Phew.
I made it through the weekend, and the biggest shindig I've ever pulled off: Dade's surprise 35th birthday party.

The hardest part was keeping the secret. I tell Dade everything, and I was practically bursting with it, but I managed not to make a peep and he was very surprised. I made way too much food and cleaned the house in 5 hours, leaving me totally exhausted by the time the party actually began, but it was so worth it to surprise him with all his closest friends. Awesome.

Yesterday we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for his low-key birthday dinner, that was a nice break for ME. Grandma and Grandpa's house is so relaxing and obviously the food was good.

I've been on a Japanese study kick this week. I started trying to learn Japanese when I was 14 and just beginning my anime geekdom. Most anime geeks go through the "learn Japanese" phase at some point, but I was really serious about it back then. I guess it appeals to both my aesthetics and my fascination with language. Every couple years I pull out all my books again and spend a few weeks studying. It keeps me from forgetting it, and actually, I do build on what I know every time. I especially love studying the writing. It would be a huge pain if I actually NEEDED to learn it! But as a hobby I love kanji. Once you start to learn how many of them are actually little pictures relating to the word, it becomes like a game to figure them out.

Last night I helped Dade figure out what some of his Japanese books on modeling say, and I even impressed myself...!