Turning the big 21 in WA
I beg pardon for the fact that I’m two days late in posting, but packing for Austin and binge watching Love Island got the better of me. Then again, I never expressed explicitly that I would be posting on Sundays so let’s just pretend it’s still Sunday and move on.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” Not sure if Charles Dickens was speaking of the French Revolution or of my 21st. My birthday was a rollercoaster, to put it bluntly. As anyone who knows me well can attest, birthdays are very important — not just mine, but every single one. You can trust that on most of your birthdays, I will bring out the birthday parade, and so I had some pretty high expectations for my own 21st birthday.
And for the most part, turning 21 in Seattle was a surprising success! But there were definitely some blips, so this is my birthday week update for you all.
At 12:00 on my birthday, I dragged myself to a small bar across the street from my apartment to try my first ever sip of alcohol (for legal reasons this is not a joke). Nothing like conversing with a bunch of 52 year old drunk Karen’s and a bartender reminiscing on “the olden days of 21”. Really makes you feel super young. Also if you’re wondering what my drink of choice to start 21 off with was, it was obviously fireball. I don’t want to hear any slander about it being like the cinnamon challenge.
The next morning, I was literally blown away by the love and support I received from my friends back home. Some sent really beautiful cards with nice notes, others sent me gifts, I got a personalized bouquet of flowers from friends in different states (and countries!), customized glasses, and deliveries throughout the entire week. Number one tip: try to find friends like I’ve found in life and you’ll always be smiling, even with the rest of this entry. I felt really, really special- so thanks guys.
On to the bad news, my apartment has been malfunctioning little by little since I arrived, and it decided my birthday should be the grand finale. A couple of weeks ago, I was awakened in the middle of my night by the tenant underneath me, saying that water was dripping from up here through his ceiling, and that this had been going on since the last person occupied my room. It turned out that the dishwasher has a leak, which meant that maintenance dragged in Seattle Water Recovery, who promptly showed up the next morning with Hazmat suits ready to investigate. As part of their plan, they installed two ginormous, loud, and bulky humidifiers in my room, which they said would stay there for a 24 hour period. Imagine my horror when five days later, the humidifiers were still there- meaning a few things 1.) hot air had circulated enough to turn the room into a sauna 2.) I had not slept in four days and 3.) working from home had become a horror movie and 4.) the moisture had caused mold to grow from my potatoes. Luckily, when I explained all of this to the front desk along with the fact that the estimated date for my room being ready could take 2-3 weeks, they were helpful and reassigned me to a temporary room, which I am now staying in. However that coupled with trying to install a monitor by myself (I’ve learned my lesson and will be leaning on my tech friends from now on) and working (note to self: take your birthday off) was just a lot going on at one time. The disaster continued the next day, when Seattle water recovery made an unexpected visit to my old room and locked me out by accident, which caused me to have to call maintenance to complain again. Let’s just say… I think maintenance is probably sick of me at this point.
But I did end the day on a very high note, hanging out with two of my friends at a sushi restaurant and then going to a super fun bar where I got to drink fun cocktails while wearing a glittery unicorn helmet. What could be more perfect, I ask?
As for the rest of the week, my friend Yami came to visit and I enjoyed being a tourist in my own city. We went to Pike Place market, did the great wheel, LOVED wings over Washington, and had a picnic at green lake park. Then we also went to Snoqualmie falls (the waterfall from the opening scene of Twin Peaks), explored downtown Bellevue, and spent way too much time in a gift shop lol. Yami, I know you generally read my blogs, so if you’re reading this one, I just want to say thank you for giving me the best birthday present of all: an amazing birthday weekend. And to all of my readers who are mostly my friends and family, thanks for making 21 surprising and interesting, but in ~most~ of the best ways.
Now we just made an announcement that we’re landing in Austin soon, so I’m off to work. Expect a corporate update on my first big work conference away….very soon!