Me and my Dentist!

I finally visited my dentist today,"My dentist" ante, my foot! this was my first visit to this clinic I picked as it was about 25 minutes by walk, and Megha, my friend 2 floors above us recommended them, and also, we constantly receive their brochures by mail even when we do not request any!
This was definitely my 2nd choice....my first one being a "Dental Spa" or something like that. The reviews they get are awesome, I believe they give you a paraffin wax hand massage/manicure the first time you visit, also make a caffeine beverage of your choice (yes any latte you ask for) as you leave!.
Why I didn't pick the spa thing? it all sounded way too fishy, as if they make you feel this good while they milk your money?
Anyway, I made an appointment with this other dentist, kept up with them and got the verdict......(drum roll please)

a. 5 cavities ( 2 filled today)
b. 1 RC (Root canal treatment for the healthy teeth freaks who do not frequent the dentist)
c. A stupid 'Crown' or what we call a cap in India to top that RC!

well, with what the billing people at this dentist's office call "Awesome Insurance"
I will end up paying 900 to a whooping 1000 &%$#@)^ dollars!!!!!!! please don't hate me B, please and others reading, please pray I get a job soon (I would love to treat B for all this right)

I now take this very special opportunity to thank my beautiful Mom, handsome Dad, Grandmas, Grandpas, uncles, aunties and any other wonderful soul who has passed on this amazing gene of having pathetic oral health!

Ps: No, I am not to blame just because I brush at least twice a day, rinse twice a day and brush again after coffee/tea/sugar I consume....Period, I am NOT to blame.

Home science :-)

As I clean my charming little apartment for a 7 month old and his family coming tomorrow, I see in my cupboards loads of leftovers from a 3 year old's visit :-( (the sad face coz I miss my Lolsamma) there are chocolate covered gummy bears, strawberry jam, goldfish and I have no clue what to do with it all!
If you are wondering why I cant finish chocolates or jam, my teeth have pathetic cavities and with my dentist appointment on the 7th, I don't want to take a risk with anything sugary and gold fish gets boring after a cup.
With school done, I'll get to invite more people over and this means regular cleaning, dusting and related activities.
Full time school meant we had very few guests aka
1. Classmates for group projects ; coffee/tea with cookies
2. Close friends ; close enough to not clean up thoroughly or even ask to bring snacks on their way as we only had frozen meals or Parle G at home.
It feels like a new start, this social game of having people over, cooking for large groups.
I love the fact that my fridge is always stuffed, my pantry has everything and my house is always ready for surprise visits. So come on people, pour in and make "Mi casa su casa"

Graduated :-)

Yes I am the new graduate in town :-) had my sister, BIL and Niece over to celebrate and did we have fun or what?
Destinations in 2 weeks; Vegasssss, loads of malls, Park City, Bear Lake and the famous Salt Flats.
The time we had driving, fighting (Inevitable btw sisters), hogging (unmentionable pounds) and goofing around with the little one....sigh, totally precious.
With B at work, I now end up avoiding our living room, our beautiful sunny patio just because they remind me of the last 2 weeks of fun. I do miss them all terribly but now wonder why we do this to ourselves, move away from the most important things in life like family and friends?
I still call Bangalore my home, speak in any Indian dialect I manage at the drop of a hat, fell super satisfied after a hot Indian meal and miss my friends and family at home like CRAZY!!
I also like the fresh air here, the beautiful valley I live in, to bike w/o being run over, the school I got my Master's from, new friends I've made and the cozy apartment B and I live in.
I cannot, atleast at this point decide what I want for the future, all I know is we have to find a way to feel contented wherever we are.
As for my niece, I get to spend a couple more days with her this weekend before she crosses oceans, if I take a 4 hour, very expensive flight (courtesy B)
.....will I do it?

Oh yes I will, cant wait to hear her yell "Shillu" :-D

Rantings of a bored girl

I always assumed that B was not the type to go gadget crazy, not bug me around like my dad, trying out stuff or goofing around with fancy new products etc. I do like gadgets, very selectively...like a nice camera lens or a nice apple product, well coming to the topic of discussion,
B was driving this new car from his work (he is into automobile safety stuff) which was quite well loaded. This car I believe had blue tooth connectivity that helped drivers connect the phone automatically to the speakers. I realize this has been there for quite a while in the market now, but we haven't really tried this before.

Anyway, with this feature, B has been driving me crazy by calling me incessantly, trying to call me from the steering wheel, then with his voice command then again with the dash board...sigh, he then asked me to call him several times to try pretty much the same things! Later he found some other feature and unable to figure out how to work that one, he had to call me a couple more times to see if it worked.

The reason why I sound like I am frustrated is he was doing all of this while he was parked! The car doesn't allow him to play around while driving and so his highness had to be parked....in office.....for over 30 minutes on a day he thought he would come home early!

Its summer time here, and I will be having lots of fun in the sun!
Now that school's done,(whoa...wait a minute,the above said rhyme)
I have my Masters, and no job (yet) but a loving hubby and a sister who'll visit...it all screams FUN!

My new neighbour's a desi(Punjabi) and hoping she doesn't get to read this blog, I wish I get a cuppa chole the next time she makes some, for that matter, any yummy dish Punjabi's make would be well appreciated.
And in exchange, I'll promptly share some upma/idlis (yeah Balu cough away, but I will soon make idlis at home). So, now it gives me a total of 3 Indians living very close and yeah, time for chai parties :-)

Well, I did invite the new one home for tea today and there is not a drop of milk at home...I just finished the last drop for my morning coffee and now hate to get dressed to go the the grocer to buy some.
The only way to skip away from this engagement is to go to school to finish my last assignment! ha ha but have to get ready for that too...so here's my evil plan, I'll take the old neighbour to the new one's house, and with that, I don't have to really get ready and get my afternoon tea too :-)

This really happens in my head, I really am this mean and sometimes wonder if anyone else thinks anything as mean as this?

What is it with the train of thoughts, the way one stupid thing leads to about 30 minutes of rubbish in my head?
I see someone wearing SUNGLASSES and I go from
'Oh I need to buy new ones' to 'Maybe I buy it online' to 'Amazon is pretty good' to 'Oh the name Amazon comes from the biggest river Amazon, no wonder' to 'God you took so long to figure it out?' to 'am I that dumb?' to 'Should take an IQ test' to 'What if others see and realize your dumbness?' to 'he he I said dumbness, reminds me of Highness' to ' Your Highness, how do you do?' to (in an English accent)' I am fine, thank you Mademoiselle' to 'Oooooooh I should learn French' to ....I guess you get an idea
This is just a glimpse...
I later waste a whole lot of time trying to figure out what I was thinking about in the first place!!!!!!!!!!

This behaviour of mine is tolerable as long as I am traveling or sitting in a boooooooooring class or watching a game with B but, Heaven forbid it happens again,
it strikes even during exammmmsss....oh yes it does!

I remember, songs from 'Rangeela' were running in my head during my board exams(10th) or a single (don't remember what) sentence kept repeating in many other exams.

When I try to meditate (hoping to get better concentration) I try to blank out my thoughts but my head keeps yelling 'blank, blank, blank, blank, blank'

I have finally given up trying to change, I take this quirk of mine as something cute and live with it, it has to be common,
I hope the comments read, 'Oh don't worry I do it all the time with me'

PS: I hate the fact that my dramatization of words by adding extra m's for the word 'Exam' is considered a spelling error pffft!

Books that scream 'Blah'

Reading fiction is an amazing stress reliever. It is important for me to know for a fact that the author I read has taken enough or a lot of his/her precious time to create a masterpiece that is worthy of being read by thousands or millions of readers.
Come to think of it, a novel takes anytime between 4 hours to say 2 weeks to finish. That is a lot of time when you consider all the people reading!

So, my point now is how, simply How on earth can someone like James Patterson come up with so many novels, in a single year ?? This very thought deters me from reading any of his books.
I usually like to own the book I read and hence, the monetary value has to mean something.
I'd never pay good money to buy an author's work when he/she has taken no consideration for the quality of writing or more importantly, the reader's precious time.

I mean no offense to his ardent fans (if any) and these views are rightfully mine to publish.

I was on a class tour to CA last week and got to befriend quite a few nice people, who thankfully will be my classmates. As you know, to become a good friend, you need to get a little personal, talk about family, origins and as for us desis, have to answer a few curious questions too...you know the drill!

Anyway, during one such dinner talk, I was asked how I met Bala. For a moment, I was tempted to lie like many I have seen do;

'Oh, we met at a party' or 'It was love at first sight at a friend's wedding' etc...

Instead, I braved the consequences and the need to explain something unexplainable and said....we had an 'Arranged marriage'

Suddenly.....
'Boom,pow, stars, eyebrows, Oh's, wow's and many other hard to perceive expressions'

I decided to cool the scene, bring down the air and said it was more like a dating service that paired us ( hard to say that B's dad was a colleague of my dad's brother or we found him on 'The Hindu' where unsuspecting B's parents put his name up....lol)

It was only when I said that we spoke for 6 months, met personally, decided patiently & carefully agreed upon each other
that they realized the arrangement wasn't all that 'Arranged' after all!

I swear I heard heaves of relief when I answered 'yes' to their final question
"So you could have said 'NO'"

I went on to make my stand clear by proclaiming 'I did say 'NO' to a couple of guys I so called dated for a couple of months' and vice versa....

Man was I uncomfortable the whole time!
But then, I at least feel true to the beautiful bond I share with B and more importantly, don't have to worry about stories that do not match!