Top 5 Nicest Things People Did For Me... #3

As I near my 30th birthday, #3 nicest thing someone did for me was for my 21st birthday. I didn't really drink before I turned 21 (I guess growing up around all that beer desensitized me), and with my birthday being so close to Christmas, the campus was pretty deserted when it came time for my birthday. Gretchen, one of my Chem E classmates, insisted that we do something on my 21st birthday. So around midnight on December 22, after exams were all done, she and I bundled up (it's really cold in Wisconsin in the winter) and headed down to the Nitty Gritty, which is known on campus as the Birthday Bar (they sing a very annoying birthday song to everyone who celebrates a bd there... "Happy Birthday... Happy Birthday... Happy happy birthday to you!" over and over again). There I had my very first legal beer... A Leinenkugel's Red (I still drink this beer). I also had some fruity shot, the name I can't remember, some other shot, and I was required to do a "muffdiver" which was a shot of something buried in whip cream and I had to down it without using my hands.

This was about as much alcohol as I had ever had in my life. I called it a night after shot #3,
and was OK enough to board the 2 AM free bus back to my dorm (appropriately named the "drunk bus"). Gretchen took a cab back. Back in my room, I looked in the mirror and saw the most bloodshot eyes ever! But all in all, I did surprisingly OK and I don't remember stumbling around or anything.

But to this day, I still remember how Gretchen insisted I go out on my 21st birthday, even though she was the only person I knew who was still around campus. She even didn't let me pay for anything, saying I shouldn't be buying on my birthday. Probably one of the most lamest 21st birthdays by most standards, but one that really sticks out in my mind!