Talk To Me

…. But not on the phone!

You see, I have this thing against talking on phone. Especially when I’m talking to someone for the first time, I’d rather talk face to face. You see, it becomes very difficult (or so I assume) to imagine what I must be looking like in real if you talk to me on phone. I, erm, sound like a 2 year old. Okay. So, I’ve said it. Whew. My voice. There is something in my voice that makes me sound sooooooooo… young, almost kiddish! When I was in 7^th Std, someone, who had ONLY heard me over the telephone, had offered me a dubbing role in one cartoon. He thought I was in 2^nd Std or something and my Dad had a tough time convincing him that I really WAS 5 years older than what he thought. When he showed our Kullu-Manali trip pictures to everyone in his office (in the same year), all those who had heard my voice (I was a regular caller, “ May I talk to blah blah, pleeeaaasee” I literally used to sing this line out. Okay, this once when I was in 3^rd Std, I had called my Mom’s office and the convo went something like this… “May I talk to my mother, please” “ Who is this?” “I’m my mother’s daughter” “Hahahahh. And who is your mother?” “Oh! Erm.. she’s [name]” *blushing red and crimson*) were expecting to see a toddler or something perhaps because they were shocked to see such a grown up 11 year-old!

This voice problem of mine (which at times turns out to be a good thing as well. S says she and others find it hard to believe that I can ever be rude (even when I AM rude) because no matter what I say, it sounds very ‘sweet’. Right. Now THAT must be a surprise to you all. Acidic BlogOwner isn’t REALLY that acidic, then. Hah!) has been thoroughly tested by me. I was always the voice on the answering machine at home, so, *sigh*, I have heard it many, MANY times. I have even recorded my own conversations with TC and Abhu, where I’ve purposely thrown in all sorts of voice maneuvers or whatever (like giggles, expressions of indignation, horror, etc) just to hear what I sound like. Was I shocked! I do sound…. Cute, may be. But erm.. I sound like a very, very, VERY smart, intelligent and discerning 6 year old.

(The above is applicable only when I’m in a normal frame of mind and body and I’m not down with cold or fever or hysteria or something.)

My second problem with phone conversation is that there is no facility to ‘pause’. One has to keep talking. Blank phases make you sound stupid. You can’t multitask or talk to 5 people at once or pretend to be absorbed by the beauty of the lettuce sandwich kept on the table when you’re on the phone. You just HAVE to……talk.

Problem number three is that if the line is *bleep*ed up then you have to keep going like “Pardon?” “Sorry?” “er.. WHAT?” and pretend that you’ve heard what they’re saying and feign a “Er.. Okay..” or “Hmm..” or better yet, a little “Hmehemmehe” which is “Hmm” in a giggly way, so that works at all times, in all situations, except when the other person is asking you a question.

So. Yes. Don't call me, okay? IMing is SO much fun! You can send smileys and winks and nudges and whatnot. We should take advantage of such technological advances, innit?

P.S.: Okay so half the post has been written within pairs of parentheses. I had no other place to fit those!

P.S.2: My voice isn't THAT kiddish, also. I think I've exagerrated a little, but who cares?! Same thing!

O Blog Pals, This Is BlogOwner, Live from The Pot!

(Okay. So the title sounds corny. Sue me.)

O Blog Pals, pardon me for having abandoned this sweet blog for more than 10 days. You see, there was so much going on in ‘real life’ that ‘net life’ had to be given a little less time than usual in order to cope with the surging wave of real-life events. Okay, I wasn’t THAT busy. You can couple this real-life activity (major) with utter laziness and boredom and you’ll get a fair idea of the last 10 days.

I won’t go into details NOW (They’ll be coming soon. What fun! Wheee!) but this is a round up :

1) Some extremely good news which will make sweet ole BlogOwner(BO) a lawyer!

2) Some rescheduling and re-dreaming up of future events.

3) Point 1 has led to a fair amount of freak-show taking place at our residence and S, of all people, is fairly annoyed with BO’s theatrics. (Who would’ve thought that S, queen of all drama (okay, she’s going to KILL me for writing this!), will say.. “Okay, fine na. Now shut up and get back to lazying around.”)

4) The Baby Pigies (yes! There are two of them!) have grown up SO much in SO little time! They’ve even sprouted little wings by now and they start flapping those whenever I climb up the sofa and crane to look at them. Adorable, aren’t they? I don’t click pictures because I’m afraid they’ll get scared, or shocked, or something.

5) BO has been doing a fair amount of reading.

6) And MAJOR networking. On facebook AND orkut. This is my official request to all those who’re on my ‘friend list’ on Orkut. Please (please please please please please please) shift to facebook :) There are NO fraandshippers there! Plus, you have a lot more privacy (you can change your settings though). Plus, better interface. Plus, the registration process is a toughie. So there must be fewer fake IDs which implies there’ll be fewer weirdos. You see, the very many advantages of FB. Join in, please? Thanks!

7) BO has been pestering her friends to join FB.

8) Only 1 has obliged so far.

9) While that ONE has managed to make 10 people sign up for yet another networking site which he considers a great achivement, since, he says he is the ‘lone campaigner’. How very brave. BO calls no contest.

10) So this, my dear friends, is BO’s life. Amen and Awomen.

P and I

As you may recall, P is a much-delight-causing Sag friend of mine. We don’t live in the same city any more (it’s been 4 years since I moved) but we’ve kept in touch. Well, the only problem that does happen to crop up at times is the apparent lack of juicy topics to talk about. In order to address this issue (according to P alone, I in no way think this addressed the issue!) P has come up with a rather brilliant (in her opinion. Don’t ask for my opinion, P is going to read this!) way to ‘keep talking’ (on MSN of course). Her standard question after the absolutely loathesome ‘wassup’-type questions is invariably, “ Sooooo, any new crushes?”. Now, I have told her in length, in may be about 5674328 words, that I absolutely have no such inclination towards any such character at this point of time. If miraculously I DO happen to like someone in my current scenario, then hell, I’ll let you know. For sure. Now STOP!! She doesn’t stop there, you know. She goes on prodding… and on….. and on….. in a fashion very similar to my way of going on… and on… okay, we’ve gone through this.

So, sweet reader (Hi! And hi to you too! Oh, no more of you is here. Damn.), I’m often prodded by P in a way that is so unimaginably prod-ful that no amount of so-how’s-the-weather-there or which-book-are-you-currently-reading or saw-any-new-movies or even what-colour-is-your-chaddi type questions fall flat at the face of P’s intensely powerful prodding. You can imagine.

She does, however, acknowledge the fact that the apparent-crush-talk is a total blooper. So I suggest to play Minesweeper Flags on MSN. Don’t even ask what her reaction is! She HATES that game because whenever we play, in some evil way, I always (okay 90% of the time) win and in general she hates the game and finds it ‘irritating’. So another rather superb option, gone.

We tried making lists of mundane and not-so-mundane-questions like…

-how long is your hair ( I suggest)

-who u crushin on huh ?:P ( P suggests) (what a surprise there!)

-did you shop this week (I)

-wat did u eat today (P)

-wat song u listenin 2 (P)

-how much did u sleep 2day (P)

I even considered talking about a future joint-venture that we (at least I would!) would call Amma’s Paratha (it has some inside joke-type meaning which only P and I understand. Heehee) to which P’s response was – “i wud rather die of hunger”. So much hatred, for Amma’s Paratha, P? What is SO wrong with the name? Tell?

So anyway, after meandering about in many such absolutely non-sensical loops, we concluded rather gravely that “P-Sneha convos are MEANT to be psychospeak”. How genuine are we.

On How I Found The Next-to-Perfect Template

New template. As you’ve noticed by now. Pretty, innit? Classy, innit? Smooth, innit? [Insert absolutely-stunning-type adjective], innit? And oh, did you scroll way down and have a peek at the ‘Credits’ section? If not, then please do, for I have revealed some exciting facts in that very section.

….Okay, so you’re back?

Oh now! Thank you, thank you. Oh, please, stop! I’ve been humbled. *waves around like a movie star* [Take the hint! Carry on, I say!]

After a long and rather *ahem* torturous journey, I have finally tweaked this template quite a bit to my 90%-satisfaction mark and mind you, that is quite a high mark. So till I find (or make, or ask someone else to make) that absolutely gorgeous, stunning, very-like-me template on seeing which I’d gush—“That’s THE one”, you know, when you find that top while casually looking at clothes in some random shop and you must totally have it right then, or that pair of jeans which fits you so perfectly that you never want to take them off (urgh, this reminds me of those dreadful ‘Killer Jeans’ ads). So, you get it right? Till I’m struck with that time-just-stops type feeling, I’ll be happy, very happy, with this template.

Let’s have a poll, then. Just for fun, since I’m so not changing this one.

(Obviously, one of the votes for the first option has been cast by me.)

Opinion Polls & Market Research

And The BlogOwner Rambles On...And On.....And On.....

~So today is Mother’s day. Happy Mother’s Day to those 2 or may be 3 moms who might be reading this! Y’all are the best, no, The Best!!

~S and I are grandmoms! How cool is that? The egg(s) (I think there was just one egg) has hatched. I was neatly perched on the sofa next to the window in my hall, reading something, when Papa Pigy makes a sudden dash for the window. My, was I petrified! I thought the pigeon was trying to attack! Since when have pigeons become birds of prey?! So anyway, that wasn’t the case. PP swiftly carried Baby Pigy (BP) out the window and most probably to Momma Pigy. Where else would he go? So once again, the egg has successfully hatched at our place but the BP has been carried off to some tree house perhaps. S and I already miss having a cute little ready-to-hatch egg in the house *sniff* Weren’t we entitled to at least ONE good look at the adorable little birdie, you wretched parent pigeons? Answer me, you!

~I was down with a sore throat on Thursday which rapidly gave rise to full fledged fever on Friday. Of course, the fever subsided by Saturday but I still have traces of cold. I chanced upon this wonder gharelu-upaaye for sore throat at this site. I tried the honey-ginger drink. Of course, I knew honey and ginger are both good for relieving cold etc, but I had never tried out this recipe. Here is a shot! (These days whenever I run to get the camera, S runs to the kitchen. She KNOWS I’ve been cooking (or doing anything which is remotely connected to cooking) when I look for the cam!)

This drink was not only uber delicious, but totally moisturised (or whatever) my dry, sore throat and 2 such cups (one Thursday evening, one Friday morning) were enough to completely get rid of the sore throat. I got my voice back so easily, all thanks to this drink from the heavens. Amen. And Awomen.

~I was doing my usual astro-friend-check tally# last night and I realised that I was indeed very weird. I get along with everyone! Yay! Now THAT’s a cause to celebrate. Well, of course, one can attribute it to my Social & Lovely$ Libra nature. Of course, I always maintain that I absolutely adore the fire signs especially sags, moreso, because S is a sag too. How perfect are we!

~Isn’t this new way of bulleting cute?

# Hello-oww. Don’t you know what an AFCT (Astro-Friend-Check Tally) is? You just count the number of aries, taurean, gemini, etc friends you’ve got. As simple as that. It can bring some things into perspective, you know. Don’t you do it? Well, if not, then you absolutely must. No, I insist, you must do it!

$ That, in some creepy way, sounds SO Fair & Lovely-ish. YUCK! I am very sorry, dear reader, that it does, but believe me, it is NOT intentional. We, at A Pot of Thoughts, absolutely loathe those idiotic F&L sorts. Thank you very much.

All About Pigies, S and Therapy

Momma Pigy(MP) and Papa Pigy(PP) have laid their eggs ( I mean, MP has laid their eggs.). It's been about 2 weeks. MP takes the night shift (7 pm – 10 am) which is much longer than PP's day shift (10 am – 7 pm). Very efficiently, they've been working out this schedule of theirs since the past few days. I must take this opportunity to point out a certain point of difference between MP and PP. We( ie. S and I) once tried scaring away MP by brandishing a folded newspaper at her while she was guarding the eggs. In vain. She didn't even budge an inch. S and I were deeply impressed with her parenting skills and by the fact that she guards her eggs with her life. Then PP was tested. PP first looked about nervously and when the level of brandishing was upped a little, he got extremely scared and fluttered out the window, leaving the eggs unprotected. Shame, shame, PP! This piece of news was relayed to all my relatives who knew about those adorable creatures and their home (ie. our home).

Responses were in the lines of

“Now you know what a mother is made of!”

“See! We moms inherently consider our kids a part of us. Quite literally.”

There was, of course, a hint of smug satisfaction (very very justifiably) about the Mommy's victory over the Daddy. Little wonder why MP takes the longer and harder (I guess) shift. *sigh*

S (sister, for the uniniatiated), with much pride, declared that she has been entertaining the Pigies by singing and dancing in front of them.

My reaction-

“Very thoughtful of you, but, please spare them the torture.”

But I must admit that S does a fine job of entertaining. Pigies AND humans.

I have decided that I need Jean Therapy after I saw Oprah last afternoon. I feel so dejected and that something is perhaps wrong with ME after a jeans-shopping (rather trying!) experience. *sniff* Oprah!!!!!!! Send my your jean therapist ASAP!!!!!

In case you're wondering, my search for 'the perfect' template is still on. God. This is turning out to be worse than the supposed search for 'Mr. Right'!!!

I've noticed, these days I don't chew my food completely before swallowing it. I'm to desperate to get done with eating, perhaps? I have to make a concsious effort to chew!! Is it wrong?

Bleh. I don't have any constructive work to do. I'm so bored. Any suggestions? All my to-do lists are failing miserably!! And I need to re-do them. Sheesh. Any suggestions, honestly?

And yes, I do not have anything better to write about.