3:18 PM, Aug 9, 2007
My Ridiculous 29th Birthday
I took off work for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week, in an effort to fully enjoy my birthday. My plan was to run around downtown and solicit free birthday drinks. I started off by meeting up with Cole at his front door. Around the corner, we sat down at the bar at John's Big Deck, though we stayed inside, out of the heat. I told the bartender that it was my birthday, and she just wished me a happy one. Rather disappointing. 2 drinks.
Our next stop was the River Market Brewing Co, where the beers are already cheap enough that it doesn't really matter if you get them for free. I didn't even mention that it was my birthday while we were there. 3 drinks.
We next went to Harry's Country Club. We were actually headed there already, but took refuge at the RMBC to get out of the heat along the way. Dave the friendly bartender, along with Gretchen the friendly waitress, were both keen to buy me drinks when they heard what day it was. They each got me a Pale Ale. 6 drinks.
Cole and I wanted to go somewhere uncommon, so we went to the bar at Garozzo's, and with temperatures closing in on 100 degrees, we almost melted on the way there. I asked the friendly bartender what kind of specials they might have for someone celebrating their birthday. Someone like me. She turned around, and proclaimed that I was entitled to a free order of Chicken Spiedini, the house special. I was very pleased, but I expected some small, "it's your birthday" portion that they keep under a heat lamp in case someone actually does have a birthday. But no. After a moment, she was back and had dropped a menu in front of me, asking me to choose which Spiedini dish I wanted, and was asking what kind of salad I wanted. 8 drinks.
Garozzo's gave me an $18 meal for free. It was excellent. Jeff met us there soon after I finished eating. I had promised Cole a ride back to his place because of the abject heat. After dropping him off, Jeff and I went to the K, and met up with Liana, Amber, Heather, and Becky. The Royals lost bigtime to the Twins, but we still had a ball. It was "Buck Night," when you can get hot dogs, miniature cups of soda, and undersized bags of peanuts for one dollar apiece. 12 drinks.
We said good night to the ladies at the front gate, and went our separate ways. Jeff and I went home, and I got in touch with Geoff along the way. Also, a sudden deluge of rain began as we drove home. Geoff picked me up, and we went to Paci's in North Kansas City, where I tried Cabo Wabo for the first time. It was delicious, but is almost entirely responsible for the horrible hangover I'm suffering as I write this. We sat and talked to the bartender for a couple of hours before we left, for some reason to close the Quaff. 17 drinks.
We were at the Quaff for long enough to get kicked back out at closing time. 18 drinks. We finished the night with greaseball burgers at Town Topic.
I woke up shortly after getting to sleep and vomited. I have spent all the intervening time holding off a second trip to the bathroom. Here are some pictures.