1 day to 30: the final countdown

I spent many a weekend in my 20s frolicking among Warehouse District establishments. Sometimes I danced on the bar at Tequila Ranch, sometimes I rushed the stage and danced with the band at Blind Pig, and I always got late-night pizza at Panini's.

So I couldn't think of a better way to rock out the last night of my 20s with a night out on W6. Complete with my closest friends, black pants w/sparkly tops, a dance-off, copious amounts of adult beverages, and of course, body glitter.



We started the night with munchies, beers and chocolate cake shots at the Nauti Mermaid, done up like back in our early 20s heyday. Except for my little sister, who is actually in her early 20s - she just wore her regular clothes. Our server laughed at our antics but also seemed quite leery of our excessive body glitter usage.

From there we moved on to Suite Sixx, which was hosting a Metromix Ladies Night. It was perfect for an early-20s night out: $3 martinis, plus Charles Scott salon was there doing hair so I could get my tendrils re-curled.

Then, I got an ultra-amazeballs surprise: my good friend Gina appeared, having traveled all the way from Boston! Of course, I screamed and cried and jumped up and down, and the entire bar stared at me. As if they didn’t already hate me for walking around dressed like a complete trashball. Oh well, it’s my birthday, I’ll be an a**hole if I want to.

Moving on, we met the boys over at our very favorite establishment, the Velvet Dog. It’s our favorite because we happen to know people there, and they’ve always got a bottle of our cheap bubbly of choice chilling for us. We danced on the rooftop and sang Journey and Bon Jovi at the top of our lungs and I got challenged to a dance-off by a girl who had clearly underestimated my sweet dancing skills. She obviously forfeited as soon as she saw my moves.

Then we capped the night off with Panini’s pizza, duh. But I clearly didn’t learn from the mistakes of my youth, because I burned the roof of my mouth on the straight outta the oven pie. Oy.

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER. And that was just the first night.

To recap, here are my learnings from the last 30 days:

• Blogging every day is HARD.
• Hangovers in your 30s are WAY rougher than the ones in your 20s.
• If drinking excessive amounts of bubbly, eating Ramen noodles, going out on a Wednesday, and napping away your Saturdays is immature and irresponsible, I don’t ever want to grow up.
• Generic cereal is gross.

The bottom line is that I’m bringing my 20s self along on this ride. And something tells me we’re gonna kill it on our next dance-off.

I know I haven't been doing a whole lot this week, but...

I have a big last blast planned.

On Thursday I'll be embarking on a W. 6th St. bar crawl with a couple of my favorite girlfriends. We are going to tackle some serious 20s debauchery. And we're dressing in our finest sparkly tops and black pants for the occasion.

Things might get a little crazy, but trust me when I say that I will NOT be riding the mechanical bull at Tequila Ranch. You gotta draw the line somewhere.

5 days to 30: eat out on your parents' dime

The best days in college were when your parents, or your roommates' parents, or some friends' relatives came to visit. Because that meant that you got to go out to DINNER! To the nice place in town, Damon's. If you were really lucky, there was also a trip to Kroger and Wal-Mart thrown in there for groceries and extra rubbermaid containers.

Then you'd kiss the old people goodbye and hit the town for the night. Because back then, going to dinner was what you did BEFORE you showered, got dressed, pregamed, then went out. Now, going to dinner at 7 p.m. IS going out.

On Sunday we went out with my big crazy family to celebrate a multitude of life events: my upcoming 30th, my little sister's recent 21st, and my other sister's wedding anniversary. Of course, we did not pass go, we did not collect $200, we went straight to my family's favorite restaurant, Maggiano's.
Per usual, I gorged myself on my faves - chopped salad and fried zucchini - while my mom gave a speech between each course to commemorate each event. The best was when we all went around the table to share our favorite moment from my sister's wedding the year before. Yep, I meant it when I said we were crazy.

Anywho, even though the hubby and I can afford a night out, it's still nice when the parents pick up the tab. Maybe next time I won't make my mom take me to Target for shampoo afterwards.

6 days to 30: full-on, all-day hangover

Yeah so, Friday. I was home by like 11:30. And yeah, it sounded like I had a low-key night.

TO YOU MAYBE.

The reality is that three of us had three bottles of champagne before we left the house. On top of the beers, etc. we had at the bar while playing darts. That's not really something this almost-30 liver is typically able to handle.

Sooo, this old fogey spent her Saturday - which was intended for eyeshadow- and cute-short-cowboy-boot-shopping - on the couch.

With the Kardashians.

Which I typically wouldn't complain about. But have you ever been forced to watch the Kardashians? And when I say forced, I mean that the remote was across the room and you were too hungover to go get it? Then, you start to harbor a real hostility for Rob. I mean, just SHAVE already. Ew.

Anyway. I guess I'm not really fully past the whole debilitating hangover thing. Maybe I'll set a goal for my 35th?

7/8 days to 30: lakewood bar crawl

The great thing about Lakewood bars is that there are a lot of them.

After college, our weekends consisted of shuttling ourselves between McCarthy's, Malloy's, Pug Mahones, and about 20 other bars. The beer was cheap, and usually someone knew someone who lived within stumbling distance. So you'd hang out at their place first, do a Power Hour, then wander over to McCarthy's and drink $1 drafts. The whole night probably cost $5. It was fab.

On Friday we decided to relive the good ol' days. Except we got together at 6 p.m. instead of 11 p.m. And we had champagne and nice cheese for our pregame instead of Natural Light and Doritos.

Also, we got to the bar at 10 p.m. instead of 1 a.m. And instead of pounding beers and shots as soon as we walked in the door at McCarthy's we played like three games of darts.

Also, someone was the designated driver and drove us home instead of us trying to hail a cab in Lakewood at 2 a.m.

But otherwise everything was the same. Ho hum.

9 days to 30: going out on a wednesday

Woo hoo! It's been a long time since I did this, but tonight I decided to throw caution to the wind and hit the town.*  On a weeknight no less! I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I got super wild and crazy.**  I danced on tables and did shots and had a deep conversation about relationships with a girl in the bathroom.***  It was amazeballs.

*I went to a nice dinner with the hubby.
**I had one glass of wine.
***None of this happened.

10 days to 30: stopping for a beer mid-run

I set out for a run this evening with the pup in tow. The route I took just happened to lead past my friend Chuck's house. It's possible that I happened to discover earlier via Twitter that Chuck was sitting on his porch having beers.

A more responsible person would have focused on his or her workout and avoided the route that could lead to the inevitable porch sitting and beer drinking.

Today, I wasn't that person.

ps, WHY is beer so delicious after a run? So wrong, yet feels so right.