Birthday Celebrations

So! I left off after Irish Studies, yeah? Kay, well we got home earlier than expected and I had about an hour and a half so I made some dinner and then headed out to the bus stop to get Hadley. The bus was late, which was weird, and worried me a little, BUT she finally arrived and we had a glorious hug sesh before I walked her back to my house. I was really glad I made dinner earlier so we didn't have to worry about it when we got home. We ate and then, the moment we both had been waiting for, we made FUNFETTI CAKE!!! For those of you that don't know what funfetti cake is, well, it's amazing first off, secondly: it's a white cake with sprinkles that melt in the oven and create pretty colors inside the cake! I also had matching icing all thanks to the lovely Nacole Pasuit - home friend and neighbor extraordinaire (it came in her care package from about a month ago). It took forever to make since our oven isn't that great, but it was finally finished, iced, and ready to be eaten! My friends sang to my because admittedly I bought candles for it earlier in Gort haha and we promptly devoured the entire cake. It was delicious. After that we went to bed because we both had a really long day.

Saturday was pretty much the best day/night ever. Let me explain. We started off the day pretty laid back: got up, made some breakfast, and hung around with the house mates for a while before leaving the house for our daily plans. Around noon we were going to meet up with my friend Alyssa and take a walk to Bishop's Quarter, a beach that stretches along the bay. So we left and waited for Alyssa at the Soda Parlour in town (which is a cute little cafe that closes down in the off season but just recently re-opened up). I got a milkshake (yay!) and we chatted until she came. After she arrived we decided to eat lunch on our way back and then started our walk. It was a very nice day out, though it started out sunny it was overcast by the time we started walking. We headed down to the old church and graveyard first. I always pass by this site on the bus on our way out of Ballyvaughan and I've always wanted to visit so this was a great opportunity! So yeah, here are the photos from that:

Alyssa sitting in the window =)

Hads and me

The limestone mountains of the Burren in the background

So then we headed down the road a couple more minutes to get to the beach. It wasn't as pretty as it could have been if it had been high tide, but it was still pretty cool. We walked along the water and then up through the sand dunes. I didn't take that many pictures because, well I don't really know why, actually haha, but here is a picture of us by the water.

After that we headed back to the Soda Parlour for lunch. By then it had started drizzling and we were a little wet but the three of us had a really good lunch and chat. We then left and headed back to Orchard, arriving soaking wet since it had started raining harder while we were eating lunch, haha. A nap was in order, since we were both still really tired, and also since we would be dancing it up at the disco that night and we wanted to be well rested, haha.

That night we went to dinner at Logue's for my birthday, it was me, Hadley, Hannah, Maggie, and Loretta and it was really really nice. Casey straightened my hair before we left and we got all dolled up for the disco so we looked nice. After dinner I got fudge cake, partially because I love it, partially because Hads had to try it, and partially because Casey made me so they could sing to me again haha. I was center of attention for a minute (now the whole pub knew it was my birthday) and then after devouring dessert we hung around until the DJ got there.

Now let me just say that usually DJ McCormack is our MC. The thing about DJ McCormack is that, well, he still uses CDs. This means two things. One, he clearly doesn't do much DJ-ing and Two, we hear A LOT of the same songs over and over (mainly Rihanna, Black Eyed Peas, and Michael Jackson). I was actually kind of excited for Hadley to experience Mr. DJ McCormack, but we were pleasantly surprised to find out that there was a different DJ that night, and boy was he good! haha. Not only did he play better music (slash not repetitive music) but EVERYONE was out on the dance floor. It was such a good night, Logue's was packed and everyone had a great time. Of course I had some drinks, what would a 21st birthday be without some drinks, haha, but mostly I was happy to be dancing and have my friend from home with me. Here are some pictures from that night.

Shawn and Liam/Dad's of Orchard

Hads and me, of course

The whole gang! Minus Erica

Emerson and Brijit, my wonderful models

My great roomie who danced with me for my birthday!!!! (Hey Ya will always remind me of it haha)

Yes guys, this is Logue's when it's "packed" haha, I live out in the country, wadduya want!?

Mandy's boyfriend, Scott was also in town!!!! So this him and Mandy =)

So yeah, that night was really fun. We came back to Orchard around 2:30 ish and hung out eating ice cream and doing this and that for a while, probably didn't go to bed until around 4, and finally had hit the hay. It was wonderful.

For Sunday we had lots of plans, however I wasn't sure if we were going to go through with them all depending on when we ACTUALLY got out of bed. Hads had to leave around 2:20 so getting up a little early was in order. She got up around 8:30 though and we were out the door headed towards the school by 10ish. That gave us plenty of time to visit the same stone abandoned ruin house that Kate and I adventured to in the past as well as go to the school and get home in time for her to get ready and go.

The house looked SO DIFFERENT! There is tones of wild garlic growing everywhere as well as little wild flowers so now it's ten times more green =)

Yup, so we got back from all of that, she packed her stuff and we were ready to head out the door. Unfortunately her traveling home was EXTREMELY difficult and there were lots of problems, the worst being that she missed her flight and had to stay in Dublin for the night. I felt awful, but it was out of both of our control, so she did what she had to do and got back the next morning to Scotland in time for school, thank goodness. It was so nice having her here though. Like I said when Nina came, it's just so wonderful to have a familiar face around; and getting the chance to show a friend around where you live is so fun! I've only done that a few times in my life but I really enjoy playing hostess. It was sad to have her leave, I wish her and Nina could have both stayed longer, but I know I will see them again after my program lets out so I just keep telling myself that =)

The rest of my actual birthday was pretty much nothing special. I got back from dropping her off, sulked around the house for a bit and finally motivated myself to get my photo assignment done. As much as I didn't want to do it, Erica helped me and we got it done in time for dinner. The rest of the night was spent talking to family, worrying about Hadley not getting home, and going to bed as early as possible; because again, like I said with Nina's visit, having someone visit puts you in a completely different state of mind, one of which does not involve work, and one that makes you very tired haha.

So that was my birthday weekend, it was pretty much everything I could have asked for and thank you so much everyone who gave me birthday wishes, I love you all!!!

I'll update more on my life soon, but this was a lot of updating so maybe I'll do it tomorrow haha. Basically tonight I'm catching up on everything: filling out forms, writing resumes, painting, stretching more canvas, etc. etc. We are going to the Aran Islands this weekend so there is a lot of work to do before Saturday! Kay, I'm gonna go eat my ben & Jerry's Coconutterly Fair Ice Cream now!