i was going to write a really long blog entry when i was home for spring break three weeks ago about how i love spring (break)! but obviously that failed, along with my mission to spring clean my entire room, which i have not cleaned out since i moved in in 8th grade. but this (click 01 & 02) is what i feel like when i'm home and it's march in denver and it's sunny and just starting to get warm again. happy, and unable to sit still, and obnoxiously cheerful because my seasonal depression is in fact, incredibly codependent on the sun. i went home for spring break hoping to stay home on our porch swing and be lazy with a glass of lemonade or whatever cliche, and instead i was out with friends for the majority of it. big surprise, especially when your break falls on saint patrick's day and it's the first year where all of your friends are finally 21.

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(tangent in honor of march 17: obviously that night was ridiculous. i don't actually own anything green except a cotton t-shirt that i didn't bring home, so i wore all black instead and attempted to make up for it by wearing strings of green mardi gras beads, painting my nails a sparkly lime, and doing my eyeshadow in the same color. the previous day it had been 72 degrees and sunny - mar17 was windy, below 60, and freezing :|. alex, claire, daren and i ordered in pizza and then took the light rail downtown. we decided to wander around till we found somewhere with a lot of people, which ended up being SURPRISE, the tilted kilt. i really did not want to end up there because it is such a bar for broheims, but in retrospect, i am really, really glad we did.

after doing a tequila shot and then getting hit on by an obnoxious pushing-40 drunk at the bar who kept cajoling me for my zodiac sign and then KICKED ME in what he thought was a ~playful, flirty manner but was actually REALLY OBNOXIOUS and scuffed my pants, he bought us all rum and cokes and we got the fuck out of the bar and found a table at the back where daren and i ordered this fruity thing called purple haze that was really fucking delicious. we noticed these two older men who were having no luck finding anywhere to sit, so since there was only 4 of us at a 6-person table, we offered to share. i'd mentioned earlier that my goal of the night was to somehow get one of the huge green leprechaun hats that 60% of the people were wearing and this ended up being the entire catalyst for the rest of the night, so i pat myself on the back: first i spotted this guy across the room wearing the best hat ever - shiny green satin, an actual buckle in front - and then the two guys sitting at our table heard us and decided, along with my friends, to help me get that damn hat from the guy.

at this point we're all drunk already, so we're all being loud and obnoxious and saying ridiculous things. one of the guy's name's was biff (LOL. he wouldn't tell us his name for the longest time because of what it is. his friend's name was graham, they were both 37, and graham lied to us for a while by saying he was a dish washer when actually he's a graphic designer who sometimes comes to syracuse on business) and he was very charismatic and said I BET IF YOU FLASHED HIM HE'D GIVE IT TO YOU, but then i was like no that's ridiculous. the guy in the hat got up to use the restroom and biff was like, I'M GOING TO BARTER HIM FOR THE HAT and follows the guy into the bathroom LOL. graham said if he actually came out with the hat we should probably run because that meant the guy was probably unconscious on the bathroom floor, but we didn't actually think biff was going to come out with the hat on his head UNTIL HE DID, LIKE, 10 MINUTES LATER. funniest thing ever.

until he told us the guy wanted me to flash him if i wanted to keep the hat. biff also said the guy's friend, who was kind of attractive, had another hat that he would also give to us if all four of us flashed him. so usually i would say um, fuck no, but i was really drunk, and we decided to mull it over for a while while ordering two pizzas. biff was going back and forth between tables to bargain for us, but it eventually got to the point where alex, daren and i said we'd do it but claire was still saying NO THANKS. somehow biff managed to convince her because SOMEBODY TOLD US we wouldn't have to show boobs, just our bras - so we beckon the guy and his friend over, all four of us actually stand up and flash our bras holy crap i have never done anything like this before - and the guy snatches his fucking hat back because he was expecting boobs. sorry, pal, you are a loser with glasses and chin length hair who probably just saw more cleavage than you ever have in your life, take what you can get. SO DISAPPOINTING!

apparently there was a misunderstanding with what the terms and conditions were. anyway. the loser's attractive friend liked daren, but after that entire thing daren was basically of the opinion that he was a perv, so no go there. we told biff and graham we deserved something for our effort so they bought the entire table another round of tequila shots! that we did straight because the waitress was slow in bringing our limes and salt :|. at some point biff said he'd drop his pants if any of us got a hat for him, but we never thought it would happen until out of the blue alex goes to the bathroom and comes back with a VELVET LEPRECHAUN HAT WITH A FEATHER STICKING OUT OF IT. holy shitttt. all of us were literally like :OOO WHERE DID YOU GET THAT. she said she met a guy coming out of the bathroom and asked him where he got his hat, and he gave it to her in exchange for a kiss. LOL! i love single!alex. so, biff dropped his pants. i was laughing too hard at this point to really see much, but claire said he dropped everythinggg - boxers and all. ew. glad i didn't see that.

another minute and the guy who alex got the hat from came over and asked for her number, to which she said no thanksss, but offered to buy him a beer instead. daren and i for some reason also bought biff and graham car bombs before they left because they were driving to blackhawk (biff is a pro poker player?). after they left daren is on my left saying she is in love with graham and has texted biff about him, and on my right is the guy who gave alex the hat (ian) hitting on alex. and then daren texts saul!!! to come meet us because he is downtown too with his new gf, and when he comes in i run over to greet him and when i come back to our table all of the sudden there are like, 15 guys sitting with us now.

apparently they are all ian's friends, apparently they're all in the air force, and i am really drunk and don't actually give a shit until one of them gives me like 10 strands of green beads and starts to hit on me. he is wearing a slouchy beanie and a big sweater and tight pants, is really cute, (and a hipster,) and he keeps telling me how beautiful and cute i am!!! he says his last name is stuart but won't give me his first name because he says he wants to ~be mysterious~ lmfao idek, and i don't learn that it's brandon until about 10 minutes later. so, i'm not the smoothest operator when i'm drunk so i just keep laughing and telling him he's being extremely forward and how extremely drunk he also is. i can also play his game, so i tell him my last name, the first letter of my first name when i'm typing my number in his phone, anddd that's it. he asks me to go outside with him but i'm like buddy, i don't know you - i don't think so. apparently during all this alex has made friends with another airforce guy, anthony, and ian has moved on to hit on claire who apparently kissed him too!? but i missed all of this.

after this we leave with saul and gf heidi and walk down a couple blocks to pat's, another bar where daren knows the dj from her work. he plays all the songs we request and we danceeeeee until the bar closes :D. claire texts ian and alex and i tell her to tell ian to come to pat's and bring anthony and brandon! but ian tells claire that anthony is MARRIED and brandon has a girlfriend. greaaat. so forget them, saul buys us another round of tequila shots, and we just continue dancing. on our way back home claire gives me a piggy back, we witness another fight on the light rail jfc, and then we walk back to claire's house and i pass out on her couch.

and then brandon texts me the next day and i decide i don't really give a fuck about the girlfriend situation! we try to meet up but it does not work out and so we just continue talking via phone and it is good until...now, three weeks later and i am wholly disinterested in him because i'm flighty and he's too available and too interested and eager and just ugh. i guess i will have to cut him out of my life like an asshole.)

tangent ii: spring break itinerary //
fri, mar11 daren picks me up from airport, chipotle for lunch, relax at home :)
sat, mar12 koreahouse & lollicup w daren, free promotional shirt for sucker punch
sun, mar13 church, lunch at panera w ivo, boulder meeting w churchies, claire's house to chill w daren and claire (clap on! clap off!), jurassic park w qq
mon, mar14 gtop dvd!, relax
tue, mar15 give dad a full makeover to show mom how to do makeup, pinkberry w daren & claire
wed, mar16 haircut at great asian salon, feather search and ulta trip and chipotle for dinner and princess and the frog!! w daren & claire
thu, mar17 lol st patricks day at tilted kilt shenanigans (see above)
fri, mar18 lollicup w qq, dinner at thai restaurant w churchies, cupcakes at the shoppe in capitol hill w daren & alex & claire
sat, mar19 makeup consult by urban decay at ulta w daren & michelle, chipotle for lunch, shopping at cherry creek w daren & claire & michelle, dinner at maggianos w family

however, despite being out more than i stayed at home, i did somehow convince my entire family to go out to eat at maggiano's to celebrate both michelle and dad's birthdays. this was somewhat of a small victory for me, since my mom and my grandma rarely like going out to eat because they're such picky eaters. plus my dad got incredibly cranky about how late i made the reservation for (8:45) and for the first time in a while i saw him get unreasonably pouty with me! but it still ended up being a great night. the food was delicious, especially the mussels in white wine and the gnocchi in vodka sauce, and our server gave us free smore cakes after i told him about the birthdays. qq lovedd the food, michelle was happy because she wanted italian all along and didn't actually think she was going to get it, and dad ate over half the mussels i think, haha. mom kept commenting about the greatness of the restaurant and looked continually impressed by how... sophisticated? i guess is the right word... i was.

i guess i do feel more and more like a growned up every time i'm back home, now. i ordered a glass of moscato at dinner and the night before and the server almost forgot to ask to see my ID. when i was out with my older friends at a thai restaurant who used to treat me like a baby, their was no age rift in our conversation this time and it just felt... weird. in a good way. you know? we talked about the job market and alexandra wallace and i asked them to tone down the asian-to-white prejudice and we discussed thailand. i've traveled more than some of them. it's just weird, suddenly i've crossed over from 21 to "in my 20's" and i'm suddenly no longer a child. the next landmark age is, what? 25? 30? i drive my own car and i pay bills and grocery shop and clean house and i chaperone teenagers and i'm networking for a job - a career - after i graduate in about a month. A MONTH. i feel old 8(

i've kept this blog for over a year now. i plan to keep it after graduating because i don't think i will ever run out of stories to remember or inner turmoil to work out or lists to make, so it will definitely be interesting to see where life takes me when i look back on my life in another year. i wonder where i will be.

for now, i can't wait for may 15th, when i get to leave syracuse with it's 63 days of sunshine on average a year, and instead trade it for denver again, with it's 290~ days of sun. i haven't been in denver for septembers, for octobers, for februaries and aprils, since 2007. with my seasonal depression in mind, it means i'll be happy again for at least 290~ days of the year. it'll be a good change :).

mood_ anxious
music_ 2 am - anna nalick
crave_ chipotle

Labels: alcohol, bars, boys, family, friends, good things, graduation, holidays, life, love