Today I had to go into the city to visit the Apple store. I wanted them to take a look at my iPhone because, well, it seemed to be up the creek. Or if not quite up the creek it was floating away. I was expecting them to look at it, tell me it had X, Y, and Z problems and I needed to pay to get it fixed. I assumed this because companies, generally, make money from selling the product first and then selling the parts for repairs, especially for electronics. For example, one of the some $7000 TVs we have at work has broken down. The parts to fix it cost near enough to $1000.

So I showed my ‘Genius’ (the person I had to make an appointment  to see at the store) my phone and told them my problem. After looking over it and what-not, it turned out that they could classify the problems with it as mechanical faults and not user damage, which meant that I got a brand new phone on the spot. There was the slight inconvenience of having to restore my phone and reinstall all my applications and what-not, but that’s all a very, very small price to pay for a new and working phone.

I had gone in expecting bad news, and walked out getting good. I tend to think that I naturally have bad luck (if you believe in such a thing – something that fits well with my ’spiritual’ understanding). But, stuck in traffic driving home, I started to wonder if I actually do wake up with bad luck ahead of me. I came up with a number of examples in my head (eg. missing the honours application deadline and getting a faculty attendant to put my form in the submission box, my scholarship, my first job at the golf course) that could have very well not have worked out as advantageous as they have had it not been for good luck.

I don’t know. It’s not as though I’m having some monumental epiphany. I’m not going to bound off and turn to robes and chanting hymns. Maybe just, I’m not so unlucky as I thought I was. Or maybe there’s no such thing as luck. I don’t know. But rambling about it seems to make it better.

Thomas.

Image compliments of Associated Press

According to The Spiritual Feng Shui, the location of the bathroom in your house affects how wealthy you are. Feng Shui is a spiritual practice that welcomes and comforts others and yourself within your home through organization and placement. The Spiritual Feng Shui states that these locations are bad for your personal wealth:

• Bathrooms next to or above the front door.
• Bathrooms on the second floor directly above the kitchen or front door
• Bathrooms in the center of the office
• Bathrooms under the stairs

I am not sure if this is correct, because my grandma and grandpa have a bathroom next to their front door. My grandpa was a doctor, so he is definitely living in comfort!

Would you think that title is true?

feeling lucky?

I’d just finished my fifth Woody Allen movie this weekend – Match Point – and it was a movie all about luck. And after that I’m now officially a fan of Woody Allen films. Annie Hall hooked me in, then The Purple Rose of Cairo, Manhattan, then Love and Death – well they just trapped me with their spells. His movies, aside from being extremely witty and funny, always leave you something to think about in the end – whether it be love, death, luck, relationships, God. Well, Match Point got me with its bit on luck.

“It’s amazing how much of our life is actually based on luck.”

Luck. Exactly how much of our lives is actually out of our control, like just another roll of the dice? It’s pretty scary when you think about it – how we think we’re actually in control of most of our lives when in fact it’s more of something  decided on by an invisible hand of luck that people sometimes label as fate. There are just so many things that go on being decided with or without our consent. One such example is one of the most fundamental and inevitable events on this planet – the meeting of people. Do we really get to choose exactly who we’ll meet? You just never know who might come along your way. For all I know the next girl that I’ll meet might be, in the future, my best friend, my wife, my arch nemesis, a witch, my colleague, my boss, my neighbor, my employee…and the list keeps going. The whole thing just drives me crazy that it’s too tiring to think about.

Even when I think about exams, studying can only get you so far, the rest is all luck! Assuming someone who crams memorizes his stuff, as long as the questions are the ones he studied then he has as good a chance of passing than someone who studied all the chapters in the book only to realize that most of what he studied never would come out. And you know what? The crammers sometimes make it out on top! The world is illogical! – a quote from Love & Death. A quote sometimes that I think to be really true. Sometimes I wonder how we can make sense out of everything going on. Everything seems too much like a comedy than something serious, or perhaps we’re all better actors than we think.

I’m serious, it’s like this. Some people, like my friend The Architect from the Matrix, think that hope is one among many qualities that distinguishes humans from other animals and he calls it “…the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and weakness.” Does that seem logical to you? We call ourselves logical beings in a logical world, but in fact the world we live in is just littered with contradictions and fallacies. And yes, it’s downright scary to allow our logical heads to wrap around this piece of knowledge. It’s scary to surrender to something we’re not in control of.

Take JTA as an example. Aside from Jaime, I had no idea of the names that would fill in the next six slots for Rennes. In how many ways can you place six names from a pool of n names? We were answering those kinds of things in probability classes – a class that somewhat took away our astonishment at how luck governs things. Who would be choosing Rennes? Where did they come from? What were their courses? How were they like? Sure beats me, but people were going to fill in those spots. And six months later, those names would be names I’d never forget. Names that would constantly appear next to mine in facebook tags, JTA-reports, and in my very own travel log. And hopefully, after JTA, those names will continue to pop up on my phone through texts or in my gmail inbox or facebook tags still. Well, only time will tell, and I’m wishing I’d have enough good luck to get it.

***

Dr. Hans Selye, a pioneer in helping us understand stress, once told a story about two boys who grew up in the same home with an alcoholic and abusive father.  Adulthood took them down separate paths with differing priorities and life decisions.

Many years later, both men participated in the same psychological study, though each did it separately.  In-depth interviews with each one showed just how different they had become.  One would have nothing to do with alcohol and had become an upstanding and well-respected citizen in his community.  The other had followed his father’s example and become an alcoholic with a path of destruction in his wake.

When asked what factors influenced each brother’s lifestyle, both men returned the same answer, “What else would you expect when you have a father like mine?”

It’s not what happened to you; it’s how you responded to what happened to you that has created the person that you have become.  Have you chosen to become the victim or the victor?

If you chose the victim’s role, the sooner you accept accountability for your choices, the sooner you will begin to heal.  Blame and resentment over what happened to you only gives the other person or thing a never-ending supply of power over your life.  If you chose the victor’s role, then you undoubtedly know the truth behind the maxim, “That which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”

Life has many things to teach us, but we have to show up ready to learn.

Luck - the curious variable that determines Bar Exam success.

A warm congrats to my fellow CA Bar passers. We all worked very, very hard and we deserve to take some time this weekend to reflect on what it took to get here and celebrate this great accomplishment. However, I think it’s important to remember that hard work wasn’t enough. We owe a lot of our celebration to chance and luck. Any of us could have made a mistake that dropped us down below the passing line. We could’ve gotten grumpier graders. We could’ve been tested on all our weakest subjects. We were lucky enough to have everything align itself on July 28, 29, and 30.

People I respect and I know worked incredibly hard did not pass. Barbri repeatedly told us that this exam is a “minimum competency exam.” The jig is up Barbri. It is not and it hasn’t been for a long time. As a well-known example shows us – Kathleen Sullivan took the exam in 2005. Sullivan, a leading Constitutional law scholar, professor of law at Harvard and Stanford, has argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Her name has been tossed about as a potential SupCt nominee. NO ONE would ever claim that she does not display the “minimum competence required by an entry-level CA attorney.” No one except the CA Bar Examiners. So while the sting of the news hurts, everyone must remember that this speed bump does not reflect on their abilities as future lawyers. It doesn’t reflect the worth of their hard work or their intelligence. I’m certain that in February their hard work will align with luck and they will soon be joining in this humble celebration.

Today I get my photos taken for my adverts. I am starting to get a bit nervous. I’m afraid they will see me and think ‘Well, perhaps she isn’t agency material afterall.’ or ‘Oh, there is too much for us to Photoshop, it wouldn’t be worth it.’ or ‘ She is just too fat, there is no way to make it look sexy enough for a man to pay £250 an hour, forget about it.’

I spent about £126 on new lingerie and a robe, which isn’t a lot, really, but I am on a tight budget afterall. It had better be worth it. I also had to cancel an appointment today so I could go. That would have paid for the lingerie no problem. Ergh. She said it would be about a week until the photos would be chosen and edited. In the mean time, I had better find a way to get a lot of clients asap for the week.

Wish me luck.

Saturdays are usually the best days to have a break and have a day out.  So that’s what I did.  I’m all for cute and comfortable and that’s what this outfit said to me.  I built the outfit around the hair which is the newest of my favorite hairs.  Don’t be surprised if it starts popping up in more pictures because that’s how much I love it.  For a nice change, I went blonde.  Normally I’m into the brown shades in hair but lately I’ve found myself going towards blonde shades.  Might be a whole new look for me, we’ll see.  The hairs a steal at a cool 95L plus it’s scripted for resize which makes it easy to adjust and you don’t have to worry about overstretching.

Anyhow, the top is a subscribo gift from Truth.  It comes in 9 different colors.  Want it? TP down to Truth and join the subscribo if you aren’t already in it and go into history.  The rest of the outfit are items already in my inventory that I pieced together.  Hope you like it!

xoxo,

Brooke

Credits:

Hair: Mustache – Ashley in Sugar

Skin: Curio – Vixen – Sundust [Dark] in Majesty 1

Eyes: Curio – Tragic Eyes in Light Hazel

Lashes: Silhouette – Wiidow

Glasses: Miel – Genius Peepers

Bracelets: Naith Smit – Rock n Rolla Bangle, *BOOM* – Plastic Candy Bangles *Gacha Prize*

Necklace: Naith Smit – Anchor Wink Chain

Top: Truth – Halt Tank in Gun Metal *Subscribo gift*

Skirt: fri.day – Denim Skirt – Black

Leggings: Luck, Inc – Wool Panty in Dark Gray

Shoes: COCO – Riding Boots

The Socceroos deserve better than another group of death…. From The Australian. Full story

This site may contain information about: british soccer. The blog is also related to: championship football.

We just got a new 26″ Sony LCD HDTV. My cousin works for a division of Sony and he was able to hook me up with a nice discount. It got me thinking though. Here we were enjoying this new TV in this tough economy, and some people are out there struggling. The only differences are perhaps opportunity, random acts of kindness, hard work, an amazing support system in friends and family, leaps of faith,  and A LOT of luck!

I mean think about it, really think about certain crossroads where something went your way. Think about all the things that HAD to happen, things mostly out of your control and it HAD to happen just exactly the way it did that lead to you being who you are right here and right now, letting you be able to do what you’re able to do right now. Parents, Grand Parents, Great Great Grandparents, Cousins, Friends, Gas, Atoms, Cooling, Heating, colliding, expanding, contracting, chance meetings, surgeries, births, dying, living and evolving.

Is it just pure dumb luck? I would like to think that it’s more than that. Whatever or Whomever you believe in. What if I didn’t get accepted to ECU after UNC and NCSU said no? What if UNC said yes? What if I got into an accident back in college when I drove on Buffalo Road and decided the car in front of me wasn’t fast enough and another car was coming head-on. What if I got laid off last December? What if I never got the job in 1997, 2001, 2003? The point is that I’m truly blessed. Life could have been better perhaps, but it certainly could be so, so much worst. Sometimes we can forget how fortunate we are or how blessed we are. How we should be more thankful, more appreciative instead of taking it all for granted.

When bad things happen it’s so easy to ask “why me?”, when instead we should be saying, “Why not me!” When things are good it seems we feel almost entitled and think “Why not me?”, when in fact we should be asking and wondering, “Why me?” It’s human nature and it doesn’t mean someone is a good or bad person—or at least I hope it doesn’t. It’s just easier that way I guess.

Sometimes something as simple as being early or late, missing the traffic light, missing the bus, not having spare change, looking left instead of right, not taking a particular flight, taking a particular flight, oversleeping, a flat tire, whatever it is, it’s in these simple twists of fate that lead everything to NOW. It may not be perfect, and some surely better or worse than others, but it’s something truly remarkable. I’m very lucky and I’m certainly thankful and appreciative and feeling quite blessed. My wish is for you reading this that you’re truly blessed and lucky as well.

If you haven’t already, it’s best to read Part I. But if you don’t like reading my super-long posts (I’m working on it), and just want the net – I’m 7 months pregnant with son #1 and found out from two snarky ladies on their lunch break that daycare is impossible to find and then after a miracle in Starbucks, I find a home daycare, Miss Amalia’s Place, that meets my criteria which is that its near my house and…that it is near my house, but it turns out that she is used to desperate parents. She is going to interview us to see whether we’re the right sort for her daycare.

The flyer from Miss Amalia’s Place didn’t have a ton of information, but it did mention that it was an all organic environment and the kids would be taught yoga and learn to sign when they were babies and no TV (obviously) and I think there was something about earth sounds music too.  From what I could tell, this is what all the good moms were doing, so it seemed like a pretty good plan to me, especially when you consider the alternative: me taking care of the baby in an environment that included a lot of Oprah, Dr. Phil, Sex and the City, McDonalds, The Killers, Eminem and some Baby Mozart once in a while.

But the issue was that Miss Amalia was going to interview us, to see if we were the right sort.  The first interview wasn’t even going to take place at her daycare, because she wasn’t going to bring just anyone there. That was only if you got to the second round. Failure was not an option. Because we had no other viable options. So I spent the two days we had to prepare for the interview Googling “how to be a good mother” and “acing the daycare interview” and drilling BD on his part in the whole thing.  I reminded him that this interview could decide whether our son would be a well-adjusted adult or a circus performer.

Love: “Okay. So whatever she says, nod and smile and agree wholeheartedly with her. Even if you have no idea what she is talking about.”

BD: “I’m not sure we should be pretending –”

Love: (gives husband ‘the hand’) “Listen – I’m not kidding around here. This is our ONLY option.  We will do whatever it takes to get in. Repeat after me…We will do whatever it takes to get in.”

BD: “Do we even know how much she costs?”

Love: “No. And we will nod and smile and agree wholeheartedly with whatever she says it costs. We will have time to panic later, and sell our kidneys when she isn’t around.”

BD: “I don’t know. This isn’t our only option.”

Love: “Oh yeah? What are the other options?”

BD: “Well, I’m sure we could find -”

Love: “By ‘we’ I assume you mean ‘me’ and guess what? There isn’t anything else. But if you want to spend hundreds of fruitless hours looking, be my guest.  In the meantime, you will nod, smile and agree wholeheartedly with everything that is said. Including by me.  I will likely say things you’ve never heard come out of my mouth before. Pretend like it’s totally normal for me to make butternut squash and say ‘namaste’ and stuff.”

BD: “What is ‘namaste’?”

Love: (through gritted teeth) “It’s what I say all. the. time. Get it?”

BD: “Oh my God. This is nuts…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miss Amalia turned out to be a Korean woman in her mid-thirties. She was unmarried and her older sister helped her out taking care of the children.  She had very definite ideas about how to run her daycare, although she had only started up 6 months earlier and she’d never had a child of her own.  She announced that the youngest child she would take would be 6 months, since it would be “very bad” for a mother to leave her child before then. She explained also that it would give the baby some time to adjust from the breast to the bottle, but she had a whole page on how breast milk would be handled.  We nodded and smiled and agreed wholeheartedly. The thing was, we needed someone at 10 weeks and there was not going to be any breast milk. We were formula feeding. But neither of us said anything.

She told us about all of the enriching activities she would be providing the children and she told us what our duties as parents were. There was a long list of rules. Schedules were very important. We could drop our child off within a half hour window in the morning and pickup in a certain window.  Any exceptions would have to be logged in advance.  We nodded and smiled and agreed wholeheartedly.  She told us that it would be $350 a week.  It was more than I hoped it would be, but it was doable. Perhaps we could keep our kidneys. We asked her about what she liked and disliked about the other families.  We asked about what she thought about traits of great parents. We asked her about why she started her business and told her how wonderful and genius she was for doing so.  We told her we liked her hair. And her shoes. And could we get her anything else to drink?

I thought we aced the interview.  We did everything we planned to do to make sure we got to the second round.  At the end of the interview, we thanked Miss Amalia and she said she would call to let us know whether we made it to the second round. She also gave us a 10 page contract to look over to make sure we were “comfortable” with all of the terms.  We walked out hand in hand and didn’t speak until we were safely back in our condo.  The minute the door was closed, we looked at each other and simultaneously asked, “What. the. fuck?”

Neither of us could believe that we lived in such a world.  Sign language, and schedules and yoga and dietary restrictions and minimum age 6 months old?!  When we were little we watched TV all day and drank lots of Kool-Aid and got locked out of the house and told to play outside for four hours.  Our moms didn’t breastfeed us and we didn’t know what organic meant until 1998.  We felt totally unprepared to be parents.  Miss Amalia had us scared to death. We needed her to take care of our son because we were going to do it completely wrong if she wasn’t coaching us the whole way.

Now what to do about the fact that we weren’t any of the things she wanted us to be? We couldn’t wait six months. We needed her at 10 weeks. And I wasn’t planning on breastfeeding, because I’m just a bad mom.  This was going to get complicated, but I had to make this happen.

Mark 5:2,3,12,13a,25,27,29,41,42a
When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain… The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs… a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years… When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak… Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering… He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!”. Immediately the girl stood up and walked around.

Every morning before I read the word, I spend time in prayer and I often reflect on the word as not just God’s word for me and you today but as words that are life giving, life altering and life transforming. Chance and luck are words often used to give hope to people because there are things outside of our control and we know we cannot exercise control over those things. Like when someone is going for an exam, they are told best of luck as if they would only do better by luck and not effort. I am guilty of this too because these are common statements that are part of our vocabulary and we need to get rid of it.

In today’s passage (a mish-mash of verses from Chapter 5) it is evident how Jesus was not only a miracle worker but that his dominion was over the forces of evil and even over death, something only God can do. You might wonder what faith it is that these people exercised to have Jesus work such miracles in their lives but there is no special something they did which we cannot do. All of the seekers were genuine in their need and they all went to Jesus knowing he is able. For Jesus, being the Son of God, all things are possible and when we completely submit our pains, needs and problems to him, he choses to bless us in ways he sees fit. Sometimes with healing, sometimes with patience, sometimes with silence but every time in ways that are his and not ours. Next time you want to wish someone, wish them God’s blessing and then pray for their need. Lets be prayer warriors to permit God to continue to work miraculously in our broken world. Are you up to the challenge?

In His Loving Service,
Vineet

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I really wish that I could help my parents out financially. They are in so much debt and bought a house 6 years ago but haven’t been able to redevelop it properly because of financial issues. There have been so many repairs to it that the house is becoming a shambles. I also wish for my mother and step dad to stop smoking and to become more active, for the benefit of my younger brother and for themselves. I wish that they will lead a more stable life in the future when they grow old. I also wish for my auntie to not have a miscarriage this time as she has been trying for a baby for over 10 years. She is finally almost 3 months pregnant and I hope she stays that way! I also wish for my good friend Richard who I hope finds the inner strength in him to carry on with his life and not think so negatively about himself. Gilbraltar

For more click here  http://www.one-wish.co.uk/.

Kind Regards
Mike

I was due with my first baby in mid-June, just about the time I graduated from MBA school and about 10 weeks before I started my PhD program, a time frame which turned out to be perfectly suited for maternity leave.  I planned to find childcare during that time and I figured it would be like finding a doctor – you go on a website somewhere that lists all the doctors within a certain radius, you check their qualifications and then you pick one based on who has the best decorated waiting room and hope like hell they are in-network.

We lived just a mile outside of downtown Chicago, just down the street from Oprah, and I was pretty sure there had to be like 66 million daycares and each of them were pining for the chance to take care of my infant.  So then one day when I’m about 7 months along, I was in a deli minding my own business, eating my farm raised, low mercury salmon and asparagus sandwich and reading a Harvard Business Review case for class and two ladies on their lunch break sat down next to me.  They were talking about office gossip, which was way more interesting than my reading, so I was listening in. And they probably noticed I was pregnant and listening to them so suddenly they began talking about how annoying another woman was at work because all she did was freak out everyday about how there were no slots for infants in any daycare centers anywhere in Chicago and she was only 3 months pregnant and what a dumb ass for not realizing this before she got preggers. Hmmm.  I looked down at my belly and winced as two things happened concurrently: my fetus/son gave me a swift kick to my kidney, and I had an epiphany. I’m fucked.

The search for a daycare commenced immediately.  I went to Google to find the website that listed all of the daycare centers/ family daycares / nannys / nanny-shares within a 1 mile radius of my house.  We only had one car and I would have it most of the time at school.  BD would have to be able to walk from work, to daycare, to home with the baby.  I thought maybe 1 mile might be too large a radius, but we could start there and then figure out how to narrow down our choices.

I opened up Google. Now to find the website…..this nice, informational website….I’m sure it’s here somewhere….Hmm…wait, where is the website?….Nope, not it….Not this…..(My kid kicks my bladder at the same moment as if to say “you’re doing a helluva job so far, Mom) um, no. nonononononononono. NO…..

There. is. no. magical-daycare-finding website.

I am alone in the vast urban and Internet wilderness. Google has forsaken me. I had to sift through a tangle of daycare websites and dead ends and phone numbers. The whole finding-childcare-for-your-perfect-beautiful-newborn-that-you-can-afford-without-selling-your-kidney-and-is-located-somewhere-in-the-state-of-Illinois journey was kind of like the Trail of Tears for new parents.  At least finding the big daycare center chains was easy. They were nowhere near my condo, but I called anyway.  They had nine month waiting lists for infants.  Okay…I’m not great at math, but I think that means that on the day of conception you sure as hell better reserve your spot at Kindercare. Now I finally realized why God sent an angel to tell me of my children’s conceptions – so they could get a spot in daycare on time.  It would have been nice if he had mentioned that as well.

Well, this is bad news. I need infant care starting five and half months from now, and apparently this is really late notice for the whole childcare world.  I mean, I haven’t even met this kid I’m going to have. I know nothing about being a parent or about babies or about my specific baby or what I’m going to feel like in five months and I have to find a perfect childcare situation now, or I can’t go back to school. I’m not going to get my PhD. I’ll have to be a stay at home mother. One thing I knew for sure was that being at stay at home mother was out of the question, because I already loved my unborn child. I would not subject him to the psycho mother he would come to know if he were in my care 24-7.  So I re-doubled my efforts and kept coming up short.

I grew up in a home daycare. And I loved it. It was like having a second family, and we didn’t have any family nearby, so it was awesome. I guess I wanted something similar for my son, so I was partial to the idea of having my baby go to a home daycare nearby. But searching for home daycares on Google is futile and I was really starting to lose hope that the baby I was about to have wouldn’t be some kind of juvenile delinquent due to my poor parenting (non)decisions made while he was still in the womb.  So I went to the Starbucks in the building next door. It was an odd choice because I don’t drink coffee, but I felt like I needed something warm in my belly for the next few hours I planned to spend curled up in bed crying and worrying about what a bad mother I already was. And Starbucks kind of seemed like a church to so many yuppies, I thought maybe they sprinkled you with calming fairy dust when you went in and I might find some peace there.

No visible fairy dust, but as I waited patiently for my Caramel Apple Cider, I wandered over to the little bulletin board they have by where you pick up your drinks.  There was a lime green flyer right in the middle of it. My stomach did a flip and my knees kind of buckled and my brain said, “You are fucking kidding me, GOD!” (Yes, I have ongoing conversations with God in my head like “Oh God! You’re so unpredictable sometimes!”  or “God, why did encourage me to have the third glass of wine? I feel like ass this morning. You should have stopped me!”).

There on the board was a flyer for a new home daycare starting up in the condo building next to mine. I know, right?  Seriously.  I grabbed the flyer and ran home. I forgot my Caramel Apple Cider.  I was panting when I called BD.

Love: “I found a daycare for our baby!”

BD: “Cool.”

Love: “It’s in the building next door! And they do yoga! And its all organic food! Oh my GOD!”

BD: “You don’t even do yoga or know anything about organic food.”

Love: “What? Um. It doesn’t really matter. The point is that my prayers have been answered. I must call her immediately. She is The One.”

BD: “Go for it.”

I got off the phone with my heart beating fast and I immediately dialed Miss Amalia’s Place.  No answer, but the long-winded, rambling, breathless message I left went a little like this:

Hello! My name is Love and I have a baby. No, I mean I’m pregnant with a baby that I will have in a few months and I need a daycare in August and I just love home daycares and I saw your flyer at Starbucks and I took it but I will definitely bring it back but I was wondering whether you had a spot for a newborn and I’m sure he is going to be a really good kid because I didn’t cry a lot when I was a kid, but I guess we won’t know till he gets here  — heh, heh — but anyway I really think we should talk and I just love that I’m in the building next door so we’re neighbors and what great timing that I found your flyer and I will bring it back because I forgot to pick up my caramel apple cider anyway, so I’ll put it back but I really think we should talk and my baby should go to your daycare and please call me back.

I hung up and thought, “Seriously? What was that? You idiot. You sound crazy. Maybe you should call back again and explain that you aren’t crazy. Or would that be crazier? ” I hung my head.  But then I brightened knowing that stalking people who need to be in my life is one of my most valuable talents and Miss Amalia’s Place just moved up to the top spot on that list.

I waited five minutes with my hand clutching the phone receiver. No call back. Ten minutes. No call. Maybe I should call again? Just to say I’m not crazy? Fifteen minutes — the phone rings. It’s her!! The woman sent by God to take care of my unborn child, as soon as he gets born.

Love: “Hello?!”

M.A.: “Hi. This is Miss Amalia. You called about needing daycare in August for an infant?” (slight Korean accent)

Love: “Yes! Yes! Where do I sign up?”

M.A: “Ha ha. You are funny. It’s not that easy.  I will  interview you to see whether you’re the family I want to take.”

Love: “You’re going to interview us?”

M.A: “Yes. There is no other way. Can you and your husband come interview with me in a couple of days at 6pm @ Starbucks? You’ll both need to be present.  I have a long waiting list, but I will choose who gets the spot based on my interviews.”

Love: “Oh. I didn’t know this is how it worked. Here I thought I should interview you.”

M.A: “You should. Part of my decision will be based on the questions you ask me.”

Love: “Um. My son isn’t even born yet, and we’re new parents, so I’m not really sure what we’ll have to say.”

M.A: “I find my relationship with the parents is as important as with the child. This is the way I do things. If you’re uncomfortable with the process —”

Love: “No! No! Heh, heh. No! We’ll definitely be there. With good questions.”

M.A: “Great. Don’t be late.”

Love: “Right.”

Okay, so the world had changed from the time I went to daycare. Up to that point, I had spent my whole life competing to get in the best schools, in the best programs, hired by the best companies for the most exclusive jobs and I always won the things I set out to get. Because I loved those games and I was really good at them. No matter that I usually ended up not really wanting all the things I’d won, but who doesn’t like winning games? I wasn’t going to let a home daycare lady be the first to reject me or my unborn child. I wasn’t losing this game. She was our only hope and clearly God led me to Starbucks and this whole thing was meant to be.

We were going to be the family she chose. Period. Now I just had to figure out how to morph us into the “right” family for our interview.  I quickly opened my browser and searched for “yoga” and “organic food”.

Part II

Bad Hair Day

Have you ever experienced Bad Hair Days in your life? Have you ever wondered about the science of having Bad hair days? Have you ever thought of getting a solution to avoid Bad Hair Days on the Most Important of Days in your life?

Well, I have. I have done it all yet the Bad Hair Days are like a Dark Demon that attacks time and again. A Dark, Deadly Fiend!!

I have always thought about the logic behind this but in vain. Usually my hair is perfect on normal days, but when there is a special occasion, an event when I want it to behave, it just won’t listen. I am baffled by the whole scenario and have tried thinking Out of the Box to understand the whole game; well I call it a Big, Witty game.

While turning those 365 leaves of my life set on each calendar every year, I experienced and recognized many changes in my Hair. Everything from the color of the hair to the texture and the look of it changed. I use to have much thicker hair before but the years have taken their toll on me it seems. This is an inevitable situation that everybody faces at some stage in their lives.

But I have seen an altogether 360 degree spin in so many of those 365 days of the life. A huge and strange Hair Transformation.  By Transformation, I mean the changes my Hair had undergone turning from Black to Light Brown to Dark Brown.  From Silky smooth and Straight to unbelievably luscious and Curly.  From Wavy to Frizzy and back to Curly again.

Does it have something to do with psychology?  In my own personal opinion, it has to be connected with personal moods apart from other social and environmental factors. Science would point to the changes in the living conditions, bad eating habits, stress and tension levels, pollution, indoor environment, less physical activity to name a few but I still believe it has more to do with personal psychology and mood swings.

Some people have confided in me about how their moods affect their hair. However, I am still not 100% sure if my Bad Hair Day is directly related to having Perfect hair on that specific day. There’s just one way to check out though. Next time, never bother or get un-nerved about the hair when attending an important event.  I want to confess here though that it seems to be a bit difficult thing to do.  But I have to have a 365 degree To-Do Spin, an extra 5 degree more from normal (as 360 just gets you back at the original place) to prove my theory.

Wish my luck. Happy Probing & Happy Proving!!

keep up with the good luck

make it sweet enough for the rest of us

put the blood up over the doors

and keep the first born under the floor boards

you can’t just keep looking back

you can’t just keep dusting tracks.

sit still until you know how to make the shape

sit up s.o.s. rush rush then just wait

remember how quickly it all just fell open

know in an instant that it won’t be closed again

you sat on the edge together throwing things in

now you owe it to him to keep a stiff upper lip

Habit is the killer of every positive feeling. Can you prevent to get used to all things that you love (to do)?

Change your habits.

Changing habits can become habit too!

Do you want to change relationship after Marriage&Children?Prefer to stay single instead?

Choose Job and Lover once and forever, and get used to them ;D.

The vicious circle of luck and bad luck aka

your life.

Last night I went back to Mum and Dad’s and learnt something new courtesy of my Nan; it is bad luck to pass the salt cellar direct from your hand to someone else’s, you have to put it down and let the other person pick it up. Pepper pots you can do what you like with.

Where do these “its bad luck if…” stories come from?

Comments:
lemonsquash
I know where that one came from. In the seventeenth century, the Earl of Wessex invited Lady Elizabeth Marmoset of Monmouth to take dinner with him, whilst entertaining designs of courtship. So strong was the chemistry between them, that they both built up a preternatural static charge about their persons. When requested to pass the salt, the Earl saw the opportunity to take the relationship to the next level; to wit – to get touchy-feely. So he passed it directly to her hand, intending to brush fingertips. However, the level of electricity that had developed between them caused an explosion, which burnt all the skin off Lady Elizabeth’s hand. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the salt cellar also shattered, spraying its contents onto the Lady’s already bubbling knuckles. Henceforth, salt has been put to the table first as a precaution against just such an embarrassing faux pas ever occurring again.

Needless to say, the Earl didn’t get a bunk-up.

thisisalloneword
Well that explains it, of course!
My nan also uses the phrase; “uglier than a marmosets knuckles” – I assumed it was something to do with the tiny monkeys – but now I know better.

Cheers!