made it!

   Well it finally happened. The day has come and gone. The 24 hour period I have awaited for nearly 1548 days came and went faster than I could have ever imagined.

   And it was AWESOME!

   When I found out my boyfriend had to work his typical 13 ½ hour Tuesday shift, I was pretty bummed. I told myself it’d work out, though, because it’d give me some time to finish my online homework and talk to my family on the phone. I was scheduled to work until 5:00 anyway, and his shift gets done at 7:30, so it wasn’t going to be too horrible.

   UNTIL I was surprised with the news that he also had an intramural volleyball game starting at 8:00 and if he won that one, there’d be another one right after that wouldn’t be over until 10:30.

   Um….excuse me, but isn’t everyone aware that it’s my 21^st BIRTHDAY?! I personally don’t give a flying raccoon if it’s “the finals” for intramural volleyball. I was so irritated. As disappointed as I was, I knew he didn’t plan all of that intentionally. He couldn’t exactly ask for his shift off because they’re short-staffed for his position, and he couldn’t just bail on his team. It didn’t help that his team consisted of mutual friends of ours, otherwise I probably would’ve recommended he grow a pair and ditch them.

   The night before my birthday, I was feeling pretty down. I explained to him how I felt about it and I could tell he felt bad. We ended up going to a late showing of The Hunger Games which I’d wanted to see all weekend, so it kind of lessened my self-pity. (It was awesome, by the way.)

   

   Tuesday morning I woke up to a sunny day and got to cross off the last day of my “Days ‘til 21” countdown. Woot! Unfortunately I had to go to class…all three of them. But my wonderful roommate offered to take me to my favorite coffee shop for my favorite coffee beverage, so it wasn’t so bad heading to school. (If you have never had the pleasure of enjoying a skinny hazelnut white mocha, you ain’t lived). Before we left the house, she also presented me with a beautiful red rose with a little piece of paper attached to it that said “Call (this number) at 3:00”. I was extremely surprised and excited!

   School was…school. It’s so weird having a birthday during the week in college, no one really cares. But 2:00 finally rolled around and I was free! I basically skipped to my car, enjoying the sun and thinking about the rose and its instructions. Unfortunately I am a Grade A Procrastinator and waited literally until the last minute to renew my driver’s license, so I had to go sit at the DMV for basically an hour and a half. Good times! Met a girl who I could’ve sworn was 13 until she told me she has a 4 year old son, overheard an elderly couple discuss President Bush (?), and listened to an overly-clothed woman behind me mouth-breathe. On the bright side, my license is 185% better than my old one!

   It was past 3:00 when I finally got out of there but I called the mystery number anyway. It turned out to be my roommate! (Not much of a surprise…I have her number memorized and recognized it when I saw it) But I played along and she told me to rush home for the next clue!

   I was presented with another beautiful rose with another little note and phone number. This one led me to my roommate’s boyfriend who lived a couple blocks away. I hopped in my car after grabbing a handful of Goldfish crackers and was off on an adventure!

   I literally drove all around town that day, every possible direction then back again. Each phone number led to a good friend of mine and it was so great to get to see all of them on my birthday! It amazed me how many people were involved. I think the final count was 8 roses! I felt like royalty or a celebrity or something as I drove around with the windows down, blasting my favorite tunes, with a pile of gorgeous roses on the seat next to me.

   The last rose had a slightly different message: “meet at Old Chicago at 5:30”. It was about 5:00 already so I rushed home to change into something a little more party-esque. My roommate and I rode there together and I was surprised to find a few of my closest friends awaiting me! And my boyfriend! He’d somehow managed to get off work a few hours early and had organized the entire scavenger hunt for me. I was so happy I could have cried!

   I ordered my first alcoholic beverage (draft Blue Moon with an orange wedge!) and enjoyed it thoroughly. I was peer pressured into getting up on the bar to do a shot while the whole restaurant sang Happy Birthday to me, it was hilarious! Oh, Montana…

   

   The boyfriend still had to play in his volleyball game so we went back to my house where we enjoyed a piece (or two) of the delicious peanut butter cup cheesecake my roommate MADE FROM SCRATCH for me before he headed to his game. Seriously the most delicious thing I have ever put into my mouth.

   After his game(s), it was off to “the bars”! It was pretty late already, (almost 11:00), so we didn’t make much of a run. But it was still a blast! Got a few free shots, a free hat, and had a darn good time! There were a few other groups out celebrating 21^sts as well so the atmosphere was pretty entertaining.

   All in all, my birthday ended up being more memorable than I could’ve ever imagined. I was so touched that so many people were willing to participate in the scavenger hunt to make my day extra-special! And especially impressed that my boyfriend managed to go through all of that trouble just for me. Now I can’t wait to go enjoy a tasty beverage with them all!

the last day

   Today is the last day of my life that I am…illegal?

   Tomorrow I will be able to buy alcohol. Big woop, right? I mean obviously it’s kind of a big deal considering it’s the last restriction on my life. "Big woop" because at least now I’ll have the option of ordering something when everyone else at my table does instead of sipping on my lemonade.

   To be honest, it’s kind of freaking me out! I feel like just a year ago my friends and I were saying,

   “OMG we’re going to college! Too bad we still have three years to wait until we can legally drink!”

…and now those three years are gone. Now what? What do I have to look forward to? First, it was looking forward to being sixteen so my parents would finally let me date.

Please note the braces and "perm"

   Then it was 18 because I was sure my life would drastically improve once becoming an “adult”. Nothing changed, really.

   Next came 20 because it was just so cool to have lived two decades. I remember thinking 20 was so old and mature.

   Then obviously came the countdown to 21, a countdown that basically started once my boyfriend turned of-age. I felt like that year and a half was dragging by but now it has finally come to an end. 

   Instead of being sad, which is what I feel like this post is aiming to be, I am PUMPED! No more hiding in the car outside of the Cats Paw! No more "sorry, I can't go there, I'm not 21"! No more "...IIII'm gonna need to see your ID, miss"! Although this part of my life is coming to an end, I foresee many more adventures. And I guess I'll just countdown to 30 now! Three decades of life is definitely something worth celebrating.

curses upon you!

Soooo….

   I’m definitely supposed to be writing my law paper right now, the one I keep ranting to anyone and everyone about the unfairness of, but in the procrastinating section of my brain I have convinced myself that maybe typing out a blog post will “warm my fingers up” so typing my paper will be a breeze. Makes sense, right?

   About this paper, though…(prepare for rant).

   My law professor assigns two papers worth a whole bunch of points, one of ‘em was due last month and he told us we couldn’t start on the second one until we got the first one back. Well weeks went by without getting our graded paper back which only delayed the possibility of starting the second one. It just so happens he handed them back the WEEK BEFORE SPRING BREAK and declared the second one due THE DAY WE GET BACK FROM SPRING BREAK. So I doubt I have to explain this part, but for you slower folk out there that means I have to write this paper DURING SPRING BREAK. Hooray for life! I was thinking maybe that wouldn’t be so horrific, until he said these exact words, “Oh, and don’t plan on being able to ask me any questions about the paper over break because I’m going to be laying on the beach, trying to escape the world.”

   Uhhh………………………………………………….

   …WELL I WAN’T TO ESCAPE THE WORLD, TOO!!!!

   Maybe I want to be able to not reply to any emails! Maybe I want to lay on a beach! (A pretend one, I guess). Maybe I don’t want to spend my time over my supposed “break” writing a 10 page paper about the most boring material ever conceived!!! But no, instead I sit here trying to get my brain out of its vegetative state and back into school-mode to write this paper. Meanwhile, my professor is probably basking in the warmth of the sun with a margarita in hand on some tropical beach. Good thing I don’t have high blood pressure.

   

   Anyway, to cheer myself up as well as you all since I’m sure you now feel horrible for me and the unfairness of my life, I will allow you the pleasure of these classy pictures:

It's a thug life.

And now for what I'm sure will be everyone's personal fave: 

I am not proud of the fact that my face can do this.

evening activities

   It’s spring break! This means two things: 1) I’m home! And 2) only six weeks left of school when I go back! Exciting.

   Yesterday, my parents abandoned me and my sister at home for bigger and better Monday night activities, so it was up to us to entertain ourselves. We did the following:

1. Rented Water for Elephants and The Help from the RedBox at Walgreens. I can’t believe they uppped the price on us! $1.20 now? Come ooon.

2. Watched Water for Elephants. It’s rather nice watching a movie downstairs without anyone caring if we talk during it. Usually my dad pauses the show every seven minutes so us women can discuss the current events taking place. Last night, we paused it any time and for any duration we desired or simply talked over it. T’was the life.

3. For all of you who have actually seen Water for Elephants, you know that part when August comes running at Marlena with the bull hook?! Sibling and I lost our shit. We were screaming and yelling and pointing and flailing due to the intensity, which only made our 6 year old black lab run around the house howling and barking at our sudden hysteria. It was quite the scene, I can only imagine.

4. Sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. Actually, I sang it whereas the sibling merely attempted. This was her version:

Take me out the ball game! Take me out to the game!

Buy me some peanuts and Apple Jacks,

I don’t care if I ever go back!

‘Cuz it’s woop, woop, woop for the ball game,

Buy me some peanuts and Apple Jacks,

I don’t care if I EVER GO BACK!!!

Yeah…

5. Made brownies. My home-home has an unlimited supply of Betty Crocker’s fudge brownie mix so we couldn’t help but whip up a batch. On a side note, I can’t believe they take a half hour to bake! I don’t know about you, but when I cave in to making a boxed dessert, it’s because I want it NOW. Not in a half hour, but now.

6. Got scared by the UPS man. Seriously, you know you live in the middle of nowhere when the UPS dude shows up at your door at 9:00pm. Poor guy. Should’ve given him a brownie but they weren’t done yet. See? Trouble for all.

   So all in all, a fairly eventful Monday evening. And probably pretty unique. Ah, home.