Spring Break! Here I come!

I have one more class, before its officially Spring Break 08. I can’t wait to spend a week not thinking about school. Next week, I’m going to take it easy for the first few days and at the end of the week, we are going camping to the Smoky Mountains. We are driving out there on friday and meeting up with our friends JE and EB and we’ll camp inside the national park. I am so excited, although I’ve been up to Blue Ridge Mountains before, this will be my first trip to the national park.

Here is some of the great Scenery I’m anticipating

 

This is going to be an awesome spring break

photos from google images

Longing for summer

Originally uploaded by annadasg

I took this photo in the Bahamas a few years back and it made me long to go to the beach this summer. I wish it would hurry up and get here and rescue me from this gloomy winter!

But to make my wait easier and to cheer myself out of this funk, I decided to go to this website called Upumpitup, this is a community based website where there are various challenges that women can join and monitor their progress. It breaks the challenge down to 4 categories of Connect, Explore, Express and Inspire and each has small challenges like writing every day in a journal or planning a big solo vacation. Anyway , I signed up for five challenges to do through out the year

Here they are

1) No Muss, No Fuss- Working towards a clutter free home and life

2) Get into your Groove- Learning a new dance

3) Wardrobe Remixed- Playing with my clothes

4) Downward Facing What? – Commiting to yoga

5) All in the Family- Planning a family reunion.

I’m excited to see how I end up on doing my challenges and meeting my milestones. You can sign up for a challenge or create your own at www.upumpitup.com .

Mulder is out there

 

Yes! Yes! Yes!!! Just the news I needed to help me deal with my little emo funk from yesterday! I just found out that there is a new X-files movie coming out this summer. I am the biggest X files geek ever and I am forever hopeful that someday Mulder and Scully will get together! Although I would much prefer that Mulder aka David Duchovny…ahem…got with me…but thats probably not gonna happen! Anyway, now I can’t wait for July 08 when the movie hits the theatres. I have heard rumors that the official trailor has been leaked but I couldn’t find a good enough version on youtube. I’ll continue my search. Meanwhile, seriously people….The truth is out there!!!

Remorse

This weekend it hit me that sometimes I really do just need to shut up! I feel like I might have betrayed so many intimate moments throughout my life just because of my need to vent. I don’t think I’ve divulged specific secrets or things that were explicitly private but maybe small moments that are in that gray area. I don’t if thats a betrayal to vent about things bothering you but I feel like I can no longer call myself a loyal person, at least for a little while. I havent’ done anything terrible, but I think I just need to shut up sometimes.

 When J and I were younger we would have discussions about how every human being has one virtue. J’s was patience, mine was loyalty. Am I still loyal? As I get older and the relationships with my friends which once seemed like a lifeline erode into weekly phone calls and facebook pages, and  husbands and familial ties become more prominent, I don’t know where my loyalties must lie

Does love mean a barrier of secrets? How many people’s secrets am I supposed to keep and what if they are also your secrets? I am just sorry that I have never asked these questions earlier? Not that I know the answers, but perhaps I will be more mindful.

Seems rather shallow to feel remorseful over something so trivial, when I probably should be remorseful for so many of my unconcious actions but that is too overwhelming to even ponder.

Blah…I don’t understand the point of this post. Needless to say, I’m feeling rather blue today.

A Forever 21 Morning

This morning I had a very pleasant surprise, my second class of the day was cancelled and faced with good 2.5 hour block of time, I decided to pay a visit to Crabtree Valley Mall. Now my main purpose to go to Crabtree was to check out the new Forever 21 store that had just opened.

I was familiar with Forever 21 from when my parents used to live in L. A and since then they had gone from being just a west coast retailer into a national phenomenon. There were articles in New York Times and fashion blogs and Forever 21 was being compared to Zara and H&M as the American cheap, chic fashion destination. Forever 21 however unlike H&M does sell clothes online and all my friends have been shopping from the Forever 21.com site for a while. Although I missed the store, I couldn’t make myself shop their online store. It defeated the whole purpose of bargain shopping. I would find a great cocktail ring for $2.99 or a great top for $7 but I would have to pay another $7 for shipping and wait another few days for delivery. No fun!

Anyway, all that longing finally paid off this afternoon! I had a great time browsing through their store and checking out some of their new lines like twelvebytwelve and heritage 1981.

The 4 Quiz

I was tagged by my friend Hot Hot JJ to take this quiz, you can read her answers at her blog. Forgive the formatting, my blog is not being cooperative today.

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Tanning Salon Manager
2. Retail Employee at the Mall

3. Ad Sales Rep for a business magazine

4. Marketing intern for a software company (current)

Four favorite movies:

1. Waking the Dead

2. Love Actually
3. Monsoon Wedding
4. Brokeback Mountain

Four places I have lived:

My first two and last two
1. Kolkata, India
2. Bangalore, India

3. Salt Lake City, UT

4. Durham NC

Four TV Shows that I watch:
1. Law and Order SVU (best show ever!)
2. Lipstick Jungle

3. House
4. America’s Next Top Model (another guilty pleasure)

Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Zimbabwe and South Africa, Africa
2. India

3. Bahamas

4. Yellowstone National Park

People who email me regularly:
1. My business class group
2. my boss
3. My friend Jen

4. User group event organizers

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Thai Green Curry

2. NC BBQ

3. Al Pastor Tacos
4. Palak Paneer
Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Home, zoning out
2. The Beach

3. In Readers Corner used book store
4. New MArket in Kolkata

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. Graduating!
2. Getting a real job
3. Going to the Smoky Mountains

4. Going on a tropical honeymoon for our 1 year anniversary

Flu Flu Flu

How I hate you!

I have been rather sick lately and its been absolutely no fun. I’ve missed two days of school, so I’m super behind in my classes and I just feel so out of it general. Even the blog isn’t motivating to  think or surf about anything remotely interesting. All I want to do is curl up on the couch and complain.

It’s also not helping that V-Day is around the corner and J and I still haven’t made concrete plans about what to do. I’m really not feeling it this year, which is too bad because this is our first married Valentine’s day. I think we’ll just go to dinner and call it good. We haven’t been to an Italian restaurant in years, so maybe that will be fun.

While I was sick, I did check out the new show on NBC called Lipstick Jungle. My friend JE reccomened it to me because we both loved Sex and the City. This series is also based on a book by Candance Bushnell and the pilot episode was really good. These women seem more fleshed out, mature, and slightly less girly versions of the women on Sex and the City.

Here is a clip:

My Idea of a Low Cal Lunch

Like most people, February is still too early for New Year’s resolutions to fade away,so I’ve been slogging away at eating healthy and consuming less calories. I try to read other people’s inspirational weight loss stories in Fitness Magazine or Self, or Shape, you know, the ones who do Cardio for 45mins-60mins a day 5 days a week, plus hike 3 times a week, and do yoga or pilates 3 times a week and get motivated and it does zero, zilch to get me off my butt! You know why? I’m just lazy, I’d rather sit at my desk at work and update my blog than do those handy exercieses that Fitness Magazine suggests you do at your desk!

Eat this    +     = 345 cals

Eat all this    +    + 1/2   +   = 340 cals

However, I have been trying to watch what I eat and keep a food journal in my head and tally up what I eat! I especially read Glamour magazine’s little column called “Eat this or all of this ” where Glamour shows you a humungous plate of something unhealthy like a plate of fettuci0ne alfredo and then suggests that you can eat three healthy, delicious thing or the same or fewer calories, like steak, baked potato and a veggie. Anyway, this was my rather…um…false interpretation of this at lunch. The plan was to

Eat This:

One can of Slim Fast Chocolate shake – 175 Cals and One serving of Planters Trail Mix-170 Cals for a total of 345 Calories

or Eat all this….which I did happily

1 small bag lays potato chips – 150 calories

1/2 can slim fast- 85 calories

1 milky way mini- 40 calories

1 teaspoon mixed nuts (extra salty…mmm) 65 calories

for a grand total of …ding ding ding…340 Calories

So really, I did a lot better than the healthy option!!!

I’m sure this is the way to Weight loss…not! Oh well, its friday and I deserve chips!!!

Lipstick Karma

 

Photo: google images

I watched a part of Today Show this morning that talked about how every cent from the sale of M.A.C’s Viva Glam fund goes towards AIDs awareness. I’m sure there are other programs and products out there that donate 100% of the proceeds to Charity but I mostly see items that only donate 5% or 10% to their chosen cause.

Also, what a painless way to earn some good karma, especially for someone like me, who is a lip stuff junkie. One can choose from 6 different shades and its only $14.00. Now I’ll admit, I’m mostly a drug store shopper when it comes to fun, non essential make up ,but $14.00 is definitely affordable on my measly starving student budget.

I bought Viva Glam VI and you can purchase your very own Viva Glam here and make a difference!

Cleaning out my Closet

photo: google images and www.designmom.com 

My blog closet! Hey what do you know a non India themed blog post!!! Don’t get too used to this though.

 Anyway, I was looking at my bookmarks for blogs and the blogs I have on my Google reader and it was well over 35. I have decided, that I simply cannot keep track of that many so I ‘m cleaning out my blogroll, deleting some old links and adding some new ones. Also here are a few blogs I’m actively following! So here’s to sharing the blog love!

Rita’s Kitchen: She hasn’t updated in a long time so after this week, when I’m done gobbling down Dinner party ideas, I will be deleting this once fave blog.

Chachi’s Kitchen: A new find! Awesome recipes , mostly Indian, Thai , with muslim and east African’ influences. I love the fact that the recipes are photographed throughout the entire cooking process.

Hostess with the Mostess: If you like bright pretty pictures of cool STUFF!!! Some interesting tips and ideas too.

Mill Musings: I stumbled upon this blog quite randomly, as this doesn’t fall in my normal range of interests but I was really curious once I read her post about buying groceries for a family of 2 on  $20 a week. I am not very religious at all but I am fascinated with the frugal living that they do. They have awesome money saving ideas! Hard for me to follow at the moment, but very easy to aspire.

She’s A Betty: Lovely Vintage and Indie fashion goodness

The Sugar Sites: I am absolutely addicted to FabSugar, YumSugar, PopSugar and the rest.

Happy Browsing. I hope I get some good links in return!