27 years ago today was my very first time I got to Celebrate Doug’s Birthday with him. We had been dating for about 8 or 9 weeks. I remember wanting to make his day extra special because I just knew this guy was “the one”. But being a starving Collage student I didn’t have much money, I mean I was literally broke so I had to come up with a very creative but inexpensive way to show him how special he was to me. I was working with my Dad at the time as his Secretary, his office was on the top floor of one of those old office buildings on University Avenue In Provo. I asked my dad if I could use the office that night to make a special dinner for Doug’s birthday. He gave me he keys to the office without question.
I went home that afternoon and first things first I had decided to make him a mixed tape. If you have ever made a mixed tape before you know it is a labor of love. I had one of those stereos that had two cassette players next to each other so you could play on one side and record on the other. There was no fast way to do this, you had to literally listen to the entire song while it was recording and then hurry up and stop the tape before the next song started. To find the song you wanted to record was just as painful, You had to fast forward or rewind to actually find the song and there was no easy way of doing this except hoping you were somehow physic and know exactly when to stop fast forwarding. I was never good at it and it would literally take me hours to make, so If I made you a Mix Tape you had to know you were special to me!! When I finally got done with his tape I decided to give it a special label and for whatever reason I took a Sharpie and wrote across the top, “Birthday Madness”. LOL Next I ran to the store and bought all the ingredients to make my homemade Lasagna. It was pretty much the only thing I knew how to make from scratch (besides cookies of course) at that point in my life, Hey, I was only 20 years old. I made Lasagna, garlic bread and a salad. I went over to the office and got everything all ready in the conference room, set the table all fancy and had the mix tape playing. I can even remember what I was wearing that night, I dressed up in my nicest fancy/casual outfit a black mini skirt with matching black mock turtle neck crop top and a pair of super cool mesh tights. Everything was set.
I picked Doug up for his date and took him over to the office, I played it off like I had to pick something up there real quick and of course I surprised him with his Birthday Madness dinner! I am writing this all down because guess what, we do not have one single picture of that day, there were no cell phones and you just really didn’t take pictures like we do now, and guess what? It is still is one of our fondest memories together. In fact last night while we were lying in bed Doug said it’s going to be Birthday Madness #27 tomorrow! Yep every year we call Doug’s Birthday, Birthday Madness! I will always remember that night, we ended it slow dancing listening to the birthday madness tape that was a little warped sounding because I didn’t have time or money to buy a new tape so I taped his mixed tape over a tape I had already used so the quality wasn’t very good which was a huge bummer but I didn’t have time to listen to it before to see if it worked or not, so we just laughed and danced while overlooking University Ave. It was a perfect night! Little did I know we would be engaged just a few weeks after. I like to think that Birthday Madness sealed the deal! 😉 LOL!
So here it is 27 years later, Happy Birthday Doug! Hope you have a great day! Birthday Madness 2018!! WHOOP WHOOP! It lives on BABY!! Hope to spend MANY more with you! XOXO
Janna's Journey 