That thing you tell yourself not to do.

You know how there are some things you tell your self not to do, but then do it anyway? I'm not talking about some major life changing decision, but about the little things. Let's take me for an example.

Today, I had a craving to eat McAlooTikki from McDonalds. I don't know why, but when I passed the McDonalds on the way to work at 8:45am this morning, I had this sudden urge. I wanted to get off and wait till it opened and get the burger. I shook my head, hung on till 1pm and decided to get it. Now I need to take the bus to get to mcDonalds. So I went to the bus stop and stood on the curb. I was standing close to the curb, because when it isn't rush hour, the bus doesn't really hang around till you amble into the bus.

As I saw the bus approaching, I reminded myself that I was close to the curb and that I mustn't fall off. Now I should have realised that once I reminded myself not to, it was going to happen. Sure enough, the bus came to a stop and I went crashing into the side, because my foot sliped off the curb! Luckily there were only about 20 people on the bus who laughed at me. This was only because there were 20 people on the bus. I shook my head and went in.

Has this ever happened to you? There has been a time when I've been walking on a footpath (which is elevated) that is next to a gutter type thing. I've told myself that I must not walk into the gutter and promptly fallen off the footpath because I simply walked away from the gutter, not realisng that the footpath is only 5 feet wide! (I think I may have mentioned this earlier)

Or, while walking, you see cow poop a bit ahead and go "Oh cow poop! I must not step in it" and then forget and step right in it when you approach it! The same principle is applied with a rock and tripping over it!

It also works when I'm carrying something and someone else says, "don't drop it" I'll drop it. Or if someone (by that I mean my grandmother!) says "Don't fall down the stairs, go slowly", guess who's at the end of the stairs with a very painful bottom?

Please tell me this happens to you guys too and I'm not the only person who's wires are mostly crossed in the head?

Weekend adventures with Gypsy

If you live in Bangalore, you will experience this thing called "load-shedding". This is basically controlled, planned (but not informed) power cuts. Sometimes, this follows a routine, which makes life easy as you can plan around it, but sometimes, they appear random (I really need to make friends in the electricity department of Bangalore!). This happens because we don't have enough power for the 8 odd million people to use. Yeah, there really are that many of us.

This gets worse in the monsoons. This is because the rain just affects the wires or something like that, not sure about the specifics, but it does get bad in the months between June and September! Anyway, I live on the 5th floor in an apartment building. Now in ALL the apartments that are there, mine is the only one that has a dog! Shocking, I know. On the whole, the community kinda only tolerates the existence of Gypsy. They are pretty much fine with her, as long as she doesn't poop/pee on the premises and bark. Now, we've lived here for a while, doing pretty okay with these conditions.

Now that you've gotten the background, here is what happened on Saturday. There was no power. My dog INSISTED that she go out now. I tried in vain to make her pee in the bathroom, but that so didn't happen. So I decided to take a chance and make a run for it. We raced down the stairs and on the third floor, she peed! At least a bucketful or something close to that much!!! I immediately dragged her back home, grabbed toilet tissue, a plastic bag, newspaper, some Lysol and shut her inside. She started barking up a frenzy - obviously! She still wanted to go out!!

I raced back down the stairs, to find that the pee had dribbled two flipping floors! I ran down, lay the newspaper down to catch the dribble and ran up and cleaned! I spent half an hour cursing the power and just generally and cleaned! I went back up, a little tired after all the racing up and down to be told in a very snide tone by some random person "The dog is barking a lot, no?" I grinned and said 'Oh. Yeah." like she was telling me a fact and not trying to tell me to keep Gyp quiet. Whatever.

So we finally went the 5 floors down, went for a walk and then climbed back the 5 floors. At this point, I was exhausted! I ate ice cream and watched TV.

Sunday, was another fun day. Usually the power goes out at 5pm, so I like to take gyp out at 4, so that I can use the lift! This Sunday? No chance! I took Gyp out in the elevator at about 4:15pm, the power was out because it started to POUR, the lift got stuck! I was in there for about 15 minutes, before the rain could lessen a little and the security people could turn the generator on so that the lift can move to floor level and Gyp and I can get out. here's what I discovered. I'm not claustrophobic at all. My dog is!!! She whined, pawed at the doors, paced and then just started barking and wouldn't calm down fully till the doors opened!! Now I know. That she is claustrophobic.

This was my weekend adventures with my dog. Did you have some adventures?

The CPU fell on my foot

What exactly happened with the CPU at work. If you follow me on twitter, you probably saw the tweet about the CPU falling on my foot and wondering how on Earth did I accomplish that. Here's the whole story.

I have a corner desk at work. Now at the end of this desk, there are drawers fitted in for me to use. My CPU is on the floor, right next to these drawers with about 2 inches of space between the drawers and the CPU. Now, I also sit in a roley chair, with a tree like structure. It has five wheels.

It so happened that a wheel got stuck between the CPU and the drawers. Now any other person, would have gotten off their chair and moved the CPU to roll the chair out. Not me. No way. Why should I get off the chair when I can just move back with a little force and get the wheel out?

So this is what I did. I planted my left leg, right next to the CPU to give me better leverage and shoved myself backwards. The wheel came free, except, knocking the CPU over onto my poor foot in the process. The CPU may not weigh a LOT, but when it falls on your foot, it flipping HURTS!!! I squealed and grabbed my foot.

Of course, my computer got all messed up cause the wire came out when it fell and we have all kinds of security protocol against a hard shut down (which is essentially what happened), but forget about all that. It was so cold in my office, that my hands were like an ice pack on my foot. They were cold and they felt good on my throbbing foot.

I still haven't figured out what's worse. The CPU falling on my foot, or my hands being cold enough to use as an ice pack.

Oh here is the cherry on top - My bus was parked the farthermost from the building, it was RAINING when I left to catch my bus, but guess who couldn't run, but had to freaking limp in the rain??? Yeah. Me. And those of you who know me know how much I despise the rain! Glad yesterday is over.

I've also moved the location of my CPU, so this will never happen again! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER! (Who gets this reference?)

6 weeks and going

I still have to write about my US trip I know. Kate Walsh and Paget Brewster were definitely the highlights, but there is a whole lot of middle that I still need to write, but that will be the next post I promise. For now, I'm going to tell you guys what I've been up to since I got back home.

First off, I got back home almost dehydrated because I spent the whole way from London to Bangalore crying. Well, not really, but I was incredibly sad. It's hard saying bye to a vacation. I had zero time to get back in usual mode because my cousin from the States also came back on the 13th. It's been a non-stop activity ride. I've loved every minute.

I got back on Tuesday (13th July) morning, watched Airbender in the evening. Collapsed, woke up at 2am on Wednesday, hung out with my dog, watched TV (nothing interesting is ever on at that time!) and finally got ready and went to work at 8. Left at about 3 because I was exhausted and went back to sleep at home. Woke up, went out for dinner, came back slept some more. Then I cannot remember what I did on Thursday, apart from work, but on Friday, we headed into the Jungles in Masinagudi. An 8 hour drive away. Spent the weekend there, with activities like a mid night safari (SCARY!) and playing table tennis at 2am. I also beat everybody at snap. I also learned I get shrill when I get competitive.

Came back on Sunday night, slept and somehow made it through Monday and Tuesday, before accompanying my grandmother on a temple trip to a place called Dodballapur, that is about 3 hours away. That was exhausting, but it was interesting. It had been about 5 years since I visited a temple. I'm still sceptical about the concept of God and I find it hard to believe, but it was different feeling the energy of that place. There is something to be said for a place like that. So many people with intense faith and belief in the same place does something to the atmosphere.

We also watched inception. Such an amazing movie. Watch it!!!

I had Thursday to calm down a little before going club hopping on Friday night after a full day at work with my friends and cousin. Came home at 1am and crashed, before going to brunch at my Gran's sister's place on Saturday. After which we went to the worst mall in Bangalore, called Mantri Mall. If you are in or visiting Bangalore, STAY AWAY from that place if you value your sanity.

The only good thing I did there was try the Apple and Cinnamon milkshake from Booster Juice, which was quite nice, if you're into liquid apple pie. Then, we went out for dinner at a friend's house and ended up coming back home at 3am.

Sunday (yesterday) was not a day of rest either. We went to get a haircut for my cousin at Spratt and then to the movie Salt. My cousin was up to doing stuff in the evening, but I just shushed him and passed out.

He leaves tonight, which is sad, because I did enjoy having him over! My activities for this weekend are an audition on Saturday (wish me luck!) and a day at the parlour on Sunday! I'm soooo looking forward to that! I need so many things done!

I also have to get my pictures with Kate and Paget printed out for my room, a farewell on Thursday for a colleague and need time to actually meet my friends!

Oh well, I'm out now. heading to lunch. Will blog about US trip over the weekend.

It doesn't get better than Paget Brewster!

Paget Brewster. So much to say! There are certain people in a person's life who help mould the person they become. These people may knowingly or unknowingly influence a person. Paget Brewster is one of those people for me. She is a role model.

She taught me the most important lesson I've ever learnt - to not wait for life to happen, but to make it happen. To put yourself out there and do what you want to do. To experience life, and not just live it. Paget Brewster experiences life. She also taught me to be myself, and just have fun and not constantly worry about what people think. She's been a part of my life since Criminal Minds. I loved her as Kathy and did watch her on the Andy Richter show, but it was Criminal Minds that had me youtube-ing interviews and videos of her.

I had the most amazing opportunity to meet her on Saturday, July 10th. It was the best experience ever and meeting her has given me new drive, courage and determination to do what I want to do and live my dream. Here's how it happened!

I found a penny in the car as I was getting in, face up, so that was a really good sign. The family and I headed to the beach in Orange County, played in the water and the sand for a little bit and then headed to LA for my play.

My uncle and aunt dropped me off at Largo, where it was happening and went to hang out in the city. The show is called "The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour". I first heard of this when I saw an interview that Paget did with Kevin Pollack. It sounded fascinating and I always wanted to see it. When it coincided with my trip so perfectly, I booked my ticket!

The show itself is a variety show, with some singing, some jingles, some acting and a ton of laughter! It's modeled after the 1930s radio shows. I laughed almost continuously for an hour and a half! My "smile dimples" are definitely deeper! She is in the second half of the show where she plays a character called Sadie who is married to Frank. They are a rich, 1930s couple who live in the Plaza Penthouse and drink martinis. She used the word "Horse" which she demonstrated in the Kevin Pollack Chat Show. Her partner in crime is Paul. F. Tompkins, one of the funniest comedians around. This time, the story revolved around a Spanish love story and it involved goats, witches, a prince and a Chupacabra!

At the beginning of the show, I asked Michael, the person who gave me my ticket and was the stage manager at Largo if he could give Paget a little something I had for her. He said that he would take it to her immediately and went backstage and gave it to her. He came out about 5 minutes later and told me to meet him at the courtyard after the show, so that I could meet Paget!!! I nodded eagerly and jumped up and down when he turned around! I'm pretty sure I looked like a fool, but who cares!

I went out to the courtyard after the show, cursing myself for leaving my shawl in my uncle's car. It was slightly chilly, but not the go-blue variety (Yay!). I hung around there, with the other 200 play goers trying to catch his eye. It really helped that I was wearing bright blue cause he called me over when he saw me. I went on over and he told me to wait. he went inside and then came out and motioned to follow him through the stage door. I was entering sacred space. A part of me wanted to look around and take everything in, but the part that respected an actors space won and I looked down and walked.

I think Micheal must have sensed my klutzness, because he warned me of every step, preventing every chance that I had to fall on my face, for which I am eternally grateful. We went outside to this little area where Paget and a bunch of other people were standing around laughing and joking. I waited patiently on the side, quite intimidated to join this group.

She finally looked in my direction and went "Oh! Are you Saroma?" and at my nod, hugged me and thanked me for the stuff. I was a little shocked cause I did not expect this kind of openness! I hugged her back and told her that I was glad she liked the stuff. We hung out and chatted outside for about 20 minutes! I asked her for an autograph and a picture and was quite embarrassed by my shaking hands, partially due to the cold and mostly because I was so excited!!!

We talked about her "restroom thing" where she wants to say "hello!!" to a person when they accidentally walk in on her. She laughed at that and said that she had tried it at all the airports - London, Paris, Milan, etc. She said that she was currently working on a cartoon where The Simpsons originally filmed (?) and there was one stall that does not have a lock. Three guesses to which one she said she uses :P Conan flashback anyone?

Someone saw the bling on her ring finger and asked if she was engaged to Steve! She laughed at that and said "Oh no! If it happens, you'll be the first to know!" It was the bling for the show - cause her character Sadie is married to Frank Doyle!

When we admired her dress from the show, she told us that it was from ebay, and that she got it for $12!!! The entire group was in shock cause it fit her like it was stitched for her! She said that if you knew your exact measurements, you could get awesome stuff from there.

After hanging out for a few more minutes, where she revealed that she collected handbags and actually had a showcase like thing for them (Like the showcase where people keep their fancy china), we headed back indoors (Oh! Finally the shivering stopped!) and she gave me another hug and kiss, still totally blown away by her down to earth-ness, and we said goodbye. She asked if I was coming again and I told her that it would be cool if they toured India!

Paget Brewster is amazingly sweet, funny, so freaking beautiful and just everything you've heard. She is so easy to talk to and you totally relax and have fun around her, no matter how shy and intimidated you may be.

My lucky penny totally came through for me!