Twenty-FINE!

Yooooo!!! It's been a whirlwind of a week and it hasn't even ended yet!

If you know me then you know my 29th birthday was less than a couple of days ago - the 4th to be precise. And even though in an ideal 'Rona' free scenario, I should've been in Kenya, looking down the safari from a hot air balloon in Masa Mara, to jumping down a plane skydiving in Diani beach, and swinging on a rope bungee jumping in Nairobi. This trip that I had already made a deposit for was cancelled, of course. And to make matters worse, my phone decided to go bonkers the weekend before, leaving me struggling to answer NUMEROUS messages and calls on my birthday with an ancient iPhone I forgot still existed in my 'archive'.

But still, I couldn't have exchanged how it all turned out for ANYTHING!

Like my travel agent @funmioyatogun cc: @tvpadventures 'prophesied' that morning:

Hehe, more like:

Kiki - 5

Corona - 0

Ha! Take THAT Bish!

Let me lay out the scoreboard for y'all:

1. BORDERLINE DEPRESSION

KiKi - 0

Rona - 5

I was borderline depressed as my birth date drew closer for obvious reasons: 

1. No trip - wailsssss :(

2. No cash - salary slash and what-not (boo hoo)

3. This also meant that I couldn't pay for my long awaited birthday photo shoot with @thetspictures, a photography business owned by a friend of mine and her husband

4. It's Rona season and pretty much everyone I know is broke. So hinting at my family and friends to buy gifts felt a tad bit selfish, so I simply wrote down a birthday wish-list just for the fun (and sadness) of it.

5. And then the realization that I was gearing closer to my last year in my twenties hit me (I wasn't ready yo!!! Tbh I'm still not ready *cringe*).

So my plan was to be a bum and stay in bed all day, eating the special meal I knew my mum would definitely prepare for me - at least that was a given. 

In a nutshell, I just wasn't really looking forward to it. The Rona was having a field day on my parade. 

But then...

2. PHOTO SHOOT

KiKi - 1

Rona - 4

My sis-in-law to be (at the time), made it her mission to find a way I could still have a photo shoot at a very affordable rate. She found a promo package by a make up artiste @faces_by_candie, which came with a make up session and a few edited pictures and she and my sister made sure I signed up for it. 

Then a few days later, I saw a couple of pictures that @thetspictures posted on their Instagram page of a birthday photo shoot they just did and I sent my friend a message saying how it was a bummer that I couldn't have mine due to my forlorn situation. Lo and behold, she calls me to tell me to come over for my shoot - FOR FREE! 

Luckily for me, it was scheduled on the same day I was getting my make up done and both locations were in the same vicinity. So I had my face beat with a few pictures taken in the morning and my main photo shoot that afternoon. Talk about the perfect arrangement!

Your girl was looking like a whole damn three-course meal!

3. LEGALLY MARRIED

KiKi - 2

Rona - 3

First off, the background hitch story: I made a new friend on my trip to Ghana in April last year, whom my  'bigger' brother saw her picture on my status and didn't allow me rest for my unborn children until I gave him her phone number. Long story short, they got engaged a couple of weeks ago. *big grin*

The court wedding was scheduled to hold on the week before my birthday but due to the Sallah break, which of course was a public holiday, plans changed and it was postponed to Tuesday - my birthday. This gave me a 'more than enough reason' to actually get up from my bed and get all dressed up for the ceremony. Of course my 'being-a-bum-all-day' plans were nullified - for a good cause. SCORE!

P.S: If they don't give me a special shout out on their big day, imma crash the wedding. *straight face*

4. GIFTS and WELL-WISHES

KiKi - 3

Rona - 2

Remember the birthday wish-list I mentioned? My sneaky sis sent it to a couple of friends of mine and out of it, I got:

A pair of gold brogues (they are blindingly gorgeous!)

A cake - from SALT! If you know @saltlagos they make one of the best (cheese)cakes in Lagos. 

Some casssssh! *doing the money dance* (however that's done)

Then my new sis-in-law added yet another cake from W's Bakeshop @bakeshopofficial to the pile! 

PLUS, my brother-in-law said he will help out with buying me a new phone! *tears of joy*

My hairdresser (yep) even made and gave me a pixie human hair wig as a present! I meeeean...how sweet!

And oh, did my friends and colleagues make me feel special or what?! I got countless messages and calls even from people I NEVER expected! As tired as my fingers and voice were of constantly responding to messages and phone calls, it was refreshingly overwhelming.

4. AGING LIKE FINE WINE

KiKi - 4

Rona - 1

Looking at my life and how blessed I am to have family, friends, talents, features, and things I find insignificant or irrelevant, things people will literally kill and die for, I realized that day that it's not how long, or how far you've gone, but how well. And I sure am doing way better than I thought. 

I have a long road ahead of me but I'll get to my destination eventually, because despite all my shortcomings and faithlessness, and sometimes (if not most times) my ingratitude, He's got me.

So 20, 25, 29 or heck even 30, the fact remains that I am alive. I am healthy.  I am happy. I AM LOVED. And that's really ALL that matters at the end of the day.

I meeean! Just look at that!

(peep my gurrrrl, BluBlu at the back)

5. THE NEW ADDITION TO THE FAMILY

KiKi - 5

Rona - 0

And the ICING on the already yummy birthday cake *drum rolls* 

My other sis-in-law, that's my 'big' brother's wife was pregnant (for clarity- so my 'bigger' brother is the one born after my big sis, and my 'big' brother is the one born after my 'bigger' brother, whom I was born after. Got it?) and I had been teasing her for months that she would give birth on my birthday. Yep, you guessed right.

My cute little baby niece arrived by 7:05 pm that day! ECSTATIC couldn't even describe how I felt!!! 

The PERFECT end to a perfect birthday. 

Sigh! *love struck*

Need I say more? 

That being said, cheerZ to living the last year in my twenties with a BANG! 

Oh, and one more thing: