Hey guys!

I know I said I would post more frequently, which I fully intended to do, but my laptop crashed out and ended up stuck on the blue screen of death. I have had to purchase a new laptop purely to write my blog. And for uni next year but irrelevant for the moment.

I am planning to smash out a couple blog entries this week🤞

On Saturday 1 March, my brother, dad and I took a day trip up to Perth for my brother to buy a new drumkit. I had some clothes to return to a friend in Perth so I tagged along, which was a lot easier than it would have been if we still lived in Geraldton. (90 minutes compared to a 5 hour drive)

Unbeknownst to my father, my friend in Perth whose clothes I had to return (lets call her Emelie) had invited me to a party that Saturday night as her plus one to a friends 18^th birthday party. Hooray!

However, because of my… strained… relationship with my father, I didn’t tell him until after he dropped me off at Maccas to meet my friend and she asked if I was allowed to go. This was knowing full well the whole time that I wore my comfy converse and bought my phone charger and deodorant with me with the intention of attending this party.

Anyway, so I got dropped off and dad said he would message when they were finished drum shopping and would pick me up. Emelie and I had lunch at the shopping center, purchased cheap alcohol for ourselves ($6.50 for a Billsons can! Score!) and then caught the train back to her house. It was on the train I told dad I’d been invited to a party, but the number of full stops in his message did not fill me with confidence that dad was happy for me to do this. Oh well.

It was also a costume party. I had no costume.

We headed over to the birthday girls house early (lets call her Sasha) to help set up, I helped cut some meat and cheese for some mediocre-ly organized charcuterie boards and watched them make a midori illusion punch for that night.

For all you new and anonymous readers, I don’t attend parties usually. My friend group from school wasn’t into the party scene, and if I did go to a party, it was certainly not one with drugs and underage overconsumption of alcohol.

This was wayyy out of my comfort zone, but I’ve literally known Emelie since we were like 2 years old and I trusted her and her friends (that I’d never met before).

Okay so we arrive at the party as some of the first people around 6:30pm. Super chill, being introduced to different people as they walked in which was handy. I had my first drink of midori illusion, and was then made a strawberry daiquiri by Sasha’s younger sister resulting in two hands occupied with drinks.

Bit later, the music gets turned up, more costume clad party-goers arrive and I meet some more of Emelie’s friends, their boyfriends and exes, and all the drama Emelie debriefed me on started to make sense. (Very limited drama, mostly just friendship fires)

One girl starts filming a tiktok, the one where you turn around and drop on the hour, every hour to show how drunk you get. As the most clear-headed of the group I was in charge of remembering each hour to record the next part of the tiktok. I had some shots of soju for another tiktok (sorry Emelie, that tasted like ass), I’m handed a vodka cruiser by Sasha’s sister after she’s told off for drinking, and by that time (approx. 10pm?) was when I felt like I had to settle down on the drinks.

I’m mostly writing about this party though because not knowing anyone made it daunting but also better in a way?

I used to be so consumed with my anxiety, especially with social things like this, but I’m glad I didn’t worry too much about things because there was nothing to worry about! I honestly had so much fun, people were coming up and talking to me, asking how I knew Sasha, where I was from, what I was studying at uni. I’m also glad Emelie wasn’t anxious about bringing me, because she could have just left me for her school friends, or been stuck with me the whole night, but she introduced me to some really nice girls and kept coming to check on me if she was away for a bit. I did have to ask one of the guys to open a bottle of water for me when I couldn’t find Em, which was super embarrassing to go up to a teenage boy who doesn’t know you, ask him to open a bottle of water for you, and then say thank you and walk away.

But nah, best time ever honestly.

After drinking some water, I cracked my Billsons for 4^th drink of the night. Some people were throwing up and going home, two girls ubered Maccas to the party, some guys were out the front smoking weed. We played a couple games of uno inside, (and then when we were done, I got to organize them by colour and number!!! – happy autism), Sasha’s mum brought out their pet bunnies for people to hold so that was cool. Emelie was versing all the boys in arm wrestles, and winning, and I assumed this must happen at every party because they were all so ready for it.

We danced and sang karaoke loudly (badly) into a microphone and it was so great, some other girls joined in and it felt so fulfilling to drunkenly dance and sing pop songs off-key in the middle of the night.

At the end of the party, after another midori illusion and some of Emelie’s hard rated solo, her dad came to pick us up and we were home by 1am. Most people had started leaving and a couple of them were passed out on the couch so it was dying down a fair bit.

The next morning – I was not (badly) hungover! I was up at about 8 which was far too early after that night but she lives up the north suburbs of Perth and I still had to make my own way home.

Had some water and felt fine thank goodness, because the sun was bright and the city was loud.

Emelie drove me to the nearest train station, where I literally had to run down the escalator in a dress I’d worn for 36 hours to make the train on time. (That was my fault though lol)

40 minutes on the train, then off in the city, then walk to a bus stop, then catch the bus for nine stops, then arriving at east Perth station, where I had to ask the lady to reprint my ticket because I never got an email confirmation of the booking I made – it was just my email that wasn’t working, I definitely booked the bus. And thennn I had a 3 hour coach ride back to Bunbury, (sleeping for most of it to the point that I thought I missed my stop,) where mums first words to me getting picked up were, “You look wrecked.”

I felt pretty wrecked, but I also felt amazing! Like I was a bit hungover still, and so freaking exhausted, but I had a great weekend and lived a bit. My brothers are always getting invited out to peoples houses and parties last minute, and its just not really something that happens to me a lot, so being able to not only go, but articulate a way home – without missing a bus which is huge for me – in a semi-sober state still just makes me really proud of myself. Idk, maybe I’m just weird.

But yeah, I had a great time with all the people and felt safe and comfortable and happy the whole time.

Thanks Emelie! (And happy birthday again to Sasha 😊)

ALSO, one girl who has been dubbed as the official party photographer took some awful pictures of me. Nothing technically wrong, I’m just having fun singing into an apple, but they’re horrendous.

A bit of a sneaky peak into some future posts – I have a concert later this month, I’m travelling to Sydney for easter (by myself), and am hopefully seeing a guy from tinder in the next couple weeks 😁