You never know with a 21st birthday

I was awake really early this morning. The air mattress had deflated, which I always assume will happen, so I went out to the couch and went back to bed.

I was going to wake up at 8:30, I had plans at 10 am that I needed to get at. Well, the plans got shifted until early afternoon. Sarah and I waited awhile for Tim to get up, trying to decide what we were going to do. Beth left soon after she got up, so we put in “Next” and watched it. Pretty good movie, entertaining at the least.

It was hot as hell. I couldn’t believe how warm it was in the apartment, I was sweating sitting still. It must have been at least 90 outside. Sarah and Tim both were hungry, so I found a Chipotle online which was just down the street, so we went there for lunch. We made a quick stop afterwards at the sporting goods store for a patch for the air mattress. Apparently this one is new, and is compartmentalized, so it should not have deflated without a new leak.

We got a good parking spot back at Tim’s. I gave Chris Moore a call, and he was free so I headed out to his new place. Sarah and Tim would car pool to dinner later and we would meet up then.

Chris’s place was amazing. He is pretty far outside the city in Palos Park, but you forgot that you live in Chicago which I suppose is the point. They bought a “fixer uppper” and added 6 feet to the back of the house, redid the whole upstairs and the basement. A gorgeous house, they have something like 3700 sq ft. Pretty amazing.

He had a conservative, and manageable game room. But it was very clean and really went with how nice the rest of the house was. I think he had about 10 games in there. I knew he has a ton more somewhere, so after a quick tour of the house and the gameroom, we went outside to the garage. Of course, that is where they all are, plus he has a storage unit with other ones he hasn’t brought over yet. A ton of projects, but he has a very level head and realistic focus. It doesn’t seem too out of hand.

I really enjoyed myself, one of the favorite people I have met so far. I got a couple of good bits of information, and just wish that I could have spent most of the day. As it was, I was supposed to head out around 4:10, I ended up leaving about 4:35, knowing there was no way I’d make it to the restaurant before 5.

I got going, and looked ahead at the end of my directions and got nervous. It seemed like they just cut off in the middle of no where, not at even the street where the address was. Sure enough, it was about 5:05 and my directions ended in a pretty bad section of town. I called Tim, and he helped direct me the 3-4 miles west that I needed to be to get to Leonas. I have no idea why the directions were so bad, I typed them in twice to Google, I just didn’t research it. So, Sarah and me coming out to surprise Andy didn’t pan out. Sarah waited and came up suddenly to the table, but I had to come in at nearly 5:30 to everyone already sitting down and chatting it up. I felt really terrible….even if I had left on time I would have been late though.

They had a good turn out of people, about 12 with us in total. Two of the friends were coming with us later, so it was the perfect size, manageable to fit into cars at the very least.

Dinner was good, the waiter was just so so. Leonas is primarily a Italian restaurant, but they have a little bit of everything.

In the group, we got to meet Andy’s best man, and Emily’s suite mate, both really cool individuals. The Cubs game was playing, so that was cool too. We got to watch most of the game that finished them off, they really stink. I was just glad they lost now and didn’t last further, there was no way they were going to go anywhere with that team anyway.

After we got the tricky bill situation figured out, we left. We followed Tim, and there was a little bit of an issue with a mixup of direction, our car went the wrong direction but still managed to make it back first to play the musical car game. It was a particularly long game. I dropped Sarah off at the apartment, and I drove around for nearly a half hour looking for a spot. I know it is a little bit of luck and a lot of timing, but seriously, I was getting really frustrated.

So, I find some people walking to their car, going to pull out. There is some sort of truck behind me and he won’t be able to get around, but you know what? Not losing the spot. So I put on my flashers and pulled to the side. The truck squawked, I didn’t budge. Then they shine some sort of bright light into my car like a jerk, so I flipped down my mirror. The car pulls out and I pull forward to pull into the spot, I really have no idea what is behind me. I go to back up and this person gets out of the car and starts to walk towards my car. Turns out it is some sort of cop on a power trip. Apparently I got mixed up and you have can only use a blinker to signify that you are taking a spot. But it was pretty obvious what I was doing, I don’t know what this guy’s problem was, but he obviously was power drunk. There was no way I was losing this spot, as it was I had an 8 block walk back to the apartment.

I got back, and of course, everyone else was lucky enough to find closer spots. Good for them, I wouldn’t wish it on them.

While we waited for Beth to arrive, we got out the rules for “Kings” and played a round. It went ok, Sarah has started to become more receptive to the game the more we play it. It did get things flowing a little smoother to go out to the bars.

We just went across the street in the sweltering heat to Village Tap. They had outside picnic tables. I got Andy and myself a pitcher, we almost forgot that it was his 21st…and sat down to watch the Rockies game. The group was splintered a little bit, Sarah stayed back, she wasn’t feeling good, her stomach was acting up unrelated to any drinks. Then, we had one member of the group get a little sick, so we weren’t really all sitting down together ever during the night. It was really low key.

Eventually Sarah came down and sat for a little bit, but then didn’t feel good again so had to leave. By the time everyone else was ready to leave, it was a pretty early night, before 1. Emily was the DD, so she took the kids and headed back to school. We gave our well wishes and good nights, the evening got away from us.

Everyone else was pretty tired, so we went upstairs and went to bed.

Here are some similar arcade posts

• We saw a lot of Dave tonight
• More Marley, baseball and bonfires
• Nokes’ 20 Minutes around the block
• The surprise birthday party!
• Oliver Winery and Colts vs. Denver

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