21st birthday buzzkill

When I saw this link-up, I knew I had to join in because my 21st birthday was super memorable -- for all involved and not necessarily for the typical reasons.

I was living in Des Moines for the summer while I did an internship.  Several of my friends came to town to help my celebrate the big milestone. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant downtown, and then we started making the rounds at the bars in the area.

  

 

I did a shot at each bar we went to ...

... but after all the heavy food, I was not feeling any of it.  

We decided to take the party elsewhere, so we headed back to our cars.  When we got there, we found a guy peeing on the tire of my friend's car.  He saw us approaching and didn't do anything to hide his ... uh ... man parts.  In fact, he turned around to face us while still peeing.  He was beyond drunk.  It was almost like he'd had the eight shots instead of me. 

On our way back to my summer apartment, we stopped at a grocery store for supplies.  This sounds like the tamest part of the night, but it ended up being the craziest.

My best friend and I were the first ones ready to go.  We were in the checkout line, eager to pay for our booze and snacks.  The guy in front of us was eager for something else.  I wasn't really sure what was going on at first.  He was talking to the cashier and waving his hand.  I realized he had a pillowcase in his hand.  He said he had a gun inside the pillowcase. 

Yep.

He was robbing the place.

Or at least attempting to.

I don't know when my friend and I picked up on what was going on, but it was almost instantaneously. We both started backing away slowly.  I didn't know where the rest of my friends were, but I decided it was best if I try and get outside.  My friend and I had the same thought, and we made our way to the front door while the cashier kept him talking.

On our way out, a few big guys entered the store and asked what was going on, when we told them there was an attempted robbery in progress, they decided they could take the guy. And they did. As the guy tried to flee the store, the two big guys tackled him and held him down until police got there.  My friend had called the police and they were there pretty quickly.

My other friends started emerging from the back.  Turns out a store employee had ushered them all to the back of the store and to a bathroom so they would be safe.  We finished paying for our goods and headed to my apartment.  We drank a little, but the mood was effectively killed.  None of us were feeling very celebratory, and I was stone cold sober on my 21st birthday.

Don't feel too bad for me.  I more than made up for this on my 30th birthday.  I think it's a good thing I didn't recap that one on the blog.  Yikes.