Just before 7am and I’m sitting here enjoying some peanut butter toast before I go to the gym. I’ve been busy lately what with trying to actually keep up with my uni studying and all (I’m taking two languages this semester!), but I’ve been doing well with getting up early and exercising. I haven’t even gone to sleep past midnight more than a couple times in the past week. That’s like a huge accomplishment for me.

Saturday (21 January) was my birthday, so I am now officially nineteen years old. It doesn’t feel any different, not that it would, and my brother claims I act like I’m seventeen, but so what! (Or would it be “so what?” with a question mark? )

I can now legally drink in Canada, hah. As if I would… It’s ridiculous just how much alcohol costs. Not to mention a hop across the border would take about an hour’s drive from where I live at uni. I have a friend who totally offered to go with me to Windsor, though.

I had a pretty good, very drawn-out birthday. Since my birthday was on a Saturday this year, it was more of a birthday weekend than anything. I went home to my mom’s place Saturday and Sunday, which was nice. I did not see my dad, which was also nice. I totally bitched him out over the phone, though, about his failure to pay court-ordered child support, among other things. That felt good to do and was a nice birthday gift, hah. My mom was proud of me.

On Friday night, my boyfriend Jan and I had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, where I tried ribs for the first time! They were quite tasty. We both ate sooo much meat. Sometimes I think it would be nice to be a vegetarian, then there are days like last Friday. Of course, we could have gone to that vegetarian restaurant down a nearby street, had I wanted to. I thought about it, actually, since it would have been a lot more healthy.

Saturday, my mom, brother, and I ate at Red Robin so my mom and I could collect our free birthday burgers (her birthday is this coming Sunday, the 29th). Then Sunday I ate at Pizza House because that was where my old temple held their free annual college dinner. I tend to eat more at restaurants than I do at home, so eating out three nights in a row totally stressed me out, but as Jan reminded me, it’s my birthday and I should live a little. I thoroughly enjoyed the dinners and even had left-over pizza for dinner last night.

Before you ask, these are the beautiful gifts that I received: a Worrible from Jan (I named it George), a couple of these guys to put on my phone (the pink cactus-suit girl near the bottom right and the milk carton third from the left in the second row down; Jan got one for himself as well, the milk carton two from the left in the second row), and this Doctor Who shirt in girly fit grey, which still hasn’t come in the mail yet.

I value this year’s birthday experiences over my gifts, but I always love gifts and you know I would have been disappointed if I hadn’t received anything.