Sometimes you just have to reflect. Not on anything in particular, just life in general. It’s hard to believe it’s only been six years since I got my license, four years since I’ve graduated, and not even two years since I’ve legally been allowed to drink. I think about baseball and having played it for more than half my life. All-star tournaments. Cooperstown, New York. I think about all the friends I’ve had, ones that moved, and ones that aren’t my friends anymore. I remember skateboarding everyday, everywhere. Not being allowed to get into R-rated movies. I remember everything that I don’t think about enough.
Now, I’m almost done with my fourth year of college and I’m potentially a year away from graduating. I’ve got a twin sister who is graduating and friends that are all making moves. Within this past year, within the past months I have met and become friends/close to some of the greatest people. Individuals that most people don’t think exist in a place like Youngstown. Passionate, creative, involved people. I’ve had the pleasure to see and talk to people like Dead Fingers (Taylor Hollingsworth and Kate Taylor) and the wonderful Heather Maloney. I’ve talked movies with people, books, music, politics, beers, and weather. I have had so many opportunities to grow. I look back to even a year ago and am in disbelief how much different everything is, with school, an internship course, being proud of something and everything else that has happened.
What led me to think about all this was Friday April 13, 2012 and the night that ensued. It was Matt’s twenty-first birthday, so we decided Mountaineer Casino would be an appropriate decision. It was without a doubt going to be a fun trip, especially with the crowd that went: Matt, Jake, Wang, Katz, Rocky, and myself. To ensure the night started right Jake and I went out and bought a bottle of Absinthe (not to mention the great hunt for sugar cubes), Katz and Wang were both in charge of cases of beer.
We had booked a hotel room with the intent of getting completely obliterated (and we polished off a lot of alcohol.) After eating pizza, scoping out the room and balcony, we started doing shots of Absinthe and playing kings. We must have been on a good pace because Rocky hit a point where he was pouring shots out and trying to slip it past us and avoid drinking them. Since I’m a great negative influence, and Wang is a bad liar I caught on to Rocky’s bathroom activity and figured out his plan to avoid our last shot. After we downed the last shot of Absinthe and almost the whole bottle, we gallantly strolled down to the casino (If gallantly was a synonym for wobbly.) The true men didn’t walk straight to a table or machine, we walked to the bar and got a drink, which is everyone, excluding Jake and Wang (pussies.)
Matt went to slots and somehow did well. I played $6 and left with $18 and went to check out blackjack. The tables were still full, so I decided to try my luck on roulette. Little did I know roulette was feeling me, I went up and down but hovered around +$75-100 all night. When I was up $90 towards the end of the night I cashed out and said, “That’s good enough.”
Jake and Rocky were not so lucky, they lost *undisclosed amount*. I felt bad, but that is the risk of gambling. Wang lost a little and Katz ended up breaking even.
We popped into Mahogany around 2am where I enjoyed and destroyed a Bloody Mary. They make a good, spicy one. The way they should be made. Jake tried one and said he enjoyed it. Matt got a Blue Moon and couldn’t finish it; I was disappointed at our lack of drunk for a twenty-first. I expected everyone to be a dozen beers deep, but I can’t always get my way. Maybe it’s a good decision to stay conservative at somewhere with as much security as a casino.
Katz, Wang, and myself made it the longest (surprisingly Wang was up later than me.) The birthday boy and Jake tapped out early, at least for casino time. 5am at a casino is basically 2:30 anywhere else. I did all I could to keep them awake and continuing to drink, but it didn’t work. Realistically I went to sleep only to get the last bed spot. I crawled into bed around 4:45 and tried to sleep with the air conditioner blowing right in my face. But, that was better than the chair or floor.
We woke up looking groggy. It was a long day/night, but we had to check out, eat, and get home. And of course, try our luck one more time. Katz, Jake and Matt hit the buffet. Wang and me bought a burger. We all polished off our food, emptied our bladders and headed home.
It was a fun night and it wasn’t even as crazy as I thought it would get, but it’s one of those times you just realize was great. It was inevitable. That group of people, the celebrating, and closeness of one band of friends, how could it not be good? We all met through different people and we all have an immense amount of care and love for each other. Despite losing money or winning money, not being able to take that extra shot, passing out early or staying up late, being ignorant to table rules of blackjack, or being completely unlucky, we were all together and sometimes you have to slow down and realize how important things like that are. So, maybe nothing completely crazy happened. Nobody won a grand. Nobody passed out in a corner. Nobody got intimately involved with an escort. We didn’t end up at a strip club or running down the street. But, that stuff isn’t necessary. That whole trip boiled down to me once again thinking, “You ain’t got friends like I got friends.” (a Garret G. lyric.) It always rings true. Anyone I’m friends with is my friend because they have the ability to have fun with anything. It’s a comforting feeling to know I have a list of people that will be interested in something, anything and everything. Cheers homies.
