Special Day.

Bâsudei. Birthday. Twenty-Four. It was yesterday. And it was incredible.

Here's how it started: That morning, I was in Webster, Texas. I stood out on the balcony of a friend's condo and watched the sun come up over a lake. There is no more perfect way to start a birthday.

Mondays are my "long night" at the studio. Most people will complain about working on their birthday, but my workday was positively magical. My boss and I are collaborating on a piece together, and at the end of the hour-- after we all did a nice formal reverance-- she and all the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to me, and the kids all hugged me afterwards. It was really sweet and really special.

And do you know what else happened yesterday? I realized that I finally feel like myself again. I've been in a blind and burned-out funk for the last three months (as you've read), but over the last week I've been feeling better...and last night was the first night that I really felt like my old self; the energetic girl who isn't burned out in the least and it bursting with enthusiasm and love and energy. Realizing that made me so incredibly happy. Being at odds with dance is like fighting with your significant other: It's horrible and depressing, but once it's over and things are hunky dory again it's such a great feeling.

My "big kids" all shouted out "Happy birthday" in unison at the beginning of class. We had a really productive class, and after reverance I said "Students, today is my twenty-fourth birthday. I'm glad I got to spend it in here working with you guys."

After work, my boss and I had a nice, long talk about methods of teaching and the choreographic process. And the nice people at Tanglewood Mart gave me a free beer, and I stayed up until 1am watching awesome stand-up comedy.

I can think of a hundred worse ways to turn twenty-four.