Hey guys! Guess what? I turned 25 years old!! My quarter-century birthday was last week and it definitely went down as one of my favorites, if not my all time favorite yet.
My actual birthday was on Thursday, and I rang it in by hanging with Julia, Rahul, and James. They treated me to happy hour near work and then hot pot at Nabu, a newfound gem in the Marina. Always leave it up to Julia to have the BEST SF recommendations. 🙂
We shared lots of booze and food, and then took it back to Julia and Rahul’s apartment for some hanging out, gift exchange, listening to music…I felt so beyond touched that they did all this for me. I didn’t expect to have so much fun on my random weekday birthday and it was a nice reminder that I do have a lot of people in my life who genuinely care about me. That and all the birthday texts and calls I got from friends and family from all over made me feel super loved. ❤
My sissy sent me these two photos and it made my heart melt.
Saturday: Birthday beer bicycle in Oakland
The official birthday festivities took place over the weekend. I rented one of those big, obnoxious group bicycles that take you around different breweries in Oakland. We filled the bike with 12 of us, including all the girls and the Marina guys – it had been forever since the whole crew got together and we were all ready to partayyy!
You know it’s going to be a fun day when it starts with carrying 12 shots in your purse 😛
For those in the Bay Area, I HIGHLY recommend this bicycle tour. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. We pumped music and it felt like a fun, boozy soul cycle class. We all couldn’t stop laughing at the randomness of the whole situation – cars passing us definitely gave us funny looks. The breweries were close together so we didn’t have to bike too hard – such a great, unique activity for a special occasion. 🙂
We stopped by 3 breweries in total. As we passed by each one we got tipsier and tipsier and it was safe to say we were all in a very happy spot.
One of my favorite pics 🙂
Princess bought me a massive donut cake!! I am obsessed with donuts and so I almost died of happiness; I’m pretty sure I ate 3/4 of it all by myself 😛
Love each and every one of these ones ❤
Somehow scooters came into the picture at one point.
After our time was up with the bike, we all wanted to continue the party and so we found a big, open bar with bowling and games – everything feels so much cooler in Oakland.
Okay I decided, this was definitely my favorite birthday yet. I keep smiling thinking about all our fun memories from the beer bicycle and throughout the day. I couldn’t ask for a more memorable 25th with all my favorite people. ❤
Sunday: hike in Whale Cove Beach
Somehow, somehow…I woke up to go hiking the next day.
Meaghan and Therese, my only two college friends in SF, reached out to meet up in South Bay for a hike. I hadn’t seen the two of them in the longest time and we were all excited to catch up.
I rented a car and drove down to Whale Cove Beach in Pacifica (flashbacks to my Highway 1 roadtrip 2 months ago!). The hike itself was super chill – it was a cool, foggy morning, and we took our time and focused on talking away and catching up over each other’s lives. Despite all 3 of us being in the bay, we all live pretty far from each other: Meaghan in South Bay and Therese in East Bay. We all have had totally different lives over the past year – it was refreshing to share it all with each other.
Some ramen for lunch in Daly City after the hike. The perfect treat after being active and for being hungover 😛
The rest of the day was a lazy one in bed as I had a lot of recovering to do from the day before.
Monday: productive Labor Day + kava bar + Crazy Rich Asians
I woke up refreshed and ready to take advantage of having no work on Labor Day! I studied all morning at my favorite coffee shop, went for a run, did two loads of laundry, FaceTimed with Whitney (boy do I miss her), studied some more…
Later on, I headed over to the Kava Lounge, where Rahul and Julia met me for a few drinks. We relaxed a bit and then grabbed a quick dinner before catching CRAZY RICH ASIANS…ahhh!! I’d been looking forward to seeing it for months and was finally able to catch it! Overall I really loved the movie – it was basically a typical rom-com, but I so appreciated how much of a mark it made for Asian actors in Hollywood. The cast, soundtrack, storyline, cultural references…all A++.
And now we’re into the short work week! Woohoo! It’s definitely nice to be back in SF after a crazyyyy summer. I feel like I had weekend trips or something exciting going on every single week! My birthday sort of marked the last thing to look forward to for the summer, but I’m genuinely excited to stay put in SF for a bit, focus on some personal stuff, figure out my goals for the end of the year, maybe sign up for a fall race…it sort of feels like the end of an exciting, whirlwind chapter of my life…not sure exactly what’s coming up but I do have a good feeling about the end of 2018. Time is going by so fast and things are changing so quickly…I feel like the status of my life goes up and down like a yo-yo week by week, but it definitely adds color to my life and I really wouldn’t have it any other way. I guess you can say I’ve been in a reflective mood since my birthday, ha :P.
I hope you have a wonderful first week of September, my friends!!
I Run Like A Girl 