Hello everyone,

I’m Turning 23

I turned 23 the other day. This is the second time I am celebrating my birthday out of Malaysia and without my family. Lisa, my host mom has been asking for a couple of time prior to my birthday what I had in mind.

A party? A trip somewhere? Dinner out? A certain present? I was spoilt for choice. Being the indecisive person that I am, it wasn’t until 2 weeks later, when Lisa asked me again that I decided that I wanted a party. Then came the other question. Where? When? I told her that it would be nice to have a party at our home. Easier. She then asked me if I wanted gifts or money… Being the sentimental person that I am, I chose gifts. Boy, if only I knew what was in store for me!

It was decided that my birthday party would be on the 2nd of July. It was a Sunday. The night before that, we had another dinner party at our place and we went to the beach to watch the 4th of July fireworks display. I live in a gated lake community called Smoke Rise. It is a beautiful community with a lake and a man made beach, another lake that is used for ice skating in the winter, 2 play ground, a stable and arena for horses (Lisa loves horses), and a ski trail amongst other amenities. Anyway, coming back to Saturday night, our dinner party went late into the night with a few drinks here and there. It was a fun night. Gerry did charades for the songs that was playing and it was so difficult guessing them… Of course, songs from the early 80s??? Way beyond my league.

The next morning, I was all set to go to church and Lisa was like ‘Wait… Gerry is working in the basement... your birthday present’. So she yelled to Gerry to cover up whatever that he was doing. I came down and all I saw was this insanely huge plywood lying on the floor. ‘You’re giving me wood as my birthday present? Go Santy’s’. That was my first reaction. Anyway didn’t think much of it. Came back from church and went straight for my bed. I haven’t recovered from last night party yet. We went to bed like 3 something

Was awakened by the sound of the doorbell ringing. Heard voices down stairs. I couldn’t keep my mouth close the moment I got down to the kitchen. Everything was blue. The cutleries, the napkins, the balloons, the drinks (blue margaritas!), ‘blue’ blue cheese, blue salad dressing blue table cloth.. and everyone was dressed in blue!!! Now I understood why Lisa kept asking for my guest list. At first I find it a little odd. She didn’t ask for a list last year. But this year she was persistent. She never stopped asking. And I invited a few people whom she didn’t know and she asked me about them. That was weird. But I thought nothing of it. I also found out that she sneaked into my bedroom while I was having my shower to get numbers from my phonebook to make calls to my friends, asking them to wear something blue!

The party was awesome. Loads of laughter and love. Come present time, I was really excited. I got amazing stuff. A gift card from Victoria’s Secret and TJ Maxx, A Yankees baseball cap, a Giants jersey (American football), and a couple of DVDs from friends. Then came the time to open the stuff from my family. Started out with the tiniest one. Was a gold necklace with a blue topaz pendant! Beautiful. A baby blue jewelry case. A scrapbooking book. (I’m starting to scrapbook) A bean bag. A picture frame with 98 pictures in it!!!! That blew me away. Lisa has painstakingly Photoshop my entire year with them. It was just mind blowing.

Words could not descript my emotions. It will always be my most treasured possessions in life. It is more meaningful as Gerry was working on the frame with 5 hours of sleep and a hangover. I found out later that Lisa spent at least 3 late nights working on it. I never thought I’ll be this loved.