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.

Kevin J. Moore

My good friend, Kevin Moore has moved up to Chicago with his wife. He just graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in engineering. It is great to have some friends in Chicago who are from back "home" in Tulsa, where I grew up. I look forward to showing Kevin and his wife some of the cool places I've found during my past five years living in Chicago.

Speaking of Kevin.... One of the most fascinating things about him -- Not counting the time when I was teaching him to drive a stick-shift transmission and he drove my Jeep over the edge of a steep embankment and on to my landlord's newly-sodded lawn -- was when he droppped everything he was doing to help me out in a tough situation.

I had decided to start my own business. My business took off so fast that I had way more accounts than I could handle. I was talking to Kevin on the phone and I told him how stressed out I was because I didn't see how I could single-handedly handle all the different accounts at once. The next day he was on a plane to Chicago to help. This is just one example of the kind of person Kevin is -- a true friend. That's something I'll never forget.