Adventures from the 313: March 2011

but I just got to work and I really want to post about all the awesome adventures I've had in the past month!

March has literally been a roller coaster and it's not over yet!

This is what has happened since I posted last:

-I turned 21!!! We began the journey at the Bronx Bar and I actually turned 21 there. Then we headed to Woodbridge Pub and drank and danced and ran into some other friends we knew randomly! Finally, we headed back to school and walked to Northern Lights, a bar about a block from the Taubman campus. We played some foosball and then went home and passed the heck out at like 5am. Almost all of my best friends from school made it out so it was a great night and I couldn't have asked for anything else on my 21st!

-The day after my birthday, I flew out to San Diego!! I stayed with Kat, a long time Mraz friend and we went all over San Diego and had some really fun times. She's a nurse so she works nights 3 days a week and has the rest of the time off. She worked the first night I was there and not at all the rest of the weekend! It was great. I met a bunch of her friends, got to see some of SD's bars, and went to three concerts! We drove down to Oceanside Friday for a show by this band Raining Jane as part of the Feeding
the Soul Foundation benefit. This was their second annual and I was there for my birthday last year so I also got to go to the first! What good timing! Mraz and Toca opened and I got to see all my other native San Diego friends. We went back up there Sunday for breakfast and hula hooping at Jitters....blasty blast! Also, I got my first pedicure!!!!!!

-I got home Monday night, actually missing class because my flight got in late. So I went to school Tuesday and Wednesday, and then Thursday morning left for Chicago for the graphic design AIGA annual student trip. I'm the communications officer of our student chapter and so we've been fundraising all year for this trip. If you remember, we went to New York last year. This year was Chicago and it was honestly one of the best weekends I've had in a really long time. We went on five studio tours: IDEO, Razorfish, OKtype, 3st and Studio Blue. It was awesome to see so many different studio environments with IDEO and Razorfish being pretty big corporations, OKtype being run by one guy out of his apartment, and 3st and Studio Blue having 4-5 full time designers. Aside from the studios, we went out on St Pattys Day (oh my word Wrigleyville is INSANE) the streets were just filled with thousands of people. We ended up just getting a table at Goose Island and drinking some good old Chicago brewed 312. So good! Try it sometime if you haven't. I got to see Brian Murphy (the guy from Chicago I went to Europe with last summer) which was awesome because I haven't seen him since August. Also, we went to the bean and saw a lot of the city because our hostel was right downtown! I didn't go shopping, which is probably a really good thing, but i DID get to try a crapload of scotch, which is probably my new favorite thing. Manly? yes. Awesome? yes. We were at Navy Pier and about to ride the ferris wheel when we decided to stop in and get a beer. It was like 2pm and we just wanted to chill a little because it was cold outside. There's like 7 of us in this bar and we're the only ones there. Alex, Brian and I are talking to him and we end up asking him about what high end scotches he has. The three of us decide we're going to split a $35 shot of Johnny Walker Blue Label (a $750 bottle) and the guy goes to get it. He comes back and said they were out, but brought 3 other scotches with him. Johnny Walker Green Label, a bottle of Ardbeg, and an 18 year Macallan. He gives each like a half a shot to try, and we decide on splitting the Macallan. Instead of forcing us to pass a little shotglass around to one another, he pulls out 3 and pours each of us at least a shot and a half. He only charges us for a single. Plus, the then follows this with a 15 minute lecture on scotch and proceeds to make all of us white gummy bear shots for free. It was ridiculous. He was the best and made probably $100 in tips from us. A 20 minute quick beer turned into an hour and a half of quality scotch education and tasting. I was seriously impressed (and kinda tipsy at 4pm that day). But anyway, another night (the nigh twhen the moon was supposed to be crazy big) we went to the Hancock building to the lounge on the 96th floor. It is BEAUTIFUL up there and the view is absolutely incredible. There, Brian and Alex and another Brian that was with us got Johnny Walker Blue Label. I was allowed one tiny precious sip from Brian's glass
and it was the best scotch I've ever tasted.

Sigh. I'm not even 21 for a month and I'm officially an old man.

-ANYWAY, we leave Chicago, get back to school and work our asses off to catch up on all the homework we didnt' do all weekend. Classes were pretty normal last week and this past weekend was Portfolio Day. I was in a practicum class last semester where we chose the theme and designed the entire event so we had to help do last minute things, set up Saturday morning and breakdown that night. It was crazy and really fun and we all got a lot of good feedback from professionals.

-Now it's Tuesday morning. Thursday morning is a super crucial day for all of us. It's career day where 50+ companies come in and look at our work and decide if they want to give us jobs/internships. I'm preparing hard and still trying to keep up with other work. Wish me luck!

Anddddd after that novel, pictures!!