Well, the party was a good time. Thanks to everyone who stopped by! I admit to being a bit stressed earlier in the day. I had a lot of work to do early in the morning, but had a great birthday lunch with the coworkers, and they even got me a surprise birthday cheesecake. They’re all so sweet!

I got home a little later than I had planned on, so I was running around a little bit crazy trying to get the house cleaned up. Luckily, Fata and my dad had come over before I got home so they helped out a bit. While we were cleaning out the tank, I found out that the filter was broken, so I had Claudine pick up a new one on her way home from work.

Once the party started, it was all good. There was such a strange variety of people there - my cousins, my aunts/uncles, old coworkers, current coworkers, friends from college, etc. It was pretty crazy, but a lot of fun. Of course, one of the big highlights of the night was Dave’s projector. The guys stayed down there and pretty much watched ESPN for most of the night.

Here’s a couple highlights (and thank you’s) that I’m jotting down so I can remember it before it drifts away in my memory.

- Thanks for the flowers! I love them. At first I thought it was from my dad or Dave, but then I read the card and I was so surprised! They’re beautiful and they make a wonderful centerpiece on my dining room table.

- Marky Mark, those mix CD’s ROCK! We played the old school hip hop when we were cleaning the day after and it was like a dance party in my house. I’m going to make copies so we can listen to ‘em in the car, too.

- My cousin Trully must feel like a big Twister board. She told us that her baby was kicking and she immediately felt 5 hands on her belly. She would point to an area where she thought the baby was kicking, then our hands would move. The cousins would sit there, hovering, waiting for the baby to show off, molesting her tummy.

- Thanks to everyone who brought alcohol. My secret for throwing these parties is so we can get rid of the alcohol we’ve accumulated, but that never seems to work!

- Jerry, I won a free scratch card and $1. Thanks!

- Later in the night, we had a poker tournament with a $5 buy-in. Several people were knocked out early, it looked like it was going to be a short game. All the losers had to go and watch ‘Honey’ with everyone else as a punishment. The last four (Dan, Tall Steve, Jerome and Marlon) played for a while, with Marlon ending up as the champion. In a truly generous move, he gave me and Fatima the money he won as a birthday gift.

- Many thanks to Manny for making an emergency fork, pop and ice run.

- Thanks to Melanie for the Chappelle Show Season II DVD. It provided some good laughs during the party.

- Thanks to my surprise guest Earl, who not only brough beer, but who also installed my aquarium filter. In case you were wondering, yes, the fish are still alive.

- Thanks to Jerry for providing one of the best laughs of the night. He taught little Jillian a game where they took around little Nemo and Dory toys and ‘grazed seaweed’ off the walls of the basement. Jilly didn’t want to stop the game, so Jerry was left to wander around the basement following Jillian, going ‘chomp chomp’ as he held the plastic fish against the wall. Pretty funny to watch. Not as funny when I was given the fish and became Jillian’s partner in chomping.

- I didn’t need a clown at the party to entertain the kids. All I needed was Fatima the origami queen. Although there were only two kids there, Fata did a great job with her origami workshop!

- Note to anyone who has a party on a Friday and tells people to bring food - you’re going to have a lot of chicken. We had 4 different kinds of Buffalo Wild Wings (garlic, medium, teriyaki and sweet BBQ), Hooters wings, chinese wings, Popeye’s chicken, and more. We had a LOT of chicken!

- Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes - all of you who commented on the site (I love you guys! I have the best readers ever!), for the presents, the cards, the calls, the hugs. Even though I’m 30, the love of the people around me keeps me young.

Tags: Daily //