25

"Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls." -Joseph Campbell

I’ve officially turned 25, a quarter of a century old! I’ve always been one to appreciate birthdays, since not everyone is promised to make it this far. I am lucky enough to see another year and 25 seems to be such a big one. A lot of my friends are married, have kids, careers, or at least seem to have their lives figured out. Coming from a small town, I’ve taken the path less traveled and moved across the country and honestly, I am not doing anything more than just enjoying life. I’m still bartending, which is what I did back in Amite. Two days after I turned 25, I started applying for “big girl” jobs. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up this spontaneous life I live, but I know I will be lead in the right direction and things happen for a reason. However, before I took the first step into the real world, I enjoyed my birthday just the way I wanted- which was acting like I was just turning 13. I went and enjoyed the day at Universal Studios! Although I’ve been in Los Angeles for over a year now, I had not gotten the chance to go to Universal. So it was my first time going! Tory and KT sacrificed their own time that day to spend it with me. We went around 2 that afternoon and Tory knew someone who worked with the company. We met up with him there and hopped on a golf cart and he gave us a tour of the back lot. The Voice was being filmed that day and there were a ton of people there to see the live taping. We saw a bunch of other studio lots like Whoville, Desperate Housewives, Jaws, and even got to see The Mystery Machine! I was in childhood heaven to say the least. After we rode around for a bit, he dropped us off at a gate behind the park and we walked right on through a gate that led us to the park. So not only did we get free parking, a private studio tour, but we also got in for free considering we snuck in through that gate. I spent not a dime that day so what a birthday gift (heck yeah and shout out to Tory for knowing the right people). We got to ride most of the rides- Minions, Jurrasic Park, Transformers, Harry Potter- and we also caught a couple of the shows! The saw the Special Effects show and Animal Actors. Both were really cool but I’m not gonna go into details because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, I’ll just highly recommend it to all of you! The park closed at 6, so we didn’t get to do evvvverything we wanted, but we did a good bit! My birthday was on a Tuesday so lines were nonexistent and the park wasn’t crowded at all. Once we got back to my apartment the three of us met up with Casie, Zach, and John. That night we all went to eat at Gyu-Kaku, a Japanese BBQ place where the food is SO GOOD. If you know me, you know I’m not a huge fan of Korean BBQ, but Japanese BBQ is an entirely different story. After a large dinner, we went back to the apartment and Tory and Zach baked me a cake! Grocery store cakes are great and all, but the fact that these two friends of mine actually took the time to bake a cake for me themselves, meant that much more and made it that much better! I like to think there was 25 candles, but I wouldn’t know the difference if there were 15 or 25. I later learned that the actual count was 20. That night Casie, Tory and I went to a bar called Tenants of the Trees in Silverlake. I wish I had a lot more to say about what happened there but the things I recall I don’t want to remember and the things I do remember, I don’t want to recall! :P

xo

charli