I'll take sunburn over frostbite any day.

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to go to Arizona. The climate alone has always been very attractive to me. So when one of my best friends from high school headed that way for college, the opportunity for a visit became very real.



Ann and I were two of the farthest away from home when our group of friends all went off to college. Although her 28-ish hour drive trumps my 6 hours, neither of us were in the position to head home for the weekend to visit friends and family. For the first four years of our respective college careers, we encountered many of the same challenges. One of the largest (in my opinion, anyway) being that we missed a lot of fun events in and around our hometown.

But that is neither here nor there. An open invitation to visit Ann was extended to all of her friends as she began spending more and more time in Arizona and her appearances in Bolingbrook dwindling. I'm beyond thrilled that six years after her initial move out there, I was finally able to make the trip. It was really my last chance as she is moving back to Chicago at the end of this month. I just spent six years in college working hard and not taking much time out for fun. I owed it to myself to go on vacation. Tempe was calling my name. It was now or never.

I booked a flight and started counting down the days until I finished school, graduated, completed my last day of work, moved back in with my mom and finally boarded the plane to The Grand Canyon State.

The day finally came and it was crazy from the beginning. The morning of my departure there was an enormous storm system going through the Midwest causing a ton of delays at the airport. Before I even left my house, my flight was delayed by 30 minutes. Now, if you know me at all you know that I don't particularly enjoy when things don't go as planned. But I was going on vacation! So I rolled with it. I go to check my bag and the lady at the counter says that I'm going to miss my connecting flight because my original flight was delayed even longer. Okay. So she booked me on another flight that was going to be nonstop and departing earlier. Except for being bumped from A boarding to C boarding, I  didn't mind that at all. I was shuffled to about four different gates and delayed even longer before we finally got our plane. I secured the favorite middle seat and we were on our way. Luckily, there weren't too many children on the flight and I didn't sit next to a talker so I was able to relax and enjoy the ride. We landed and I headed to baggage claim. I had a strange feeling that my bag wasn't going to show up. Probably from a previous conversation with a friend where she speculated what I would do if it didn't and my ever-present paranoia. Lo and behold, the carousel stopped running and my bag was nowhere to be found. I was told it would come in on a later flight and that I'd have to come back that night or the next morning. Naturally, I was a bit stressed out at this point, but my mom told me to find the silver lining and I remembered: oh yeah, I'm in ARIZONA! My vacation was smooth sailing from there.

For the sake of not boring everyone to death with "you had to have been there" descriptions of my trip, I'm just going to outline the rest of the trip. Post some photos. And of course include the list of amazing quotes/inside jokes.

Annie picked me up from the airport, we ate at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant which was wonderful and then took it easy the rest of the day. That night we went to Yogurtland. My first time and it was amazing. Unfortunately, half of Ann's was dropped in her lap, but it made for some laughs anyway.

Absolutely phenomenal. Not my picture, but mine looked similar.

The next day we went to IHOP and the picked up this crazy Jewish lady from the airport.

That night we went to Tempe Marketplace. Had dinner and 1 cent wolfpack shots before going to see Hangover 2.

Jamil's greeting - It's time to get JEWISH!

One cent wolfpack shots!

Three of the people in our group got Mike Tyson face tats by Shane. They were a huge hit everywhere we went. Afterwards I had my first Monkey Pants experience, a fabulous dive bar down the street from Ann's house. At 1AM they have free shirtless shots. Everyone who wants to participate takes their shirt off, gets a free shot and the group takes them together. Some people choose not to put their shirts back on. Most people probably should. Afterwards we went to Andrew's place and were forced to stay up with him until it was time for him to go to the airport (around 6AM I believe).

Fierce with the face tats!

Monkey Pants Van!

Friday was the day of Annie's birthday party at her house. We spent the afternoon resting and shopping for stuff for the party and for the river trip the next day.

Pita Jungle! My first time trying hummus!

The party was crazy and I met a large amount of Annie's friends, played beer pong, failed miserably at playing titties (it's a game similar to beer pong, not one where you flash people or anything like that - I swear!), socialized, drank beergaritas, keg beer, took shots of gin (why?!) and eventually passed out and was so dead to the world that when Jamil was blowing up a large air mattress, I didn't hear a thing. I also missed Lisa face planting on Ann's floor and thinking the closet was the bathroom (it happens to the best of us - she didn't actually relieve herself in there, no worries!).

Birthday girl was gettin' lovin' all night! <3

Gin shots.... yuuck!

Our gorgeous captain!

Saturday we all (miraculously) woke up early and headed to the Salt River to go tubing. The trip is about 4.5 hours if you float from beginning to end. Half of our group got off about halfway down the river and the rest of us kept going. It was an amazing adventure and definitely something I will remember for the rest of my life. Speaking of my life, it was almost lost when we hit some rapids. I apparently was not balancing myself well enough and got flipped out of my tube. Luckily there was an empty one next to mine so with the help of the people tied up next to me and my decent upper body strength (thank you coolers full of ice and/or water that I had to carry to various sporting events), I was able to hold myself up and was only assaulted by a handful of shallow rocks before the rapids were over and I could climb back in the tube. I won't lie, I was scared when it happened and my adrenaline was racing for a while. But it's all part of the experience, right? Every time we hit any rapids after that, I was extremely alert and usually found holding onto Annie until it was all clear.

Don't look! It's embarrassing for everyone!

The best part of the river trip were all of the amazing and ridiculous quotes and inside jokes that we came off of the river with. The worst part was the sunburn that half of us dealt with for the rest of the weekend. I only got really burnt on my left shoulder which healed and then started peeling. I now look like I have leprosy, but it's fine. I think it's a good look for me.

After some of our party left, we had a plethora of extra tubes - might as well have fun with them!

Ready to go!

Waiting to get on the bus

Ladies at Fat Tuesdays

Saturday night after resting from the river we all went out to the bars in Tempe to celebrate Annie's birthday in style. We hit up a couple of places and ended the night at The Big Bang, a fabulous piano bar where Annie got her own personalized, highly inappropriate, phenomenal birthday song. It was a great night and I'm happy that I finally got to experience the nightlife that I'd heard so much about!

Bolingbrook in Arizona!

Beautiful birthday princess!

John, Chel and I

Sunday was a recovery morning followed by a pool party/bbq. The pool party was a good time with a fabulous pineapple gin bucket, more beer pong and of course more games of titties. Some people in our group hit up the dollar store before coming and so there was an overload of novelty items such as lit-up rings, pineapple and flamingo cups, mini trophies and "winner" medals. We also encountered a massive penis replica that was thrown around at the party. It earned the nickname "Thor". After the pool party we headed home for a short period of time, then when everyone caught a second wind, we went to Monkey Pants again for Sombrero Sunday.

Dollar store ladies

They pretty much ran the titties table all night

Sombrero Sunday!

Monday was my last full day in Arizona. We went to Ted's Hot Dogs, said goodbye to the California visitors and went back to hang out at the house. That night we went to Oregano's for pizza and then I returned to pack and get everything together to head back to Chicago the next morning.

All in all the trip was phenomenal and I absolutely did not want to leave. If Annie weren't moving back, I'd have looked into jobs out there and seriously entertained moving to Arizona. Now is the time for the list of inside jokes. Sorry, not sorry if you don't understand them! =]

Irregardless
Don't look! It's embarrassing for everyone!
It's not 9 in the morning?
My tubing casualty
Slap the bag
Get some! I'm TRYING!
I'm a dainty flower
Snapple facts
I had 5 pieces
Look alive, partner!
You just got Bolingbrooked!
We're like lobsters waiting for people to come judge us
1 cent wolfpack shots
Universe. What a bizarre thought
You'd be hotter with your clothes off!
#nogameplan
Butt's up!
Sorry, not sorry
NBD

And last, but not least, spending part of Sunday and part of Monday being punched in the stomach by my lovely friends who were trying to get me to throw up. Le sigh.