My Birthday

I turned 31 years old yesterday. Tuesday night, we were at the office until midnight, so a few of us went to the Red Moon Bar at the Grand Hyatt to have a celebratory drink ringing in my birthday. After a short night's sleep, I took in some champagne and orange juice on the real morning of my birthday, hoping to have a quick mimosa with the management before the local staff arrived. But, they started arriving 30 minutes early, so those hopes were quashed. Jessica brought me some Cadbury chocolates and some Pepperidge Farms cookies, Ema gave me some Burt's Bees chapstick (impossible to find here,) Joey'd bought me a great Starbucks mug, and Xenia brought some amazing macaroons. For lunch, we ordered pizzas from The Tree for the whole crew, and my coworkers covered my portion. Around dinner time, when we had sent the local staff out to eat, the management crew called me out of the office to sing Happy Birthday and present me with an amazing chocolate cake. Xenia picked it up at a French bakery, and it had beautiful swirls and carvings of chocolate decorating it. (Adam took a picture, so I'll post it when I can get it from him.) We toasted with the champagne and had our cake before the local staff came back. At the end of the evening, the local staff decided to all sing me Happy Birthday in Chinese. Twenty Chinese university students sang for me, and it was really sweet. I got out of the EARLY (around 9:30pm) and went home for a quick soak in the hot tub. My roommate gave me his cold for my birthday, so my throat started to hurt and my nose started to run during the day. Before I went to bed, though, I opened up Facebook and checked my email. I'd gotten tons of messages, wall posts, and e-cards, so I really knew my friends and family at home were thinking of me. That's a good way to go to sleep on one's birthday! 

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