We should be lovers! We can't do that. We should be lovers...and that's a fact.

It's about that time for another blogpost, though nothing interesting has gone on until now, I suppose. Or rather, just been incredibly busy that I haven't had a chance to post. Something like that.

First off, last weekend and this past couple of days we've had a friend over along with his little 3 1/2 year old daughter. Who is Adorable. She is now talking in full sentences and it's the cutest thing I have ever seen. Also adorable when she ran up to Hubby and went, "PPOOOKEEE!!!" and poked him with her finger, and he then lifted her up and started tickling her to which she started shrieking in laughter. A. Dorable. And for the record, Hubby will be an amazing father someday. I cannot wait.

My Birthday is on Tuesday. I will be 23. Odd thing, that. Aaron was Plotting....and then it got slipped to me what he's doing for me. Ah well. All I know is we're going down to San Diego so I can have an amazing coffee date with my girlfriends who just had babies (hello!!!!), and apparently he's still finalizing stuff. So the surprise is still there. Though I probably will be a silly girl and bring the presents I've been holding for the babies for the last couple of months, even if it's my birthday. But I enjoy giftgiving, so there!

Also, day of my birthday (well, evening), I am going thrifting with Kitty who is going to help me pick out outfits for under 25 bucks! So excited! Though priority is a pair of either red or black heels, and to look at the boots. I'm excited to go shopping and to be creative about it! Hoping to find some good outfits to wear on the cruise. Which is in two weeks and 2 days, by the way!

So yesterday, my boss and his wife took me and Hubby out to lunch for my birthday. Because they will be on vacation in Hawaii until the 18th or 19th, so they wanted to celebrate with me. I got this amazing fruit concoction as a birthday dessert. It was some of the best tasting watermelon I have ever had. Literally melted in your mouth. Soo good!

Those are palm trees and little birds carved into the fruit, by the way. My boss got me (well, his wife more) this amazing fun loose black scarf and a set of notepads along with a book. Very fun afternoon. Plus amazing food at this Chinese place. Chicken in garlic sauce with fried rice, yum!!

This week has bee an interesting one, that's for sure. I think I'll purposefully not bring up anything about Prop 8 except that I think there are probably other things that ought to be getting as much if not more focus. Such as child abuse, which is rampant in our fair state. Also, if one little bill getting overturned makes your marriage less meaningful, you probably have more pertinent issues to be worried about. Just saying.

Anyway.

I'm not a fan of getting in the middle of big debates, usually, mostly because I've found the "more reasonable in the middle people" are the ones who get ignored and the really extremes are the ones that always get the attention. So. I'll just go on my merry little way now.

Looking forward to the next two weeks. Lots of exciting things happening. Tomorrow I'm going to the beach with some girlfriends. Tuesday is my birthday and I'm off shopping (as I already said). Then Thursday is hanging out with friends, Friday evening is going out with a couple coworkers to celebrate our birthdays which are just a couple days apart, then Saturday is the "actual" celebration....and then one week until our Cruise!! Which will probably be the longest week of our lives. Besides maybe the week before our wedding, except that flew past too quickly and stressed me out. So perhaps not.

Oh. And also, I have decided to grow my hair out again. I know. Shocking. Well, not really shocking. I totally thought after cutting into a pixie cut I would Never Want to go back to long hair. At least, not for a long while. That obviously changed. Loved my short hair. Was very happy with it. Then my haircutter left for the summer to go back home (she's a student). Which meant it's been growing out for the last three months. Which means I actually really adore it. So. Long Hair it is, again. With Bangs! Also redying it but keeping that part a secret.

I also just finished up the Anniversary (2years!) present for my Hubby. Our Cruise is a bit of our present to each other, but I still love giving him things. So finished that up and hope he likes it. I'm sure he will. I also bought some fun new items for the cruise, just waiting for them to get delivered. The first being a vintage red and white polka dot bikini, with red trim. Gorgeous! Very vintage and 40s pin-up girl like! (Speaking of which, Why couldn't I have been born around that time? I'm the perfect body type for it! Seriously. Look. Btw, if anyone wanted to get me anything off of that site, I'd Love You Forever. ....hmm....maybe I should think about modeling Vintage Pin Up girl stuff.) The second being an awesome corset red/black dress. Smexy! Paired with fishnets and boots and all set.

That's what's been going on in my life currently. Been pretty good. Very content and happy and excited because it's finally in the two week countdown until vacation, and the next two weeks will be past before I know it. And then it will be vacation for a whole week! Sunday to Sunday. Yes!

I also just finished up reading Go Ask Alice, which was rather good. Very gut-wrenchingly real and heartbreaking, but very good. Journal of a 15yearold gal who got mixed up in drugs back in the 60s/70s, and her account of how it affected her. It was a good read, because you can only assume it's gotten worse since then, and that is very frightening, given how bad it was then. Go read it. Seriously.

By the way, mini receptionist rant: I just love when people call 3-6x a day and start asking me if I actually gave the message to the correct party. What am I supposed to say or think of that? "No, of course not. It's not like it's my job to make sure everyone gets their messages when they are received or something." I also just adore when people call a few times, asking the same question, and getting angry that the answer hasn't changed. You know, the whole, "Well, no, Sir, it hasn't changed since the last five minutes you called." Gah! Such is the life in some customer service job, but seriously. I sometimes wonder what is wrong with these people. On the bright side, it has made me incredibly clear, concise, and actually listen when I'm on the phone.

Well, enough from me rambling on and on. This blog post is really quite long enough now.

I am off for the night. Weekend begins in t-minus 60 minutes, and I am going to go enjoy a free dinner at Aculpulco with Hubby! And maybe a margarita too, we shall see.

Ta!

P.s. I'm also determined to one day have these shoes. I Will. They are just so sexy and womanly, how can you not want them?

I follow the night
Can't stand the light
When will I begin
To live again?

One day I'll fly away
Leave all this to yesterday
What more could your Love do for me?
When will Love be through with me?

Why live life from dream to dream?
And dread the day when dreaming ends

One day I'll fly away
Leave all this to yesterday
Why live life from dream to dream?
And dread the day when dreaming ends

One day I'll fly away
Fly, fly away

Happy Monday, all!

Per that post from last week, the week went up and down a bit. Honestly, it was Spring Break for us, and it felt like the week lasted forever. I only had work, some stress, and then a very relaxing weekend. Hubby and I slept in, relaxed, watched loads of Dr. Who (who is and always will be The Doctor). I got creative and tried some new recipes. My favorite being the chicken pasta with the olive oil/garlic sauce. It was incredibly yummy and incredibly easy (and easily made vegetarian. Just don't add chicken!). I also added some Parmesan cheese on top and made it with some garlic bread, and voila! easy filling good dinner. 


Like the week, the weekend took forever to pass by, which was nice because it was a weekend, and they're supposed to last forever...so to speak. I finished two books over the weekend, which felt lovely (or was it three? Perhaps three). I know I finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman last week at some point. I also read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (which I was told was based on the Dr Who episode he wrote, and I could easily see that. Very creepy amazing book). I also finished up Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. It was about the Dresden fire bombing...and it was also one of the oddest books I've ever read. Intriguing. 


I had two answered prayers over the weekend, which surprised me, to say the least. I haven't been used to God answering prayers (that visibly, at least), so it was a wonderful blessing. I had made an honest mistake in something I was supposed to take care of. Unfortunately, it (as these things do) happened at exactly the wrong time, so it became a bit more involved. Crying and stressing and figuring things out later, two friends (you know who you are) provided what we needed. It was quite surprising and quite relieving. And quite odd to go, "Oh...I was stressing and praying without realizing it, and it was provided...." God's a sneaky fellow. Hehe. 


Oh. If you notice the tone of my writing sounds rather British, well that is the Doctor's fault. I've been watching him with Hubby for the last week or so, because the new series started up on Sunday (of last week). So now, two episodes into the new series, and Matt Smith is the Doctor. I don't quite know how it happened but it did, and he is the Doctor. After one episode. Well...after the three minutes he had at the end of The End of Time. The premiere episode just solidified it. I'm sad that David Tennant is gone as is Russell T. Davies, but I am incredibly excited to see Matt Smith as the Doctor and Stephan Moffett as the new head writer (I believe). He has written my favorite episodes so far (Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, Etc). He's the head writer now, and I am soo excited! The Angels are coming back! Ok. End of nerding out now. 


I have a big date coming up with Hubby. Well, me and a friend. He's taking me and my best friend out on the town or something of that sort. I don't actually know where we're going. He's keeping it quite close-chested. My friend and I have found our dresses (and they are gorgeous) and we are soo looking forward to it. Hubby's been teasing/taunting me about this date since he started planning it back in....oh gosh. February? January? Long enough for me to be twitching by now. And it is in two weeks! I cannot wait! There will definitely be a lengthy blog about it, I am sure of that, and hopefully some pictures. 


And of course, end of April is Hubby's birthday. We don't have much planned at the moment, as funds are a bit tight. I shall figure out something, however. Even if it means delaying it for a few days or some sort. Either way, I shall celebrate Hubby's birthday with him, and we shall have a grand time, no matter what. (And if any family is reading this, he would love some giftcards (Outback, Black Angus, Cheesecake Factory etc) /hint ;)


School starts up again this week, and not much time is left after that, come to think of it. 7 or 6 weeks? I'm sure my friends who are graduating know the exact number of days and hours. Sadly (or thankfully?), I am not at that point, otherwise I'd be stressing and freaking out to no end, I'd imagine. 


I have discovered we have two weddings within a month of each other. May is Hubby's dear sister and ex-roommate's wedding (odd one, that. They met because of our wedding, 9months later, engaged. Still chuckle at Fate). We are both in that one, so that week will be incredibly busy but fun. Then later on in June comes another couple of friend's weddings. Hubby knew them first, and we both were able to watch their relationship grow (I was able to help the Gal work through some issues at first) and now they're getting married in June, and I can't think of a better couple together. Very very excited for both of these weddings! 


Oh...and not to mention come June/July, our friends are having their babies. It was amusing, actually, that both of our friends got preggers within 4wks of each other! So very excited for them! Just two more reasons to go visit, and hold babies. And I realized I'll have to buy a collapsible playpen for when our friends visit with their babies! (Ok, I probably won't have to, but I want to.) 


I have been sad to realize that my journal, which Hubby got me for our first married Christmas together, has only about 7 pages left in it, before it's completely full. I looked/read through it over the weekend and realized just how much it has seen and recorded. Hubby made an inscription in the front which said (amongst other things) "Fill these pages with Love and Beauty". And that journal, while has seen some very hard and sad and hurtful things, has also served to record our first 20 months together as a married couple. It has seen us grow into our marriage, seen it thrive and move and deepen. I'm amazed that it's been almost two years (in August!). That journal has lasted me from December '08 until April '10. I am always so sad to end a journal. It always feels like an end of a chapter in my life, and I suppose it rather is. Though it means exciting time to start new journals! (Specifically the one my mother-in-love got me from S. Korea last summer for my birthday!) This journal ending, for me, feels like the end of my Newlywed-ness (though I haven't really felt like a Newlywed for several months now), and now a new journey is starting. A journey with my Hubby towards our Happily Ever After (to use the phrase often used by my friends). Well. That journey has always been going, I suppose. We're 20 months into it! Or...I really consider our time dating and being engaged as well, and then it would be almost 4 years. Or will it be five, now? No. Four. Anyway. That journal is finishing and has been the witness of the first 20 months or so of our marriage. I imagine when I'm an older married woman/mother, I'll look back at that journal and go, "Oh I was so very young back then." I tend to do that even looking at old entries. I can't imagine what I shall think when I am in my 40s or 50s, married, with kids, and go back to read it over. 


Hubby and I were talking about love (specifically our love for each other) a bit back, and I had summarized it as "More than yesterday, less than tomorrow". He didn't quite like that phrase because it's not that he has more love (the feeling) for me. It's deepened and grown and developed more. It's not the same as it was when we first got married. I assured him that's what I meant by that phrase. My love for him (and our love for each other) has deepened and grown and developed and matured greatly since having gotten married. We don't have a different feeling for each other. I think it's because our love has grown out of just 'feeling in love' to actually being love. 


Some things feel like they're going to be changing soon...I'm not sure how to explain it or what to even say, but it's like that itch in the back of your head. You don't quite know what it is, but you know something is coming...and you start watching for it. I feel like that. Something is going to change...I can just feel it. The itch. The idea forming. Something. 


The clever north wind was not satisfied. It spoke of towns yet to be visited, friends in need yet to be discovered, battles yet to be fought -Chocolat

Life and stuff....

Actually found time to post and something to post about. The last couple weeks have been filled with work and weddings. This past weekend we went to Hubby's old roommate's wedding to a beautiful girl. It was a gorgeous small wedding, and we were so blessed to have been included (Hubby as a groomsman, me as an observer). Tomorrow we have another wedding to go to, another of Hubby's roommates getting hitched. Should be a fun wedding, and I'm looking forward to being able to sit with my hubby and friends, instead of not knowing anyone and the only person I know is either family of the groom or at the bridal party table. We both had a wonderful time and were so thankful and blessed to be there to celebrate with them.

It's rather exciting to see all these weddings going on! Hubby and I joke a bit that we started a trend, considering it seems like after we got married, all of our friends decided to get married too! (With the exception of Il Duce and Lush, who beat us by 2 months) It's exciting to see our friends getting married and starting a new life with each other. Many blessings on all of you! Marriage rocks.

In other news, I just finished a book I had doubts I would enjoy as much as I ended up enjoying. Last time we were down visiting, Lush let me borrow Dr. Laura's The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage. She explained that while most of it was stuff I probably had already talked about/figured out, it was a good reminder, to say the least. I didn't get around to starting it until a few days to go and finished it up today at work. Needless to say, I enjoyed it tremendously! I was sort of expecting a typical self-help marriage book, that talks about things you should and shouldn't do as a wife/married couple...almost more obvious things that I knew already or came naturally to me. I was right, there were definitely parts of the book that I went "Well, duh..." but there were other parts that served as a great reminder or encouragement that things I was doing as my hubby's wife were in the right direction. Also some nice tips on how to deal with things and balance duties as wife/housekeeper/FT worker, and all that. So all in all, this is one book I will definitely recommend to married/engaged friends if they want something like this to read. It helped me a lot, if just for the encouragement. Thanks so much, Lush!

I've been doing a lot of thinking about healing and pain and the difference between being "Better" and "Healing". And talking with some close friends about it, and the trend we've noticed is that people seem to assume that since you look/sound/act/are doing "better", it automatically means you're not in pain anymore. "Oh you're doing better, so that must mean you don't hurt anymore!" is the attitude we've noticed. It saddens me because I see a lot of people hurt by this attitude...cause it makes them feel like people don't care anymore...or are annoyed when the person is hurting and actually showing it. It's like people forget how permeated everything is, and how things affect your life. So just because someone who's going through a lot is smiling and happy, don't assume they aren't hurting anymore. A better thing to assume--no, not assume--think is that the pain is lesser today, than it could have been. More like you took some Tylenol, so it's a dull ache instead of a throbbing too painful to move pain.

People aren't simple. People dealing with hurts and pains and trauma and stress and whatever-else, aren't simple. Just remember, all you see is what the person lets you see. You don't know what's going on in their head. So don't act like you do simply because they act fine. (You know what F.I.N.E. stands for, right?)

It's been something pressing on my heart lately for a lot of reasons, and it frustrates me to see people who are hurting get treated like they shouldn't be hurting and should have moved on or what not. Ok. End Rant.

And on one final note, we have a new kitten!! Her name is Alice, after Alice in Wonderland. A 3 1/2 month old orange/blonde long hair, and she is adorable and so curious. She and Bella have been getting along decently well. They started playing last night for real, instead of Alice playing, Bella watching and then hissing and running away. They were chasing each other and pouncing their tails, so that's fun. Still don't quite trust them to keep them mixed while at work, but hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll be able to.

Book Review and other ramblings....

So, yesterday, I went to Barnes and Noble with a friend and picked up a couple books. It was grand fun! One of the books I picked up was The Tale of Despereaux. I finished it this evening and decided I would write a book review of it.

It was a very intriguing children's fairy tale. The premise of the story (actually, there are three-four main characters) is about the littlest mouse named Despereaux, with abnormally large ears, and he doesn't know how to behave as a mouse. There are other characters, such as Princess Pea, the rat Roscuro, the maid Mig. The story is about how their stories all weave in and out. A big theme of the story is consequences and how actions will always lead to consequences, which I found intriguing in a children's story, a fairy tale, no less. It's not something that is talked about much, especially in children's stories, and the way the author wove it into the story was very well-done.

The way she wrote the story was also intriguing. She frequently (almost every other chapter) stopped the story to "talk" to the reader. An example would be something like this (simply an example, not an actual quotation from the book):

And then Despereaux looked down the stairs into the darkness of the dungeon.

Reader, let us pause and think about what would be goign through his heart right now.

It gave the story a very...personable feel. It was slightly confusing for me because this is one of the first books I have read that has literally used it as a huge plot-device for the story.

Overall, it was a very good, well-written children's story that I will probably read aloud to my kids someday. I enjoyed it tremendously.

*~*~*

So, the more and more I get to know people and start solidifying (as much as I can right now) my views of life, how to interact with people and such things, I'm realizing that there is a very strong pull towards indviduality. (Well, duh. Yay Enlightenment!) It's been coming up in odd ways, though. Just talking with people about certain ideals and ideas, and realizing that while in some ways I am very much an individualist, there are very specific things where I am most definitely am not and cannot be one. It's essentially a type of loyalty that people seem to not understand or have as much anymore.

It's an odd thing I've been noticing and will post more once I have finalized some of my thoughts a bit more. I will mention this, though. It seems when dealing with hard situations, individualism is not always the best way to deal with said situation. It depends on the person and the situation...but it's not something you can easily just say, "By not doing x, you're not healing properly."

Though, I will be the first to admit everyone heals and deals with things differently, with different approaches. Yay for the beauty and messiness of human beings.

And with that, I am going to go curl up with some tea (feeling a bit sick) and work on some story plots.

'Night all.