So maybe giving up coffee wasn’t the best idea when I’m in the midst of the worst PMS I can remember having since that time I was 15 and called my mom a bitch for doing my laundry for me. HOW DARE SHE happen to be washing the shirt I wanted to wear RIGHT THEN!? Like, my entire social life depended on that shirt being clean and on me and baring just enough stomach to be “daring” but not enough to be “whore” and what if the guy of my dreams didn’t see me in THAT SHIRT which I just KNEW was going to be the shirt that made him fall in love with me so we could grow up and get married and have babies and my last name would look so cute if I dotted the ‘i’ with a heart like I’d practiced ALL DAY LONG when you COULD have been washing my shirt and now my LIFE IS OVER AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!!! *door slam*

Yeah, it’s been that bad this week. Yesterday my uterus started contracting with enough force to have pushed out an entire herd of cattle. And a matching farmer. I haven’t given in though. I’ve gone 5 entire days without a single sip of coffee and somehow at the end of this five days, Ben still want’s to marry me. THAT’S an amazing man right there, folks. Simply amazing.

The other night I was looking through some wedding magazines and I told Ben that I’d like to have either a very simple Asian theme or a beach theme (think Polynesian). At the end of the conversation he mentioned that he thought the best idea was to go with a theme that was “us”. Something that symbolized the type of people we are and the kind of relationship we have and that as long as whatever we decided to do managed to do that, he’d be happy.

Last night I had a dream that we gave away whoopi cushions and miniature M3’s as favors and the cake was shaped like a giant, well… it was phallic. heh Because that’s US. We laugh at eachother all the time. WITH eachother too but lets be honest here… I do a lot of crazy stuff and Ben is lucky enough to get to sit back and laugh at me. A lot. But he makes me laugh too. A lot. So, I want to have the nice, beautiful wedding but it’s important to me that it be FUN too. I want our guests to laugh. A lot. I’d prefer they NOT be laughing AT me however so any suggestions you have are welcome. Any fun weddings you’ve been to before that incorporate something funny and memorable??

The first full day we were in Maui we made the Road to Hana trip. Well, we got about half way. And I survived!

I’d heard so much about this drive. When you do a search for ‘Maui attractions’ it’s included in just about every link you can find and I envisioned this four lane road with big flashing “Stop and try our pineapple here!” signs every 40 feet. Sure the pictures made it LOOK nice but pictures of Vegas are welcoming and encouraging and nowhere do they mention that if you stray so much as 10 feet off The Strip you are overwhelmed with the stench of sun baked urine and accosted by bums. And that they smell WORSE.

I was never in my life so happy to be SO WRONG. On the drive from the condo to Paia where we rented a cooler and bought a box lunch to take on the trip I was glued to the window. The day before it was dark by the time we drove by all this so I was seeing it for the first time. The sky was the kind of baby blue I’ve dreamed about but 20+ years of living in a city with the worst pollution in the COUNTRY had convinced me only existed there: in my dreams. Every color was that way. The sugar cane was the most vibrant green I had ever seen. The water was a perfect gradient of teal to a light then a deep dark blue that even the most experienced graphic designer could never replicate. I was in awe of EVERYTHING.

We had gotten up late and the attraction coordinator at the hotel assured us as we booked our glass bottom boat and Molokini/Lanai snorkeling trip later in the week that we were getting way to late a start for the Hana drive. And… we should consider taking a GUIDED tour to fully appreciate all that the road had to offer. To us this seemed kinda silly since we had a Shelby Stang to make the trip in and to her seemed perfectly logical because she’d get a higher commission. I’m glad we didn’t listen to her.

We arrived at the first stop, Twin Falls, probably sometime around 9:30AM. I had on flip flops but had thrown my tennis shoes in the trunk in case we did any serious hiking. Ben told me that we should bring shoes but the few other people I saw walking off to the trail all had sandals on too so I told him I’d be fine. He brought a backpack along with his shoes anyway and I just kinda giggled at my boy scout boyfriend, grabbed the Canon and we were off.

The trail was MUDDY. And lush and beautiful and so very very green. And REALLY MUDDY. On the way there the self guided Road to Hana tour CD had told us that Hana averages 300 inches of rain a year and is a real rain forests. I guess for most clear thinking people that means “Don’t wear flipflops, moron.” heh I struggled and Ben laughed. So it was pretty much like any other walk we’d been on except that we were in Paradise. Anna means ‘graceful‘ ya know.

When we got to the falls we took pictures and watched two guys swim around the bottom and just sat and soaked in the serene beauty of it all. After about 15 minutes or so and almost killing myself on slippery rocks Ben said,

Ben: You should go in.
Me: What?
Ben: You should get in the water.
Me: I didn’t bring a towel and I don’t have a change of clothes in the car.
Ben: So when you tell this story to people do you want to tell them about how you walked to this beautiful waterfall… and then left. Or do you want to tell them how you walked to this beautiful waterfall then SWAM in it and how awesome that was?
Me: …
Ben: I’m gonna go take some more pictures.

So I sat there for a minute or two and thought, “what the hell… I might as well get in. How many times will I get the chance to go swimming in a waterfall in a rain forest in Paradise, right?”

After swimming around a bit and climbing onto the rocks behind the waterfall I decided that we better get going since we had a long drive in front of us that day. Going through the bottom of the falls was tricky because the water was POUNDING down with enough force that I had to hold the wall with one hand and my bikini top uo with the other… with my eyes closed so I didn’t lose my contacts.

I managed to get off the rocks gracefully (SEE: slipped and fell flat on my ass then tried to slide down the rest of the way which gave me a wedgie so far up my bum it cleaned my sinuses out) and swam to where the rock shelf started at the edge of the pond in waste deep water with my eyes still closed. When I opened them I saw Ben looking at me with a sly grin on his face holding out a cell phone and saying, “Since you did that, you should marry me.” I’m sure I looked at him with the most puzzled look on my face because I was thinking to myself I must have hit my HEAD when I fell too because I was totally hearing things.

Me: What?
Ben: Will you marry me?

I realized when my contacts cleared and my eyes focused that it was an opened RING BOX he was holding, not a cell phone! In a single second my heart started racing about 4,000 MPH and I got this silly knot in my throat and felt like the world spun completely around me with every single beat of my heart. I put my head down for a second and closed my eyes. I wanted to convince myself that I wasn’t dreaming that the Man of My Dreams had just proposed to me at the edge of a waterfall the middle of a rain forest in Maui.

I opened my eyes and it was real. I yelled YES(!!) and climbed/waded to where he was (almost falling at least 6 times because again, GRACEFUL) and climbed on the rock next to my fiance and kissed him and put the ring on my finger. The next few moments are kinda blurry. I remember shaking but not feeling cold at all, and Ben yelping as I pressed my cold body to him when we kissed, and the couple that had been swimming before offered to take our picture and saying congrats. I was on such a high that I felt like we floated, not walked, back to the car to continue the drive to Hana.

On the walk he told me about picking out the diamond, and the setting and that he’d had the ring for a MONTH. And that EVERY SINGLE PERSON we know knew that he was going to propose. He’d told my mom and dad and all our friends and the girl that works at the front desk and nVidia. Everybody.

So, we’re engaged. Looking down at the ring still causes my heart to flutter at the thought that I’m going to marry the man who saved my life and makes me laugh every single day and who loved me through battles with depression and from 240 miles away and who reminds me daily that I’m special and cared about and for.

We don’t have a date set yet but the latest idea is to have the wedding around Spring of 2008. As details progress, of course, you will all be informed.

We got home late last night and I’ve spent the last 24 or so hours sorting through pictures and trying to keep my toes from freezing and falling off. It’s damn cold here and my body is not happy. At all.

I got the first two days worth of pictures up. I have a huge, fantastic, detail filled, wonderful, picture whoring post in the works but I’m tired and my first day back to work in 10 days is tomorrow AND I’m still on Maui time. *deep breath* So I’m going to go to bed and hopefully I can finish up tomorrow.

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorites so far though:

We were in the car heading to Hana and I thought the baby blue sky against the green sugar cane was awsome. It was even MORE AWSOME in real life.

We had a quiet moment on the road to Hana and I took a second to let Ben proposing to me sink in. I didn’t realize he had the camera out. This is one of my favorite picture from the trip.

Maui sunsets are breathtaking. So colorful and deep. This is a pic taken from the lanai (balcony) of our condo.

Yesterday talking about airport security on the phone:

Me: Well, I want to take some makeup on the plain with me but Sandra said they threatened to take ALL her makeup and THROW IT AWAY. So she told them, “Go ahead and take it and see what happens.” HA! I love that snatch. She’s totally lucky they even LET her on the plane after that! Anyway, they can’t take my makeup. They just can’t.
Ben: I thought you said anything under an ounce is okay. Just don’t take LIQUIDS.
Me: Yeah… so I guess the plutonium has to go in my suitcase?
Ben: Yeah, the makeup and the plutonium. Did you hear that NSA? We are taking plutonium on the plane to Maui on Saturday.
Me: TeeHee

After work I had to take my mom to pick up her car which is FINALLY finished after being rear ended so since I was on that side of town Ben suggested we go eat at this Greek place he found and has been RAVING about and has taken everybody EXCEPT ME to eat at. So, on the way through the lobby he stopped and ducked behind Christine’s desk. Christine is the adorable little lady that works the front desk at nVidia that always gives Cassidy chips and fruit and Snapple. She also has connections at a flower shop and Ben has gotten flowers from her in the past for Mother’s Day, Valentines, etc.

Me: What were you talking to Christine about?
Ben: I was checking something on her computer. She was having problems earlier.
Me: Yeah right.
Ben: Seriously!
Me: You are SUCH a BAD LIAR! She’d have called IT, not YOU.
Ben: *laugh*
Ben: So turn left here and go to Scott and turn left.
Me: Don’t CHANGE THE SUBJECT!
Ben: *grin*

While we were eating:

Ben: No really, Valentines is coming up and that’s why I was talking to Christine. That’s all I’m going to tell you.
Me: You are a bad liar.
Ben: I’m serious!
Me: Okay. I want tulips this year.
Cassidy: You already have two lips! One on top and one on bottom!

Yesterday was great. Cassidy love ALL her presents. Score one for Santa. We had a REALLY relaxed day. Opened presents, ate cinnamon rolls, Nana came over so we opened more, went to eat at the only place open (Chevy’s. I still like them. Ben still doesn’t.), came home and curled up on the couch and watched Ben play Zelda, got way more into it than I wanted to, Cassidy watched and played, and played, and played, watched a movie, fell asleep in Ben’s arms.

It really was an pretty slow weekend. Which I REALLY needed.

Home early on Friday with a sore throat. Slept till almost 4PM on Saturday with dry hacking cough. Hardly moved on Sunday except to run out and finally get my hands on one of the last copies of Zelda in the WHOLE WORLD. See above for yesterday when the throat stopped hurting but my nose decided to violently protest in what I now have dubbed The Snot Revolution.

Can currently breath out of only the left nostril. At work anyway because two co-workers had today off for PTO. It’s 32 minutes after start time and the other co-worker is MIA. That means everybody with a question/problem today is going to come to ME. Hopefully the cough and the battle cry of the Snot Amry scares them away…

EDIT! - Good news! I can hear out of my right ear now!