19 YEARS AND COUNTING

Romper - Urban Outfitters

Why is it that 19 seems like a younger age than 18? I feel like 19 is such an in-between age...

I know I'll probably regret saying (blogging?) these words in about 10 years, but...CAN I JUST BE IN MY 20'S ALREADY??

Yesterday, I celebrated my 19th birthday. And by "celebrated," I mean that I basically just ate a lot of delicious food that I usually don't allow myself to eat. Things got a lil wild.

I started the day in Echo Park, where I enjoyed the delicious French toast served at Sqirl. If you guys have been following along with the blog for a while, you may have seen my previous rave reviews about Sqirl. I'm still infatuated with this place. Seriously...once you've traded out your basic Aunt Jemima syrup and butter, for a dollop of mascarpone and scoop of homemade strawberry jam, your life will be changed - there's no better way to eat French toast.

Top - Urban Outfitters | Jeans - Madewell

After indulging in our delicious breakfasts (I forgot to mention that my mom ordered the Sorrel Pesto Rice bowl...sorry about that. I was too preoccupied with the memory of the French toast to be bothered to include my mom's order), we headed over to Old Town Pasadena to pick up some flowers at Gilly Flowers.

It's pretty amazing what a bouquet of fresh flowers can do for your mood. I think I need to start buying myself flowers on a monthly, or bimonthly, basis because it just feels so damn good carrying around a beautiful arrangement of seasonal blooms all bundled together with ribbon and butcher paper. Flower power is real.

Are you even surprised that the next thing we did was get MORE food? You shouldn't be. You should have seen this coming.

And what better way to celebrate a birthday than with an 8x8 donut???? Yes. These are real. They exist. And they're incredible. I'm pretty sure this donut tasted 1000x better than a regular-sized donut, simply due to its enormous size.

And that's pretty much all I did - French toast, flowers, ginormous donut, and a lot of Instagramming/picture-taking throughout. And I'm fine with that. So many people asked me if I was going to do anything "special" - even the guy at the flower shop!! The thing is, I'm not a huge party person. In my first semester of college, I had a completely different view on the subject. My birthday last year was...  ... ... . .. ..... I don't think I can properly recount it, or even share any positive/factual anecdotes about it. I've since moved on (read: become a recluse) and have learned to enjoy the simpler joys of life.

18 was a pretty tumultuous age for me. There were a lot of not-so-great experiences I associate with being 18, and I'm happy to have put many of those struggles behind me. I still have no idea what I'm doing with my life, I continue to live at home with my parents and two siblings, and I have yet to start the transfer process. And yet, I feel happier and more "at peace" than I have in a long time.

So cheers to huge donuts and flower power, because this year's going to be a good one.