DavidGervino.com

Birthday

My birthday was last weekend.  It was, by far, the best birthday I've ever had. 

On most birthdays, I either hang out with my friends, or I go and visit my family.  The reason I enjoyed this birthday so much is because I was able to spend it with my brothers AND several of my closest friends. 

My brothers both flew in last Friday night and stayed with me over the weekend.  We met up with several of my friends on Friday night and went to a Schaumburg Flyers game.  The weather was awesome and we had great seats, in the first 3 rows, along the 3rd base line.  One of the greatest things about going to a Flyers game is that even the best seats only cost about ten bucks.

After the game, we went to Wildfire for dinner.  It is one of my favorite restaurants.  I've eaten there several times, and I don't think I've ever had a bad experience there.

On Saturday, we took a Metra train  into Chicago.  We spent the afternoon at Navy Pier, listening to some of the bands there and watching the Air & Water show.  Afterward, we went to see The Lion King.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  The show was incredible! The tickets were more expensive than any tickets I've ever purchased for anything, but the show was well worth it.  After the play my good friend, Adrien picked us up and took us to a pizza place in Lincoln Park.  We hung out there for a while and then took the train back to my place.

So we did a lot of fun things for my birthday.  But far more important than all the cool places we went and activities we participated in was a lesson that I was reminded of.  I had painstakingly planned almost every minute of our weekend.  My plan was to make the most of the few days I had together with my brothers by filling every minute with some type of fun activity.  Don't get me wrong -- all the cool stuff we did and places we went were awesome -- I wouldn't change any of that.  But some of the best time we spent together was when we were just sitting on the train or riding around in the car with Adrien. 

The bottom line is that it all comes down to spending quality time with quality people.  As corny as it may sound, there is nothing better than spending time with people who care about you.  We could've just as well have been doing pretty much anything and it probably still would've been fun because we were hanging out together.

Go Greyhound

For the first time in my life, I took a Greyhound Bus on a trip to Ohio this past weekend.  I've taken trips on charter buses before but this was the first time I actually bought a ticket to sit on a bus full of random people I had never before met.  I figured it would be quite an interesting experience.  It was.

I should probably point out that I decided to book my trip on Greyhound as a last resort.  I couldn't find any flights available within the times I needed to travel.  And being that I already get up at 5 a.m. on Friday and work at least a ten-hour shift, the last thing I want to do after work is drive for five and a half hours.  I've fallen asleep driving once before; it's not a fun thing to do.

Okay, so back to my trip....  Roe Conn, my all-time favorite radio personality, stated that "Most people riding on Greyhound are either running from their wedding or running from 'The Law'." I was in the bus terminal for no more than 5 minutes when I found Roe's assessment to be accurate.  The guy in front of me in line started making small talk so I asked him where he was going.  His response:  "Well, it's really great.  I've been on the run for a while now but the State of Florida just told my attorney that they'll reduce my sentence from 30 years to 5 years if I go turn myself in.  So I'm on my way to do that now."

Was he kidding!? No.  He wasn't.  So I half-heartedly congratulated him, gave a fake smile and silently told myself I would do everything in my power to make sure I was sitting as far away from this guy as possible once we got on the bus.  In order to keep my distance I sat in the back of the bus, by the bathroom.  "Great," I think to myself.  "If this fugitive guy goes crazy and starts running around with a knife or something, I'll just lock myself in the bathroom."  Whatever comfort sitting close to the bathroom gave me, it was quickly forgotten and over-powered by the stench of the bathroom.  This leads me to Dave's Travel Tip #234:  Always bring Axe Deodorant in your carry-on bag.  Not only is it a great deodorant to put on your body, it also doubles as an air-freshener when sitting next to a wreaking lavatory.

I could go on and on about my Greyhound experience.  The above paragraphs only cover the first few minutes of the trip, before we even left the terminal.  But in all fairness, the rest of my Greyhound experience was rather uneventful (Compared to what I've already mentioned).  In a future post, I'll be sure to fill you in on what I learned regarding how Greyhound pays it's drivers and how this results in poor service to their customers.