Daddy's girl

Who knows
when or
where
it will strike.
I am afraid
of Life.
Death is okay;
it will strike
only once.
- Gulzar "Death"

February 24, 2006
Today would have been Mom and Dad's 28th wedding anniversary.

Called Mom this morning and this was how it went:
Mom: I was thinking you'd call.
Me: Yeah, I thought you might be expecting my call.

That's all she or I could say. It's been 15 months since he passed away, but it doesn't seem to hurt any less. I miss you Papa.

This morning I remembered this incident from when I was about 10 or so. It was around the time my grandfather passed away and we had lots of relatives at our house, many of whom I had never met before. One of grandpa's cousins came to me and asked me "Whose daughter are you?" (My dad was one of 7 siblings and he meant to ask whose child was I). Instinctively, I said "Daddy's!!" (assuming he was asking me if I was Daddy's girl or Mommy's girl)

Daddy, I will always be your little girl.

Filed in:

• Dad

Enlightening!

At work during lunchtime, I was part of this enlightening conversation:

Friend1 (to Friend2): So, was your Dad a Chicksexer?

Thoughts racing through my mind (probably also through the minds of few others on the table): Did I just hear what I think I heard??? What on earth does that mean? (I really hope not what it seems to mean)

Apparently Friend2 was among the few on the table who knew what it meant and thus did not take offense.

Dictionary.com does not seem to know what it means; Wikipedia has a slightly better term for it.

Now, this is one word I know I will never forget all my life!!

Filed in:

• Interesting
• Occupations

Southwestern food that makes me smile

Read this the other day when I dragged hubby dear for dinner at one of my favorite mexican places (Moe's):

"A burrito is like life, a well-hidden mess"

While I was searching for a link to Moe's to put on this post, I discovered that they are a pretty sizeable chain with locations all over the country. So, I am curious if any of you have been to Moe's (other than the one in Shrewsbury, MA). Do they greet you in other locations as well with that loud and cheerful "WELCOME TO MOE's" when you enter?
Follow up question - Does that make you all excited and happy to be there...well, OK ...I guess it's probably just me :)

Filed in:

• MadeMeSmile

A different kind of a lounge

Yesterday on NPR, I caught this story regarding the opening of a smokers' lounge in Chicago. Here are two (1, 2) advertisements promoting this "tobacco lounge". The whole concept of creating a place to promote a vice (IMO) like smoking makes me very uneasy.

Filed in:

• RealityBites
• smoking

What do you think?

I know some of you have probably known me for less than a month, but I am curious what do you think about me? What words would you choose to describe me? Pick a few on my Johari Window (first seen on The Clutter Museum)

My reading list

Taking inspiration from Jeff's Dispatches and Trillwing over at The Clutter Museum, here is my own reading list:

Books I'm reading:
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich - This one I am listing first because I am almost on the verge of finishing this (less than 40 pages to go) - It's been fairly interesting, gave a pretty good view of how hard it is to get by on minimal wage jobs.

The year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion - This is a memoir by Joan Didion talking about how she dealt with grief when her husband passed away. It's a lovely but sad book and tends to make me depressed every time I read it (also makes me miss my Dad, who passed away in the November of 2004 - I'll talk about him another time). I am about two-thirds of the way through the book; don't know when the next one-third is going to happen.

The Essential Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks - This a book of beautiful poetry by Jelaluddin Rumi, translated from Urdu by Coleman Barks. The poems are deep and intense and very beautifully written. I pick up this book every now and then, read a few random poems, and feel nice - I don't anticipate myself reading the book from front to end, as I am sure I will not appreciate the poetry much that way. I have a long way to go with this one :)

The Design of Everyday Things, Donald A. Norman - I bought this book a few weeks after I took a 3-day training course on User-Centered Design. When they mentioned the book in class, it sounded interesting. I got started with the book more than 6 months ago, it was really interesting, funny and I was enjoying it and then somewhere I lost interest. But I know for sure that I am going back to this book sometime, it was really fun reading about the psychology of everyday things.

I will not even begin to list the books that I want to read, there are far too many and I know that by the end of the list, I will start wondering when am I ever going to find the time to read all of these books! So, I guess I will take up each book as its time comes :)

Engrish

Just came across this funny site: Engrish.com which they describe as: "Engrish can be simply defined as the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design."

Here are some of my favorites:
Men
IloveNY
Pan
Milk!
Signs