Dang, I've been seventeen as of right now for approximately fourteen hours and ten minutes (because I was born at 8:22 a.m.) and still I can't get used to saying the words "I'm seventeen." I've actually said them out loud a few times now for practice. I do believe my mother is getting annoyed by this.
Every year when my birthday falls on a school day or a Sunday (because church), we have a party with both sides of my biological family (because with the stepfam present, there would never be enough food for all of the extensive Catholic ragtag bunch of assorted rednecks, vegetarians, hyperactive cousins, neurotic dogs, snarky cats, and other various oddballs who are all either somehow related to me or have declared themselves family) a few days or weeks or sometimes months before my actual birthday. This week we had it on Sunday evening at a pizza place called The Alibi.
Mind you, American pizza will never measure up to the awesomeness of the real deal Italian kind, but unless it's meat I'm not one to turn down food and this place was pretty good. They had these breadsticks that were doughy but not too doughy, a little salty, and melted in your mouth so easily you didn't even need butter. On the pizza, the cheese was bubbly and oily but not overly greasy. I had tomato and green pepper pizza. The little green pepper chunks were cooked to perfection, so they burst when you bit into them. The tomato slices were so juicy on the inside and firm on the outside and just amazing. Oh, yeah, Italian Americans love us some food porn. You're all probably orally orgasming right now from my epic food porn. The Alibi should be grateful right now; I'm probably getting them so many customers.
There was some awkwardness what with the fact that I was sitting next to Ella - on our grandmother's advice - but she didn't say anything rude and neither did her sisters. I think they know I would have punched them or something if they had. Or something, most likely. I did enjoy seeing everyone else, though. Also presents and cake :)
On my actual birthday, I went to Bangkok Cuisine with my parents. America does have a track record of screwing up the foodstuffs of other cultures, especially racial minority cultures (my friend Jimena hates Taco Bell with a fiery passion), but if they did so with Bangkok Cuisine they did it pretty dang fabulously. I had a vegetable curry dish with eggplant, water chestnuts, broccoli, lettuce, baby corn, carrots, mushrooms, and rice. The sauce was this amazing stuff made of coconut milk and curry, and there was also this peanut topping which I instantly adored. Also, vegetable spring rolls, always a favorite of mine. I couldn't eat all of this, of course, so I'm having leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
I also went to Erebus for the first time. Those of you also from Michigan know that Erebus is the stuff of legends. It's this haunted house that's so scary that they actually keep track of how many people have run out screaming, wet themselves, puked, or fainted - and proudly display these numbers on an electronic board near the entrance. Since its opening, the (combined) number of fainters, pukers, and wetters has gotten disturbingly close to the thousands. But I write horror, and honestly what I was thinking most of the time was how much I respected the effort they put into scaring people. It startled me when something randomly made loud noises, because I couldn't see very well, and with my irrational fear of moving tunnels I of course got freaked out in that part, but other than that I was pretty chill. In every room, my mom told the haunted house workers it was my birthday, which was not nice. If you make it all the way through without losing your cool, they give you a free t-shirt. Of course, I now have a free t-shirt compliments of Erebus. It's black and says Erebus Experiment on it.
So, that was my initiation into the age of seventeen. Only one more year until legal adulthood!
Every year when my birthday falls on a school day or a Sunday (because church), we have a party with both sides of my biological family (because with the stepfam present, there would never be enough food for all of the extensive Catholic ragtag bunch of assorted rednecks, vegetarians, hyperactive cousins, neurotic dogs, snarky cats, and other various oddballs who are all either somehow related to me or have declared themselves family) a few days or weeks or sometimes months before my actual birthday. This week we had it on Sunday evening at a pizza place called The Alibi.
Mind you, American pizza will never measure up to the awesomeness of the real deal Italian kind, but unless it's meat I'm not one to turn down food and this place was pretty good. They had these breadsticks that were doughy but not too doughy, a little salty, and melted in your mouth so easily you didn't even need butter. On the pizza, the cheese was bubbly and oily but not overly greasy. I had tomato and green pepper pizza. The little green pepper chunks were cooked to perfection, so they burst when you bit into them. The tomato slices were so juicy on the inside and firm on the outside and just amazing. Oh, yeah, Italian Americans love us some food porn. You're all probably orally orgasming right now from my epic food porn. The Alibi should be grateful right now; I'm probably getting them so many customers.
There was some awkwardness what with the fact that I was sitting next to Ella - on our grandmother's advice - but she didn't say anything rude and neither did her sisters. I think they know I would have punched them or something if they had. Or something, most likely. I did enjoy seeing everyone else, though. Also presents and cake :)
On my actual birthday, I went to Bangkok Cuisine with my parents. America does have a track record of screwing up the foodstuffs of other cultures, especially racial minority cultures (my friend Jimena hates Taco Bell with a fiery passion), but if they did so with Bangkok Cuisine they did it pretty dang fabulously. I had a vegetable curry dish with eggplant, water chestnuts, broccoli, lettuce, baby corn, carrots, mushrooms, and rice. The sauce was this amazing stuff made of coconut milk and curry, and there was also this peanut topping which I instantly adored. Also, vegetable spring rolls, always a favorite of mine. I couldn't eat all of this, of course, so I'm having leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
I also went to Erebus for the first time. Those of you also from Michigan know that Erebus is the stuff of legends. It's this haunted house that's so scary that they actually keep track of how many people have run out screaming, wet themselves, puked, or fainted - and proudly display these numbers on an electronic board near the entrance. Since its opening, the (combined) number of fainters, pukers, and wetters has gotten disturbingly close to the thousands. But I write horror, and honestly what I was thinking most of the time was how much I respected the effort they put into scaring people. It startled me when something randomly made loud noises, because I couldn't see very well, and with my irrational fear of moving tunnels I of course got freaked out in that part, but other than that I was pretty chill. In every room, my mom told the haunted house workers it was my birthday, which was not nice. If you make it all the way through without losing your cool, they give you a free t-shirt. Of course, I now have a free t-shirt compliments of Erebus. It's black and says Erebus Experiment on it.
So, that was my initiation into the age of seventeen. Only one more year until legal adulthood!
4 comments:
Have you gotten use to the words "I'm seventeen" yet?
A bit late, but still: Happy (belated...) birthday! :*
Ella was nice to you out of love, not out of fear.
BUT she refuses to accept me as I am. And real friends don't do that. People like Ana, Jacob, Christina, Ally, Ben, Erin, Mrs. Avila - they do accept me and they've been there for me through anything. They ARE my real friends, and as far as I'm concerned they are just as much my family as Ella, Abby, and you are - maybe more.
I pity you, Lili, I really do. But I refuse to be friends with anyone prejudiced.
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