"I'll wait by the backstage door"

My mom, Anumasi, and Maya must be sick of seeing themselves on this blog.  Well, tough cookies for them.

India Fest was on the day before my birthday this year.  This is a festival that our Indian Association puts together every year.  They sell food, clothes, and jewelry.  They also have performances on stage.

As with the Diwali show, I was kinda weirded out with the fact that my mom was the one in the show while I was the one in the audience.  This wasn't the case until about 2 years ago.  I really miss dancing.  Sigh...how I long for the garba years.  Anyways, I digress.

Since everyone was taking so many pictures of the performances, I thought it would be cool to take some pictures of where most of the action happens -- backstage.  It was fun helping my family get ready.  Maya was in a dance and her "costume" was actually my masi's wedding sari.  Crazy crazy.

"Please take it easy, it can't all be my fault"

I've done it again. I've neglected my blog. But I swear I've had my reasons.

Excuse #1:

I have actually been working lately. Gasp!  I have been employed to do some Sketch Up work for some people in Orlando.  While this house has taken several hours of my time...it's actually pretty fun for me.  Here's a little sample:

 Oh if only I could put a little teal on those walls.  I don't think they would like it though.

Excuse #2:

After completing said work one day, I decided that I would relax for a little while.  So before claiming my space on the couch, I walked into my room to grab a book.  That's when I discovered this:

Disregard the pink 80's furniture and you'll see that my carpet is sopping wet! What...not just the carpet in my room??

Oh cool...the hallway between my room and bathroom too.  After a little ("little" meaning "mega") meltdown, my mom and I call a plumber and the insurance company.  The tile of my bathroom isn't wet at all but there's a tricking noise in the wall.  The whole problem was because of this little sucker:

 

So flashforward past some drywall cutting, carpet ripping, and 4 days of giant fans...and now my room looks like this:

Come on, home insurance! Mama wants some new furniture!

Excuse #3:

I've been gallivanting with family.  I saw two live performances with my mom and other members of the Patel clan. One was a one man jazz show with my uncle (Nana).  While the music could've been better, the night was great and people were definitely enjoying themselves:

The other was the Beauty and the Beast Broadway Musical!! AHHH!! EXCITEMENT OVERLOAD! But seriously.  It was so good!  And so colorful!  And I'm really glad I liked the actors because that movie gives them a lot to live up to :)  

We went with my aunt (Anumasi) and my cousin Maya.  As you'll see below, Maya is 15 (count it...that's 10 years younger than me) and yet the two of us were equally excited about this show.

I already have my next post lined up! See ya tomorrow :)

Song of the Day

I cannot stop listening to this song! I love it! I think I'm sorta falling in love with this band.  Here's The Script's "Breakeven".




I feel like Terence Eglitis would concur?

"25 and yearning for a ticket out"

My birthday was on Sunday, March 28th! Can you believe I'm 25? Personally, I'm a little flabbergasted. 

For the last 11 months I've been sulking and whining about how I don't have many friends anymore.  But on Saturday night, I realized that I've had good friends here all along.  A group of us went out to Bar Louie and maaaan oh man I had fun.  Let's just say that it's a blessing that I drank as much water as I did.

Here are some highlights of our night out:

We start the night off with a nice picture of the girls (and Ryan...he somehow made his way into almost all of the pictures)

Later in the night and we cut to the dancing. Oh the dancing.  We all have to thank Victoria for starting this :)

And flash forward to our friend-walk to Pita Pit.  We walked like this for the whole way there...mostly to make sure that Ryan made it there okay.

At the end of the night, I decided that my feet were hot.  Notice the look of satisfaction on my face.

After Saturday's shenanigans, I needed Sunday to do absolutely nothing!  I woke up at 12 with my mom freakin out at something hovering in front of our door.  She thought it was a person when really it was a balloon from Ojas.  The balloon was attached to a box and when I opened it, the balloon got loose and now is sitting at the ceiling on top of our living room.

And this is what I found in the box (along with a really cute note).  Thanks, Ojas! :)

Again, I'm really lucky to have such good people around me.  This birthday was so much fun! 

 

"Somebody told me that you have a boyfriend that looks like a girlfriend..."

One of the things I like about Ojas is that he is comfortable with himself.  So comfortable, in fact,  that when I had this huge balloon hat made for him at Sweet Tomatoes, he wore it around with pride. 

Just in case you couldn't tell...the hat is one that a female viking or opera singer would wear.  Note the blonde braids.  Sometimes I really can't tell who wears the pants in our relationship.

"Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married..."

To say I had fun at Karen and Rick's wedding would be a huge understatement. There are just so many things about weddings that make me happy: seeing old friends, dancing, dressing up, umm...the open bar.

I have known Karen since the sixth grade and it is just insane to see someone you've known for that long get married. It seems like she and Rick have been a married couple for a while, hehe, but it's still exciting to see it actually happen!

So here are a few of my favorite things from the Szatkowski wedding:

The photographer had us take pictures on the beach. It was sooooo windy out and our hair was whipping in our faces and our heels were sinking in the sand and our skirts were flying up and...it was so much fun. Of course the limo ride to and from the beach was a blast as well :) The boys had beer ready for us and we were all singing. It was already known that a great night was approaching us!

 Another shining moment of the weekend was getting my friend Jeff to "raise the roof" with me and we walked into the reception.  And even better...catching him sing "Stayin Alive" to himself later in the evening.  I think that was like the first time I've seen Jeff both sing and dance...let alone at the same time.

Ah, Gainesville Place...what awesome neighbors we had.  Thank goodness Karen moved in with them because we might have never have known them!  It was so good seeing them at the wedding.  They are just so fun to be around! And of course, so are my old roomies :)

Speaking of roomies...dancing with Kalen was definitely a highlight!  We pulled out all of our old moves. I just wish we had remembered to perform the "Grocery Store Checkout".  Either way, no one could ever dream of having our skills.  We're like fire and ice! Sugar and spice! Vanilla and chocolate!

 

Ojas's flight got cancelled for the weekend due to snow in Dallas?!  And although we missed him, I decided to bring my mom as my date to the rehearsal dinner.  I  couldn't make a better date choice.  We had a blast...and we may have had a little toooo much wine.

During the reception, Karen and Rick played a game where the DJ would say something like "Who will wash the dishes?" and the couple would anonymously hold up the shoe of the person who would do it.  This picture was taken on the last question when the DJ asked "Who wears the pants?".  Of course they both held up Karen's shoe.

And my favorite thing of all...seeing one of my best friends get married to a really great guy (who happens to also be a friend of mine).  I can't think of a couple more perfect for each other.  Even if they are a little sickening at times :P

"I'm far from lonely and it's all that I've got"

I could lie and say I've been too busy to update my blog. I have been busy for the past few weekends but not enough to ignore the one hobby that I've actually stuck to since I graduated back in May.

I'm into my 11th month of being unemployed and it is getting old. People tell me "enjoy the time you have because you won't get to do stuff once you get a job." They forget that you need money to do that stuff. Not only do you not have money but you really feel like you have no value to contribute the world. All in all, not getting and having a job...let alone not being able to get one in 10 months...has really made me feel like a loser.

I will say, again, that I'm lucky to have good people in my life. My mom who is there to keep me company. My friends...who I always have a good time with. And my boy who will soon be moving to Florida to be closer to me.

So now that I've said that, there actually has been a lot going on lately. Aside from wedding planning and trying to plan Ojas's move, the following has occurred:
- My friends Karen and Rick got married.
- My friends Terence and Natalie came down to Florida from DC for a few days
- I went to Tampa, Gainesville, and Orlando to see friends that I miss and don't get to see that often
- I have watched entirely too much of My So-Called Life...thank god there was only one season.

So now that I've started again, I will get back on the blogging wagon. See ya tomorrow with a post about Karen and Rick's wedding!

Song of the Day

I am in desperate need of a new post.  It will have to wait because I actually have a little work to do today.  So for now I bring you an entertaining video by The Format.

Mallrats

Man oh man were there some characters at the mall last night.  Naturally the mall always draws in some interesting people but last night it seems like that's all there was! At least in our store, anyways.  At the end of my shift I made sure to write down a short list of the unique customers I encountered last night.  They are as follows:

- talked to herself
- shoelace teenagers 
- old gays
- trauma girl
- fox tail

Now I explain...

- "Talked to herself" was an older lady that came in right when my mom and I were switching shifts.  She was an older lady with a large hat on and she was arguing with herself.  I couldn't hear what she was saying as it was all mumbling but she did say "NO NO...not a good idea" somewhat loudly.  My mom didn't want to leave me alone in the store until she was gone.  I felt kinda bad though because she might have had some sort of dementia.  Either way, I was pretty weirded out.


- The "Shoelace Guys" were about 16 years old.  They came into the store saying "yo" every two seconds then when I asked them if they needed help with anything one kid said "YO...no thanks, yo".  I rolled my eyes as I do when any skater punk sasses me and he says "by the way, I'm not black.  just wanted to let you know....do you have any extra shoelaces?" I told him we didn't.  He gave me back the box of shoes I had pulled out of the backroom for him to try and one of the shoelaces was missing.  Great...now I have to ask this kid if he had the shoelace.  He didn't steal it, he promised.  I ended up finding the shoelace under all the tissue paper in the box.  When they both left, one of the guys comes up to me and says "bye. i love you."  I get so sick of those skater kids sometimes.

- The "Old Gays" were my favorite.  They were probably in their 60s and were looking through the sandals.  One of them asked if he could tell me which ones looked good on him and I had to wait on him and comment on 5 different sandals.  Finally he decided on one and he goes "THANKS, GIIIRRRRRL! You made my day!"  That made me smile.  I think these two were equals in their relationship.  The other day a few old gays had come in and one was DEFINITELY the sugar daddy.  He bought his man-friend a $300 watch...no questions asked.

-  "Trauma Girl" did not not say word to me as she gestured that she wanted to try something on and needed a different size.  I assumed she didn't speak any English.  But then she came up to the register to buy a sweater and said in a low quivery voice "umm...I've just been through a trauma.  So could you like give me a discount."  I couldn't because it was already 20% off.  She walked out of the store very slowly.  I'm about 98% sure that she was on drugs. 

- And then there's "Fox Tail".  She was a tall, lanky thing.  She asked me if we had any shorts that were a little on the longer side.  She wanted to find something that wasn't neutral colored.  She complained about how she felt conscious when she wore shorts that were too short.  She said she had been everywhere to find the right type of shorts.  And then when she walked out, I saw that she had a fox tail attached to her pants.  As if she were a fox herself...but disguised as a human.  I just shook my head and started closing up for the night.

We can be heroes just for one day

By day I'm just your average unemployed Indian girl.  Looking for a job, planning a wedding, spending time with my mom and friends.  Nothing too out of the ordinary.

But by night...I'm a butt-kicking crime-fighting super hero.

Ok so here's the real reason I had baby powder in a strip of my hair:
A few of my friends were going to a "Heroes/Villians" themed party.  Because I am somewhat of a dork/tomboy, I really wanted to go as Rogue from the Xmen. (She and Gambit were my favorites when I was younger)

It turns out only me and my friend Tim dressed up...which was fine.  Tim had dressed up as  Spiderman and it was obvious of who he was supposed to be.  I, on the other hand, had several people walk up to me during the party who said "HEY! YOU'RE STORM!"  I guess the brown skin was throwing everyone off.

Either way, you probably wouldn't wanna mess with this: