Birthday Rites and Friday Night Lights...

Last week was rather busy, to put it lightly. Exams, papers, visitors, birthdays... the list goes on. Monday, the flat kept busy studying for the British Novel exam and in the afternoon we welcomed Mary's friend from Luther into our flat. Andrea fit right in and dealt with the nine of us that were all relatively stressed out and uninteresting. Tuesday, Kevin's birthday, started with an all too early exam for Mark and Carol, which went surprisingly well. After an afternoon of avoiding the upcoming paper at all costs, we settled in for an excellent meal, complete with a remote control shaped birthday cake for Kevin. It was rather comical, although Kevin took unnecessary offense to it (could Mark and Carol really think of nothing else that epitomized my existence?). After Mark and Carol cleaned up, we began the long process of getting ready for a night out in Notts. A few hours later, people were excited, happy and ready to celebrate. Unfortunately, all of our favourite haunts were closed... who knew that Nottingham shut down early on Tuesday nights? We still managed to find some fun pubs and bars and when it struck midnight, the celebration became mine. We stayed out a bit after midnight and then caught the last tram home. After winding down (and some people planning menus for the next day's grocery shopping... which proved to not be such a great idea at such a late hour), we crawled into bed, with yet another (two actually) satisfactory 21st birthday celebration under our belts.

Wednesday, I took full advantage of it being my birthday and slept in quite late. It was wonderful. After relaxing the morning away, I realized that I had to face the impending doom of the paper and set to work researching. I took breaks from reading scholarly articles to open my birthday gifts... which were all rather fabulous. The biggest birthday card ever (seriously, I should submit it to Guinness) from my dad and a little something else, party favours and cute necklaces from my mom (to tide me over until I come home), an incredibly creative digital creation from my sister and Stephen, a tree from Sara (who knew you could dedicate a tree? now, as Sara says, "a part of Hilary can stay in England forever"), random cool things from my flatmates and a white elephant gift from Mark and Carol... complete with a cake. Mine was not shaped like a remote, but instead a traditionally round cake with a 'Hil' (green hill of coconut) on the top with nice scripting by Carol. Kevin, a cake is a cake, and Mark and Carol know that there is more to you than TV. Anyway, it was a good birthday - fun people, calls from everyone in my family, happy birthday wishes through the Internet, and a delicious meal. I spent the rest of the night and most of the next day cruising through my paper.

Thursday was filled with stressed flatmates and furious paper writing. A dinner, filled with relief from having the paper in, and good conversation. The night is kind of a blur... we wasted time and probably watched the first disc of LOTR "Two Towers" and then crashed early. I worked on revising Brandon's paper... it would have been nice if he had read it over before turning it in... and suddenly it was Friday. I ran a bit, the weather finally decided to stop being wet ALL of the time, just most of the time and we had an early and lonely dinner. Mark and Carol were out on a date and Mary and Andrea were off to York. We rushed out of the house and secured Nottingham Forrest tickets for the playoff game. (See Kevin's blog for further explanation of the game... and the playoffs...)

It was so exciting to go to a Friday night game... the air is always more charged as the day comes to an end and thousands of fans stream to the stadium to cheer on their team. It was reminiscent of the Friday night games in high school, not that I really cared about (American) football, but those were some of the best nights in high school. Everyone coming together, cheering from under blankets and behind hot chocolate... those were the good old days. While this game was different, real football, a larger stadium, professional players, and team chants like no American football team has heard before - it was a treat to see the stadium illuminated by the proverbial Friday night lights. The game stretched long into the night and unfortunately, the Forest lost (Nottingham Forrest Football Club... NFFC). A good night overall.

This weekend has been filled with studying, nice weather, and running. I made it downtown to shop a bit yesterday, and I finally bought a dress that I had been eyeing since returning from holiday - thanks Dad! Anyway, today will be running, internet catch-up, and studying for the next week of academic torture. While others complain of the time flying by, at the moment it seems to be dragging. I am ready to be done with exams and papers. I have four exams and two papers remaining. To say the least, I am not thrilled. At least the weather has finally cleared up.