Happy Birthday, I'm 21!

Holy crap, I'm 21.

It's insanity, celebrating what would be such a huge birthday in the States here in Australia. Thousands of miles away from my friends who would be celebrating with me and my family who would be, too. But, thankfully, I have amazing, wonderful, fantastic friends here who made this milestone of a birthday just as brilliant as it would have been if I was in the States. I can't wait to get home and celebrate again, but it was a great day.

Friday, my boss at work came up to me and asked me what I was doing for lunch. I said nothing, that I had actually forgotten my sandwich at home and was planning on grabbing one from the convenience store down the street. She laughed at me and said that I would not be doing that - I would be going with the office to my birthday party at a restaurant in the complex! I was floored. I mean, I'd only been working there for four days and they were throwing me a birthday party? Amazing! So at 12:30pm, me and seven of my wonderful coworkers went to celebrate. It was so fantastic. They all chatted me up and I got to know everybody - they're so friendly and genuine, really interested in who I am and where I want to go with this job. It was great to hear all about their stories of the company and to feel like part of the team. We all split a couple bottles of wine and had some amazing food and then my boss (like my big boss, I mean the director of marketing) whipped out my present. Seriously. PRESENTS. Plural, actually. What company gives an intern who's worked there for three days presents!? I got the Scene It! board game, the first season of their show Satisfaction on DVD, a box of candy in a really cool Tangle (another one of their shows) box, and a Showcase (their series channel) beanbag chair. Seriously. A beanbag chair. It made me feel so welcomed and appreciated. I still can't believe how lucky I am to have an internship like this. Not only do they trust me and give me real work but they give me presents! And the cherry on top of the work day was heading to BUSC in the afternoon and seeing that my bosses from my internship over the summer sent me my Trouble the Water DVD with such a kind note on the inside. It made me feel so good! It was a great start to my birthday!

That night, Megan, MJ, Nathalie, Sam, and I went to my favorite Mexican restaurant, the Flying Fajita Sistas for margaritas and a pre-birthday dinner. Sam and Nathalie were going to be gone for the actual day so we decided to celebrate with them beforehand so nobody felt left out. We had queso and margaritas and they bought me a half dozen amazing cupcakes which we promptly devoured after the meal. We laughed and drank and rang in my birthday before heading home to sleep after our first week at work.

Saturday morning I woke up and went to the Paddington markets with Ashleigh and MJ for a little birthday shopping. I got a beautiful hair accessory for the Melbourne Cup that's hand made with beautiful pink flowers and feathers, a small cross-carry clutch made by an Australian designer, a red patent croc travel clutch also made by an Australian designer, a beautiful shirt dress and matching belt, a t-shirt with a unicorn on it (so cute), and a bag of yummy Tasmanian Pepperberry dark chocolate. We also got cupcakes and a delicious lunch at Sloane's Cafe in Paddington and chocolate frappes at Max Brenner's - a must for birthdays. :) I then went and got my nails done, which I needed to do and started getting ready for my birthday dinner.

15 of my amazing friends came out with me to Posh Spice, an amazing Indian restaurant in New Town where they do Bollywood dancing on Saturday nights. We had delicious butter chicken, curry, dosas, naaan, and jasmine rice while we danced with their Bollywood performer. He found out it was my birthday and pulled me up pretty quickly to dance with another woman who was celebrating her bachelorette party. It was incredibly fun. The bachlorette shared her giant blow up penis with me, which was interesting, and then afterward we piled into cabs and headed to King's Cross and SoHo. Our cab dirver didn't really know where it was so we got dropped off blocks away from the club and had to walk there. It was insanely busy in King's Cross and some drunk guys smacked my ass, which angered me quite a bit. I kept screaming, "I am not an object!" until our friend Maria found us and got us into the club - SoHo. The rest of the evening was filled with dancing and drinks, so much fun! We ended up back at home around 3am and I went straight to sleep.

In the morning, we were supposed to go to the beach but it was pouring rain so instead we all got Thai food, my favorite, and watched some DVDs - a perfect post-birthday celebration. It was so fantastic to wake up to tons of birthday messages from Facebook and family, even though I'm on another continent I felt all the love. It was one of the best birthdays I've ever had, fantastic friends, fantastic food, and fantastic fun. I am so lucky to have such amazing people around me all the time on two separate continents and I feel so blessed!

It was an amazing 21st!