A few days ago, I turned 21 — the last of my group of friends to do so.  I stopped being super excited about birthdays a few years ago — I think that’s just part of getting older — but I was excited about this one.  I’m definitely not one to go out and get wasted, but I was pretty pumped to be able to buy a drink or two.  I appreciate alcohol like I appreciate coffee: I really enjoy learning the differences between what goes into different drinks and how they are made.  I appreciate the artistry.

This was the first birthday I’ve ever celebrated away from home.  I had to come back to my university for one of my last exams of the summer, and I decided to stay since classes are starting soon.  It was a little weird being away from my family, but my mom called while I was still in bed and sang Happy Birthday to me, which made me happy.  She also wanted to make sure I would be at my apartment, since she knew these would be arriving soon:

How cute are these?

I had actually started out my birthday by cleaning my apartment, since I hadn’t been there in a month.  Really I was just killing time until the boyfriend arrived.  I hadn’t seen him in about a month, so having him come up was a really great present!  He’d had a canvas made for me of one of my favorite photos of his:

He has a lot of talent even though he only really became interested in photography about a year ago.  How gorgeous is that photo?  I’m very excited to hang up that canvas.  And it also made me happy that it was in keeping with the pink theme.

Neither of us had any food at our places, so we went grocery shopping together and of course ended up buying a little alcohol.  Neither of us has tried very much alcohol, and he was interested in giving Mike’s Hard Lemonade a go.  We decided on the strawberry lemonade flavor, and then I wanted to look at the wine, since it’s still relatively new in grocery stores.  Different types of wine interest me, and most of it (at the grocery store, at least) is pretty cheap, which is awesome for students like us!  One of my friends had let me try Yellowtail Moscato before, and I noticed there was a rosé version.  I’ve been interested in trying rosé, mostly because it’s pretty, so of course we had to buy a bottle.  It wasn’t at all planned, but look at all that pink!

Then he took me to our favorite local Mexican restaurant for dinner.  It was low-key and perfect and lovely.

Back at home that night we tried the hard lemonade.  The verdict was that it was okay.  Out of the few things we’ve both tried, it was neither of our favorites.  It was a little bit too sweet for me, and I don’t think he liked the aftertaste very much.  But it was definitely drinkable.

The next day, we grilled burgers for dinner.  Using ranch packets in burgers and other things has become somewhat of a dinner signature for us, and we wanted to use the little grill my parents had gotten me this summer.  I have a little deck off my bedroom, so we set up the grill and sat outside while the burgers cooked.  While we waited, we tried the pink moscato.  I loved it.  Drinking wine makes me feel classy, and I really enjoyed the taste and how pretty it was in the glass.  I’m no wine connoisseur, but I do know what I like.  The boyfriend wasn’t as crazy about it as I was, but he still had about half a glass.

To top off the pinkness of my birthday, my roommate had very sweetly surprised me with a four-pack of Seagram’s Jamaican Me Happy, which is a really pretty light pink.  She bought it without knowing what we had bought the day before, and I was almost more excited about it being pink than I was about the alcohol.  I forgot to take a picture, and we haven’t tried it yet, but it’s a mix of lemon, strawberry, watermelon, and guava, and it sounds delicious.

All in all, it was the most perfect way I could’ve spent my birthday.  I’m very excited to continue learning about and trying different types of alcohol.  More than that, though, this year will be the year I (hopefully) graduate college and begin a big-girl job.  I’m a little anxious about my class load this year, but I am so ready to move on to different things and become more officially independent.  Cheers to my 21st year!