What can you say?!

Conversation at home

Me (for the 1000th time) : "guys! It's time to go to bed"
Kids: "........." (no sound)
Me: "GUYS"
N: " can we lie down and read a book?"
Me: "okay" (whatever just be in bed)
N: "kaaarthik, come! Mumma said we can read"
K: "ok"
Me: sigh of relief
K: (popping his head out of the room) "is it morning in America?"
Me: (irritated) "yes!"
K : (gleefully) "so we don't have to sleep, it's morning!"

I guess if Alan Jackson and jimmy buffet could drink because it was five O'clock somewhere... k got the meaning of "it's morning somewhere"

Sloppy Jane

Sloppy Jane is nickname that I coined for myself. I don't consider myself sloppily dressed or anything.. but I am not the one to be wearing make up through out the day. No I don't even bother with lip gloss or lip stick too, unless an occasion calls for it. I mean, if I were going for a party, yes I will do my best to look good; meaning make up, lip stick, painstakingly blow dried hair, etc. On the other hand if I were headed grocery shopping, I will not hesitate to walk out in my tracks (of course I will not be seen 20 ft away from my house in my pajamas or night clothes) and flip flops with my hair tied up. I dont think that is sloppy! And my face is a totally different story... I like to joke that my face is like a flower.. its all fresh and blossoming when I get out of the house... In two hours time, its like a microwaved flower... No amount of make up can cure that!

Then there are times that I just want to lounge in misfit clothes.. and just let the guard down...

What really bewilders me is that there are girls who manage to look amazing through out the day. Whether they are seen at a rocking party or sweating it out in the gym (oh and these girls dont sweat!)... they look absolutely stunning. Their nails are always painted, they have beautiful feet, their face always look fresh, they never have a bad hair day... and they are always dressed in best of clothes... like to the gym.. they wear the kind of t-shirt that I would wear for grocery shopping. I dont think these chicks would sleep in the t-shirt that I wear to bed! I'd like to know how they pull that off? Can someone tell me?

A very very good friend of mine is one such person. She would get out of a long haul flight looking fresh as a daisy. She would return from work just like how she went in. In spite of a long subway ride to and fro and the 10 hours spent at work! That would just kill me! When I go to work, I look like one person and when I get out I swear my colleagues wouldn't even recognize me... All I do is drive in to work and sit there... I have tried washing my face reapplying make up (which is sooo not me) post lunch in an effort to look good... but no, that doesnt do anything!

So this year, I have decided that I am going to make a sincere effort to try and be the "pretty one" instead of sloppy jane. I am wearing good clothes ALL the time, which means a lot more shopping... which means this exercise is not going to last for more than two months... then there's the pedicure and manicure for pretty feet and hands and painted nails... facials on time, threadings on time... looks like V has to land up in a job that pays really well!

They are here!

I’ve been quite lucky and spent may be 15 days in all with in-laws in the past five years. Now they are here visiting us… for 3… Yes, THREE months. Honestly, I don’t have a really bad set of in-laws but honestly (again) I feel that in about three months time things might change. So I must warn everyone (the three or four of you) who read this blog that you are in for some wild ranting and venting.

Anyway, the days leading up to their visit I kept repeating the “have an open mind” mantra several times. But no matter what I did there was this annoying feeling in the back of my mind… giving me nightmares about how I’ll turn out to be the most unqualified partner for their precious son. This, after being married for five years! I do have some serious self-esteem issues, don’t I? Finally, I decided I am not going to sweat it, tough luck if they feel I am not worthy, because I’m their daughter-in-law and they are pretty much stuck with what they have. So instead of deciding to put up an act of being a perfect marumagal (daughter-in-law) I decided to be myself (em…may be a little better version of the real me).

It was the day they were arriving and I was not freaking out… okay, may be a little… but overall I was doing pretty well. I checked everything, bed was made, the pooja space was clean and nice, the house was pretty clean, had made some decent food, and the ‘maavu’ (batter for idly and dosa) was set as well, overall things were looking pretty good. They reached home and everything went quite smooth. When someone expressed his discontent on seeing store bought containers of yogurt I happily ignored that. I tried not to take it personally… so far so good.

Yesterday morning, I was completely devastated when I saw limp idlies as the end product of the batter I made! Every time, Every Single Time I’ve tried too hard to impress, I fall right on my face! Lesson learned. We shall henceforth use store bought dosa/idly batter as well.

Today when I walked down, I was surprised to see one fourth of the contents of my kitchen cabinets lying on the floor. Apparently my kitchen was going through some cleansing action. Agreed, my cabinets did have some old stuff that I didn’t throw away… I tried not to feel bad… it’s not a big deal, I said to myself… Look at the positive side, she is trying to help me out and that’s fantastic… It’s such a good thing and I should consider myself a lucky gal!

Then why is it that I am just not able to feel totally good about the kitchen-cleanse? Why am I kicking myself for concluding that I should be like my usual self? Why do I feel that I should’ve gone through everything, made a check list and then cleaned shelves like a maniac and that I should’ve found a container to store the channa dal and not have left it lying in the packet! Why can’t I stop thinking about how everyone in the family will now know about the sad state of my kitchen, the pathetic batter that I make… These are two things in just two days and I have 87 more days to go, so imagine how many more such situations I’ll get myself into… Why, why do I feel this need to impress? Why do I want to be so perfect? Most importantly, why do I stress so much only for in-laws?

All right, now I leave… I think my cloth closet needs some cleansing.

Now what?

When I started this blog, I was all excited about the inaugural events. Now that’s done with, I am not sure how I should proceed.

Well, there are lots of people maintaining blogs and I feel that all of them have some reason to keep a log. The ones that I read regularly, mostly fall under some of these categories:

1. People that love to cook and share their recipes (also post amazing pictures of the delicious end product)

2. Some love to travel and write about that and put up pictures too, so people like me can daydream about a vacation to exotic locations.

3. Others have their pregnancy stories, which later turn in to baby progress blogs.

4. Then some who I will call – writers - those that have a way with words… they can make anything as mundane as brushing their teeth sound really interesting.

Where do I belong? Let me see…

Category 4 – Ruled out. Who am I kidding, there’s no way I belong here!

Category 3 - May be I can write about all the times I freaked out when I thought I was pregnant! mmmYah, I don’t think so! Ruled out.

Category 2 – Barely belong. I don’t have too many travel adventures under my hat, but I definitely can write about the few places that I’ve visited in my adult life. Okay, so that’s about 6 to 7 posts.

Category 1 – I don’t think so! I cook, just so I can eat and survive. And, I can never write about it because I have no clear measurements… and honestly, I never use the same recipe twice, even if the dish is same I end up changing something or the other. However, if any one wants to use me as a guinea pig for tasting their treats, I can eat and write about that!

So what should I write about? Worst case, I can come up with a list of things that I can’t write about and write about it… that might work!

Now, I am going to try to take the rust of my brains and hope to come up with some interesting things to write about.