i came to dance dance dance dance

 photo cred: me. downtown chi town

before i get started, please note post "just snookin' for love" since it fully describes how unexcited i was to celebrate my birthday this past weekend. i went around and around with my friends, making and then going back on plans, then finally committing to a weekend in valpo/chicago. i needed to do something fun with my friends... so to save time, the first two nights in valpo were great; got to make a guest appearance on vince and andy's radio show, celebrate lil wayne's release from prison, catch up with all my favorite people, cure hangovers with taco bell, slum in valpo like the good ol' days, it was fabulous.. but then saturday morning, it was time for chicago....

part of my birthday present was to get a room downtown for the night, which ended up being a sweet spot overlooking the chicago river, right next to the house of blues. my friend and roommate of three years, amanda, told me we would get hooked up all weekend (i'm from the country, i don't know what entails being "hooked up" downtown chicago) and oh was i in for a treat. 52 dollar parking, turned out to be free, awesome. so after we settle in (lauren, amanda and myself) we head down michigan ave for some shopping,  then to a great english pub for dinner, then to drink some beers overlooking the city from our 14th floor hotel room. 

 

photo cred: laur's iphone (me and amanda 14th floor at the sax hotel)

amanda's friends arrive. one is a hotel promoter downtown, he assures us that we wont pay for a thing all weekend. (i'm from a small, boring town, i think getting hooked up means a few free pitchers of beer, maybe some shots on the house and hey i like going out in a t shirt on occasion, so this would soon prove to be a big improvement from my usual going out style) then i found out that getting "hooked up" in chicago was code for freaking awesome. we head out, cabs paid for. we get to the first club, skip the line. we head in, coat check, paid for. we walk through the club, to a roped off vip area. we order drinks (from our groups personal waitress). drink after drink after drink. fuh-ree. don't mind if i do chicago, don't mind if i do. we even were drinking a $300 bottle of vodka at the first club, for free. (delicious, probably the only time i'll ever drink that) i was overwhelmed with awesomeness. i felt like i was in a rap video or something, or more like kid cudi's pursuit of happiness video (which really is one of the happiest videos in my book). i cheersed with some great friends, i cheersed with some new friends, i got a lot of "yeaaah birthday girl" shout outs from people i didn't know and from fellow vip-ers. the song "say aah" was apparently my anthem for the night since it talked about a) drinking b) a birthday girl c) fun. that's fine. we continued this process at 4 clubs downtown chicago, same treatment everywhere. it was pretty damn awesome. 

next two photos cred to laur's iphone

 

some specifics from the evening that were pretty funny: in bigger cities, there are often bathroom attendants. the lady at our first club, cheryl, was great. when we met her, she was yelling at a girl who really must have upset her, gist of the story is, this girl gave cheryl attitude, cheryl thought this girl was a ho, for lack of better terminology, and started calling her out about her butt cheeks showing. the girl defends herself by responding how her boyfriend likes it, my girl cheryl fires back about how her boyfriend has someone more respectable on the side. get it, cheryl. another cheryl highlight is when we realized people were tipping her in drinks, since we had free booze, we figured we'd go that route. i ask cheryl what she drinks, she tells me she sticks to dark liquor, she isn't into vodka, she mentions hennessy. i immediately start quoting a little katt williams and it goes like this:

(watch it on youtube)

"we are very consistent. if a brotha drink hennessy...that what the eff that brotha drinks. You aint gotta keep asking. that's what he gon drink on monday, wednesday, friday, his birthday, jesus birthday...hennessy."

right away, my girl cheryl, gets pumped because some white girl is quoting katt williams with her (seriously, i have the most random/awesome variety of interests, no shame, that's why i love people so much, because i have a great sense of humor (please note post "yeah, bro /stop living in the past")) sadly, we couldn't get cheryl any hennessy, but we hooked her up with some $300 vodka, i hope she enjoyed.

at the last club,  we had just about had it, we were tired, had been drinking for a long period of time and i was working on a time change, but as they guys told us in the beginning of the evening, we were in for a late night, i didn't want to be a party pooper, hello, it was my birthday. lauren and i decide to go dance ridiculously (like lollapalooza /rave/ridiculous dancing ) we just get up there and wave our bodies around, jump around do whatever, it was awesome and gave us a second wind. sadly though, i then attracted a dance partner, i like to dance, so i'm like cool, dance is not code for attack my face, bro. that proved to be interesting trying to run away from him the rest of the night. then our new challenge turned into finding amanda's phone, someone stole at the last club, i continue to call/text/bombard amanda's phone until we pass out in the early am. i pretend it's amanda's birthday trying to get whoever took it to take pity on us, give sob stories, repeatedly send sad faces, but hey it ended up working. some 40 year old, wanna be bro, found amanda's phone the next day in the heart of downtown chicago and she happily retrieved it, miracles can happen, folks. we hit everything on our list, except had to decline our invitation to party at the playboy penthouse, that's an invitation i never thought i would receive. thanks chicago.

now, that's what i call, a birthday. now, back to reality. 

 "partying like a rockstar, in the chicago of my mind" -laur