My Best Birthday Yet!

One of my friends asked me on Saturday night which of my birthdays has been my favorite, and I have to say that it was this one, my 24th!  There is something about each birthday that makes it special, and before this birthday, I would have said that my 23rd was my favorite, since all of my closest college girlfriends came in to town for a mini-reunion.  However, a lot of changes have happened in my life over the past year that contributed to making this birthday such a wonderful one.

I started off Birthday Weekend with a nice little cupcake party thrown by my colleagues, which was perfect, since I was planning on breaking Lent and eating sweets for the occasion of my birthday.  I'm lucky to work in an office where we take some time out to celebrate everyone's birthday, so it was nice to have that time out of our Friday to relax and eat some yummy treats.  And, what's more, my boss let us leave at 4, right after the party, so my weekend got to start early!

Dan and I had a pretty low-key evening on Friday night, which was exactly what I needed since I had had a long week.  He also had to be up at the crack of dawn (6:30, yikes!) to be a dutiful cousin and go to his younger cousin's swim meet, so we watched some basketball and were asleep at an old people-early time.  On Saturday morning, I got a nice "Happy Birthday" wakeup before Dan had to run out the door, and then I met up with my dad for a nice breakfast and daddy/daughter time. It was so nice to have that time to catch up with him.  He then drove me to pick up my cake from a DELICIOUS DC-area bakery chain Cake Love, and I got my Cookies & Cream cake (and yes, it is as good, if not better, than the picture makes it look!).  The rest of the day was pretty relaxing; I went for a nice run, baked a second cake, and generally got the apartment ready for people to come over.  Dan came over a little bit earlier than everyone else, and then a few of us got Indian takeout (quickly becoming a yearly birthday tradition) before the rest of the guests arrived.

This is the part of the post where I tell you how wonderful Dan is: there were about 10 girls there, and one Dan, and he was such a champ about sitting around chatting with a bunch of girls.  How did I get this lucky??? I made sure to express, on multiple occasions throughout the night and afterward, how grateful I was that he was there, despite being the lone male representative (it hadn't been planned that way, but our few male friends were unable to make it).  I felt terrible for him at multiple points throughout the night, but he hung in there (and even went out dancing, which he hates, for a little while).  I think I owe him one (okay, more than one).  That's how you know that someone loves you, when they're willing to do lots of things they don't want to do for you.  I am the luckiest girl in the world :)

Anyway, since we sat around doing all of that talking, we didn't actually make it to karaoke, which had been our original plan.  We left the apartment at around midnight, and Dan, Lauren, Molly and I went dancing for a bit at Front Page before heading home.  All in all, it was a great night, and I was so happy to have been surrounded by so many wonderful friends.

On Sunday, after a relaxing day, I met up with my parents and Dan for dinner at Filomena, a FANTASTIC Italian restaurant in Georgetown.  It was the perfect end to the perfect birthday weekend, and I was so grateful throughout the weekend to be able to spend time with family, friends and Dan.  A huge thank you to all of you who were either present at some point during the weekend or sent your love.  I feel this way every day, but I am so blessed to have the loved ones that I do!