Highlights from the India Trip

- Watching 'Mamma Mia' with my dad and N, with N discovering the magic of ABBA for the first time; and my dad, on the other hand, re-living those glory days. Dancing queen, indeed.

- Food, food and more than enough food to keep me happy :)

- Torrential rains, that put our best laid plans to shame.

- Shopping like it was nobody's business. Esp the DVDs at Pondy!

- Family, and more family. Yay.

- Prithvi Avenue. Precious.

- Plunging in Thermal Shock from 85 in Chennai to 7 in Chi-city.

Butter-jeenie.

I finally made it. The 'Adai'. It was SO delicious, I couldn't believe it!

Suddenly, I was back to being a tiny girl in Prithvi Avenue.. my short legs dangling from the dining chair, with my initial-engraved plate, rationing out my butter-jeenie, and savoring the adai. Of course, today needs a multiplier for the 'savoring' part of it. I think the last I had an adai was about a year ago!

And I even managed to pass on the butter-jeenie funda to B. Sweet.

6 days, 12 hours

Dee just found out that her countdown clock shows just 6 days and 12 hours before she gets on that plane. She is very excited.. this is the first time she will have company on her long trip home. And best yet, the company is B! What fun!

She should definitely flush that Dramamine habit down the drain, and start being more pro-active on these flights, like:

- Get some wine on the flight (on B's advice), and pretend that she is drunk. She will slur and raise her voice and mortify poor B.
- Complain about a million things. Static in her hair and the measly blanket they give on the flight, cramped legs, bad back, feeling cold, sleepessness, thirst, bad movie selection, awful music selection on the channels, smelly microwaved food, and whatnot.
- Keep wanting to pee, and stamp B's foot everytime she passes his seat.
- Drive B insane in general.

This promises to be such an awesome trip.

I hum.

Fashion's 'Mar Jawa': There is something about the reprise that just drags you with it. The lyrics change per the point in the storyline, but the basic tune just has so much soul, it took my breath away!

Varanam Aayiram's 'Nenjukkul Peidhidum': The song has everyone raving, yes, I agree it is good. In fact, better than good. But I'm severely disappointed in the fact that Harris Jeyaraj just gave some random beat in the background once the stanzas start. Are you kidding me? Those beats seem like he did a random search on his keyboard and came up with the first techno beat he could find. Tch tch, the song would've been so much more better with a good beat. Which is why I like the happier 'Mundhinam Parthene' more.

Bachna Ae Haseeno's 'Ahista Ahista': What a song! Such a delight to drive with. Nothing more need be said. And Lucky Ali synthesized, hats off!

Project Management.

I'm in a rut right now. The Obamania has worn off… and I don't feel like getting any work done. I'm waiting for someone to slap me, drag me by the hair, tie me up to the chair, super-glue my eyelids open, and threaten me to watch all 8 years of 'Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' (herewith to be referred to as: KSBKBT) if I don't work on the MMDatabase I'm supposed to turn in soon. Yes, the mention of KSBKBT is threatening enough I guess.

What do I have against saas-bahu serials? Nothing other than the fact that I am bored to death by them, and all the BGM and melodrama like I blogged about earlier. I read an article this morning (if you could call Rediff.com timepass as 'articles', that is) about how Star has decided to drop aforementioned serial due to a sag in TRP ratings. And how everyone is crushed about the end of an 'era'. People, wake up! Eight years of Monday-through-Thursday episodes, a couple of generation jumps, and you expect people to STILL continue watching the saga? Wherein Hollywood makes fun of in-laws in an-hour-and-a-half movies, the Indian tele-serial can take the same few scenarios, and spin them out over a period of one whole season! But I do also know that Americans have their daytime soap craze too - albeit more of love triangles, business double-crosses by beautiful women, ex-es, and the timely deaths of characters if the producers are annoyed with their actors! To each his own :)

Anyway, coming back to the whole rut thing... my MMDatabase is driving me insane. The front end was completed about three months ago! But here I am, still fumbling around with the back end. (The above line sounds so bad in retrospect, as a double entendre!) Linking all these bleedy tables to the forms, selectively locking out fields against editing, drawing up queries that'll make sense to the user etc., doesn't sound that bad. First off, I didn't ASK for this project. Second, I hate MSAccess. It is an annoying piece of soft'wear(ing me thin)'. B says; the minute I complete the project and hand it off, all will be fine with the world. It does make sense to look at it that way, but like I said, I need that 'jolt' of inspiration to sit down, learn the tricks of the trade in MSAccess and actually work things out. Considering my countdown to the India trip is ticking down slowly but steadily, I don't think I have time to waste!

Add to all this, the fact that winter is almost here, and we have but a few weekends to actually enjoy. The weekend brigade is out in full force, leaving me no time to take work home. Of course, I can technically 'take work home', but it comes back the same way with me every Monday morning :) Maybe I should just dump it all on B, and use my 'Project Management' skills. (Now you finally know, why the blog entry was named thus) It'll start out quite innocently enough..

Facility Assessment:
D: "Honeeeey, can you pleeaase help me with this database a bit?..."
B: "Of course sweet, come, explain it to me then."

Information Transfer:
B: "Oh, I understand, you should try this piece of code here"
D: "I don't know how to do it, can you show me how?.. Can you do it in this section also for me?

Preliminary Assessment:
D: "Hey, how about that database, is it coming along OK?"
B: "Peeps, its YOUR project, do you even realize that?"

Safety Analysis:
D: "Boohoo, don't you feel sorry for me and my job? Did you even consider my deadline!? Won't you help me?"
B: "Now calm down, we'll complete it soon enough. Why don't you take a break from this.. I'll plod along a little"

Remedial Investigation:
D: "This is not the form I asked for here.. Can you change it please?"
B: "I can't believe I'm getting suckered into doing this"
D: (batting eyelashes) "You're the Best!"

Mitigation Planning:
D: "Guess what I made for dinner today?! Your favorite vathakuzhambu.."
B: "Awesome! :)"

Risk Assessment:
D: "You (shaking fist in rage), how long will it take you to complete?"
B: "I'm working on it na!" (plaintive note)
D: "Thanks, I'm just a little hassled, sorry!"

Compliance:
B: "You know what, just leave it to me, don't worry. You'll have your database by your deadline" D: "Ok, I won't bother you.. You carry on with the database then."

Project support:
D: "Shall I make gulab jamun today? I know how you LOVE it!"
B: "Slurp!"

Operational Readiness Review:
B: "Take a look at this peeps, I think its almost done"
D: "Awesome! Its great. Let me make a few changes here and there with regards to the color and the font!"

Startup Coordination:
D: "See how the blue stands out better against the grey 2% compared to the grey 4% background? I have an eye for such things.. You must agree"
B: "Of course!" (2%? 4%? !%(&^%)#_*)

Debriefing:
D: "Yesterday's meeting went so well! Everyone was thrilled with my database!!"
B: "Great, good for you!"
D: "You're the bestestestest!" (hug)

Final Report:
And they lived happily ever after ;)

Election Day '08.

11:00 am

It's finally here. Election Day 2008 - the one they say is an election for the ages, bound to go down in history books. The one that we will all look back to when we're talking to our grandchildren about our heyday. And I'm as swept up in the Obamania, as are a lot of young people. The same 'young people' who have more often than not, been branded 'apathetic'.

Yes, I was in that category too. Of course, I talk in a totally different context - one in India where I left home before I was eligible to vote. But had I been there, I doubt I would've been anything but apathetic?! Americans talk about hanging chads, misinformation being spread on the day of polling, last minute negative attacks, etc. I've heard of such different things in my state.. I talk about local goons and thugs with guns taking over the polling booth, chasing all of you out and them casting illegitimate votes for the leader of their choice. I talk about false voter registration cards, voters bribed with material stuff and a promise of food to feed their hungry stomachs, unbelievably arrogant politicians who get away with anything, huge political machinery that churns out nothing but negativity, two dueling parties that just switch control every other election.. Yes, a far cry from what plagues elections in America.

All this has long dumbed down my whole 'I can vote, and make a change' attitude whilst in India. And I carried that along with me here in 2004. Politics was something I honestly didn't care about. I was just one person, how was I going to make a difference? Of course, I always knew that every single person counts. But hey, what was I going to do about it!

And this year, along came Obama. Finally, someone who was young, not jaded by the political machine, a good orator, a clean image. And here I am today, having sat down and followed pretty much everything I could along the campaign trail, totally biased toward him of course! The whole message of 'Hope' could have been nothing more than rhetoric, but it did spark the younger generation's imagination. And the idea of crossing the racial divide and actually seeing a black president was immensely appealing. I read this article this morning and many others, the authors with whom this message has resonated, and I'm happy that my generation is optimistic for the future.

I love the fact that Obama is in Chicago today.. my dear Chi-city! And I'm sure that I, along with so many people, will be watching and waiting for that final declaration of Obama's victory. Tonight, is indeed the night..

8:55 pm

Chi-city is obsessed, with our 'homeboy'. Grant Park is filled with throngs of hopefuls. Illinois is of course, a blue state. But several thousand people are gathered here today, to countdown with Obama.

South Loop looks like its Tirupati, only twice over :)

11:29 pm

Yay. Euphoria.
Now, yawn.

Mmm, so meaty!

Meat - a subject that has no reason really, to be popping up in my blog, but hey, in the spirit of MeatFest! So we're the funky department that celebrates meat. Go Meat! I should be saying 'Gross Meat' - wonder how people actually like to chomp on layers of fat and muscle from animals. Some deep-rooted instincts will never leave mankind I guess. Carnivores that we are.

The origins of this awesome festival date way back (~12 years?) to when everyone unanimously hated one of our co-workers, and she being vegetarian, they celebrated her leaving with a big bang! All this meat! I know its uncanny how it all started because of one girl who was vegetarian. But hey, I've been assured by everyone that I am the total opposite of her, and that they all love me. Yay me :)

So we have the banner up, the table all labeled and arranged in a very fine display of meat, and everyone who is in on the secret drops in from all over the company. Haha. Of course, we pulled everyone's leg this year when we brought in this veggie (soy) meatball that tastes and looks exactly like actual meat, and then I ate it. Everyone considered it an 'event' and much ado was made about it. And we're waiting for the right moment to actually break the news to them that we were planning this all along ;) Fun.

Dee and Me.

The author of this here blog hates melodrama, saas-bahu serials, and how people get sucked into them so easily. Damn the slow pace, the 10 minute story drawn over 30 minutes, the music crescendos, the different-angle-same-scene repeats, etc. Damn everything.

Dee believes that life is not as complicated as it seems, and that we're all going to die anyway. She knows that what seems like the worst thing that could happen to you is nothing compared to whats coming next. No, don't mistake her for a pessimist - she's just an optimistic realist. She knows her probability, and her chances. Dee, at a very young age was very wise. She is, of course, not imperturbable. She can get into her 'mood swing' every now and then, but she is resilient. She bounces back enthusiastically after giving herself a little pep talk - something akin to slapping herself as hard as she can and telling her that she is a moron. That achieved, life is back to normal.

A few years ago, 3.803818 to be precise, she decided that life was mundane. She was too sensible for her own good, and hence had to shake things up. She wanted to have the feeling of heated blood coursing through her veins... And whatever else the novels told her about normal folk who could be swept away in a moment of passion and drama. That is when I was born.

Yes, this may read straight out of 'Tell me your dreams'. But that is so lame compared to my story of how I was created for fun. Not to 'repress a shady old past'. Pbbft. Rubbish. Much drama about nothing. So now, I love to add a healthy dose of melodrama to everything. So I said to B - 'Hey you, don't you think we're very sensible people? We should actually start fighting every now and then, and throwing tantrums like normal people do. It will make life more spicy!' B said 'OK'.

Since then, I have been living the good life - (the term 'good life' herein is used in accordance with the widely accepted definition as employed by the Association of Melodrama Queens a.k.a. Lunatics who do Everything but Kill themselves and Those around them) - and enjoying myself. It is such a heady feeling to be throwing tantrums every now and then, blaming everyone but yourself, making B feel bad for something that is actually my fault, and so on and so forth.

But now, Dee, it seems, is getting bored with me. Too bad, I'm here to stay. Maybe I'll tone things down a bit, and let her have the upper hand in whatever she does, and lull her into this false sense of security so she becomes complacent, and THEN I make my move. Aha, the world is soon going to be in my hands! What glee.

Customs, etc.

And there was the whole Karva Chauth debacle :) Being the naive new bride, who finds all sorts of mushy stuff interesting, I decided I was going to do it this year! Never mind the tall tales of saving your husband from Yama to cursing the crocodile, to everything else in between.. somehow, it just strikes a chord with you. Disbelief notwithstanding, there is something so "deep" about fasting from sunrise through sunset just so you can be sure that your husband lives a long and prosperous life, wouldn't you agree? My voracious Googling gave me details of the 'rituals' to be performed - none of which I was able to carry out to the T, being a South Indian with no access to some of the stuff, and better yet, no idea of what some words meant - aipun, chonp, roli, WHAT!?

I'm not a North Indian, and so, the whole deal of Karva Chauth cropped up only after all the Yash Chopra and Karan Johar exposure I got in college. I know, I know.. it isn't THAT romantic when you wait (in vain, might I add) for the moon to actually be seen.. Especially when you live on the first floor of a mid-rise with all high(er)-rises around you, and also on a very cloudy day to boot! But I stayed the trooper I was. Did the sindoor-mangalsutra-bangles routine in the morning, and came home and did a little puja of sorts. But in the end, all was well - was pretty proud of having given up my 'one-most-important-thing-to-get-me-through-any-day'. FOOD!

Poor B, running around, trying to make sure I wasn't going to keel over :) I'm stronger than I'm given credit for, at times! In retrospect, why is it that even to this day, people BELIEVE in the tradition of Karva Chauth?

Is fasting for a day going to really truly ensure that your husband doesn't die early? Or is it just a conviction that ups your faith-ante? Younger generations these days, people say, are more 'ritualistic' than 'spiritual'. I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree. But I doubt we're ritualistic because we don't want to take the chance of scoffing at long established tradition, as they claim..

Speaking for myself, having been displaced from the comfortable Indian-milieu, I'd rather perform some of these rituals to keep myself grounded to my roots, I think. In the process, I learn something more about other cultures even from other parts of my own country; and whether I tend to agree with the reasoning behind certain customs or not, I've learnt something new at the end of the day! I also do my share of baking a mean green-bean-casserole for Thanksgiving, going to Durga Puja functions with my Bong friends, setting up a Christmas tree every December, going to the temple for Tamil New Years, celebrating St.Patrick's day with gusto ;), etc.

2nd Innings

And voila. A fresh chapter.

I decided that it was time for me to update the 'look and feel' of my blog. I'm done with the grey-and-green. Time for a fresh outlook. And hence the minimalistic approach. Never did realize that white could look this neat! Threw in a dash of my current colors - pink and orange. Spruced up the header too..

Come to think of it, it is my 'second innings' in life afterall :)

Another year, another final..

Sigh. It always happens, doesn't it? Such an anti-climax.

We were doing good, then not so bad, then good again, and finally, we lost. I was pissed, as always. One would think that 4 years of the same scenario repeating itself in different stages should prep you for this. But it always comes as a huge let-down. You feel so 'cheated'.. But hey, there's always next year. Look at the Cubs, plodding along even after a 100 years!

Sometimes it is true.. Happiness is the pleasant feeling arising from contemplating the misery of another individual :)

Isn't the worst always yet to come ;)

Semi-finals..

I'm increasingly beginning to believe that I am a little too wired into the whole 'flow of the universe' thingie. I'm not saying I'm clairvoyant or can see dead people, or that I can predict when exactly you are going to get that call from (xyz) that you have (achieved your xyz dream). No, that I cannot do, nor do I want to. Its just that, sometimes, I get this feeling about something, and it turns out to be perfectly true.

I said that I would get my driver's license only in B's car, and thereby set in motion a chain of events that lead me to finally get it only in his car! Then there have been times when I've predicted so many things in the cricket matches over the weekends. There was alsot hat day as I sat getting my pedicure that for some obscure reason I would get a ticket that day… and the minute I walked out, I saw the orange envelope on my windshield. Little things like these. Call it karu naaku, or freaky shit, or whatever.

So, on Saturday.. Here I am, miserable from all the cleaning from Friday (oh, on a side note, I finished cleaning up the entire house as of 3am Friday, Oct 3rd!) and sorry to drag my ass out of bed on Saturday morning to go and watch the semi-finals in the cold. But being the trooper that I am (more kicked out of superstition, rather) I stood in the shower hoping the steam would clear my brain. And while I was doing that, I suddenly knew. Okay, it wasn't the whole Holy Choir Of Angels Singing Halleluyah moment.But, I just KNEW - that we were going to finally win the Finals this year. It was as simple as that.

I was grinning when I called out to B and told him that. I told him 'You guys are going to win the semis AND the finals this year, however surprising the end result may come about, it will be unbelievable, but you guys will lift the trophy'. They have been trying for a while this season to get me to say it, but I couldn't say it just for the sake of saying it! It had to be true, right? I wouldn't blame them either - given the fact that every game I didn’t go to this season, they lost!

And with that good optimistic belief in my 'prediction', if you will, we set out. And we played tremedously well. Then came the fun part - they played tremedously well too. But in the end, we did it!!! And here we are, second year in a row, in the Finals.. I'm eyeing the championship this time. Woohoo.

Antsy.

I am feeling squirmy. My house looks like a war-zone. Any minute now, the FBI is going to knock on my door and ask if they can use my space for target pratice and as a make-shift obstacle course since they're booked for weeks at Quantico's!

B is moving in, ghar jamaai (ha!) style, which explains why I wasn't the one shedding tears after my wedding :) Not that he was either, in his defense. And he has quite a bit of stuff too. AND this turns out to be the week where both of us are knee-deep in shit at work. Him more like neck-deep, since his is the THE project the company is talking about right now! So, we're heaping loads of crap and neglect at the same time on the poor little house.

Clothes in the dryer, clothes on the bed in the guest room, clothes in the trash, clothes in the suitcases. CLOTHES everywhere. Why God, why. Whatever happened to the good old Fig leaf? And all the kitchen items to be consolidated, the electronics to be plugged in, the wires to be tucked out of sight, the pictures that are waiting to be put up on the wall, the dreary guest bedroom that cannot take any more, the wedding gifts that have to be stowed in safe places, the dressers that have to get organized, the miscellaneous lotions and potions that have to find their way to the bathroom.. Endless to-do list.

I was always proud of my moving skills. And now, life is taking a dump.. on my chest (Thanks Austin Powers, for that lovely melodramatic phrase!). But hey, it isn't as bad as it looks. I've reached the point where my pressure bubble is going to burst, and I'll get into this frenzy where I'll finish everything in a couple of hours. I'm always like that, I seem to work best under pressure :) So much so, I went home for lunch today, and actually finished the kitchen. Yep, now my kitchen is all shiny and clean, and not a thing out of place! Hurrah. I don't know when we'll get to regular cooking in this kitchen, I've atleast made a start.

So, hopefully, by mid next week, I'm going to have finished the entire house (and next week, B is going to get dragged into this full force!). And then we start living large. Who said I'm antsy?

Chi-city

I'm never going to get tired of Chicago. It has succeeded in creeping under my skin, and it has mixed into my conscious stream :) And so, imagine my joy, when I heard the catchy 'Homecoming' as sung by Kanye West with some Chris Martin thrown in too.

Go Kanye! Rap on..

Lockers!?

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who would watch a lot of English movies and sitcoms, read several high-school novels etc. And invariably she would end up thinking how cool it was that the American kids didn't have to carry huge loads of books to school. They just had lockers! Cool lockers with a lot of pictures on the inside. Battered lockers against which the school's jocks would lean and flirt with the eyelash-batting swooning female fans. Rigged-nerd-lockers that were waiting to spill out the awesomely gruesome stuff that the school bully had stashed in there as a prank. And invariably those damsel-in-distress lockers that would stay jammed until someone who you have a crush on (or vice versa) comes and opens it for you.. Ah, lockers.

But all that was once upon a time. Right here, right now, in la-la-land.. I stand looking at my locker in desperation. Face it, I've never owned a locker before! But the idea was so cool that I got myself one at work. To stash a spare set of clothes just in case I ripped/snagged my pant, or God forbid sprayed myself with a batch of epoxy like one of those B-grade-sci-fi-horrors at midnight. And then, 'Fly-style' or last-week's-episode-of-Heroes-Mohinder-style, I'd just mutate and wreak havoc on society, wuhahaha. (That’s my version of the evil-laugh, by the way).

Anyhow.. I got my locker - one of those styles where the combination lock is a part of the door itself. And you just enter the combination, shimmy the latch a bit, and voila, open sesame. But sadly, what happened was far from it. I tried, and tried.. add a dozen 'and tried's to the statement.. and I gave up. After a week or so, I caught hold of one of the women who share the locker room and asked her to show me how. She did it so easily. I watched and thanked her profusely for educating this locker-ingenue. And then once she left, I decided to try it again. And what do you know!! No luck.

Three months have passed since then. Today, with renewed vigor, I stood there trying to open up my combination lock. No success. I got back and researched it online.. Google, eHow, wikiHow. OMG, how tough is it to open a damned locker? And I still struggle in vain.

Its me against the bleedy locker. Me, in all my scrunched-up-face, hope-nobody-is-watching, I-have-a-Masters-in-ChemE-damn-you-evil-locker, fervently-Googling-"Tips to Open Lockers", getting-ready-to-kick-the-locker-door glory..

The score is 0-22.

Serves me right!

Sucker!

What do you tell someone after you're married to them? The minute the vows or garland exchange or whatever culturally significant act in a ceremony takes place? I don't know what the Etiquette Book or something like that says. I know what I did say though.. I looked at B, straight in the eye, and said: "SUCKER". Of course, only loud enough so he could hear :)

But I'm running ahead of myself here; a month has elasped since my last post.. In a gist: two weeks of frantic preparations for a wedding ceremony (this includes me barking at B like a rabid dog 70% and vice versa 30%), invitations, make-up trials, dress shopping, airport pickups, accomodation for out of town guests, and what not! In the end, it all flashed right before you in a matter of hours, and it was done!

End result: One small wedding ceremony with 75 of our close friends and family, a lot of color and fun, some goof-ups here and there, and quite a few good pictures from the photographer!

But no Nan :(

What is it?

The end? Or the beginning?

"The first one wasn't a mistake, the second one was, make sure there isn't any third whatsoever..."

Wise words, from two unbelievable people.

Heebie-jeebies

Rashes ALL OVER the face. Just great! Now I look like some itsy-bitsy organism decided to plough my face and seed it! I look like an idiot. And I feel worse. I should book an appointment with the doctor, but what the heck. She is hardly going to do anything. Basically, life sucks, big time.

I hear this voice inside saying "Sssssslllleeeeepppppp.. ssssllleeepppp". My eyes are sinking into my head and I'm trying so hard to stay awake. My limbs aren't working in conjunction with each other.

Annoying people are asking me annoying questions. Everything around me is annoying right now. The phone ringing, the stupid central air vent making its standard noise, the sun being so bright outside, it glinting off my fugly violet shirt today, plus the fact that it is only 2.53 and I cannot leave for the day just yet. Enough with today already. Come on!

Finally, the car.

I know what I said in my previous post. I did decide on the Mini Cooper, and was about to book it. Almost there. BUT, they have a 2 month plus lead time.. Imagine that! No car for 2 months after you order it. Blasphemy. So I tried everything. Calling up every dealer in Chcagoland, Cincinati, Milwaukee, and Detroit! NO MINI COOPERS ON THE LOT. Sucked. And then I gave up.

Walked in to the Honda Dealer (gave him a heads-up in the morning that he simply MUST save atleast one car for us for the day) and saw this baby. The only remaining car for the day. And until whenever the next lot came in. And it was love at first sight. Not the red I had imagined, not the sleek black, not boring greay or beige. A sleek and classy "Royal Blue Pearl". Sigh.. I test drove it, and decided then and there to take it!

Forget the hassles with financing. It was all worth it :)

Mini love.

I am in love. With the Mini Cooper.

What a car, what cuteness :) Such a class act, in such a small package. I'm so leaning toward this as my final choice that I'm very surprised. I'm side-lined by the fact that I went in to check out the standard Hondas and Mazdas, and now here I am, hung up on the Coop.

Itching to test drive it come Monday. Woohoo.

To falling off the theater seat.

King Julian, what are they? What are they!

They are aliens. Savage aliens from the savage future.
They've come to kill us! And take our women!
And our precious meadows!

Get up, Mort. Do not be near the King's feet, okay?

Shh! We're hiding. Be quiet everyone. Including me.
Shh! Who's making that noise? Oh, it's me again.

~

Presenting your royal highness our illustrious King Julian the self proclaimed Lord of the Lemur etc. etc. Hurray everybody.

- He's got style!
- What's he like, King of the kiwi pigs?
- I think it's a squirrel.

Welcome, giant pansies! Please feel free to bask in my glow!

- Definitely a squirrel.
- Yep, a squirrel.

We thank you with enormous gratitude for chasing away the Foosa.

- The Hoosa?

The Foosa. They're always annoying us by trespassing, interrupting our parties, and ripping our limbs off.

- Yes, sounds good. Look, we're just - We're just trying to find where the people are.

Oh, my! What big teeth you have! Man!
Shame on you, Maurice! Don't you seethat you've insulted the freak?
You must tell me, who the hack are you?

- I'm Alex. The Alex. And this is Gloria, Marty and Melman.

Say just where are you giants from?

- We're from New York and we...

All hail the New York Giants! New York Giants!

- What are we doing, somesort of inbreeding program? I say we just gotta ask these bozos where the people are.

Excuse me, we bozos have the people of course.

- Hey, the bozos have the people!

Oh. Well. Great! Good! They're up there. Don't you love the people? Not a very lively bunch though.

- So do you have any alive people?

No. Only dead ones. I mean if we had a lot alive people here, it wouldn't be called 'The Wild', would it?

- The wild? Hold up there a second. You mean like the living in mud hut? Wipe yourself with leaf type wild?

Who wipes?!

Gallon goons.

What IS it with the gas prices already?! Can it BE any worse? Looking at how things are, I believe they can.. I just received this interesting e-mail from all major airline companies put together, imploring their customers to sign a petition against all this “futures trading”. The aviation industry sure must be feeling the pinch. Forget the freebies and the expensive air-fare; they don’t even start the planes at the gate anymore. The tug pulls/pushes them out to the runway before they even switch on their engines!

To think that the price of oil is this high because some nitwit decided that he would “predict” what it would be on paper and it keeps changing hands, again on paper. And the final delivery by the barrel is done ages from now. It was interesting to learn that trading regulations that were put in place to avert such an instance in the very beginning have become lax over time, and they have been bent to accommodate all these people who have driven us to this stage today. Face it, these people are smart – they are making money off a commodity that they have no direct use for, and are not even end users who are going to take possession of the barrel. Such price hikes driven by market manipulation are affecting the general economy as a whole. And people who are actually doing all this are not feeling the pinch, that’s for sure. Makes me wonder why I cannot apply myself to learning the tricks of the trade and be more knowledgeable about how the finance industry churns.

Until then, I keep reminiscing about the day when gas was $1.75 a gallon at the pump. Sigh, those glory days have long gone.

1:37 am

I'm losing what little hair I have. Yes, it is completely true, I'm not making it up. It started with that awesome pixie-ish cut Alexa gave me last year. To complete the look, she reduced the thickness of my hair around my neck. And it has never gotten back since. So here I am, blogging at 1.37am about my hair, or the lack thereof.

What a wonderful world!

Something sure is wrong though.. Every morning I think my hair has disappeared overnight. Poor me, the stress is getting to me. But now that the unpacking is all done, I should technically be lounging around on my awesome orange leather couch, sipping fresh fruit shakes and watching the extra HBO channels that Comcast threw in to save themselves a customer! Alas, this is far from the actual picture.

Am I doomed to accounting for every strand of hair and having a mini heart attack everytime I look in the mirror? Or can my awesome brown and pink (yes, pink) shower curtain damp my morning shock? Speaking of pink, someone was selling this pink puffy phone on CL. And you wouldn't believe how pink and furry (yes again, furry) it was. Omg. Girly? Monstrous, more rather. In fact that pink fur on the phone was as shaggy as the hair that the lead monster in Monsters Inc had..

Someone please get me a dresser and some guest room furniture soon. Before I shoot myself in between the eyes from an overdose of CL!

A new house

Starting from the hassle of finding a new place, to the botch-ups that happened in the process with the different leases, the crazy move-weekend, missing out on Stevie Wonder's concert (which I had been counting down to for like one whole year!).. all the way to trolling Craigslist for small pieces of furniture right now. I'm home..

Yay to that. Now comes the more interesting part of getting everything together, and unifying my decor etc. Ideally, someone would do this before they buy different pieces of furniture, but come on, I'm just grateful I'm in my new house. The "ideal" part can come later. Of course it'd be way easier if you blindly swipe your credit card at IKEA and pick out a whole range of stuff that is co-ordinated. But whats the point in furnishing your temporary home with all new stuff. Used will do for now, I guess.

And I still haven't gotten around to all the wall-art parts of it. Not have I re-stocked my fridge. Its B.A.R.E. Open it up, and you'll find a bottle of Tabasco sauce and one Hazelnut-Chocolate wafer. Oh, and that one bottle of milk. How nice. That is the next one on the list to take care of. Oh, and the guest room, and some additional furniture hunt as well.

It is going to be a busy year. How I hate 2008! More about 2008 when we come to the end of the year maybe. I can do this "2008: In retrospect" special like I'm some famous and important movie critic or something! For now, back to whatever.

War against Boring-Beige

Behr paint counter @ Home Depot = Disneyland
End of one hour of decision making = Citrus Blast and Red Brick. Bold!
'Priceless' Mastercard Credit charge = $85.00

And now, for the grand finale. Friday evening prep-work and Saturday morning rolled-up-sleeves. I'm so looking forward to painting. I'm such a novice at this, I did so much research online about tools and techniques. Some DIY sites claim it is the easiest thing to do, while others warn you that it is not as easy as it seems. So, brave me, after a couple hours of indecision, made up my mind to go ahead with it and have fun. You can ALWAYS re-paint if you hate what you've done. Or call the professionals.

Somehow, I feel that with the right paint, I could fall in love with my house so much that the one year I'd live there would be heaven. Furnishings, and pulling them off with one focal piece is another ball-game. But at least the paint is there to liven it all up. Maybe I can go all vintage-art-y with this apartment. Or I could do bachelorette pad stuff (minus any pink, of course, duh).

But I do have a new source of inspiration. Jonathan Fong. Wow, is all I can say. Check him out at his website. Some of his ideas are really good, and my favorite is the 'Decoupage Chair'. Such out-of-the-box thinking in many of his ideas and makeovers. Now I remember why I fell in love with HGTV in the beginning.

Maybe I will put up a picture book of the hilarious painting process once I'm done with everything. Should be a barrel of laughs for sure.

Move time.

Another weekend. And I've FINALLY found a new apartment to move into. No, correction: I've signed a lease. Phew.

Forecast for the coming weekend: Tiring move. Anyhow, good times. Though, the fact is, I'm moving out of my comfort zone. Four years in the South Loop, and now all the way up North. 15 minutes away! But, time for a change I guess :)

Next on the list: Furnishing the new place like I've always wanted to. Wonder what will come of that!

Yee Haw.

Having blogged about Boston, it would be unfair on my part to not write about the awesome trip to Nash.. Here is what I did:

- Arrived late (due to a highly delayed flight, bad SW.. no donut for you!)
- Tried a bite of "Creole Catch" over dinner
- Gave Gops a good surprise jolt! (And thereby made a pact to repeat act every week)
- Woke up late (nothing new about that..)
- Had awesome buffet lunch at Woodlands (YUM)
- Did the touristy stuff: Grand Ole Opry, Opry Mills, etc.
- Complained about the heat
- Watched Kung-Fu Panda! On IMAX.
- Complained about the heat
- Went home, and then did some more touristy stuff in the evening.. Nash downtown etc.
- Complained about the heat
- Did souvenir shopping, and had an awesome time at a honky-tonk dive bar called Tootsies. Best country-rock music ever. Turned out to the Jimmy Van Zant! Go figure, random luck.
- Watched a really odd indie flick called Happy Endings.
- Woke up on Sunday, late again
- Complained about the heat
- Went to the temple and ate free food
- Complained about the heat some more
- Went to VanderbiltU and chatted away forever
- Complained about the heat even more
- Packed my bags and said goodbye!

Yee Haw.

Chowda!

Despite the low-blow bummer with the apartment (that came Saturday morning) I had an awesome time in Boston. The fun part: being a laid-back tourist. I'm not one that can rush around frantically trying to cram in as much as possible into that one trip. Took it easy.

Did do:
1. Freedom Trail - The tour guide was a History teacher, very enthusiastic, and too cool.
2. Riverside Fair - Walked along the Charles River and went gaga over the local artisan stalls. Did chalk drawings on the cordoned off road like a crazy kid. Waited too long in line for a pottery session, and gave up. Bought a bell that actually said something very witty (should update).
3. Downtown - Nightlife, shopping, Food (obviously) and Ice Cream, Quincy Market
4. LAL-Celtics game: Woohoo.
5. Walked the hallowed halls of MIT, Vassar St. Wow, what a student center.

Planned, but rained out:
1. Cape Cod beaches
2. Jet Ski-ing.

Learnt:
1. Sam Adams is NOT a beer, but the Father of the American Revolution.
2. The face on Sam Adams bottle is disputed, but is actually Paul Revere.
3. Listen my children and you shall hear, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
4. Boston is old, Boston is swampland for the major part.
5. A new recipe for Veg Biryani from Sugee (yay!)

That wrapped up the Boston Tour.
Now for Philly a couple of weekends down the line.

:(

I'm extremely disappointed. The awesome loft that I was supposed to move into has now been taken by someone who was willing to sign a two year lease, and was hence favored over me. Sick. After all the planning for my new layout, new furniture shopping, etc. I am in complete hate-mode right now.

And also not helping, is my Dramamine fix before the flight this morning. Making me droopy and more depressed about things in general.

Atleast it reflects the tattoo I got over the weekend. (Copyright: Jim Benton. Title: Life. Get one)

P.S. Its black outline - red tongue. Not filled in with color. And air-brushed. I haven't gone THAT cuckoo to actually get this permanently tattoo-ed on self.

Banana Pancakes

I'm addicted!

(Jack Johnson)

Cant you see that its just raining
Aint no need to go outside...
But Baby, You hardly even notice
When I try to show you this
Song is meant to keep ya
From doing what your supposed to
Like waking up too early
Maybe we can sleep in
Ill make you banana pancakes
Pretend like its the weekend now
And we could pretend it all the time

Cant you see that its just raining
Aint no need to go outside
But just maybe, laka ukulele
Mommy made a baby
Really don't mind the practice
Cause your my little lady
Lady lady love me
Cause I love to lay here lazy
We could close the curtains
Pretend like there's no world outside
And we could pretend it all the time

Cant you see that its just raining
Aint no need to go outside
Aint no need aint no need
Mmmm MMmmm
Cant you see cant you see
Rain all day
And I don't mind.

The telephone is singing
Ringing its too early
Don't pick it up
We don't need to we got everything
We need right here
And everything we need is enough
Just so easy
When the whole world fits inside of your arms
Don't really need to pay attention to the alarm
Wake up slow, yeah wake up slow

You hardly even notice
When I try to show you this
Song is meant to keep ya
From doing what your supposed to
Like waking up too early
Maybe we can sleep in
Ill make you banana pancakes
Pretend like its the weekend now
And we could pretend it all the time

Can't you see that it's just raining
Aint no need to go outside
Aint no need, Aint no need
Rain all day and I really really really don't mind
Can't you see cant you see,You gotta wake up slow

Very un-gadget-y.

I don't own any of the following:

- iPhone
- iPod (Shuffle, Nano, Touch, or any mp3 device for that matter)
- MacBookAir
- XBox
- Wii
- Nintendo
- PlayStation
- Giant FlatScreen Plasma TV
- DVD player
- Bose Speakers

I am doomed.
But, mere paas maa hai..! ;)

Hell yeah, y'all!

My trip to Nashville. Meeting Indro after 3 years! Catching up with Gops (haha, what a reaction on the webcam) after such a LONG time. Precious :) And the dive bar Tootsie's, the awesomest Indian buffet I've had ever, Chris&Anibal, chatting at VanderbiltU for all of 4 hours in the afternoon, a lot of good old country music (Hell, Yeah!).

I hate flying, especially without Dramamine. But all that stems from one lousy 24 hour journey in 2004. After that, flying has never quite been the same. In the good old days, you'd find me enjoying my trips to Saudi, etc.. but now, flying is a huge pain. God knows why my stupid system gets screwed up like this. Anyhow, the onward journey was fine (except for the take-off delay, but atleast I wasn't sitting on the flight for 8 hours like some poor folks a couple of years ago!). The return really freaked me out.

Chi-town had a tornado watch in effect, and so our flight was unable to land. Three times he tried to land, and every single time, he'd go all the way into the landing strip, the wheels about 45 feet from the ground.. and then, like some fire breathing dragon were on his tail, he'd lurch at a 45deg angle, and take off from the airspace all the way back up into the clouds. It sure didn't help that the clouds were totally black and threatening with lightning flashes every 10 seconds! And the plane wasn't even plain bumpy, it was listing from side to side... rotating on an axis, if I may exaggerate. Man, as if this weren't enough to freak me out, the lady sitting next to me was babbling. You know how these nervous flyers are, who decide that the minute a plane does a little hop-skip-jump, they are going to die in a horrific crash. Haha, the chunk of my time in the air was spent trying to make some small talk and distract her from the flight's course. Phew. And finally, on the fourth try, home sweet home. The whole flight was clapping like they'd witnessed a miracle or something :) Oh well, an interesting flight, but turned my system inside-out.. Not something that one day of sleep (Sick day at work!) didn't take care of! Plus a little bit of tearing up in bed about the awful flight, also. Sniff.

And now, my bags will be packed this weekend again: Boston, here I come.

On Apt Hunt

When did an apartment hunt become this exhausting?! Usually people check the location, find a place, and set up shop. Here I am, searching for the last three (yes, you read it right, THREE) months, and I'm yet to pack my bags. God Bless Joan, for letting me do a month-to-month of sorts right now with the old space.

I'm so nit-picky, I disgust myself. Shame on you Dee.

And now that I'm all done showing my support for Obama on my blog (that no one reads, by the way), I feel very clever. Imagine, copying and pasting html code all by myself. (Oh, yes, I didn't WRITE the code myself, but that is a trivial technicality!) "Oh, how clever", I can't stop saying to myself!

My other recent accomplishments:
- Booking quite a few travel tickets. More on that in another post. Maybe I'll even do a travelog. Reminds me of the one I did in Egypt a long time ago..
- Buying a case for my digicam (and a pretty one, at that) If my camera could speak it would say: Thank heavens lady, I thought you were just not going to move your ass on that one!
- Working over the weekend. Slogged. Like some workaholic-in-the-making.

Actually, I'm all thrilled about starting to blog a bit more regularly again. And not be lazy.

O.B.A.M.A

See latest stories on Yahoo! News

Umm..?

I sign in every now and then, hoping I come up with something to write. But nothing seems to help! Is my life so boring/mundane/routine/devoid of new things, that I have nothing even worth mentioning??

Such is the life, eh?

Maybe that awesome Lakeview apartment on LSD will make me more creative. It sure will bankrupt me, that I can guarantee!

Chemically yours.

Man isn't really as in control of life as he thinks he is. When do we wake up to the reality that what we "feel" is nothing but an interplay of chemicals? Pain is not really pain, and joy/sorrow are nothing more than different chemicals being released into our system.

The attack of the hormones! Aaaah.. Vengeance shall be mine someday, you stupid chemicals. Screw you, serotonin! Bah. I'll hit you where it hurts.. War on the hypothalamus. Fight, you coward! (Oh, by the way, epinephrine, you're in my good books) When all your stupid singal transduction pathways fizzle out, you'll know the pain yourself.

Oh wait, how ironic.