trav(w)ails

Thought process before embarking on a long trip:

• Sit up late into the night downloading songs that you arent sick of listening within a minute. The ultimate scare of 10 hours of silence broken only by the incessant “nagging” / questioning from Munchkin would be the ultimate motivator.

• The above task of downloading made easy as everything you listen to sounds new. New doesn’t necessarily mean nice.

• Hindi is relatively easy and sticking to the language would be awesome. Until sudden realization that I have the ultimate critic in dad. Debate. hesitate. Decide. No matter what songs, unless they are sung by BMK or Ghantasala or SPB, dad would’nt be a happy camper anyway. Decide to unearth some black and white DVD’s.

• Daughter decides to take her closet with her. Sadly, she was brought down quick to the ground with doing simple math learnt long ago in kindergarten, and the days of the week count.

• Have no idea why I started cleaning out the basement. Found some treasures. Relics that were once thought of as treasures and now wree stared at wondering why those were saved ever in the first place.

• Dry wall dusting collecting over my hair, arms, legs, pants and behind. A geisha would probably want to run and powder her face a little more.

• Sending son camping seemed more traumatic and stressful than sending a daughter to her in-laws claimed the dad. Well, seven days and six nights is no joke, and all the unsettling stories about insect bites, pottying in the wild, open showers, throwing 11-12 year old boys into ponds lakes with slimy slithering creatures as they make a makeshift floater with their shirt and pants. Yes, the ones they are in when they are pushed into the water. I am glad I wasn’t born a boy. The daughter agrees.

• Munchkin changed in and out of 11 dresses. 6 came from her grandmom, and 5 from older sister’s hand-me-downs. She was delighted to have found the vault of colorful dresses. I had no idea I saved them all. I had no idea why I saved them all. Sure, they are pretty, but still?!

• If anyone’s thinking am a hoarder, I would gently ask you to tilt your neck to the far end of the basement. IIT Kgp’s stamped notes and text books along with U of Alabama’s tomes lay in a few boxes turning yellow. Not a soul’s to lay hands on them. In contrast I have just 2 containers. Filled to the brim and the writing’s too round and cute for my own comfort.

• Discovered my 12th grade ( senior year ) white uniform scribbled all over with love, goodbyes and sayings from classmates of ’88. Wow. Brought some fine memories back, along with trying to explain to the guffawing tweens why we wrote over our white uniforms and didn’t just have year books like them. Bah. Like they’d understand?

• Mom’s plotting to watch Maya Bazaar, while munchkin’s swearing by Shrek, and daughter is eyeing Harry Potter, but is inclined to Spidey. What do I care? I will be devouring Hungry Tide even before we hit the first pit stop.

• Have a birthday celebration every day till we leave sister’s. Way too many gifts to think of. Figured will deal with it once I get there. I really need to learn to not stress over the “perfect” gift. I know for a fact my mouth’s gonna be hurting by the time am back.

• Am tired and sore, my legs and back hurt. I still have to find that button down tight shirt that the son will be wearing before he makes a life saving device out of it. And here I am blogging about it all. See how much I care!

Toodles all, enjoy your weekend and hope the sun’s not too harsh on you, wherever you are. If i get lucky, I may just enjoy my vacation.

..and o, I plan on piercing my nose. Why? Coz my nose is lacking attention it deserves. I mean, it just occupies like say a thrid of my face, so why not add a shiny 3-d on it and see if it occupies the whole of it. Yeah? Yeah. Any kindred soul, say a prayer for me. The date is set for July 2nd me thinks. Am at the mercy of my sister, so we’ll see how much she manages to make me look like a maami from Ayodhya Mandapam in West Mambalam. (We actually have a wiki entry for Mambalam?! I am shocked!)

That moonu kallu mookuthi is resounding in my ears. Go Maamis! Go Mommies.