As a senior, you’d expect I’d been a part of many 21st birthday milestones. But on Thursday night, as I sat toasting a birthday shot to one of my best friends, I realized this was the first time I was going to participate in the whole extravaganza, starting with the pregame and lasting until the 2 a.m. stumble out of the bar. I would be there for her first journey down College Ave to her bar of choice, her first ID flash, her first drink (at a bar, of course). I was watching my little girl grow up.
I first realized my role as the older, wiser friend when she asked me for the low-down on which bar she should make her first. A Thursday night? I mused. My first choice is always Café 210, with its amazing Iced Tea special until midnight. But since we wouldn’t be getting there until specials were over, I tossed in another few options. Lion’s Den is always good on Thursday nights and provides a good combo of outdoor seating and dancing. Or I chose The Phryst for my 21st birthday extravaganza, mainly because they don’t have any restrictions on what the newly-of-age can drink. But she eventually decided on The Saloon, with the goal in mind of downing a Monkey Boy. This amazing creation is essentially a pizza-parlor-type, family sized pitcher filled with any combination of liquid imaginable, guaranteed to knock out even the best of drinkers, let alone my 115 pound newbie.
The rest of the night gets a bit fuzzy, as she and I ended up challenging the Monkey Boy together. I remember a creepy cover band that made a few comments about getting laid that night, an awkward couple that, despite the overpowering music, attempted a first date conversation across a table, and the look of absolute bliss that spread across my friend’s face every time she looked down at the gigantic black X’s drawn across her hands. But at the end of the night, as I dropped her off, crown jilted to the side as she stumbled up the stairs, I felt like a proud mother dropping her kid off on the first day of school. She was a big girl now.
