July 17

i like my haircut, a LOT.  :)  i sincerely had no idea you would all like it so much, too.  every time i opened my diary, i felt hugged.  thank you. :) :) :)

any girl will tell you, it's so wonderful to be noticed, even if it's for the most seemingly insignificant thing. :)  i work with a bunch of fobulous (no joke-- i'm the only 2nd gen desi there) software developers and engineering types.  the biggest reaction i got out of THEM when i returned to the office, 10 minutes after the picture you each commented on was taken, was...

"You paid $60 for that?  Vat did she do?"

sigh

thank goodness for all of YOU.  :D

:+:

stress stinks.  anna works.  :(

my little sister will be here for a barely-three day visit, so i took thurs/fri off.  good, right?  of course!  well...mostly. the problem is/was, i had the biggest deadline yet on thursday.  as in, just as bad as, if not worse than that time i worked 35 hours in two days to get everything done a few weeks ago.

make no mistake, i was grateful that my bosses gave me the two days off, but i wanted to cringe (though i wasn't shocked at all) when they said, "we'll just move your deadline to wednesday!"  of course ya will.  i can totally do without the extra 14 hours.  :|

i have a million things i want/ten things i need to do before my sole sibling gets here; she's the first person who has ever visited/spent the night at my loverly apt and that suddenly changes everything when it comes to "straightening up".  i hate how everything has to happen all at once.  normally, i'd be coddling myself when possible, because the pressure to finish this project is so intense, but i can't...i am on edge at work and unfortunately, can't relax at home (laundry, vacuuming, dusting, folding, washing, storing).  i know, i'll somehow get it all (work, at least) done, but i'm going to be a wreck.

also, my cubemate is SICK.  as in contagious sick.  like, on prescription meds, sick.  so i can already guess how this is all going to turn out, since i have the immune system of a...um...something with no immune system.  gah, i can't even write easily.  my point is, i really hope i don't have to squire my little sister around two hectic cities while i'm sportin' medicine head.  :(

the itinerary i have planned for is dizzying: dinner once she arrives, church less than 12 hours later (it's a very special feast day for us), visiting gtown (where she went to summer school while she was still in h.s.) and then the smithsonian, dinner in downtown dc with our cousins and my friends (chai?  krusty?  barmaid?  chad?  BUEHLER??), leaving at 7am for NYC, arriving at lunch.  eating at madras mahal, showing her canal street (don't ask), then fifth avenue where i'll take her to st. pat's for the first time, then we change at NYSC, then dinner, hopefully with my fave masochist+2 and our cousin vincent.  whom i forgot to call.  gah.  3am train back to DC, arriving at 7, her hair appt w/my stylist at 10, brunch so she has something in her tummy for the loooooong flight home...then she's gone.

i know.  it will all be so worth it, once she's here and i can bask in the rareness of that.  i haven't seen her in eight months and i miss her.

:+:

my little sister knows me and loves me just as i am, so why am i consumed with actually using decorative pillows and the uber-cute magazine holder-things which i bought at BN two months ago, which have sat, unloved, still wrapped and bagged in the corner?  WHY DON'T I DECORATE WHEN I'M NOT EXPECTING SOMEONE!!?

Eep.  I'm going to pry myself off the ceiling and, um, sleep.  Or something. 

:+:

if you want to come to dinner on thursday in dc or on friday in nyc, say something.  you're so invited. :)  i totally want to show her off.  she looks nothing like me, acts nothing like me and does nothing like me.  in short, you will ALL adore her, haters especially. ;)

:+:

pore-refining shit: 

um...it's this toner from neutrogena, from their (wait for it... wait for it!) pore-refining line. ;)  when i remember, i use biore nose strip things.  i have since they were introduced; i find them concomitantly effective and repulsive.

i also exfoliate like a mad woman with the cheapest, bestest scrub EVER (st. ive's apricot medicated).  add my retinol-spiked moisturizer (WITH SPF) and the system works, i tell you.   :)

Comments

[nina]

i love st ives apricot scrub:) and you are going to have the bestest weekend with veena!! it will be worth an earlier deadline! well if you keep telling yourself that, it may be easier to get thru;)good luck with it!

[The Desi Nole]

Damn you can plan, I am supposed to take a 10 hour drive this weekend and I am yet to reserve a car. I dont know how you do it.

Anyway, have fun and add a few minutes here and there to keep your 'do in place.

[rmv/masochist]

can't wait until friday! your description of your sister reminds me of my sister, and now my brother can come also so you get to meet the entire brood, let me know if you need any help making reservations at the restaurant of your choice or with anything else

[brimful]

I'm a fan of St. Ives scrub as well (although my skin is so wussy that I can't even handle the medicated kind).

I'm also bummed at the moment that I live on the left coast, so will not have an opportunity to meet your sister!

But this:
stress stinks. anna works.

cracks me up, because I'm a 12-year old at heart. Go Arid!

[A N N A]

but don't they make a wussy version? i shit you not-- looky here, m'dear.

[brimful]

Yes, babe- that's the kind I've religiously used for eons! ;)

[Mike]

H - O - T.

[Sriram]

So, up until now I've just been a lurker on your blogs, ANNA, but I had a bit of an educational experience yesterday. regarding "A Woman and Her Hair." I was also told that it wouldn't have been necessary if I were a regular viewer of Sex and the City, but that ain't gonna happen. Anyway, I met a woman who had the exact opposite experience as you, she spent $60 on a "dreadful" haircut. Now to me it looked fine, but she was moaning about it the whole night. Given how upset she was because of her experience, I can imagine how happy you are about yours.