Aggro

When I say that I'm jobless, I'm not entirely telling the truth.  I work two-part time jobs.  One is as a CAD technician/ drafting monkey for a residential builder.  The other is at my parents store.  The following list consists of professions that Indian people generally choose to follow: motel/hotel owner, doctor, convenience store owner, etc.  So what did my parents decide to do?  Open up a surf and skate store, of course.

 

 

 

 

 

Now...our store, Aggro, is in a mall.  As you may know from the movie Mallrats, malls sometimes attract some pretty weird characters.  Below are three examples of such people:

Weird person #1 told me all about his summer job.  He works at a watermelon farm.  For 10-15 minutes he continued to tell me all about watermelon harvesting.  How about 10 men ride out into the middle of a watermelon field in a school bus that they had cut the top off of.  And how they would all scram to collect the melons, throw them in the bus until it was packed, drive somewhere to unload, then drive back.  The process is repeated until the whole field is worked from the inside out.  If anything, it was pretty educational.

Weird person #2 was a 50-something year old singer.  My mom was with a sales rep when the singer came into the store.  She then told my mom and rep that she was a singer and then burst out with an opera-like "wooooooooo-AHHHHHH".  My mom said she could've sworn she saw the walls shaking.  That was just the beginning.  The lady asked my mom and the rep to try singing.  Apparently, she was on a roll. "Anyone can do it!! You just have to pull the air from within.  You have to eNUNciate your vowel. AH-EH-EEEEE-OOOO-UUUU. You don't say LOVE...you say LLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOVVVVE. It's so easy. Try it.  Sometimes men follow me in grocery stores wondering what the angelic voice is. It's me. OOOOAHHHHHH!!!! It's really wonderful when I want to try to find my mother. She can find me anywhere in the mall....WOO-AHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Wow.  My mom did a pretty good impersonation.

While some weird people want to teach us things, others want to learn from us.  Weird person #3 was about my age.  He came in and stood right in front of me.  He stared right at me and said "Tell me the truth. Do you think I have style?"  What do I say? "Sure...I mean a t-shirt and jeans are pretty normal for guys, right?"  All he says is "Alright." then walks out of the store. What?!

My mom's feet.

The love for garba must run in my genes.  My mom garba'd a little too hard the other night.  So hard in fact that she got bruises on her toes from dancing in circles barefooted.  Last night she wanted to give her feet a little therapy by covering them in lotion and then covering them in socks.  Well the socks got too hot...so she rolled them up.  Then she goes "hey look...demi socks".  Then I said "nope. they're toe-pris."  And then we started coming up with all sort of names.  Toe-ttens.  Toe-cks.  Toe-digans.  It was pretty funny.

Song of the Day + Excessive Story Telling

There are three reasons I am choosing The Kooks for today's band.

The first is that they are awesome.  Their songs are so upbeat.  And let's face it...I kinda like singing with along with someone who has a British accent. "See, I've got this woman heee-aahhh. She lohves me ohll the tiiime".  I can even e-sing it with an accent.  Awesome.

The second is because of a restaurant in Gainesville called The Top.  The Top is one of the places I miss the most from my college days.  It has a great atmosphere, the food is tasty, and the people are generally friendly.  Anyways, one of the things I really like about The Top is that sometimes people purposely leave things behind so that other people can take them.  Usually it's books left on the tables or little toy army men on the bathroom shelf (away from the toilet...so sanitary...i think.)  I never took anything but one day I hit the jackpot.  Somebody left the latest Kooks cd on the bathroom shelf.  It was brand-new! It was mine.

And...the third is because it gives me memories of my trip to Amsterdam.  This trip was taken 3 years ago with some kids from my architecture studio and our professor.  We were studying bike traffic.  This song seemed to be on everywhere I went in that city.  Amsterdam was so awesome that some friends that were studying abroad in Italy decided to meet up with me.  We went out to this little bar one night and...again...the song!  So now I just associate this song with the fuzzy feelings I had while spending some time with good friends in an interesting city.

 

Alright well that was a lot of explaining for one little embedded YouTube video.  So here's the first song I heard by The Kooks....Naive.  Again, can't post the real music video...so you'll have to deal with this cheesy one made by some girls who had a lot of time on their hands.  Just like me.

Garba Video

For those of you who tried viewing the garba video and couldn't...that's my fault.  Sorry! It's fixed now. I'm still new to uploading videos and I picked a wrong setting on YouTube.  Also...the sound is verrrry loud. It might startle you. I don't want to cause any heart attacks...so turn down the volume before you watch it :) Thanks!!

GARBA!

It's garba season! One of my favorite times of the year!  Whenever I think about garba I think about how much fun I had being a part of the Garba Girls at UF.  We had the best choreography and costumes.  It was just...ugh..I loved it.  While the days of choreographed garba are probably over for me...I can still enjoy the yearly dances done within the community.  And that is just what I did.  My family and I went to Ft. Myers where we go for most of our Indian festivities.  Garbas in Ft. Myers used to be...well...lame.  Compared to the huge ones at UF they were NOTHING.  So needless to say, I had low expecations.  I was in for a surprise.  Somehow the number of Indians had increased about 3 times since the last time I had been garba-ing in Ft. Myers (which was probably about 5 years ago).

I wish I had gotten more pictures but I was just so excited that I didn't even think about it! Besides, there were so many brown people in this joint that I probably wouldn't have gotten any great pictures anyways. I did get a video of all of us doing Raas...at 1 in the morning. (We're hardcore like that) You might wanna turn down the volume for this.



Another reason I didn't take pictures was because I looked disgusting. I don't know how I, a woman, can sweat so much. There were points when I thought I saw people looking at me and I thought..."MAN! I AM GOOD! They must be envious of my mad dancing skillz!" No no. One trip to the bathroom and I realized they were probably staring because there was a river pouring down my neck and my hair looked like it had just been rained on.

Good thing I got some "before" pics though!

 Look who came with us!  So what if she was the only white girl there? She was rockin the garba steps! Good job, Holly :)

Me, Holly, and my cousin Maya in a prom-like photo opp.  They look really excited.

The mom and the masi.

Kitchen Makeover

I got a new camera! Yay! Camera's are so cheap nowadays.  My last one was double the price but half as great as this new one.  I'm so excited that I can take pictures again!

Now on to the kitchen!  My mom and I have had some things done around the house to update it...both for ourselves and for possible future home buyers.  About a month or so ago we painted our family room.  We decided that the one room that REALLY needed updating was our kitchen.  My mom had already gotten new appliances about a year ago...and we recently had our cabinets re-faced.  However, our new fancy wooden cabinets did not match with our pale pink formica counters. 

My mom and I had a little fun with our counters before getting them changed out:

Hmm...which one of us did this one? Maybe the one raised in the 70's?

A depiction of my mom in the morning.

Even Holly and Erika got into the action when they came over the other night.  Here's one that they did.  The one on the right was the result of a marker fight my mom and I had.

Oh...that Holly is so clever! (this bit of art was drawn on the island, of course)

 

2 days later and we got the new counters. Voila:

 

It's so shiny! and so sophisticated looking compared to our late 90's style formica (to which the non-english speaking installer said "eh...this formica....yuck").

Television...my other boyfriend

Fall is here...and this means my shows are back on! Well except for Lost.  I'm pretty sure the creators of Lost are trying to kill me by leaving me in suspense for like 18 months. I don't need you, Lost.  I never think about how this will be your last season and how I'll never see you again after that! wah.

Anyways...

Glee just started.  Holly, Erika, and I decided that we would make a night out of it.  Erika came over with some ice cream (healthy ice-cream...day 5 of WW and still going strong!) so she won some more cool points.  The third episode didn't wow me as much as the first two did....but I still loved it.  Holly thinks the teacher's growing increasingly creepy.  If he keeps singing trendy suggestive rap songs like he has been, I might have to start agreeing.

Parks and Recreation is very much like The Office...but with a girl.  It's pretty funny.  I love Amy Poehler so that's reason enough for me to watch it.

The Office has always been a favorite.  Never know what that Michael is gonna do next.  He's ridic.  I was afraid that once Pam and Jim got together that things would get boring but they've kept up pretty well.  We all know how I feel about John Krasinski.

I tried watching Community tonight.  Couldn't really get into it, honestly.  I thought Joel McHale...Chevy Chase...good cast right? meh.  I don't know if I'll watch it again.

Project Runway...always amazing.  They made clothing out of paper tonight.  It was interesting.  That show reminds me so much of undergrad in architecture.  The time crunch, not being sure of yourself, professors/Tim Gunn coming by to tell you what you're doing wrong and right, and then the presentation to a jury.  It's way too familiar.  But maybe that's why I love it.

I'm on the third season of 30 Rock. How did I never watch this show until now?? Every character is hilarious!  I love Tina Fey's character.  Nerds can be cool and successful in their own way.  There is hope for me yet.

I've never really watched Dancing with the Stars but I might start for one reason - Melissa Joan Hart.  Did anyone ever watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch? Well I still do...several days a week...at 2 on ABC Family.  And while I probably shouldn't have admitted that...I have noted that MJH (cause we're tight) is a horrible dancer.  Just the opening alone...yikes.




Does anybody else find it weird that token brown people are becoming more and more frequent? Office...Kelly. Glee...the principal. Parks...Aziz Ansari. 30 Rock...Jonathan.  Lost...Sayid.  Community...the one dude. Crazy crazy.

Turning a new leaf

I've come to realize that a life constantly spent at home with no real job can be extremely dangerous.  I think it finally hit me on Monday that something needs to be done.  So...I'm looking for jobs super hardcore now (instead of just hardcore), I got a new camera today (to give myself the illusion that I have more of a life than I really have) and...

Operation "Look-awesome-in-Karen's-bridesmaid-dress" has begun.

 

Let's do this.

Happiness + Song of the Day

There are certain things in life that instantly make me happy.  These things can be so little that some people may think nothing of them.  I'm sure everyone's got their things but for me it's when different groups of friends that have never met get along magically, when I see anything that is the color teal, and...

...when things around me match the music I'm listening to.

 You know...when the beat matches the blinkers of the car in front of you...

...or when it's in sync with passing streetlights.

The other day I wanted to work out and decided to use this balance ball tape I had.  The music on it is very...dull.  I decided to try working out to my M.I.A Pandora station.  It worked out perfectly.  Whenever I had to move faster, a faster song would come on.  Every time I had to lift the ball, the music would follow along.  It was nuts.  I don't know if anyone gets what I'm talking about or if I sound like I just inhaled a bunch of helium. Either way, it got me into the workout and made me feel good.  On that note...I'm putting up one of my favorite songs by M.I.A. (who I plan on being for Halloween).



On another note...I'm planning on getting a camera tomorrow (hopefully).  There are a lot of things coming up that I'll need one for!

Colorado Day 4: Back to Denver

Our last day in Colorado. Le sigh. We made the 2 hour long trek back to Denver from Winter Park.  The drive was beautiful...although a little stressful for Ojas.  The roads wound around mountains.  Everytime I looked to my side I'd get a little queasy feeling because the sides just dropped down.  Not only did we get to go up, down, and around the mountains...but we also got to go through them!
 

About 20 min to Denver, we saw a sign on the road that said "POINT OF GEOLOGICAL INTEREST".  So we had to check it out.  We found Red Rocks Park where these random red rocks stuck out from the rest of the flatter yellow ground.  And what could make it cooler than some architecture? They had carved an amphitheater into the rock. Unfortunately, they just closed that part down so all we got to do was climb up a whole buncha steps that led up to a gate. Denied.  The place was still pretty cool.  It would have been awesome to watch a show there.

 

This is where I to take another stair picture...and um...catch my breath.    

After the "point of geological interest", we finally made it Denver.  Ojas had a flight at 7:30.  Mine was a little later...at like 1:15 in the morning.  What was I to do with that many hours by myself with no car?  Easy.  Call up one of my favorite Gainesville girls, Laura.  It was so good to see her.  She had just moved out to Denver that summer and I had never had the chance to say bye to her.  So she picked me up and Ojas left.  We went to her place (which was...AWE.SOME), drank some wine, ate some of her homemade delicious pizza, and caught up on life.  At this point, I was sans camera so I didn't get any pictures of us :(  After a few hours, she dropped me off at the airport and I was homeward bound.  What a great trip. :)

Sadness...

Meh.  Some days get me down so much.  Today is one of those days.  It doesn't help that it's rainy and gross outside.

Once again, I ask myself...What are you supposed to do when you wanna do something but don't feel like doing anything at the same time?

Also...isn't it kinda sad that I kinda (really) wanna see Disney on Ice?

Song of the Day

I've never considered myself a country-music lovin' kinda gal.  But there is one person whose songs I love.  That someone is Patsy Cline.  One day when I was doing my usual routine of wasting away on the couch while channel surfing, I came across a made-for-tv movie on Lifetime.  It was the biographical movie of Patsy Cline as portrayed by Jessica Lange.  What a rough life that woman had...and then she suddenly died in a plane crash?  It just didn't seem fair.  I think she was only 30.

Colorado Day 3: Winter Park

It was really nice that we got to go to a place we wouldn't have ever thought of going to.  Ojas's friend, Regan, had recently got a job in Fraser.  Fraser is about a mile from Winter Park.  Combined these two towns have something like 3000 permanent residents.  This changes during...well, winter...when thousands of skiiers come for the resort.  It was pretty quiet when we went there though.  Needless to say, Winter Park was a very pretty and charming little town.  

We got to town on our second night.  The next day we would check out the summer activities at the ski resort.  But for that night, Regan took us to a really good pizza place.  The whole bar/restaurant was covered in personalized dollar bills.

 

Imagine my surprise when we got seated at our table and I was placed right in front of this:

There was all kinds of excitement before we went out the next day.  I guess someone decided that it wasn't fair for us to not see any cool wildlife in the Rocky Mountain National Park because on our way back to Regan's apartment we saw a fox in the parking lot! Poor thing was so skinny though.  This is the closest shot I could get without the risk of getting rabies.  See it?

The next day Ojas and I were off to the resort.  Again, this was a ski resort with no snow buuut they had stuff you could do during the summer.  The place itself was fun to be around.  It was like Disney with real buildings.

The resort had an assortment of things to do.  We went on this "ride" got the GYROEXTREME which involved us sitting in this contraption and getting spinned upside down...over and over again for two minutes (Ojas laughed like a little girl on this one).  We ran through a maze which involved finding all four letters of the word "MAZE" and making it out by a certain time (the problem with this was that we had just eaten and running after the first minute would probably end up in puking...so we jogged and sometimes walked very quickly).

One of the two more exciting things to do were the ski lift up to the top of (and back down) the mountain.  It was a nice ride.  It made me feel a little uneasy knowing that we were going high in this rickety chair held by this rickety cable.

 

and higher...

and higher...

The most funnest (to be grammatically correct) thing to do at the resort was definitely the alpine slide.  If you've never been before, I highly recommend it.  It's so awesome.  We went on this thing like 10 times...each time getting faster and faster.

  

 

As you probably noted, this little white girl is neither I nor Ojas. I wish I could've gotten pictures of us on it. 

Story time:

I had been alpine sliding a few times with my dad and brother when I was younger.  I used to love it until one very traumatizing experience.  I was just a wee young lassie of probably 8 years back then and I was reckless.  I was gunning it down the slide and realized too late that someone in front of me had gotten scared and decided to stop...in the middle of the track.  I didn't have enough time to brake and neither did the person behind me.  Flash forward 30 seconds later and there are three crying kids stranded mid-mountain on the side of the track.  I don't remember much about what happened after...but I think our dads came to our rescue.

...16 years later and I was ready to alpine slide again.  There was this one run down the slide that did frighten me.  It seemed like there was a marmot party going on and all of them were on a mission to creep me out.  Every 20 feet or so I saw one of these peeking over...I thought they'd hop onto the track and I'd run them over!

I got by safe though and no marmots were harmed during my sliding.  Funny thing is that I probably rode down 6 more times and I never saw another one after that.

On a last note, Winter Park was both relaxing and fun.  Sadly it was our last full day left in Colorado.  The next day we headed back to Denver.