31 and you're not married?!? And without kids?!?

I turned 31 a few days ago, my second birthday in Beirut, and i can't imagine a better place i could have spent it. After wandering amongst the roman ruins in Baalbek all day (still working on that post/photos), followed by a much needed nap (I'm old), I met up with my friend Fahad (who i know from my Sacramento salsa days, now living in Kuwait), Nizar, and Nikki (Nizar's friend who is also visiting from Kuwait, and happens to know Fahad thru the small world of salsa) and headed out for some dancing. Wow, that was a long sentence with lots of parentheses.

I was warned that there'd be a surprise at the salsa club, and around midnight out came a cake with a giant candle :) The candle was impossible to blow out, or maybe my lungs are so damaged from the second hand smoke here, but i just let it burn out after 5 tries. This photo is of me in disbelief at how hard it is to blow out the candle...

There's a tradition here that involves the first cut of the cake. Apparently you have to cut the cake with the dull side, and do it in one continuous motion - no sawing back and forth. Anyways this wasn't explained to me ahead of time so it was like a 3 stooges moment with my friend handing me the knife dull-side down, I'd flip it over, he'd grab it and flip it over and hand it back to me, I'd flip it over, etc, etc, until he held my hand with the knife in it up to the cake.

The other birthday tradition...more of a salsa birthday tradition...is the birthday circle, where the birthday girl (or boy) is surrounded by all the guys (or girls) and everyone takes turns dancing with them for a few seconds during a song.

After working up an appetite we had some cake, called Lazy Cake, because it has thin biscuit cookies inside (I guess implying that whoever made it was lazy and threw in some cookies). It was soooooo good, so chocolatey with a little crunch. I had some of the leftovers for breakfast the next day.

Finally after the club closed around 2 we went to get some late night snacks at a restaurant nearby, and after eating and ending down the evening it was suddenly almost sunrise...good times with great people. Thank you Nizar, wassim, Henry, hagop, Nikki, Jihane, Fahad, and Benoit, for such an amazing night! It was all topped off with Henry's response to me saying how old I was, "you're 31 and never married?!? No children?!?" He said it while laughing, so I didn't punch him.