Friday was my 24th birthday, which signaled the end of the Year of the Basketball and marked the beginning of the Year of Jack Bauer. Hopefully, the next 365 days will have as little to do with gun fights, massive explosions, and terrorists as the last 365 days had to do with sports. In fact, I would politely request that all of those things stay safely on the other side of the television screen.

I spent the whole weekend partying and receiving presents and eating chocolate, which is what I imagine life as a Hollywood celebrity must be like, sans the bulimia and drugs and scandal.

Since Juan Pedro is the only one with the patience to hear the full story, I'll condense the birthday shenanigans into a highlight reel, featuring the only kind of bullets I want to see this year:

• Office shindig. My roomie decorated my half of the office, and I brought in bagels for the morning and chocolate cake for the afternoon. I wore my princess tiara (pictured above) and shamelessly allowed myself to be the center of attention.
• Vanilla cupcakes. That's what my room smells like now. The boyfriend bought me a scented candle before he left for Boston and then arranged to have it delivered to the office on my birthday. Adorable! Plus, my room smells delightfully girly now, which is the coolest thing to come home to aside from a purring kitten.
• Family shindig. My 'rents bought me a 20" widescreen monitor to replace my very old, very dusty 15" monitor, which has looked even smaller than it is since the day my 28" widescreen monitor showed up on my desk at the office. Yes, I broke it in by watching The Lord of the Rings. Adam, meanwhile, got me a beautiful, illustrated copy of The Silmarillion and a gorgeous, bamboo lap desk for use with my inferno of a laptop. My grandma sent the most beautiful pair of butterfly earrings, and it made me tear up because it's our special thing. (She likes dragonflies, and I like butterflies.)
• Combo presents. The best part about all the presents I got was that I could use them together to create a super awesome birthday extravaganza. While I watched The Lord of the Rings on my new monitor, I pulled up Skype on the laptop (with my new lap desk) while drooling at the scent of vanilla cupcakes and wearing my earrings. High-five, friends and family!
• Never-ending fun. Friday was the office party and the family party, but then I got to spend Saturday with my mom (watching Gilmore Girls and pigging out on ice cream) and Sunday with my brother (at Chicago's Jazz Fest! yay!) and Monday sleeping, napping, and sleeping some more.

While I still feel like an 84-year-old posing as a 24-year-old, I am happy to report that I am enjoying life regardless of my age. I'm also happy to celebrate another year of great memories and new adventures and lovely friends and odd but wonderful family members. And really, when it comes right down to it, I am happy for another excuse to eat cake.

Today, I am proud of myself. I woke up late but still drove to school. I arrived to class late but still took my seat. I didn't want to do my homework, but I found my study spot in the library and finished every assignment. I took my scheduled break and sat in my car, listening to classical music while reading Mr. Abernathy. I called my boyfriend for our mid-day chat. I went to my super boring afternoon class and forced myself to pay attention through the whole thing. I passed up every opportunity to stop for unhealthful, expensive food on the way home and made myself a free dinner from stuff around the house instead.

Annnd then I went to do my homework and got caught up with Flickr and Facebook and sudoku and blogging. OOPS! But hey, high-five anyway, Skirts. You have to start somewhere.

Now then. Homework time. Who wants to join me for a board game and some ice cream in the park?

Things That Have Made Me Cry This Week:

• Realizing that my boyfriend is too far away to hug.
• Realizing that pretty much all my friends are too far away to hug.
• Remembering that I don't usually like hugs anyway.
• Sad blog entries.
• Happy blog entries.
• Talking to my mom.
• Talking to my dad.
• Thinking about my cat.
• Remembering that I left wet laundry in the machine all day.
• Going to church.
• Going to the store.
• Going home.
• Eating ice cream.
• Eating slightly soggier ice cream.
• RUNNING OUT OF TISSUES.

Ahem. So. My name is Rachelskirts, and I have had a stressful week. Tada!

P.S. Before you tell me that there are better ways to deal with stress than by turning into a blubberbaby who watches Lord of the Rings on repeat and eats her weight in chocolate, would you mind letting me wipe my snot on your sleeve? I wasn't kidding about being out of tissues.