One of those mornings - times a thousand!

This morning can clearly be described as one of those mornings where *everything* goes wrong!

My morning routine was messed up because I let Gyp sleep in. She was on my bed and was fast asleep and I just didn't have the heart to wake her up for our walk. I decided that I'd get ready for work and then take her. We went for a slightly longer walk and I had to pretty much rush out. I put her breakfast in her bowl, kept fresh water, grabbed my bag and ran out the door.

There was no power, so I raced down the stairs. I live on the fifth floor of an apartment building. As I ran down the stairs, I felt something digging into me in my pocket. When I reached the lobby, I found some money folded inside my pocket. I opened my bag to put the cash into my wallet, only to realise that I had left my wallet behind! I raced back up, to get my wallet and then ran back down the stairs. While I was getting out of the building, I realised I was wearing shoes that I walk Gypsy in!!! Not meant for office wear. I had to run back up and put on my shoes. Then I raced back down, by this time quite tired!

I made it to the bus stop and caught the bus. It was empty and I scored a seat that makes you face the rest of the bus! A couple of stops later, a cute guy walks in and sits some rows away, but we can see each other because his seat is elevated. I'm smiling and he's smiling and it's all going well. Then, a guy who is totally not my type sits next to him and the next time I smile at cute boy, he thinks I'm smiling at him and grins back! EW! I was like, no freaking way, in my head. I then just put my head down and didn't look up at cute guy or not so cute guy.

The lady sitting opposite me got off a few stops later and then, to my horror, not so cute guy comes and sits in her seat!!!!! Ack! Now while I'm panicking, I am running what a horrid morning this has been, when I realise I didn't put any make-up on!!! I totally forgot to put my trademark eye-liner!!! It just feels weird without it. Kinda like forgetting your cell phone.

Then, when Vishwa and I went for our walk, we almost got chased by a cow and we saw a bull with one ginormous testicle! It was the funniest sight ever! I forgot my camera so I couldn't vlog this or take pictures! Will always take my camera when I step out from now on. Lesson well learnt!

Also, while walking into work this morning, our access turnstile whacked me on my behind as I moved it! It's looks like this -

A day in Romy's life!

I love my hair today :P

Auto driver rant

So many things irk me about auto drivers! First, they almost never come where you want to go! And if they come, it's never by the meter! It's always 80, 100 and 150 rupees! And it will be some ridiculously low amount like 60 rupees! Or it's ten rupees extra on the meter! Really? Why the heck won't they just come with the meter??? Is it so hard?

Then, I LOATHE chatty auto drivers!!! Ugh, ugh, ugh! Just drive please! I've been lectured on how I shouldn't go to my boyfriend's house in the evening (I don't even have one! I was going to Shubha's house!), about how it's good to be bilingual and today, he chatted about the roads, the traffic and thinking we were oh-such-good-friends, he asked for ten bucks on the meter! HA! Really?

If they get chatty, I'm just going to speak in accented English! I have to put the accents I've mastered to good use right? But if I do that, those fools will think they can rip me off by quoting an exorbitant price or by taking me on a nice long trip around Bangalore so that they can hike the meter up! Argh! How is one supposed to deal with this?

Another thing I hate is the perverts! They actually shift the rear view mirror so that they can stare at you! Buncha losers!

Okay now that I am done with my rant, they *all* aren't that bad. A lot of them do come on the meter, but they do provide for bad auto stories at parties! Oh well, it's a Bangalorean's life I guess!

Exercise and barbecues!

Last week, I found out that my favourite pair of jeans didn't fit me. This literally broke my heart and I went into shock cause it's never happened before!!

I decided to cut back on the junk and start doing crunches, and increasing my walking quota for the day. After a week of exercising, morning and evening, I now fit into my jeans!!! HA! Take that! I also think I'm gonna keep this pattern. I'll still exercise and walk as much as I do now (about 6km a day) and keep my junk-ing to the level I'm at now, which is a little lesser than before. It was a crazy week. I've always said I want to put on weight, but no one wants a protruding belly, do they? No matter how small it is.

In other news, I went to my first ever barbecue. It was Suri's birthday and I was really excited about this! What an adventure though!!!! It started raining about 15 minutes before I had to leave and rained for about 45 minutes. It rained so heavily that the roads were flooded, buses were submerged, there was about 2 feet of water flooding the roads near my house and when we were about halfway there, the car got flooded!

The car went into a low laying area and the water came into the car!!! My poor friend's amps were on the floor! I dunno what happened to that, but I hope it's okay. It was crazy!!! It took us 2 and a half hours to make it across town! Which is about 25km or 15 miles at the most!

We finally reached Suri's house! I realised that I made a big mistake by wearing white to a barbecue. So not a good idea. Also, I was veggie! I had a very healthy barbecue spread of tomatoes, potatoes, mushroom, corn and onion. And LOTS of salad!

That was an adventurous day!

I FIT IN MY JEANS!!!!! BOO YA!

Weekend Vlog

When the unthinkable happens!

I believed it was untrue as a child. In high school, I scoffed at it. The other's were doing all kinds of things to prevent it, I ignored it. In college, they all envied me. I laughed and thanked my good fortune. I knew it existed, I had seen proof, but never experienced it. I used to pray for it, hoping, that one day, I too would experience it.

Now, after two years of working, in my 20s, I have experienced it. I am in shock. I never, ever thought this would happen to me. It is unsettling and a part of me is moving away from shock and into mourning.

I didn't fit into my clothes this morning. Not because I grew taller (which is what has happened so far), but apparently because I grew wider. I raced to the weighing machine looking at it, bewildered. I have definitely put on weight. It feels odd saying that. I'm not looking for you to scoff at me, but I've never really said that! I've always grown taller, eaten everything (vegetarian) under the sun, and never cut back on anything. I have also never set foot in a gym in all my life, nor have I "exercised"!! Sure, I've run and done some yoga, but that is just for stamina. Never with an agenda to "get in shape".

It was my favourite pair of jeans I ripped this morning as I tried to tug them on. They had pretty pink rhinestones. I also discovered that I don't fit into 4 other pairs of pants, but I really LOVE those jeans!!!! So many awesome things have happened when I was wearing those jeans! I've had them since I was 18!! I've always fit in them!

It's like now, I'm one of 'them'. I have to start watching what I eat, how much I eat and I have to start EXERCISING!!! To "get in shape"!!! I'm mortified, confused, mournful and supremely pissed off all at once!!!! It's not fair for my metabolism to do this! Without warning! If it wanted to break up with me, it could at least give me a few warnings! It didn't have to break up with me through my favourite jeans! Stupid little piece of nonsense. That's it. It's nonsense because this makes no sense to me! :(

Metabolism, please come back! I miss you terribly. Lotsa love, Romy.

First ever live chat with Paul F. Tompkins

I was on Twitter this morning after my walk with Gypsy, just checking to see what people were saying. I saw Janie Haddad's tweet saying her husband Paul F. Tompkins (One of the funniest men I know) was going to do a live chat at 7pm. That meant, that this was going to happen at 7:30am my time. It was 6:45am then and I looked at the website and decided to go on for half an hour before I had to leave for work!

I registered or RSVP'd as they called it and got ready before 7:30am. I had no clue how this would work and the website kept asking me if my web cam was working and if I could hear! I said yes to both!

By the time I figured all this out, Paul had already come on and was answering questions. I saw the "Ask a question" tab and clicked on it. I asked my question and then tried once again to figure out how it worked and when my question would be answered. Suddenly, my web cam came on and a pop-up said that my question was voted to the top and that I had to get ready to answer it! Then I got a little nervous!

I mean, I was going to talk to one of the world's funniest people, and I certainly didn't want to sound idiotic! I rehearsed my question in my head and then my face filled the screen! Paul recognised me from Twitter (We've had our conversations!) and said "Ah, Romy Skye from Bangalore! How are you? It's good to finally see (or meet?) you!" (I have a somewhat eidetic memory) and I said "It's great to see you too" and then proceeded to blurt out my question, jumbling words (of course this would happen)!! Luckily Paul was kind enough to blame the great distance between us for static and I repeated the question slowly and he got it! My question was "What is your favourite worst food combination?" Mine is a jam, ketchup and cheese sandwich. He said something about a Philadelphia specialty with the leftovers of a hot dog and eggs.

At least that is what I think he said, since I am not American and I am a vegetarian and have limited knowledge of meat and eggs! He then said that Janie liked boiled peanuts and made fun of wet peanuts until I told him I loved them too!!! I died laughing at his pained what-is-the-world-coming-to expression!

For those of you who don't know, boiled peanuts is a VERY popular snack here! It's boiled in salt water and sometimes people put some lime, cut up some onions and tomatoes and eat it as a snack with beer!

I found out that you type a question, the other people online vote for it and if it's popular, you get lined up and get to ask Paul your question. I asked two more - "What is your favourite TV show right now?" and "Describe your first stand-up performance". My TV show thing was picked up and I asked him. He said that it was Mad Men and Breaking Bad on the drama side and The Colbert Report on the comedy side.

I have to say that I do not watch Mad Men or Breaking Bad - they don't air here (But I have watched Panel discussions with Janie Haddad! HA!) but I have watched The Colbert Report (YouTube) and that is just amazing!

As I was running out of time and a lot of the video chatters were asking multiple questions, I asked if I could ask another question and he said that I could. I asked about stand-up and he said that he didn't remember anything about the actual show, but he remembered everything before (feeling nervous/excited) and after - the exhilaration of having done it!

Then I had to leave as it was 7:57 and I had to be out the door at 8! The funny thing was that just as I was leaving, the website asked if I was ready to have my stand up question lined up!!! HA! I didn't feel bad cause I asked him two questions then!

It was such an amazing Thursday morning!!! Thanks so much Paul for doing this and I really hope you can come to India one day and thanks Janie for tweeting about it!!

Saying goodbye...

As you grow up, there are very few people who grow up the same way as you do. Most of the time, you and your childhood friends grow into different people, with different interests and they stop becoming your best friends.

I transferred to a new school when I was twelve, where most of the people belonged to the Jain community. As a result, people were more comfortable speaking in their own language (Marvadi). I didn't know this language and was finding it very hard! I also had a new language to study - Kannada, which I had never studied before and was doing an advanced version of this. Let's just say, there wasn't a lot going for me.

In a Kannada class, the teacher made me sit next to a girl from a different section (The school had each grade/standard divided into 3 sections. I was in Section B.) so that I wouldn't talk. I sat next to this girl who's hair was cropped as short as a boy's and we didn't talk the whole period. After the class, she introduced herself as Swathi. I introduced myself back. Did I know that this was the start of a lifelong friendship? Nope!

We were made to sit together in the next Kannada class and this time, we talked. We found out that we were the only people in the whole school that watched Friends and one of the very few who watched English TV and movies and were fluent in English. Friends became the base of our conversations and our friendship.

There are so many memories, like getting out of Kannada class by going for yoga practice (She was as flexible as I was, so we put that into good use!), competing in various inter-house competitions, competing in Dumb-Charades (We actually won a few inter-school competitions!), her playing table-tennis while watched disdainfully (It was only because I sucked at it! I had no eye-hand coordination!), sitting at the back in Kannada class, memorising passages that we were supposed to read so that we could sound fluent in them, watching a couple of boys go wide-eyed at a copy of Cosmo that they had bought and playing tricks on the poor unsuspecting teacher (Remember the "dandruff" and the jamming of the bolt?)!

Some of my favourite times together are flicking paper balls at my friend Nikhil at a bowling alley, her coming over and me making her watch b=Baywatch (Yes, I was obsessed with it, and till today, I don't understand why!!), her waking my mum up at 8am on a Sunday because I was never at home, her playing the accordion and my dog going behind the sofa whining (Oh that was hysterical!), my grandmum and her cracking jokes and laughing at my expense and most of all, our Goa trip!

It's hard to believe that it's been more than ten years and we're still the best of friends. Swathi's literally been adopted by my family as my sister, and sometimes, especially at various family events, my mum actually prefers her!!

I love that I can say that I taught her not to be afraid of dogs and she taught me not to run away from the ball while playing throw ball! I still remember Gypsy racing through her garden, literally tearing it apart! I'll never forget her holding the 6 week old Gypsy going "Saromaaaaaa" and then being totally comfortable with the 6 month old Gypsy jumping all over her!

She's off to London to study and this is the first time where I can't pick up the phone and meet her randomly to discuss my latest boy issue or whine about how hard my life is (not). It's going to be strange not having her here, but I think we'll survive!

Here's to an awesome year ahead, where we're both gonna go through some serious adventures and here's to a LOT of Skyping! Like everyday!