100 Things

Just because I wanted to make a list.

1. I'm going to be 30 this year and am not liking it one bit. I was supposed to drop dead at 24.
2. I belong to a dynasty of drama queens. Grandmother, mother, sister, me. I don't know about my great-grandmother, but I'm absolutely sure, she also must have been.
3. I have stopped doing anything that I am not good at - painting, singing, swimming.
4. Blogging is the only thing I can't stop.
5. I think I'm addicted to it.
6. I am able to give up my addictions, like smoking, like the ex, like food, like chick lit.
7. Well, ok, I can't give up food or chick lit.
8. I love shoes. I have about 60.
9. I got me a new funky haircut today and I look 3 years younger.
10. Which is not such a brilliant idea because again I look different from my Visa photos and which may cause people to not take me seriously professionally again.
11. I have worked my butt off the last 5 years to be taken seriously because most people are way older than I am.
12. I have been advised to slow down because I started getting blood clots on my feet.
13. A while back, quite a while back actually I posted pictures of my blood clotted feet on this blog and someone called my feet ugly.
14. I stopped the shoe pictures because at that time, I didn't know why the marks were forming and I was very hurt.
15. I'm on medication, loosening up and am trying not to be so competitive.
16. I haven't told my parents because I'm mad with them my mother right now.
17. Are we all in agreement about the drama queen bit?
18. I hate admitting to my weaknesses, so I'll probably delete this post soon.
19. I do everything in extremes.
20. Either I really like people a lot or I couldn't give a damn whether they are dead or alive.
21. My attitude shocks my parents and siblings sometimes.
22. I love art but I'm a lousy painter. I always wanted to be a designer or an artist, but I opted for was cooerced into pure sciences.
23. I am fascinated by the wheres and the wherefores.
24. I try and find the scientific reason for everything.
25. This annoys my mother and sister because they don't like me being clinical.
26. I love knowing what makes things work.
27. I'm fascinated by technology, especially defence technology, heavy engineering equipment, automobiles and aircrafts.
28. I'm scared of driving in Calcutta and I can't drive beyond 80.
29. So, I am always surprised why I love roller-coasters.
30. I used to be scared of heights.
31. Then I started loving roller-coasters.
32. I keep trying to lose weight.
33. I love to work out and run, but I'm very lazy. I've never figured out this anomaly.
34. I have travelled a lot but I still feel it will never be enough.
35. I love sashimi.
36. My sister and I polished 6 platters of sashimi last month.
37. That was the day my nephew jumped into the waterpool at ITC Sonar Bangla, got soaking wet, dripped the water into the restaurant causing 2 waiters to slip and had to be dried under the hand shower. We shall never ever get over that embarrassment.
38. I name my cars, my gadgets and also some of clothes.
39. I love clothes but I have finally stopped buying what I used to think were funky clothes but actually looked terrible on me.
40. I am almost always dressed semi-formally.
41. Which is why I got this new funky hairdo.
42. I like Jazz, blues, folk, punk and classic rock music. I also like western and classical indian music. Of late, I have been drawn to spiritual music of the sufi kind. I've also begun enjoying what is called "world music" now, though in the past I sniggered when people told me they liked it. I'm collectively and publicly admitting to everyone who got those reactions from me, "I'm sorry."
43. Despite being in love with Bob Dylan, I sometimes get the feeling that he didn't really mean most of his lyrics. I got this feeling after reading Chronicles Vol I. But, what lyricism! He still sometimes blows my mind away.
44. I love French, Meditteranean, Italian, Thai and Japanese cuisines. I am a gourmet and I try to do my bit for the slow food movement by never eating fast food. I haven't had burgers, fries or ordered pizza for about 2 years now.
45. I am very critical when it comes to gourmet food.
46. I have had one of the best meals ever at the restaurant at the Hotel Lord Byron in Rome.
47. I have eaten at almost all the best restaurants in Singapore but I haven't been able to make it to the Sin Huat eating house. I plan to achieve eating there this year.
48. I can only dance with a total of 5 people I have known. I think a true test of knowing if I really am in love is by seeing if I can dance with the person concerned. I have danced the night away with 4 of my best friends. I had a bitter misunderstanding with 2 of them for about 3 years. We've kissed and made up and I'm very glad I could manage to put the past behind me. I miss all 4 of them a lot. This year one of them became a Momma!
49. I felt cheated. It was supposed to happen to me first. I've sort of reconciled myself to the fact that I'm not as perfect as I used to think I was and I've stopped competing with my best friends.
50. This year I have finally managed to start doing professinally what I wanted to do for a long, long time - write and edit. It's a very niche publication but every time it is published, I feel very, very proud.
51. I love diet coke.
52. I have a love-hate relationship with my blackberry.
53. I have started collecting art, on a very small scale personally.
54. I love Spanish and Italian red wines and French and German whites. I am almost addicted in love with champagne. I always have a bottle of Moet & Chandon stashed away.
55. I will not share my portions of oysters, crabs, scallops and snails.
56. I love bread. I spent a very tiny part of my childhood in Germany and I still think you get the best bread in Germany. I have seen one of my German tutors almost come to blows with one of my part French tutors debating where the bread and white wine was better. The insults flew long and fast.
57. I have been taught by some of the most brilliant Mathematicians and Engineers in this world. I worship the ground they walk on. No really! I'll never be able to think so logically.
58. I have made some very good friends professionally. I never thought I could do this. I'm meeting them again in May. Yay!
59. I often get bored of conversations when I am not the subject and it appears as if I have ADD.
60. I think I do have ADD.
61. I can't watch movies in theatres.
62. I can't sit on window seats. I feel claustrophobic.
63. I have begun hating airline meals, even the business class ones. They all feel like rubber in my mouth. I have begun eating at airport restaurants before flying. I started this tradition by tucking into chilli crab at Singapore airport before flying to Calcutta once and have since made up my mind never to eat airline meals again.
64. I have sworn never to love anyone completely (romantically). My "intensity" is apparently too much to put up with and my standards too high to live up to. So, I have sworn not to repeat my mistakes.
65. That said, I shall not lower my standards.
66. I thought I could never lose in love. I was wrong. I've lost twice. I don't regret anything.
67. Not even aborting all my arranged marriage plans, even though my mother sometimes (very occasionally) tries to put me on a guilt trip.
68. Over the years, my respect for my father has steadily increased. I used to resent him cooercing me to do the right thing, but he's always lived up to his promises. I am amazed at his achievements, his energy and his devotion. I am so very proud of him as a scientist, as a human being, as an administrator and as a father.
69. My mother is a fun person, but very, very touchy. I love her a lot but she is less forgiving and loving than my father.
70. From my mother I learnt to be graceful and a lady, but from my father I learnt to stand my guns, to never run away, to be courageous and ethical.
71. I've learnt to live on a principle from my father and I am thankful he taught me well.
72. From my sister I have learnt to be loving and to accept flaws.
73. I make amazing Sangria.
74. When I get the urge to cook, nothing can stop me.
75. I love to cook and feed people. I'm a pretty decent cook. I've learnt from watching cookery shows obssessively.
76. One day I plan to have a huge kitchen. I have my dream kitchen planned in my brain.
77. I don't understand people who don't appreciate good food.
78. I have a brilliant idea every week.
79. I love my job because I feel it will never let my brain ossify.
80. Life has given me a lot. I am thankful for it all. If I believed there was a God, I would thank him/ her.
81. I love flowers. If I had more time, I would grow them at home.
82. I wish I could see my family more often. I miss them a LOT, even my brother who can be pretty annoying.
83. I feel Indian laws and rules regarding marriage, property, money and ownership are pretty much stacked against women.
84. I feel Calcutta is home now. Its taken me 6 years to feel this way.
85. I have achieved everything I wanted by 30, excepting my ideal body weight.
86. I have finally made peace with myself.
87. I didn't do 86 alone. I'm thankful for that as well.
88. I have been lucky to have the most amazing teachers and mentors. I hope I live up to their expectations.
89. I can't return books and DVDs in time to libraries.
90. My social skills are pretty much sucky, though I'm working on them.
91. I don't mind being geeky. Most of my really good friends are very geeky but really, really cool.
92. There were 2 occasions when I thought the world would stop. It didn't. Life does go on.
93. I hate it when I make the people I love cry. However, I have the uncanny ability to do it often. I'm not proud of hurting people who love me.
94. I'm very ethical but not at all moral. Morality is just a guilt trip and I refuse to sail on that boat anymore.
95. I have been told a million times that I'm stubborn as a mule. So what?
96. I can look at people and know in an instant if I will be good friends with them or not.
97. I wish I had Japanese straight hair.
98. I wish I was thinner. Thin people have an easier time.
99. I'm mostly very confident. I truly believe I would be more confident if I was thinner.
100. I hate waxing, if I could get away with being Earth mother, I would never get myself waxed.