Other random update
I realized earlier today that I updated about something that is really big on my mind lately: my work situation (or lack of work, really). But now that I've got that somewhat out of my system, I want to update about some happier things. Like my birthday (for those of you who weren't able to join me at my party).
By "normal" standards for my birthday, this one rocked. Of course, I usually have awful, boring birthdays, so any improvement is a great improvement. But it still rocked!
Okay, picture this:
I started planning my party in January, because I am well aware that if I don't start planning at least 6 months ahead of time (and let people know that I expect them to attend six months prior to the event), I'm not going to get to do anything. That's the downside of having a birthday on the fourth of July. Everyone's always busy with their own barbecue, block party, whatever, to be able to come to my event. Well, not this year!
At first, I had all sorts of crazy ideas in mind. I thought, "Oh! Maybe we'll go to DISNEYLAND!" which would've been awesome, but financially impractical. So then I thought, "Oh! How about Great America!" Also kinda cool, but too many huge crowds. Nevermind then. For a while, I settled on the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Now, I love the aquarium. I really, really do. And with a small group of people (my limit here is probably four or five), it's a wonderful experience! ...but I didn't want just four or five people to show up. So I was getting kinda worried about that when, who would've thunk it, the economy steps in to "help me out" with that particular little dilemma. I had people coming in from the Sacramento area, and I just didn't think it would be very fair to anyone involved if they had to spend more money on gas to get to the aquarium than on my birthday present. So that plan fell through. Luckily, the day I was having my party didn't really change (I opted to do something the day after my birthday, since there are way too many crowds for me on the 4th) and finally I came up with the perfect place to go.
Soooo... Brittany, Jenny, Jessi, Jorge, random friend of Jorge's (Kenny), and myself went to Dublin Iceland for ice skating! (Wow... I didn't mean to write everyone in alphabetically, but there ya go! lol) I love ice skating. I hadn't done it in years, and I needed a good excuse to go and some people to go with, so this was really perfect! And, I only fell once. On my knees. Not too bad, didn't even bruise. Of course, I hadn't skated in so long that it took a while to get used to being in the skates, and then just trying to remember how it was that I was supposed to move. I gained and lost my groove on the ice very many times. And Brittany kept zooming around like she owned the place! just... ZOOM! It was crazy! I felt so bad for Kenny, though. He kept falling. Hard. And I mean, full-body SPLATS on the ice. I was afraid we'd have to take him to the emergency room, and that would've sucked and blown, all in one. Luckily, he didn't hit his head or anything, and everyone managed to get out of there pretty unscathed. I wish we had some better pictures, but I was afraid to take my camera out on the ice, plus I wanted to enjoy myself skating, not taking pictures of everyone else skating.
We had to change skates a couple of times before we all really got into our groove, though. Everyone's skates were too big to start out with. And I mean, several sizes too large. (At least mine were.) And Jorge and Kenny had... ooh... I don't know, but they weren't hockey skates. They were the other kind. So their feet started hurting, and then they switched over to hockey skates so they were better. And Jenny started with hockey skates and didn't like them, so she decided to switch over to the other kind and got the best-looking skates I've ever seen. Mind you, I haven't seen a lot of skates ever, but they were gorgeous. I was a little jealous over how pretty they were, but I got over it once we got on the ice and had fun anyway. Goodness, what a workout. Brittany and I decided that we should go there once a week. I think that's the kind of exercise I'd more than happily stick to! (I have every intention of going there at least once a week, too... as soon as I get some income.)
So we skated around for a couple of hours and, oh! The people at Iceland wished me a happy birthday over the intercom! EEEE! I was so excited and happy, 'cause I totally was NOT expecting that at all! But Brittany got there before the rest of us did, and apparently she told them to wish me a happy birthday. So when 3pm rolled around and we were on the ice, they wished me a happy birthday and I nearly splatted 'cause I was so happy. I think that's one of the best things that happened right there. I was so touched that Britt let them know so that they could do that! :D
And I swear, Jenny came up with some of the best lines. As we were getting off the ice, she skates over to me and says, "Ly, Jessi and I are gonna be in the Olympics!"
Jessi: Yeah! We're taking the gold! WOOO!
Apparently they decided that they would go into couples figure-skating together, lol. One of my favorite moments was, of course, shouting out: Look at me do a trick!
others: What's that?
me: NOT FALLING! :D
We left Iceland around 4pm, mainly because the staff were kicking us off the ice. Apparently, from 4pm onward, the place is reserved for something else (probably hockey). Which is fine, because once we got off the ice, we all started feeling ravenous. I'm happy that Juan works at a Pizza Guys (for the moment anyway). I had Jessi call up the store my brother works at, we ordered a pizza, picked it up, went back to my house, and continued the party! So everyone ate pizza, and Rachel arrived (yaaay!) but then Brittany had to leave because she had a wedding to go to (booooo!). By that point, though... I think it must've been the skating, really. So much exercise, and so much fun and laughing (and for some people: FALLING), that after we ate at my house, well... the energy level definitely dropped off. I had some music to try and perk things back up, but my family took over the downstairs! *SIIIGH* So we watched TV and hung out, and I nearly fell asleep at my own party. XD I made piña coladas, though! Ooh, and my cake wasn't actually cake. I didn't have cake... I had CUPCAKES! And my mom put them in the shape of a heart and stuck candles in them while we were out ice skating, so everything was ready to go by the time we got back. Really, the best part of the whole day, though, was hanging out with my peeps. I don't ever really get to do that on my birthday. We had a good time. :)
Another thing I should mention for why my birthday rocked was that I got to party for two days! I didn't think I was going to do anything at all on the fourth. I was just anticipating a great day on the fifth. But Brittany wasn't doing anything either, and then neither was Jessi, so we went out to San Ramon to watch the fireworks. I was worried for a while there that maybe Jessi and Britt would somehow have a personality clash or something, but they got along great and we all talked for quite some time. And then we got into psychology, brain, and social work discussions. Just 'cause Brittany is Brittany, and Ly is Ly, and Jessi seemed cool with it. And so we had some pretty deep discussions there. It was amazing. There was music playing the whole time, and we "oooh"ed and "ahhhh"ed when the fireworks started. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play Beethoven's "1812" music. I mean, come ON! That music was totally made for fireworks shows! So I started "singing" it hella loud over the music, to make up for their silly lack of 1812. It was great. :D
Now, I'm trying to remember if Brittany and I started dancing before, or after the fireworks... Or at both times. I think before we all mainly talked and posed and took random pictures, and afterward we really started getting crazy and dancing around. I'm happy to have Brittany as my friend. She amuses and cheers me greatly. It could've been a boring sort of day, but there was Britt to drag me out of the house and go watch fireworks, and we had fun doing it! WOO!
I really considered making a slide-show/video out of all the pictures from my birthday and the 1812 music (or something else that could've been as equally AWESOME), but... eh... I just don't have enough pictures, and I'm really not happy with how I look in most of them, so I don't think I'm going to do it... Which makes me a little sad, but oh well. Maybe next year. I had a lot of fun making the one for Brittany's birthday, but somehow doing one for my own birthday just doesn't strike me as "oodles of fun." Definitely next year. When I can get people to take more pictures and actually SEND them to me, heh. I'm still waiting on the pictures Rachel took (though I think most of the pictures she sent were probably of the dogs, lol).
...Well... Another incredibly long post later and I still haven't written up anything about my internship! I really wanted to write something now, but this is getting ridiculously long as it is, so I think the internship write-up will just have to wait until tomorrow. Right after it ended, I thought that I'd be better off just forgetting about the whole experience, but I think enough time has passed that maybe (hopefully) I won't have only awful things to say about it.
By "normal" standards for my birthday, this one rocked. Of course, I usually have awful, boring birthdays, so any improvement is a great improvement. But it still rocked!
Okay, picture this:
I started planning my party in January, because I am well aware that if I don't start planning at least 6 months ahead of time (and let people know that I expect them to attend six months prior to the event), I'm not going to get to do anything. That's the downside of having a birthday on the fourth of July. Everyone's always busy with their own barbecue, block party, whatever, to be able to come to my event. Well, not this year!
At first, I had all sorts of crazy ideas in mind. I thought, "Oh! Maybe we'll go to DISNEYLAND!" which would've been awesome, but financially impractical. So then I thought, "Oh! How about Great America!" Also kinda cool, but too many huge crowds. Nevermind then. For a while, I settled on the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Now, I love the aquarium. I really, really do. And with a small group of people (my limit here is probably four or five), it's a wonderful experience! ...but I didn't want just four or five people to show up. So I was getting kinda worried about that when, who would've thunk it, the economy steps in to "help me out" with that particular little dilemma. I had people coming in from the Sacramento area, and I just didn't think it would be very fair to anyone involved if they had to spend more money on gas to get to the aquarium than on my birthday present. So that plan fell through. Luckily, the day I was having my party didn't really change (I opted to do something the day after my birthday, since there are way too many crowds for me on the 4th) and finally I came up with the perfect place to go.
Soooo... Brittany, Jenny, Jessi, Jorge, random friend of Jorge's (Kenny), and myself went to Dublin Iceland for ice skating! (Wow... I didn't mean to write everyone in alphabetically, but there ya go! lol) I love ice skating. I hadn't done it in years, and I needed a good excuse to go and some people to go with, so this was really perfect! And, I only fell once. On my knees. Not too bad, didn't even bruise. Of course, I hadn't skated in so long that it took a while to get used to being in the skates, and then just trying to remember how it was that I was supposed to move. I gained and lost my groove on the ice very many times. And Brittany kept zooming around like she owned the place! just... ZOOM! It was crazy! I felt so bad for Kenny, though. He kept falling. Hard. And I mean, full-body SPLATS on the ice. I was afraid we'd have to take him to the emergency room, and that would've sucked and blown, all in one. Luckily, he didn't hit his head or anything, and everyone managed to get out of there pretty unscathed. I wish we had some better pictures, but I was afraid to take my camera out on the ice, plus I wanted to enjoy myself skating, not taking pictures of everyone else skating.
We had to change skates a couple of times before we all really got into our groove, though. Everyone's skates were too big to start out with. And I mean, several sizes too large. (At least mine were.) And Jorge and Kenny had... ooh... I don't know, but they weren't hockey skates. They were the other kind. So their feet started hurting, and then they switched over to hockey skates so they were better. And Jenny started with hockey skates and didn't like them, so she decided to switch over to the other kind and got the best-looking skates I've ever seen. Mind you, I haven't seen a lot of skates ever, but they were gorgeous. I was a little jealous over how pretty they were, but I got over it once we got on the ice and had fun anyway. Goodness, what a workout. Brittany and I decided that we should go there once a week. I think that's the kind of exercise I'd more than happily stick to! (I have every intention of going there at least once a week, too... as soon as I get some income.)
So we skated around for a couple of hours and, oh! The people at Iceland wished me a happy birthday over the intercom! EEEE! I was so excited and happy, 'cause I totally was NOT expecting that at all! But Brittany got there before the rest of us did, and apparently she told them to wish me a happy birthday. So when 3pm rolled around and we were on the ice, they wished me a happy birthday and I nearly splatted 'cause I was so happy. I think that's one of the best things that happened right there. I was so touched that Britt let them know so that they could do that! :D
And I swear, Jenny came up with some of the best lines. As we were getting off the ice, she skates over to me and says, "Ly, Jessi and I are gonna be in the Olympics!"
Jessi: Yeah! We're taking the gold! WOOO!
Apparently they decided that they would go into couples figure-skating together, lol. One of my favorite moments was, of course, shouting out: Look at me do a trick!
others: What's that?
me: NOT FALLING! :D
We left Iceland around 4pm, mainly because the staff were kicking us off the ice. Apparently, from 4pm onward, the place is reserved for something else (probably hockey). Which is fine, because once we got off the ice, we all started feeling ravenous. I'm happy that Juan works at a Pizza Guys (for the moment anyway). I had Jessi call up the store my brother works at, we ordered a pizza, picked it up, went back to my house, and continued the party! So everyone ate pizza, and Rachel arrived (yaaay!) but then Brittany had to leave because she had a wedding to go to (booooo!). By that point, though... I think it must've been the skating, really. So much exercise, and so much fun and laughing (and for some people: FALLING), that after we ate at my house, well... the energy level definitely dropped off. I had some music to try and perk things back up, but my family took over the downstairs! *SIIIGH* So we watched TV and hung out, and I nearly fell asleep at my own party. XD I made piña coladas, though! Ooh, and my cake wasn't actually cake. I didn't have cake... I had CUPCAKES! And my mom put them in the shape of a heart and stuck candles in them while we were out ice skating, so everything was ready to go by the time we got back. Really, the best part of the whole day, though, was hanging out with my peeps. I don't ever really get to do that on my birthday. We had a good time. :)
Another thing I should mention for why my birthday rocked was that I got to party for two days! I didn't think I was going to do anything at all on the fourth. I was just anticipating a great day on the fifth. But Brittany wasn't doing anything either, and then neither was Jessi, so we went out to San Ramon to watch the fireworks. I was worried for a while there that maybe Jessi and Britt would somehow have a personality clash or something, but they got along great and we all talked for quite some time. And then we got into psychology, brain, and social work discussions. Just 'cause Brittany is Brittany, and Ly is Ly, and Jessi seemed cool with it. And so we had some pretty deep discussions there. It was amazing. There was music playing the whole time, and we "oooh"ed and "ahhhh"ed when the fireworks started. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play Beethoven's "1812" music. I mean, come ON! That music was totally made for fireworks shows! So I started "singing" it hella loud over the music, to make up for their silly lack of 1812. It was great. :D
Now, I'm trying to remember if Brittany and I started dancing before, or after the fireworks... Or at both times. I think before we all mainly talked and posed and took random pictures, and afterward we really started getting crazy and dancing around. I'm happy to have Brittany as my friend. She amuses and cheers me greatly. It could've been a boring sort of day, but there was Britt to drag me out of the house and go watch fireworks, and we had fun doing it! WOO!
I really considered making a slide-show/video out of all the pictures from my birthday and the 1812 music (or something else that could've been as equally AWESOME), but... eh... I just don't have enough pictures, and I'm really not happy with how I look in most of them, so I don't think I'm going to do it... Which makes me a little sad, but oh well. Maybe next year. I had a lot of fun making the one for Brittany's birthday, but somehow doing one for my own birthday just doesn't strike me as "oodles of fun." Definitely next year. When I can get people to take more pictures and actually SEND them to me, heh. I'm still waiting on the pictures Rachel took (though I think most of the pictures she sent were probably of the dogs, lol).
...Well... Another incredibly long post later and I still haven't written up anything about my internship! I really wanted to write something now, but this is getting ridiculously long as it is, so I think the internship write-up will just have to wait until tomorrow. Right after it ended, I thought that I'd be better off just forgetting about the whole experience, but I think enough time has passed that maybe (hopefully) I won't have only awful things to say about it.