Best. Birthday. EVER!

Alright. I'm up early, like I said I would be, and now I'm going to tell you why I think my 19th birthday was better than ANY other birthday that came in my past. Pardon me if this is a bit long... (Perhaps before you read on, you might like to see how my last birthday went, so you can really compare them. Here's the link to birthday #18.)

24 hours ago, Annette and I woke up and got ready for a great day. I dressed in clothes that we'd found while in Boston, and made me feel really pretty. You know how you sometimes need to get used to the idea that you're a year older, because you still feel like a kid at heart? For some reason, I didn't really have that feeling. I feel like I was ready for this year, like I really am my age. It may not be the most glamorous age (right smack between 18 and 20), but I love it so far and I'm going to make this year of my life count.

Moving on. We had a wonderful breakfast at home with our family, and then we exchanged cards and presents. See those cards below? That is hand-made, people. Every year, since we could hold a pencil and use scissors, my twin and I have made personalized cards to each other. Our parents and little brother Adam made awesome cards for us too, but there's just something about getting a card from your twin sister, you know?

The left one (19-shaped) was my card to Annette, and the right one (balloony 19) was her card to me. Do these cards belong in a Hallmarks store or what? ^_^

Here's my sister and I posing with the presents we got each other on the 6th. I have a new journal (I always love those!) and Annette has a big crossword book, with 350 puzzles in it (she's already solved 3 of them. With my and Adam's help, of course, but still. 1% done already? O,o)

Oh, but one of the best things about this morning is that Annette and I didn't just exchange cards and presents. We also exchanged poems and songs. I wrote her something special on my poetry blog [click here to see it] and somehow (I have NO idea how she did it without my knowledge) she wrote me my very own birthday song. It was absolutely awesome! Not to mention very catchy. ^_^ She had the help of our dad and a little thing called Band-in-a-Box, but it was still one of the very best gifts I got that day. You should have seen my reaction. ^_^ Maybe sometime soon I'll be able to put a video of it up here, so you can hear what an awesome song it was.

Afterwards we hung out for a couple hours and watched stuff on YouTube, but the next big thing we did was go to our Toastmasters club. It's funny that our birthday fell on a Tuesday, because that's when we have our meetings. For the first time, my parents came along with us as guests so they could be a part of our club on our b-day. Sadly, not a lot of people came (3 people besides the 5 of us! O,o), but we still ran a fun meeting. I still hold the opinion that, no matter how many TM clubs we visited in Boston this year, our club trumps them all. It's the best.

Next stop of the day was a fantastic lunch at the best restaurant in the world, Sweet Tomatoes. (I've mentioned how good it is before, right?) I got myself 2 heaping plates of salad from the salad bar as well as some pasta. I was pretty satisfied with just that. But man, you should have seen my brother Adam eat. He just kept coming back with more helpings. I don't know where he puts it all. =P Well, he's a growing boy, I guess. He's almost as tall as me now, doncha know! *sniff* They grow up so fast. !_! Also something really special happened at that restaurant. Before we left, Annette and I were surprised when a bunch of Sweet Tomatoes workers came to our table, singing the Birthday song to us and bearing a plate with 2 chocolate muffins surrounded by ice cream and with 2 lit candles stuck in the muffins. In all the times we went to Sweet Tomatoes, I don't remember this ever happening, so that was way awesome. I couldn't fit another bite in my mouth at that point, but it was still fun blowing out the candles. ^_^

After our birthday feast, we went to the theater to see a movie together. Now, there were a few things playing that we wanted to see: Charlie St. Cloud, Despicable Me, Dinner for Shmucks, Grown Ups. It was hard for us to pick one that all of us could agree on, but finally we went with Grown Ups. At first I really didn't want to see it, because I've seen the previews and I thought the movie looked silly, but finally I relented. Hey, it's got some funny people in it, I knew these guys. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Boy, was I glad that we saw this movie on our birthday! It was the best possible film we could have picked. So, so, SO hilarious! I don't remember LOL-ing so much in a theater in a long time. So many pratfalls and jokes and funny situations. It was full of sweet moments too, when it came to their kids. The theater audience around us also gave really good reactions to the movie, so that really added to the experience. All the oohs, ahs, laughs and flinches in just the right places. So yeah, really good movie. I highly recommend it.

Now all of that might have made an awesome birthday, but for me, it didn't end there. Once we got home, I checked out Facebook and was glad to see that lots of people had wished me a happy one. Then I looked at Google Reader and I saw that a very special person had blogged about me turning 19. I thought that was so sweet of him and awesome. Here's the link, if you don't believe me. Right after that, I checked my inbox and found out that my friend had wrote me an email saying he planned on calling me that night, for the first time ever! Minutes after I read that email, he did! ^___^

Now Jacoby Nielsen and I have been close long-distance friends for a few months shy of 2 years, but we've never done anything like that before. We've tried to talk on a couple occasions, but those were a bit awkward. We do much better with virtual conversation, it seems. But last night, we sat and talked for a good half-hour or so, right up until my phone ran out of battery. It was a fun and very interesting conversation! I had relatives and friends call my sister and I throughout the day, of course, but this was, without a doubt, the most awesome and memorable birthday call I've ever gotten. When we were finally done talking and said goodbye to each other, Annette told me I looked like I was on Cloud 19. That was pretty accurate, I think. ^_^

And that, my friends, was my 19th birthday. I hope you enjoyed reading this. And if you have any doubts that my account was the whole truth and nothing but the truth, here's my sister's blog with her side of the story. I'd say that our stories match up pretty well. ^_^