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. :)

I'm Engaged!

It's true. For real! I'm stoked! Here are some pics! Get on facebook to hear the whole story, or email me or something...I'm too lazy to repeat myself a bajillion times online! :)

The Darland Curse

There was this streak of weeks when I was a lowly beehive (12-13 years old, for those of you not familiar with Mormon lingo) when my sister and I sponsored all sorts of parties and gatherings at our place for friends from both church and school and consistently no one showed up. It was more than a little disheartening, especially at such a tender age, but I was young enough and resilient enough not to care too much, to go right on planning the next grand thing.

I'm older now...and slightly more bitter...I've seen enough of people to go through these phases where I really just don't like them anymore. I think I'm starting to redevelop this mentality because yesterday Charissa and I planned this huge karaoke party and even though we had initially thought that no one would show up but the people that are already our friends, we went ahead and invited everyone from church and over the course of the two weeks we'd announced it, we heard people commit to coming. That's where the problem is...listening to people and believing them, getting our hopes up. Because wouldn't you know it, last night came and went and I swear the Darland curse is falling upon us yet again...we had no one but Jordan come to Asian drama night on Thursday (and we had to drag her to our place), and then last night's party ended up being me and Charissa, Paul (of course!), Jordan, and Audrey--pretty much the 5 of us hang out all the time anyway.

Whatev.

You all missed out. And I don't think we'll be inviting anyone else to any more parties, because our budget can't afford to have you let us down anymore. Don't say you're coming if you're not. It's rude.

*Whew* I had a crappy week, including my first panic attack in years. I'm mad at the world, I know. For those of you who are far away, I'm not mad at you because obviously you couldn't come to karaoke night. :) And for those of you here but working, you are exempt from my wrath as well. And for those of you who actually came, and come to nearly everything, I love you.

But everyone else...watch out!