Monkey In a Suit

This is cheesy as heck but I’m going to publish the link on this here blog because the mathematical side of me appreciates being able to increase my chances via the power of probability.

Handbag Planet, that’s www.handbagplanet.com, is having a contest where they’re giving away 24 bags (all in the latest trends, colours, sizes and shapes) in 24 hours. The reason is that they’re gearing up for their October 15th, 2008 launch. Viva la marketing!!! And now, beating the math odds via a link up? Not only do I want to win their handbags, I want to work for them!

Thanks much to Stephanie of Completely Irrelevant for calling my attention to it (got the email in my inbox this morning). Thanks Dude!

Monkey

Big Bird and I celebrated our long-apart reunion in typical L.A. fashion (delays were caused largely by me). Friday he flew in late late. I DVR-ed it for him but his flight landed early (to my consternation…what’s up with that? All of a sudden they decide to be early?), as I was sitting nekky on the floor rubbing lavender scented lotion into my legs post-shower, so he caught the highlights in the platinum club lounge before I even got there. We ended up heading out to izakaya in in Little Tokyo, where we noshed on soba noodle salad and okonomiyaki and gossiped about who schooled whom (I’m on strict orders not to tell anyone in real life about the secret republicanness) before heading home to crash exhausted in each other’s arms.

Saturday passed as it usually did-I got up before him and got a few things done. Made breakfast. We tooled around for a bit at home while he took calls (*insert rolleyes at working 7 days a week*) before heading out to Zankou Chicken for lunch. Saturday night we had planned to spend with his friends, enjoying a bit of L.A. nightlife (which we did). Of course, we always make these grandiose plans to get places in a timely manner and work out and all that crap but we had d*cked around for so long on Saturday that our workout got cut down to 20 minutes and we STILL ended up 49 minutes late to our dinner in Beverly Hills at Mr. Chow’s (BB showed me the restaurant bill late last night and I had about 6 heart attacks. I am beginning to figure out why my brother never shows my sister the restaurant bill at these types of places because WTF? I mean, the food was excellent, but so is mine and mine only costs $50 for an expensive meal and that’s if I buy all my ingredients AND some wine at the Whole Paycheck).

I had met Friend #1 before-who is a really sweet, cool dude but I had never met Friend #2, BB’s old college classmate. I have gone all recruiter on my desi club’s Diwali banquet at the end of next month and I’m planning on inviting both of them and maybe begging and pleading till they come (he is Indian, she is not, but who cares? My mom and dad are coming in two weeks and I’ll ask them to bring an extra sari if she wants to wear one). I’ve also managed to rope BB and my cousin G-Dawg’s cousin into it already.

L.A. nightlife…what is to be said except I find it kind of hilarious? I’d feel pretty depressed if that’s all I had as social interaction as it’s fairly fake and mind-numbing. However, I DID have an awesome mainly because BB and I had the best time gossiping about it all on the way home, sharing insights and opinions on people that we’d met (it was a finance party so Beebs already knew some folks). I remember before-BB going to these types of events was just a headache, but now they are downright entertaining as I know I’m going back home with someone “real”, with whom I have a relationship that is actually deep-it sort of makes the fakeness of the “scene” not matter anymore and you just take it for what it is. BB and I both agreed that we had become hermit-esque and anyway, all of the interaction is good for me as I can actually be fairly socially awkward and not as graceful about conversation with irritating peeps (unlike my handsome ultra-networker). BB and I have now adopted a sort of Big Cat/Little Cat thing where I complain about stuff and he helps me figure out a better way to deal with stuff.

Sunday we hung out with Friend 1 & 2 for brunch (this time we were only 10 minutes late) before we headed home to nap and canoodle until the evening.

All in all a very satisfying evening. I was drifting off to sleep while BB tossed and turned every five minutes Sunday night thinking to myself how I (we) got so lucky and then decided it wasn’t luck at all. We’re both wonderful people and frankly we deserved to meet someone who would make us happy. Thank you WordPress and Google Search Engine!

Incidentally-BB gave me some jewellry this weekend (nawww, not that). It’s a beautiful gold necklace with a pendant that matches my tatoo (the om symbol). I was touched by how well he knows me.

*sigh* I really needed this. I think we both did.

Taking a break from my political rants-I present to you another recipe I hope will sear your tongue and satisfy your belly. Hold fast, though-I MAY have a WPF tale coming up for you soon. As usual, Mentos and I have been condemned to working over Thanksgiving & Christmas (this means we cover up to the day before as both are federal holidays, and we’re on call in case the building burns down-it also means we can’t go anywhere, like, for instance, across the country to spend time with our families) for commiting the unforgiveable sin of refusing to get married or have children. In Office World this basically means you are a Nobody with No Life and No One Who Loves You.

Wait, I said I wasn’t going to rant about it, right? We usually split it-though because my parents talked me into coming home for that Ganapathi holiday in my immediate 5-minutes-of-breakup upset state, and it was all so last minute, my boss was hinting around that I may not be able to take any time off during either of those holidays. Not to mention the Belize trip. Oh well.

SO, the point of all of that is that this year I think I may make french food for Thanksgiving instead of the traditional spread.

Back to Mango Chicken Stirfry. Made 3 small-moderate servings for me. I generally measure volume for that by dumping in however many veggies I can hold in 1 to 2 pawfuls (keep in mind my height…these paws be small).  

(so adjust according to how many people you’re feeding)

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast-oh readers! I splurged on the Sustainably Farmed, Free Range, Organic & Antibiotic Free chicken from Trader Joe’s and it was so, so, so good. Just unbelievably soft and no nasty smell. I used a third of the package-so it must have been about 3 tenders.

Tomatoes, cherry-halved. 8 or 9.

French Green Beans, washed & trimmed and cut in half-You can use regular but I love the matchstick quality of these and there’s a big plus in last of the actual seedy beans inside. Grabbed as many from the package as could be held comfortably in one hand.  

Mango, half-the horrific “Florida” mango or wherever they get those ghastly North American monstrosities (post on Indian mangoes to follow-Cagey knows what I’m talking about as she actually experienced South Asian mango season!) works purrfectly for this recipe, as well as for Mango Salsa. I mean, they’re non-edible as a dessert (too fibrous) but they’re wonderful cooking mangoes. “Ripe” as well as kacha (green-a lot of Konkani recipes use green mango).

Onion: cut into long slivers. Halve the onion and then slice lengthwise. You can also add green onion but I didn’t want to go through the labourious step of additional dicing. I am lazy! 

Carrots: 1 regular or 3 or 4 baby carrots cut into narrow slivers (helps cook faster)

1/2 Red Pepper: slivered or cut into square (I like long slivers for everything)

Peanuts: not the sugared salted kind. I get my cooking peanuts at the Chinest supermarket. They’re roasted but unsalted and non-sugared/flavoured. 2 tablespoons.

Garlic & Ginger to preference: or, if lazy like me, garlic/ginger paste from Indian store

Togarashi (or general cayenne pepper), cornstarch & salt

Additional Veggies Possible: broccoli, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, bean sprouts & baby corn. You actually don’t need the chicken if you’re vegetarian.

Stirfry Sauce Ingredients: soy sauce, mashed mango (directions below), lashings of Sriracha, oyster sauce (just to thicken), fish sauce, 1/2 packet splenda, water & cornstarch

Garnish: chopped green onion (as discussed above) and/or chopped cilantro (aka coriander).

Canola Oil: 2 teaspoons

Sesame Oil: drizzle (to coat the chicken)

Method:

1) Chop all vegetable to preferred size & shape and dump in a big bowl. I do this first because the thought of chopping veggies on a board that had recently sliced chicken breast is gross to me. I get that the veggies are going to be cooked-but there’s still the issue of the garnishes. So I do all the vegetables, onions, whatever spices need to be chopped (like garlic/ginger/chilies) and all the garnishes first before moving on the to the meat. If you’re using fresh garlic ginger, chop it up and dump on another little plate.  

2) Mango Instructions: I didn’t need the whole mango. I’m saving the other half to make BB this stir fry next weekend because it was soooooooo good and I know he likes healthier fare (2 teaspoons oil!). So basically use a vegetable peeler on the mango and peel off the skin. Now, holding the mango upright, with the side where the stem was facing up towards the ceiling and the 2 bulkier sides of the mango facing right & left, slice a half off one side. If the broad face of the seed is facing you, you’re going to slice off less. The meat off the broader sides of the mango is known as the “paysss” in Konkani. The seed is known as the “kathaw”. After you get that big chunk of mango off the pith, cube about 3/4 of it into large chunks & the remaining quarter chop very finely and mash with your hand in another bowl. It’s going to be the base of your sauce.

3) Chicken: slice into thin, bite size portions. Toss with cayenne/togarashi, salt, and then drizzle with sesame oil, making sure to coat all the chicken. Slowly add a little bit of cornstarch. If it starts to get pasty and lump up, add drops of water till it dissolves and coats the chicken. You don’t a heavy breading here-it’s just a little coating to crisp up the chicken. If you’re using tofu, you can do the same thing, but be gentle because the tofu will break more easily.

4) Sauce: to the mashed mango in a bowl-add soya sauce, fish sauce, heaps of sriracha (yum! Also meant that I didn’t have to chop garlic) or that other garlicky rooster sauce with the seeds, a bit of oyster sauce (to thicken it), splenda to sweeten (or honey), a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar (if you like, I didn’t but this is all flexible). If you want a lot of sauce, obviously add in larger quantities. Dip your finger in and taste. It should be a combination of sweet, sour & spicy. When you have as much sauce as you like-take 1 to 2 teaspoons of cornstart and dissolve in a little water. Add to the sauce.

5) Heat 1 teaspoon of canola oil in wok or pan  at medium high heat (7.5 on electric) until very hot. On my electric stove this means between 2 to 3 minutes (electric ranges, how I despise thee). When positive that the oil is very hot, add chicken and stirfry. Make sure it’s evenly browned on the outside but you don’t need to cook all the way through. Remove and set aside. If your chicken is searing too quickly because the oil is too hot, lower heat and quickly stir fry until evenly browned on outside.

6) Heat another teaspoon of canola oil in the pan/wok/pot in a similar manner. Add garlic & ginger and stirfry. Make sure it browns but doesn’t burn (I gleefully added lashings of my favourite bottled paste-again, I’m so lazy-and I know this recipe sounds long but it too me about 25 minutes to make). After garlic and ginger release odours (45 seconds to 1 minute), add veggies and stir fry. I seared them up nicely at high heat for about a minute. I really like the blackening on the vegetables but for them to still retain crunch. Add chicken back in, and your peanuts, and stir fry. The chicken should cook 90% of the way through over the next minute. Dip finger in sauce and stir the cornstarch back up. Dump sauce in pan and cook. It will thicken really quickly.

Garnish with chopped coriander/green onions and serve over steaming hot rice.

Tip 1: wash rice and put in microwave or cooker before starting chopping vegetables. That way it cooks in the cooker/microwave as you’re doing all the prep and cooking. Keep in mind that the stirfry cooks pretty quickly and if it sits on heat or you have to reheat it, the veggies get mushy.

Tip 2, courtesy of Modern Day Hermit: for brown rice, add BOILING water to brown rice. Thanks for that MDH, you are a doll. My brown rice is finally edible.

ETA: to add the peanuts.

Mentos and I are coordinating on a project right now. He’s closing the deal but he needs help from me because I reviewed all the different levels of financing. This is a project I’ve felt incredibly crappy and guilty about because I held up money that was to be given to the BLIND. This is probably the most “socially beneficial” work I do and it’s probably what I’m going to write about on my b-school essays (you don’t have to tell me I’m going to be the freak b-school applicant. I know. Big Bird: The thing you have going in your favour, baby, is that you’re going to be the “weird” admit).

I held this project up because the tertiary financing was railroading the federal government into paying out $$$ in the event that X event occurred. That’s the thing about transactions-it’s so Magic 8 Ball where the law is concerned. You don’t sit around researching statutes and trying to figure out violations and whatnot after the fact. It’s all projecting into the future, double double toil and trouble, how will this deal go South? So after projecting and predicting and systematically causing X, Y & Z to happen in my mind, I came to the conclusion that in the event of corporate failure on the part of the people we’re giving money to-that the government would essentially be railroaded into an unauthorised use of non-allocated funds. Keep in mind that under a particular federal statute, any attorney that signs their name to approving such a transaction is PERSONALLY FROCKING LIABLE.

So I said “yeah, no”. Outside counsel came back and whinged, “there’s nothing we can do, they refuse to change the language,” I punted it to my boss, a lot of meetings were had and I spent an entire week reading nasty correspondance about yours truly from a number of enraged parties duly enraged at seeing meager federal funds slip away. I wasn’t even mad, to tell you the truth, though I understand outside counsel’s frustration because Mentos and I have been bringing up these issues for years and years now and Boss Man only decided to start enforcing the statute (keep in mind that the majority of these scenarios never occur). I also wasn’t mad because giving the blind their money is more important than people thinking I’m cool. Keep in mind that I came up with a series of solutions for the issue but it was the other parties refusing to budge though Federal claims and requirements always take priority in multi-level financing.

That’s the other thing about transactions. Half the time people don’t really care about the law, the regulations, the notices etc.. It’s all about what the office allowed them to get away with in the past. Like all of a sudden past errors are precedent.  

This isn’t about all of that though-it’s that they finally made the changes but by that time Boss Man had assigned the final closing of the transaction to Mentos, who forwarded me the modified documents. I reviewed them and noticed they had changed some provisions but not others and I pointed that out to Mentos with the additional comment of “your project, you decide how tough to be about this.” So he just called them up and gleefully told them to modify the transactional documents again and Oh! the whining and screeching and complaining.

Here’s the point of this whole post-when other people start acting like that, I feel bad. Not only that, but half the time I bring up a legal point and I’m pretty certain I’m sure about it but outside counsel will act like I’m stupid and deluded and try to argue me down. So then I’ll sort of slink away and say “I’ll think about it” and ask Mentos and Bossman and they’ll look at me all crazy like “Yes, you’re freaking right, what are you talking about?” I notice that New Girl has much the same problem.

I know I’m really smart. I know that I’m probably a good lawyer. But often I feel like a really crappy one. I will come up with an idea and if I present it to Mentos he’ll light up and run with it as a theory. But I have a hard time standing behind my ideas myself and I easily lose confidence in them when I’m met with opposition from other lawyers who try to bully me. A lot of it is that I hate saying “no”.

I don’t know what it is-is this why I was so good at writing exams? That I don’t really have too many fixed ideas about anything? Is it the fact that my morale is so low after our RC passed me over for a transfer to another office and then promoted a girl who started at the same time as me to a GS-14 job in her current position? The truth is that I hate life here these days and I can’t wait till I smugly tell them I’m sayonara, on my way to business school.

What I want to change before business school is this whole thing about feeling like I’m stupid. A lot of people tell me I’m really smart and BB is constantly telling me how intuitively I understand finance and business but I still feel DUMB and nervous about saying stuff because I worry that I sound ridiculous. I just re-taught (without any help from my dad, my brother or Big Bird ) myself the GMAT maths even though it’s been over a decade that I had to think about anything quantitative. There’s no way I can be an idiot-I mean, I know it’s an untimed score, but I get near perfect scores on the GMAT for frock’s sake. I may not be a genius but I have an intuitive understanding of stuff (my problem is that I tend to get bored really fast, whereas people like Big Bird and my sister can sit still for hours on end practicing the same thing).  

I dunno how I go about feeling The Super Awesome but I’m pretty certain that my success in b-school depends on it.

FTR, Mentos told them to go hang unless they made the changes and personally thanked me for pointing it out to him. Last week a major bank asked my boss if I could be their “personal” agency attorney. Yet, I am passed over for promotions for unqualified people time after time after time. I am really feeling very low these days.

How do you guys pep yourselves up?

I’ve been given directive to text BB big updates.

OMG. Reading the business news every 5 minutes has become surreal. Morgan Stanley? Y’all, the independent i-bank may be over by the end of the week. And why the frock would they go with Wachovia, which is flailing in the water? Man, suck WF off till they buy you.

Tell me, do you see the blogroll to the right? It seems to have disappeared from my view over here in a no doubt outdated version of Internet Explorer. I checked in my dashboard and it still appears there but it doesn’t come up in my browser screen when I come to my own page.

And the Wall Street massacre continues.

First, thanks to everyone who wrote/called about whether or not I was on that Metrolink train. I responsed to everyone but JUST IN CASE…I am not dead. Also, I don’t take Metrolink, I take the Los Angeles Metro-so we don’t share tracks with the freight trains. Many of the lines (Gold/Blue/Green) are light rail and the one we all take to commute within the downtown area is an underground subway (Red Line). I was in a Metro accident earlier this year but it was one of those “car tried to beat our train” deals and everyone was travelling so slowly no one got hurt.

I am way more likely to die on an L.A. freeway so taking public transport is worth it to me.

Moving on, but keeping on the subject of trainwrecks. WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT? That was the biggest financial trainwreck in *my* conscious lifetime, at least.

Teaching Kids About Molestation is Not Sex Education

Should it be the responsibility of the parents? Yes. But kindergarten isn’t freaking AP Chemistry. It’s as much about simple stuff like handwashing and sharing and NOT GETTING INTO SOMEONE’S CHEVY CAPRICE as much as it is about reading.

I’ll admit I was pretty non-plussed about the “celebrity” mocking ads (unlike Great Big Nerd), but like Great Big Nerd, my affection for McCain is dwindling (keep in mind, I dislike Palin, I did not, before this, dislike McCain at all). This is seriously frocked up. For someone who was swiftboated by his own party, I would not have expected this.

McCain, you’re better than this Rove-ian bullsh*t. A retraction is in serious order.

Okay, I can’t keep my mouth shut about this anymore. Weasel (aka Big Bird) and I confirmed our plans to vacation together shortly after the start of the new year. Confirmed via plane tickets. First class plane tickets, even (thanks darling). Delicious. I haven’t been on a vacation with a peer…in…umm. Well…ever. My college flatmate, Sparklygrrl, and I spent most of our last year of undergrad (jr/sr, we were 3 year graduates) designing an elaborate around-Europe post-college tour but I got the opportunity to go work on the campaign and pulled out at the last minute. She did end up going with her best friend from high school, then went on to graduate school in Edinburgh, where I ended up visiting her a year after. So, I haven’t been anywhere that *I* really wanted to go since about 2001. I did go to Mexico last year but that was mostly because my parents kind of forced me there because I was “depressed” and crap, and I didn’t really enjoy it all that much.

But now Belize. With a friend! (Yes, he’s my boyfriend but I would be equally excited if I were going somewhere with Sparklygrrl or MC Hippo or any other of my girlfriends). Trips with peers feel kind of extra-special. I love my parents dearly, and they are adventurous folk…but I’ve never had a trip with someone my age and I’ve always wanted to travel like that.

Initially we were thinking Costa Rica but I read this thing about “leishmaniasis,” googled it and started freaking the frock out. That and Big Bird started gibbering about “really blue water” and all and we ended up compromising on Belize because the CR beaches are mostly on the Pacific side and the surf is rough and the beaches look medioce-ish. I think CR is mostly for all the crazy wildlife and jungle eco-tourism.

Of course, we came to find out that while Belize has the Caribbean waters, THEIR beaches aren’t super great either, mostly because they’ve been reclaimed. The cayes don’t have much natural beach and the island is surrounded by ecologically necessary sea grass, so it’s not like going to the Grand Caymans or Martinique or some place with really powdery sand. BUT, the better hotels have reclaimed a decent amount and my poppet will have miles and miles of blue water to gaze at from his beach chair. Ultimately, Belize offered the best combination of adventure activities (in the jungle areas) combined with funky Caribbean getaway. Neither of us have a lot of vacation and while we’re going in the immediate post-New Year dead zone, we only had about a week each before business started to pick back up, so there was no question of going somewhere more farflung. Central America or the Caribbean seemed to be the best option. My sister and brother-in-law warned me against the Aruba-ish scene as it’s where they went for their honeymoon and they found it “very boring after a certain point”.

SO BELIZE. JUNGLE. HOL CHAN & SHARK RAY ALLEY. CAVE TUBING. RIVER KAYAKING. HORSEBACK RIDING ON EQUESTRIAN TRAILS. ZOO. Squawk! I can hardly wait. The best part of all of this is that BB is basically letting me plan most of it (maybe because I’m the one who has the time at work to peruse websites) and then I’ll run things past him and force my hand depending on how much his voice quavers. I’ll admit it, I am such a softie when it comes to sloe-eyed boys, especially ones who’d travel to jungle lodges sans electricity because their girlfriends were all excited about REPELLING OFF THE SIDE OF A CLIFF, but you know from the way they keep whispering “no electricity or Blackberry access” in a despondent-trying-to-reassure-themselves way that they really would prefer not to, if at all possible, darling.

Also, what’s gotten into me? LET’S TRY TO KILL OURSELVES IN AS MANY DIFFERENT WAYS AS POSSIBLE, I proclaimed to him on the phone.

You’re afraid of heights, he reminded me in a vain attempt to quash all thought of Class 6 rapids & jumping into snake pits and whatever other harebrained ideas I come up with to deal with the fact that I’m a desk monkey who goes to the gym to keep her heart healthy.

So, THAT jungle lodge isn’t happening, specifically because of the no electricity thing, which, I’ll admit, fazed me a little because I wasn’t sure how I was going to bring all my hair accoutrements into the jungle to look cute in the pictures (I have a feeling Cagey is on the floor doubled over right now because she has SEEN ME, and MY HAIR, and my HAIR ACCOUTREMENTS). Also, I decided to “scale back” our adventure plans because a certain sloe-eyed boy kept talking about “injuries” and “business school won’t be so much fun in a wheelchair” and blahblahblah, apparently repelling of cliffs will make you look like the monster from the Goonies and finally I decided to go with the following schedule.

Day 1: fly in. Get car in Belize City and drive to Jungle Lodge. Current favourite is this one. I really love the setting, it’s one of the few in the area that has electricity in the rooms, AND it has some extra-deluxe rooms to pacify El Fussy. Actually, the luxury resort down the river doesn’t even have electricity (I keep trying to explain this to BB, that 90% of the jungle lodges are set up the same way), but these people are off-grid, making and storing their own.

Day 2: Take off in car to Caves Branch district for combo cave tubing & zipline. I was debating between this and the ATM cave but decided on the more obvious tubing/zipline combo for the major reason that the ATM cave is part of Belizean heritage, and while they limit the number of people who can enter (hence the expensive price for that expedition), the tourism IS having an effect on the archaeological integrity of the site. Like, I read online that one of the tourists already managed to trample and crush one of the skeletons. I am clumsy as heck and NO THANKS, I do not want to be part of ruining someone’s cultural artifacts. Also, you have to walk barefoot through the cave. A cave that has flickr photographs of SCORPION SPIDERS. That and Big Bird perked up at the idea of the zipline, proclaiming it “exciting” so I figured, what the heck, let’s go for the obvious. Sometimes there’s a reason the path is heavily beaten. If back early-ish, take hike up to summit.

Day 2: Wake up late-ish and have breakfast at our chosen lodge. Canoe down the Macal River (iguanas and toucans!) to lodge downstream and then take half-day horseback ride through the jungle.

Day 3: Wake up and drive back to Belize City, stopping at Belize Zoo. Take flight out to Ambergris Caye.

Day 4: Let Big Bird get his fill of doing nothing.

Day 5: Snorkel Shark Ray Alley and Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Snorkel with sharks and rays. SHARKS AND RAYS. But I hear the sharks are of a pacifist variety. Come back and do nothing.

Day 6: Nothing except PARASAIL. Hee.

Day 7: Leisurely trip, probably via water taxi, back to Belize City for the flight out.

So, as you can see, the first part of our trip is a little bit more actioned packed than the remaining half. I was thinking about sneaking in an additional all day trip to Bacalar Chico Reserve with snorkeling and beach bbq but I promised BB that the island part would be mostly relaxing. So I limited myself to the Hol Chan & Shark Ray expedition and decided to forego the additional hectic schedule of sightseeing the northern marine reserve & more snorkeling. I actually find being out in bright sun to be very very tiring, and I figured BB deserved his rest for gamely going along with all my jungle adventure crap.

So….if any of you have been, feel free to give me recs. I’ve planned a lot of this off of Frommers & Tripadvisor and the Fodor’s message boards. Also, I’m still undecided on the Ambergris Island hotel.

Howdy readers-sorry about the weeklong absence without responses to your comments. I’ll write up a proper one tomorrow. Hey, one of my readers nominated me for an award, and I’m pretty certain Average Jane sent me up for something a while back. Thanks! I’ll write a proper acknowledging post tomorrow.

Short & Sweet:

1) Was absent because I was on the world’s most interminable vacation last week in MA. Honest, it wouldn’t have been as bad if my ipod charger hadn’t broken and my mom hadn’t nagged me into not buying a new one. See, I really wanted to get in a lot of cardio last week at the gym but I CAN’T exercise without music. Ergo lots of sitting around and studying (for the GMAT, why be coy?).

2) I went home at the last minute because of a) Ganesh Chaturthi and b) Because my parents were worried about me for all 5 minutes Big Bird and I were broken up.

3) Ganpathi food is tasty and some of it is healthy but a LOT of it is not. Cue me getting increasingly angry about being bitched at regarding the Ipod charger.

4) I was part of a very real air emergency! Thank Gods it was ON THE GROUND and not in the air. Deets to follow.

5) I am experimenting with Pescatarianism – days BB is in town because he likes my chicken curries. Maybe I’m going through one of my phases but it I’m increasingly dissatisfied with the state of agribusiness, especially animal husbandry, and I can’t bring myself to eat chicken anymore. I know some of you are internally thinking “FISH FARMING IS BAD TOO IDIOTA!”  but I’m from a fish-eating culture in India so it’s the one meat that I will never ever ever give up.

6) My job is killing me. I can’t wait until I get into a business school. The situation with the GMATs is this.

Untimed, at home, I test at above 750. I re-taught myself all the math.

Timed, my score drops dramatically. This is because I re-taught myself math. And I’m doing math for the first time in TWELVE YEARS. AAAAAAAAAAAAH. Not only do I sometimes take the super-long route around, but those data sufficiency problems kill me.

So I’m taking it slow. I’m aiming for an above 750 score. Timed. ON THE COMPUTER. It’s not easy, but it’s what I want to get to where I want to go (top top b-school).

On the plus side I’m killing verbal. *yawn*

So that’s about it.