Life nahin hai laddoo

It has been a particularly unpleasant start to the weekend.

So about a couple of weeks ago,I was on my way to the parlor and I got my very first traffic ticket.And it was such a freaky incident too.I passed a school bus that had its stop sign on.See the thing is I have never seen a school bus with a stop sign hanging by its sides like little wings. Never. So I realized that I should have stopped the very next second after I had passed the bus and saw the stop sign but it was too late.The darned cop came flying out of nowhere and swooped in on me and very majestically handed me my first ever ticket.I was whining and mopping all evening about how unfair it was and how I should have been let off with just a warning.The husband and everyone else consoled me by reminding me that I could pay a small fine and do the defensive driving course and get away with it.

I went to the Municipal Court yesterday afternoon only to learn that I cannot do the defensive driving course for this particular offense.Oh and it gets worse.I have been ordered to cough up a fine of $433.00.Oooo yeah.The lady behind the counter was so amused that I had to pay such a hefty fine that she said she would give me a month's extension and that I would start my 90-day probation period right away.I guess she assumed I was a well-dressed destitute when she saw the grief-stricken look on my face while she hemmed and hawed about the how huge the fine amount was.

"Oh my my,this is so much higher than the construction area fines too.You be careful from now on,dear.The moment you spot a school bus,try and go past it like nobody's business." she said.

Thank you.

Then I decided to buy a new book in order to try and cheer myself up.There was this excuse of a book fair happening right outside my office building which consisted of maybe 4 copies each of about 10 different books out of which 8 were for little kids.Anyways,I spotted a copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni and picked it up right away.Oh dear,I could not have picked out a book that was more wrong.It turned out to be a big big mistake.Ok,it is well written and he has depicted the turmoil in Afghanistan very well..yada yada yada.But the book is so damn depressing.And it made me angry.Very angry.I was already all moppy and whiny and this book just threw me right at the bottom.I would not recommend it to anyone.Especially not to someone trying to cheer herself up with a good read.Nope.

Mirror mirror on the wall...

Sunday was fun.We met up with one of our friends from high school for lunch at Genghis Khan grill.The food was great and so was the conversation and it was an afternoon extremely well spent.I guess the best part of it all for me was when the friend gave me a goodbye hug and said,

" You know, you just haven't changed since the last time I saw you.You look just the same! "

The last time I saw him was in December 2004.And he said it in a very matter-of-fact manner without actually intending to compliment me at that moment.So that felt really really good!

Like all normal women,I obsess about my weight and appearance.Thing is,though I think I am fat,I don't look fat.Atleast I make sure I dress well enough to camouflage the flab around the tummy.See thats my only grouse.The flabby tummy.More so because there was a point in time when I had the flattest abs ever.And then marriage happened.And laziness happened.And the move to the US happened. And introduction to cheese happened.

So thats that.Among other things,I have finally joined the elite club of people with spring allergies.Oh it has been really bad,the darn allergies.And it didn't help my cause that I got the flu at the same time too.Double whammy.My current trade mark is a humongous box of Kleenex that I lug around all the time.And I am just not able to drink water so I switched to Gatorade before I succumbed to dehydration. Just that each fricking bottle of Gatorade comes loaded with 200 calories.The newer version, G2 has like half the calories but the flavors that it comes in suck.

I hate Murphy and his stupid laws.