twenty and two (plus complimentary recipe for "Cherry Vodcoke")

I turned 22 yesterday! I slept a huge chunk of the day away. But it's okay because I celebrated ahead of time. I invited a few friends for pizza-movie night on my birthday eve :)

ma burfday nails.. done a day apart and naturally my two hands aren't the same

"My right hand, always painted simpler than the left onee.."

I decided to have a pizza-movie night. I asked my mom to borrow a projector from the office which I propped inside a magazine rack, supported by The Fountainhead and The Da Vinci Code at the bottom so as to leave space for the sockets in the back. I made it face one of the leaning walls and set up sleeping bags and pillows on the floor opposite :) It was a lot of fun, I'm pretty proud of what I've done. It's sort of the best (/the only haha) sleepover I've planned.

Table setup! 

clockwise from top left: witch's hat that our lovely helper propped up on a bedknob, humorously matching the black sheets I asked to be used! heh ; room plans i drew up for the party and for after the party because I'm actually currently making my room over; throw pillows I snatched from the prayer room bodega (we use that word for storage, not just wine) that I realised matches my bathroom's current colors (pictured below); sleeping bags, master lappy, and projector all set up!

everything orange aside from the curtains is actually ACCIDENTAL. i actually hate orange. but it ended up looking p.nice. im starting to like it.

At the last minute I decided to weave my christmas lights onto my window and it ended up looking pretty damn beautiful.

Why didn't I think of this before?

I put a note on the door saying "Come in I'm in the shower" and Carmen arrived and I got dressed and pretty soon Pia came and then Jessica with  and her sister Jas and Jessica's baby Mio...

Who started eyeing mister panda! Jas and Jessica encouraged him to take it from the bedknob and pretty soon he kept posing with it! I didn't know my godson was such a camgigolo!

Jessica had to leave for Mio's bedtime before Aizel even arrived, sadly. The pizza was cold before most of them arrived haha! Also the ice kept melting so fast and I had to run up and down a lot to put and take things from the freezer. If there were things I'd have wanted to change about it, I would have brought a cooler upstairs so I could spend more time with my guests. And maybe bring a toaster so we can heat the pizza. haha. Or maybe, just feel freer about asking my guests to help me! I don't know why I'm so shy, it's my birthday anyway right? haha!

clockwise from top left: smilinaizel with cameo of mister Mnm, pia and hiding carmen, maiface, hiding carmen, jas and mio while we're watching Bridesmaids. I DIDN'T GET TO TAKE A PIC OF JESS :((( which is sad cos she was so pretty!

Movies/videos we screened:

• A Walk off the Earth's reindition of Somebody I Used to Know as sort of a soundcheck
• a bit of Top Secret but it lagged and we switched to
• Bridesmaids, featured on the top right picture above (boom chiki wa wa)
• Mean Girls, all-time classic
• and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Which Carmen brought. It was the more morose of the four films but still quite enjoyable. 

The Grub:

• Cheese Pizzas with raw veggies for toppings/sides
• BASKET OF MOJOS COS EVERYONE KNOW ME LOVE MA SPUDZZ
• Popcorn with M&Ms
• Sarsi floats
• Improvised cocktails. We called it "Cherry Vodcoke" (edit: I just realised that cherry vodcoke was when we replaced the sprite with coke. but oh well. "cherry spriteka" doesn't sound as nice, so..)

Cherry Vodcoke Recipe

Ingredients:

• Vodka (we used The Bar Silver cos I'm a cheap ass mof-)
• Sprite
• sprigs of mint
• Maraschino Cherries in a jar
• ice

Instructions:

1. In a handsome rocks glass, put in ice about a third of the way. (if it's not handsome, do the same, but with a disapproving grimace/frown)
2. pour vodka just a bit short of covering the ice
3. add sprite until it's almost full all the way (about an inch from the top)
4. top off with a swig of Maraschino Cherry syrup from the jar
5. watch it swirl cos that part's kinda epic
6. Plop in a cherry
7. tear off a couple of mint leaves to decorate the top
8. plop in a stirrer-straw

Our honored guest mister M approves!

After watching What's Eati-shit this title's long-, I was only meaning to cool the projector off to be sure but my bros started kinda calling it a night. Oh well, we all needed sleep anyway! We called it a night at 4am, but Pia and I kept talking until about six AM about really trippy stuff like atoms and the universe.

Aizel, Carmen and I woke up at about 10-11AM, had pancakes and tea, watched TV for a while, then Aizel had to go. Her mother has the same b-day as I. After fixing up the mess from b-day eve and shattering a rocks glass in the process (that made me kinda saaaad) Carmen and I retreated back to my cave, lay down on the sleeping bags watching Modern Family and napping. As I was going upstairs I saw a HUGE RED LBC TRUCK stop by our house. I had a big feeling there was a package for me but I remembered E saying something about how he was saving for our trip so I just went on going upstairs expecting nothing.

But lo and behold, when C and I descended the stairs to accompany my mom to church (she asks me to go to church with her every year on my birthday even though I am an atheist. It could be worse so I humor her.) there was a huge-ass flowerbox-lookin box of the whitest prettiest flowers on the table. I wish someone would have told me! There was a good four hours in between the time I saw the truck and the time I saw the box.

I first made like a flowerbed with the whole lot, using the same magazine rack I used for the projector (man is it useful or what) singling out two favorites which were a huge daisy and a rose, then this morning I put some more with the others in the vase that came from last Valentine's Day's bouquet, and then some downstairs to share.

I was confused about the sender at first, because the fact that E never said anything and the fact that he said he'd be in save mode until our summer together threw me off. But the biggest reason was that the delivery company had mixed up the cards! I instead received a dubious message sent between two ladies who seem to only be in the courtship stage because the sender merely calls herself a "loving friend" despite the horribly uncomfortable steaminess of the message. I don't even wanna.. Oh god. poor ladies. I feel bad for them that a whole family of strangers had seen the card.

Luckily daisies (and white frowers) have sort of a meaning between E and I for Reasons, and I had a huge feeling that it was him and not some random relative who decided to give me flowers. He confirmed via facebook that he indeed committed shenanigans and sent me a surprise once again. Luckily his intended enclosed message was a lot simpler and didn't mention anything about letting anyone's love come inside someone's body like the card I mistakenly received had. It was apparently a simple Happy Birthday and an I love you. Having someone who is very concise and straightforward and not the least bit dramatic really isn't looking so bad at all. :)

final arrangement :)

After church, Carmen, my two brothers, my mom and I went to Racks for my birthday dinner. We had AWESOME FOOD and the best waiter ever and the waitresses sang to me and gave me a free apple pie which was delicious and had ice cream and whipped cream on top (so many creams)... Too bad I didn't bring my camera but then again I liked not having to do that and just relaxing :) We did have phone pictures though, but they're in my mom's phone and are unavailable for now. Maybe one of these days I'll upload them on tumblr :)