Confessions of Jersey Girl

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…