Hot Mix 5 house party!

With softball during the week, I've noticed how time flies so quickly!  My birthday is coming up this weekend and I don't have any plans!  It falls on Father's Day Sunday, so I wasn't planning on doing anything special but spending it with family.  The past couple of years, my birthday was surrounded by so much sadness.  It wasn't by choice, trust me!  Sometimes I felt guilty to celebrate because of the things that were happening around me. 
But that's life.  You can't help what goes on.  Now more than ever, with the incidents involving Orlando in general (shooting of The Voice's singer Christina Grimmie; the mass shooting of Pulse Nightclub; 2 year old toddler at Walt Disney Resort), it's difficult to celebrate again.  I rather be with my friends and family who I love dearly and reflect on the fact I made it to another year of life.
If there's anything that these incidents have proven to me is tomorrow is never guaranteed.
With that in mind, I would like to reflect on last weekend.  I was going to celebrate a friend's birthday at the Hot Mix 5 house party at Mc Cormick Place.  I knew it was an all day event, so I figured I'll get some chores done first.  It was a very HOT Saturday, which is why I chose to preserve my energy for the evening.  I snuck in a workout, showered up, when one of my friends suggested to meet up at the Wells Street Art Festival in Old Town.  She initially said to meet around 4pm.  Seemed doable to me.  Off I went to Old Town!



My kind of cats!  lol

The Wells Street Art Festival is located on Wells between North Avenue and Division.  It's one of the most popular neighborhood festivals Chicago has to offer.  With over 200 artists displaying their work of eclectic art, you'll be sure to find some eye-catching handiwork.  I always have a good time, so I didn't want to miss this opportunity to go with my friends.  But once I arrived, the time changed to meeting up around 5pm.  I still had some time to kill before heading to the birthday celebration, so I was fine with the time change.  But then it changed again.  I knew this was too good to be true.  I walked around and checked out the band at O'Brien's while sipping on white wine.  BIG MISTAKE.
It was brutally HOT, and the sun would not give.  The temperature reached 95 degrees that day.  I had another glass of wine and that's when it hit me.  I felt dizzy.  I knew I had to eat something before I headed to the birthday party.  The first food vendor I could find had a big hot pretzel.  I quickly bought it and found a spot to eat when I noticed a woman drop her drink.  She fainted while sitting down against a wall.  Her boyfriend yelled out, "Someone call 911!"  It was terrifying.  Lucky she came too right away and didn't know what had happened to her.  It scared a lot of people around us, but it also reminded us how not to take the heat unlikely.  Once my friends arrived I had to go.  Go figure.  I took the time to talk to them for a bit before I saw how late it was getting.  I couldn't stay any longer.
I cabbed it to Mc Cormick Place and found my friends.  This was a massive event.  Over 60 different djs/ singers on 6 stages.  It had started from 12pm and was going to end at midnight!  I'm glad I arrived late because I was worn out with the heat already.  Me and my friends danced the rest of the night non stop!  Chicago's history with house music stems back to the late 70s.  In the early 1980s, Chicago radio jocks The Hot Mix 5, and club DJs Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles played various styles of dance music, including older disco records.  I've always loved dance music growing up so it was refreshing to be around a crowd that appreciated this influential sound.  It brought back so many memories for me and my friends.  

Me and the birthday girl!  She's a Gemini too...

Julian Jumpin Perez of B96

Imagine my horror the next day when I woke up to the news of the Orlando shootings of Pulse nightclub.  These people were doing the same thing as me and my friends the night before, just enjoying themselves.  I cannot understand the darkness that surrounds a person like this.  My heart breaks for so many senseless terrorism acts surrounding our daily lives.  It's not a world I recognize anymore.  Peace within each other; as well as other nations should be enforced constantly.  We have only one planet to care for.  We need to take care of everyone in it.