On a break...

The last month or so has been real crazy both at home and at work.
New projects, new house closing, sicknesses, guests .....etc just have been showing up one after the other or simultaneously at times. Consequently there have been blogs unread, tags undone(I haven't forgotten your tags), posts unwritten and ideas lost.
I'm really touched by all those who wondered if everything was ok.

The coming month promises to be equally(if not more) crazy. The in-laws are arriving, we are moving to the new house..... holiday parties as well as guests will keep me occupied among other things. I doubt I'll be able to post anything amidst all the mayhem but I'll try to visit your blogs.

May be the new year will see a rejuvenated, re-energized or even a new blog!
Happy Holidays Everyone!

A great Diwali!!

The brother gave me this for bhai dooj. In case you were wondering where I’ve been…...I’ve been busy trying to find stuff to fill up it’s 80G memory!!
Anyway, hope you had a great Diwali. Mine was great as usual. We did have some snags but nothing a little holiday cheer can’t fix.
Every year we host a Diwali party in an attempt to recreate some of the Diwali magic, that we desis abroad miss so dearly. The first year hosted the party, I made at least five traditional maharashtrian ‘faral’ items, drew rangoli, lighted small lamps, the works! On the day of the party, I cooked up a dinner feast, which included three poha items that my mom makes for Diwali. Friends came over to help with the faral items. We had a blast! The following year, I had no help so I made 3-4 faral items and replaced a coupe of dinner items with catered items. You can guess where this is going. Fast foward to this year.... the plan was to replace everything with store bought items! My friend had told me about this wonderful place in New Jersey who make and ship traditional Diwali ‘Faral’. So I ordered stuff from them three weeks in advance and I ordered dinner food from a local lady. Since I could not find rangoli anywhere I made a design with flowers outside our front door. The lights were strung up, the firecrackers were bought(Georgia now allows fireworks! ), the day of the party arrived but there was no sign of the ‘faral’. A number of frantic calls to the caterers did not yield anything, not even an apology! We ended up running from one Indian store to another to find stuff to replace the items. Everything turned out great in the end. Everyone looked lovely in their traditional finery, especially the kids! Apple just loved the fireworks, she did not want them to end.
Now that Diwali is over and everyone is back to their daily grind, I need to get back to my new toy. You may not see me blogging until my fascination with my toy dies but I’ll definitely visit your blogs.
Oh did I mention I got an ipod for Diwali? 80G baby!

Rock'n and Rolli'n

I was granted this award by none other than Kiran. Yes the same Kiran who's my inspiration, says I rock! So now I'm esctatic! But I must do the needful and pass this on. Everyone I read rocks but everyone I read has already received this. So I pass this on to this blogger, whose blog inspired me to start blogging. She rocks but lately she's been caught up in other things. Lets have you rocking again Sai shall we?

Story of a little monster, some pumpkins and some big monsters!

“Mommy look! A spider! I wanna touch it!” screamed Apple.
She was pointing to the huge fake spiders that were part of the Halloween decorations at her school. She was bursting with excitement pointing to the spiders, spiderwebs and pumpkins.
“Mommy I want a spider too!”
“Ok.”
“I want a pumpkin too!”
“Ok”
“And spider web”
“Ok”
“I want three spider. OK?”
“We’ll see if the shop has three”
“I want three pumpkin”
Three is a hot number these days!
So off they went to party city where for the first time in her life, mommy bought Halloween stuff…...spider webs, spiders (Yes three! the little monster wouldn’t budge. She even reasoned that mommy, daddy and she needed to have one each).
Next stop, the pumpkin patch. The little monster chose three pumpkins. Since she wanted to carry the pumpkins but they were too heavy for her, mommy let her buy a couple of mini pumpkins. An excited mommy also bought a wooden sign that said ‘No Tricks’.
Then they spent a perfect breezy Saturday afternoon using their decorating skills (or lack there of) on the front yard. The little monster of course ‘helped’. While mommy was busy trying to untangle the tangled mess that the spiderweb was getting into, she saw the little monster run to the back yard and return with a fistful of dry grass. The little monster spread the grass on the ground and then put her mini pumpkins on top of it.
“What are you doing honey?”
“I making a pumpkin patch”
Mommy thinks she was trying to replicate the haystack on which the pumpkins at her school were placed.
All in all, the monster seemed satisfied with their little Halloween decor. Meanwhile mommy wondered what she was gonna do with all those pumpkins once Halloween was over. Little did she know that she would never get a chance to figure that out. One evening when she returned home, she saw that some real monsters had stolen the pumpkins and the wooden sign. The little monster was heartbroken. All that was left was the rain damaged spider web, three spiders and these pictures for posterity…

My Very First Award Ever

aa_mom handed me my very first award in the blog world...alright,my very first award in any world unless you count the 'consolation' prizes in grade school!(BTW hate the term!).
Needless to say I'm jumping up and down in excitement. I don't care what this award means or why it was given, I'm just excited to receive it. I have waited for this moment my whole life. In fact I had even prepared an acceptance speech but can't
seem to find it right now. I think it contained a vote of thanks to Apple for supplying me with post fodder, to hubby for not disturbing me while I blog(I can tune out snoring), mom, dad, my neighbour, neighbour's dog(why? because I don't have one) and so on. But instead I think I'll thank aa_mom for considering me worthy of this award and you guys for keeping me addicted to blogging with your wonderful blogs.

Now comes the hardest part... passing on this award. It is hard not because there aren't many worthy souls(in fact there are too many) but because I seem to be the last one to receive this. Pretty much every blogger I know has already received it. Does that mean I get to keep it? (Please say yes!)

Alright, I'll be good and try to pass it along. I'm gonna pass it on to some of my favorite bloggers whose recent few posts did not mention getting a schmooze award. Here they are:
Sanjay
Kiran
Parul
Chandni

I know I'm expected to write some blurbs about these people and why I'm giving them this award. But I'm not good at this schmoozing thing(No, I'm not giving back my award!), so 'I love their blogs' pretty much sums it up.
Now go on and do your victory dance. Do it again for me if you've already done it!

The Number 4

The insightful Chandni has tagged me to do this tag of four. This is an easy one since the number four has relevance in every aspect of my life. My birthday falls on the fourth, I've had four close friends in my life, I've had four jobs before the current one and 4.00 pm is my favorite time of the day(that's when I leave work to go pick up Apple). So here you go..


Four Jobs I’ve had in my life

* Computer programming tutor – teaching BASIC and FOTRAN to a first year engineering student(I won’t be surprised if he got scarred for life and never touched programming again)
* Market research analyst – asking a bunch of plant engineers questions about the electrical motors they used. (Lasted for 15 days)
* Software Developer (writing programs that surprise you with unexpected features)
* Solutions Consultant (communicating lies back and forth between software developers and customers)


Four TV Shows I love to watch

* Everybody loves Raymond
* Friends
* Dancing with the stars
* ….(Can’t think of a fourth one…I barely watch TV these days)


Four movies I can watch over and over

* Jaane bhi do yaaron
* Chalti ka naam gaadi
* Office Space
* Father of the bride

Four places I have lived

* Nasik
* Bombay
* Harrisburg (Pennsylvania)
* Atlanta

Four places I have been on Holiday ( in the last couple of years)

* Venice (Italy)
* Athens (Greece)
* Mykonos( Greece)
* Split (Croatia)

Four of my favorite dishes

* Chaat ( includes everything from Bhel puri to pani puri)
* Biryani
* Pav bhaaji
* Khichadi

Four Websites I visit daily

* Google ( gmail, blogs etc)
* Yahoo (email)
* NPR
* BBC

Four places I would rather be right now

* On a beach, lying on the sand, a book in hand.
* In Bombay, amongst family.
* On a wildlife safari
* Relaxing in the Jacuzzi.

Four people I am tagging

* Sunita
* Mad Momma
* Gauri
* Swati

Apple doesn't mince words

I am convinced that my daughter can give any straight tlking lawyer (if such a thig exists) a run for his/her money. The child can argue. Poor mommy who was never good at arguing anyway has now throw in the towel.


Scene 1:
Dinner time . Mommy has made spicy chicken curry for the adults and a milder version of it for Apple.
Nevertheless Apple complains that it is spicy.
Mommy: Its not spicy honey, I made this specially for you. I din’t make this one spicy.
Apple: It is spicy.(pointing to the food in her mouth) It tastes spicy to me, so it is spicy!
Hmm...how does one argue with that?


Scene 2:
We are at a friend's place for dinner with other friends and their families. All the adults are chatting in the kitchen and family room, older kids are playing upstairs and a some younger kids playing in a room that is full of toys belonging to my friend’s son who’s the same age as Apple. Apple wants to play there but insists that mommy sit next to her. Mommy sits there for a while and notices that Apple has started getting comfortable with the setting. Another friend’s MIL is in the same room watching her twin grandsons. She tells mommy to go ahead and join her friends and that she’ll keep an eye on Apple. Since Apple is not likely to get in trouble, mommy wonders if she can try this.

Mommy: Apple honey, you sit here and play, mommy will go to the other room for sometime. OK?
Apple: No mommy stay!
Mommy: Come on, (pointing to my friends twins) look at N and A . Is their mommy here? But they are playing by themselves, aren't they? Are they asking for their mommy? You can also play with them.
Apple: But their grandma is here. That’s why they are not asking for mommy.
Oh ok. Dint realize that!


Scene 3:
Apple and mommy are ready to go outside so that Apple can ride her tricycle. Its still day time and as mommy approaches the door she realizes that the light outside the front door and the light in the foyer are on. Mommy wonders who left the lights on and switches them off. After a few seconds, Apple comes behind mommy, notices that the lights are off and switches them back on. Ah ! mommy found her culprit! Before mommy could say anything, Apple says ‘ Why did you switch off the lights mommy? I already(that's her new favorite word) switched them on. Now I switch them again. OK? Don’t switch them off next time. OK?
Yeah right!

Tagged to list my quirks!

I have been tagged to list my quirks by one of my favorite bloggers... the smart and humorous fuzzy. Quirky? Me? Of course not. I was tempted to say I can’t do this post because I don’t have any quirks but instead I decided to take a good look at my habits and pick the ones that could qualify as quirks. I did think of asking my hubby and my brother for help, but then I was sure they would come up with a list so long that blogger would not be able to handle it. So I decided to do this on my own.....assisted of course by my blogger friends with whom I share some of these:

1. Covering my feet: Like fuzzy, I have to have my feet covered when I sleep, even if it is for a short nap in the middle of a hot summer afternoon.

2. Washing my hands: Like Mad Momma, I need to wash my hands hundreds of times a day. I use a paper towel (when available) to open the water faucet in the public rest room sinks. I hate touching anything in those restrooms.

3. Stocking up food: Like Mad Momma, I have to have my fridge/pantry stocked all the time. I always end up buying more groceries than we need for ‘emergencies’ that never occur. As a result we end up wasting some perishables. I keep promising myself that I’ll do better in this area. I really want to.

4. Cannot rest until all my work is done: When I get home from work, I cannot sit even for a minute. I have to first start working on my chores (cooking, cleaning etc) and only after everything is done, can I put my feet up. Hubby and bro, who like to first rest and then get to their tasks, find this very weird. Initially hubby used to tell me to sit for a while but I’d get extremely restless and could not relax knowing that I had things to do. This has changed somewhat with the arrival of Apple in our lives. Now when I get home, I play with her for a couple of hours until hubby comes home (his work schedule is usually couple of hours behind mine). Then I get to my chores and he gets to play with her. But I cannot watch TV or get on the computer until all my chores are done and Apple is fast asleep.

5. Fickle minded shopper: I am very fickle minded when it comes to shopping (especially for clothes). I buy clothes one day, return them the next, then buy same items in different color, then return them…. You get the picture. Whenever I show my hubby something that I have bought, his question is ‘when are you returning it?’.

6. Stocking up clothes for Apple: I love stocking up clothes for Apple. Every few weeks, I organize her closet and check which of the new ones she’s ready to get into. For some reason unknown to me, her clothes feel like treasures to me. That some of these treasures go waste is another story.

7. Handling home finances: I have to handle the bills, bank accounts etc myself. Even though hubby does not mind doing it and does pay bills sometimes, I have to at least check everything. Not that I don’t trust him, I just have a strong need to be involved in these things.

8. Keeping Promises: If I even casually tell people that I’ll do something for them, then I can’t relax until I actually do it. On the flip side if someone casually says to me "we’ll meet at our house for coffee next time” then I seriously wait for an invitation. May be I’m naïve or just plain stupid!

Hmm, the list turned out to be longer than I expected. Looks like I might be able to come up with more quirks if I keep at it or come up with a lot more if I ask my family and friends. But which normal(?) person wants to admit all their quirks? So this is the list I’m sticking with.
Since everyone is alreading floating(or swimming or sinking) in a sea of tags, I am not tagging anyone. But feel free to pick it up.

Its about time!

Last weekend an American friend (lets call her L) and her husband visited us for dinner. They were supposed to be at our place at 6.30 p.m. Around 6.20 the phone rang. L was on the line.
L: Hi Naina, guess what, we are running late!
Me: (Happy that it would give me a few extra minutes to get things in order) That’s not a problem at all. Take your time. (Really, I mean it) BTW where are you guys?
L: We just took the exit off the highway.
Me: (realizing that I needed to hurry up cos they weren’t that far) Oh then you should be here in 15 minutes. That’s hardly late. See ya soon.

And soon it was! For they showed up at 6.30 sharp.
My brother who’s not yet completely acclimated to the ways of Americans had never seen people being so punctual in a private setting. He was amused by the fact that they called to apologize because they thought they would be 5 minutes late. I assure you this never happens with Indians (also known as desis).

If you are a desi attending a desi gathering you don’t apologize for being late, you apologize if you show up on time. This is how it works… if you are the host and you want people (especially desis) to show up at 7.00 p.m., you tell them that the party starts at 6.00 p.m. You can rest assured that no one (and I mean NO ONE) will show up before 7.00. If you are the guest and have received an invitation for 6.00 p.m., NEVER, I repeat NEVER show up at 6.00pm. The host is not expecting anyone before 7.00 p.m. If you reach ‘early’ the host will still be in the middle of preparations and will not know what to do with you.

My husband learnt this the hard way. He would always insist on reaching an event dot on the given time. A lot of times we would show up at someone’s place on time and they would still be putting the final touches to the food/décor and not yet be dressed for the party. One could see them struggle to hide the ‘what the heck are they doing so early?’ look on their face. They’d tell us to make ourselves comfortable while they showered or did whatever else. So we’d end up looking at our watches, watching every minute pass by and praying for someone else to show up. Please God someone…..even that loud-mouthed gossip monger will do!
This one time, we reached someone’s place on the given time. No one else had showed up and the hostess has just started preparing appetizers. For want of better things to do, I offered to help (what was I thinking?). The next thing I know, she dumped the entire task on me while she went upstairs and showered and got ready. By the time people arrived, she looked all clean and fresh while I was greasy from the sweat and the cooking oil. That did it! From that time onwards, I refused to go to any desi events on time.

Now we always reach fashionably late.
Just a couple of weekends ago, we were on our way to a party, late as usual, when we got a frantic call from a friend who had already reached the destination.
Friend: Where are you guys?
Us: We are on our way.
Friend: How far are you? Can you hurry up? I’m already here and there’s no one else here! I don’t know what to do here.

Hmm…looks like some people still haven’t learnt the workings of Indian Stretchable time. It’s about time they did.

Tagged to describe my dreams

I have been tagged by Swati to list some weird or recurring dreams I’ve had. Now I don’t remember most of them even though I know I’ve had quite a few weird ones. But here are a few weird themes (for a lack of a better word) that I see appearing quite a few times:

Exam time: I’m in college and I have some examination, I either forget about it and miss the exam or I go extremely late or I reach on time but cannot remember a word. Just yesterday I dreamt that I had exams next week and that I was supposed to study for 5 subjects but I dint even have books for two of those and had no idea what those two subjects were. What can I say, exams have always been my worst nightmare irrespective of the results!

Family Trip/Fun: We are enjoying as a family either at some beautiful vacation place or partying at home. Except the family only consists of my parents and siblings. Hubby is never in the picture even though we’ve been married almost 10 years now. Hubby would have called it ‘wishful thinking’ but I don’t see Apple either and he wouldn’t dare to joke about that!

Losing a loved one: This is the one that terrifies me the most… loss of some family member. It’s not the same family member all the time. But then I’ve heard a superstition that if you dream about someone’s death, they end up having a long life. I’m not someone who believes in superstition but somehow I hope this one is true.

I tag fuzzy, Cee Kay, n~m , ss, Sur and Kiran to list their dreams. Please ignore if you’ve already done this tag.

Lady Like Behaviour

A coworker of mine found this book on ‘Etiquette’ that belonged to her great great grandmother. She brought it in because she thought some of us would find it interesting. The book is from the 1800s (exact publishing date not known). Its called ‘True Politeness’ – Handbook of Etiquette for Ladies. Its signed ‘By and American Lady’. Apparently it was impolite for a lady to reveal her name as an author.
Ladies, here are some gems of wisdom (from the book) that I thought you might get a kick out of:


 A lady ought not to present herself alone in a library or museum, unless she goes there to study or work as an artist.

 The superior in rank and station should first salute the inferior. Therefore if you meet a gentleman in the street with whom you are acquainted, recollect that it is your province to recognize him before he presumes to salute you.

 Double entendre is detestable in a woman, especially when perpetrated in the presence of men; no man of taste can respect a woman who is guilty of it: though it may create a laugh, it will inevitably excite also disgust in the minds of all whose good opinions are worth acquiring. Therefore not only avoid all indelicate expressions, but appear not to understand any that may be uttered in your presence.

 Never go early to a public ball; and do not be frequently seen at such. When you do attend, do not dance from the time you enter the room until you leave; it may leave the impression that you have few opportunities of dancing except at such balls.

 Ladies should not leave the table before the end of the entertainment, unless from urgent necessity. If it is a married lady, she requests someone to accompany her; if unmarried, she goes with her mother.


Some of the etiquette tips are relevant even today and I wish people (both ladies and gentlemen) would follow:

 Endeavor always to present an article which the recipient has not. This in many cases may be difficult; but where it is possible it should always be done.

 Never give away a present which you received from another; or at least so arrange it that it may never be known.
(Everyone passing on season inappropriate clothes and /or age inappropriate toys to Apple, take notice!)

 As persons are necessarily introduced at a dinner party, only such persons as are known to each other, or who mutually desire to be acquainted should be invited except under certain circumstances.
(If only I had a dollar for every party that I attended where there’s always a bunch of people I don’t know , the host does not care to introduce them and they proceed to converse in a language that I don’t understand, I’d have enough money to stop recycling presents)


And last but not the least…the universal and most relevant one for all times…
The most obvious mark of good breeding and good taste is a sensitive regard for the feelings of others.

Now with a sensitive regard to the feelings of irritation that you may acquire on reading some of these, I will not subject you to any more gems of wisdom. How about coming up with Etiquette for gentlemen (if such a thing exists)?

Honey we broke the baby.......again!

The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy on all fronts. Work wise, a colleague got laid off so the rest of us are under a lot of pressure to do more than our share. Then there was a friend’s 40th birthday party (yes some of us are old! I’m years away though) for which I was writing and directing a skit to make fun of him. That and many other things conspired to keep me away from blogland. But the most worrisome event was when Apple complained about stomachache.
One (not so) fine Friday morning I got a call from her day care operator saying she was complaining of tummy ache. Hubby had just dropped her off and she seemed totally fine, so I was a little suspicious. I wondered if this was one of the days when they were short staffed and used every little excuse to send kids home. Apple dint have any other symptoms but I dint have the heart to leave her there in case she was really hurting. So I made an appointment with her doctor, left work and picked her up. The doctor checked her and did not find anything wrong, said it might have been something she has eaten and told me to give her Tylenol if she complains again. With that we returned home, mommy and Apple! With Tylenol in her tummy, Apple had forgotten all about pain and was all set to order mommy around. The day passed without incident and Apple continued to be her normal cheerful self until next evening. We were at a friend’s place when she started complaining about tummyache again. Since it was a weekend evening, we rushed her to the emergency room. After a couple of tests, X-rays and all the works, the diagnosis came in….’Constipation’!. Are you kidding me? She had had a couple of bowel movements on both the days so I was having tough time buying that diagnosis but the doctor gave us a ‘thanks for wasting my time” look. What was he so mad about ? That he had people in the next room with lung clots and heart problems and these idiots were wasting his time for a child’s constipation? Oh ok! Yes we can be stupid sometimes (ok, most of the times) but how were we supposed to know if our baby’s condition required immediate attention or not? When my happy two-year-old cries uncontrollably, it sounds serious to me. What if she had an ulcer or appendicitis?
Anyway we were back home and she slept peacefully because of the painkiller.
Next morning we started to give her foods /drinks to help her with her so called constipation. We started with prune juice. Now the last time we gave her prune juice for her constipation it had resulted in a disaster:
She was around one, still on formula bottle and was constipated one day. I remembered someone telling me that prune juice worked, so I filled her bottle with prune juice instead of formula. The poor thing liked the sweet taste and drank it all up. The next thing we know she has diarrhea! Oh ok…so prune juice really works …BIG TIME …so less prune juice next time! Nice trail and error parenting we got going there!
Coming back to this time, we were careful to give her little prune juice, that dint help, tried grape juice, dint help either! By evening she had started crying again …my impatient hubby decided to give her a laxative… an hour later she was still crying, tried pain killers etc …crying continued…finally at 11.00 PM we decided to give her rectal anema. That dint work either but tired from crying she finally slept. Around 4.00 am she woke up crying again and the next think we know….all the laxatives suddenly hit! We managed to break our poor child again! The next couple of hours she slept peacefully, having cleared up her tummy, while we ended up steam vacuuming the carpet, washing the sheets, clothes …oh the joys of parenthood!

I am happy to report that all is well in Apple land though Apple was seen asking God to impart more common sense to her parents so that they stop these trail and error tactics on her.

Apple Speak....

I can’t help but marvel at the confidence my little one has. At two and a half, she’s sure she knows better than her mommy does.

Mommy: (pointing to a picture of a triangle) What’s that shape?
Apple: That’s a rectangle.
Mommy: No honey that’s a triangle.
Apple: No, it’s a rectangle.
Mommy: No honey (pointing to a rectangle)…that is a rectangle…this is a triangle.
Apple: Mommy, this is a rectangle…O O O…K KK? (A huge emphasis on OK)
Now I need to learn my basics from my little one!

Whenever she’s outdoors Apple wants to pick up something or the other…a stone,a stick, other junk. Sometimes to deter her from picking up junk, I’ll tell her that it has bugs on it, since she’s scared of bugs. The other day, I wanted to take her for a walk, so I took out the stroller. Now instead of siting in it she wanted to push it. I refused and said that I was gonna push it. To that she says. “Mommy don’t touch the stroller,it has bugs, bugs bite mommy!” Yeah right!

The other day when I was putting away her toys and she dint want me to, she said, “ no touching my stuff mommy”. When I ignored it and continued cleaning up,she said, “What did I just tell you mommy? No touching my stuff!”... hmm...anything I say can be used against me (especially by my own little baby!)

Oh and now I can store my shopping list in her head. If I mention to her that we need to buy something from the grocery store, she will remind me of that whenever we are in a store or whenever she sees a store. Of course she’s already trying to use it for her own benefit. On our way home from her daycare there’s a Walgreen’s pharmacy, sometimes when I’m out of milk or something like that and I don’t have the time to go to the grocery store, Apple and I stop there on our way home. She likes it because then she can pull things off the shelf and can try to pressure me into buying something that she wants. Sometimes, but not always she manages to get a piece of candy, a small toy etc. The other day, we were driving past the store and she started
pointing to it and saying, “ I want to go to the shop”.
“We don’t need to go to the shop”
“Yes we need … we need milk”
“We have milk at home honey”
“Mommy, milk finish at home, we get it from the shop”
Yeah, nice try!

I’m being outsmarted by a toddler! Outsmarting me is not that difficult...any normal person can do it..... but such a little person doing that?I shudder to think of what will happen when she’s a teenager and I’m getting older, weaker and more forgetful.
Any smart pills out there that I can use?

On blogging and half a facial!

I am an introvert. I have always found it very difficult to express my thoughts and opinions to people I don’t know. Before I started blogging, I used to wonder if blogging anonymously would help me open up. After all, I wanted to communicate with all you wonderful people whose blogs I read regularly. It took me a long time to get on the blogosphere and I still can’t get myself to talk about serious issues like this or this, though I have progressed from keeping my opinions to myself to at least expressing them mildly in comments to other people’s posts. Hopefully someday, I’ll be able to write about what matters. Until then it will be about other “important things” like this one….

“Is this Mrs. T?” asked the lady on the other end of the phone.
“Yes.”
“Mrs. T, I am glad to inform you that you have won a free facial and a gift certificate for some free products from our company. Would you like to schedule it now?”
A free facial! Vow! How did I get so lucky? Now I have never won anything unless you count a single company coaster that I won in a drawing at the last division meeting. So for a minute I was excited. Then I remembered that sometime around mother’s day this company’s rep and made us fill out our names and addresses at my daughter’s day care. I knew that this was a sales gimmick but I’m a sucker for free stuff. So I scheduled an appointment and then rescheduled it and so on until the lady finally came home yesterday. I work from home once a week and I use my lunch hour that day for errands, blogging etc. Yesterday, I decided that I’d drop the errands, ignore your blogs and allow myself to be pampered instead.

The lady showed up fifteen minutes late, then blamed it on traffic. Yeah Right! I know how crazy the traffic can get on a Wednesday afternoon in a purely residential area, especially with schools out. Anyway, she decided that we would sit at the breakfast table and pulled out a plastic tray from her bag. She took a drop (literally!) each of a cleanser, a moisturizer, a toner and a couple of other things and put them on the tray. She then told me to go ahead and apply the products to only the right side of my face.
“Why just one side?”
“Because I want to show you the difference it makes”
Ok. I thought. First we’ll apply it to one side and then to the other.
After applying all the products step by step to the right side of my face, she handed me a mirror.
“Do you see any difference?”
I was squinting my eyes hard trying to search for any difference.
Sensing that she may not get the answer that she was looking for, she immediately said,
“See I can see this side looks brighter. Don’t you agree?”
Being a pushover that I am (which the lady had shrewdly observed ) I nodded.
“Ok now, I’ll show you some hand products”
“What about the other side? Can I apply the remaining products (read the other half a drop of each product) on the left hand side of my face?”
She just smiled and said, “ May be you can apply the moisturizer”
Would it have killed her to let me use the remaining products on the tray, especially since she had promised a free facial and this is nowhere close to a facial? She should have just called it product sampling or half a product sampling. Needless to say she did not get any business from me.

Anyway, if you are in the Atlanta area and if you run into a (young)woman with right side of her face looking brighter than the left side, come say hello to Naina.

Some pictures from the trip

Here are a few pictures from our trip as promised...

Venice - A view from or Gondola



Venice - Another picture of the canals and surrounding buildings taken from the Gondola



Venice - The area across the canal from our hotel


Venice - Apple eyeing icecream outside the restaurent next to our hotel



Delos Island - Mykonos - Greece


Athens - Acropolis


Athens - Acropolis - A view of the city from the top of the hill



Athens - Acropolis - from the bottom of the hill


On board - Apple dancing with dad


On board - Sunset



On board - Apple and Dad watching sunset



Split - Croatia



Lisbon - Portugal - Political campaigning on the streets of Lisbon



Lisbon - Portugal - Tram going through the city.

An eventful trip - Part II - Lost Luggage and Lovely Trip

Continued from previous post..

As the bags started coming in, we looked at each one hopefully. As time passed and we hadn’t spotted even one of our three bags, the reality started sinking in. The last bag on the conveyor killed the last ray of hope that we clung to and we found ourselves in a line for lost luggage. There were about 7-8 people ahead of us so we thought we would be assisted in a few minutes. Well fifteen minutes later the line had not moved even an inch. Yep! We were in Italy! Two hours later we are at the counter giving all the baggage information to the helpful(yeah right!) lady. She looked into her system and said ,
“There is no information about your bags but no problem Sir, you should get them by tomorrow”
“If you don’t know where the bags are how can you be sure that they will arrive tomorrow?”
“No Problem Sir. They usually do arrive the next day”.
“But we leave for a cruise tomorrow. What if we don’t get them by tomorrow?”
“No Problem Sir. We send it to the next port of call “.
She said it so confidently, that one would be inclined to believe her but by this time we knew better. We decided to wait until the next morning to panic and start buying essentials. Reaching the hotel was a task because all the hotel information was in one of the bags we lost. All we remembered was the name of the hotel and the bus stop that we had to get down at. We got down at the right bus stop . It was in the middle of a circle with roads going out in all four directions. We got out of
the bus and stared in all directions. We knew it was a ten minute walk to the hotel so we did not want to head in the wrong direction. Our request for directions was mostly met with shrugs. Finally a gondolier pointed us in the direction of our hotel and we managed to reach it.

Our hotel was located on a canal right in the center of activity. We could get a glimpse of the canal from our room. It was beautiful! That evening we roamed through the streets of Venice. The weather was beautiful, the breeze was soothing, the water was calm. We walked along the canal, took a gondola ride, ate a leisurely Italian dinner. Apple had a ball just running around, chasing the pigeons, looking at the
boats . She would even sing “row , row, row your boat” every time she saw a new boat. She enjoyed the hustle and bustle and loved looking at the water and the boats.
The whole place was so lively and bursting with activity. People walking , boats passing by, hawkers selling their wares, dinners dinning by the canal side. There was a restaurant right next to our hotel. All the tables were outside by the canal, the building only contained the kitchen , storage etc. People sat there and ate leisurely dinner for hours. Every now and then a musician would stop by to entertain the diners.The activity continued late in the night. It was a sharp contrast to my neighbourhood which grows dark and quiet by 9.00 pm and Apple was quite mesmerised by it. In its own way the chaos and noise was very calming.
Apple and I stood at the entrance of our hotel watching all the activity while hubby
frantically called the airlines from our room. Apple who was still on United States time refused to go to the room and had to be dragged upstairs kicking and screaming at midnight.

The next morning after breakfast , the location of our bags still unknown, we decided to start shopping. We only had a couple of hours before we needed to head to the port. Diapers was first on the list. After asking around we finally found a supermarket called COOP. We knew we needed a lot of diapers since we would be at sea for 6 nights so we wanted to get a huge packet. In the diaper isle we picked up the biggest packet and were trying to figure out what size the diapers were and how many
the packet contained since all information was written in Italian. The packet had the number 16 on it but we thought “wait a minute, that can’t be right?, how can such a huge packet contain only 16 diapers?”. So we asked a few people and they said it contained 16. It turned out that the packet we were looking at contained adult diapers!. No wonder we were getting strange looks from the people we asked earlier!
Fortunately someone pointed that out to us before we bought anything. So with the
acquisition diapers and toiletries we set out to buy clothes. We were in a tourist area not a shopping area really so there were not many clothing shops. However there were a lot of small shops selling T-shirts that said ‘Venezia” , “Italia” or “I love Venice”. Fortunately we both had two pairs of pants in order to save time( and
money) we just bought a bunch of these T-shirts. Apple’s clothes were another thing. We searched and searched and finally found a shop for children’s clothing where we spent 150 euros on 4 clothing sets for which Iwouldn’t even spend $50 back home.
The funniest and most difficult part of the whole exercise was shopping for underwear. It was hard to explain to people what we needed. We finally found the right shop and even there we hit some stumbling blocks. Hubby must have pointed to the general area of his waist while trying to communicate that he needed underwear. The next thing we know the lady brings out a belt! We finally managed to get what we needed and then rushed to the port. While everyone was boarding the ship with huge suitcases, there we were... with a bunch of shopping bags in our hands!

The cruise was great though,we enjoyed the beautiful weather, pigged out on the food , danced to the great music and visited three beautiful ports i.e.Mykonos and Athens in Greece and Split in Croatia. (I promise to post pictures and information about
these places once I get a chance). We must have looked ridiculous roaming the streets of Athens wearing “I love Venice”Tshirts. Thankfully the there is no enmity between these two countries!

Apparently the airline had cancelled our return reservation as well. After a number of phone calls we were able to sort it out. I have to mention that Royal Caribbean made our lives easy by giving us free laundry , free phone calls to the airlines and some other stuff.

On our return to Venice, we found two of the three bags. The third one is still missing. Overall it was a great trip. Now we just have to fight with the airlines to recover some of the money that we ended up spending because of the lost bags. By the time we are through with them, we’d be needing another vacation. This time though we won’t be flying for sure!

An Eventful trip – Part I – Missed Flight

We are finally back! The trip was both fun-filled and stressful at the same time. It all started at Atlanta airport. We were waiting at the gate to board our flight when my hubby decided to walk to the airline counter to get my daughter’s skymiles account straightened. Forty five minutes later he was still at the counter for something that should have taken five minutes. Since I had a bunch of handbags (thankfully!..you’ll see why) and a toddler with me I could not just get up and go to the counter to see what was going on. So I kept throwing ‘what the heck’ glances towards him and he would ignore some and shoot ‘be patient’ glances back at me. When he finally got back , before I could open my mouth to protest, he told me that our flight to Newark was going to be delayed and as a result we were going to miss the next connection which was to take us to Lisbon. He had spent the past 45 minutes trying to convince the air line to re-route us but since the connecting flight was with a different airline that did not have an office in Atlanta , we had no choice but to go to Newark and then take our chances from there. Which meant we could be stuck in Newark for more than a day…could have missed our cruise and all that. Now we could see the flight sitting at the gate long before it was scheduled to leave so it seemed odd that it wasn’t leaving on time. We were told that the reason it was delayed was due to the fact that the weather was bad in Newark so they had issues with landings and take offs. ‘Great!’ we thought , ‘this means the next flight could also be delayed’. Sure that would have happened if we were waiting at the gate before time for the next one. But this time, it took off on dot! We even saw it on the runway as we were alighting from the first flight!
What ensued in the next couple of hours consisted of two squabbling airlines tossing us from one counter to the other, one floor to the other until hubby finally lost it and yelled at a airline manager. That led to the manager finally taking us to the right counter and making sure that we got re-routed. They were re-routing us on a third airline via Paris instead of Lisbon since that was the only flight available so obviously we were worried about our luggage. It contained everything from diapers to all the nice clothes that I had bought specially for the trip that would be useless back home.
“Don’t worry about it, we’ll make sure that the luggage goes with you”.
“What about the return trip ? Would that reservation be affected?” .
”No. Not at all”.
We believed them, mainly because we wanted to. As we waited for the plane to push off, the pilot announced that we would be slightly delayed because they were waiting on a couple of last minute bags. We smiled with satisfaction!
On reaching Paris we had to go through yet another counter to counter and terminal to terminal run. Anyone who has traveled through CDG airport knows how big and crazy the airport is. We must have walked/run at least a couple of miles with Apple in my arms(during the entire trip she insisted on being picked up only by me) until we finally got our boarding passes for a flight to Venice. “What about our bags?” we asked the lady at the counter . “Don’t worry you’ll get them at Venice”.
On reaching Venice we stood in front of the conveyer belt hoping and praying that our bags have made it in. In spite of all the assurances we had received, there was a nagging feeling that we were not going to see our bags anytime soon.
To be continued....

The daily grind..

WARNING!... a rant about nothing... read only if you have nothing better to do..

Last few days have been extremely busy…. too many thoughts crowding my mind and then being purged without landing on the blog mainly because my time and mind has been occupied by a host of other things. So I finally decided to blog about those things. So here it is... the daily grind that I fail to escape……

Selling the house:
Like I mentioned in an earlier post,we are trying to sell our current house. From the time we put it on the market we have the additional task of keeping it spotless. This is particularly difficult when you have a toddler who’s favorite activity is taking things out of their arranged spaces and throwing them all over the house. So every night after Apple is in her bed we spring into action(no people, not that kind of action!) to clean up the mess. Also,when prospective buyers call, we have to drop everything we are doing and leave the house , toddler in tow. Since its hot outside we mostly find ourselves at the mall or in some sort of store and end up helping the economy!.

Building a house:
After carefully thinking about every aspect of each of houses that we saw, we rejected each one of them for some reason or the other. We finally signed up for a new construction .. ..without giving it too much thought. After all, when has thinking led to good decisions? Anyway now we are saddled with the additional tasks of trips to the site,decisions,phone calls to the agent etc.

Apple:
My sweet little baby who thinks that mommy and daddy were put on the earth to entertain her! “Stand up mommy “, “Come here mommy”, “Stay right here mommy” …...she commands her poor mother. Well, she’s quite capable of entertaining herself but that would mean broken stuff, crayon marks on the freshly painted walls, juice spilled on the newly installed carpet……you get the picture.!

Apple’s Allergy Test:
This week she had her allergy test only to discover that she’s allergic to sesame seeds(as suspected) in addition to nuts. I fear that there are other things that she might be allergic to in addition to the things we already know. That’s why I’m extremely nervous about our up coming trip.

Dieting:
“I need to loose some weight” … that is an on going lament but this time I really do… … so that I can pig out on our up coming Mediterranean cruise and still fit into pre pregnancy swimwear and cool clothes! Now you might say, dieting is easy, don’t eat! No effort required there!Wrong! Yours truly has to follow a diet plan which means looking for or cooking certain foods for myself in addition to feeding a family that
includes a fussy eater(no not my baby .. guess again!), a young sibling and a little monster who refuses to eat anything.

Work:
Something I pretend to do during office hours between trying to stay awake and reading blogs! Need to tie some loose ends(or at least pretend to)before I go on the much needed vacation.

Getting ready for vacation:
This has never been harder. With the destinations being a bunch of foreign countries and us travelling with a toddler with food allergies, there is a lot to shop and pack. The airline weight limit and our limited ability to carry a toddler(yes, she will insist on being carried when our hands are full with bags) and the entire luggage does not make it any easier. Never before have I been so nervous about a vacation!

But I’m ready…. ready as can be…to bask in the sun, to relax( as much as a toddler would allow), to visit amazing places, to catch up with my reading, to stuff myself with the never ending supply of food to come back refreshed. I promise to share pictures, stories and memories with y’all. Adios for now!

The Apple of my eye!

“My name is Apple”. Sweetie pie announced the other day.
“Hi Apple. Do you want to play with your ball?”
“Apple wants to play with the ball.”
I played along thinking that this was a whim of hers that she would forget the next day. Boy was I wrong! My two year old has now officially shunned the name that we carefully chose for her and has taken up the name “Apple”. For the last week or so she has been referring to herself as “Apple”.
“Apple wants to go outside”, “Apple is sleepy sleepy “ etc.

Now, I do have memories of wanting names other than mine when I was a kid. As a kid, there were times when someone else’s name sounded more appealing than my own.Of course my favorite names kept changing depending upon the either the characters of my favorite show or someone I admired at a particular point in time. But I was at least old enough to be in elementary or middle school during those times.How a two year old comes up with a name and consistently sticks to it, is beyond me.

May be she is being secretly paid by Apple Computers. Hmm... I need to check her 'Piggy' bank account! Or May be she just picked it up from the song that she currently likes which goes: “I like to eat, eat , eat apples and bananas. I like to eat, eat , eat apples and bananas.” Now if she’d only really eat them!

I’m not sure if she insists that everyone at day care call her “Apple” but in our household she’s currently referred to as “Apple”. So I even started thinking of having her wear this shirt on father’s day. But I din’t get around to ordering it on time. Ah well, Dad will appreciate the fact that no money was spent!

Anyway, in accordance with my little lady’s wishes, she’ll be referred to as “Apple “ on this blog until she comes up with another name.

Home Sweet Home

When we bought our house 7 years ago, it was our dream house. We were convinced that it had everything we would ever need. After all, 5 bedrooms, 3 baths and the usual kitchen, family room etc should be enough for two or three people right? With that much space, why would we ever need a basement? So we were not interested in a basement. More so, our bank account was not interested in the extra $$s that the builder wanted for a basement. So we got a decent house, a decent yard in a fairly decent school district and lived happily ever after! Right, except for the last part. Seven years and one toddler later, we seemed to be running out of space, closets full to the maximum extent, garage being used to keep junk rather than cars, mess all over and no time to clean it! That’s when we got the bright idea that we needed to buy a house with a basement. That way, we could dump all our junk into the basement and live relatively mess free on the upper floors. Supporting our idea was the fact the neighbors whose kids were in school were complaining about the schools. Yes, we definitely needed to move in a better school district!
And so the search began. In the so-called ‘better school districts’. The houses we have seen so far are either very expensive, crappy or both. In the meantime, we decided to put our current house on the market. Based on the realtor’s suggestion, we got the carpet replaced, some paint work done, landscaping improved and so on. As a final step we organized all our stuff, cleaned out all our closets, garage and threw away a whole bunch of stuff. After we were done with the ‘make over’, hubby and I looked at each other and said ‘vow! This looks great! If I was a buyer, I’d like this house…hmm….why are we selling it again?’ The school district is a lame excuse! After all Georgia ranks 46th in the United States when it comes to education. Does the school district really matter?
Anyway we went ahead and listed it. Now since it is on the market, we have miraculously managed to keep it spotless in spite of having a two-year-old. The two year old used to be our excuse for all the mess (I’m sure we had other excuses before her). Of course I know that if we take it off the market, it will go back to its original messy state and we’ll go back to losing our appreciation for it.
Anyway, a funny thing happened in the midst of all this. As we were finishing up the final touches to our house, a relative from India visited with his family. They were in the United States on a vacation and were visiting relatives in the vicinity so they dropped by for dinner. Since the house was already mess free and just cleaned by our cleaning lady, their timing could not have been more perfect. Since houses in India are different, they wanted to take a tour of the house and we were only happy to oblige. After looking at the house, the lady said, “How do you manage to keep your house so neat and tidy with a two year old in the house? Look at the carpet, it is so clean! It is amazing!”. My husband and I just looked at each other and smiled. Should we tell them that it took a handy man, a couple of carpet replacement guys, a cleaning lady and the three of us (my brother who’s temporarily staying with us helped out too) slogging for a couple of weeks to get it to this stage? Nah! We just let them be awed by our tidiness!

Sensitive, she is !

I was very emotional as a kid, so I always assumed that my daughter would be the same. My husband is not very emotional and he does not want her to be emotional either. He thinks it will be better for her well being if she is not emotional. Now, I don’t want her to be a cry baby like I was but I think a little sensitivity does not harm anyone. So I look at her in dismay when she giggles when I tell her that she’s hurting me when she pulls my hair or jumps on me. Of course I know that all kids enjoy this kind of game, so I play along but hubby sometimes uses this kind of stuff to say “ See, she’s not overtly sensitive!” A couple of recent incidents have us convinced otherwise, so much so, that even I have begun to worry about her.

On memorial day weekend, we went to stone mountain park (shown in the picture above)which is a park in Atlanta which has a huge mountain made of a single stone. There they have a skylift that takes you to the top of the mountain. Since we were visiting other park attractions first, it was almost closing time by the time we took the skylift up there. So we had to head back within 15 minutes. Sweetie pie did not want to head back so soon so we explained to her that the last sky lift would leave and then we would be stuck on the mountain. She quietly agreed. As we were waiting for the skylift, it was announced that they were closing the door to the building which housed the skylift and that anyone that was outside at that point would have to walk down. There were quite a few people outside so I said to my husband "oh oh, they are still outside". Sweetie pie heard that and started crying loudly. When we asked her what was wrong, she pointed to the people outside and said “they are stuck, they are stuck”. She finally calmed down when we told her that someone will help those people.
The second incident happened a couple of days ago. I was setting the table for dinner and sweetie pie and my husband were already seated at the table. Sweetie pie usually eats in her unbreakable colorful plate with a picture of pooh on it, but most of the times, she’ll point to our china plates and go " I want to eat in that plate", "I want to eat in that plate". That day, as I placed her pooh plate in front of her, my husband decided to play around with her. He looked at her plate and said "I want that plate…I want to eat in that pooh plate" in a whinny tone. Immediately the pooh plate became precious! She picked it up and said "no mine" . This was followed by some more whining and "mine" series. Then my husband pretended to cry saying "Sweetie pie is not giving me that plate". I looked at her and said " Honey, Daddy’s crying, shall we give the plate to him?" She shook her head to indicate "no". As the crying continued.. the grip on the plate became stronger but her face started to get sadder and sadder. Then tear drops appeared in her eyes. I immediately held her closer and said "honey what’s the matter?". That opened the flood gates and my sweetie pie started bawling! She did not want to give him the plate but she could not bear to see her dad crying either! That’s my girl! She cares! I don’t know if I should feel proud about her or worry about her. Well, for now, I will just enjoy these moments and treasure these stories.

What's the difference?

The other day I was picking up some pictures at a photo studio when something funny happened. There was a teenager behind the counter who was extremely bubbly and talked and talked and talked to the point of exhaustion (mine!). Just then my phone rang (Thank Goodness!). It was my hubby. As I was talking to him in Marathi (an Indian language, which is my mother tongue,) interspersed with some English words and phrases, I noticed that the girl was staring at me with a question mark on her face. As soon as I finished my conversation, she said “Was that English, you were speaking?” I said no. The she said “ I heard some words that sounded like English but the rest was all blah blah so I was wondering how anyone was understanding what you were saying”. “ My dear there are thousands of languages in this world. Just because you do not understand a language does not mean no-one else does.” I didn’t actually say the last part but I wanted to.
When I told my hubby about this incident he laughed and told me that when he was a kid (may be 3-4) they had neighbors that spoke different languages. Whenever he used to hear them talk he used to wonder how they understood each other. I can understand a small kid who has no concept of languages thinking this way. But a for a college age teenager to say that, is to display sheer ignorance! It’s like saying, “all oriental people look the same”. You won’t believe how many otherwise smart people have said that! Sure, they may have light radiant skin, small eyes, high cheekbones but that’s where the similarity ends. Every ethnicity has some commonality in their features; we Indians mostly have brown skin, black big eyes, black hair etc. To a non-Indian who’s not too familiar with Indians we all may look the same, but we know we aren’t. In fact an Indian friend once got told that she and her husband looked similar when in reality they have no common feature. She couldn’t believe it and yet she is one of the people who think that all oriental people look the same!
Have you had these kinds of experiences? If so, do share!
In the meantime I have to make movie plans with my Japanese friend A or was it M? I can’t tell the difference!

Tagged again!

I have been tagged by Sunita to write 8 things about me. Since I recently did a tag post, I'm linking to that post. As for tagging 8 other people, currently I only read 10-12 blogs (I know.. I need to expand my blogging circle)and most of them have been tagged recently. So for now I'm only tagging a couple of people Carmachu and Surya.

Is that how the cookie crumbles?

Kids say and do the darn est things. Sweetie pie's ever-expanding vocabulary now has phrases like 'no way' or 'go away' which she uses generously at home. The fact that she’s shy and usually does not talk much in
front of strangers makes her seem less rebellious and well behaved. But don’t let the quiet manner fool you. She knows what she wants and will not hesitate to ask for it.
There's this desi lady Mrs G who provides homemade rotis. I usually pick up some from her every so often. Most of the times I pick them up on my way home from work, but a couple of times I have
taken sweetie pie with me to pick up rotis . On these occasions Mrs. G has always given sweetie pie a couple of cookies, and to my satisfaction, sweetie pie has responded with 'thank you'. All was well
until one day a few weeks ago sweetie pie and I showed up at Mrs. Gs place for our rotis . Mrs. G was busy talking to me and forgot to offer a cookie to sweetie pie. My little cookie monster waited for 5
minutes and then interrupted our conversation by stretching her hand out towards Mrs. G, looking her in the eye and saying 'Cookie?’
This, from a toddler who has no interest in any kind of food(including cookies) what so ever when at home. I was embarrassed and immediately started scolding sweetie pie. She got her cookie and did not understand what the fuss was all about. I knew I needed to teach her not to ask people for stuff but I could not figure out how to do it. So I decided to try something. The next time I took her to Mrs. G’s place, I took a bunch of cookies in a ziploc bag and showed the bag to sweetie pie. I kept insisting that it is not nice to ask other people for anything and that she should not ask Mrs. G for anything and that if she did as I said, I
would give her the bag of cookies that I had with me. This seemed to have worked, as no cookie was demanded. In fact Mrs. G’s offer of cookie did not receive any response. The next time, I gave her the bag
of cookies but no instructions. To my surprise, no cookie was demanded. Then last week I took her to Mrs. G’s house without a bag of cookies or instructions and once again no cookie was demanded. I was very proud of my little angel. She seemed to have received the message. But what message…I’m not sure. May be it is “If I ask for cookie, mean mommy yells at me, so I can only ask for a cookie if I’m with Daddy” .
My tactics will probably backfire the way my friend’s mom’s did in the story that I’m about to tell you. My friend swears it is a true story.
My friend grew up in a joint family with a lot of kids. When they visited someone’s place, it was hard to keep an eye on everyone to make sure they behaved, so her mom would give them a bunch of strict
instructions. One of the instructions was that if any food was offered, they would not pounce on the food. They could may be take one cookie each and then say that they were full. The kids usually obeyed this and
were well behaved on most occasions. One late evening, they were visiting a friend’s place with her mom and were offered cookies, candies and some snacks. The kids took only one small item each and
thanked the hostess. Then suddenly there was a power outage and the whole house plunged into darkness. When the lights came back on in about 10 minutes, they unveiled a crime scene…all the food was gone
from the plates and there was evidence in the form of cookie bites and candy on the little monsters’ clothes and faces. Needless to say the kids receive a nice thrashing on their behinds on getting home!
I wonder if I’ll face a similar situation someday. Ah well, may be …that’s the way the cookie crumbles!

Tagged to write 10 things about me

I have been tagged by Dorky Dad to write 10 things about myself. I thought about following DD and writing some real and some fictional things. But finally I decided to be truthful. So here are 10 things about me that I swear are true. If you don't believe me, ask my psychiatrist.

1.My name is (not) Naina Ashley. I could tell you my real name but then I'll have to kill you.

2. Ok, Ok, I’m not on some secret mission but the reason I can’t tell you my real name is that I'm in the witness protection program. Even if I wasn't in the program, I would not be able to reveal my name because I'm a very shy and introvert person.

3.I love reading books of all kinds except the technical ones(Did I mention I work in technology?Well, that's just my cover!).

4. A few years ago, I led a police officer on a car chase. Now before you start judging me, let me explain: I was very new to this country, speeding unintentionally and did not realize that when you have a police car with lights on behind your car, it means that they want to pull you over. I had assumed that there would be a siren for that. The officer did sound the siren eventually, causing me to stop. I had never had another ticket ever since, until this week!

5.I love travelling. I usually like to travel with my family and friends. Once when I was younger I spent a day in a foreign country sight seeing all by myself only to have a stranger accost me with an indecent proposal.

6. I love dancing. I don't have too many interesting stories around that but you can check my first post for a couple of dance related stories.

7. I'm hate being the center of attraction. That is why I have not gone on and won any recognitions or become famous. (Don’t think that I din’t have the opportunity.)

8. I love nuts(not the human kind...well some people including my hubby and brother think I'm one). That's why it kills me to know that my baby is allergic to nuts.

9.I was a princess in my past life. I wanted to experience life as a commoner, so here I am slugging it out in this one.

10. In this life, I have a little princess at home who knew she was a princess right from the moment she was born. She keeps her subjects on their toes.

Since I’m new to the blog world and am just getting to know one blogger at a time, I’ll take a rain check on tagging 10 people. If you have a blog that you’d like me to read, do leave a note.

Time to go, I have been summoned by the princess! Have a good weekend!

An eventful weekend.. ..an Emergency and a Special Birthday

An eventful weekend.. ..an emergency and a Special Birthday

This past weekend started off on a scary note. Friday evening, we were out doing some household shopping when my 2 year old daughter(will be referred to as Sweetie pie from now on) and hubby both got hungry. There was a Mediterranean restaurant nearby so we decided to stop by and get a bite. Sweetie pie is allergic to nuts so whenever we go out to eat we make sure that we do not order anything with nuts/nut oil etc. The restaurant had a dinner buffet so after inquiring about the nut contents of the items we decided that sweetie pie could eat chicken kabobs, pita bread and hummus. Sweetie pie always enjoys her meals at restaurants (yes there is no running around, screaming or throwing food on the floor) so we can usually let her work on her food and enjoy a peaceful dinner. She finished her chicken happily so I encouraged her to try the pita bread and hummus. She tried a little and decided that she didn’t want to eat anymore. Over the next few minutes, our usually peaceful toddler started getting cranky. I picked her up and put her on my lap thinking that she must be sleepy. The next thing I know her eyes start swelling. It was very similar to reaction that she had a few months ago when we first discovered that she was allergic to nuts. So we immediately rushed to the nearest emergency room. After a brief argument with the receptionist who acted like she worked at the post office and not the emergency room, we were able to see a nurse , then another nurse and then finally a doctor. By this time sweetie pie’s eyes were so swollen that she could not open them. Thankfully she was very sleepy so she was just content to rest her head on mom’s shoulder and sleep while everyone around her was fussing about her allergies. After examining her, the doctor had this bright idea of giving her an oral dose of the medication. Try feeding medicine to a sleepy two-year-old. The first attempt resulted in a lot of crying. On top of it, the medicine came right back out (along with the food that had made its way into her stomach) and landed all over mom’s clothes. Mom couldn’t care less. Desperate parents pleaded to the doctor an nurse to inject the medication but the they wanted to try one more time! The second time it stayed in but the swelling did not subside even after an hour. The only thing keeping the parents sane was the monitor that showed that sweetie’s heart rate and oxygen levels were perfectly normal. After an hour, the doctor injected a stronger medication, which seemed to help. After observing sweetie for a couple more hours the doctor told us we could take her home but needed to watch her for signs of heavy breathing. We reached home around 2.00 am, extremely sleepy and tired but too afraid to sleep. We did manage to take turns and catch a couple of hours of sleep. Around 6.30 am a refreshed baby woke up, smiled at mommy and said “Hello mommy!”.
“Hi honey, go back to sleep”.
“Wake up mommy!”
And so another day began.. with a toddler having no recollection of the previous night’s incidents and parents too guilty to feel frustrated about an energetic toddler waking them up at 6.30 am! Now mom and dad have to be the sleuths and find what the culprit was!

On another note, we attended 1st birthday party for a special baby this Sunday. There are plenty of birthday parties to attend all the time but this one was special because the baby was extra special. A couple of years ago, a neighbor lost a 6 year old only son in a horrific accident. The parents were devastated. The mom took it especially hard and was extremely depressed. Last year they had another baby boy. The gave him the same name as the son they lost. When I went to visit the new baby, I realized the baby had failed to lift mom’s spirits. In the hour and half that I spent at their home, mom mentioned the new baby only once or twice. The entire conversation was about the son she lost. There were a lot of tears. It was extremely heart breaking. The baby turned one recently and the parents had hosted a party this Sunday. The baby was healthy and happy and seemed to have spread that happiness to the entire household. It was extremely satisfying to see both the parents happy and smiling.

Gasoline Woes!

I just read an article on cnn.com predicting gasoline prices of $4 a gallon this summer. It took me back to the days when I first arrived in Georgia 10 years ago. Gas was under a $ and no one gave a damn about what they drove or how much they drove. I drove a corolla then but it was mainly because I’m not into SUVs or big cars. Gas expenses never crossed my mind then. 10 years later gas prices have tripled, traffic has worsened , commute has increased and the pay hasn’t kept up. But me and others around me still don’t think twice about driving 40 miles to a sale in order to (seemingly) save a few bucks. I guess old habits die hard!

Someday when I need a new car I’ll buy a Prius but I keep telling myself that until then I need to take some small steps to help my bottom line(the financial one). With that in mind, I thought about car-pooling. I even signed up for a car-pool service but soon realized that it wasn’t for me. I’m too used to coming in and leaving whenever I like. I could’nt possibly be dependent on someone else’s schedule. So I told myself that I could at least save a couple of bucks every time by filling gas at Costco since I shop there anyway. Somehow I always end up at Costco with a full tank. My car always happens to scream ‘I need gas’ when I am in the vicinity of the most expensive gas station. May be its all the BPs and Exxons conspiring against me!

I know people who keep track of where the cheapest gas is being sold and drive to those places to fill up. Whether it makes sense to spend some gas in order to save a $ or so, I know not. But I do know that there is no harm in driving to a neighbouring gas station if you realize that it has cheaper gas than the one that you are at. A colleague of mine did just that one time. She was driving home from work one day and realized that she was out of gas. She saw a gas station and pulled into it. She was about to fill up her tank, when the sign at the gas station across the street caught her attention. They were selling gas few cents cheaper. Since my colleague is a thrifty person, she decided to drive across the street in order to save some money. She got into her car, crossed the street and was at the entrance of the other gas station when her car stalled. She was only a few feet away from the pump. A man standing at the pump felt sorry for this poor girl and remarked “You almost made it” . She smiled and thought to herself “If you only knew!”.

Its Friday!

'Thank God it’s Friday!' I wake up every Friday with this thought. On Fridays, I feel good about going to work; the hour-long commute does not bother me and the sad news items on the radio fail to keep me down. As I enter my office building, everyone seems to have a smile on their face. Following is a typical Friday interaction with a stranger on the elevator:

I smile at the stranger.
Stranger (smiling back): Its Friday! Thank God.
Me: yep!

If it is a person that I know, the conversation will be more like:
Me: Good Morning A. How are you doing?
A: Great! After all it’s Friday!
Me: I know! I am glad!
A: Can't wait !(for the day to be over)

Conversations similar to these can be heard all day long, all over the office.

Fast forward to Monday and I see tired faces as I enter the building. Whether they are tired from the weekend fun or whether they are stressed out thinking of the week ahead, I know not. My face is one of them. The elevator conversation now goes something like this:

Me: Good Morning B. How are you doing?
B: (Sighs). All right I guess, its Monday :-(
Me: yep(with a sigh).

Career experts always say that you must change your job and/or profession if you do not like Mondays. However, I have come to the conclusion that we will hate Mondays no matter what work we do. Whether we like our jobs or not, we still need a break from the daily routine.

At a previous workplace, on a typical Monday, we were going through the usual 'hate Monday ' conversation, when a colleague said, " I hate Mondays, I hate Tuesdays, I hate Wednesdays. I like Thursdays in anticipation of Fridays and I like Fridays in anticipation of the weekend.” My thoughts exactly!(probably yours too!) It makes me wonder if we always enjoy the anticipation of 'what might be ' rather than enjoying the actual moment. I mean, think about it: on Fridays we have the exact same schedule, the same commute the same meetings, the same deadlines as any other weekday. And yet it is Friday, not Saturday, not Sunday that is our favorite day!

Now if you will excuse me, I've got to go enjoy the rest of my Friday thinking about how I’m going to enjoy the weekend. Have a good weekend!

The goodness in people...

Yesterday on my drive home, I heard Craig Newmark’s essay for the ‘This I believe’ segment on NPR. This essay struck a special chord in me mainly because I hold similar beliefs.
Just the other day I was talking to a friend who said that she thought that people were mainly selfish and malicious. When she meets a new person she starts with that very assumption unless the person proves her wrong. That is her way of protecting herself from getting hurt. I on the other hand, like to start out believing that the person is basically good unless that person proves otherwise. That is not to say that I have never had any bad experiences, but I’d like to believe that those are a few isolated cases that fall under the ‘proven otherwise’ category.
I come from a family of people that strongly believe in the goodness in people. We believe in this almost to the point of being gullible at times. And we believe in this in spite of the fact that quite a few people have taken advantage of my Dad’s good and trusting nature. In fact my mom always jokes that if we totaled the value of the money/belongings that my dad unwittingly gave away, we could buy a flat with that money. My generation is more guarded than that. Me, my brother and my sister don’t let people take advantage of us but we do give people the benefit of doubt. A lot of times when one gets upset about something someone did or said, one may be inclined to label that person as bad/manipulative/ selfish etc. But if we look a little deeper we will see that lot of times there is an explanation to the person’s behavior. A misunderstanding or some unique personal situation may have lead that person to behave in a particular way.

I’d like to pass on my belief to my daughter but the few bad apples make it very difficult. When you hear stories of pedophiles walking the neighborhood streets it is only wise to teach your kids to be skeptical. How do I teach her to be cautious and yet believe in the goodness in this world? And then there are those extreme incidents like yesterday’s shooting at Virginia Tech….things that cannot be explained by any logic or reason. How can our kids trust anyone when they don’t even know if the person sitting next to them in class is a killer?
Craig’s essay could not have come at a better time. In times like this everyone needs an assurance that the world is ok and that most people are ok.

A night at the movies...

Reading all the wonderful movie reviews on some of my favorite blogs has made me nostalgic for the days when movie going was as easy as thinking about it. Well not quite, but it was fairly simple and required no advance planning. In the post child world it requires a full fledged project plan. Here’s a brief description of my movie watching ventures before and after the birth of my daughter.


Before Kids:
Its evening time…
1. Think about watching a movie.
2. Is it a weekday or weekend? …don’t care!
3. Convince husband to go with you.
4. Argue about which movie to watch the chick flick /drama or action movie?
5. Win argument. Grab a quick bite and head to the movies.
6. Watch previews and decide which ones you want to see next.
7. Movie starts… watch movie.
8. Wake up husband after the movie ends.
9. If husband does not want to go, call up girlfriends and plan a girls movie night for Friday. On Friday, watch a total girly movie and discuss it later.

After Kids:
1.Think about watching a movie… keep thinking for a long time
2. Hear about a really good movie. Keep wanting to see it.
3. Think about options…
a. Hire a baby sitter? Little angel(not quite) will not stay with a baby sitter!
b. Take little angel with you? Might get kicked out of the theatre because of a screaming toddler!
c. Convince girlfriends to do a girls night out(and their husbands to watch the kids).
Though difficult, 'c' is the only real option for you and also for your girlfriends.
4. Husbands agree? Finalize a date…. someone cancels, plan again and so on..
5. The day arrives, either yours or someone’s kid falls sick.. cancel plan.
6. Start the planning cycle again.
7. On the planned day, assuming that everything else goes smoothly, everyone meets at someone’s place.
8. Argue about what to feed adults and kids for dinner. Arrange for food for adults and kids.
9. Try to feed kids who have no interest in eating.
10. Try to make kids go to bed.
11. Once they are in bed, give instructions to husband about handling them if they should wake up.

12. Head to the movies.
13. Watch previews and wonder when in the world will you ever be able to see all these cool movies(somehow they seem more interesting now that you know you can’t watch them all)
14. Movie starts… struggle to keep your eyes open.
15. Think about going straight to bed after movie ends.
16. After the movie ends, talk about how much fun this was.
17. Say “We should do this again sometime soon”

Language Etiquette

Yesterday morning, as I was waiting in a conference room for a meeting with a different group from my company, two guys entered the room chatting in Hindi(an Indian language). After saying their hellos and introducing themselves to me, they continued with their Hindi conversation while we waited for the others to show up. The conversation was just a casual chit chat. No biggie. What irritated me was the language of the conversation. I do speak Hindi, but they did not know that. One of my pet peeves is that I cannot stand people talking to each other in an different language when there are people around who do not understand that language. I do not appreciate that even in a personal setting, but I think it is a big 'no no' especially in a professional environment

My company outsources a lot of its IT work to reputed Indian companies. As a result we constantly have a lot of young Indians coming to our office for short term as well as long term projects. In addition to that we have several employees of Indian origin like myself. As a result one gets to hear a lot different languages being spoken around the office. I have to say though that its not just us Indians who are guilty of this practice. At my work place I do get to hear Spanish, Mandarin(I'm guessing!) and a bunch of other languages that I don’t recognize. While I understand that it is natural to want to speak in your own mother tongue, I think people should realize that it makes other people uncomfortable. It makes them wonder if you are talking about them or about something that you don’t want them to know.
At my previous company, there were a bunch of Desi(Indian) guys who used to sit in a training room along with some American employees. They would speak in an Indian language all the time. One day, one of the American ladies asked me if they were talking about her. I told her that I din’t think they were talking about anything related to the work place. The truth was that I myself did not really understand their language. I doubt that the lady really thought they were talking about her. I think it was just her way of showing her disapproval.
When I first joined my current company there was an Indian girl who used to sit across from me. Like me, she was from Bombay. She would always come up to me and start a conversation in Hindi. Instead of telling her directly that I did not want to carry on a conversation in Hindi, I started replying in English, hoping that she’d get the message. The message was apparently lost on her because one day she came up to me and asked me why I wasn't comfortable with Hindi in spite of being from Bombay. I told her that I was comfortable with Hindi and then went on to explain my reasons for not carrying out a conversation in Hindi. She thought for a minute and said “ I agree with what you are saying, but you know, if we speak in English people around us will know what we are talking about! “ Answer that! It sure did leave me speechless!

I Hope You Dance...

I have been wanting to start posting for quite some time, but I neither had the time nor the right topic to start my blog. Today I finally found both. On Sanjay’s blog(I have stumbled upon Sai’s blog and her fellow bloggers’ blogs recently) I found the Friday word ‘Dance’. Dance is something that I truly love so I thought that it would be a perfect topic to begin my blog with.

I have always loved dance of any kind. Be it Indian folk dance, bollywood music dance or ballet, dance has always fascinated me. As a child my secret ambition was to become a dancer. Now this was not based on any intrinsic abilities or training . In fact I never got a chance to actually train in any kind of dance form. As a child I used to bug my parents to allow me to learn bharatnatyam (a traditional Indian dance form) but they never encouraged me since they thought that it would affect my studies. They did allow me to join a bharatnatyam class for a year when I around 10, but the following year I was sent to live with my grandparents and that ended my dance education.
My sister who also shared my love for dance had her own share of bad luck when it came to learning dance. When she was about 10, a new kathak (another Indian dance form)dance class opened near our home. Since it was a stone’ s throw away from our house, my parents allowed her to enroll. She really enjoyed her classes, especially since her teacher was a young enthusiastic lady. But within 6 months the teacher got married and moved to another suburb closing down the classes. Later, an older gentleman started teaching kathak in the same premises. Though my sister did not like this teacher as much as she liked the previous one, she learnt diligently for about 6 months. Then one evening as she showed up for the class and waited for her teacher along with her fellow students, a grim faced peon came there to tell them that the teacher had had a heart attack and had passed away. Talk about being jinxed! We often teased my sister about being jinxed as far as dance was concerned.
Even though we never really learnt to dance, my sister and I would often stand in front of the TV and copy the steps of the likes of Madhuri Dixit(a famous Indian actress and dancer). We may have been terrible at it but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Be it daandiya, New Year’s party or any other party, whenever we had a choice to sit it out or dance…we danced. Which brings me to one of my favorite songs by Lee Ann Womack, called ‘I hope you dance’. For those of you who are not familiar with the song, here are a few lines of the beautiful lyrics…

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty-handed
Hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance…… I hope you dance

I love this song for its inspirational message. The things mentioned in the above lyrics are the kind of things that I’d want to teach my daughter. She’s only two now but hopefully someday she’ll understand and appreciate these words. Today she shares my love of dance. Whenever we turn on the music, she shakes her body. My hope is that she continues to love dance so that we can learn it together. But even if she doesn’t, I’d still say to her …“I Hope You Dance….” … metaphorically speaking!