On the Ball. Off the Ball!

Today at the pilates class there were just two of us, so she had us work with the ball for the most part. It was hard for me since, apparently I have no sense of balance. Below are some of the exercises we did. I don't know what they are called, so pictures need to suffice. There were a lot more, photos of which I haven't been able to find.

Evil Exploding Eggplant

I set out to make Baingan Bharta today. The eggplants need to be roasted first, so the skin can be peeled off. I put 3 eggplants in the oven to roast for about 45 minutes. Since this was the first time I was doing it, I wasn't sure if they were done. So, after 45 minutes I opened the oven and just barely touched one of the eggplant with tongs and it EXPLODED!!! This photo doesn't look half as bad as what my eggplant looked like. It was unrecognizable! EVIL EVIL EVIL!!!

Googling did teach me that if I poke holes with a fork in the eggplant prior to the roasting, it should prevent explosions. We'll find out next time, I guess. Or I could just let the eggplants cook off before prodding.

Ataulfo Mangoes, Gah!!!

I walked into Whole Foods this morning to see crates and crates of mangoes that looked SOOO much like Alphanso, that even their name kinda looked like Alphanso, 'Ataulfo'. I walked to them full of eagerness and excitement, picked one up, smelled it and put it right back down! It smelled horrid. NOTHING like a mango! HOW it can be called a mango, I DO NOT KNOW!. I'm NOT happy about this! >.<>.<

The House with Two Doors

We went for the Capital Fringe's, ' The House with Two Doors' this afternoon for the 2:00PM show. We reached a few minutes late, and the lady caught us up with was we had missed.

The play was hilarious!!!! It was loud and energetic. Set in the renaissance era in Naples, it told a story of 2 girls, their loves, their fathers, their personal attendants and all the confusion love can cause. Both the girls and their loves are convinced they are being cheated on, all while professing undying love.

The actors were brilliant! They were so LOUD, I have no idea how they are able to do more that one show a week. The humour was fantastic and they made plenty of references to real live things. For instance, during a set change, they work into dialogue "well, you might as well go to your room since they are setting it up downstairs right now". Or, one of the lead ladies expresses acute distress while the other cast members remove furniture from her room in preparation for the next scene. Everything was very well done, and you could see how hard the actors were working by their sweat dripping all over.

Yay Goldstar! From where I find out about such performances! :D

Reykjavik-Rotterdam

The DC film festival is currently on (Apr 15-25) and I went for Reykjavik-Rotterdam tonight at Regal Cinemas after dining at Chop't. The movie was excellent. A good balance of humor, suspense, and action. It has won a number of national awards in Iceland and I see why. Though most of the movie was in Icelandic, it was still completely gripping.
I now wish I had gone for movies at the DC Film Festival. Oh well, there is always next year, I guess.

Frozen Yogurt or Cupcakes?

The two new (not so new anymore, I guess) fads in town are cupcakes and frozen yogurt.

Cupcakes, here, I do not like. The one-third two-third ratio of icing to cake just doesn't cut it for me. I don't care too much for icing, so when a cupcake has so much of it I can't even give the poor 'ol cake a chance.

Frozen yogurt on the other hand, delicious! I can have oodles of it. Just the plain 'ol tart flavour. YUM!!! And I have myself convinced that it is healthy, so oodles it is! :D

A Xavierite, with Warmth and Happyness

This past Sunday there was a Xavier's Alumni meet in New York at Utsav Restaurant (on 46th street between 6th and 7th Avenues).

Around a month or so back when a friend first sent an email to few of us informing us of this meet, all of us said that we'd go if we know someone who is going. So, all of us decided to go. The word spread, more people we knew decided to go. Everyone was excited.

As the date of the alumni meet approached, the thought of over a hundred alumni coming slightly intimidated me. Would I really know enough people to talk to/meet with or would I just be standing in a corner observing other people mingle (I don't do well in crowds)? Anyway, time doesn't really pause as you contemplate your apprehensions and it was time to wake up, get ready and show up. Show up, we did!

Once we got past telling the guy working the door that it was a "St. Xavier's" event and NOT a "St. Francis Xavier's" event, figuring out coat check and registering we walked into a room all ready teeming with Xavierites of all ages. We later found out that the oldest graduate there passed out from Xavier's in 1945 (!!!!!!), while the youngest there had passed out in 2007.

I was walking to another friend in the room when someone looked at my name tag (that had my name and year of graduation) and said, "Oh! Batch 2003! You are so young!!!!!". To which I retorted, "Oh!!! You are so old!!!!". Laughter followed and then conversation. It was refreshing to be amongst a large group of Indians with such crisp english and a fantastic command over the language. Many of whom have been in America for years and I barely heard the American accent anywhere.

As the afternoon progressed, starters were enjoyed, photos were shot, lunch was eaten and lots of laughter and conversation was exchanged. Somewhere in between all that, there was a lull and I wasn't talking to anyone. I looked at everything going on around me and I was suddenly filled with warmth. Warmth because of I felt a sense of belonging. Belonging to Xavier's.




Often, I wonder about decisions I made in life and how they shaped me. Why I chose Xavier's over Jai Hind after getting into both, I don't really recall. I think it may have had to do with the campus and someone telling me that the faculty was better (how true they were!!!). Whatever it was that convinced me to do so, I'm SO glad! For Xavier's gave me, and I'm sure every Xavierite, a sense of belonging to the college. Our college lives, while intertwined with our friends, were also intertwined with everything college. We attended lectures (they made us!) and even when we didn't the campus gave us enough space to stay within its premises. The professors actually cared about their students. And so, every Xavierite leaves with a sense of belong to the institution. This is what sets Xavier's apart from all other similar colleges in Bombay. I wouldn't exchange my years in Xavier's for anything. So, with warmth and happyness I call myself a Xavierite.

Somewhere, in the Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia

In travelling, I forgot to Journey

Due to the travel chaos that the erruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland has caused, there are numerous articles in the news about non-air modes of travel. Reading about the Estonian first couple travelling through 9 countries on land to get back home; or people considering taking a ship to go home; or reading about how, when you fly, you miss everything you have passed only to experience the destination, the journey in essence is wasted time makes me want to pack up and leave on a land journey through...anywhere. I don't care where. Anywhere is sure to give me a rich experience. Travelling on a train and meeting people in my compartment, taking a car ride (even though I can't drive) and discovering a small restaurant hidden at the wrong left turn you took, taking a cruise and seeing whales in the ocean, finding an odd animal by the side of the road, enjoying the change in landscape from one place to the next, finding the odd picturesque waterfall, waving at children as you pass them by, stopping to buy fruits from the vendors...

I want to make journey memories. I have a lot of travel memories and I definitely want more of those, but I also want journey memories... Hopefully, soon, I will stop letting whatever it is that is preventing me from making those memories and embark to journey and not just travel.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Which basically is, a chocolate cupcake with a cookie dough center and cream cheese icing!

They were made my Lauren, at work, for Nate's Birthday

-photos to follow soon.

Time Out...

• Woke up late
• Reached class 2 minutes late
• Reached work late (thanks to metro, see previous post)
• Bus was late, so reached laser appointment late
• New laser and management system, laser treatment took 30 minutes longer than expected
• Due to prolonged laser treatment reached late for " National Georgraphic's Joes Sartore: America's Endangered Species"

Siiiiiigh! What a day!

Itsy Bitsy Yogaaaaa!!!

Sooo! They have yoga for the itsy bitsiessss!!

http://www.itsybitsyyoga.com/about/about.html

OMG!!! How cute it must be! This place has yoga from when the baby is in the womb to when they grow up. It is yoga, family style! The itsy bitsies can begin from when they are 6 weeks old!! HOW CUTEEEEEE!!!

Escalator Woes

Why the tenleytown metro must work on all its escalators at the same time is beyond me!! There are 3 escalators one needs to take from entering the station to getting on to the platform. The first escalators on the east side of the station is currently running and are short. The next set are long and in the mornings only work to take people up. To go down you have to walk it. Which, by itself, is no issue since I run down the escalators anyway. However, when EVERYONE is made to walk down the escalators you are limited by the slowest person's speed. Which is HIGHLY aggravating when you are rushing to catch a train to make sure you get your bus later. And then, the third set of escalators, which are short, has only one that is open. The other is closed for maintenance. So, the one escalator is handling ascending and descending crowds. This slows you down even more!

All this made me miss my train this morning by a second. Resulting in a ripple effect, since the train I DID get onto ended up with mechanical difficulties right before Grosvenor (I could smell that the train was in trouble. ACK!). So the train was taken out of service, and by the time they got the train out of the station and the next one arrived and I took it, I missed my bus and got to work later than I wanted to! :(

I'm mad!! Stupidddddddddd Metro Authorities! >.<

Oh not to forget, the escalators on the west side of the station that bring you up to the street level has only one functioning escalator. So, I have to walk up that every evening since that's the side I take the bus to go home. GAH!

Eyjafjalla....what?!

First Iceland's banking implodes (Fall 2008) causing enough havoc in the country and in Europe, then its volcano 'Eyjafjallajokull' (EY-ya-fyat-lah-YOH-kuht) errupts (on 4/14/2010) causing a shut down of flights across the EU and resulting in air traffic disruptions worse than after 9/11, while Iceland remains unaffected. Strange occurrences around the world never seem to cease.

To Bond or Not

S1: I had a really scary dream last night. I was driving an ATV with R, my 21 day old nephew, at the back. We were drving really fast through marshes. It was damn scary. I finally stopped and took R in the front and held him there. It was like a Bond movie with a baby!!!!

N: But, without a hot chick

small pause.

S2: And, without Bond!!

N and S2 errupt in laughter while S1 looks away in a huff.

Lion King

I was surprised with tickets for Lion King this past Saturday! We went for the show in Philly! YAY!!!! :)

Keen-wah

Over the past year I have been trying to move to healthier eating options. I have replaced all the regular pasta at home with whole wheat pasta, except for Maggi (though I do have the wheat Maggi as well). I have basically eliminated most processed foods. I look at ingredients of most things I buy and try to avoid buying food that lists more ingredients than I can count on my fingers. I only buy multigrain or whole wheat bread.

My next step was to reduce the consumption of rice. Since I am unable to cook brown rice, I needed to find an alternative. While bread goes well with dal and other such foods, when eating Thai curry or chicken manchurian bread does not cut it. Enter Quinoa. Last night I made some quinoa that Houda generously gave me to try. You prepare it much like you would prepare rice, and eat it too like you would rice. I had it with some home made red Thai curry. I loved it, and the nutty texture only adds more to its deliciousness! Not only is it less starchy than rice, it is nutritionally richer. I now have my rice substitue! :)

Blogspot and Plurals.

Blogspot has been around a while now. How long, I don't know. But in all this time, don't you think they would have fixed the plural software glitch for the comments link. When a post has just one comment, blogspot displays it as "1 comments" . I really wish they would correct the software to say "1 comment" or "x comments", where x≠1

Why winter North (or South) of the Tropics is basically NOT nice!

1. You pile on unending layers of clothes resulting in an aching back.
2. You are unable to have long conversations about nothing on the phone while you wait for your bus. Your fingers freeze over and your arm aches being held up with the weight of all those layers you have on.
3. Reading while waiting for the bus, too, becomes impossible.
4. Driving conditions are bad with possible ice on the roads. Pavements are slippery when ice layers them.
5. Grocery shopping is even more of a chore when you have to remove your poor fingers from your toasty pockets to carry shopping bags.
6. Social activities are highly inhibited and limited
7. Skin becomes as dry as paper. Thank God for vaseline!
8. Breeze is never appreciated in the winter. NEVER! Which is sad, because it can be quite nice at other times.
9. Trees are bare, animals are hibernating, birds have gone south (or north? if they typically reside in the southern hemisphere?), humans are in different shades of black, brown and grey. Colours are amiss :(
10. Days are SHORT!!! >.<
11. All the weight you lost over spring, summer and fall comes back with a bang and some. siiiiiiiiigh.
    

Well, I guess there are a few good things that winter brings.

1. The white prettyness after a snowfall.
2. Federal government closings during a blizzard.
3. Skiing - for those who choose to take on this scary sport.
4. And every four years, the winter olympics.

ps: photo courtesy me! :) and not google.

My New TeeVee Love! siiiiiiigh

Derek Morgan (played by Shemar Moore) on Criminal Minds.

First Pilates Class today! :)

I went for my first pilates class today at BodySmith (at 6:45 AM...yawwwn). I have been going there for their Boot Camp classes and previously for the Body Sculpt classes. I battled long and hard with myself this morning. Being sleepy, and sore from my bootcamp class on Tuesday I kept telling myself that it would be okay to not go since I AM sore. The other side of the brain (the left, I think!) then said that if I didn't go today then I would only be able to go for this class on Monday, since I will be in NYC until Sunday, and I am sure to come up with an excuse again then. The left brain went on to say that the instructors at BodySmith are generally very nice, so I should just suck it up and go and if I don't like it this one time I needn't go again. As this argument went on, precious minutes had creeped by. Then, what I presume was the right side of my brain, told me I won't get to class on time and do I REALLY want to walk into a new class late? Thankfully Mr left spoke up and pushed me to leave. I rushed and got ready, made it to class, albeit late. And I got rewarded for listening to Mr left. I was the only one in the class, so Erin, the instructor, was able to go slow with me and actually teach me the breathing and basic movements. I want to go for more classes. I hope the enthusiasm I feel now remains until Monday.

Want to live Longer? Do NOT eat this!!!

On one hand, a few months ago, they introduce grilled chicken as a healthier option to the fried chicken. Then, they come out with this! When I imagine eating this, all I taste in my mouth is oil! Gross!

http://www.kfc.com/doubledown/