2001 when I turned 21

The obvious major event of 2001 was my 21st birthday. Such a momentous occasion. Such a milestone. Such a lovely trip to the hospital.

I was one of the first of my close girlfriends to hit #21 so the traditional 21-run bar crawl was out. Instead we decided to throw a party at my house. I was living with three gals in a two-story duplex at the time and we figured a smallish party was doable. I'll just mention now that the other half of our duplex was occupied by our landlord and his family. I'm not sure what we were thinking OR maybe we just didn't think.

The festivities were kicked off the night before my birthday when a surprise delivery from my parents turned out to be a nice bottle of champagne. Luckily it wasn't too nice because the girls and I decided it would be more fun to shake it up and spray a lot of it off the balcony before drinking the rest. What can I say?? We were 20.

You can't have a 21st birthday party without the right outfit so the big day started out with lunch and some shopping. Lunch included at least two shots of tequila and the search for a party dress involved several stops for shots along the way. Nothing says celebration like doing shots at Chili's in the mall! Of course I was the only one taking the shots because I was the only one who was legal. Sigh. As you can imagine, I was bombed before the party even started. We had alerted our neighbors (aka our landlord) that we were having a "small get-together" and told them to come over if it got even a little too noisy. At some point in the night I did have a conversation with our landlord's wife about the noise but ended up sending Mrs. S back to their house to confirm that we weren't getting evicted on the spot.

After some various embarrassing incidents, mostly involving me tripping, falling or spilling something, I was down for the count. My tolerance level has never been exceptionally high but I like to think I held my own that night... until I couldn't hold it in anymore and the party was over for me. In a now famous line from my permanent position in front of the toilet, I pointed to each of my friends and said "I hate you and you and you two. You're okay because you held my hair." I sure know how to make a memory!

I'd like to say that was the end of it, but unfortunately nine hours later I was still incredibly sick, and my two friends who had shared the unpleasant task of babysitting me through the night decided it was time to take me to the ER. The low point for them was probably having to call my parents and tell them what was going on. But that's what happens when you let, sorry make, your friend do tequila shots at the mall! The ER was a short experience which thankfully did not involve any stomach-pumping. I got some saline solution and some anti-nausea drugs and was sent home a few hours later.

It might not seem like it would be a fond memory of my young-adult life, but there were definitely some memorable moments that we still laugh about to this day!