everyone is 21! (except me)

Well it seems that we are just celebrating birthdays left and right!! 4 friends have already turned 21, and there are about 5 in April. CRAZY!!! It has been a ton of fun celebrating, but equally as exhausting and pricey (dinner, presents, etc.) We celebrated Monica's a couple weeks ago, having a party for her and then going out to dinner for sushi.

Me and the bday girl

Everyone together for Moni's dinner

The following weekend, Brittany rented a limo for her birthday, we had dinner in SF and just went out around the city. It was really fun, and something different to do! We got dropped off at 11, so we went to our friends' St. Patrick's Day party afterward.

Kelly, Kasey, Brittany & I, with Britt's
boyfriend and friends from the East Bay

Rockin' the green for St. Patty's day...
Chelsey, Julie, Kasey, Chelsea

I love my girls.

Perfect food, perfect weekend, and the best company.

I think I have eaten so much the last few days that I am STILL sleepy. I got 8 hours of sleep today, took a half hour nap, had a huge latte, and I am still struggling to study for my midterm.


But it was definitely all worth it. My dad, his girlfriend, my brother, aunt, uncle, and cousin drove up here from SLO, Carlsbad, and San Clemente. My other cousin (who now lives in SF) and I met them at my grandparent's house in Mountain View, about 45 minutes south, close to San Jose. The funny part about it was that my grandparents were not even there...they were with our family in Oregon and it just worked out for us to use their house. Kind of silly! But it was a nice change to avoid the horrendous drive down south. I really felt like cooking this year, so along with the turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry pie, sweet potatoes, and asparagus everyone else made, this was my contribution:

• Bourbon sweet potatoes (with a wonderful brown sugar/pecan/butter/spice topping)
• Georgia's amazing cranberry-orange sauce
• Pecan pie
• Ciabbatta bread stuffing with roasted chestnuts, rosemary, Parmesan, pancetta and other Italian herbs and ingredients
• Brussels sprouts with brown butter and sage

I had a blast cooking and everything turned out wonderfully. We played games, drank wine from SLO, stuffed our bellies, relaxed, told stories, and they even came out to San Francisco Friday night. It was sad when everyone left because that meant I would not see them for awhile since I will be in Idaho for Christmas, and also because I had to face my daunting study guide for anatomy. Gross. But I have a ton of leftovers, and believe it or not, I only have 3 1/2 weeks of school left!! My wanted my brother and I take our Christmas picture, and on the left is the one I picked. Below is the gang without my dad...he was taking the picture and telling us to act like animals! My family is so amazing...I couldn't ask for anyone better, wouldn't change any of them, can't imagine my life without them, and I miss them every day.

Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday.

Not a birthDAY but a birthWEEK

Well my celebration has been over for some time, but it was a good week. On Saturday, I went to a friend's Halloween party that was really fun, and felt like I was kicking off my birthday week. Sunday night, the girls (my roommates) took me for ice cream at Joe's ice cream on Geary. Monday, my actual birthday, I had class all day. This included the gift of being able to dissect a cat (note the sarcasm). Pretty awful, but makes for a good story I guess? and treated myself by ditching my night class! My best friend Elizabeth and our friend who goes to Berkeley took me out for sushi and then for an amazing cookie/ice cream/hot fudge/whip cream delicious sundae at Ghiradelli Square.

My roommates had class so they couldn't come, but I they sang to me and enjoyed the caramel apple pie I asked Kelly to make me! I opened some cards and gifts I received, which is always fun.

Wednesday, which was Halloween,
I went camping at Mt. Tamalpais with Liz and Pat (the two in the picture) & some other friends from Berkeley. We dressed up in our costumes, and it just enjoyed getting away for a night. For the party on Saturday night, Liz and I were both 80's aerobics instructors and Pat was a gay lumberjack (Flannel shirt, a beanie, an ax, and cut off jean shorts-VERY classy.) For the camping trip, Pat and I had the same costumes, but Liz was a runner. Oh yes, and the mustache was just floating around.

Friday, my roommates and our friend Brittany from Walnut Creek took me to dinner at BJ's. Delicious food AND they gave me a free pizookie!!! If you don't know what that is, it is a huge freshly baked cookie (I always get chocolate chip) with ice cream on top. After dinner, we met up with more of our friends in Pacifica for cosmic bowling. It was a great night!


All in all, it was a great time. 20! Seems like a weird kind of in-between age. I think my favorite birthday party I had was a miner themed party. I think I was 7 or 8, and everyone dressed up as miners, I had a ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins that had a miner on the top, we mined for fools gold, and had some other fun party games. After that, I had some other fun themed birthdays but there always seemed to be some stupid fight between some of the girls!