El Salvador Day 2

I get woken up by someone knocking repeatedly on the door. I jump up and look at the clock, it says 11 am. How is that possible?! To top it off, I feel like I'm not quite sober yet. Great. I look through the peephole and see it's my Aunt Soraya and she doesn't look happy. I try to wake up my dad and he asked "what happened to the wake up call we asked for?" Uhhh... The phone is off the hook and lying on the ground. Honestly, that was probably me. Anyone who has ever tried to wake me up knows how difficult it is.

In a rush we packed up our stuff and headed downstairs, where I found out it really was only 7 am. That explains a lot. We eat a big breakfast of pupusas, tamales, coffee and watermelon juice. I don't know why we don't have watermelon juice here, because it's delicious. After breakfast we are whisked off to my aunt and uncle's house in San Salvador where I have exactly 40 minutes to sleep before I need to get ready for my other aunt and uncle's 25th wedding anniversary.

After an hour drive through the countryside we arrive at the party. There are about 80 people there already. My dad takes me around and introduces me to a bunch of relatives who all say variations of the same thing: “Wow, she’s so beautiful. She looks nothing like you!” or “Wow, she’s so tall!” That’s right, in El Salvador I’m considered TALL. I loved it.

My family!

After drinks, pictures and introductions we went to the church located on the property where my aunt and uncle renewed their vows. The service was in Spanish and I only caught about 2/5ths of it, but it was still touching. It is obvious that they are still in love after a quarter century together.

Next we had a big dinner with lots of toasts, and a huge cake. Afterwards the young and old broke it down on the dance floor. Let me tell you, my grandma can out dance me any day.

My grandma dancing with my uncle

Taking a break from dancing with my great uncle (In his 80's!)

Once the party began to wind down we headed to my grandparent’s house and I finally got to see my grandpa. Last I had heard he had not been able to leave the upstairs of their home for weeks, so you can imagine my surprise to see him sitting in the living room without having to use oxygen! It made my heart smile J

My cousin was nice enough to translate my English into French (my grandpa’s first language), to make things easier for us both. Yes, she speaks four languages fluently, it’s disgusting. Before too long we headed to bed; we were all beat, including los Abuelitos.

I just loved her outfit.

El Salvador Day 1

Hello! I'm back, did you miss me? Let me start by saying that I don't particularly like snow to begin with (yeah, I know, admitting that makes me an outcast) but flying in from 80+ heat into a snow storm makes me like snow even less. Not even being able to make it to my own house for the night because of the weather makes me down right angry at the cold white stuff.  Brrr! It's cold here. Anyway, on to my mini adventure:

Flying from Seattle to El Salvador is NOT a 6 hour flight like I told myself, but luckily I had a layover in Houston where I met up with my dad. Well, that's not exactly true... I met up with him on the plane. In the airport I was too busy in the Duty Free store to pay attention to him trying to call me...

The first night we stayed at a hotel by the airport. El Sal is not one of the safest countries out there, and no one wanted to pick us up after dark. We went to dinner at the hotel and gorged on ceviche, pupusas (traditional Salvadoran dish, I'll make if for you someday), and beer. Then we shared a bottle of wine and talked about life, politics and other things we generally disagree on. The nice thing about my dad is that we can have completely different view points, but still respect each others opinions... As long as you can back them up.

Afterwards we decided to get a nightcap at the hotel bar. Next thing you know it's 3ish and we have to be up by 7:00. Ooops. Off to bed we go.

Wait, when is Valentine's Day again?

So, Brady forgot that Valentine's Day was THIS Monday. Whoops. I guess that's what happens when you work 14 hour days back to back. He wrote me at about 2:00 saying he wanted to go to Ruth's Chris, but they were all booked up for the night, and so was every other restaurant in the area (shocking). I, of course, wrote back saying that our relationship was over. For some strange reason, he didn't believe me.

After fake breaking up with him, I said not to worry about it. I had steaks at home and asked him to pick up some sort of seafood so we could make our own surf and turf. He brought over gigantic lobsters and we whipped up a huge delicious meal.

Oh yes, you will be in my belly.

The presentation above is nothing like actually eating a complete lobster. We pulled out various tools and started whacking away. Lobster juice started flying everywhere and we were both laughing our asses off. The end result looked like this:

After stuffing our faces (some quicker than others), we curled up and watched the first season of The League. If you haven't seen it, you should. Neither one of us is into fantasy football, but the show is hilarious.Our impromptu celebration was a blast, and probably more fun than if our dinner plans had worked out.

Although we did decide to go to Ruth's Chris some random night next month anyway.

Happy Valentines Day!

Love it or hate it, it's here. Last year I was told I would finally understand why it is called Singles Awareness Day, and I get it - I do - but I think it's a bit silly. No one goes around calling Christmas "Jewish Awareness Day".

I love any reason to celebrate, and last year I didn't see I shouldn't just because I was boy-less. (Hmm... Double negative... Ah well)

I grabbed two of my favorite people and hit the town.

Lisa, Me, Katie

Lots of people hate Valentine's Day, so we decided to join the drunks on Capital Hill and spread some cheer. We bought elementary school Valentines and gave them out to strangers with clever personalized messages and candy.

Mine were Dr. Seuss 

 It was a HIT! People loved them and it has become one of my favorite Valentine Days in history. Another good reminder that life is what you make it :)

We also met this gem:

What is YOUR favorite Valentine's Day memory? 

The B Word.

Well it’s official, I have a boyfriend.

 While a year and a half without one might not seem like a big deal, the fact that my new boyfriend is really my old boyfriend is a big deal to me. Brady and I broke up for a variety of reasons that I’m not going to get into, but even after all the time apart he was still the only one I wanted to be with. Luckily for me, he felt the same way.

I first met Brady when I moved to Renton. We were ten and he lived in the house across the street from me. Surprisingly, we were not immediately attracted to each other.

                                  Go figure

Over the years we lost touch. One day I was bored and watching The Hot Chick at home and I realized Mathew Lawrence looked a lot like Brady.

I still think so.

I decided to look him up on Myspace and see how things were going (that’s right Myspace). My first thought when I pulled up his profile was “holy hell, Brady got HOT”

Hot

Talking online eventually became talking in person. The picture below is from one of our first hangouts. Getting a little handsy there, aren’t ya Brady?

After we broke up we didn’t see much of each other until a friend’s housewarming party. All night long I only wanted to be right next to him, I didn’t want to leave, and I knew that I would always feel this way. I knew that he was meant for me.

Said night:

Brady is smart, quite a bit smarter than I think people realize (it’s the curse of the pretty face). He works HARD at his job and for the things he wants in life, and he does it without complaining. 

Brady is good to his family, and he respects his parents. He also respects my family and makes an effort to be a part of it. 

He is the only guy I’ve know who will resolve problems by talking them out without losing his cool, even when I start repeating myself. Even when I’m being totally irrational (it happens). 

He likes to do things with me, including hot yoga; but he also gives me my independence, which I value just as much. 

He dances with me in the living room to slow songs.

                He is willing to go camping with my family, even though they’re crazy; and go hiking up mountains on his only day off. 

We joke and goof around, we decompress from our days, we support each other in tough times. I love him completely. Oh, and he absolutely adores me too.

You're still here? Thank you for reading my mushy love note. Sorry about the formatting, I did this one my lunch break!