So… Where did I leave off?  Shit.  Oh.  Doni, Derek and I all poured ourselves into a cab as the sun was coming up over Chi-Town.  We got back to the hotel where the lovely Katie was already sound asleep.  I’m pretty sure we woke her up with our drunken stumbling about the room, so it was nice to meet her in my finest of forms. :)  We hopped into bed (Note: Doni is an awesome cuddler.) and passed out for a few hours.

Now, I LOVE me some Doni.  I do.  But um.  SHE WAS OUT OF BED AT 8:30am and I sort of might have wanted to fucking kill her.  Three hours of sleep was not acceptable, but she wanted to see things!  City things!  Me?  I wanted to fucking sleep.  I was still drunk for christs sake.  FINE.  I got up (sort of), tried to make myself presentable so the other bloggers didn’t judge me (not gonna happen) and we were off on our way.

We hopped on a train and headed… I forget where.  In the general direction of where the Pride Parade was happening.  We hopped on a train and got off… somewhere?  All I know is there were CROWDS.  Oh the crowds.  We were absoultely starving and I was in serious need of some pancakes to soak up all of the alcohol in my system so we headed into Clarkes.  Dear Lord, HEAVEN.  I am a pancake fanatic and i’m considering moving to Chicago for the sole purpose of eating at Clarkes every. single. morning.  So Doni and I scarfed pancakes, met up with Phammy and Erini and headed in the direction of the Parade.  Once we started walking, we found Jenn and Rachel (WHO SPELLS HER NAME CORRECTLY!  WIN! Seriously, you don’t even know how exciting that was. Also?  Total blog celebrity shock.) and rejoiced.  I love meeting bloggers, seriously… I’m thinking about making it my profession.  ANYWAY, we get down to the end of the street and that’s where the crowds get a little crazy.  We were like cattle.  There was lots of pushing, lots of nowhere to go, a girl with a fucking bike (seriously… who brings a bike into a crowd of half a million people?) and some random guy blaming the whole mess on Rachel’s four year old daughter, Diana.  RIGHT.  Her reply to this nutcase was something along the lines of  “RIGHT, my four year old brought half a million people to the city.”.   It was great.

So after much pushing and shoving, we all get to the parade a few minutes before it started.  We tried to call Derek to see if he was still alive, but the cell phone network was completely jammed.  Boo.  We hung at the parade for a while and snapped a million pictures of people and things and all was well until I felt a rush over my body.  My heart started racing.  I thought I was having a heart attack.  OMG, I was going to DIE.  Thinking like this only made me panic more and thus make the entire situation worse until i got to a point where I couldn’t breathe and I felt like the crowd was closing in on me.  I looked at Doni and I was all “I’m going to pass out or throw up.  I need to GO.”  And then I ran into a (disgusting) porta potty and barfed.  This did not make me feel better.  In fact, it made me more upset.

We ended up sitting in the shade relaxing, eating water (wooder) ice and drinking water (wooder) and just generally getting my fucking composure back.  It was nice to be in the shade out of the crowd and just people watching for a bit.  Doni employed her technical genius and managed to find the only outlet on a street to charge her iphone.  Allie and  Jess found us.  HOW AWESOME was it to see some more of my Vegas loves?!  Molly and Courtney found us and we decided that we needed pizza.  One of the priorities of my visit was to eat Chicago pizza.  We decided on Giordanos and waited for Derek to get his happy ass to us so we could leave (Apparently, partying until the sum comes us hits 24 year olds much different than 29 year olds.).

Eventually, we found Derek and headed to Giordanos.  OMG, it was so nice to see everyone and have everyone in the same place! Pham, Erini, Jenn, Allie, Jess, Derek, Courtney, Doni, Molly, Jenn, Rachel & Diana… I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, but man.  It was an absolutely SURREAL experience to be sitting at a table with all of these amazing people.  We ordered pizza and it came to our table.  The excitement was mounting.  It looked good.  But um.  WEIRD.  I’ve gotta say, the crust was EXCELLENT, but there was just so much CHEESE.  (Nicole is shuddering right now.  I’m not a cheese fan, get over it.) It was definitely different than anything I’ve ever had before here, but I can’t wait to get you guys to Jersey for some REAL pizza.  :)  There was awesome conversation and we lingered until the last possible minute to avoid saying goodbye.  (Really.  Doni missed her flight.)

Eventually the time came and we all hugged and said our goodbyes.  Doni hopped a train to Midway and I hopped a train to O’Hare (aka THE AIRPORT OF DEATH) and that was it.  My whirlwind trip to Chicago was over.   It was bitter sweet because I made some new friends that I didn’t want to part with yet, but at the same time… I WAS EXHAUSTED and couldn’t wait to get home.

My flight to philly was an easy one, thankfully.  Short little hour and a half flights are not something that i’m used to.  I’m used to 13 hour travel days  with three layovers and a delay.  So to arrive in Philly so fast made my heart sing.  I had parked my car in short term parking because well… I figured you don’t get much more short term than 20 hours.  WRONG.  It wound up costing me $55 for parking.  Oh well.  The two hour drive home was eventful.  I think I made it a half hour into my drive before I called Doni.  I missed her that much.  Oh, and I got a flat tire.  That was fun.  I got a kids meal at Wendys at 11:30p to make myself feel better.

I made it home by 12:30a and passed out.  It was an amazing weekend, I can’t even put how I feel into words.  Thank you to Derek and Jenn and 20SB for literally changing my life.  Thank you to each and every blogger that was there and welcomed me with open arms.  Thank you to Dereks friends for just being HOT (and awesome) (and yeah, I totally just made HIM blush.).  Thank you to Doni and Derek and Courtney for talking me into this craziness.  Thank you Rachel for having an incredibly photogenic daughter and making me look like a rockstar.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for making my life better.  If i’ve never met you, rest assured that I want to.  If you read here, but you’ve never commented… just know that I thank you and um, I probably want to be your friend too.  To everyone that makes this blog and my life amazing… thank you.  I’m certain that this is going to be the summer that changes my life in ways I can’t even comprehend right now.

The best & most amazing part of this 20 Hour Adventure?  I’ll be back in Chitown (with Doni) the weekend of July 24th. WIN.

Ps.  I am beyond depressed that I didn’t get to see these ladies: Jamie, Joy, Angie and Renee & Tiffany.  You were missed SO MUCH, I can’t even begin to tell you.  I know that my spontaneous trip to Chicago didn’t really allow for schedule clearing (I know you wanted to), but I hope we can all get together soon!! Love you guys!!

Last Thursday night was an interesting one.  It was Doni’s first night in Chicago for the 20sb Ultimate Meet Up.  We had been talking about it since our return from Vegas and she had a list of people she needed to hug for me.  See, my bosses were out of town last week and in spite of my best efforts… I couldn’t get off work to be in attendance.  It was then that my lovely Doni (and Derek and Courtney) brought to my attention the fact that I was off on Sunday anyway, so I should just buy a ticket and come out Saturday after work.  Hm.  They were certainly on to something.

So with Doni on the phone, I looked a few places for a ticket and found one for $300.  My heart was pounding, my hands were shaking… I had to do it.  There were so many amazing people there that I wanted to see… $300 was a small price to pay.  Still, I wasn’t sure.  It was so irresponsible!  I was trying to get out of credit card debt!

And then Doni called to tell me to just book the damn thing, she’d go half.  So I did.

I lost my mind and booked a trip to Chicago in which I would only actually BE IN CHICAGO for 20 hours and 35 minutes.  Not even a full day.  WHAT.  Commence freak out on the phone with Doni, Derek, Courtney and who ever else was within ear shot of that crazy group of people.

It was everything I could do to get through work on Friday and Saturday… All I could think about was how awesome it was to be me, how lucky I was to have such amazing, crazy friends and how awesome life was.  I was headed to Chicago.  Saturday, the day dragged FOREVER.  I seriously wanted to die.  I spent all day getting nothing done and living on twitter to see what everyone was up to.  But then, it was 5p.  I WAS OUTTA THERE.

For those of you that don’t know… I live in Cape May.  There are two airports near me.  One an hour away in Atlantic City that flies pretty much NOWHERE and Philadelphia International that’s two hours away.  My flight was out of Philly, so I left work and started the two hour drive to the airport.  NOT a fun thing to be doing.  Thankfuly, I got to the airport safely and parked my car.   My flight wasn’t until 8:40p (crazy, right?) so I wandered around a bit and eventually found a Chickies and Petes.  Crab Fries and a Malibu Bay Breeze for dinner.  Oh my YUM.

At about 7:30, I headed over to my gate happily drunk and absolutely downright GIDDY with the fact that I’d be seeing Doni and Courtney and Derek in just a few short hours (OMG OMG OMG OMG).  Remember how I guest posted for Amy about the ridiculousness that inevitably ensues EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I. TRAVEL.? HA!  This time was absolutely NO exception.

I was standing at the gate a few minutes prior to boarding and this INCREDIBLY SWEATY strange man starts talking to me.  I was a little weirded out, but I tried to be nice… And then he started talking about the box on top of his carry on bag.  That box that held HIS FUCKING DEAD BROTHERS ASHES.  And then he started to touch me.  Like, my arm.  And then I wanted to die.  SINCE WHEN AM I A MAGNET FOR THESE WEIRDOS!?  Oh that’s right, my entire life.  Thankfully, there was a guy about my age standing near by that cut in and asked what I was headed to Chicago for.  Upon explaining that I was only going for 20 hours to see my friends, get drunk and eat pizza… high fives were exchanged and we boarded the plane.

We get up into the air and I’m fiddling with my phone trying to get my headphones untangled and I get a tap on the shoulder.  It was the kid from the airport.  He handed me something and then walked away.  This is what he handed me:

I looked at it and died.  It was in this moment that I wished I could twitter from 30,000 feet.  I’m not even joking.   That took serious balls.  I was impressed.  So I sent him a text message and told him to meet us all for drinks.  I mostly just thought it would make for a good story and I was very right. I got off the plane and he was nowhere to be found.  According to Derek, I needed to find the Blue Line.  First thought?  What the HELL is a blue line?!  I was informed it was a train and I was determined to navigate this city.  Thankfully, two seconds after I got off the phone with Doni, I got a text message.  It was Alex.  “Are you off the plane?”  Turns out, he was waiting for me, he figured I would need a hand.  This kid went all sorts of out of his way to take me to the train and make sure I was on my way.  We made small talk on the walk to the train, he seemed sweet enough.  He said he was going to come to wherever we were for a drink, we hugged and I got on the train.

WILD.  First off, I am a HUGE fan of my personal space… which apparently doens’t exist to the CTA.  I don’t like people next to me, near me or god forbid touching me that I don’t know.  EW.  Second, all I could think about was the crash on the DC metro.  It was enough to give me a panic attack.  Good times.  I was informed to get off at Grand, which was like… the last stop from O’Hare.  I kept Doni updated on my location and was told she would meet me at the top of the stairs at the stop.

I got to my stop and pretty much RAN up the stairs and striaght to Doni.  I can’t even describe how awesome it was to see her face.  After that, we headed into Emmitts where I was promptly introduced to Derek, Courtney (!!!!!), Phampants and seriously… lord knows who else.  I quickly ordered a drink and got started on making friends.

Meeting bloggers is a strange thing.  Like, I’ve been following Courtney for years now, I trust her advice and I love her to bits… but until last Saturday night, I have never seen her face to face.  Of COURSE we were going to be BFFs.  I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  Derek and I laughed about how he helped me set up my blog WAY back when 20sb first started (seriously… I was #60-something). Doni and I just freaked out with happiness that we were in the same place.

And then Alex showed up.  HOLY CRAP.  Apparently, he lives VERY far out of the way… so I was impressed that he even showed up at all, much less to see a girl he met for five seconds and a group of god knows how many people he doesn’t know.  We had some drinks, hung out with everyone and then he left.  Then we proceeded to judge him for his choice in bars.  Apparently, there were a few not so awesome recommendations in there.

We spent the night just hanging out, talking, signing contracts that commit Courtney and I to live in Chicago with Dereks friend Kevin or Brady or whatever (who i’m certain will be thrilled he’s getting a shout out on the blog, HI! Kevin!) and cook in high heels in exchange for living rent free.  Sounds like a sweet deal, right?  And he’s stupid cute, so it wouldn’t be SO bad.  At some point in the night, I showed Doni how much I adored her by dropping my drink on her foot.  FLAGGED.

We hung out at Emmitts until they kicked us out around… two? three?  I have no idea.  I was VERY drunk.  Surprising, huh?  We moved to the Continental where Molly and I proceeded to dance our butts off until the sun came up.  At about 5:30a, we poured ourselves into a cab and headed back to our hotel.  Seriously… the sun was up.  It was daylight. It was an amazing first seven hours in Chi-Town.

To be continued…

Remember the time that I was on the phone with Doni and I booked a ticket for Chicago for the DAY AFTER TOMORROW and i’m going to actually only be in Chicago for 20 hours?!

OH MY GOD.

I’m still flipping out and it’s been over an hour since i’ve booked my flight.  I have no idea where i’m staying, I have no idea what i’m doing… just that I’ll be seeing Derek, Courtney, Jamie and Doni and hopefully everyone else I need to be seeing on my short adventure to Chi-Town.

I can’t believe i’m doing this.  I can’t believe that in less than 48 hours, i’ll be in Chicago.

Here’s to the best summer of my life.

- This afternoon via a group gchat (Did you know you could group gchat? It’s amazing.) a blogger extravaganza/safe travels and adventures Ashley/most amazing birthday i’ll ever have was planned.  Doni is flying in from Minne and my heart is swelling from the happiness.  Doni and I will be in NYC from the night of August 14 until the 16th, so if you didn’t know about this little shindig, now you do!  Come say hi to Doni, bye to Ashley and happy birthday to me!  It promises to be an UNFORGETTABLE weekend.

-I am currently the happiest i’ve been in I don’t even know how long.  I’m single.  I’m doing things I want to do on my own terms.  I don’t have to ask anyone for permission.  I’m being a little financially irresponsible and I don’t care.

-I miss all of the Cali girls.  Kerri, Katelin, Andrea, Ev’Yan, Nicole… I wish we were all closer.

-I need to book my ticket to Minneapolis to hang out with Doni and this girl.  There are not even words to describe how excited I am to finally be able to hang out with her fine ass.

-I had a happy meal for dinner.  It was nothing short of amazing.  Now, i’m blogging.  Soon I’ll be getting myself cute, then i’m heading out for drinks and a midnight premiere of Transformers.  I don’t care if it sucks, I’ve never seen the first one.  I’m all about the experience.

-I have work tomorrow.  GROSS.

-MY LIFE IS AMAZING.  Really.  I can’t believe how perfect things are right now.  Sure, there’s the ever present drama that my life wouldn’t be complete without, but i’m happy.  SO happy.

Hey everyone!  I completely forgot that my guest post was scheduled for yesterday over at Reinventing Amy!!  It’s something I’ve been meaning to post about here, so go check it out!!

I went grocery shopping the other night.  It was particularly foggy out and as I was loading up my car, two “homie” kids walked by and said this:

“Yo man, It looks like mother nature is smokin’ her a doobie!”

And then one of the two proceded to call me “shawty”.  Please explain to me WHAT exactly they expected me to say to that?  “Ay yo, how ’bout you take me for a ride in that geo prizm you got there.”

Really.  Only in Jersey.

It says something about what we have when the first thing I wanted to do when all of this happened is just feel Steve’s arms around me, hear him tell me it was all okay.  He did just that and I feel worlds better.

I know, I just posted… but i’m upset right now… so i’m going to post again.  There isn’t a whole lot to say because we still don’t really know what happened, but they found my 32 year old cousin and his friend dead in a hotel room a few hours ago.   The phone just rang a little bit ago, my mom walked away and came back hysterical.  No mom should have to lose their child, I don’t care how old they are.

He has had his battles with drugs over the years.  Stints in rehab here and there, moving back home with his parents a few years ago to get clean, he even moved from Alabama to Jersey last year to get away from toxic friends.  A few months ago he moved to Florida close to his parents and I guess they had enough of his behavior so they didn’t let him stay at their house.  He had been staying at a motel for the past few weeks and today when I Aunt was on her way over to see him after work, the place was surrounded by police cars and ambulances.  They wouldn’t let her see him.  I guess in the end, it proved to strong of a pull for him.

It breaks my heart that someone could be so selfish.  It’s wrong to say that because I know that he was at a point where he had no control anymore.  I hate that my Aunt lost a son.  I hate that my mom, who watched him grow up, is devistated.  I wish I could just sit down and talk to him, get to know him a little better.  I’m sort of at a loss… I don’t really know what to even say.  I’m shocked.  You know how you sometimes just keep hoping that things will work out?  Everyone felt that way about Jason.  We just hoped that he would come around.

Today, this has been floating around the internets quite a bit.  I recieved an email about it from a girl I met in college.  I know Hautepocket posted about it.  I’m pretty sure a few other girls have too… i’ve seen it all over today.  I signed up, and I’m hopeful there is someone out there that I can help.  I have O negative blood… which can go to anyone, so i’m forever donating that and this seemed just as simple.  Check it out if you can and register.

Be The Match (formerly National Marrow Donor Program), helps facilitate the coordination of searching cancer, or pre-cancer, patients with bone marrow donors.  Their registry is a place where suffering patients can go and try to find a matching marrow donor who would give them a bone marrow transplant.  For many people searching for marrow, their only chance for survival is finding a perfect match on the registry.  Ordinarily it costs about $50 to join the registry to become a potential donor, but during the Marrowthon, June 8-22, joining is free.  And it is really, really easy.

Joining the registry doesn’t mean you have to give blood or anything with needles.  All you do is swab the inside of your cheek with a long Q-tip.  I’ve done it, and it’s completely painless.  You can even join from home and do the whole thing yourself.  By joining the registry you basically say that you are willing to donate marrow to a recipient if you are ever matched up, which in itself is an extremely rare occurrence.  The vast majority of people who are on the registry never get called.  Even if you do get matched up, all you do is donate some blood and help save a life.  No needles in the hip (it’s not 1950 anymore).

To sign up, log on at www.marrow.org/marrowthon, answer a questionnaire, and Be The Match will send over a swab kit in about 3-5 days.  All you do is swab your inner cheek, place the swab in a sealed bag and mail it back.

Steve, Cynical Sympathy