birthday

yesterday was my birthday. my best friend, my girlfriend, and i got ice cream and ate it in the park, and when it got too cold we left and went back home so i could change my clothes. (i had been wearing pants because we were thinking about going bowling and i didn't want to do that in a dress, but i still wanted to wear my pretty dress to dinner.) we had dinner at a sports bar because they have great food and the servers are really nice, and later another friend of mine joined us. around this time my girlfriend mostly stopped talking to anyone and just sat quietly and played with her phone. when she said something, i asked her to speak up because the restaurant had the tvs up loud so people could hear the football game, and she got upset and didn't say anything else. we hung out for a bit longer and then she said she was tired and wanted to go home.

my best friend suggested that he and i go to another bar he likes, and it turned out they were doing karaoke that night. he sang, but i didn't. he bought me jello shots though, which are not what i thought they were. how much alcohol is in one of those? i had 4 and nothing happened. they were tasty, though.
everyone at the bar was so friendly. there was a girl who apparently recognizes me from the fresh market, which is one of those little fancy grocery stores that has lots of organic things and pretty pastries and loose candy (and jelly belly jellybeans sorted by flavors so you can be sure you never get a fucking buttered popcorn jellybean! praise god!). anyway, i've been going there all the time because i have a really serious apple problem, so i guess the girl knows my face by now. another problem i have is that i have a giant red afro so nobody ever doesn't remember me, but i'm terrible with faces. so i'm always getting people coming up to me telling me they know me or they've seen me before, and i have to tell them i don't remember them at all.
there was also a boy who is friends with my best friend, who sang a lot of songs whenever someone needed backup vocals and spilled his drink all over our table, though luckily there was only ice in it and none of it got on me.

so that was really fun, and i want to go back there next week and do a song. it's weird because i love singing and i sing all the time and i know i'm not terrible at it, but i'm so scared to do karaoke with drunk strangers. but my friend says it's like public speaking: once you do it a few times, you stop being afraid of it. so i guess i have to do it.

i think i should do something about my girlfriend problems, but i don't know what. she gave me a lot of very thoughtful presents yesterday so i feel like trash for thinking that isn't really what i want. yesterday morning she sent me a thing she drew on her phone that said happy birthday, with a drawing of a heart and a flower. i think it was my favorite thing she gave me. i didn't need a whole bag of stuff.