Young Girl Smacked in the Face with Adulthood at 9:05 Yesterday Morning

So I'm twenty now.

Despite this impressive age I've managed to attain, I got excited like a five year old on my birthday. The night before I was giddy, and I spent pretty much all of Friday with a big, stupid grin plastered all over my face. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I started my day with a google hangout with my Mom before leaving for class. And that Spiderman present I've been holding on to? Nailed it. Totally a book.



But I didn't have a clue that it was Hyrule Historia!!! The best part about this present is that not only will it look fantastic on my shelf/beside me forever, but it came at the perfect time. I've been listening to the 25th Anniversary Legend of Zelda Symphony Orchestra CD all month and I've been dying to dive back into Majora's Mask. In summary, I have been in such a Zelda lately, and now I have this. Joy.

What I didn't know was that there was another little surprise in that bag, these lovely, lovely sterling silver (right? I think that's right.) celtic earings. So pretty. If I didn't mention it, I trained my ears to wear earings again this summer. After around six years of never really wearing them this was very exciting and totally worth the pain. Since the summer I've been wearing earrings almost every day, so this was, once again, the perfect gift. All of my gifts were perfect, I guess, because I don't think that something purchased with love for you could ever be less than perfection. Gift giving trumps all.



My whole family, but especially my mother has kind of a thing for anything celtic, so I like that these earrings make me think of her. Also Charmed. But that also makes me think of comfy afternoons couching-it with Mom and plowing through a few seasons of our favorite witch-y show.

As you might imagine, with all this excitement, I was late to my 10:30 class. To my credit, I was only around ten minutes late, but still. Eventually I ran into the two best friends in all the world, and more gifts were given. I'm just going to put pictures of all of them here because let's face it, you can show off on your birthday. It's not my birthday anymore but let's pretend that the rules still apply.

I got some German coffee that I am rather excited to enjoy. Another addition of the summer was a kind of addiction to caffine, which I'm pretty much over now but I do still really enjoy a good cup of Joe. Plus isn't this just the perfect present for a student? The answer is yes- yes it is.



Along with this I got a glorious Clinique Chubby Stick. It's in the shade 'Whopping Willow', which is really (I imagine) just a typo for 'Whomping Willow'. But you guys. This colour. You guys. Let's go full beauty blog on this and swatch it. Oh yes.



I feel I should offer some form of explanation here. Remember last winter when I got crazy into vlogs on youtube? This summer that subscription sphere grew to absorb beauty channels, and now... yeah. Make-up. I cannot wait to get this shit all over my face. It may seem kind of weird for a twenty year old woman to only now be delving into the world of make-up, but just shush. It's not weird at all. I've been busy. Point is, perfect present, because I would never have bought something like this for myself.

But that's not all! I feel like my friends really upped the game on birthday presents this year, to which all I can say is challenge accepted. I got this Star Trek Earl Grey tea (it smells out of this fucking world). I have to say that the tea itself is a ridiculous bonus to the prettiness of the actual tin it comes in. I also got the Teatanic, which is a tea infuser SHAPED LIKE THE TITANIC. I know, right? This gift was perfection because I have this weird thing. I'm not sure how to explain it. Essentially I consider time in relation to the day the Titanic sank. For instance, WWII started in 1939, right? So to give myself some perspective on the world at this time, I just automatically think to myself, 'oh, that's 27 years after the Titanic sank'. It honestly does help me picture the time period even though I wouldn't say that I have a crystal clear picture of 1912 or anything, it's just... this thing that I do. Teatanic!



As for my actual day, after classes I went shopping with friends and had the best time considering that I have no money, and then I actually had to go to a student involvement training thing on campus for like two and half hours. Not my favorite birthday activity, but hey. We got free dinner. After that it was off to finish The Hobbit with tea and my personal favorite, cake. My friend baked this for me last night. It's true. She baked it for me.

The only thing better than how pretty it looks is how delicious it tasted. And it was full of apples. Guys, I love apples. She baked this. We ate it while we watched The Hobbit. It was like a dream come true.

As a side note about that movie, does anyone else feel like it's sort of a dream when they watch it? I feel that I was waiting for this movie to be made and to come out for so many years that sometimes I still can't believe that it's actually a thing that exists now. Every time I watch it I'm struck by this happiness that this is a thing that exists in real life, not just in my head. It's like when I was little and I got a Buffy the Vampire Slayer advent calendar in the shops. That was a thing that existed, and I was there when it did. Happiness!

After the movie I caught a bus home and played Majora's Mask for about fourty minutes before going to sleep. It may sound like a boring way to end a birthday, but to be honest I think I've done something exciting every Friday night since school started and it was euphoric to be able to spent this Friday scarfing down an amazing cake with some friends and enjoy my favorite story ever happen on the screen in front of me. Ending that magic with going to sleep in my own bed was icing on a fabulous birthday cake.

Birthday #20: Successful.

Pain and Suffering had a lovechild called Disease, and it's currently residing in my sinuses.

                Life happened this weekend, and it was just too hardcore for me. On Friday night, what was supposed to be a quiet night in with friends turned into alcohol, straight up. The strangest thing is, it wasn't even like our usually get togethers with all of us sitting around slurring a hilarious commentary on the Lord of the Rings films. I'm not going to lie, we didn't even finish The Hobbit.

                This isn't to say that it wasn't still a fun night. From what I can remember wonderful times were had, and that's a certainty. If I'm honest, I'm not sure if I've ever been to that state of inebriation before, but I could be wrong. It's more from the description of the events afterward that lead me to this conclusion, rather than my memories of the night itself. I do remember that we unfortunately went on twitter.

Luckily my more sober friends didn't let me tweet this little gem. But I kid, this picture actually wasn't taken with twitter in mind, it was taken for this blog! Yup. I wanted to make sure that I got evidence of last Friday night for all the internet (and mostly me, a few years down the road) to see. Forever. What a treat. The picture actually makes it look like I was drinking alone (never a good thing to do), so I'll include another one: 

See? I had Bilbo! Bilbo was there! But seriously, I wasn't alone.

... I WAS WITH A CAT! No but really, I'm only joshing you. That's my friend's cat. Ain't she adorable? I'm a dog person but that cat is cute. Seriously though it wasn't just me the cat and Bilbo.

There you go. I don't have three hands. This could not have been faked. I was going to put a few more up with some faces, but I feel like I should ask permission before doing that. Also I feel I should mention that my hair was wet, and that's why it looks all funny. What else do you do when drunk during a t-storm but go outside for a Natalie Portman moment in the rain?

                But enough about that. I haven't even come to the main event yet. On Saturday morning, not only did I awaken with a lovely aching of the head, but I was downright sick as a dog. You should understand, because I'm not sure if I've mentioned before, that I do not get sick. Ever. It's just not a thing  that happens to me with any sort of frequency. I feel like maybe once a year is a good estimate. But right now, as I type this, I am SO FUCKING ILL. My throat is on fire with every breath that I take and my sinuses are congested to bursting. From the constant tissues, the whole area around my nose is burning, along with some of my upper lip. In short I am miserable. And short. Saturday night I even had a fever. This is really not funny. This is not a pretty picture. This, future me, is the time when you got so drunk that your immune system took a night off during back-to-school sickness season. I hope that I remember this occasion of suffering for all time.

                But here, ladies and gentlemen, is the rub- next Friday night is my birthday, which either means that I'm going to (and I sincerely, desperately hope that I won't) do this all over again, or that I'm going to spend my twentieth nursing my sinuses and conserving my speech, because it hurts so much to talk. At least I'll finally know what's in that goddamn Spider-man bag. I think it's a book. Oh, and the other rub is that I have to go through a three hour botany lab today in a forest. Considering how weak and fumbling my person currently is, I will honestly be amazing if I can survive this, and I'll be gobsmacked if I can then return home and finish this English assignment for tomorrow.

                 There's a few lessons to be learned here, I do believe. The first is that you should never, ever drink when there's even a chance that you're fighting back some godawful disease. The second is more something for me to keep in mind for the future, I think my idea of a good time does not involve copious amounts of booze. If there's one thing I do remember from the night it's an extreme annoyance that we were all too drunk to finish watching The Hobbit. Moderation is key, because otherwise sitting down becomes more amusing than actually watching a film, and that's just a waste of time.

Optimism Parameters in OVERDRIVE.

First week of third year happened! How exciting is that? I know that at the time, I thought high school went flying by but I guess the fact that university is something I dreamed of for so long before actually coming here that I just sort of assumed that it would take up a greater portion of my life. Really, though, your undergrad is only four years long, which is... not very long at all...

But I'm sure you're all wondering just how my first week of classes actually went, so I'll give you the lovely scoop on my activities. : )

Overall, it actually went fantastic. Being in third year, I feel like I really have this whole university thing down. Guelph is my main city. Profs are my peeps. Various other like expressions. I love that every year I come back to Guelph I can't go on campus without running into familiar faces. At least, I love this now, come exam time when I'm plowing through campus to get a book from the library despite having not showered for three days I'll be significantly less happy about running into friends who want to 'chat'. But it's the beginning of the semester, so let's not go there just yet! Let's enjoy the fact that I have lots of friends and people to say hello to on campus. I know that this must be at least a semi-new concept for me, because I think I have a really over the top reaction of surprise when I run into someone I'm not expecting. Maybe it's because I'm a scientist- I find order in the world, and when that order get's disturbed and my housemate comes home early while I'm still cooking dinner and I flip the fuck out. You'd think a scientist would be more composed, but again, maybe that's the issue. New hypothesis: I've developed a careful exterior persona to be used when in the company of others, with slight variations depending on whether I'm with friends or acquaintances. When people surprise me they're effectively shattering this persona, or my 'cool' which takes me an inordinate amount of time to regain. That, or I just get surprised really easily. But it's always good to go more in-depth when it comes to self-reflection.

One person I ran into was actually a... I suppose' role model' of mine. It was wonderful getting the chance to catch up with her and hear about what she's been up to lately. I don't think she knows this, but she's kind of living my dream, and ever since meeting her in my first year I've really looked up to her. It was a lovely surprise seeing her again and I think it's given the whole semester a really inspiring atmosphere. I feel like great things are going to happen this season. I think I told you that second year was the year of 'what the hell am I doing with this degree', yes? Well, third year is looking more and more like the year where I finally figured my life out and just went for it. 

Speaking of old friends, this past week has been a whirlwind of socialization and I'm loving it. My two bestest friends in the world are always the best thing about coming back to Guelph and I feel like we've already had a mountain of good times. Sometimes I'm just happy.

Also, 13 more days until my birthday. Whaaaaaat?!

Summer's End, New Beginnings, and Fancy-Looking Temptations.

I finally managed to find a place where the AC works, and I'm freezing cold now. Life.

So I'm not unaware that there was a distinct gap in my posts recently. The truth is very dull- nothing really happened to post about. I did find a place to live, which means that I did get to go back to Guelph to continue my education. Sometimes it seems like the world is conspiring to not get me my undergraduate degree, but if that's so then it's also true that I'm winning this battle of wills, and that's not so bad. When I think about how much my staying here at university is chance, luck, government loans and a totally modest iron will to stay, I get a little worried, and then I get very angry that this country is set up in such a way that I have to worry about being able to stay in school.

But anyway, the important thing is, my greatest and most unforgettable fuck-up has finally been corrected and I have a place to sleep! Not to worry, though, the summer has taught me that I'll never be able to live it down and escape those off-shoulder comments about my irresponsibility, and the cosmos has told that if it had an opinion, it would be that it's not forgetting any time soon because I'm living next to one of the people who put me in this position, besides myself.

I swear, this wasn't meant to be a poor-Ronnie post, that just sort of happened when my fingers hit the keyboard.

Life isn't all bad, though. Orientation Week started up at my school, and my student organization did really well! Lot's of people came to our events, a good number actually seemed interested in getting involved, and overall I'm thinking I might turn out to be a pretty swell prez. I do, however, need to work on my ability to delegate. This summer was crazy and if actual schoolwork is going to happen next week and beyond, I have to start sharing some responsibilities.

Oh yeah, and here's a little shot of what I guess is now a Kratz family tradition, the really early birthday present that I get to hold on to until September 27th. My Mom wrapped it this year. Can you tell? It's bursting with spider power.