reverie

It was a cold Sunday afternoon. I was 14 years old & I was home alone. It was a fairly typical wintry day in the midwest . Until the phone rang. It was one of my aunts; she wanted to speak to my mom. I could tell something was wrong and when I informed her that Mom was not home she left the hardest message I've ever had to relay to anyone. My great grandma had passed away. This was in the days well before cell phones were prevalent, so I laid down on my bed alone & in the dark & cried as I waited for my mom to return home. It felt like forever. My great grandma had been sick of and on for quite awhile and at 97 the news of her passing was not shocking, but it was still very sad. And my heart was quite heavy with the burden of having to be the one to tell my mom that her grandma had passed away. The whole thing hit me harder than I expected, I think perhaps because I never knew my other grandmas. (This next part may seem superfluous, but to me it is an integ...

I turned 25 on Monday. I think the greatest thing about it was that Nicole got Jared Leto to come to my party. ;) Actually the greatest part about it was being surrounded with so much love. I may not have an amazing career, a nice car, a husband & 2.5 kids, or any of the typical measures of "the American Dream," but I have something so much better than all of that. I have the most amazing people in my life. And I know in my head that I am blessed with so many people who love me, but it was so nice to really have that lavished on me this past weekend. With cards & notes & phone calls & hugs & cookies & presents. It was truly wonderful. Here are some photo highlights. Saturday night I had a Fake Asia night for my birthday party. Pretty much that just means an Asian themed party with candy sushi instead of real sushi. It's also funny because I'm half Indian which in my mind makes me Asian, but most people don't consider Indians to ...

oh . . . and you know, love too. ;) Are you ready for it? I now bring to you the 2007 edition of Aziner's Bogus Valentine's Statistics, sponsored by humor and presented without bitterness interruption. 99% of girls tell their closest friends everything only 30% of guys ever use this to their advantage (a girl's closest chicas know everything you need to know & are generally willing to help you b/c it's most important to them that you make their friend happy) 78% of girls who date jerks do so because it's much less disappointing to be hurt by them than the "good" guys 64% of guys really do mean well, they just don't understand women 36% are just genuine dillholes 42% of women would marry for wealth over love 81% of single women buy Valentine's chocolates for themselves, 92% of which is purchased the day after Valentine's in order to enjoy the clearance prices - no sense in being single AND poor 54% of single guys never even realize it...

I have discovered some new favorite things. 1. Special K chocolatey delight - I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong by adding chocolate to cereal. It is quite delicious. Even more delicious is that it's on sale at my grocery store this week. On the negative side, as the flakes get soggy from the milk the chocolate bits tend to sink to the bottom, but it still tastes good. 2. Berryblossom white tea from Starbucks - this is a delightful light, floral tea. White tea is when the tea leaves are still very young (before turning green, then black) and it has a very gentle flavor. It also is higher in antioxidants than green tea. I highly recommend it. 3. the show House - when House first came on I thought, "great just what we need, another medical drama." I absolutely never had any intention of watching it despite Raj's endorsement of the show. Well, one night a schedule change on Fox caused an episode of House to be recorded on my dvr instead of what I inte...

Some say it's unnatural. Some say it defies gravity. Some just laugh and shrug their shoulders. Behold Jadyn's mohawk, aka "rockstar hair." Her hair does this of its own volition, my sister & brother-in-law do nothing to encourage it. I find it highly amusing. I hope Jadyn does too when she gets older and looks back at pictures of her 2-year-old self. :)

I couldn't let the first day of February pass without properly ushering in the month. As you know, if you've been with us during past Februaries, I love this month. So I have compiled for you the Top 10 reasons why February is awesome. 10. groundhogs predicting weather patterns- it's almost as if we're ancient Romans divining the will of the gods based on how the birds are flying and what their excrement looks like 9. the cool spelling 8. it's the only month with 28 and sometimes 29 days 7. President's Day 6. February sweeps = good tv all month long 5. Flag Day for Canada (wave that maple leaf, wave it) 4. the weather is often amazing- one year in Omaha I had my birthday outside and last year on my birthday the sky in LA was the clearest I have ever seen it (I could see the mountains behind the mountains that you can't normally see & there were snow capped peaks, it was so beautiful!) 3. the return of my bogus Valentine's statistics ( 2004 , 2006 ...