Random Tit-bits

* We have a fourth person (I am not sure if I can call a soft toy “person”) at the dining table these days, The purple dinasour “Barney” aka “baaji”. Boo boo makes sure “baaji” eats food, drinks water and milk.

* M was pulling an all nighter at work yesterday and I got to spend quality time with booboo. He ate rice crispies after coming home from work / day care followed by orange juice. He plaed the doctor and gave me a full checkup which included an ear examination by poking the device into my ears.

* We practised throwing M&M’s at the trunk of his fire truck. At the end of the practise session we had to clean the dining room which had M&M’s scattered all over.

* I received an email from a person about one of the posts I wrote few days back.

* Fell asleep on the couch watching chelsea lately. Woke up half past 12 and dragged myselg to the second floor, after this process, I could no longer sleep. So I also pulled an all nighter chatting with my friends in india. I enjoyed it. And today that leaved me yawning all through the day.

 

Whats in a name?????

I have been thinking of writing a post on my take about the whole “maiden name”, “married name” drama.

It is a common practice in most of the countries (atleast the ones I have been to or people I met from) to change the girls maiden name (father’s family name) to husband’s family name. In certain cases I have also seen people changing the first name of the girl, and in this case this girl looses her complete name and acquires a totally new name, new family etc.

This one time I asked my mother why her name is different from her brother, father and mother’s last name ( I was may be 9 years old at that time). That was the first time she explained how a girl gets married and moves on to the boys family and takes up his name and how she then has to abide by the rules of that family and take care of her MIL and FIL. She even told me how the girls parents are not supposed to take any gifts from the girl, as her parents no longer have any rights over her money (if the girl is working). I will not call my mother old fashioned as this incident happened some 21 years back and this is how people used to think back in those days. I clearly remember my reaction to what she said, I was very angry and felt its an injustice towards the girl and her family. And then I told her my intentions of retaining my fathers name and even passing it on to my children and how I will support them (my parents) financially once I start working. My mother said, this is how all the girls feel till they get married. I begged to differ with her and mentioned that remember this and one day I shall prove my words.

So I got married to the guy I loved the most. He is the most understanding, funny, smart, intelligent guy. Day after my wedding FIL proposed to get my name changed in the official gazette so that there wont be any legal problems (somehow I missed discussing this whole name_changing_after_marriage part with M during our dating days) and also change my name in the office records, bank accounts and passport. So practically he wanted to wipe out my total identity and create a new one altogether. Taking up husbands name also meant I take his religious identity (he practices Jainism and his family name is jain too) which was one more thing to think about. But as a new bride and with all these changes happening in my life I somehow could not say no to my FIL and within few days M spoke to out lawyer and told him about this whole name change thing. So the whole process was completed and I was supposed to go to the court and take a oath in front of the judge and give up my maiden name and take my husbands name. And I did go to the court also and then I saw this woman who was there for the same purpose as I was then within minutes the judge was asking her if she is willing to give up her name and how it is illegal to use her maiden name going forward. This sentence stuck me hard and got me thinking. Using ones maiden name can get them into trouble? Was this some kind of a joke? I mumbled into M’s ears immediately and walked out of that place feeling very happy and relaxed. M was totally cool with my decision and life went on. Onetime my FIL received an email from me with my maiden name in the ID, this annoyed him and from then on he does not email me. One day I was telling my mother about how I did not change my name and reminded her of our discussion long time back. She was surprised.

I am not at all saying it’s the right thing I did or it’s the wrong thing. I followed my own belief. There are women who are more than willing to take up their husbands name, and there is nothing wrong with it. All I say is this decision should be left to the girl and not the in-laws or the society to decide.

 

Strawberries, Cherries and a hair cut.

I know it’s a difficult task to pick either one of the fruits, so booboo decided to have a box of each and eat them alternatively. If not anything else booboo has good eating habits. He never demands any candy, soda, fried food, ice creams and cakes. But when it comes to eating regular stuff he is extremely picky, his cheese has to be craft singles, dosa has to be medium crispy, rice and lentils mixed properly, noodles with tomato flavors, so on and so forth.

When ever he likes something I feel a sense of comfort. Being a vegetarian and picky eater is not so easy here in this country. So I was talking about Friday evening when M, me and booboo decided to finish grocery shopping in the evening itself and utilize the weekend better. Booboo did his share of shopping also, one box of strawberries and one box of cherries. We also got the DVD of “tashan”. So it started on Friday night and he carried some leftover cherries to his day care today. He was eating these fruits like before& after breakfast, lunch and dinner. And also I made him a smoothie with banana and strawberries.

Now talking about Tashan, it was an absolutely trashy movie, I guess Anil Kapoor should act and dress up as per his age, Its high time now. What do I say about Kareena Kapoor, god knows what started this whole size zero thing in her mind, if you look at her body alone its looking good but her face is no matching it. So there you go, whole through the movie I got a weird feeling that kareena’s face is pasted on someone else’s body.

Sunday afternoon I took booboo to the nearby park. He had a blast there. Slides seem to be his favorite at the moment and he prefers climbing on that from the bottom of the inclined plank rather than using the stairs. Now comes part which I dread the most, his hair cut. His hair is very unmanageable and kind of rough in texture and added to that it grows very fast. And for reasons beyond my understanding he does not like anyone comb his hair or clip his nails. So u get the idea how difficult it is for me to get him a hair cut. In order to avoid a visit to the hair saloon in the next three months I got him a navy cut. He cried his lungs out, wriggled in his dad’s arms and tried to bite me once. Well you know who won this fight, he has to understand who is the mother here. Inspite of all this protests he enjoyed looking at himself in the mirror after the hair cut and kind of admired himself.

 

 

 

Why?????

Why some people refuse to hear others view point and ridicule if someone disagrees on the context of right of speech. Yet they manage to find some followers who will praise this person for everything they do? How difficult is it to disagree with people if you do not believe in it and take a stand if the other person is unable to understand it. I personally cannot stand such arrogant snobs, I cannot hear to the constant criticism about everything they do not have or cannot do. I agree we all want to believe that what we have and what we do is perfect, but why their so called followers (read chamchas) have to agree everything they say. This kind of situations piss me off big-time. How do I tackle such situations? Ignore them as you cannot reason with such self righteous fools.

 

 

Six Flags, Ice cream & go carting.

Yes these were few of the main attractions in Lake George we succumbed to. And also there was running around in Lake George beach, taking a boat ride in the lake, playing golf and all the shopping and driving husband insane

So Monday being a holiday we had a early dispersal on Friday, so I left work @ 3:00pm reached home by 4:00. Made tea, cooked dinner and loaded the washing machine. By 5:30 I completed all this and went to pick up husband from his office. The plan was to pick boo boo after him and then come home and go out for dinner. Since I already cooked dinner we had to fit the grocery shopping somewhere in between. So from M’s office we both went to get groceries and then pick up booboo.

Whenever we go out on a vacation I make it a point to finish the weekend cleaning so that when I come back all tired this one huge task is hanging on my neck like a sword. So Friday night I spent cleaning the second floor, feed booboo and clean the first floor finish the laundry, arrange the clothes in closets, eat dinner and load the dishwasher. Phew!!!!i feel tired while typing this. So cleaning here means, dusting, cleaning the bathrooms, mopping the floor, and second floor needs vacuuming. Saturday morning woke up early, packed our bags, showered, fed boo boo, fixed breakfast for self and M and we hit the roads by 10:30am instead of the planned 9:00am.

Weather was perfect, a clear sky and crisp sunny morning it was. Drove about two hours and made a pit stop at one of the service areas, grabbed some lunch and this time I took the steering and more or less it was a good drive except for a 20minutes traffic jam. We checked in and relaxed for a about half an hour and then drove towards the city center where we had to take the boat which will take us around the lake for an hour. Dinner was at this Mexican restaurant and then a long walk around the city center. As I mentioned vacations for me are more about waking up late and no fixing breakfast than running under a tight schedule to cover all the so called spots and click some pictures.

Sunday morning woke up late or rather slept till boo boo allowed us to followed by a continental breakfast provided by the hotel. First half of the day we spent playing golf, infact booboo also got a plastic golf club and he enjoyed chasing the ball. So there was this gaming arcade in the golf course, where I played some games using quarters and won around 350 points which I used to but a huge soft toy for booboo which he loved. We quickly finished a pizza lunch and headed for go-karting. I was not sure how we can manage to go kart with boo boo. Well M had plans, we both took separate karts and M’s cart was a two seater and booboo sat with him. I literally braced myself and left the matter in almighty’s hands, I have not heard of a two year old hitting the go karting track. After the stipulated time both father and son came out laughing and it seems booboo had a blast, I tell you he is a little monster.

From here we went to the six flags-great escape. I had this same question, what will a two year old do there, apparently this two year old in question has a lot to do. He sat on some 9 rides and came out laughing and this included the roller coaster which almost gave me a heart attack. The day ended on a good note, I got to go-kart and play in the arcade, M, me and BooBoo got to ride so many rides. We came home around 10:00 fed and bathed and put booboo to sleep. And this is the time we (M & I) get to sit and talk and relax. I was so looking forward for the next day. To my surprise M wanted to visit the six flags again on Monday and then drive back home, but I was not sure about that. Morning we checked out of the hotel, went straight to the lake and we went parasailing. It was so much fun, I loved it. As we were driving towards six flags I happened to see this huge shopping area with all the names like Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic, GAP, COACH, Gymboree, and many more. That’s about it, I demanded to be dropped off there and gave husband the choice to take booboo along with him to six flags or wherever he pleased. I knew my man cannot leave me and go, guys please its not love, he doesn’t trust me in such places. So we shopped till we dropped, I brought shirts, tops, hand bags, summer wear for booboo, summer clothes for husband, a dinner set from corelle & shoes for all. By the way husband is planning a bank robbery to pay the credit card bills else he needs to sell his kidney to raise the money. But I had fun. Around 4:30 we hit the freeway to drive back home. Booboo slept almost for two hours and later also he was a sweetheart and did not bother me while I was driving, husband was getting nervous looking a the speedometer, It read 80mph most of the time.

As planned I came home and the house was spic and span, I had cooked extra food on Friday so no cooking, I had to microwave it and eat. Unpacked the bags, arranged everything, finished the laundry, fed boo boo and ourselves. By 11:00pm I finished everything and called it a day.

Today morning I am fresh and infact looked forward to come back to work.

P.s., I forgot to write about ice cream. Somehow there were hundreds of ice cream shops there and I resisted the temptation and managed till we made the pit stop on our way back. There I gave it up for a chocolate vanilla cone. Delicious it was.

 

Mini Vacation

I need a real big vacation but at the moment that looks like a distant dream. So I decided to make the best out of the available resources. Memorial day falls on Monday so that gives me three days of weekend. I am a sucker for relaxed holidays. Going to a new place for me means relaxed walks near the lake, boating or even lying down on the beach and get some sun. I could never go on a vacation with a very hectic schedule, where all I am doing is hopping from one tourist destination to another in between clicking pictures. Vacation for me means relaxing and rejuvenating. Come Monday I should be fresh and looking forward to go to work.

Keeping all the constrainst / requirements in mind Lake George, which is in upstate New York looks like a perfect place. 

 

 

Of Pedicures & Pediatrician

What??? Do we get pedicures & manicures at the pediatricians office while we wait there for hours with a sick baby??? The answer is no. I meant to say my weekend started with getting a nice pedicure & manicure and ended with a visit to the ped.

Sometimes we get indications when things are about to get rough. Booboo’s babysitter was down with cold and fever last week and so were most of his classmates at the day care. I was kind of waiting for it to happen to booboo any day. Somehow he stayed put till Friday evening and I decided to take him to the doctors on Saturday to be on the safer side. So Friday evening I leave office @ 6:00pm and reach the bus stop on Times square to find a long Q. Well I had an option to either stand in the line and wait for the bus to come or else take the subway, go to the 33rd street and take a path from there to jersey and then take another bus to reach home. I decided to stand in the line and wait for the bus and y’all can guess the reason why I did so, changing two trains and one bus is so not me. Unfortunately it was raining and there is no shelter in the stop and it was windy too to make it more annoying. So I waited there for like 45 minutes before the bus arrived. This was the first indication that things are going to get rough.

Some how I reach home, half drenched and cold. M picked up boo boo from his babysitter so it was one less thing to do. I headed straight to the kitchen put some lentils in a cooker and rice on another pot and meanwhile I managed to change, peek at into my yahoo mailbox and send a confirmation mail for a Sunday brunch with my girl friends. Came down, loaded the washing machine with first load of laundry and then it was almost dinner time. So here started the real trouble, booboo refused to eat anything and I totally lost it and had a major meltdown when M suggested that I he might not be hungry or he is sick. When I get mad I get really mad, you do not wanna see me in such state of mind. The recipients of my anger were booboo and M. It took me almost one hour to settle down. Later when I thought of it, there was no reason for the meltdown, I know if booboo is not eating he is sick, why did I loose it? Reason is PMS, the bloody PMS, I hate being a woman during such days. Anyways booboo went to sleep and M put food in my plate as I refused to leave the couch. So it was dinner and some sweet talk from hubby which put me at little ease and we called it a day.

Saturday morning was the same regular, breakfast, cleaning and cooking lunch. Surprisingly I was done with all the chores by 1:00 in the afternoon and decided to get my nails done and also try a facial and hair cut if time permits. Left booboo with M and drove to the parlor. So the nails place (run by a Chinese guy) and the parlor (run by an Indian woman) and next door. This is very helpful as I need not search for parking twice. So I went into this nail place to be told that there is a 15-20 mins wait as there is one person ahead of me waiting, I decided to come back later and went to this parlor to see if I could get a facial meanwhile. All this exercise was to cut on the waiting time, but we can never be sure of the outcome as the lady at the parlor informed me that there is a 30 minutes wait there also. I know you will say I should have taken appointment, they do not have such system, its FIFO. Juggling between both the option I managed to get a very good pedicure / manicure and a hair cut plus an amazing facial.

Back home again the same routine, cooking, feeding, cleaning and then a late night movie.

Sunday morning boo boo woke up with a slight temperature. So this is it, the virus made its way into his body and he is now showing the symptoms. Managed to fix a quick breakfast and bathed him. Made appointment with his doctor and we three drove there @ 11:00am and the wait was long, very long. It was a full two hours before the doctor saw booboo and declared that he has a throat infection and we need not worry, he will keep getting fever and Tylenol will help. It will take 3-4 days for him to get better. I was not satisfied with her answer but I am no authority on the subject hence kept quiet and went back home. Sunday night was a night mare, first time since he is born I was awake whole night meeting his demand to be carried, to go upstairs, to go downstairs, eat cheerios / mango which followed by a vomit. Phew!!!!! He went to sleep only around 5:00am. I took a day off on Monday and made another visit to the doctors office, followed by lunch. So around 4:30 in the afternoon boo boo showed some willingness to take a nap, and I barely slept for 15mins, there was a call from my husband, he was just checking how boo boo is and what we were up to. So there goes my sleep and I go down to watch some TV, clean the kitchen, fix dinner and the same old routine. A hectic weekend it was.

Thanks god booboo is better now. Looking forward to my next weekend trip to Lake George.

 

My latest obsession

I always crib about how I am not loosing weight but somehow I find out ways to get obsessed with something which is high in calories and hog on it till I gain a coupla pounds.

So lets talk about my latest obsession.

One chocolate chip cookie (white or regular chocolate).

One scoop of vanilla ice cream and one scoop of chocolate ice cream.

Put the cookie in a microwaveable bowl for 30 seconds and once its warm add these two scoops of ice cream on it for a few second, The heat in the cookie softens the ice cream and in this process the cookie becomes a little crunchy…

Dig in my friends and enjoy the taste of this heavenly combination.

 

 

Whats in my purse tag

Its been a while I did any tags so picked up The “What’s-in-your-handbag” Tag from

Pixie.I carry a medium size brown soft leather bag. I have been using this for the last 8 months. I know its weird but that’s how I am, when I like something I keep using it till its totally unusable. And the most interesting point is that I have had bought 3-4 bags in between and they are sitting in my closet. Anyways now coming to the contents of the bag here is the list:

 

- A 7 year old wallet which I use to carry cash, credits cards and loose change.

- One calling card (India), I guess I have to use it now as its more than a year old. I have been using the reliance post paid service for a while now.

- Small pouch containing a tooth brush, tooth paste, floss and a small bottle of mouthwash.

- One comb.

- one NJ municipality parking ticket (paid, need to chuck it).

- One book.

- Print out of my time sheets which need filing.

- Miniplanner.

- Small leather pouch to carry my check book.

- One SP

- One lip gloss, one lip liner, one lipstick, one bronzer.

- Metro card

- Cell Phone

- iPod

- Cell Phone hands free.

- Keys

- Wet wipes

- Lots of Ann Taylor receipts ( I need to chuck ‘em)

- Hand Sanitizing wipes.

- Orbit bubble mint flavor gum.

- 4-5 pens, one pencil, one marker.

- 2 rubber bands.

Huh!!!!!!!!! That called for a little digging around, but I must admit it was fun though.

I wont tag anyone in particular, anyone who wants to disclose the contents of their purse is welcome to take it up.

 

Seven years back same day !!!!!!

Seven years back they met for the first time.He was an introvert geek looking for a friend in a new city and she was an ambitious banker looking for a no strings attached relationship.

Seven years back he came to her house to take her on their first date dressed casually in a blue checks shirt and jeans. She was dressed in a crisp cotton pink kurta and white shalwar with a nervous smile on her face. Both decided to spend sometime sitting on the necklace road and get to know each other better. Today both came from work and got their two year old son ready and headed towards an Italian restaurant (she wanted Indian and he is tired of all the Indian restaurants nearby).

Seven years back they sat on the green grass talking about their life so far, their families, college, and ambitions. I remember she telling him on their first date about the desire to climb up the corporate ladder and have a successful career and he mentioning how boring he finds working for someone and he would like to start his own business. Today they talk about the cute little things their son is doing and how he learnt about all the features of the new robot they brought him.

Seven years back they decide to go to Rivera (restaurant near sangeet theater in Hyderabad) and she orders a sizzler and at the end of the date they split up the bill as she was too proud to let a guy pay her food bill. Today they go to an Italian restaurant order the regular soup, salad and bread sticks with a martini and try to have an adult conversation when their son is trying to make a mess trying to feed himself.

Seven years back he brought a bunch of roses on the way back home and told her it’s the first time ever he gave roses to a girl ( he won her heart here as she loves roses) and asked her if they will meet again, to which she said I am not sure when but yes we will meet. She did not want to meet him on a regular basis as it would have effected her work. Today he carries a sleeping baby in his arms and she drives the car back home. He puts the baby on bed and she is cleaning the kitchen, arranging the toys and making sure the doors are locked.

Seven years back he says goodbye to her and drives back home, she comes into the house and tells her flat mate about this guy she met for dinner and that she kind of liked him would want to meet him again. It is almost 11:30 in the night and deep down her heart she wants him to call her and surprisingly he also wanted to speak to her one more time before going to bed and the telephone bell rings and she knows its him and answers the phone with a smile on her face and they talk whole night. Today she goes to bed resting her head on his arms and thanking god that they met Seven Years Back.