I voted!

I love the little sticker that you get when you vote. It seriously makes me happy inside. I think someone out there knew that if I had to wait in line for an hour to cast my presidential vote and didn't get SOME sort of prize at the end, I...well, I'd probably still do it, but not as heartily. :) It's not that I'm not a woman of personal conviction. I'm just also a person who still gets excited about stickers. That's why I'm in elementary education. :)

Moving ON...

I must admit, I'm not sure how I feel about the election. Yes, I actually voted for Obama, and there's a huge part of me that's partying right now. But there's also a really annoying and big part of me that was hesitant about the decision, because, let's face it, the election was more about picking the lesser of two evils. When you're politically moderate-liberal, some things are a bit much to chew or swallow on either side and when the last weeks of the election drew near all anyone had to say was degrading and character-attacking. I'm not into the metaphorical mud-slinging. If there's mud to be slung, let it be real, gooey, dirty mud, and let it be slung at a friend. :)

The point is, I'm proud that we had such a HUGE turnout to vote in our country. I'm proud that so many historical barriers have been broken with this election. I'm proud of the way McCain handled his defeat. I'm proud of Obama for his idealism. Now is where the rubber meets the road, and without going into a huge political discourse that no one really cares about, I think it will be very interesting to see exactly how much change ends up happening, and in what direction. The good news, folks, is that in the end if we don't like it we can always change. That's the beauty of short-term presidencies. So if your guy didn't win, well, Obama's OUR guy now, so let's make the most of it!

Halloween 2008--the year of the Wiz

I hereby dub this Halloween the year of the Wiz...not only did Paul & I get together with close friends and try to fill out as many of the characters as possible for our costume contest (which we won, p.s.), but my niece and two little brothers also dressed up as Wizard of Oz characters and won the Boo at the Zoo costume contest. Some things are just a classic...

We had a murder mystery dinner party at the Institute, which was just a lot of fun. I had actually never done one like this before, so it was a good experience. There were SOOOO many great costumes, I wish everyone could have won something! But I guess some of those will just have to be filed away for future ideas. Anywho, it was a fun day, even though I am now quite sick and tired all the time. It's a new month. Who knows what wonders will happen? :)

In other news, I successfully managed to finish all of my crazy assignments over the past weeks (which were MANY) and to get the heat fixed. I also managed to make it through my first month of being engaged! I wish I knew how to enjoy the moment more and not get all stressed out about all the hard stuff in preparing for a wedding. I wish even more that I knew what to do to prepare better for the temple and for marriage. *sigh* Why can life just be perfect all the time? :)

Fire, Anyone?

This ^ is how I feel.

No heat in our apartment.

No hot beverages.

A front door to the apartment that doesn't shut properly.

Sunlight in all the wrong places and at all the wrong times.

Paul bought us each a small space heater, but we can only plug one in at a time or we trip the circuit breaker...

I may resort to building a fire in my living room just so Charissa and I can stay warm.

Happy Birthday to You, Paul! :)

The final day of birthday week, of course, was Paul's actual birthday. It was a pretty fun day. I started off with birthday pancakes (a little food coloring and some fun shapes, including spelling out his name), and then we went to WalMart to grab his cake and decorations. I made him stay in the other room while I put up decorations (including a timeline of 24 things that had happened "on this day in history"), then he came out and we hung out for a while. He opened his presents, which were running on a Star Trek TNG theme--an old school lunchbox with thermos, a communicator pin, and seven figurines--and thankfully he loved them! Then we went to the Taste of Japan on campus (we're both Japanese Student Association members, so we got a discount) and met up with one of his old friends and roommates. When we got home, we watched the new Indiana Jones movie (which he had recently bought and Charissa had never seen) and then we got all dressed up for dinner at Olive Garden! (Believe it or not, we were hungry all day long even though we kept eating and eating!) I looked good, I'm not gonna lie. :) I'd bought pretty much my dream "little black dress" and put on a touch of makeup, and I was set. After a great (and extremely filling) dinner we came back home and some friends were there to eat cake with us and play Cranium. I had a lot of fun...I hope he did, too!

Birthday Week! (Day #6)

Today's surprise is Birthday Bingo! Without prompting anyone to say anything, Paul's job is to listen for and mark off these birthday-related words with the name of the person who says them whenever he hears them...if he gets a Bingo, he gets a prize!

Stay tuned for the big day events!

Birthday Week! (Day #5)

Today's surprise was actually really simple, but it may need some explanation for those of you who haven't hung around with us much lately. Every Thursday night, we (we being a small group of about 5 of us) get together and spend a few hours watching Asian Dramas. It's our way of relaxing and keeping in touch with our interests and our friends even when school and other stuff gets in the way (like being engaged...it's awesome, but boy is there a lot to do!). Traditionally, Thursdays are days to splurge on eating out and watching fun foreign entertainment.

Well, we haven't really gone out to eat on Thursdays much, and Thursdays aren't really "us" days so much as big group days, so I thought today a fun little getaway would be a quick trip to somewhere (anywhere of his choosing) to grab some dessert before Asian drama night, just the two of us. My budget can afford that, and I miss him! :)

Birthday Week! (Day #4)

Today's birthday surprise was a clue in the envelope that led Paul to my backpack, wherein lay an MP3 player with all sorts of songs about birthdays, including:

Happy Birthday (sung by Frank Sinatra, puppies, and some random people that I don't know)

Every birthday song from the children's songbook that I could find

Feliz Cumpleanos (sung by really cute Spanish-speaking children)

Happy Birthday Blues (B.B. King)

Happy Birthday (Click Five, who I have never heard of before but I like them!)

Happy Birthday Darlin' (Conway Twitty)

Happy Birthday Mr. President (Marilyn Monroe)

Happy Birthday (New Kids on the Block)

Happy Happy Birthday Baby (Ronnie Milsap)

Happy Birthday (Stevie Wonder)

It's Your Birthday (Uncle Luke)

Happy Birthday (The Beatles!)

Happy Birthday Baby (Brenda Lee)

Funny Happy Birthday Song (Credited to Adam Sandler, but who really knows since I got it from a questionable source!)

Happy Birthday Week, Paul!

Birthday Week! (Day #3)

Today is day #3, and maybe (just maybe) now that the mail system is up and running again things will work the way they were intended to...

For this extra-special letter, I searched high and low through all my old journals (thankfully I used to be very good at journal-writing, before the internet made me feel like I repeat myself a bajillion times) to find every entry that had any of those old "beehive lists"--qualities of my future husband, or things I wanted to accomplish in the next 50 years (which usually included much about my family life), or goals that I wanted my husband and I to achieve in our family. There were around a dozen entries that I narrowed down to the most unique 5, and then I made copies of those entries and sent them to Paul in the envelope.

The best thing is that as I looked through all those old entries to see what I wanted to have accomplished, or what qualities I wanted in a husband, I started to feel really at peace as I realized that Paul is everything I really want and need most, and that in spite of both our imperfections as individuals and as a couple we are still on the fast track to all that I'd ever really wanted to be and to have. Knowing that even though my own ideals have changed and that reality has almost nothing to do with ideals, it's still exciting to think that in what's most important, what I need and want hasn't changed and that Paul is all those things and more. Yay for Paul! Happy birthday week!

Birthday Week! (Day #2)

Day 2, yesterday, of Paul's birthday week was a 4"x6" picture of us (from our April Fool's Day engagement pics) with a message from me to him on it. I cut it up into a 40-piece puzzle and stuffed it into the envelope...hopefully he'll get it today! (Darn you, Columbus Day--why do we even celebrate you, anyway?!)

Birthday Week!

Paul's birthday is this coming Saturday, so I re-instituted the celebration of birthday week! Every day (theoretically) in the mail he receives an envelope from me--they may have additional directions about how to access his "gift" for the day, or the envelope may contain it itself. Sunday's gift was the introductory letter kicking off birthday week with a bang, and it led him to a small box (formerly a ring box :) ) wrapped up in a special-to-us blue ribbon. Inside the lid it said, "Ways my fiance Paul Fernandez ROCKS my socks!" And in the box were 24 ('cause that's how old he's gonna be) yellow decorative gems (leftovers from our wedding decorations) where I had typed up tiny things that he does or has done that make me crazy about him, and adhered them to the bottom with scrapbooking clear tape. (P.S. Clear-ish marbles like that magnify what you type or write, so it looks all fancy and storebought!)

That was day #1. :)