Happy Birthdays to Me

As I've mentioned before, last year my birthday was terrible. I believe that, as a general rule, that shouldn't be allowed. Birthdays should always be, at the very least, good days. Really, birthdays should be awesome. You've survived another year–you haven't been hit by a car or become victim of some previously unknown disease. You're not dead yet! That's a cause for celebration, people. But I digress.

My birthday this year definitely made up for last year. For starters, it lasted five days and as if that wasn't enough, I got to see my parents, went out with friends from work, and spent the bulk of that time in my favorite place.

My birthday was on Tuesday (the ninth, in case you want to mark your calendars for next year). My parents were on their way to Albuquerque for my dad's knee surgery, but they stopped in Lubbock to see their favorite child. Although they could only stay for lunch, I was very happy to spend a little time with them. They also brought me presents, which included glass tumblers and rainbow shot glasses. Parenting: You're doing it right.

Since I was leaving for Austin the next day, I hadn't planned to do anything else on my actual birthday aside from homework, but I soon abandoned that plan. Abby came over for a bit and we made sugar cookies, but since she is more responsible than me she eventually left to actually do her homework. I continued to decorate cookies. Then around eight o'clock I realized how incredibly sad it was that I was decorating cookies by myself on my 21st birthday.

(To preface this next part, I should bring you up to speed on a few things. There is a girl I work with, Kiera, who I've recently developed a huge friend crush on. The only problem is I don't know how to let someone know I want to be their friend without being incredibly creepy about it, which is a large part of why I have made no friends in Lubbock. Kiera and I had gone to IHOP a few days before, but at this point in time, I was still worried I was going to scare her off with my intensity. Okay, back to my birthday.) I knew that Kiera was working in the fuel station that night, so I called and asked, "How creepy would it be if I brought you a cookie?" For some reason, she didn't think it was creepy. I think she was just being nice.

Anyway, this all led to Kiera taking me and another coworker, Gabby, to a bar for my first official, legal drink. The three of us talked and laughed a lot, and it was really, really fun. I am quite proud of myself for making friends, which is a sad commentary on . . . me. Really, it's not that impressive considering I've worked at United for over a year now. Besides, this is something most people figure out in kindergarten. Come on, Maggie.

The next day, I flew to Austin. Yes, flew. My usual seven hour drive turned into a forty-five minute flight, and now I can never go back to my old ways (except, obviously, I have to as flying is expensive even when it is within the same state, which really makes no sense to me, but, again, I digress). Since I got to Austin before five instead of after ten like I usually do, Melany and I were able to see Two Door Cinema Club in concert. They were fabulous. They played every song I hoped they would, and it was such a fun concert. Concerts in general are just a good time.

Thursday night Melany, Michelle, Britny, and I went to a Clue Quote-Along at the Alamo Drafthouse, which was an absolute blast. It's always fun to be surrounded by people who love something just as much as (or more) than you do, and that was made even better by the delicious burgers and a specialty drink called the Mrs. Peacocktail.

Afterwards, we walked down to Peché, an absinthe bar I've wanted to try since our unsuccessful attempt to "casually bump into" Team StarKid two years ago. First I tried a gin drink with creme de mure, which was pretty good, but then I decided to try an absinthe drink and was severely disappointed. Something you should know about absinthe is that you will not like it unless you love–and I mean love–black licorice. The first sip is okay, but the more you drink it, the stronger the taste and smell of licorice become until it's unbearable. Then it just doesn't leave you. Once Melany and I got back to the apartment, we had to burn the taste out with copious amounts of Julio's salsa. I'm just warning you.

On Friday we went thrift shopping in hopes of finding furniture for our apartment, but were unsuccessful. We did get to meet one of the other Maggies from the Blogger Family though! We didn't get to hang out for very long and I'm sure mine and Melany's bickering probably scared her, but it was nice to finally meet her. Later that night, Melany and I went to an eighties dance party at Barbarella, which was, honestly, not as fun as it was supposed to be, but that was probably my fault. What was lacking Friday night was made up for on Saturday when Britny, Melany, and I marathoned all four Scream movies. It was a hilarious and incredibly chill way to wrap up a busy weekend.

In conclusion, I am incredibly spoiled and blessed and thankful for the people that made this birthday one worth writing a very long post about. It really was the best.

-Maggie