Nine Lives

          My original plan was to finish decorating my room by the time my birthday rolled around, but it just wasn't in the cards. I did make significant progress, however, and was pleased with how everything looked. Sara and Marcie showed up with a fantastic tombstone cake (my party was "funeral for my adolescence" themed) and a great number of people arrived soon afterward. Some fun stuff happened -- Jared's Cossack vodka, eulogies, buying alcohol with an expired passport, making new friends -- but most of my night was spent stressing over an inconsolably weepy Iris and a too-drunk-to-find-his-way-home Matt. Following my eighteenth-birthday dishwashing shift, this was a narrow second for the most disappointing birthday in my life.