Uh oh....guess who's 21? That would be me.

It's not as amazing and fun as one would think.

OK I LIED!! Yes, it totally rocks.

Here are the events of my birthday week.

saturday 9/ 27: My mom picked me up and took me to Garland for this big family dinner at Taste of Italy. ( She had to come get me because the engine on the contour died and most likely will not be resurrected.) Good riddance. Anyway, dinner was yummy and it was really nice seeing my extended family getting along. We did champagne toasts at the house and ate cake and I mostly played with Ian and baby Mikey.

monday 9/29: This day was crazy as I realized my intro to psych measures test was the next day and I had no idea what the hell was going on in that class. Everyone asked me what I wanted to do for big 21 and all I could think about was the stress of having no car, the test, and every other little thing I could think of to bitch about. All the sudden at work that night, I realized that, I only turn 21 once....and there will always be other tests. I called the gang and had half priced appetizers at applebee's, got stuffed, and then the legal guys took me out to Cool Bean's at midnight. My first legal drink was of course, a long island iced tea...my poison of choice. I went back to Jimmy's and Trevor made me another one, much stronger. I drank it, made Jimmy drive me home, promptly ralphed in the porcelain buddha, and fell asleep on my floor. I still woke up at 9 though.

9/30: skipped geology to study for intro to psych measures in the sci tech library....a secret I'll share with my nerd friends. If you need to study in complete silence on campus, the 2 best places are: the 3rd floor of Willis...where the classic lit and some of the music library is ( which happens to be the prettiest part of the library with the crecent window and all ), or the information sciences building AKA sci/tech library. I always pick a table around the children's literature. So here I am, hung over...I have my glasses on and everything's still freaking blurry....I'm freaking out because I don't know the difference between error variance, systematic error, or construct validity, or even standard deviation. I'm about to cry because the test is in 2 hours and I'm kicking myself for not studing weeks before.....when this dude comes up and was like " hey how did you do on your essay"? I didn't recognize him but I figured he was in the class. It turns out he was....he was on his 2nd time taking it. We got on the subject of how hard the class was and he was like " hey if you get a bachelor's of art, you don't need this." Me: " ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" Him: " Serious. Drop it now. You have 2 more days." I told him it was my 21st bday and he told me to get the hell out of there, pick up my drop form, get Jenkins to sign it, then get drunk off my ass. I followed some of his advice. :) Truly; he was an angel of mercy.

After I dropped the class, my mom came and took me to On the Border. It was a gorgeous day and we sat outside and ate quesadillas and swirl margaritas. We were supposed to go car shopping but I worked out a deal where I would take over her car payment for awhile on her '01 explorer and drive that until we really have time to get a freaking car. So I'm rollin' in an explorer now....I feel like a soccer mom everywhere I go :)

Then there was dinner at Bari's with David ( who, by the way got me the BEST gift....he made a collage of all these candid pictures he took of me where I'm mostly half asleep, or drunk, or cooking or eating or scrapbooking or acting like a squirrel, and put them in a gorgeous frame ) . Then there were cookies and old family guy episodes and lots and lots of sleep.

What a great Birthday.

10/03: Suzi came into town for dinner and we ate at Cool Bean's. Then was my party. Trevor and I went to Goody-Goody in Highland Village....the liquor store mecca. Seriously, if you're legal, and you like to buy cheap liquor, GO. It not ONLY has everything you could ever want, it's very reasonably priced. Big props to Trevor for getting me my own personal bottle of Crown as a gift. Anyway, it was nice to throw a party for once....people seemed to enjoy themselves...Brandon was the bartender, Trevor brought the beer bong, and Casey made flaming doctor peppers. It only started sucking when people I didnt know started showing up, and the loud-ass upstairs neighbors came down and drank a lot and tried to have "heated debates" with my friends.

I had to work all day saturday, and then had to clean up from the night before...but then Lotus chinese food with Nicole and Mill's Fest bands with David then having a shiner at Sweetwater with Luis, Christina and David was pretty awesome. ( David's trying out for Cavaliers, btw. And he WILL get in! In which case, I will be the biggest DCI freak for that summer and will see every one of their shows, except when I'm in France because oh yeah, I'm still going....even if I go into major debt. I'm going to talk to an advisor on how to take a class there and get scholarships and or loans and such. Because..........holy crap I graduate May '05 and I need to do something really great to top off my college experience. Studying overseas for even a few weeks in a mini-course might be that thing that sticks out on a grad school app. Damn I'm rambling. Baby steps, Sarah. Baby steps. )

So, everything is falling into place. I am so grateful and lucky. Nothing can bring me down!