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!