14th Feb:
Matt wore his kilt out to dinner for VDay. I had a GF pizza with mushrooms...very yummy. Some tourist girls who saw us walking home "aww'd" at his kilt. It was fun. A waited taking a smoke break wished us a happy Valentine's Day. I think people are nicer when they see someone in a kilt. Too bad they cost about 700lbs because I'd like Matt to own one and I know he wants one of his own, too.
He got me a box of chocolates, too, called "Eden" and each chocolate is named after something like "lust" or "tempation" etc. We're eating them in the order they're listed. So far we've had "original sin" and "lust." Yum!
15th Feb:
A week or so ago, when Kim and I were looking for dresses, I found an old edition of Dante's Divine Comedy at a consignment shop. I wanted it, but didn't want to spend the money on it. When I opened my birthday gift from Matt, how surprised was I to find the EXACT copy I had wanted! And neither Kim nor I had told him! I was so happy, and quite shocked. He also gave me 21 kisses.
I didn't feel like it was my birthday all day. I got ready for the Ceilidh around 4pm, but my converter is running out of steam and my hairdryer/straightener weren't going full blast, so my hair was big and annoying all night. I need to buy new ones. Anyway, Kim and I brought Sangria and rum over to Kitchener and drank enough to feel warm on the walk to the bus. We left around 7pm with a whooole group of people.
At Teviot, where the ball was being held, they made the guys check their sgihn dos (sp), which are the knives put into the top of the kilt hose, even though they were only plastic or rubber.
We all enjoyed a glass of champagne, then went to dinner. We had roast chicken, potatoes balls, and carrots. The dessert was cheesecake. It was pretty good! I had a special gluten free meal, which was basically the same meal but without the mushroom sauce on the chicken.
Afterward, we went to the bar and I bought everyone Chocolate Covered Cherry shots (grenadine, baileys, and rum). Then John bought us all Kilted Black Leprachaun shots, which were baileys, whiskey, and something else and were pretty rank. Callum bought me a gin and tonic. I loved that it was my birthday so everyone wanted to buy me drinks! ...but I wanted to remember the night and not die during dancing, so I was pretty good...probably the only person to NOT black out on their 21st birthday.
Anyway, the Ceilidh was SO fun! It's basically square dancing and some of the songs are the tunes of Yankee Doodle, Oh Susannah, etc. The dances consist of lots of spinning, throwing, lifting, etc, of the women, while the men get the easy bits. So basically the women, in high heels, suffer through most of the night.
Once you know the steps, the dances are easy and fun, but if you don't know the steps, you'll probably get hurt. Lots of people fell, including myself, and at the end of the night I was sure I'd broken a bone in my foot.
My favorite dance (at first) was one wherein the girls put their arms over the men's shoulders and the men lift the girls around the waists and spin them about in a large circle. It was fun the first couple times...Until we got nauseated! Another fun one was, as John described, a "swingers dance"...we all looped arms with every other couple in a figure-eight style.
The dances look like chaos even though they're choreographed! I think they were invented JUST to see drunk people fall over.
The Kitchener House people got everyone to sing happy birthday to Azahara and me! It was nice.
At the end, my feet were killing me. We went home and had snacks, and made a dance floor in the kitchen, but ended up being too tired to dance anymore.
Over all it was a brilliant night, but I STILL don't feel like I've had my birthday. Oh well, I have a whole year to adjust to 21!
-A-
