Birthday!

So I'm 19 today, cool! It doesn't feel like anything (I've really stopped expecting a new age to feel any different from the previous, lol). I don't feel like a number. The age and me just don't seem connected anymore, but hey, it's fun to celebrate anyway. ^_^
I had a really good time last night hanging out with Richard at his house. He picked me up at 5:30 and I stayed at his house until 11:30. I got to meet his 14 year old daughter Brenna and his son Joshua (who turned 17 today, we share the same birthday ^_^) and his 12 year old son Jared, I think. He was so sweet, he had all sorts of veggies for me, a pack or smart dogs and whole wheat buns, salsa, fiber one cereal and soy milk, and diet Dr. Pepper. He had chocolate cake for everyone else, lol, but we had a great time just talking and getting to know each other. He is such a talker and a joker, and he told me a lot about his life like his divorce and how badly his ex-wife treated his kids. And also I cleaned his kitchen and reorganized his cabinets and washed his dishes that were piled in the sink. He told me "Mi casa es tu casa" (because he's Hispanic) and I told him, (in Spanish) "Well if it's my house too, I want it to be clean!" because he was like, "Girl, you don't need to be cleaning around!" I told him I love to do it, it makes me happy. And we also talked a lot about just ways we've been blessed by God, what our dreams are, and we worked on flyers to hang up around school about the church and youth meetings, and that was fun. And he kept telling me, "You are such a blessing, I can tell God has big plans for you." And he was very impressed/proud of me for wanting to be celibate my whole life because he knows a LOT of youth who are already sexually active, and he's working hard to teach them the importance of waiting for marriage. He also kept telling me that I was welcome at his house any time, any day, for any reason. The door is always open to me, make myself at home. I can't believe how open he is, I feel so welcome. It was funny, while I was organizing he said, "So I've got your paperwork all ready."
I turned to him and said, "Paperwork? For what?"
He said, "To adopt you."
Lol! It was funny. I love him, he's a great guy. It's too bad that service to the church wouldn't count for my required 10 hours for my Honors Cornerstone class. I already have 5 hours down, but I would have loved to get credit for church volunteering; it would have been extra incentive.
Well for my birthday Richard gave me a new toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, pens, and a BUNCH of spiral notebooks, because I told him those were things that I needed. I'm more of a necessities person, so it was perfect.
Then he took me back to the dorm so I was back before curfew (midnight). When I got to the third floor, some of the other girls were out in the lounge doing homework, and they all told me, "Stay up for 15 more minutes so we can wish you a happy birthday!"
So I did, lol. And at midnight all the girls who were there sang "Happy Birthday", which was really sweet. Then I went to bed.
Then I woke up and went to Psychology, then to Cornerstone. At the end of that class, Austin (a really nice guy in class) said he had an announcement, and said that it was my birthday, and so they all needed to embarrass me by singing Happy Birthday. So he gave me a card that everyone in class had signed, and then proceeded to get the class to join him in song. It was so sweeeeet!! I started tearing up when I looked at the card and all the signatures. I've never gotten a card like that...
Well then I went to Chapel and it was then that I listened to a voicemail message in which my mom was singing Happy Birthday to me, which was really nice to hear. I'm glad she's doing ok back home even without electricity.
After Chapel I had about an hour to myself before I went to Bible class. I checked my mail and saw that I had a package from my Aunt Lora, which was a cool book about the top 10 choices you make in life that decide if your life will be worthwhile or not. Then I went to Bible, where again the whole class sang Happy Birthday to me (birthdays only come once a year, so you have to take all the times people sing it for you that you can get!). Then I got to read the text for the day, which was Mark chapter 4 which is the parable of the sower. The weird thing was that in my Bible that chapter was on page 917 (you know, like the date), lol. It was also nice because we went outside for class, so I got to read standing by the statue of Jacob's Dream with the breeze and the sun and the sounds of nature and running water all around. It was cool. ^_^
After that I just started doing random things like reading, studying, answering birthday emails and walking around, etc. Now I'm kind of hungry but I'm trying to wait for my friend Ashley (the RA) to come around because I know she's got some stuff she wants to give me and might want to hang out or something.
Anyway, I've had a really pleasant birthday so far. I've been feeling so blessed getting all these messages and letters and cards and emails and songs and calls and just people walking by saying "Happy Birthday" as we walk past each other. I don't know if I've ever felt so loved and welcomed by so many people who I just met. It's a great feeling. I love the girls in my dorm, this whole school just feels like a family community. I never want to leave, I just love it so much here.