Happy Birthday to Me!

Hello from Bridger/happy magical birthday land! I am officially 24. Officially in both Mountain Time and Eastern Standard Time (I got a few texts at 10pm on the 5th wishing me a happy birthday – it was still yesterday here!). Alright, I've technically been 24 for two days now, but I wrote that intro when I was hoping I'd be able to post on my birthday and I liked it so I'm not changing it!

I woke up early and opened all of my gifts. Yes, I had gifts! Never doubt the US Postal Service or my loved ones. Technically one of the boxes I got wasn’t a gift, it was just stuff I’d asked my dad to send me, but it was a box that I got to open on my birthday, so it counts. I also got a nice card from my Aunt Eileen and a gift from Amanda Lauren Belscamper that officially annihilates all other candy-coated chocolate gifts. 

Mandy got me my very own box of pink, personalized M&Ms. Not only do some of the M&Ms say “Happy Birthday” and a few of our signature catch phrases, but some of them even have my face on them! Nothing says true love like getting someone a box of their favorite candy in exclusively their favorite color WITH their face on them! The M&Ms also came in a box with a ribbon which I proceeded to turn into a hair bow to wear for the rest of the day! (Mandy’s reaction: “Omg I should have guessed you’d do that.” The girl just gets me!).

 After I watched Good Morning America (Stephanie Meyer of young adult teen vampire novel fame just released a gender-bending version of Twilight with Beau and Edythe and I think I’m going to have to download it to my kindle – no shame),

I went for another walk of Bridger. Contrary to popular belief, I have not actually seen the ENTIRE town yet (most of it, undoubtedly, but not all of it) and since there is a magnet on my mini-fridge that has the hours/information for the Bridger Public Library, I decided I would go looking for that. I didn’t actually decide that until I’d left my hotel room however, so while I knew it was on Broadway, I didn’t know if that meant East Broadway or West Broadway. At Bridger’s only light, I decided on East Broadway which was not the way to get to the library. It did bring me to the town’s fishing hole (I highly doubt that they actually call it that but there was a sign with a fish and a fishing rod so that’s what I’m calling it). It was pretty even though I didn’t see any fish (the banks were muddy and I was not risking that just to get a closer look). I turned around and headed towards West Broadway where I immediately found the library. It was small – I don’t think one should expect the Library of Congress in Bridger, Montana, especially when the library is only open four days a week for an average of three hours a day – but cute. I got talking to the librarians and informed them that they were going to have to get Stephanie Meyer’s new book to complete their Twilight collection and told them about the show. They gave me a magnetic bookmark and a pamphlet to remember them by!

Talked to my Grandma as well and I know she is going to catch up on my blog in the near future so hi Grandma.

I ate lunch at the school and got lots of birthday wishes and then it was time for rehearsal (more birthday wishes!). After rehearsal, I had to mentally/emotionally prepare for the CW’s birthday gift to me. Yes, the CW got me a birthday present in the return of The Flash which is my second favorite TV show (Empire is #1). Melissa and I went across the street and ordered pizza from the Buckeye Bar (I’ve officially eaten all of their vegetarian friendly items – and one of them wasn’t even really veggie-friendly, I had to order “the grilled ham and cheese sandwich without the ham”). We also found what might be the greatest souvenir I have found at a residency yet – the Buckeye Bar sells hats, TV shirts, beer cozies and underwear. 

Yes, they sell ladies’ underwear that says Bridger, MT on it. It also says some other stuff that I’m not going to say because it is unladylike but I am going to post a picture so you can see it for yourself. Now, I was sitting at the bar with Melissa, obsessing over this find and debating whether or not I should buy it for myself, when it was 6:55 and I needed to make sure I was there for the very start of The Flash! (Time difference problems – primetime starts at 7 here).

At about 7:01, Melissa knocked on my door with the pizza and the panties as a birthday present! Just so everyone knows, I never plan on wearing my Buckeye Bar underwear – it would be really weird for me to dedicate an entire paragraph of my blog to my undergarments, these are purely ceremonially and sentimental. Melissa had never watched The Flash so I briefly explained – it's about a good-looking superhero who was raised by Collins from Rent after the tragic good-looking superhero's his dad was put in jail for murdering his mom even though he’s innocent, and spoiler alert: the good-looking superhero’s mentor was the bad guy all along.

What is this?

I should now describe the pizza (which we ate with the birthday wine I bought myself last week in Cody). Actually first, I need to give myself a big pat on the bag for successfully using my new wine key because it’s the first time I’ve ever used one AND the cork in this bottle was not looking so great when I got it (I thought it was going to break before I could get the bottle open). Back to the pizza… it was a unique experience. I literally laughed out loud when Melissa opened the box to show me and things only got more ridiculous when I actually tried to pick up a slice. It was so bad that I had to take a picture. It looks like they just melted string cheese on top! That’s actually what it tasted like too.

After The Flash (which was awesome obviously), I called Ryan Lind, who was morally obligated to listen to me because it was my birthday! 

Two days later, I don't feel very different! I didn't do much yesterday (I got to watch Empire and it was awesome) and today's big revelation is that there is WiFi at the school, which is where I am blogging from now!