Diva-Like Behavior
Maya spent the weekend with her grandparents again, and while they take really good care of her, she often adapts some diva-like behaviors at their place that simply don’t fly at home. Yesterday, for example, I called to talk to her and when my mother-in-law asked her to come to the phone, Maya replied: “I’ll come to the phone if you give me $1,000.”
I’m not even sure where to start on this…am I more annoyed that she didn’t want to talk to me? Or am I more annoyed that she is channeling a majority of the little L.A. park brats? Or, am I even more annoyed that Ali thought this was hysterically funny? I’ll have to get back to you on this.
Anyway, aside from Maya’s Linda Evangelista-like behavior the rest of the weekend has been great.
On Friday night we hit our favorite restaurant Porta Via in Beverly Hills for a little salmon (me):
Salmon, steamed kale, and brown rice.
And some sea bass (Ali):
Sea Bass with mango salsa, asparagus, and brown rice.
The weather was great so we sat outside:
I know I am horticulturally (that is probably not a word) challenged but is this is a cherry tree…in the middle of Beverly Hills…in the middle of March?
After dinner we decided to order “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” on DirecTV, but after 20 minutes of torturing ourselves we turned the horrible movie off and watched fell asleep in front of the TV instead.
Saturday morning Ali decided he needed to go the Century City Westfield Mall and since I needed to buy a gift I joined him.
What? You don’t take your laptop to the mall too?
As Ali hunkered down and got cozy at the Apple store for reasons I couldn’t be bothered to ask about, I hit GAP Kids to get the aforementioned birthday gift. Afterwards, with Ali still occupied, I found myself at my favorite store CUSP purchasing a completely unneeded, but very cute pair of shoes:
Just a short time later I found myself purchasing another pair:
This is what happens when I need to keep myself busy at the mall, hence why I usually avoid the mall altogether.
Ali finally resurfaced and after hitting up Trader Joe’s we headed home for lunch. I made him a turkey sandwich:
And made myself a random concoction of leftovers. I won’t bore or disgust you with a picture.
My mom dropped by in the afternoon and we headed to Real Food Daily for coffee and gluten-free cookies. I forgot my camera but let’s just say that our first visit to RFD was not a good one. Hopefully their food is better than their coffee/bakery items.
I dropped my mom off at my brother’s place and returned home to get ready for dinner. We headed over to our friend Adam and Maliha’s place where she cooked up a storm – salmon, chicken, pasta, bread, caesar salad (made by my friend Nadia):
And a delicious watermelon, feta, green bean salad that was out of this world:
Sorry for the iPhone pictures but I forgot my camera again.
Friday was Nadia’s son Shayan’s 5th Birthday so we celebrated last night with my dessert contribution of a Godiva Chocolate Bar Cake:
I obviously couldn’t eat any but it received raved reviews.
So far this morning I’ve gone to the gym, done some laundry, made a batch of brownies for tonight, cleaned the kitchen, and typed this post. Now we are headed to pick up our little diva.
I’m sure you can imagine she and I will have some words.
Toastmasters Take 2
I woke up this morning feeling pretty confident and excited for my Toastmaster’s meeting. I put on a nice outfit (translation: jeans instead of sweats), spent a little time on my hair and makeup, and drove off to my 8am meeting. I was not on the agenda to speak today but I knew that I would still have to talk at some point, which I was okay with. Until I had to talk. And then things went from bad to worse.
Every meeting includes a “Table Topics” portion when the Table Topics Master gets up and stimulates discussion by asking fellow Toastmasters to chime in for 1-2 minutes on the Master’s question. I am not such a terrible speaker when I have to give a speech I’ve planned and agonized over, but ask me a random question, and a difficult one at that, and I just can’t pull it together. Today was no exception.
This morning I made the grave error of making eye contact with the Table Topics Master, at which point she asked me the following question: “Do you think that one has to overcome an obstacle to truly understand suffering?” Despite nearly keeling over from anxiety, I managed to stand up to answer the question. I told myself to take it slow by using a few seconds to organize my thoughts. And I really tried! But with dozens of people staring at me waiting for me to start, I felt obligated to move forward and say something.
I did say something. I said a lot of things, actually. But the stuff that came out of my mouth? Idiotic at best. I think I mentioned something about how one doesn’t need to experience hardship to understand suffering…but honestly, I have no idea what I said. The only thing I clearly remember saying was, “A minute is a really long time.”
At that point I just wanted to give up. Why was I torturing myself? I figured that some people are just better at certain things and would it be a tragedy if I dedicated myself to Excel spreadsheets for the rest of my life? But then a few things happened that made me reconsider becoming a Toastmaster’s dropout:
1. At the end of the meeting several people came up to me and told me that they too struggled and/or continue to struggle with Table Topics. I’m not sure if I believe them, but the fact that strangers tried to make me feel better made all the difference in the world.
2. The Table Topics Master had to leave a little bit early, but before she did, she dropped this note into my lap (click to enlarge):
How nice is that? For someone I barely know to write such a kind note? I was really very touched.
3. My brother pointed out that I was attending Toastmasters to learn how to speak and think on my feet. If I was already good at that, I probably wouldn’t be in the class. Obvious? Yes. Did I need to hear it? Yes.
Due to Good Friday there is no meeting next Friday. That gives me two weeks to get my s@#$ together. And while I don’t think a lifetime is enough time for me to do that, I’m hoping that by the next meeting I will at least be able to say something coherent. Is that too much to ask?
Life-Changing
Call me crazy and/or shallow but I have to say that Yuko’s Japanese Hair Straightening product ranks #1 on my list of life-changing inventions. Okay, so hair straightening isn’t exactly on par with Karl Benz’s invention of the first automobile or Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, but I have to say that if given a choice, I’d certainly choose good hair over 100% cotton socks or one of the shoddy-made Mercedes’ that fill the streets of Los Angeles. But that is another post – or two – altogether.
I have visited the same Japanese salon every 6-8 months for the past 8 years to get my hair straightened. But after reading so much this past year about how harmful chemicals affect one’s metabolism, I concluded that the likely use of formaldehyde didn’t exactly fit into my newly adapted organic lifestyle. So I decided I wasn’t going to endure the 2-4 hour process anymore and made friends with my blow dryer and flat-iron instead.
Despite my best efforts, however, my hair has been simply uncontrollable the past few weeks. So uncontrollable, in fact, that it was putting me in an even worse mood than usual. And that, my friends, is a really bad mood (Ali will be only too happy to confirm this). I finally decided enough was enough and for the sake of my family’s happiness I called up my straightening guru yesterday and begged him to see me. After spending 2 hours of quality time with him today I am pleased to say that good humor (and manageable hair) has once again been restored in the Din household.
I will never have good hair and I have made peace with that, but the straightening process eliminates 99% of my frizz and my kinky Indian curls (I’d like to thank my dad for this). The best part of all is that I don’t need to use a flat-iron or blow dryer! The amount of time I save is immeasurable.
I do feel guilty that I am now probably full of cancer causing chemicals that no amount of organic vegetables can counteract…but as my mom said, “We just do the best we can.” And I going to continue to do the best I can…but with straight hair!
What can’t you live without, even when you know it isn’t good for you?
While I'm not going to win Mother/Wife of the Year Award anytime soon, I haven't killed anyone yet or shot myself in the head. And that, my friends, is how I calculate success these days. 
FANCY THAT FANCY THIS 