Soda buddies

I sometimes find it strange that men (macho ones, to boot) notice things that I assume men usually don't. A good friend of mine noticed my new triple-dark purple nails last week. Somebody noticed my new black-and-white checked sneakers. A co-worker noticed my little puffy jacket this morning. A couple of others noticed my soda buddies (*tamil slang for eye-glasses) this morning. Men, all of them. Strange. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm usually SO dowdy and routine that when I try something different, it is about as subtle as a sledgehammer!

Anyhow.. soda buddies, I grant you, MUST be noticed. No point to them otherwise. Especially when they're the thick black frames that used to be considered geeky or nerdy, which are now all the rage. Such a rage, that I have three of them! All accumulated from my two trips to America's Best in the last four years. You'd think that I would have the common sense to get one that was classy enough for formal occasions. No, I had to have one in black, one in purple, and one with black and pink! Oh well.

In high school, I used to think that glasses would make me look very old, and that I wouldn't want to be caught wearing one of them ever. But given the fact that the whole family wears them, I knew it was inevitable. Then came the day in 2005 when I decided that it was not the distance in the amphi-theater style classroom that made the white board seem all fuzzy, it was just my awesome eye-sight. And hence the trip to America's Best. But given the fact that my power is a -0.25 (or is it -0.5?) I didn't need to constantly wear them - only driving at night in the rain or snow; or in classrooms or at presentations. But everything seems so much more clear when I wear these, that I'm slowly getting used to them. Plus, it makes me look cool. And chic, if I pair the right ones with the right dress that is.

Time for a check-up.. maybe next year? Might be time to add to the collection of buddies! A green one perhaps?

Laundry Days

The way we b*tch and moan about laundry day, you might think that we live in a village where we have to walk two kilometers one way just to fetch a kodam of water from the local river, walk back, sit down, and hand wash our clothes with nothing but a small bar of Rin!

What is the big deal about measuring out one cup of detergent, dropping the clothes in, pushing a button and walking away? And to make it worse, we even have 100% dryers here. Which totally eliminates the need for line drying. I remember the times back home, when I had to watch out for imminent rain, so we could rush to the balcony and remove the clothes from the line before they got wet. We would then stretch out some ropes in the guest rooms, and hang them there to dry under the fan. 

Now the clothes just jump out at you from the dryer all warm and soft and fluffy; and when you use the 'Perm Press' option they hardly have any wrinkles. To top it all, the washer and dryer are sitting in a small closet in your own home. I remember when I had to hustle to find the right time to get to the laundry room in the dorm basement so I didn't have to wait in line forever behind ten other students. I remember when the laundry room's card loader wouldn't work, and you'd have to trek to another dorm with your soggy clothes for a dryer cycle. Worse yet, there were the B'port days where my 'cozy' basement apartment didn't have any laundry facilities, and I'd have to drive four blocks to the Laundromat with its suspect machines.

And yet we complain! Every single week. Thankless souls, that’s what we are…