The Power Of Prayer…

Today is only Tuesday and I’m feeling so much better from the weekend. Yeah the weekend for the most part was horrifying for me because dad and I butted heads again. So besides carving my Halloween pumpkin it was not a pretty experience.. But things are better and I truly do believe that by praying they have gotten better. I try not to let a day end without reciting at least 4 Our Father’s, 4 Hail Mary’s and 4 Glory Be’s, along with the Storm Novena the Novena To Our Lady Of Perpetual Help and The Memorare. It sounds like a lot but it takes just about 15 minutes of my day. I feel like our house has had a storm cloud over it with the kind of negativity and fighting and stuff that’s been happening. I admit I made it worse by losing my temper last Monday and my family and I are still recovering from that fight. But today it finally dissipated. As I was getting ready for work and came downstairs to make my lunch my dad just out of the blue in the calmest of tones apologized to me and told me that he was wrong. I honestly don’t want to get into the details of our issues but it felt good that miraculously the problem was gone. Today also my hands were itching to find out more information about the K1 visa process since waiting has made me so impatient and while I was googling I came across a statistic that said they have a 95% approval rate. You have no idea how comforting that is during this time of struggle. It’s like I’m getting these little gifts out of thin air.

Ever since that fight with my family I have learned to be more humble.I realize I’ve been complaining a lot, maybe unconsciously venting because of my frustration of waiting for Gojira to come here but I still have a lot to be grateful about. I’m taking an active approach to thinking about the positive and thinking about what I have in my life to be happy about instead of focusing on the negative. Over the last couple of months I’ve tried my best to incorporate a few of the activities and hobbies I enjoy in my spare time to keep me busy and happy. But like I read in someone’s blog recently, being on the computer eats up more time than you realize and you end up finishing very little of what you planned in your day. I’ve now created a time table for myself so that I can have enough time to paint/draw, read, and do some soul searching. Many years ago, (about 4 to 5 to be exact) I came across a random website which had topics and challenges on a daily basis and people uploaded their artwork based upon it. It had so many interesting ideas and it was very inspiring. But I lost the link and could never manage to find it again :( Today I went browsing again and I either found the website or I’ve found something really damn close and it made me so happy (see what I mean about the power of prayer? a lost website suddenly found… that’s like picking out a needle from a haystack! :D) Here is the link to it. If you click on the tab “Challenges” and select “2D Drawing Jams” you will see some pretty cool stuff.  Like for example one of the topics was T-Rex vs. Cute fluffy animal and people submitted their drawings and voted for the best.

source: http://cghub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3952

I was really impressed with the winner of that one. it’s so creative. This is what I eventually work up to. To practice coming up with cool concepts and drawing things I’m not used to. Maybe I might not win but the best part of this is that people of all levels of drawing skill comment and submit and its a really healthy positive environment to be a part of. My first step is going to be to start drawing and sketching. Maybe I’ll post some up as I get regular with it. As a part of my soul searching effort I’ve borrowed this book from the library called “101 Exercises For The Soul” by Dr. Bernie Siegel but I never take the time out to read it and do some of those exercises.

I’ve decided by scheduling it into my time table I will be able to do that and more. Let’s see how it goes. I was really looking forward to drawing out a birthday card for my Gojira but it turns out there’s more of a chance that it won’t reach him so I’m not allowed to send him anything :( that really sucks. Maybe I’ll draw it and scan it so he can view it on his birthday. I’m kind of happy that my family vacation to Tahiti is not coinciding with his birthday because then I’ll be able to chat with him and call him up on his birthday :) I know he hates celebrating it but that’s the least I can do. I will say one thing. This is the last miserable birthday he has. When he’s here with me next year we’re going to have such a blast he won’t be able to contain his happiness.. Just wait and see :) anyways here are my pumpkin carving pictures.. enjoy :) this light is turned off..

to the halloween baking whores ;)

I donno why but I just love cooking and baking.. must be my womanly instincts coming out! my mom has never been much of a cooker. I mean she cooks but for the sole purpose of supplying our meals. She is not one of those people who enjoys being in the kitchen and experimenting… I think that has turned me into a baking/cooking whore.. So for all the baking/cooking whores out there.. this one’s for you :)

Yes Halloween is practically here and there’s always something or the other that requires some food preparation. could be a party or just bringing something special and Halloween themed into work, or maybe just to bring some Halloween fun into your house.. I was first thinking of making pumpkin pie but not everyone likes that and there are some that find it to be an overwhelming flavor. So i thought the most ideal thing to make would be pumpkin cheesecake.  But I was surprised to find that on food network, ( my main source of finding recipes) they had no decent recipes for it. I mean there were plenty of Paula Deen recipes which would have enough fat/calories to induce a heart attack and a half but nothing for us normal people. lol.. (I know I’ve got a mean streak these days.. :P) But fortunately I found a great bunch of recipes on the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Website : http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly

(which is ironic considering Paula Deen represents them but anywho :S)

If you go to this website and enter in “pumpkin” in their recipe search you can browse through a number of pumpkin desserts. I made the Philadelphia 3-step double layer pumpkin cheesecake and it turned out phenomenal!! I found that the Philly site had lower calorie desserts that weren’t as fatty or complicated to make. If you guys make anything fun for Halloween let me know, holla, share what you made <3 This light is turned off..

the 2 H’s: halloween costume and high school mentality…

So I had been struggling to figure out if I want to dress up in costume for this Halloween.. I honestly didn’t feel up to it initially because it seriously is not as exciting with no friends around and Gojira not here. But then because of my office Halloween party which is apparently mandatory I decided to put some effort in figuring out a costume to wear. First I thought I’d dress up in a sari since its different and would say I’m a traditional Indian. but that’s lame and I donno it’s like cheating. At Michael’s I saw these cat ear hairbands so I figured worst comes to worst I don’t find a decent costume I’ll just dress up in black and wear the cat ears. But then I started thinking maybe I could be a pirate.. but then I didn’t have the eyepatch, the hat or the sword.. or the right shoes. I honestly want to avoid spending as much as possible. So then I started thinking what costume can I come up with without spending anything. That’s when I realized I could be a gypsy, I have plenty of beaded necklaces, anklets, colorful bangles and dangly tribal looking earrings. I have this cool bohemian spaghetti strap top that has all sorts of different Indian fabric sewn together with pretty sequins, lace and beads. I’m going to wear that with a skin tight, long sleeved, olive green shirt inside. (It’s cold outside, don’t wanna freeze my ass off!) and then I have a half patiala bottom which kinda looks like genie pants so I thought those look kinda gypsy. Theyre magenta pink which goes really well with the rest of my outfit. I also found hip chains which you actually wear on your cumber when dressed up in a sari but oh well.. the more clinky-chimey-jingle stuff i wear the more gypsy I’m going to look (and sound!) I’ve also got some nice kohl that I can wear and kinda extend on the sides of my eyes to make it gypsy ish.. maybe I’ll do the traditional three dots on my chin like traditional women do. I also have a colorful batik scarf which I’m going to wrap around my head. Now when I go home I’ve got to hunt through my mom’s closet to find comfortable but interesting shoes I can wear with it.

My coworker was sweet enough to bring in a skirt I could wear if I wanted. I’m going to go home and try it on to see if it goes and if it fits. But to the best of my ability without being rude I’m going to try to avoid using it because I didn’t expect her to offer me one because I was originally looking to wear a long skirt as  a part of my costume and then decided to wear the genie pants. Hmm… She’s a tall women so maybe it will be too long and I can use that as an excuse so she won’t get her feelings hurt. Either way I’m excited I have my costume all put together. I will definitely take pics to put up.. and of course of my pumpkin carving. I’ve decided to do 2 carvings. one on each side of the pumpkin. (It’s big enough to contain 2 different carvings) I’m going to try and do both of the designs I discussed in my Halloween fever post.

Some people in my office are planning to dress up as Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs for Halloween. Since there are so many of them they are going to have doubles of characters.

But it makes me roll my eyes in my head because these people never asked any of us (my team) to join them. The high school mentality just continues for some people. The “popular” “cool kids” never including everyone in their grand plans. They enjoy making others feel left out and the idea that they are so much better than the rest. These same cheerleaders and snobs that were in high school have grown up to rear their children in the same mentality therefore making sure there are plenty of teens who experience a miserable high school. It’s a vicious cycle if you ask me. In the news there’s all this hype about bullying going on. With the recent hike in the number of teen suicides due to bullying, I’m so glad people are spreading awareness and making sure to prevent incidents from occurring. But how many people are guilty of just plain neglecting their peers? I’m sure there are plenty of kids out there like me who weren’t bullied as much as ignored in high school. I think it falls in the same realm. To make a person feel invisible. To feel not good enough to sit at their tables at lunch just because I didn’t wear Ambercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle and because I wasn’t a cheerleader just is seriously pathetic. I’m not saying all of them were like that but most of them were. You’ve got to be genuine and heartfelt to be motivated enough to get to know the quiet kid who sits in the back corner of the classroom or make the last person picked in gym class to feel like they weren’t left behind but it was just a matter of chance. There are so many people that can make the effort to make everyone feel included but it’s easier to just ignore problems. It’s a shame that people “grow up” about communicating and interacting with their peers only when they hit college. But what people don’t realize is that the damage has already been done with all of primary and high school being one lonely existence. One of my very good friends from high school was valedictorian and came from a rich family. I appreciate that she didn’t judge me for the brands that I wore. I’m not saying my family wasn’t rich. We were upper middle class and my family gave me a lot of things to be grateful and proud of. But they didn’t understand the importance of clothing and brand names and being popular and couldn’t grasp my sadness of not fitting in. This whole experience has made me passionate about making sure that when I have children and they start going to school, I will make sure they fit in by giving them what they want to wear. But at the same time I will make sure that they behave like my friend who was friends with everyone no matter what they wore. I hope this high school mentality disappears along the with the bullying. More psychologists and behavior specialists need to be brought into high schools to have workshops with children to give them a chance to remove the walls they’ve put up around themselves and to see everyone for they are and to respect and appreciate everyone in their class. It’s a far off dream but by doing so we would no longer have the need to classify students and peers as “nerds,” “jocks,” “popular,” “losers” and so forth. It would make the experience of high school a lot less stressful for our youth. anyways im done with my rambling for today. this light is turned off.

Halloween Fever :D

I’m so excited about being in the US after being out of the country for 5 years because now I’m finally here to celebrate Halloween after not getting to for so long!! I used to get so damn homesick during this time of year when I was abroad. I bought a pumpkin this past weekend to carve and I’ve been browsing the interesting and fun designs on the Internet. I can’t wait till next saturday when I’ll get the chance to roll up my sleeves and gut that pumpkin :D When I was checking out the halloween stuff at Rite-Aid I saw this pumpkin carver kit that was so hawt. but right now I’m trying to save every penny and to spend $7 on something I’ll use only once a year seemed frivolous to me… but I still wanted it!! so i did the next best thing.. I headed over to the trusty 99¢ store nearby and found one there. It came with a crappy scooper and this little light up thing you can place inside the pumpkin and the carver is not electric but i think the blade is the most essential part of carving because it will allow me to create those intricate designs that I need to pull off. I think its also important to poke out your design first (outline the design with a series of connect the dot holes so its easier to control the cut/blade.)

I have sharp tiny skewers which I’m going to use for that process. While I was browsing the web I was curious to see if anyone had ever done a Tool inspired pumpkin and I actually did find one!! Hats off to this artist. I just loved it..

For my pumpkin I’ve planned to use one of the following designs…

I’m more keen to do the first design cuz i think a pumpkin carving would look so hot like that.. or what the hell maybe if i’m feeling extra festive i’ll do both. one on each side.. it all depends on my carving skills.. and how easy it will be…  My coworker was so sweet she actually got my colleagues and I nice little baby pumpkins to put on our desk. I took mine home yesterday so my big pumpkin had a baby for company. lol.. Anyways here all the pumpkin carving designs that I thought were cool..

twitter fail whale pumpkin

pumpkin pi! (that one i picked specially for u gojira) :)

beatles pumpkin

simple and cute

spiral out pumpkin

beautifully evil pumpkin

stitch pumpkin

the nightmare before christmas pumpkin

nother’  nightmare before christmas pumpkin

ps pumpkin!

mathematical pumpkin

pac man pumpkin

evil dead pumpkin

mario pumpkin

squid pumpkin

simple and evil

smiley emoticon pumpkin

hungry pumpkin

firefox pumpkin

python pumpkin

eye pumpkin

so what are all of you doing for halloween? anyone have any idea of what they’re carving? can’t wait till Gojira is here for next halloween so we can carve one together.. what about costumes.. I’m still perplexed as to what I’ll be dressing up as.. not sure yet if I will or not.. let’s see.. This light is turned off.

edit: i forgot to add the twilight pumpkin.. i am a diehard fan.. so i just cant complete this entry without one so here it is <3 :D

yaba daba doo

Today I decided to go in early to work and volunteer some hours for the nursing home i work for. With Halloween coming up, they like to send halloween trick or treat baskets filled with candy to the doctors affiliated with the nursing home. It’s also filled with the nursing home’s pamphlets, notepads and other accessories that help get the word out. The baskets were so much fun  to make. I wish I had a camera to take a picture..Don’t think my office would be too happy bout it if they caught me doing it. donno if that’s against corporate policy and dad’s really possessive bout his cam. oh well… hmm.. but i did meet a cool dude. he was way senior to me..like in his 50′s or 60′s but very friendly and down to earth.and happy go lucky… he was very interesting. in a short span of chatting with him i learned that he taught music. he played violin and piano. he knew that Bombay was now Mumbai and he could whistle theme tune to the Flintstones cartoon. He was very knowledgeable about Indian music. He had a folk violin from India. He knew quite a bit bout the tabla, the sitar, and many classical Indian artists. He told me he teaches a class called World music in which he introduces his students to music from Africa, India and other parts of the world. He said he mainly focuses on Indian music. It’s so refreshing to meet people who are so happy and good natured. I hope to bump into him again soon and also meet more people like him. The ironic interesting thing was.. He was whistling the theme song to the Flintstones as I mentioned before. And when I was finally done volunteering and ready to start my regular shift I signed into my computer as usual and went on to the Internet only to see Google’s main page with a Flintstone theme since it was their 50th anniversary!!! how ironic is that!!

It was a good day to say the least.. I honestly feel weird but happy bout the fact that the days seem to be going by faster now. I really can’t believe we’re going to be at Friday tomorrow. This is a good thing considering I’m waiting for december to come around so I can finally know the status of my visa. When he gets that visa I’ll be having a huge celebration.. Anywho, it’s late so better hit bed.. this light is turned off..

halloweeeeeeeeennn…..

Well I always feel bummed out not being in the US when it’s Halloween. I love cold apple cider (yes cold I don’t like heated up) and I love watching the leaves turn red and orange and then fall off the trees… I love how it starts getting chilly… the kind that’s too cold for just a shirt but too hot for a sweater… and you start seeing your breath in little clouds that quickly disappear as fast as they appeared.. carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds in the oven… putting a log on the fire and watching Halloween specials on TV… (this is east coast weather I’m talking about if you haven’t realized already.) Halloween is usually the last major holiday western new yorkers get to celebrate before the onset of snow… sometimes it snows on Halloween! But when it finally snows we don’t see the ground again until sometime in march or april so its a pretty big deal. I remember trick or treating as a kid, the thrill of going door to door till your pillowcase is dragging on the ground full of candy and your fingers are numb and ready to fall off from the cold… Then we’d go home and as the blood rushes back to our cheeks in rosy blushes we’d count our candy and organize it from favorite to least favorite… and convince our friends to trade for the prized candies we wanted more of… Then of course our parents would interrupt to check and make sure all our candy was safe to eat and unopened and then we’d continue our bartering and trading until our parents told us to get to bed… those were the good old days… haha… we’d always grumble when people gave us pennies, or tootsie rolls, no name un branded candy or hmmm bible booklets…  lol…. but we’d be super happy and be overflowing with gratitude when some houses had the king sized candy bars and the good stuff to give out.. yeah, i’m talking  bout the big guns…. mounds, twix, reese’s peanut butter cups, snickers, mallowcups, m&m’s and mars bars… The best part is when the halloween evening is wrapping to an end and people don’t want any leftovers and they  just give it out by the handfuls… that’s when you’ve really hit the Halloween lottery.. haha… Let’s see during my halloween days I have been a skeleton, a cat, a cheerleader, scary spice (that was fun, my friends and I dressed up as the spice girls) and I think that’s it… that’s all I can remember….. Of course if I was in the US right now Id be too old for trick or treating but of course I’d make sure to have or go to a Halloween party or dress up to hand out candy to people who ring my doorbell! Anyways these are some costume ideas I would have gone with if I was there right now… I thought these were fun… Most of these pictures I got are from online costume websites. But I think half the fun is coming up with a costume you can put together yourself instead of buying it already put together. not to mention how expensive it is..

bumblebee…. cute right? talk about queen bee :P

french maid… dusting anyone? lol :P this reminds me of those who dunnit murder scenarios like clue junior… it would be fun to dress up as a french maid and have my guy dress up as hmmm… sherlock holmes? (couple costumes are so much funnnnn!!)

1920′s flapper girl…

boxer… yeah tough love…

geisha girl… love the idea of a kimono…

genie…

marilyn monroe.. sexy and flirty… (my guy could dress up as a baseball player and be joe dimaggio!!)

nurse… hahaha this nurse would be fun.. and reminds me of the nurse on that blink 182 album… my bf could dress up as one of the blink 182 singers… and considering they went buck naked on this album’s music video… he wont have much of a costume to deal with… lolll…. (he’d flip if i asked him to do something like that :P)

playboy bunny… my bf could be hugh hefner… nice silky bathrobe, slippers and a cigar.. and he’s good to go ;)

police officer… my bf could be my prisoner… lol…

sailor outfit.. cute right??

even an old fashioned costume like a witch could be fun to dress up in…

I don’t know why I’m infatuated with couple costumes… I guess I’ve never gotten the chance to dress up as a couple and I think that would be so cooll… hmmm…. This was so adorable… I showed this to my bf even he thought it was cool :P check it out below.. its like so dorky cute…hehe

My bf and I thought that if we were ever in the US during Halloween it would be fun if he dressed up as a pimp (Kat Williams style) and I could dress up as his hooker <3 true silly love i tell ya… hahaha. Now this couple’s costume I thought rocked the house… it’s so unique and creative… this is what Halloween is truly about…

Get it? Fire Fox! Yeah I knew you’d think it was pretty cool too…. Anyways… I’m done i guess.. Happy Halloween everyone!! Be safe!!! Hope you had fun reading… What do you plan to dress up as, or what would you dress up as if you could celebrate Halloween? This light is turned off…

Currently listening to
In Rainbows
By Radiohead

What are Your 5 Favorite Days in the Year?

October 31st- Halloween, because you get to dress up in a costume, eat lots of candy and be creative about what to dress up as,

The 4th Thursday in November of every year- Thanksgiving, I just love the warmth and family togetherness on this day… and the chance to meet cousins who I otherwise don’t get to see year round.

December 20th- MY birthday- the one day in the year where I can get pampered by all those that love me at the same time without feeling guilty!

December 25th- Christmasssss!!!! (I would like to say Diwali as well but the day changes every year according to the Hindu calendar so I can’t…)

December 31st- New Year’s Eve, to partaaaayyyyy and reflect on the year we finished and SURVIVED!!

What are your 5 favorite days in the year and why? They don’t have to necessarily be holidays or festivals it can be any day in the year that is special or important for you…

Currently listening to
Cool
By Gwen Stefani