the mother of all birthdays!!

Greetings from your older (and not much wiser) friend!! How are you all!? I hope you are not suffering too much from the weather and that school, work, family and everything else is treating you well!
For my birthday on Saturday I worked all day, 8 hours - but it was great! I awoke to many phone calls from friends and family (thank you, you know who you are!!) And then at school I received birthday cards from my students and co-teachers, the kids sang to me, and then the head staff all signed a card and got me a piece of yummy cake! Then Lee and I went to one of our privates where, at the end of the lesson, they turned out the lights and lit a whole cake and sang to me, and bought me beautiful M.A.C. make-up! I felt so touched that these people opened up their homes to me as a friend, not just a teacher, it really made my night special. Then we went home and I opened a gift from Lee's family: AN MP3 PLAYER!! They bought me the fabulous Samsung player in black, without even knowing how obsessively I've been looking to buy one here! Then I opened a home-made calendar from Lee, commemorating our last 3 years together plus pictures of all my friends, family; he had other people in on it, helping to send him pics and dates and it is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever made for me! After that a bunch of us went to this bar for dinner and drinks, and more friends and co-workers came so it was a really good time, and then at round 11:30 we took it to the club! We had booked a VIP table for 12, which meant we were really livin it up! Bottls and bottles of booz kept flowin as we drank in this lavish curtained-off table with couches, and before I knew it there were more than 30 people all out to wish me a happy bday! One girl even bought me red roses :o) I spent the entire night on the dance floor, it was soooo much fun!!
The next day, Lee and I went downtown and walked around, I treated myself to new blonde hair streaks (and now my hair is straightened), then Lee took me out for a deelish dinner and dessert! It was so much fun, and all in all a truly unforgettable birthday! I was feeling rather anxious and extremely fearful for this birthday, having a quarter-life crisis all week, missing all of you so much - and I do wish that I could have shared it with you, but there is not anything else I could have asked for here to make me feel more at home or loved by the people around me, it was truly one of the best times I've ever had! Even going back to work on Monday was okay, another student bought me an adorable picture frame, and I have another package coming from my family at home soon!! All I can say is that looking in the mirror and saying "I'm twenty-four" is a very surreal experience!