Category: Yay!

I had the best birthday, ever. My 21st birthday comes close, where Mom went all out since I hadn’t had a proper birthday party since I was 2. She got me a Hello Kitty centerpiece, a Hello Kitty piñata, candy bags for the kids, a Hello Kitty cake and Mary made a great dinner. While other 21 year olds get plastered, I had a piñata .

I hadn’t really been “into” my birthday this year. I started going through the whole “I’m getting OLD” thing and then Mario had to switch his Friday off (my birthday) for Tuesday so that we could go finish up the paperwork for the Equinox in Harlingen.

(We got home extra early on Tuesday after school due to our Final, which I got a 104 on . Mario and I went straight over there after we ate lunch. We got there, got in the Equinox with Mike and went to the bank. Our paperwork wasn’t ready. Either one of the guys at the dealership hadn’t confirmed the paperwork or the guy who was in charge of it at the bank hadn’t worked on it at all. It was supposed to be ready since Monday morning. Anyway, took them about 4 hours to get everything ready. Mario and I were becoming delirious with boredom in the waiting room, so it was a relief when Mike came over and asked if we were ready to go to the bank. (Uh, yeah!) It took a total of 5 minutes to go through everything and sign everything. Our payments will be a little more than they’d told us on Saturday. They’d estimated $380 but we’ll be paying $428, which is still really good. So, yay, the truck is officially ours!)

I bought two pairs of capris at Melrose afterschool on Thursday (which John hated every minute of) and I thought shopping would make me feel a little better but it didn’t. In fact, it made me feel just a tad bit worse since I couldn’t find one blouse to match my pants. Either they didn’t have my size in the shirt I liked or the sizes they did have didn’t fit around my boobs. Grr.

I kept praying Mario would pull some strings and get out early but he called about an hour before everyone arrived for my get-together and said he didn’t think he’d be able to leave early because they had a lot of work to do. That bummed me out, and he could tell so he started talking about when I’d want to buy the Doony & Bourke bag I wanted. I told him I changed my mind and we said our good-byes and hung up. He calls about half an hour later, when I was at Mary’s with her, Mom, Noelia, and Andy. He said he called to ask me something but he forgot what and asked if everyone was there yet. I told him no, and we hung up. And then he comes through the door with these in his arms:

The most gorgeous roses he’s ever gotten me, two cards (one made me cry), Fun With Dick and Jane, and Crash. I thought it was so adorable that he actually stood there and picked out the perfect cards . (Don’t mind the mess next to the stuff. They’re candy bags for Jaylen’s birthday party.)

That was the best surprise I could have gotten–Mario being there of course, not just the presents LOL. I was so thrilled he’d get to be there with all of us. Everyone was here (except for my dad-in-law) and we had the best shrimp cocktail. I had two bowls . Mom had already told me about the ice cream cake from Dairy Queen she’d bought me, but I thought it was incredibly cute how Mary and Mario were trying to surprise me. Mom’s so not good at keeping secrets! She tells me what she buys me for holidays and birthdays all the time!

After eating the delicious cake I opened my gifts. Everyone got me such nice things:

Andy gave me that adorable compact mirror he made himself at work. I thought that was the sweetest thing :). How’d he know I needed a new mirror?

A Hello Kitty plush and a beautiful silver bracelet from the boys . Elda told me later that Eenan had called her and asked if she had money he could have to buy me a present–aww!!

A jewelry box (always wanted one like that!) and two of those straight, jeweled clips I love from Elda, Jose, and their boys. She also got me the crown and beads I wore all night–those are her trademark. She gives them to all the girls on their birthday.

An address book, a beautiful gold ring with a pink heart-shaped CZ that matches the necklace and earrings I already have, and crimpers for scrapbooking from Mary, Noelia and Big Mario. I really have to get my zillions of pictures printed out so I can use all the fabulous scrapbooking stuff I have!

A set of black cherry bath stuff from Cat, Annie, and the kids. They smell great and the basket was the cutest thing!

It was such a great night. We all talked and laughed as we usually do when we have get-togethers like that. We spent a lot of the night reminiscing about our pasts, like memories of choking for example. When everyone left, Mario and I watched Crash. That movie was just awesome.

Since I spent most of the day cleaning Friday (yes, on my birthday, but I hadn’t thoroughly cleaned the house so it had to be done), I only did minimal cleaning on Saturday morning and then John, Mom, the boys and I headed to town. We ate at McDonald’s, then I deposited at the bank, put gas in the truck and we left to town. Mario gave me $100 to spend (I couldn’t stand the thought of getting only one item–the Dooney bag–when I could get so much more for a hundred less). I’d seen some cute tops and purse at Ross so I wanted to check the store out. I don’t care what anyone says–that store rocks. The amount of people there was ridiculous (Mexico is having it’s “spring break”, great!) and there’s crap strewn everywhere but I found a whole bunch of stuff I like. And to my surprise, most of it fit!! I got 8 blouses, a pair of sleep shorts and a Full/Queen sized quilt for $99. I’d originally gotten another shirt and some shorts but took those two back and got the quilt. It’s just too pretty.

I had a great birthday :).

Took Eenan to the doctor on Wednesday and his chin’s fine. Jaylen also asked me to take him in since his leg has this dry patch of hairless skin that hasn’t gone away. He very seriously said, “I think I’m turning into a lizard…”

We’d gone to Jorge and Maggie’s on Thursday night (after eating at that taqueria we go to, mmm!) and we had the displeasure of meeting their psycho neighbor. That dude freaked me out. He kept saying, “I’m the coolest motherfucker you’ll ever meet“, while also talking about how he’ll kill somebody. And it all started because Mario and Hiram walked through the center of his and Jorge’s yard.

As for Easter, we had a great time. We had such good food, the kids had a blast opening their baskets and breaking the piñata and then we had dessert. We didn’t do one of the things that makes Easter, Easter: cracking the eggs! It was too hot, but we plan to do that this Saturday.

K. I’ve spent a whole hour updating, thanks to Mario’s interruptions. I’ve had to lunge at him and kick his ass a few times. He thinks it’s hilarious to spin my chair, kick my chair, and fart in my face while I’m on the computer. He’s worse than the kids!

P.S. Thank you for the birthday wishes! On here and on Myspace .

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I should be showering right now but I just have to mention a few things before I do.

First, I’m so proud of my Jaylen. He actually started writing his alphabet today. I didn’t force him–I just saw him drawing in a notebook and he started scribbling pretend letters. I wrote his name and he got excited and started copying the letters. He was so thrilled he was writing like a big boy that he had me sitting on my bed with him, a notebook and box of markers for an hour while he practiced. I’m SO glad he feels inspired to write, finally. I’d been trying for so long to get him to learn his alphabet. He knows his shapes and colors but I could not get him to sing the alphabet song or practice writing his name. Hopefully we’ve made some progress :).

John and I went to visit Gramma at the nursing home after his orientation. She’d asked us to take her some Hershey’s Kisses so we took them to her (John bought them for her, aww). A while back, about two weeks ago, she’d asked us to find a man she knew since middle school online and let her know where he was, or if he was even alive. I never got a chance to (and now my stupid internet is messing up) and she asked us about him today. I noticed it was the first thing she talked about and I think it’s because Mom wasn’t there. Turns out, just as I started suspecting, that this man is our Grandfather. I am not kidding you, just this morning I was wondering about my Grandfather–who he was and where he was right now. I need to find him. She said it’s important that she tells Mom about him before she passes away–which I immediately told her to stop saying. I’m not mentioning anything to Mom though–I promised Gramma I would let her tell her.

I accompanied Mary to the Rosary that was held for my Padrino Arturo at the funeral home today. I sat with my head bowed while everyone prayed. I tried following along as best I could, but I don’t know the prayers in Spanish =\. The emotion didn’t hit me until I went up there to pay my respects to Arturo and then expressed my condolences to his family. I felt my lip quivering and thought, “Oh, no!”, and just started bawling. I just can’t believe this happened. It’s not fair.

We stopped at Walmart for a few things and I saw Lucy there. We talked for a bit and then we came home. Since then I’ve balanced my checkbook and that’s it. I feel so lazy and tired. I’m on the phone with Mario–as soon as I hang up with him I’m showing and running to bed.

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Today, the other class officially finished school. It was actually really sad; it hadn’t really hit me that we were never going to see these people again. Everyone sat around talking in their nice regular clothes, not our uniforms or professional attire, which was a nice change.

At 10:00, they had The Pinning, where Mrs. C-R and another instructor have a little ceremony, give a little speech, and give each student a pin.

Everyone decided to go to the Olive Garden to celebrate so we met there. While we were waiting for everyone to get there I made a decision: although I wasn’t the only one at fault, I appologized to Crystal for the argument we had back in December. We parted on good terms and I’m glad for that.

When everyone got there (and they finally opened) we were 3rd to get our 16 seats. Of course Kimberly & Romeo didn’t go and Joe didn’t go either. We had a great time–I sat next to Mayra and Lucy and across from Pepe, Brenda, and Mrs. C-R. We discussed the delicious food (I had the Tour of Italy, a soda, and of course 3 breadsticks and salad) and laughed at Pepe’s usually ridiculous (and sometime’s inappropriate) jokes. He’s funny though. I’m going to actually miss him. And Fernando and Miguel. And Brenda and Rolando. And hell, everyone else, too!

I was so stuffed from eating so much bread I left most of my food so I packed it up. We said our good-byes and goodlucks and all went our separate ways.

Mario needed a multi-meter for work so I picked one up from Radio Shack for him (and got the wrong one) and asked if he wanted my left overs. He happily took them and I’m glad–hopefully it’ll convince him that Olive Garden is wonderful and serves other food other than pasta and seafood.

Ricci didn’t talk to us at all yesterday or today, but so be it. It really got to me that last Thursday’s situation became this huge production, so in a way I’m glad to be withdrawn from all that drama. All the attention whores finished school today (well, except two of them) but we’re still better off.

Oh! We got our interview evaluations back from our final yesterday and I got a hundred! That totally made my day. Mr. Ibanez’s exact written words were, ‘Very confident. Would hire NOW!’ Now, if only I can do that well during a REAL interview!

I’m currently waiting for John in my car (updating from PDA) while he finishes with his orientation. He starts class tomorrow with me. It’s gonna be a distracting month!