. I'm sure that you can imagine that seeing 5 girls sitting at a table often times causes a stir and we had a ton of people coming up to us and talking throughout the night....many of which were pickup artists who just wanted to impress us but we did meet a few nice guys that told us a little bit more about the city and wanted to know why we drove up from St. Louis for the weekend. One guy was even nice enough to buy our table a round of martinis! (All of the girls made fun of me for this too....supposedly because they thought he liked me because I was talking to him about being a pilot for much of our time there. I was just interested in what he was telling me especially since I don't know any pilots!) After Tavern on Rush, we decided we either wanted to go dancing or go sing karaoke. The karaoke bar closed at 1:30 and it was already 12:30 so we decided on going to Jilly's because we heard they had dancing....we didn't know that when we got there we walked into the piano bar, so we sat in there and had another drink and met a few of the off-duty Chicago police officers who frequent there. Nice enough guys also....one even though he could help us get backstage at the Bon Jovi concert because they provide security for one of the production companies in town....come to find out, it was not the production company that was sponsoring the show. We finally made it downstairs to the dancing spot, but as luck would have it they closed at 2 and the DJ was already packing up. So we sat and talked to more people until 2:30 and then decided to head back to our hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, most of the girls were tired but Bryanna and I decided that we wanted to see what the 4 am bars looked like, so we set back out for a bar a few blocks from us.
Again...we met more interesting people including the owner and manager of another bar and grill in town and I spent a good portion of my time talking to the manager (who was about my age) about our jobs and what we like to do in the little bit of spare time we have. I think I talked more to unknown people in my night in Chicago than I have ever here in St. Louis! Finally about 5 and only because the bar was finally ready to close for the night, we headed back to our hotel. We were both still wired though and trying to figure out what was opened between 5 and 7 am. After talking to the clerk at the desk we found out that there is not much open in Chicago at that time. We could drive to Indiana to go to the casino but considering that cab ride was about an hour and a half it wasn't really worth it. She did ask us why we were in Chicago for the weekend and we told here about the Bon Jovi concert and how one of our friends was a major fan and you know what....she told us that 8 bus loads of his crewhands and band members had checked in earlier in the night! I was thrilled, especially since I had seen a guy in a tour jacket when we checked in and I had a hunch (since it was a very ritzy place) that they could be staying there. So Bryanna and I decided to check it out. We went up to the top floors to see if anyone was up at 5:30 in the morning that we could schmooze with and see about getting M backstage. Well, those guys aren't nearly the partiers that Bryanna and I were and that floor was completely silent, so we went back to our floor and woke up M and told her that the guys were staying in our hotel and we just might run into them. M was not nearly as excited as we were....could be because it was extremely early in the morning and she had just gone to bed like 2 or 3 hours before that. In any case, Bryanna and I decided that we'd go back down to the lobby and sit and wait for The Original Pancake House to open for breakfast since we didn't want to be quiet and sleep. Dozing and talking for about and hour, it was finally time for breakfast and since the other girls were not up, we decided just to go ourselves.
Breakfast was good and exactly what I needed after drinking all of the Cosmos, Bud Light and shots on Friday night. Around 7:30 we made it back to our hotel and decided to just rest for a bit since we had a big day of shopping ahead of us. By 9 am cell phones started going off and everyone was getting calls making sure that we made it up to Chicago alright so we decided to get up and get ready to hit Michigan Avenue for the day. We spent most of the day hitting all of the department stores and designer shops up and down Michigan Avenue. Around 3, I felt absolutely miserable from the lack of sleep and vodka reacting in my system and I decided to go back and lay down for an hour before I had to get ready for the concert. That helped TREMENDOUSLY!!! And once again, I was pumped up and ready for Bon Jovi!
The concert was probably one of the best I have ever seen and it was well worth the money I paid for the ticket. He rocked with his old stuff and his new stuff and put on an excellent show. I was on my feet most of the night singing and dancing. The only thing that was not so good was trying to get a cab after the show. It took an hour and a half to get a cab from the United Center back to our hotel downtown and we finally got back to our hotel at 12:30. Everyone was exhausted by this point, but I still wanted to go out. It's not all that often that you get to go to Chicago and hit the town. For me, it was a first going to Chicago as a mini-vacation and being of age that I could get into all of the places that I wanted to check out. Since I couldn't get anyone to go out with me, I decided it was just best to stay in the hotel and make it an early night. Nothing like getting lost by myself in another city!
We all woke up Sunday morning and got ready to leave and decided that before we left town we'd go to Navy Pier for lunch and to look around for souvenirs. Around 3, it was time to get our Explorer and drive back home. I must say, the drive home was not nearly as fun as the drive there...probably because we were all sad that the weekend was ending and we had to get back to real life in a few hours. We made good time coming back and I got all of the girls dropped off and the car back by 9:30 and I came home to unpack and crash.
Overall the weekend was a complete blast!! I think I've told just about everyone about the crazy antics and how much fun we had in the city. Derick called me about 6 on Monday morning and wanted to see how the weekend went and I know I talked non-stop for 20 minutes about the trip even while I was half-asleep.
It was difficult going back to work on Monday, especially since it was the last week of the month and I was still extremely exhausted from the weekend, but I made it through and even completed month-end yesterday. Of course, I must say, this weekend can't even compare to last weekend. I'm back in the real world taking care of laundry, grocery shopping and running other errands. Ugghhh!
Hope everyone else has a pleasant weekend! We should have nice weather for a change...which is a major plus! Catch ya later!
P.S. Pics from Chicago are posted on my Photobucket page. There is a Chicago album and then a Bon Jovi sub-album for the concert.
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