Highlights:

- seeing Joe's face when he arrived this morning

- enjoying a nice relaxing ride to work with my love

- finding tokens of his affection waiting for me when I got to work

- having Kelly remind me, and not for the first time, that I've got to hold on to him, because he's really something special. As if I didn't already know. ;) But I think it's cool that other people see that too!

- the poem in the e-card he sent

- having Jon tell me that if I didn't have fun tonight he'd question my mental health :)

- seeing Joe after work... still not knowing what was in store for the evening

- hearing about all the thought he put into his gifts :)

- pulling off the road just for kisses :) I think the only other time I remember doing that was Phantom Friday.

- watching Sleeping Beauty in Toys R Us

- singing "Just the Way You Are" in the car

- arriving as the guest of honor to my very own Chuck E Cheese's surprise birthday party!

- seeing everybody who came to wish me a happy birthday :)

- modeling the party favors (eye patches and pirate beards!) :D

- getting the okay to crawl around in the tubes up by the ceiling (with all the confused little kids!)

- seeing my name up on the screen during the birthday song: Leslie - 22 (along with Brandon - 7 and Joey - 5) :D

- blowing out ALL my candles in one breath (after many mean jokes about the fire department standing by :P)

- getting my picture taken with Chuck E Cheese

- monopolizing Skee-Ball, and playing other arcade games even though I SUCK at them :D

- my awesome cards and presents, including the rarest and most prized cow in the world from Rich, a cake I can keep forever from Michi, a new Scrabble board from Jon, and a cow duffel (far right) from Locke

- dancing to "I Will Survive" with my Joe :*

- "Happy birthday to you... ARRRR" LOL. That was too, too funny!

- laughing and smiling CONSTANTLY for the entire evening


I always found it funny that until this summer I had never even been IN Chuck E Cheese's (and the reason I went this summer was just to say I'd been in)... much less had a birthday there. But you know what? NO WAY would I have appreciated it say, 15 years ago. I said that to Wyl earlier tonight, and his reply: "15 years ago you woulda thought was just the way it was sposed to be... and not realized how silly it is, and how good such silliness is." He's absolutely right though. There's no way those kids running around in there could have been having nearly as much fun as I was. There's just no way. There is NOTHING like recapturing your childhood sometimes, even when you're not expecting it. ESPECIALLY when you're not expecting it. Phantom Friday was like that for me (flashback to prom-type days). The Avril Lavigne concert. Blowing bubbles on the beach. The fun house in Niagara Falls. The Erie County Fair. And tonight. Sometimes it's just so much fun to forget your inhibitions, let loose, and play like you're 7 again. Only now you appreciate it in a way you just COULDN'T when you were 7.

Thanks so much to EVERYONE who came to my birthday party! This has been an absolutely incredible, totally unforgettable birthday. Wow. I know I said I love a big fuss... well, this one takes the cake! :) I am so blessed to have such awesome friends!

And to my Joe... thanks for everything. :) I love you with all my heart, and it's not the "stuff"... it's the thought and the feeling behind it all that touches me so much. You did all this for ME? Wow. I must really be something special.

You are truly amazing love. Truly.

I am the luckiest girl in the whole world.

Twenty-two is going to be a good year. I can feel it. :)