and that's what you missed on....

Glee! That's generally the way they open the show after the recap - The first few episodes of this season have focused on Kurt and his issues with being the only gay person in the school. Well, What I missed on is having a gay BFF - I feel like my life is somewhat incomplete! I also wanna be a 'Fag Hag' - tho I'm not sure if that's a politically correct term - if it's not,I take it back but I still wanna!

Actually, I cannot claim to KNOW a single gay person much less claim them as BFF's - even the people who apparently are homosexual are certainly not telling me!! I think it's a vibe I give off - maybe I come across as judgemental?? Tho I really cannot see how that's possible considering for most people, I'm left of the middle and for some people, I'm not even on the path!

Couple of my friends have the gay BFF thing going and they make it sound like a secret society! Oh! my gay BFF did this - My gay BFF did that! I want a key! I also want to have friends who have 'gaydar' and say things like 'The closet ain't big enough for him, honey'!!

I think my new year's resolution this year - instead of adopting a child for education, I'm going to adopt a gay BFF for my education!

Things to do - done list!

What I've been doing the last couple of weeks feeling like a busy busy girl:

• Trying to catch up on reading and not really succeeding
• Gone for the Juggler's niece's Godbharai to Baroda where I might complain, have not eaten Gujurati food - rest was nice
• Said Goodbye to 2 girl friends with massive staggered farewells including trips to Goa, clubbing and the finale - bar crawl last saturday.
• Went for a wedding peripheral exhibition with the other bride to be
• Started watching Season 6 of 'Two and a Half Men'
• Spending girlie nights at the partyhouse [read house of juggler's best friends]
• Started Homeopathy and reasonably pleased with the results
• Discovered yummy cupcakes at Sante
• Had extreme period pain and gotten up twice at 4am with it[Please remember this blog is also for posterity so im allowed to mention random details of my life!!]
• Not watched any movie worth talking about majorly - liked 'Kaminey' but that's it
• Realised the minimum number of people I need to call for the wedding is 125!
• Loving the music of 'Wake Up Sid!' espescially Kya Karoon?
• rediscovered a love for Indian chinese food - Mr.Chow's Zindabad!

Little things make my life!

Reasons why I like being a girl:

• Chick lit - can you imagine the serious reading I would need to do otherwise?
• Girl bonding - I cannot imagine knocking back beer and competing in sports as an option
• Dresses/skirts - One has the option of not encasing one's legs in hot fabric
• Make up - the joys of girl bonding while dressing up
• I can cry during movies, Actually I can cry whenever I want and then get whatever I want
• Accessories - Bags, Belts, Shoes, shiny clips, Jewellery, the list goes on
• Having an excuse to be snappy once a month, twice a month, however often one wants

For a longer more comprehensive list, please visit the bride as well as the flip side of things!

Elegance - A guide

To quote from the Amazon review of the book I am going to discuss "Tessaro writes a lighthearted contemporary version of Pygmalion." The protagonist changes her life around by following the style guidelines in a 40 yr old manual ' the Guide to Elegance'. The book made for an interesting read since each chapter is based on a rule from this guide book.

Examples:

• Retire alligator skin after 5 pm - they are strictly sports and travel wear
• Always own suits
• Decollete increases as the night passes
• Comfort is unimportant in the larger scheme of things

Anyhoo, the list goes on and really in a lot of ways, what the style guide teaches you is a lesson in self worth - starting with self awareness. When you look good, automatically you are more confident since we live in a society that is governed by shallowness! By insisting a woman always look her best, she is insisting on being who she is. The book also states how every woman is not born beautiful and beauty fades but charm is something everyone can aspire to and it will last you a lifetime since it is an acquired skill.

I disagree in some cases tho - As you know I live in Mumbai which tho being a wonderful city prides itself on it's ability to showcase all kinds of people. Therefore it is not a crime to wander the streets in pyjamas or torn jeans or any statement making article of your choice or in some cases sheer laziness to change clothes. In Hong Kong on the other hand, all the girls are very well dressed in accordance with the latest fashion - here it's not just about style its about the style of the minute. Which is lovely however, I find that people who live in it also end up bowing to the pressure of being so perfect.

On the flip side, I really think I ought to do more on my daily elegance - I think I have it cracked for the gala occasion but as the book points out - why don't we look our best for the ones at home or the ones we love? Those people are subjected to holey trackpants and face masks at worse times. The flip side of this is that there are people who find natural wholesomeness much more appealing than any artifice.

I always want to be the sort of girl that has the perfectly manicured nails and prettily pedicured feet - always has fine eyeliner and pouting pink lips. In actuality, I have a halo around my head since my hair stands on end, my finger nails are always chipped and sometimes I cannot bear to look at my own feet. I'm not even going to get started on the hair situation since due to my many allergies, I may not visit the parlour for months at a time leading to me losing in a comparison with the juggler with regards to hirsuteness. I have never been able to stand lipstick and since lipgloss gets eaten within 30 seconds of application and I tend to rub my eyes leading to my kajal running and me sporting the not so latest Raccoon look, make up on a daily basis is not meant for the likes of me. I definitely dress for comfort not for fashion and tho I think I wear stylised outfits, salwar kameez 3 days out of 4 does not really make for high fashion statements. Since I have constipation issues, on the days I don't - jeans/pants are definitely not an option and only loose flowing tops save the day.

I do go through these phases where I do the make up everyday since a little bit goes a long way but I never keep to it. I am now deciding to carry around a little black liner and pinky brown lipstick so at least one swipe at work and one is presentable which always helps in dealing with boys which the lords knows, one has enough of at work. Also insisting on throwing out grubby clothes has helped as well since I'm forced to wear decent things to work! Here's hope the guide to elegance is not lost on me!

P.S. An Interesting article relevant to both the book and this post

Hi! My name is Curly and I am an addict.

It's true - I have a substance abuse problem as 'Carrie' says, except mine is nice smelling cosmetics and not footwear. I do have a mega collection of footwear as well but I don't think that's unhealthy - ok lets focus on one problem at a time here, shall we?
Back to my junkie status - I own more than a kilo of make up which is a lot for a girl who hardly wears any on a daily basis - I more than make up for that when I go 'partay' but....on a daily basis, I'm lucky if I get some kajal on. Then why on earth do I have 5 different eye liners, 6 shadow palettes, mascaras, lipsticks - one item of make up that I never wear as well as the many different powders and glitters and what not? and this is not even taking into account my obsession with lipglosses. However these are minor trangressions compared with the mother of my problems - creams, lotions and moisturisers (CLM for future reference). I have excessively dry skin - the kind that scales if left to it's own devices - thus I don't and smother it instead in every variety of CLM's I can find.
In the recent past, this has included:

• Johnson's Baby Lotion
• Baby oil
• Biotique massage oil
• Jergen's Summer Glow moisturiser
• Almond Oil
• Vaseline Intensive Care lotion with Cocoa butter
• Bath and Body Works Sweet pea cream
• Nivea
• Efaderm & Emoderm - these were dermatologist recommended
• Freeman's Caramel and Vanilla body lotion
• Freeman's Peppermint foot lotion
• Free Man Raspberry Hand Lotion

And there are different face and under eye creams - Yes! I need to use undereye creams!
This post was actually inspired after S commented that my christmas list has more creams than anything else and those creams were all recommended on the beautyaddict blog which is a site I'm raving about. I just wish I earned in dollars so I could buy half the things she talks about - I've never even heard of half the brands she talks about or half the uses of the products! It makes me wonder how shallow I am that the fact that Sephora has some special deal on excites me more that Barrack Obama winning the presidency!

5 Friends every chick needs!

There are these whole lists of articles on the list of the 5 friends every chick needs - some of those listed have 10 friends......some of the titles are personal shopper, sister in a suit, the comedian, the wild child. I know I have my posse of people I turn to in a crisis and they all fulfill different roles - not so specific as a personal shopper but general shoulders to cry on types.

1. The sister of my heart - I'm an only child but I have a best friend who understands me completely - she knows I just need to vent and I don't need to be told what to do - and even if she does, she knows if I don't like it, I'm just gonna ignore it!! so yeah, but she is the first person I turn to even if she lives across 3 oceans and 2 continents! I think what she fulfills is the need that I will still be loved after the crisis - I'm not a bad person since she is there for me forever!

2. The strategist - Her husband finds this entertaining since she has never followed strategy herself but she gives me the guidelines to solutions - its like she tells me this is what needs to be done - whether we do it or not is irrelevant but this is the way to go ahead. This is extremely helpful for guy issues since guy minds are unfathomable to me - inspite of having more guy friends than girl friends at times!

3. The distant observer - this is someone (different person each time, mostly) who is quite removed from the issue at hand but since part of your daily life has a keen understanding of you and your perspective and thus can dole out pearls of wisdom that is quite appealing to you.

4. The I don't feel for you girl - she just listens and laughs at the situation which is not all that entertaining for you but it reminds you it's not the end of the world and worse can happen! [this is also often the role played by sister of the heart but she is forgiven for this]! When this happens, I get reminded of the scene in Notting Hill where Julia Roberts is hyperventilating about being caught by the paparazzi and Hugh Grant is like my best friend fell down steps and can't walk anymore - Perspective is what is needed for catastrophe!

5. The clueless friend - this is sometimes the most crucial one, when all is lost just call and go out with someone who has no idea of whats up, letting you avoid the problems in your life. This friend will rib you about some idiotic issue of many years past, letting you feel that oh god! you were as foolish then so nothing much has changed!!

I think if it were not the roles kind of defined over here, I would never survive through anything. My parents are the most important but all these give me the daily balance necessary to survive through life!!

These are the links to 2 of the lists - articles off the net!
1. 10 friends every girl needs
2. 5 friends every girl needs