The Whole Shebang

Well, I had my big birthday extravaganza yesterday and it was great. I knew I wanted to do something to commemorate the last birthday I'll ever celebrate in my twentieth decade but I was worried about spending the money and leaving the dogs alone and all my other responsibilities, blah, blah, blah... But, my fun-loving irresponsible side convinced me to go for it. And, let me tell you, I really went for it.

We started the day off early and headed out to our hotel around 10:30am. We stayed at the Royal Pacific Hotel at Universal Studios. I'd never been to that hotel before but it looked really nice online so we gave it a shot. We got parked and stowed our luggage and headed out to the pool. My immediate reaction was feeling a little overwhelmed. The pool area was huge and had rows and rows and rows of lounge chairs that were mostly filled with people. I've never been to a pool that had so many people around it. It was kind of crazy. But, we found a couple of chairs and spread our stuff out and headed towards the bar. It took about two thirds of margarita for all those people to just fade away into the background and for me to become completely relaxed and ready to enjoy my day. By half way through margarita number two I was having a really good time. Joe and I lounged and swam a little and laughed and talked and had a lot of fun. We met some people from New Hampshire that told us we have to go to Turks and Cacaos so we're thinking about that for next year.

We ate some lunch at the outside restaurant and hung around for a couple more hours until our room was ready. Once we were in our room we decided to take a nap. A nap, in the middle of the afternoon, what a crazy idea. It's not something that I ever do. There is always laundry or vacuuming or dogs that need to be played with. There is never much time to just do nothing. It was kind of nice for a change. Our room was nice and overlooked a rainforest-ish garden outside. It definitely wasn't the most plush room, as we booked the cheapest room they have, but it was still nice and comfortable and relaxing.

We had heard good things about the hotel's sushi bar so decided to check that out for dinner. We were a little disappointed with it though. The rolls were kind of small and there wasn't a huge selection. The presentation also left a lot to be desired and it was kind of expensive. We actually thought we'd finish up there and head to City Walk to try to find something else to eat for dinner since our three shared sushi rolls really didn't fill us up. We took the water taxi over to City Walk and tried to find something to eat. The place was packed. I don't know who thinks people in this country aren't spending money because there were a ton of people out at the theme parks and shopping and eating. Who knows, maybe they all got their economic stimulus checks or something. All the restaurants had huge waits so we decided just to head to Pat O'Brien's and start drinking instead.

We were pretty early to Pat O'Brien's and were able to get a table right up in front. We started out with one drink each, me with a Fuzzy Leprechaun (my fav drink there) and Joe had a rum and coke. While we were working on our first drinks the place started filling up a little more and the crowd was getting a little more lively. There were a couple of bachellorette parties in the house which always makes things fun and funny. Every now and then we'd see a hung inflatable penis being thrown up in the air. There was also an anatomically correct male blow up doll with a pretty impressive (and erect) blow up penis attached. Joe was quite amused. I don't think he's ever experienced bachellorette parties out in public, wild and on the prowl, so it was fun for him to see. By drink two I needed to switch to something less sweet so I changed over to mojitos. Yum! After that, all hell broke loose. I remember at least two mojitos and then several vodka and sprites... let's just say I should've quit while I was ahead.

I had a great time singing and dancing and clapping and laughing. There was some British couple there and the lady kept introducing the guy she was with as her, "gay husband". We're not quite sure what was going on there. The guy was shit faced and dancing around snapping with his eyes closed while the girl was sitting on other random guys' laps and jumping on stage (which you're not supposed to do) and refusing to get down. Somebody finally had to pull her off stage and tell her that it was not American Idol. It was pretty freaking hilarious. I think the highlight song of the night, though, was when they did Baby Got Back. I've never heard them do that song before and it was awesome. The whole place was rocking from everyone singing. I loved it!

After the last of many drinks we decided to call it a night around 1am. For anyone who knows us, that's probably the latest we've been up (and out) in years. We were wild party animals, like young kids of twenty five again. We took the water taxi back to the hotel, thank goodness for that thing! Drunk driving is a HUGE no no! Once we were back in the room we were pretty starving since we only ate those tiny sushi rolls for dinner. So we decided to order room service. I got the chicken fingers, Joe got a hamburger and we each got a coke. Thirty minutes and $47 later our food arrived. But, unfortunately in that thirty minutes all my drinks caught up with me and I was on the bathroom floor with my head in the toilet puking up Fuzzy Leprechaun. Good times. Needless to say I didn't want any food after that. I really just wanted to climb my old ass into bed and sleep it off.

This morning I wasn't feeling so hot. I've realized that even though I may still be able to party like a rock star, I am no longer young enough to recover like a rock star. Holy hell am I hung over! It's almost 4pm and I still feel drunk. But, man did I have a great time last night! I'm really glad that we actually went out and did this weekend. We did spend entirely too much and we did have to find two dog sitters to split the chore and my laundry is still sitting in the dryer waiting to be folded and I have black dog hair tumble weeds down my hallway but I can always look back at my twenty ninth birthday celebration and say, "damn we had a great time".