Amy's Blog

Most people that know me know that I LOVE birthdays, my own and others.  I love mine so much that I normally plan to celebrate for an entire month.

I kicked off the month in usual fashion – with a happy hour for my friends and coworkers at Blanc Burgers and Bottles.  Every year I start the month off with a happy hour where I ask guests to come and enjoy food and drink specials while they drop off school supplies for a local domestic violence shelter that I volunteer at.  I’m so lucky that my birthday falls so close to back to school time!

The evening was a success for several reasons…one, we collected a ton of stuff for the kids at the shelter, two, I got to see several people that I hadn’t seen in a while, and got to help people make connections with each other. I also got to connect with the staff at an establishment in my new neighborhood.  Lastly,and most importantly, I discovered the greatness that is Crispin!

I’m not a beer drinker, and that includes any malt beverage, including cider.  My friends were at the bar during happy hour drinking a large beer glass full of ice and a light amber colored beverage.  I asked what it was and they said, hard cider.  I said, ick, no thanks.  All I could think of is that disgusting wood chuck stuff.  Well, they insisted that I try a sip of the Crispin, and after much prodding, I did.  How awesomely refreshing! Crispin is a hard apple cider made from freshly pressed and fermented apples, with no malt liquor added.  It is almost like an apple sparkling wine, and not sweet at all.  The makers of Crispin suggest that it is best served over ice.  I was in heaven.

The next night, I happened to find Crispin at the happy hour spot that I was at and decided that I was hooked.  I will spend my entire birthday month getting my hands on as much Crispin as possible.

I try to take a trip to celebrate my birthday every year as a part of the birthday month celebration. This year, I had been scouting out for things to do that were affordable and that wouldn’t keep me away from work for too long.

Everyone knows that I have many boyfriends, Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum, Bill Rancic, etc, etc. Well this time, I was scouting for my British love, Chris Martin. Coldplay didn’t put a Kansas City date on the Mylo Xyloto tour, so I thought about trying to travel to see them on the tour as a part of my birthday month festivities.

They were playing at the United Center in Chicago on August 7th and 8th, and in Minneapolis/St. Paul on August 10th. I thought that driving up to MN would be cheaper than flying into Chicago, especially if I could find someone that wanted to make the trip with me. So, thank goodness for Facebook, I posted, “who wants to go and see Coldplay” and right away I got a response from a friend in Lawrence. She said that she would love to go and I sent her all of the details. No dice she said, as she would be in Chicago on business that entire week.

WHAT??? I was ecstatic! I explained that they would be playing two shows that week and it would be perfect. She responded with an invite for me to share her free hotel room. UMMM…FREE hotel room, downtown Chicago, and my boyfriend Chris Martin??? Does the birthday month schedule GET any better? On top of it all my friend also had another friend that would be meeting us in the city and we just happen to share the same birthday. BONUS!

So, it was settled, I booked my travel and was headed to Chi! The only bad news was that tickets to see my boyfriend were astronomically expensive. I mean, I couldn’t drool over Chris Martin in nosebleeds, right?? I didn’t worry about it, I would figure this out. Where there is a will, there is a way!