you've just won... a new car!

Okay, we didn't win a car.  It's just, every time I get a really great deal on something, I hear Bob Barker's prize guy's voice in my head.  We actually just bought a new microwave.  

We had two microwaves.  They both broke.  One was an over-the-range microwave that broke a few months after we moved into our house.  The timer and fan worked, but it just stopped heating one day.  The other was the countertop microwave we already had that we used when the first one broke.  A couple weeks ago, it started sparking when we put food in it, and sometimes when you opened the door, it let out smoke and smelled like weird burning electricity.  In order to avoid blowing up our house, we stopped using it.  

When our second microwave went out of commission, I started doing some research.  And we found a new over-the-range microwave!  For only $250!  (which is a lot for a microwave, but really good for an over-the-range model. They're usually closer to $500.)  Home Depot carried the one we wanted - for $228!  And then, when I called to see if they had it in stock, I learned they were having a "Black Friday all month on appliances" deal, and it was only $199!  I had to do some griping (the advertised price - 199 - was not how it was labelled - 249 - was not how it was ringing up - 228), and it took us probably 20 minutes to check out, but we got it for the price we wanted.  Joel doesn't love when I argue over prices at the store, but man, can it pay off!  

Moral of the story: You don't get what you want unless you ask for it.  Also, you can [almost] always find a good deal if you look hard enough and are patient.

We now are the proud owners of a microwave that heats food and doesn't threaten to blow up, we didn't have to pay a fortune for it, and things are lovely.  

___________________________________________

“Amazing!  Amazing!  This is just like magic!”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

alisonism #20: boggarts

Joel and I are reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban right now.  As I do every time I read this book or watch the movie, I think about what a boggart would turn into if I met one.  An animal, like for Ron?  A person, as in Neville's case?  Or a situation, like for Hermione or Mrs. Weasley?

I don't know what one would turn into for me.  I don't know what my biggest fear is; it would probably be similar to Mrs. Weasley's.  But I do know this:

There are two public places - extremely common places for people (including myself) to go - that I am HUGELY afraid of.  I hate going to both of them with all my heart, they're so scary.  But no one will ever know what those two places are, because I also happen to have an irrational fear of someone using it against me.  I've never admitted this fear (with the places' names) out loud and never will, just in case someone I didn't want hearing heard.  I've considered writing about it anonymously, like if someone put out a survey about irrational fears or funny quirks, but I know I never would, in case someone somehow found out which answer was mine.  

Can a boggart turn into that?

___________________________________________

“Fawkes,” said Harry, “isn’t an ordinary bird.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

pop! went the question

As per your requests, here is the long-awaited story of how I proposed to my husband.  :)

Joel and I went on our first date in April, the night before I went home from college for the summer.  We talked some over the summer, dated on and off during the school year, around February decided to date each other exclusively, and almost exactly a year after our first date, got engaged.  

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, my last before going home for the summer again.  Joel and I liked to take walks at the park on sunny Sunday afternoons, so he came down [he wasn't attending the same school as I was] and off we went.  As we were driving to the park, I asked, "Is it okay if we go to a different park this week?  The one we usually go to is really busy, and I just found this cool other one that's not too busy.  It might be fun for our last sunny Sunday afternoon walk to go somewhere less crowded."  He agreed, thinking I was just being sentimental.  Ohhhh no.  I was setting it all up.  

We laid out a gigantic beach towel on the wet grass and sat down to chat for a while before walking around.  I needed to be home in half an hour to make Oatmeal Craisin Patties with my roommate before dinner, so I wanted to make sure I had enough time to pop the question without being rushed.

It was a pleasant chitchat.  And then...

"Do you remember how you told me once that sometimes a person has to make a decision first in order to know if it's the right one?"

"Yes."

"And how it can be scary, but sometimes you have to do something to know it's the right thing?"  [Joel later told me that he was DYING because he thought I was breaking up with him for the summer.]

"Yes."

At this point we were sitting cross-legged, so I elegantly got up (instead of down) onto one knee and then said some romantic things that ended with, "Joel [Middle Name] Johnson, will you marry me?"

He didn't get it.  

Or at least, he didn't get that it wasn't... a joke, maybe?  Because all he could say for like, five minutes, were variations on "Are you serious?"  

I finally convinced him that I was, in fact, serious, and presented him with a color-changing plastic ring I'd gotten at the Career Fair that he could put on my finger.  And that was that!  We were officially engaged.

taken right after the proposal

We waited until later that evening to tell people - that was one of the stipulations I'd made.  I was pretty nervous about getting engaged because it WAS one of those situations for me, where you have to make a decision and then later learn if it's right or wrong.  I was scared about deciding to be engaged and then finding out I was wrong, so right after we celebrated getting engaged, I told him it was on a trial basis.  I was still waiting for spiritual confirmation, so I asked him to promise and understand that if I got a confirmation and found out we weren't supposed to be engaged, we'd break it off.  He graciously agreed.  So anyway, we waited until later in the evening to tell people because I was hoping I'd find out soon if we were wrong.  

after getting the ring

The rest of the week was a whirlwind!  As you might remember, it was the last Sunday before I headed home, so we only had about four days of being in the same state while engaged.  Monday was my last day of finals, and then Monday evening we went ring shopping for the first time and bought both of our rings.  Tuesday I had to pack and work; Joel picked me up from work and proposed in the same park with the ring.  On Wednesday we got our engagement pictures taken; Thursday, he helped us [my brother, friend, and I] pack our storage unit; and Friday, I went home for the summer.

engagements!

We got married three and a half months later.

#2

There's a trend on Facebook right now to write a certain number of things about yourself as a status and then give a number to anyone who Likes the status.  They use the number you gave to write their own list... and so on and so forth.

I've been avoiding Liking anyone's status to avoid writing a list, but I Liked one on accident and was the lucky recipient of the number eight.  I posted...

1. I've never dyed my hair.

2. I proposed to my husband.

3. I'm obsessed with fairy tales.

4. I have the best job in the world.

5. My favorite foods are pizza and macaroni and cheese.

6. I once won an air guitar contest during a 3-stake youth dance.

7. I'm in love with all three High School Musical movies, have been to HSM: The Ice Tour, and own an HSM: The Ice Tour jacket.

8. HARRY POTTER.

You, faithful blog readers, know many of those, but apparently no one knew about #2 because the interwebs went crazy! [I say, as if it were more than just that one status that went crazy...]  I actually thought that was something most people knew, but I guess not.  So stay tuned, blogosphere, for later this week, you will be treated to the story of how I, She, proposed to my husband.  :)  Same bat time, same bat channel.

___________________________________________

“There’ll be an attack a day with him gone.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Makes Me Think

I occasionally read a website called Makes Me Think.  People submit short experiences - sometimes happy, sometimes sad - that made them think, and then we get to read them.  I recently read this one written by someone named Roo:

Today, an odd, very eccentric, but very cheerful man came in for dinner where I work.  I chatted with him as he ate, and he kept telling me, "You're so young, you can do anything you want!" It was only until I told him I hoped to get into grad school, when he became dead serious and said, "What does hope have to do with it?  Either you do it, or you don't. If you don’t get into one school, you apply to another. It’s a choice. It’s something you must truly want for yourself." Nothing has made me more determined and it MMT [makes me think].

It made me think, too.  I have talked to several people recently who have hopes for the future but won't start working on them.  It's so hard for me to look at them and their potential but also see them selling themselves short.  In fact, I recently said to Joel (saying what I wished I would've to someone else), "If you want to do something, do it!  Stop talking about it and thinking about it and waiting for it to happen, and DO something!"

A friend of mine once asked on Facebook for people to tell her what their dreams were.  I thought about that question for a long time.  Like, it was in my mind every day for longer than a month.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't have many dreams. Everything I dream about doing in my life, I have either accomplished or have already started planning. That, in my mind, makes them goals, not dreams.  Dreams are more... unattainable? or, bigger, maybe?

"a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal"

Reaching your dreams takes work.  I dreamt of graduating, so I worked and studied really hard (even when I didn't want to because I knew what the result would be) - check.  I dreamt of having a job that made me happy, so I experimented in many different areas, did a lot of research, and said a lot of prayers - got it.  I dreamt of starting a family; I did what was in my power, and thankfully, I'm now married and we'll have children when it's time.  Together, we dreamt of owning a home, so we saved our money and made sacrifices, and we've reached that dream.  I dream of traveling to as many Spanish-speaking countries as possible, but I've already gone to one and have made more travel plans.

The one dream I do have is to live forever in heaven with my whole family.  My part of that is a goal, but since I'm not the only one who has to do something for it to be accomplished, it's also a dream.

I guess another current dream is to eat Oreos as cereal one day... I haven't been brave enough to do or plan that one yet.  The fear of excessive guilt afterwards is keeping me from it.

What are your hopes or dreams?  What is keeping you from accomplishing them?  And, "What [do dreams and] hope have to do with it?  Either you do it, or you don't.  If you don’t [accomplish them one way], you [accomplish them] another.  It’s a choice.  It’s something you must truly want for yourself."

___________________________________________

"Let no one ever say that a poor tailor cannot do great things and win high honors; all that is needed is that he should go to the right smithy, and what is of most consequence, that he should have good luck."

"The Glass Coffin," Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales

alisonism #19: brownies

I like chocolate.

A lot, actually.

But I really don't like chocolate chips in my brownies.

___________________________________________

"And thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived."

"Cinderella," Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales

that reminds me... "Somebody to Love" - Glee cast

This song always reminds me of doing the dishes at our old college apartment...particularly of looking into the inside corner of the corner cupboard above the countertop.  I was putting dishes away into that corner cupboard while singing this song when I learned I could hit that high note at the end (3:45) using my chest voice, but only if I swooped up to it.  It was a proud moment.

___________________________________________

“I think,” said Harry, more quietly still, “it’s time to get my dad’s old Cloak out again.”

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets