Best Birthday Gifts!

Prime Rib Birthday Dinner at The Library 2, Voorhees, NJ

I apologize for the poor quality of the picture. I snapped it real quick with my phone. Other than the many "happy birthdays" on facebook, I just spent time with my parents. They bought me the usual. Dinner, birthday cake, flowers. My cake this year was a green tea cake. Now, I'm not a fan of green tea. I'll drink it on occasion but the ice cream... the ice cream is NASTY. NOT my favorite. So I was pleasantly surprised when I enjoyed my cake. Last night's meal was my splurge. Medium rare prime rib with roasted garlic mashed potatoes. I DIED. I need to get back on my diet. It seems that my recent dosage of steroids has upped my weight a bit =X I've been experimenting with Tofu Shirataki Noodles. They're actually not so bad once you get used to it.

My gift from my family.... *drumroll* will be a DSLR :) I just have to decide what I want and my mom will come and purchase it for me. How sweet of her... she knows I'd spend it on something else if she gave it to me hahaha. What camera do you guys use? I've definitely been looking into a few Canons so we'll see what I'll decide on.


Honestly, though, I can say the camera was not the greatest gift. I'd have to say it was getting my smile back. Last month, on August 17, 2010, I randomly got Bell's Palsy. O.M.G. I cried for the next few days because to me, at that moment, it was the worst thing that would ever happen to anyone. The left half of my face was paralyzed. I couldn't blink. I couldn't hear. I couldn't speak properly. My entire world was flipped upside down. I searched the internet only to find stories of people who have not recovered from Bell's Palsy. I stayed inside and never went out. I hid this from most of my friends and the ones I did tell, I refused to let them see me this way. After two weeks though, my face got somewhat better. I noticed a twitch around the left corner of my lip. I was ecstatic for even seeing the smallest improvement. I went out that weekend to have dinner with my friends because one of them was back home from graduate school for the week.

With CB & AJ. Week 2 with Bell's Palsy

I also included some video clips that I had recorded of myself to track my progress. I'm truly thankful that it's gone and that I'm able to be myself again and smile. I returned to work after taking some time off fully functioning!