All Things Chill

Yesterday was my birthday. Birthdays aren’t that important to me, but the job gave me the day off so I decided to do something special. Like what?

LIKE OMG GOING BANANAS @ THE AQUARIUM.

Yuppers. I went to the Shedd Aquarium on my birthday. I didn’t go out ’cause the Dogglounge Meetup is still kicking my ass. No more goin’ out (until this weekend). I’m still trying to get my sleep schedule back on track. I just wanted to have a relaxing and interesting afternoon. But I digress… more fishy fun talk. Click below to read more. Slideshow shortcut here.

J and I shared a sammich and some soup @ Potbelly’s before we left. The sammich was delicious, but the soup definitely needed more flavor. The decor was nice too, the bathrooms were particularly handsome. Chicago’s UIC medical district is really starting to show its own personality. J said (and I agreed), “In 10 years, it’ll receive the same acclaim as Bucktown.” If you’re looking to invest in real estate, the area down Taylor Ave. (between Damen and Halsted) would yield a pretty good return if development continues.

The weather was beautiful! We parked, walked and I looked @ little children with scorn as they ate their ice cream sammiches with total disregard of daily fat content and calories. Damn. Sucks to be old. When we got to the Aquarium, the crowds were manageable and we only waited in line for a few minutes. Then… we found where the awesomeness is kept.

The dolphin show was short to say the least. Maybe it’s because I had my eyes glued to my camera’s lcd screen to somehow get a decent picture of them flying in the air. But man, it was AWESOME. Well worth the trip. The show cost about as much as 2 movie tickets (w/ popcorn) are priced now. Think about that the next time you head to the theatres.

I’m gonna sound like a third grader from this point on… so please bear with me.

The jellyfish were cool. The penguins were really cool too. The ugly fish were ugly. The Illinois exhibit was boring. I don’t like snakes. ANNDDDD….The dolphins were the coolest! They’re so streamlined and they just seem perfect. That and stingrays. They’re the Apple(tm) of the water world. If I had to ‘top 5′ my favorite animals it’d go like this:

1. The Phoenix
2. Dolphins
3. Giraffes
4. Stingrays
5. Japanese fire-belly lizards (R.I.P. Phoenix)
6. Pandas

I added a sixth option just in case you want to invoke the ‘only real animals’ rule. I took a million pictures. It was crazy. The only problem was that the staff frowned on using any flash in the general area so 99% of them sucked. Oh well. Since I would advise on NOT viewing these pics on an individual basis, here’s the slideshow.

Couple that with a delicious meal in Chinatown, and you got yourself a wonderful birthday.

Thanks to everyone that text-ed, phone-ed, email-ed, testimonial-ed, chatroom-ed, letter-ed me on my day of birth. If you’re reading this cursing yourself that you forgot, no worries. Like I said before, I don’t really care.

Just make sure you send cash next year.

~Spec

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2005 at 5:53 am and is filed under Pics, Streaming Conciousness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.