ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY: CHICAGO & SHEDD AQUARIUM

This past Friday, I spent an amazing day playing hooky with my boyfriend. It wasn't our usual day of hooky, consisting of watching Storage Wars in his fraternity common room and eating leftover pizza from the night before. This day was a little more special.

As it was our one year anniversary, we decided to combine the two things my boyfriend loves the most, fish and me. By fish, I mean Big Fish. We aren't talking Nemo or Flounder, here. We are talking dolphins, sharks, jelly fish; things that glow, suck, bite, squirm or host any sort of deadly mechanism. The joining of these previous fish and any other peculiarly shaped species that lives more than 50 feet under the ocean's surface creates, what I like to call, Ben's Happy Place. We incorporated these two loves into one long, but eventful day of visiting the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, where Ben's 'training' of watching Oceans over six times and gluing himself to Animal Planet were finally put to the test, and dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. 

The day was filled with an aquatic show, adorable beluga wales, terrifying sharks, illuminated jellyfish and Ben losing a very important bet, resulting in his donning a penguin suit and 'waddling' around with hoards of small children. The dinner was a fantastic end to the date and the overall day was a great reflection of our relationship.

Although, I did miss the usual aroma of stale beer wafting through the air on our 'typical hooky dates', I would say a trip to Ben's Happy Place and a nice restaurant pulls trump.

You have been an amazing support system, friend and boyfriend. Thank you for a wonderful year!