PHOTOS
True to form, my surprised filled hubby made our 1st wedding anniversary exceptional! Our anniversary weekend started last Thursday. As I left for work I noticed a package sitting on the rug before the door. It said "To my wife" and "open me." With a smile I opened the package and the card. Brian always writes the nicest cards. They a make a gal immediately say "Awe" out loud. I opened the gift and it was a GPS system. The card explained that the first wedding anniversary is the paper anniversary. So he said he wanted to get me a map so I didn't get lost anymore (the '08 version being the GPS System). Inside his card it said "more to come." Later that day, I got an e-mail from Brian that had an address to input into the GPS system. But I kinda cheated and looked up the address on Google before putting it into the GPS system after work like the e-mail said. Since I ruined the surprise we met at home before going to dinner. I had also gotten out of work early to get Brian's present so that gave me extra time before meeting him at the restaurant.
On the first Brokencandy website, my hubby had mentioned a few things he has always wanted (i.e. a Gauntlet arcade game, a velvet Elvis blanket, tattoo flash, etc.) To date, he had gotten everything but the tattoo flash so I decided to go about getting this as his paper gift. Sp about a week ago, a gal from my office and I had an eventful lunch hour trying to find LA Ink a.k.a High Voltage. I knew Brian liked to watch Miami Ink so I thought tattoo flash from this sister show would be cool. My goal that lunch hour was to pay an artist to draw me a Hula Girl. Well, LA Ink was too trendy (picture 4 middle school girls with their mom buying t-shirts), meaning, they were too busy to consider my request. Apparently, my request wasn't something that come across very often. See artists don't like to part with their drawings. Even though I begged and pleaded I didn't get anywhere with any of the LA Ink artists. I did get a name of Kat Van?Whatever's old boss at a tattoo parlor a mile down the street from High Voltage. With a name in hand we went over to the suggested tattoo parlor only to find it didn't open for 45 mins.
In front of the tattoo parlor there were 100 swimsuit models standing in line (I guess they were waiting for the modeling agency next door). They were getting a little antsy with me and my girlfriend waiting around. I think they thought we were trying to cut in line. I had to laugh because no one who saw me and the girls in line would ever think I was trying to cut. Please ladies, I eat! Anyhoo, after some lunch at a nearby cafe I finally get in and talk to a few people. While I was waiting to find an artist this one guy looks out the window at all the swimsuit model girls and says out loud "I've never seen so many girls who wouldn't fuck me!" It was kinda funny. Like LA Ink, some of the artists were a bit confused as to why I wanted just a drawing and not a tattoo but after begging and pleading I finally found an artist who would do my bidding. We chatted a long time and I told him my whole story about how I got married in Hawaii and how my hubby has always wanted a hula girl drawing. He asked me why didn't just dress up in a grass sirt and a coconut bra and dance around. I told him that was part one and part two was the drawing. He agreed to draw me a hula girl after I promised never to go anywhere else to get it tattooed (I told him no worries it was going in a frame!) and then I gave him some cash up front.
I didn't know what I was going to get when I went in the following week with some more cash but he showed me and it was super cool!! He asked me if the hub would like it and I said I know he will! He told me to come back next year and get it tattoo'd for the second anniversary! After being so scared to go in by the time I left I was considering getting a tattoo myself! All the guys were so cool. I am too afraid of needles though so perhaps I will just have to take my mum-in-law when she gets hers. I certainly know a good artist! I got the drawing home just in time to put it in a crap frame (I will take it to get a good frame later), wrap a few other paper gifts and left the gift on the bed. When Brian got home he found the gift and opened it. He really liked the drawing! For once I felt I had done good! I also got him a few books on Hawaii to a few islands we are thinking about visiting next. We also had a couple of cards to open that had come in the mail.
The address Brian had given to me earlier in the day took us to LARKIN'S, a local Eagle Rock restaurant we hadn't tried yet. The restaurant was as good as all the others in our neighborhood. We really like the fact we live next to so many mom-n-pop places. The restaurant was soul food themed so we enjoyed fried chicken, BBQ, cornbread, mac-n-cheese, creamed corned and mashed potatoes. For dessert we enjoyed the best berry cobbler we have ever had!
The next night, I came home from work to find a box of flowers sent from Hawaii from the Rusca'. The flowers were so pretty! What was fun was that all the flowers had come individually wrapped so I had the fun of making my own arrangement. There was supposed to be a picture of what the arrangement looked like included but they must have forgotten to include it. At first I was kind of scared to touch the flowers cuz they were so nice and I didn't want to screw them up. After talking to Brian I decided to take a stab. Brian got home just in time to add some of the greens into the vase but otherwise he thought I did a good job without having a picture to look at. After we found a home for the flowers in our living room we opened up a bottle of champaign and ate a bunch of chocolate, nut covered, strawberries.
The next morning I awoke to another surprise. We were going on a weekend trip. I got another address which took us to Long Beach to the Queen Mary. I thought we were going to Catalina or staying at the Queen Marry but Brian said no and told me to walk away from the boats which confused me because what else is down at the pier but the boats and the Queen Mary. But I was wrong! After walking a bit from the parking lot I found myself at a helo pad. We were going to Catalina but not by boat, by helicopter! Our helicopter took off at 9:30 AM and we got to Catalina at 9:45AM. It was s cool riding in a helicopter! We felt like we were floating on a cloud over the ocean! We meet a nice couple who road in the helicopter with us. They were celebrating the woman's 50th birthday. They had been to the island many times and gave us a ton of tips. A taxi took us into town after we landed and we grabbed a big breakfast before checking into our hotel which was along the beach. After checking in we walked around some more and who should we run into but our friend Toby! We couldn't believe our eyes! He had been sent to the island on assignment from his photo company to take picture of the marathon runners (there was a big marathon that weekend). I guess it was only fitting that Toby was there for our 1st anniversary as he was also a surprise at our wedding! We spent the weekend running all over the island, eating a ton of food and catching up with our pal, Toby! We got a couple's message (minus Toby) at a resort before coming back by boat. I must say going by helicopter is the way to go though! Another successful Brian surprise!! I told him he should go into business giving guys advise on how to surprise girls. I think he'd make millions!
True to form, my surprised filled hubby made our 1st wedding anniversary exceptional! Our anniversary weekend started last Thursday. As I left for work I noticed a package sitting on the rug before the door. It said "To my wife" and "open me." With a smile I opened the package and the card. Brian always writes the nicest cards. They a make a gal immediately say "Awe" out loud. I opened the gift and it was a GPS system. The card explained that the first wedding anniversary is the paper anniversary. So he said he wanted to get me a map so I didn't get lost anymore (the '08 version being the GPS System). Inside his card it said "more to come." Later that day, I got an e-mail from Brian that had an address to input into the GPS system. But I kinda cheated and looked up the address on Google before putting it into the GPS system after work like the e-mail said. Since I ruined the surprise we met at home before going to dinner. I had also gotten out of work early to get Brian's present so that gave me extra time before meeting him at the restaurant.
On the first Brokencandy website, my hubby had mentioned a few things he has always wanted (i.e. a Gauntlet arcade game, a velvet Elvis blanket, tattoo flash, etc.) To date, he had gotten everything but the tattoo flash so I decided to go about getting this as his paper gift. Sp about a week ago, a gal from my office and I had an eventful lunch hour trying to find LA Ink a.k.a High Voltage. I knew Brian liked to watch Miami Ink so I thought tattoo flash from this sister show would be cool. My goal that lunch hour was to pay an artist to draw me a Hula Girl. Well, LA Ink was too trendy (picture 4 middle school girls with their mom buying t-shirts), meaning, they were too busy to consider my request. Apparently, my request wasn't something that come across very often. See artists don't like to part with their drawings. Even though I begged and pleaded I didn't get anywhere with any of the LA Ink artists. I did get a name of Kat Van?Whatever's old boss at a tattoo parlor a mile down the street from High Voltage. With a name in hand we went over to the suggested tattoo parlor only to find it didn't open for 45 mins.
In front of the tattoo parlor there were 100 swimsuit models standing in line (I guess they were waiting for the modeling agency next door). They were getting a little antsy with me and my girlfriend waiting around. I think they thought we were trying to cut in line. I had to laugh because no one who saw me and the girls in line would ever think I was trying to cut. Please ladies, I eat! Anyhoo, after some lunch at a nearby cafe I finally get in and talk to a few people. While I was waiting to find an artist this one guy looks out the window at all the swimsuit model girls and says out loud "I've never seen so many girls who wouldn't fuck me!" It was kinda funny. Like LA Ink, some of the artists were a bit confused as to why I wanted just a drawing and not a tattoo but after begging and pleading I finally found an artist who would do my bidding. We chatted a long time and I told him my whole story about how I got married in Hawaii and how my hubby has always wanted a hula girl drawing. He asked me why didn't just dress up in a grass sirt and a coconut bra and dance around. I told him that was part one and part two was the drawing. He agreed to draw me a hula girl after I promised never to go anywhere else to get it tattooed (I told him no worries it was going in a frame!) and then I gave him some cash up front.
I didn't know what I was going to get when I went in the following week with some more cash but he showed me and it was super cool!! He asked me if the hub would like it and I said I know he will! He told me to come back next year and get it tattoo'd for the second anniversary! After being so scared to go in by the time I left I was considering getting a tattoo myself! All the guys were so cool. I am too afraid of needles though so perhaps I will just have to take my mum-in-law when she gets hers. I certainly know a good artist! I got the drawing home just in time to put it in a crap frame (I will take it to get a good frame later), wrap a few other paper gifts and left the gift on the bed. When Brian got home he found the gift and opened it. He really liked the drawing! For once I felt I had done good! I also got him a few books on Hawaii to a few islands we are thinking about visiting next. We also had a couple of cards to open that had come in the mail.
The address Brian had given to me earlier in the day took us to LARKIN'S, a local Eagle Rock restaurant we hadn't tried yet. The restaurant was as good as all the others in our neighborhood. We really like the fact we live next to so many mom-n-pop places. The restaurant was soul food themed so we enjoyed fried chicken, BBQ, cornbread, mac-n-cheese, creamed corned and mashed potatoes. For dessert we enjoyed the best berry cobbler we have ever had!
The next night, I came home from work to find a box of flowers sent from Hawaii from the Rusca'. The flowers were so pretty! What was fun was that all the flowers had come individually wrapped so I had the fun of making my own arrangement. There was supposed to be a picture of what the arrangement looked like included but they must have forgotten to include it. At first I was kind of scared to touch the flowers cuz they were so nice and I didn't want to screw them up. After talking to Brian I decided to take a stab. Brian got home just in time to add some of the greens into the vase but otherwise he thought I did a good job without having a picture to look at. After we found a home for the flowers in our living room we opened up a bottle of champaign and ate a bunch of chocolate, nut covered, strawberries.
The next morning I awoke to another surprise. We were going on a weekend trip. I got another address which took us to Long Beach to the Queen Mary. I thought we were going to Catalina or staying at the Queen Marry but Brian said no and told me to walk away from the boats which confused me because what else is down at the pier but the boats and the Queen Mary. But I was wrong! After walking a bit from the parking lot I found myself at a helo pad. We were going to Catalina but not by boat, by helicopter! Our helicopter took off at 9:30 AM and we got to Catalina at 9:45AM. It was s cool riding in a helicopter! We felt like we were floating on a cloud over the ocean! We meet a nice couple who road in the helicopter with us. They were celebrating the woman's 50th birthday. They had been to the island many times and gave us a ton of tips. A taxi took us into town after we landed and we grabbed a big breakfast before checking into our hotel which was along the beach. After checking in we walked around some more and who should we run into but our friend Toby! We couldn't believe our eyes! He had been sent to the island on assignment from his photo company to take picture of the marathon runners (there was a big marathon that weekend). I guess it was only fitting that Toby was there for our 1st anniversary as he was also a surprise at our wedding! We spent the weekend running all over the island, eating a ton of food and catching up with our pal, Toby! We got a couple's message (minus Toby) at a resort before coming back by boat. I must say going by helicopter is the way to go though! Another successful Brian surprise!! I told him he should go into business giving guys advise on how to surprise girls. I think he'd make millions!
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