Today I am 22! The world is my oyster…or something like that

This collage includes images from my 3rd, 19th, 20th and 21st birthday! Can you guess which is which!?

I just realized that I partied hard on my 18th, 19th and 21st birthdays but my 20th birthday was super mellow. Well, I guess my even numbered birthdays will continue to be mellow because I have nothing wildly exciting planned for my 22nd (does this mean I have to go crazy again on my 23rd?). I’m going to Hot Yoga this morning, getting a hair cut this afternoon and having drinks with girlfriends tonight. I am running tomorrow morning at 6 AM, so I can’t go too crazy.

Tomorrow, Eric and I are off to the ocean for two nights and 1.5 days. I am so excited! We’ve rented a cabin right on the ocean, it has a hot tub on the deck and is literally steps away from the water. I am not bringing my laptop and I plan on turning the blackberry off once I get there! I want to spend those days/nights relaxing, sleeping, reading and spending time with Eric. I’m bringing my running shoes but with no expectation to run and no set mileage in mind. If I feel like running, I will run. Also, if the weather is nice we might go kayaking on Saturday – good cross-training!

I think it sounds like the perfect way to celebrate my birthday

In the meantime, I have a birthday request for all you lovely readers! Last year I requested that my readers delurk on my birthday and leave a comment saying “hi”. I have the same request today.

Whether you’re a new reader, old reader, long-time lurker, whatever; stop in and say “hi” or tell me what you’re up to this weekend?

In the meantime, I am out of here, today is all about relaxation and getting ready for our fabulous trip! We are leaving tomorrow around lunchtime. See all you lovely people on Monday, I’m sure I will have lots of photos to share. Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend! XO

Tomorrow I will be 22.

I know that it’s SUCH A YOUNG AGE. I know. You don’t have to tell me.

But still, I feel “old” in a way.

I think Becky said it perfectly last week when she told me on Twitter:

I think there’s a big (mental) difference b/t 21 & 22. At 22 there are more adult responsibilities, since school is done.

For the first time in 17 years I didn’t go back to school yesterday. And I’m kind of at this, “what now?” stage. I mean, Eric is going back to school, so on one hand I’m still thinking in the “four more years of school and we’re grown-up” mindset. But that’s so not the case. We are 22 and (almost) 24 years old. We’re there. We’re grown-up.

I’ve thought a lot about making a 25 before 25 or 23 before 23 list.

But then I decided not to. I don’t want goals/lists/achievements for my 22nd year.

I want to relax. I want to have fun.

The last year has possibly been the craziest one of my life. Let’s look at it in pictures, shall we.

I said goodbye to Eric and we started a long-distance relationship.

I trained for, ran, and big-time PR’ed in my third half-marathon.

I had a part-time job, an internship and a full-time course load.

I had a pretty busy social life and spent a lot of late, fun nights out with friends.

I moved to a new apartment.

I planned, saved for and went on a three week whirlwind trip around Europe.

I graduated university.

Eric moved away and we began a long-distance relationship again.

After two months, Eric moved back down here to go back to school (and he starts today! Wish him luck!)

I’ve been training for a full marathon the last 12 weeks (running 25-40 miles/week)

Whewie!

It has been an amazing year so far. Amazing! Possibly the most fun, most exciting, busiest, most rewarding year of my life thus far.

But it’s also been exhausting. So this year, I want to slow down and I want to just be.

I am ready to let go of goals, lists and plans (OK, OK, not totally let go, I did just order the Erin Condren Life Planner as a birthday gift for myself, after all).

But, I am ready to BE YOUNG, live in the moment and have fun.

And, who knows, maybe this year will be even better then the last!!

What’s been the best year of your life so far? Why?

Well, in light of my recent promise to post more photos (and take more photos), here are some pictures and a recap of my 21st birthday in FSJ – sorry it’s a month late!

I never really told you guys about this one, but basically we had a big BBQ at my mom’s house. Mostly family was there and a few friends came over, too!

So, the funny part of this story is that a few weeks before my birthday I told Eric that ALL I wanted him to do for my birthday was surprise me with something fun. Because I usually do all the planning in our relationship, I wanted to be surprised. Well, after saying that I kind of forgot about it, so I was given a pleasant surprise on my birthday when I was told that Eric had organized a SCAVENGER HUNT for me and my family/friends, and I would get the pleasure of wearing this:

We split into teams of three and off we went, we had one hour to get as many things on the list as we could! The scavenger hunt had us going around town doing silly things, like putting 0.89 worth of gas into our vehicle and getting a receipt, taking a photo of all three of us drinking out of one drink, getting a dessert with a candle in it etc.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of MY team because they were all taken on my friend Keatons camera, but Eric had my camera and he was paired with my grandma and Fred, my aunt’s fiancee. Here’s some of their pictures.

All three of them sharing a drink. I find this picture quite hilarious:

When the hour was up we all raced back to the house to tally our points and my team came in dead last. We tried, though and suprisingly enough it ended up being really, really fun! No-one in my family ever shy’s away from competition so we were all being really competitive about beating the other team!

Once we returned we settled in for some BBQ’ed cuisine and a delicious chocolate cake made for me by my aunt:

And then proceeded to play Rock Band for the rest of the night. Apparently I’m a terrible singer who can’t carry a tune so I was getting lots of groans from the crowd during that. Here’s one of me and my mom singing:

Even Murphy and Webster participated in the birthday fun!

Overall, it was a great birthday with family and friends. And even though I was cursing Eric for planning the scavenger hunt when he first announced it I ended up having a great time!

I’d also like to wish a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely Nora from Walking through the Rain - it was her birthday yesterday and she wrote a very fun, insightful birthday post so go check it out and wish her a Happy Birthday!

PS: I recently imported all of my old archives from my blogspot blog to this blog, so take a look through my archives if your new to the blog and want to learn more about me! Also, does anybody know if it’s OK for me to delete my old blog now that all the posts are transferred over, or will that screw with the archives on this blog?