saturday jan. 4: the family celebrated my birthday because i wasn’t going to be in toronto on my actual birthday.

my mom originally wanted to have a huge birthday party for me because turning 21 is a huge deal in filipino culture, but i didn’t want the pressure and i don’t have enough friends in toronto to fill a venue, so i asked to have a nice family dinner at the red lobster instead (a completely arbitrary decision which turned out alright).

it was cute, and i made sure the dinner was all about me.

“orpah, who are you texting on my birthday?”
“ophir, why are you falling asleep on my birthday?”
etc.

and then we went home to cut my specially made cake and open presents. my parents got me this really nice pen with my birthstone and my name engraved in it. and i also got a new phone, which was much needed since my old phone was a barely-functioning piece of shit.

i love celebrating my birthday with the fam!