I'm officially 23!! And it was the best birthday ever!

Today's my 23rd birthday!! I'm getting so old!! But still...won't stop being childish, energetic, and SILLY! Today also marked a full year at my current job which I will take as an achievement! The best thing about my birthday this year is that I felt truely blessed to have so many people I adore in my life. It was the little gestures this year that really had the biggest effect on me. I really was touched today and want to recognize all these people for making me smile on my birthday:

A HUGE thank you for Salooooom for coming from Dubai a couple of days early to make it for my birthday. This is the first bday of mine that she has EVER attended in the 6 years that I have known her so it was the best gift to have her with me. Thanks Saloomi so much and I can't wait for your wedding!! Its gonna be SO fun!

Thanks so much to Martha, Lina, Salma & Omar (thanks for the DUET), Mariam, John, Ronda, and Noha El Nahas for calling me at midnight, to Yasmine Khater for the big kiss, and to my brothers and parents for the smses, hugs, and presents!!! I went to sleep happy and so looking forward to the next day because of you guys!

Thanks to Maggie, Bassem, Sarah Youssef, Habya, Hisham, Dodo, Darah, Mahmoud, and Karim Abadir for calling me on the morning of my birthday!!! Thanks to Hazem and Emad for singing happy birthday to me all the way to the end, I LOVED that hahaha, do it again next year! Thanks to Hesham Abou Bakr (mesh mesh :P) who called me long distance from England just to say happy birthday, hearing your voice was the best! Thanks to Marian Makar for calling me from Dubai, I miss you so much you dont understand, stay healthy and take care of your pregnancy! Roro and Nancy, 2 of my very close friends from high school, thanks for remembering my birthday every single year since you've moved to the states 6 years ago! You girls rock! Miss you loads. Thanks to Eiko for remembering my bday from Japan as well! People were very understanding at the office today with all the phone calls :) Thanks to everyone else for sending me smses and messages on MSN! You made work fun for me today! Couldn't stop smiling.

Martha, your nick name on MSN was sooooo sweet! You know how much I love you sweety...the girl who really understands me! Without you I would have probably come to the conclusion that I am just too strange for this world hahaha. I miss our long talks, so I'm grateful for our long car rides to the hip hop classes. Here's to more joined activities!

Thanks to Ronda, Diana, Riham, Nuka, Nou, Sweedy, Bebz, Ashraf, Khaled, Morro, Asmaa, Nancy, Rania, and Henwa for the cutest card ever! I was so happy to find the card on my desk this morning. LOVE YOU and this job wouldn't mean as much to me as it does without you guys. I think we all manage to get to work on time now just for our morning coffee break and then we look forward to the lunch break afterwards hahaha. A big hug to all of you! Ronda, your singing every day keeps us all awake! Diana, you are just hilarious! Keep being you! Bebz, you have become a buddy, thanks for always being there to talk to. Ashraf, your funny faces in the morning make me laugh every day! Plus your support means alot. Nou! I'm soooo enjoying working with you ya naughty enti! Sweedy, you're the reason I'm here! I'm glad you managed to come back so I can get to know you better! Khalooud, you are such a sweety! Morro, going to work with you every morning has been such a pleasure, I can't imagine going work now without you in the morning! Asmaa ya magnoona! Love you ya boo hehe. Thank you so much for the cake and beautiful singing voices hahaha plus the presents! You guys are just awesome!

I celebrated my birthday in Nomad from 6:30pm-1am!! I was energetic the whole time which amazed even me! We hung out there talking and then we watched the world cup football match (Germany vs Italy). It was the best birthday ever just because so many people showed up and this time I managed to talk to every single person there...usually what happens is the bday is short and I end up not saying more than a sentence to each person. This time I had all the time in the world (7 hours!) so managed to spend a fairly good amount of time with every single person there, which was all I wanted :) Plus had no issues with the bill, nor had seating problems, nor was the weather super hot...so luck was on my side this time around! Thanks to Emad, Mariam, Dodo, Amr, Yasser, Sheeko, Fawzy, Askoura, Tarek, Tamer Zikry, Maan, Hazem, Martha, Maggie, Abdo, Dina, Sherifa, Sara Rifaat, Heba Rifaat, Sarah Joe, Bassem, Amira, Alia, Lina, Coco, Salma, Omar, Hany, Salem, Nafe3, Abdo, Sameh, Sami, Nisrin, Yasmine, Ronda, Riham, Diana, Asmaa, May, Tyreek, Happy, Rasha, Sara Sami, and Amir for making it! You guys are the best and I love every single one of you to bits! And to you guys who came from the very beginning till the very end, and you know who you are, thank you so much! Thanks for the thoughtful gifts as well! Special thanks to Fawzy, the biggest sweetheart ever, who cancelled a learning event just so he wouldnt miss my birthday and it meant so many other people could make it to my birthday. That was so wow of you to do and I was very touched.

Everyone of course made fun of me taking loads of pics! I was allowed 3 pics per person who came to the bday and that was a way of punishing me...so you can imagine how obsessed I am if 3 pics per person weren't enough!

So...it was the BEST birthday EVER! I guess it's ok that I turned 23 right? That minor detail didn't ruin the day one bit!