I turned 21 (part deux)

After the little party at my place we rode over to Mill Ave. and started the night at Z Tejas with some fantastic girls from work.

The had me drinking uh-mazing margaritas and infused Patron shots that later caught up to me. They brought a piece of cake for me and everyone sang happy birthday and i just felt so loved =)

Ross, Me, Laci

The most amazing girls to work with

Shannon, Laci, Me, Carissa (missing Cydney, Mindi, and Symon)

My old friend Sandra even made it too and it had been forever since I had seen her. Made my heart grow three sizes!

Next we went to an underground dueling piano bar where the alcohol really started to kick in. Someone ordered me a skrewdriver and an Adios Mother Fucker after three very strong Margaritas and a Patron Shot.

I've known Sara since Sophomore year of HS!

I kept on telling them to get a good picture of me and Ross because since my camera broke we have so few and I feel like I'm missing out on catching important moments.

At The Big Bang they called me up on stage twice where they had us celebrating birthdays dance and the second time I came up they had me and one other girl demonstrate how to use the shake weight. I thought I was gonna die because me and Ross keep having running jokes about the shake weight and I had it on some awesome-random-weird creation pedestal that I think I squealed when they brought them out. I was thinking somewhere along the lines of "Oh my God I get to hold one!" (also I just tried to spell squealed by writing "skwelled" instead thank you college education and spell check!)

We then bar hopped to a place called College Dropouts where things quickly went south. Ross said i had moments of lucidity where I was in and out and someone had the bright idea to order me their favorite shot-tabasco and tequila. Right after taking just a sip of that I quickly made it to the bathroom and spilled my guts. All I remember is that I held up my hair, cleaned my face, and that the floor was wet. blahhhhh

Everyone said that you have to get sick on your birthday and boy was I feeling it then and the next day. I did get some battle wounds in form of random huge bruises on my legs but I learned an ever more important lesson on alcohol tolerance and now I'm really excited to be able to go out and do adult things with my 1-2 beers or mixed drink/wine.

I turned 21

This picture was taken by Ross at Four Peaks in Tempe, AZ at around 12:08 AM 12/18/10 or my 21st birthday. I was so excited to have my first *legal* drink and finally be part of the big kids club. It's been hard always having friends who were older and especially hard when so many of them turned 21 and wanted to hangout at 21 and over places. I am sooo happy to be able to go to the local pubs or little bars around the corner and hangout after work or on weekends. I'm not a big drinker but I'm so excited to be able to buy a bottle of wine or beer to go with pizza or even liqueurs to bake with.

We had a party at our apartment for people to meet up and then hit Mill Ave. or the local ASU college bar scene. The party was complete with a Hello Kitty theme.

A sweet birthday gift from Ross' mom Suzanne

A cuuuttte banner we found at Target/Wal-Mart (?) and a clean apartment

Unique beer cooling system (read: broke and not wanting to spend money on an actual cooler) This idea was great thought because the ice melted right into the sink! =)

Cupcakes, cheese tray, spinach dip, chex mix, and veggie wraps. (plus a piece of art Ross did!)

up next- the drunken pictures from out on the bars.

*hint**hint* I puked =/

It's Finals Season

Goodness I really wanted to be able to post everyday but I had my first final today and thankfully have all my finals and classes will be done by Tuesday.

December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)

The social gathering that WILL rock my socks will be my 21st birthday. In exactly 9 days I will be 21 and you better be sure that I am going big. My birthday is one week before Christmas and it has always sucked so the past 6 years I didn't have a party or do anything really special because I knew it was really just an imposition on people's busy holiday calendars and forgetful. I was sort of saving all those missed birthdays so I could have one night that is really mine. One night where I counted on peopel to coem and celebrate my birthday with me. A 21st birthday, to me, is the last real community wide rite of passage you go through other than marriage or buying a house but this one is the most participative. I can't marry everyone on my wedding day but I can get fabulously dressed up and get pissed drunk with everyone on my 21st birthday. I plan to serve chips and dip, finger foods, cupcakes, cake, and hot chocolate before we go out to the bars. I plan to really look and listen for an amazing soundtrack for the night and I am using some Lady Gaga and Katy Perry (Firework would be perfect). I am trying to have a Hello Kitty theme too complete with hats and cake =) If you have any vegetarian appetizers and fantastic party songs send them my way!

December 8 – Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)

I had a real hard time growing up and thinking I was beautiful. Everyone I saw around me that were "beautiful" looked nothing like me and so I just never could describe myself as beautiful and instead I started to think of myself as smart and funny and creative and my identity was formed around that. I think what makes me beautiful is that I don't ever fell is (if that's not backwards thinking I don't know what is but it's true). I developed other aspects of myself other than pretty hair and a beautiful body because I never though I had those things. Now I know that I am beautiful but it's my intelligence and whit and whimsy and creative side that the most personal aspects to me and are my most treasured and beautiful parts of me.

December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)

My first sense of Community in 2010 was definitely found in collegetown. Those folks I met there gave me so much that I could ever ask for and once again it was a life changing experience. You can read about it here, here, here, here, here, here and I really do miss everyone. Anotehr place I got a sense of community would be from the girls I work with at The Shoe Mill. They told me when I got hired that their coworkers are more like a family and everyday has just shown me that more and more. I feel blessed that I get to know everyone and have been given the opportunity to work there.

Friday I'm In Love: The List

My Birthday and Christmas are exactly one week apart. I'm usually not that much into getting presents and would much rather have people come and enjoy themselves sans gift or give that money to a good cause I am making a list of gifts that would be nice. Wait? I thought you JUST said you didn't like gifts?? That's right I'd be fine without them BUT I really want to get Ross something nice for Christmas and this is me posting this list hoping it will inspire him to post a list for me so that I can have some sort of idea where to go for his gift.

(I ask him now what he wants for Christmas and all he says is "You") =)

Any who these are all items I was looking to grab for myself at some point or another so here they are.

#1 Cross-body Bag

I'm hoping this will make riding a bike and life easier not having to balance a bag on my shoulder and instead have it secured with a strap across my body.

From Target

From Target

#2 Anything Hello Kitty

These bags aren't cross body but they are Hello Kitty!

From Sanrio

From Sanrio

From Sanrio

#3 Hello Kitty Sweater

I've been on the lookout for a Hello Kitty sweater for weeks now and I just can't find anything cute like this =/

From Tumbler

#4 Yarn

I just realized that there was a yarn store around the corner and they have the most incredible selection of fancy yarns there. I would love to take a class there or try out some of their neat wool blends. If I also was gifted any yarn I would be a happy camper.

#5 My Charger or New Camera

We can't find the charger to my little black friday deal of a Nikon from last year so right now the only camera I have is my phone. I would love to be able to just get a charger and keep my camera that still looks fantastic but one day (my savings are still nowhere close right now) I would love to have a beautiful Nikon D70 =) (or any fancy camera)

From Nikon

#6 Disneyland

Now I'm not asking for a trip to Disneyland (though that would be amazing) I'm down with someone to go with me! The last time I went was almost four years ago and I've been dying to put on my Mickey ears and go have a blast.

From We♥it

From We♥it

What is on your wishlist for Christmas?

Happy Birthday To You

This weekend I spent my time working and doing homework until Sunday. My sweet guy's birthday was yesterday and since my heart is happy and light and I can't find much else to write about I'll tell you how it all went down.

Ross likes cheesecake. He likes it when I make cheesecake for him and I really like making him cheesecake and making him happy. My cake decorator self asked what sort of cake he would like for his birthday and he said "Cheesecake" and me being me I made cheesecake.

I didn't make one. or two. but three birthday cheesecakes on Saturday night.

Ingredients

and a whole lot of cream cheese

Springform pans

I made a huge mess

but they came out beautiful!

Strawberry Cheesecake

Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Oreo Cookie Cheesecake

Red Velvet Birthday Cupcakes

White Fudge Iced Birthday Cupcakes

I went over Sunday afternoon and we spent the evening together watching 2001 A Space Odyssey (his favorite movie)

I really liked it but did not understand it at all! Anyone wanna help a girl out?? lol

Monday was Ross's actual birthday and I had school and he had work and Mondays are usually my longest days but I decided to play hooky and do something special for his day. I took a test and then my French class luckily got cancelled and I decided to not go to my evening class and instead I snuck into his apartment that is down the street from ASU's campus (and is it really sneaking in if you have a key??) and cleaned his place from top to bottom.

Thankfully his place was not as bad some guy's places I've been in and it only took a couple hours to get everything super clean. After that I made a white vegetarian pizza for when he got home (I'll post the recipe of that tomorrow for What to Eat Wednesday) and we ended up hanging out with his neighbors listening to music, sipping cold beers, and just talking on their candle-lit patio. It was such a nice night and when we came back inside he quickly updated his facebook status to this:

"I want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes and especially Marisela for making this the best birthday ever! :)"

and then I melted. We ended the night watching The Office and 30 Rock on Hulu and him playing his guitar for me. I forgot he had one, but we also looked at his myspace music page and I listened to some of the stuff he has recorded and posted on there. You should go and take a listen and see how UH-MAZING he is and then you can understand how I just turn into a puddle of gush whenever he plays for me (the last two tracks are not him singing and just friends and him goofing around..LOL)

The past two days have been so incredible and I'm soo happy that I play a part in making this a really happy birthday for Ross. He told me how he wonders how he got so lucky to get such a great girlfriend. (AHHH and I melt)

and yeah, "girlfriend" we sort of made it official ♥

But nothing changes! We're two still very happy people coming together and being awesome (lol)

"Can you die of happiness??"

I hope not.. but I hope all you lovely people have a very happy Tuesday!