Swings and Carnival Bling

Sometimes I get into these really weird moods.  When I'm in these moods, I usually feel pretty down...the worse part is not knowing what will make me feel better.  Last Saturday, my mind and body couldn't decide whether I wanted to lay on the couch and watch made-for-tv movies or if I wanted to gather some friends and check out the carnival being put on my the local Italian American club.  After calling some people and losing all motivation, I had pretty much decided that laying on the couch was the option that seemed to be calling out to me.  Then my mom got home from work.

Turns out she was in the same exact mood.  She decided that we needed to get out of the house so we went and got dinner.  We came home and after a few glasses of wine, it seemed so silly that we were passing up on a carnival.  So my mom and I went to the carnival...while slightly under the influence. Slighty.

 

 

 

 

We opted to save our money by just simply walking around the carnival...taking in all the lights, the smell of the funnel cakes, the excitement of little kids.  Then we saw this baby:

Now...I'm not a huge fan of riding carnival rides seeing as how they're put up and taken down so easily.  For instance, you would never see me on the ride in the third picture above.  No way.  But the swings were different.  They were my favorite ride at the Dade County Fair (which we went to EVERY year when I lived in Miami).  Naturally, as the wine coursed through our bodies, we were (or maybe just I was) itching to get on this thing.

My mom insisted that she try to take pictures while we were on the ride.
I don't think I laughed that hard in a while.  Only you can't see anything but my arms and legs.

This is a horrible picture...as I was extremely sweaty.  But...It turned out to be a good night after all.

 

Song of the Day + Bad Mood Pick-Me Up

Angela is one of my favorite friends.  One thing I really like about her is that she shares my taste of music.  She usually finds out about bands and stuff before me.  When I saw her in Gainesville she told me about Phoenix.  Apparently they've been around for a while but I've never heard of them.  I really like their song "If I Ever Feel Better".

I've been in kind of a bad mood this last weekend.  It's hard not having a job.  I could go on about how miserable it's making me but I've done that too many times.  But I feel like this song portrays the general mood I've been in.  Besides that, it's also pretty catchy.

Girls Weekend in Orlando

If there's anything that I love more than theme parks, it's going to theme parks with some of my favorite girls.  We had been planning an Orlando reunion for MONTHS!  I'm glad we waited though because the weather was beautiful...and the lines were very short.

Before we went on to Universal on Saturday, we decided to go out on Friday.  We were all staying with Sarah who is in Orlando for med school rotations.  She asked if we wanted to meet up with some of her friends before going out.  While we were all for the plan, we thought we'd be going to some dumpy college-y house near downtown Orlando.  No...Sarah failed to mention that this place was on the 27th floor of this awesome apartment building right by Lake Eola!  Look at the view!

Here's our group!

The next day, we rolled out of bed at 11:30 and got to Universal around 3.  Usually this would have KILLED me.  But I said to myself "Self, you have been to this place a million times...so many times that we won't need a map because you'll know where every ride is.  So chill out and enjoy the time you have with your friends."  And so instead of rushing to each ride like a lunatic, I learned that it's a lot of fun to just goof around the park and take silly pictures.

 

 This day also reconfirmed that I need to be working for a theme park.  I'm still in awe of all the fake buildings and stuff!

The next day, Lindsay, LaTeresa and I decided to spend the day at Islands of Adventure while Sarah and Brittany stayed home.  I'm so glad Teresa came out with us this weekend! She was so much fun! And of course, I always love little Lindsay.

Teresa participated in every way she could.  Here she is as one of the stunt actors on the Disaster ride.

Hehe...she loved the Simpsons

We found out that Lindsay's grandpa is friends with the creator of Marmaduke.  Lindsay tried saying hi to Marmaduke...but he kept running away!

My pick for most awesome picture of the day.  Who wouldn't wanna chill out with Cyclops?!

A Ladies Night Poem

Friday, a Ladies Night at La Casa de Patel

How many Indian women? I couldn't tell.

For there were three different types of bottles of wine

and thai food which tasted mighty fine.

We played Pictionary until we were all hysterical

How did we win? Must've been a crazy miracle.

For dessert, delicious chocolate covered strawberries

Made em myself...with the help of Luke Perry.

(or maybe just by myself)

At the end of the night before it was time to go

I said "Ladies, let's have some chai! Whatchu gotta go fo'?!"

So once more we gathered to sip some tea

And everyone there was filled with glee.

Song of the Day + New Moon

Let's state the obvious here...I'm a Twilight fan.  I'm not sure if I'm proud of it.  Usually I only talk about this "problem" with others that have it.  So New Moon is coming out in 11 days.  I have to say...I'm pretty excited.  Maybe even REALLY excited.

One of the things I was looking forward to was the soundtrack.  The first movie's soundtrack was pretty good so I hoped that the second would be too.  When I mentioned this to my friend Tina, she graciously offered to mail me a copy of the soundtrack. (Thanks again, Tina)  So far, I'm pretty pleased.  The soundtrack has another Muse song on it...and I love them.  There are also a lot of folksy songs on it too...songs that are good AND totally fit the story.  I can't believe that Death Cab for Cutie and the Killers even have songs on it.

So for anyone who is interested here is the song by OK Go, Shooting the Moon.

RIP Ru

Last night, Ru Paul, our beta fish had a little too much fun jumping around in his fish bowl.  He swam and jumped so hard that when my mom walked into the kitchen she found Ru Paul on the floor.  He was at least 6 feet away from the counter where his bowl stood.  My mom cried out "OH MY GOODNESS!" and began to scoop him up.  Even after falling 4 feet down, Ru Paul had a little fight left in him.  He flopped around, my mom scooped him up, and we both sighed in relief when we realized he was still alive.  Or rather...barely alive.

Today we found Ru Paul wasn't swimming anymore so I put him to rest in the toilet.  I might have even cried a little.  Hopefully he'll join Boy George, our former beta fish.  Both were named after flamboyant celebrities because of the fact that they were both male and rainbow colored.  I plan to name the next one Elton.

My Bollywood Legacy

There's something that I left out of my last post because I thought it too important.  It really deserves it's own entry.

In 1967, a major Bollywood film was released.  It was called Naunihal.

This movie featured a playground scene at a boarding school in India.  The scene included the actual children and required them to sing, dance, and toot some horns.  That school in Panchgani happened to be the very institution where my dad and uncle went for several years.  The following clip is of the playground scene.  And in this clip you will find my uncle dancing and singing and tooting a horn and you will my dad swinging around and singing and swaying.  This clip is brought to you by my cousin, Rishal who was thoughtful enough to point out the exact four moments where his dad was featured in the movie. (:50, 2:05, 3:07, 3:15)



My dad is featured in two parts of the video-- at 1:19 (dark shirt, right in front,on the spinning thing) and 1:31 (sitting on the top step on the left).

I am so glad that my uncle and dad did not make a big deal of their movie performances...and that they raised me to become humble and down to earth.  (Note: last statement is dripping with sarcasm)

Ma and Dada go back to England

On Sunday my mom, Nana (my uncle), and I went to my Uncle's house in Miami.  We went to gather one last time before my grandparents headed back to England.  It makes me happy when we all get together.  My family there is only an hour and a half away from where I live and yet I don't see them very much.  I can't believe that Rikesh started driving...and Rishal's in college?! I feel old.

We spent our after noon walking on the beach and the boardwalk along it.

The boys

The girls

 

 

I love this picture

Watermelon snack break on the boardwalk.  Man, were there some interesting people to watch.  This one guy was power walking like a power walking fool.  He must've passed by us like 5 or 6 times.

 

The moon came out early.  It was beautiful.

When we came across Fountain Bleu, a very fancy hotel, we just stopped and started looking around at it.  That was when my family as a whole decided we should sneak in and walk around like we owned the place.  And that's just what we did.

 

Dada chillin out by the cabana.

We even went inside the hotel and ventured into the bathroom, lobby, and bar.

 

I took this picture of my cousins through a window.  It made them look like ghosts.  Crazy how you only see Rikesh's feet and then the rest of him is transparent.

After the beach, we went to Rotelli's, an Italian restaurant at the Dolphin mall.  The whole family was trying to keep this a secret from my Dada because we were planning a mini surprise birthday for him.  My grandparents ain't no fools though.  They knew what was up.  My Ma knew something was up as soon as we got to the beach.

Happy Birthday Dada! He's probably one of the cutest men ever.

Halloweenies

Well Halloween didn't go as planned.  I didn't end up dressing up as M.I.A. but there's always next year.  I always have problems coming up with stuff to dress up as anyways...so really, this works to my advantage.

I did, however, go to Howl-O-Scream with Kalen.  This was a very spontaneous decision.  We didn't buy our tickets until 5 minutes before we left for Tampa.  We weren't sure if we should go because we were used to Halloween Horror Nights...where the lines are about 2 hours long for each house.  Also, I became a nervous wreck just thinking about the houses and Kalen was a nervous wreck because I told her I would try to make her go on a rollercoaster with me.  Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun.  There were no lines, the houses were scary but not tooooo scary (yeah right...almost lost my voice), and I rode 2 coasters by myself (with no line, Kalen was nice enough to wait).

Here's some proof of our shenanigans.  Wish I could've captured my blood curdling scream through some of those houses. Eek!

"AHH!!!!! Oh ermm...can we get a picture with you?"

The two most seductive House of Vayne vampires.  Pay no attention to me having a dude's body.

Somehow I was the only one making dorky faces.  At least both of us were a little sweaty.  October 31st, my foot. 

 

While we're in the Halloween spirit, a lot of people give away prizes for the best costume at their parties.  Well I must say that I would have to give the prize to my three cousins, Kayla, Jayna, and Rhianna.

Especially little Nani.  I feel like grabbing her through this picture and just squeezing the life out of her.  So cute.

Diwali Video

Here's my mom's and Anumasi's dance from the Diwali show.  I tried to be unbiased and tape everyone but somehow my camera kept straying back to the family. :P My mom was a girl and her partner, the "guy", is actually my aunt :) Very entertaining.