Fish and Friends

A couple weekends ago my aunt and uncle were visiting my parents from Kansas City. Of course they all had to come visit me and my roommate the day after her 20th birthday party. So we scrubbed out the vomit stained carpet and shoveled away all the empties as my family was riding up the elevator. As I greeted them at the door with one eye open my mother asked me if I was interested in joining them for lunch at the Eleven City Diner. After they snooped around my tired apartment I changed out o my wrinkled party dress and herded everyone out the door. It seemed like years before we got to our sticky booth where we ordered lunch. Choking down a over cooked burger I was really trying hard to hide my hangover as my uncle was engaging in a story about his brother’s homosexual experience during his colonoscopy. Then my mother did what she always does best and interrupts the story with an announcement that she invested in a Shedd Aquarium family pass. My mother has bought a family pass for the Art Institute as well so she can have somewhat control over what my family does over the holidays. In the mean time, she lets me borrow the passes to use with my friends. Right away when she told me about the aquarium pass I thought of my roommate and my boyfriend. My roommate and I have been talking about going to the aquarium for a long time but it’s always been too expensive. And my boyfriend and I are always looking for something to do in the city together. Once I got home from lunch I consulted the troops are we all got geared up for an adventure to see the fish.
It was a warm day and all the left over snow started to melt into tiny little streams down the sidewalk. My Diesel shoes were not being so appreciative so I demanded a piggyback ride to get through the soiled tundra. Climbing millions of steep stairs all the way up to the revolving doors all of us were pretty excited. It’s been years since I've been to the aquarium so I was especially pumped.
Because I had the pass we were able to skip the long hot and sweaty line and go right in like celebrities. We started in like flies on flypaper being mesmerized by the giant tank in the entrance. A deep-sea diver was feeding all the animals inside the tank and all of us were imagining a life like that. Just getting paid to swim around in a giant fish tank with no worries but feeding fish.
After that we traveled though the maze of smaller tanks that held a variety of strange and unusual fish. We all felt about ten years younger with our over flowing excitement.
All of us found our way to the dolphin show and sat down on the uncomfortable steps to watch. We were greeted right away by helium inspired host who had an ibis of useless knowledge to share with the crowd of 300. My roommate and I made a point to mock every other word that came out of her mouth just like we would have done something similar in middle school. As Enya blared though the speakers the dolphins did their song and dance and the uninspiring show was over.
All of us declared that everyone was starving we decided to get the hell out of the aquarium and find some sandwiches to quench our hunger.
Looking back on it, I enjoyed my experience at the aquarium very much since I barely remember it from when I was a kid. I’m glad I got to indulge in the fun activities as well as spend time with people I care about. Even though it cramped my style for a little while when I was there, I'm thankful I went in the end.