The one where Sheridan turns 23

I had a really great week, and I wanted to remember the happiness.

On Monday, I went here:

With my parents and my love. We ate pizza, we got ice cream, we went on some rides...ya know, the usual good time. I love that place. When we got home we discovered that while we were gone a nasty storm had blown through. Our nicely landscaped mulch had gotten washed out into our entire front yard, along with sticks and branches and all sorts of debris. And a certain boy left his windows down and had leaves, pine needles, and inch-deep puddles in his car. 3 towels later the car was cleaned up but still very wet, and we sent him on his merry, gross-wet-seat way.

Tuesday, I went to institute and got to see all my favorite people. I played volleyball...let's skip the part where I got super-frustrated because some of my friends become 5 year olds with adhd when they're together, oy. =) Lately I've been really into volleyball...the group that plays has such a fun time. Best part of all of it was my bff Sam is home for a little, and we hung out and had some good talks, like usual. Yay for time spent with friends who I don't see often.

Wednesday a small group of ysas went to a free York Revolution game (the minor league baseball team). I love baseball and I love when things are free. =) I met Josh after work to drive with him. As we walk out to get in the car, he gets a funny look on his face and says, "do you want me to drive? cuz my car smells REALLY bad". Turns out a good soaking rain inside your car doesn't make it smell too good, whoda thunk? We stopped on the way to buy an air freshener, and when we got to York we pulled it all the way out of the sleeve and rolled the windows up to let it work it's magic. Anywho, at the game they were giving away free bobbleheads:

of their cute mascot, Downtown. They were playing the Lancaster Barnstormers, and it was a game full of homeruns and excitement (occasionally) and free ice cream and foul ball chases, but it was sooo sloooow. 3 hours into the game, it was the top of the 8th and Josh and I were ready to go home. We get back to the car only to find that the car smelled like gross smelly poop old car and air freshener mixed together which somehow made it worse. So much for that idea. I commented that it smelled like a public bathroom with that mix of smells. But after a few minutes you get used to it, and ya know what? We had a great drive home, just holding hands and singing and chilling out after a long day. I love when you can go out and do tons of fun exciting things with someone, but you find that some of the best moments are when you're doing absolutely nothing together.

Thursday was a fantastic day. I took the day off to celebrate my birthday with my family. A day off from work in and of itself would've made Thursday fantastic, but it gets better. Let's not talk about how frustrated and upset work's been making me lately. Suffice it to say, I badly needed a day off. So first thing first, I slept in a little. Then, went to

for breakfast with Mom and Dad. Love their breakfast. Afterward, I decided I wanted to go to the Pennsylvania Bakery, this really famous place in Camp Hill, for some cupcakes. I'd never been there but heard wonderful things. So off we went, and here's the goodies I found:

 Once the delicious baked goods were bought, we went home. Quick sidenote, for those Harry Potter geeks in the audience, this week on J K Rowling's new website, Pottermore, http://www.pottermore.com/ was the magic quill challenge to register for the site early. Only a select few can, and then everyone else has to wait until October to enter the website. So being my little randomly-competitive and curious can't-wait-til-October self, I decided I had to pass this test and be an early registrar. Well, it's been kind of impossible. They gave one clue per day, at any random time in that 24 hour period, and if you're not able to be on a computer at that time, too bad, because within 30 minutes, all the spaces fill up. So Thursday was day 5 of 7 and I hadn't made it yet. So I get home with a comfortably full belly and a box of cupcakes and get on the computer to see that I hadn't missed the daily clue yet. And then the thought popped in my head that it would happen at 1PM. Lo and behold, it actually did. And I was ready...I figured out the clue, found the magic quill, passed the test, and registered early. The day kept getting better and better.

Next, I had an eye doctor appointment. I've never had one in my life, never needed it, but figured I'm getting older, I just discovered a floater in my eye, and it's time I had one. Found out my eyes are still perfect, everything's wonderful, the floater should go away, and my mother was the nicest person in the world and paid for the appointment, because silly little me doesn't have eyecare. For a doctor appointment, it was not at all a bad experience.

Afterward, Mom and ginormous-pupiled me went to a nail salon to get our toes done. Second time in my life I've done it, it's a relaxing wonderful experience. Here's the result:

Yay for cute toes!

The rest of the day was spent Costco-ing and going for a nice long walk. It was a perfect day off.

Friday was my birthday. After working for 3 hours for the last day of our extended school year program, I went home and prepped for my date nite with the boy.

Hello, straight hair. On a side note, I've been straightening my hair more often, and it takes me a little under an hour now. I get faster and faster at it. I'm getting very tired of my hair, I've never done much with it my whole life and am considering some big changes (think a little shorter, layered, and maybe bangs?) The second I find a trustworthy person that can handle the curly mess, I will be getting it cut. And I'm sure I'll blog about it.

On my way out the door, this is what the kitty looked like:

She's so stinkin' cute.

Date nite involved mini-golfing at Caddy Shack, dinner at Applebees (the food was kind of grody...don't get the riblet basket guys) and then a movie, Cowboys and Aliens.

Which was weird but good at the same time and I liked it. And followed by another great drive home. Like I was saying before, I've found that sometimes it doesn't matter what you did when you were together, it's just being together that makes it great. Birthday date nite did not involve, but should have, picture taking. Because I'm lame and forgot. Hopefully at some point within the next 5 weeks I'll remember to take a picture or two.

Saturday not much exciting happened. We had the open house for our new stake building in Lancaster. People were friendly and surprisingly none of the angry neighbors tried to burn it down. We were gonna go to the drive-in but it was a nasty rainy day (yet so desperately needed), so we rented Limitless, the world's worst movie. Don't watch it.

And that was about it. My happy wonderful birthday week.

In other news, grad school is expensive, yikes. If it's not a bill or my student loans or gas for my car, I will never be spending any money ever again. Thank heaven for my hybrid car that I still have to fill once a week cuz I drive so much.

Also, how do you handle a break-up that you've known exactly when it was gonna happen from the beginning? When you still love each other. And how do you handle going from hanging out with someone all the time to not seeing them for 2 years and only being able to write to each other? How do you write a missionary? I've never done it in my life and I have no idea how to be a molly mormon and send care packages and all that schtuff. And then there's the whole I'll be single and available thing while all of this is going on. Ugh, weird. I really hate being single and available. Not because I feel the need to have a boyfriend all the time, no sir. Because I HATE being hit on. And I HATE feeling like prey being hunted. And I HATE awkward first dates. At least I can use the 'I have a missionary' excuse for the ones I don't like, haha. It's just strange thinking of being with other people when you already love someone. But like one of my friends so eloquently said, you have to go out and get annoyed by other guys to realize that you'd rather be getting annoyed by that one for the rest of your life. =)

I'm just gonna pray like crazy, write from the heart, and hope for the best. What else can I do? It'll work out the way it should. I've said this before and I'll say it again, the next couple years will be a huge learning/growing experience. And I never saw it coming. But that's life.