Tuesday, June 17, 2008

In Recovery from Mystery Weekend

My mystery weekend was faaaaantastic! I'm still recovering my energy from a whirlwind tour of....

LAS VEGAS!

That's right, I guessed correctly. Paulo did everything he could to misdirect my intuition - up to and including getting my mom in on the deal. He gave her creative license to try and convince me it was going to be somewhere other than Vegas, and boy-o did she ever do a good job!

Paulo had previously inquired as to whether I had a passport, which I do. The night before our trip I went to retrieve it from the drawer where it always lives and IT WASN'T THERE! Paulo arrived in the midst of my frenzy and said that it would probably be ok if I didn't bring it. That morning, however, I received an email from my mom teasing that she knew where I was going and, "had I packed my passport?" I freaked out. I had visions of reaching the security gates at the airport or a border crossing and not being able to get through, thereby totally destroying all of Paulo's careful planning for our weekend. Not only was my passport missing, I didn't have a copy of my birth certificate so I couldn't even get in to Canada or partway in to Mexico. I drove to the local health department and got a copy of it, and then went home from work early to resume the search for my missing passport. Several upended bags of papers later I found it, stuck to another folder.

Assured that I was prepared for anything, I gave Paulo a relieved hug and kiss. We set off on our adventure. He took back roads to the airport (but I'm more familiar than he knew with the airport area, so I had a big grin on his face when we left the interstate). He checked both of our bags while I plugged my ears and looked the other way. I deliberately didn't glance at my boarding pass as I went through the security checkpoint. Then we had a nice dinner with several glasses of wine in the airport.

At the appointed time, we strolled out towards the gates. Cruising along, we reached the end of a terminal, which was empty but for one gate slightly behind us. Paulo turned us around saying, "Well, looks like the only flight around here is leaving for Las Vegas. Do you want to go to Vegas babe?"

He's the most amazing man I've ever met.

I'll post further details of our trip soon, but I have to mention one special little detail. He did, indeed, tell my mom where we were going the day before the trip. His message to her was a full itinerary of our trip, complete with both his and the hotel's phone numbers so my parents could reach us if I turned my phone off. How does he know to do those special little things that I don't even know to ask for? Ah well, I do the same thing to him regularly.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Mystery Weekend

In two days, I am being whisked away for a mystery weekend by the fabulous Paulo. Soon after our first full weekend together, he informed me that I should have a bag packed and be ready to hop in his car at 5:00 pm this Thursday. All I was told to bring was a nice dress and a swimsuit.

Since then, I've had the chance to model my 'nice dresses' for him and he picked one out for me to bring - it's not just a nice cocktail dress either. Of all the pretty things in my closet, he picked my formal gown for our dinner reservation. It's black mesh on the top, embroidered with vines and flowers in strategic locations, and the skirt is a slinky black velevet tulip. To accomodate this unexpected outing of my formal-wear, I made an emergency shoe shopping excursion last night with my friend Bonnie to pick up a pair of sexy black heels.

At home again, I began packing for my mystery adventure...5 pairs of shoes and 7 outfits later I decided I needed to haul out my big, international suitcase from it's hibernation cave under the bed. Now, I'm usually a light packer, but I usually know what I need to pack for. All of this ambiguity is making it difficult to pare down my packing list. I did, however, get another clue about mystery weekend when I mentioned I was packing. Paulo had to tell me that my toiletries should go in the big suitcase, otherwise Homeland Security might take them away for not being in 1 oz bottles stowed in a ziploc bag...We're leaving on a jet plane!!!!

Three Good Things:
1) I love good surprises.
2) Getting some quality time with Paulo, where we can sleep in and relax, will be lovely.
3) My new heels are 4" tall - I love being able to wear high heels and still not be as tall as Paulo...now that is sexy.