My Seventeenth Birthday

I had a really great birthday, and I can't believe I'm seventeen years old now. Somehow when crossing from sixteen to seventeen I feel different in a way. Kind of like seventeen is when you really start to enter adulthood, even though I'm not legally an adult until I'm eighteen. In a year I'm going to have to be responsible for a lot more things. More like, responsible for buying consumables for myself (not including food though). So now I want to start putting part of each paycheck into budgets so it doesn't come as a complete shock to my system when I have to pay for things.

For my birthday I got a piano, so I didn't do anything overly special. I'm glad that's what I did, because I couldn't really think of what I wanted to do for my birthday, and honestly I've been wanting a new keyboard since forever. I still love it, and playing piano is the best thing. As for presents, they were amazing this year! Daniel got me the Lego Hobbit game for Wii U. I know, I haven't even seen the movies, but I don't care because the hub on this game is amazing. And honestly most anything Middle Earth is kinda magical. Sereina got me a Slytherin shirt, and the rest of my gift from her still hasn't arrived in the mail. Lastly, Tiana's present to me was to make Elsa's coronation gown from Frozen for me! I seriously couldn't believe it. I love that dress. Unfortunately it doesn't include the cloak (which is understandable because that's a lot of fabric), but if I supply the money she'll make it for me. So I'll have to save up for that. And possibly a wig, though the best one would also be expensive. At least I'll be covered for next Halloween if I do!

Now this isn't the end of my birthday though. True, I did hang out at home and play games in celebration. But then a surprise came at the front door. My mom found it when she let the cat out. It was a letter, addressed to me. It was, of all things, my acceptance letter to Hogwarts! I'm seriously not kidding it was just on the porch, addressed to me, and had all the instructions and things. There was even a wax seal on the envelope. I have no idea who sent it. All of my friends haven't shown any sign of being the ones who sent it, so I'm at a loss as to where it came from. That kind of makes it more magical though, like it really came from Hogwarts. That's really special to me.

On a not so great note, I feel like my Misophonia is going through a rough point lately. I keep getting worked up and the sounds keep repeating in my head at random times which is the most infuriating thing in the world. It seems to happen the most as I try to sleep, which does nothing to help me fall asleep. It's the ultimate "stay away forever" tactic. So hopefully that'll mellow out. Though something kinda completely bizarre happened with it. I heard a trigger noise, but I guess I was relaxed enough because my reaction to it was probably more to that of someone with a type two Misophonia, and I'm around type seven. That's so weird, because whenever I imagine being cured, I can't. These sounds are so prominent and irritating that I honestly cannot imagine being able to hear them, and not going crazy. So I guess that goes to show that there's hope, though it'll be a long time until I'm cured. I mean I'm not even going through any kind of treatment. The only thing I know to do, is to stay relaxed. Which I think horseback riding has helped, because being relaxed is very important, and I must do that while doing dozens of other things at the same time.

I think my horseback riding has helped a lot of things. We had to replace the lights in our garage, and when I went on the ladder I wasn't even remotely scared of the height. I'm really weird about heights, sometimes I'm okay, other times I'm not. Usually on a ladder I get really buggy, and slightly dizzy. But my head was touching the top of the garage and I was totally chill. I suppose racing around on 15hh - 16hh horses has kinda helped with that.

Also, my last ride was amazing. Oh my gosh, just oh my gosh, it was the greatest. I got to ride Ellie, since it was windy and Zoey can be weird about the wind. It was my first time on her, and it was incredible. She is like Lacey, except even better trained! Her trot is huge, just like Lacey, and because of that I couldn't really stop her. Ellie doesn't like you to pull on her face, and I never do. So I have to stop her by sitting deep and slowing the movement of my hips. That is really hard to do when you're flying out of the saddle. Luckily I'm still pretty good at one rein stops, hehe. But it was great, her trotting is so fast too. I also cantered, though unintentionally. Ellie's a lot like Gigi, so when I said trot she heard canter. It was one of my best canters considering though, and it didn't get crazy and go into galloping. I really hope I work with Ellie more, because I think she can teach me a lot. Aaand looking way into the future, she is a hunter jumper (as well as dressage horse, trained in carting, and so many other things) and jumping it what I want to pursue. But like I said, it'll be a while before I'm jumping. Gotta work on cantering and two point first.

My Sweet Sixteen

Okay guys, it's December 8th, so two days after my birthday. I meant to post sooner, but life got busy; i.e. I was playing with all the stuff I got from my epic sweet sixteen birthday. Here's how the day went. Everyone was scheduled to be ready for me to race upstairs at eight in the morning, so I could open presents first thing. As you might expect, I woke an hour before eight that morning, and kept tossing and turning try to sleep to make the time go by faster. I figured they might be a little late, and didn't get up until Sereina pounced on my bed a few minutes after eight exclaiming that everyone was waiting for me. I rushed and got dressed as fast as I could, shaking with excitement.

Last year everyone didn't wrap their presents for me until the day of, so all my gifts had been sitting in the living room since the night before. I had no idea what any of them were. Starting with the smallest one, I got a five dollar gift card to Target from Tiana. For some unexplainable reason she saw a baby buggy gift card, and thought of me. Not sure how that happened. Next was Sereina's gift. I tore open the box to see a really nice black leather journal, two really nice pens, and The Lion King soundtrack! Squee! Next was Daniel's gift. When I shook the box it sounded like Legos, but we've been known to trick other people by putting random Legos in a box as a decoy. I opened it to see our "junk yard" bags (it's a long story) filled with random Legos.. Then I saw it, Lego Lord of the Rings for Wii! I'm seriously loving that game. It's the best. The hub is Middle Earth! Okay, next present, the second part of Tiana's gifts. I opened a large flat gift to reveal a book with 40 Harry Potter posters! Yay! Finally I got to the gigantic box from Mamma and Daddy. After I finally got it open, I found a Tomcat compound bow! My dad and I took it out yesterday, and though I'm far from being the next Green Arrow, Hawk Eye, or Legolas, it was really fun. We're figuring out all the workings of the sight. My old bow was really small, and didn't have a proper sight. This one has a really nice fiber optic sight.

Those are my gifts, so you can sorta guess what I did next. I played Lord of the Rings until we left to buy our Christmas tree. Sereina decided to get a Wii U since it was on super sale for a deal that she would have regretted had she not bought it (she walked into the store, and shouted "I'm gonna get it!" to her co-workers. To which David replied, "Yeahhhhh!"). Then I went to P.F. Changs for lunch. They have the most amazing gluten free spicy chicken on earth, and I could eat it nonstop. Now usually I don't eat refined sugar, but at Changs I got a free desert for my birthday that was too good to pass up. It was a chocolate dome, of the richest chocolate ever. It was incredible! (When the guy brought it over he said he wasn't going to sing Happy Birthday, to spare us both the embarrasment. I like that guy.) Finally we came home and hung out for the rest of the day. I had berry pie as my desert, and we were going to watch How to Train Your Dragon 2, but couldn't get it, then we were going to watch Flarrow, but I wanted to play on the new Wii U more. Most of the time I prefer games to movies or television, except in a few rare occasions.

So in the end, it wasn't the most lavish of parties, but it was the best birthday I've had. Although it does come in close tie with my twelfth birthday, just cause it was a surprise party. I really love surprise parties, and surprises in general.

I could drive now if I wanted. It's funny, my dad kept joking that I was getting a car for my birthday. I just played along, but we all know I already have a car. I've claimed the Volkswagen beetle bug, usually know as just the bug, for my own.