Bye 2007!! Hello 2008!!

Wow. Another year gone! I was thinking about the past year and surprisingly, I kept coming back to Zoya. 2007 was definitely Zoya's year! She has made sooooooooooo much progress that it is almost mind boggling! She has flowered from a shy little girl to a bubbly, music-loving, school-going, cute-as-ever chatter-box!!!!!!!! We are all eagerly waiting to see what she accomplishes in 2008.

Raffae also amazes me everyday with his wit, his mischiviousness, his keen observations, his intelligence, his kindness. In his own words: "He is incredible!" He will start kindergarten in 2008. I can't believe my baby is all grown up!

Tanveer managed to get a job 15 minutes from home. He is lot happier about his commute, though his office mate might drive him to look for another job! (She is growing a garlic plant in the office!!!!!) He plans to go back to school in 2008 to finish his masters.

Ammu has adjusted well to US (I think!). She doesn't miss Bangladesh as much as before. Since the kids are going to school now, she finds herself home with lot of free time on her hands. So she decided to go visit her family in Bangladesh for Eid. Once she is back, she plans to get involved in some sort of work which will keep her busy.

As for myself, I've done a tremendous amount of work this year! Managed to keep the house clean enough that I didn't have to call the Clean House crew in! Did some travelling, read some good books, made loads of friends! Didn't lose any weight! That's what I definitely need to work on in 08. I also want to start looking into MBA programs :-) Wish me luck.

Happy New Year everyone!!! Now lets get the party started!!!!!!!!!!

He LOVES me!!!

Tanveer got me the Casino Royale DVD yesterday knowing how much I lust after Daniel Craig!! ;-) How can you not love a guy who is that confidant about his own MoJo??!! :-P Funny thing is Tanveer and Daniel share the same birthday! What can I say! I like my March 2nd boys..... ;-)

Be careful what you wish for

Tanveer has always been a generous gift giver. Every birthday, anniversary, mother’s day, I get something really nice. Over the years, I’ve received jewelry, watches, purses etc. While I appreciate them very much, it became predictable over time! I have suggested to him in the past that maybe he could get me lots of little things that would show that he actually spent time thinking about what to get me. With our tenth anniversary approaching, he decided to do just that for me!

Off he went to Barnes and Noble and got me “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter”. He went to Bath and Body Shop and got me a body lotion, a hand lotion, a bubble bath foam, a body scrub, and a nice bright red tote bag. He then decided to go to Target to get a cover for my iPod which has been getting scratched since I toss it is my purse, my laptop bag etc. He got that and also picked up Grey’s Anatomy Season 1 DVD. He was on his way down on the escalators when he heard a noise behind him. He turned to find a shopping cart scrambling down towards him on the escalator. He said he realized he had about 4/5 seconds before the cart would hit him. Realizing he won’t be able to stop the cart with his hands, he braced himself for the impact. The cart hit him on his back, right in the middle! There were things flying out of the cart that started hitting him even before the cart hit him. This stupid lady was trying to bring her shopping cart down with her on the escalator and lost control!!!!!!!! Can you believe that?!!! My poor baby was in pain for three days!!!!!! Being the gentleman he is he didn’t say a single bad thing to the woman. (I probably would have scratched her eyes out if I were there!) Thank God that he didn’t fall down from the escalator or sustain severe injury! I told him for Mother’s Day, he can go back to the Coach store and get me another purse. ;-)

Windy City Updates

Look what I am missing out on by being in Chicago! Tanveer took this picture last night and sent it to me! I love you babies! Mommy will be home soon!

Now for the updates! I have more free time on my hands than I know what to do with! I've been walking around Downtown Chicago last couple of nights. I walked up and down Michigan Avenue the other night, shopping paradise for those of you that are unfamiliar with Chicago. By the time I got to the Cartier store front, the store was closed and all the display cases were empty! I need to go back early one of these days just to drool over their stuff! ;-) I went to the American Girl Place! Oh My God! I wanted to buy ALL the dolls they had for Zoya! Then watching other girls picking out their dolls and accessories, I realized that she needs to experience and remember her first trip to the American Girl Place. I think we will make it her special treat for her fifth birthday! :-)

Then I went to the Lego store. I wasn't that impressed with the store itself, but the different things they had all around the mall (made of legos) were amazing! They had a big spider, R2D2, Darth Vader, man sitting on a bench, a dog, a mini replica of Chicago downtown!

I found an awsome Thai place to have dinner one night. I asked them to make my food extra spicy and boy did they make it spicy! It was gooooooooood!! Compared to that, dinner from "The best of Chicago Originals" Harry Carry was bland tonight. I do realize I might just have ordered the wrong dish. I also found an indian restaurant named Gaylord Cafe. The thought of "Gaylord Cafe" showing up on my expense report stopped me from going in! ;-)

I've been watching lot more TV too! I find myself watching news and movies more than the series ones. I guess because I don't normally watch TV much nowadays so I really don't know what's good or worth watching! I always like news shows though. I was a big Dateline junkie until Tanveer made so much fun of Stone Phillips that I stopped watching! Anyways, I'm going off on tangent! I'm sure everyone is writing about Katie Couric, Tom Delay. I'll tell you what caught my eye on the news, some real weird news and funny coincidences! I think just last week or so I was wondering about Jill Caroll. I thought I must have missed whatever happened to her. Then I saw her on TV the other day! What a coincidence! She was released! Wow! What an ordeal she must have gone through! Then this morning I watched on CNN (with my jaw on the floor) the arrest of a Deputy Press Secretary of Homeland Security for soliciting sex from someone he believed to be a 14 year old girl on the internet! He sent her his photograph wearing his DHS badge and sent her his work and Govt provided cell phone number! What the hell! This can't be his first try! How in the world did he pass the security clearance?? Isn't FBI part of Homeland Security? He was right under their nose all this time and no one ever saw, heard, felt anything!?? Makes me sick!

Another funny coincident involved Midway airport. I was telling Tanveer after my first trip to Chicago how I thought we were going to crash on someone's house cause the houses are really close to the airport! I mean really really close! Look at tha picture! Then watching local news this morning, I found out they are thinking about putting up some special type of concrete at the end of the runways to stop planes from running out of bounds. This cement is supposed to crumble under the weight of the plane, slowing it down in the process. Remember last December, a plane skidded off of the runway and crashed into a car, killing a 6 year old boy? That was Midway!!!!! Now if only they can make sure that planes stay on the runways when they are skidding/running out of bounds! :-P

I have started reading "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. It's based in Chicago! Think coincidence?! I think not! Chicago is my fate!!!!!!!!!!

The Flying Tomato

I can't wait for the Winter Olympics to start this Friday. Looking forward to seeing the flying tomato in action!! Some time ago, Tanveer and I were watching some show on TV where he was skating down the slope of a mountain! We talked about getting Raffae into something like this when he grows up! Something to channel all the energy he has! Wish us luck!

The love of my life

Scenario 1: Trying to select which pictures go up on pbase from Tanveer's brother's engagement party, I came across a picture of mine.
Me: "Oh my God! Look at my shoulders! I look like a quarterback!!!"
Tanveer: "Nah... You look like a linebacker".


Scenario 2: Couple of weeks ago I was sick as a dog. My throat was hurting like anything.
Me: "Baby, look! I think my throat glands are swollen!
Tanveer: "That's just your double chin".

Scenario 3: I was two days overdue with Raffae.
Me: "I look like a whale!!! :-("
Tanveer: "No you don't! You look like a baby whale! :-P"
May I remind/tell you all that Raffae was a 9 pounds 3 ounces baby and I am barely 5'2" tall!

Bishsho Behaya

I am sooooooooo naive. (I can see my sister thinking "finally!!") I get hurt by the same people over and over again and I seem to forget/forgive it in no time! From today, I am not going to play "nice gal" anymore. ( I edited this post, cause as you can probably tell, I was hurt/mad at the time I posted it. That's just not me!!!!))

P.S. See what I mean now by naive!! Setting myself up already for the next incident that's going to hurt me!! Some people just never learn!! Tsk. Tsk.

P.P.S. I was thinking about editing this post one more time, but Tanveer beat me to it! :-) Check out his comment.

Second Chances

I am glad that there’s one such thing called second chance! I would have missed out on some good shit if I hadn’t given them a second chance!! Here are a few:

• The English Patient - God knows why I couldn’t watch it the first time!! I think I was very sleepy and it was going too slow for me. I turned it off after the first half an hour and returned it to Blockbuster without watching the rest. I discovered Ralph Fiennes when I did get around watching it the second time! What an eye candy! After you ofcourse, Tanveer! ;-)
• Mukul – Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Lets just say first impressions could be quite misleading. The first time I met him, he was quite drunk and told me a really dirty joke!! Now, you have to understand the background a little. Tanveer has been telling me for the longest time about this friend Mukul who is supposedly an awsome guy, very smart. My expectations were quite high. So I just couldn't understand why Tanveer thought the world of him!!! In his defense, this guy can hold down liquor like its no one's business. If he is drunk, that means he has been drinking quite hard and for quite some time!! I caught him on a very very bad day. Things were just not going his way and he was trying to drown his sorrows in booze!!! Mukul, you are an awsome guy! Without a doubt the smartest guy I know. I’m glad you are in our lives!!!!!
• Tanveer - The first time he asked me out, I was completely taken by surprise. We were very good friends and I had no idea he felt that way about me!! I mumbled something like "I don't think of you that way" and ran away!!!! We were out of touch for couple of months after that!! I thought about him though all that time and decided to say yes if he asked me again. Thank God he did!!!!!!!
  
• Misti Doi - This is a special type of sweet yogart made in Bangladesh. My first couple of encounters with yogart had been tart!! I refused to eat yogart for the next 5/6 years. Then, one of my aunts made me eat a bowl of yogart and I've been a fan ever since!! Anyone coming to visit me from NY, please bring me some misti doi from Alauddin's.
  

My Friends

I am one of those lucky few!!! I have been blessed with some very, very good friends. I don’t think I tell them enough how much they mean to me, or how much they have influenced my life. So here’s my ode to some of them, in alphabetical order! (So that no one gets mad at me!! Refer to Seinfeld episode where he gets upset when he gets moved down on his girlfriend’s speed dial)

Rajat

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My buddy!! Funny, witty, gentle, loving, off the beat sense of humor. He has the longest eyelashes I’ve ever seen on a human being! :-P We had some good times back in the days! No one can ever ask for a better roommate. I love the fact that he defends anyone and everyone just because he can’t speak ill of anyone, spends all day watching crappy movies on UPN 20, reads almost anything he can get his hands on (although I haven’t been successful in getting him hooked to Harry Potter!). He let me drive his brand new Jetta for months and he took the bus to work!!!!!!! He has the quirkiest nicknames for me: Jeanine Garafello (Am I as radical as she is?), Gina Gershawn(I wish I looked half as sexy as she does!!!) I never know what he is going to call me when I answer his call!!! He is like the brother I never had rolled into a best friend. Thank you for caring!!!

Tanveer

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My main man, my very best friend. He is such a cool guy, my geek who doesn’t look anything like a geek!! He is my most severe critic. He knows which buttons to push to get me mad as a bull in three seconds flat! He drives me crazy by leaving the wet towel on my side of the bed. When I ask him to do something, his generic answer “korbo” (will do) drives me up the wall. (It doesn’t get done for at least three weeks) Yet, I love him with all my heart. I can’t think of anyone else loving me as much as he does, even with all my idiosyncrasies. (Yes, I am aware of some debilitating faults I possess!!) He holds me tight when I cry. He makes me laugh. I love when he speaks geek speak. I can tell him anything and everything and know it will be ok. He has a big heart and loves everyone like there is no tomorrow. I’ve seen him not lose hope in his darkest days and work hard to get where he is today. I can’t even begin to think what I would have done if he wasn’t there during my tough times. I admire him a lot and I don’t think I tell him that enough times. He is a great father, an outstanding son, wonderful brother, an awesome friend. I want Raffae to be just like him when he grows up (except maybe a little more tidy!! There’s always room for improvement! )

Tanya

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If Tanveer is my main man, she is my girl!! My Jaan. My Tanuputi. She and her lovely family was a big part of my teen life. I am who I am because of a lot of their influences! No one had parents cooler than hers! No one had a more adorable brother to play with and a nerdy enough sister to lecture us about stuff. I practically lived with them at one point, and they gladly welcomed me in their lives. We have this connection that I do not share with anyone else. We can talk to each other without speaking a word. (We do need to be in the same room to do that!) She knows me like no one else does. Even after all these years, I know I will find her listening ears and open arms whenever I need it. She is smart, gorgeous, intelligent, artistic, understanding… I can go on and on and on and on about her! I am beginning to see why all those guys were crazy for her at high school. :-P

Tarana

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She is my lil sis. You wouldn’t know it from the way she bosses me around!!!!! From what I hear, she had me wrapped around her pinky the day she was born. (I offered to give up my favorite spoon, all my dolls and their clothes for her). She tagged along with me all the time and I had no problem with that. She is one of a kind! Who else picks out their own name!!! (In Bangladesh, you get a nickname when you are born. Parents usually pick a proper name when you go to school. At 3 ½ years old, she knew she wanted to be named Tarana and I don’t think any other name would have suited her) I sometimes feel like I forced her to grow up faster. After all, when I started noticing boys, she was only about 8/9! But I had to tell her what I was doing and get her approval! J She boosted up my ego after my first heartbreak, listened patiently to my nonstop chatter even if it gave her daily headaches (she claims), gave me half her slice of chocolate cake after I devoured mine in seconds!! She was my first best friend and always will be. I had millions of names for her… Lizu, lichu, piaju, buchi, khedi are to name a few. Lizu, I still think you are the better-looking one in the family. ;-) I wish you all the best and more in life. Thank you for being there for me.