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.