Today I am celebrating my birthday by working over 8hours, eating really good Chinese food for lunch, and filling out grad. applications tonight. The best part of it all is the Sour Bubble Tea that I'm drinking at the moment. The reason that I am working until 5:30 tonight is that I went home this past weekend to see my family and celebrate my birthday.
It started with me catching the bus from Philly to Syracuse (which is a new route by Mega Bus). I talked and laughed with the other people waiting in line, impatiently since the bus was late. Once the bus arrived, I was annoyed to find out that both the wi-fi and the electricity was not working, meaning I (1) could not get on the web and (2) that my mac ran out of juice about two hours into the four hour and twenty minutes trip. I arrived at Syracuse were my sister was waiting for me. We hugged and headed to the mall near by since I was dieing of hunger (having not eaten since breakfast and it being almost 1pm). Then we wondered around the mall a little, talking and doing a little shopping. My brothers, impatient to see me, kept calling to see where we were.
Once we got home I was practically mugged by the new puppy (a terrier/beagle mix), who luckily excepted me as part of the family right way. I hugged my dad, and then quickly ran to hide from my youngest brother who had come tearing out of the house. With much laughter and ridiculousness on the part of the dog and my brother we made our way into the house with all of my bags. While resting and waiting for the rest of the family to get home my dad and sister shared stories of the puppy, while my youngest brother showed me several of his newest card tricks (which I must say he is rather good at).
We had pizza for dinner (it was Papa Johns, not my favorite), in which more laughter was had then eating. I don't think it is possible for me to express the absolute craziness of my family and our dinner conversations. At one point my sister was laughing so hard that she was snorting (which is the normally the indication that we are being absolutely out of control and rather silly). After dinner I started some laundry and then left in the green monster (my parents old Chevy pickup) and went to see my best friend. We purchased a bottle of wine and drank through it while talking (we had not seen each other since May) and watched Misty Edwards 'search for relevance' message on YouTube. (You should check it out, its long but so worth it).
The next morning I ate breakfast and headed back to my parents to go shopping with my mom and sister. We also wanted to get our phone's figured out. After helping my mother organize and load the car with clothing to give to salvation army, we were on the road to Ithaca. Our first stop, At&t. Not only did I desperately need to get a new phone (my old one was four years old, falling a part, and dieing), we also had decided to add texting. Luckily we ended up with a 20% off, since my mum works for the City of Ithaca (amazing!). We had the most amazing customer support guy ever. I left we a new phone (which looks rather spiffy). Next was Walmart for water (we had forgotten to bring some with us), then off to Salvation Army with our boxes of clothing and other stuff. Finally we went up to the little Shops at Ithaca Mall and went shopping. My sister and I had fun picking out clothing for my Mom at Christopher and Banks. Then we went over to Gap to look for a birthday gift for myself. Amazingly we found nothing that I wants, the store was unfortunately not taken care of very well. Giving up we made our way back home to have lasagna and cake that my sister made.
After another rather reticules supper filled with good food, and laughter, was an amazing homemade cake for desert. Actually let me explain what the cake was, it was no normal cake. It was a dark chocolate cake with a hard Candie top made of white and milk chocolate. Then nicely arranged on top was raspberries and strawberries. It was amazing. Sorry if I made you all hungry, but it was better then I can describe it. Dinner and cake done we cleared the table, put the dishes in the dishwasher and started a game of pitch.
Pitch, for those of you who do not know it, is an amazingly fun game. Its in the same family as bridge. (If you want instructions on how to play I could maybe give you the basic rules, let me know). We played with partners, my sister and I together, the youngest brother with my mother and the elder brother with my dad. My sister and I won two games in a row (we are amazing like that). Then we all went off to bed (having church the next morning).
After church, during which I had a lot of 'its been a long time' and 'how are you?' thrown at me (it really is nice to see my church family I miss them all so much), we went home. At home my dad started the boys on chores (ie picking the winter squash out of the garden) and we all ate lunch (mostly left over chicken b-que). My father and I sat down and watched the beginning of the Texas/Giants game (in which the Giants were very much winning). I then went and had a very long and amazing nap. Then we had stake, beats, and squash for dinner (my best friend joined us), with the rest of the amazing cake for desert.
Monday I woke early and together left with both of my parents to make the trip back to philly. I had convinced my mother to join my dad and as I was hoping to do a little shopping (I still needed a B-day gift). We made the trip in good time (watching the fall colors flash by). We stopped at the Kind of Prussia mall, where we drooled over Burberry, ate lunch, made out like a bandit in Ann Taylor, and found an amazing rain jacket in Sears. Our shopping complete we jumped back on the road and arrived in Philly just before the start of rush hour. My parents helped me get my stuff out of the car and into the apartment (made fun of my messy room), and then left again. I took a quick nap, went grocery shopping, and made dinner and went to bed. All in all a very crazy, fun, and all around amazing weekend at home. Of course I am now 25 year old... meaning as my sister says 'quarter of a century young'. Any one else feeling old right now?
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