Merry Christmas Everyone!

Predictable title and a long rambling post. Nothing defines BORING better than this to me. But, if you are here, then go on, take a risk :).

Hmmm....so whats the latest at my end? Well....

The school may be closed for winter break, but here I'm, typing this post at work. I had to come in everyday this week, and work double time too! The department that I work for is kind of an important department within the University system and cannot afford to be closed down for the entire winter break. So we are open, running on a "skeleton crew". This means, those like me, at the bottom most rung of the organizational ladder are expected to show up everyday and those higher and above get to take turns. Actually, it is not as pathetic as I am making it out to be . With my upcoming travels next week, I will be off work for almost 3 weeks and I volunteered to work double time to make up for my absent days.

Work has been slow too. It was a bit hectic the first couple of days but since then it's slowed down so much that all I did (well mostly what I did) was read blogs and work on some teeny bit of school related work.

The lab party that I mentioned in my previous post went quite well. Our prof showed up late as he was stuck in a meeting at the other end of town. After a couple of phone calls from us to him we made a unanimous decision to start without him. It was definitely a better plan than passing out from hunger! ANYhows..as expected, the food was spectacular!-

Biryani made by our Pakistani lab mate,
Baba ganoush and Hummus w/ Pita bread by our Iraqi lab mate,
Aloo Gobi by our Nepali lab mate,
Ahi-poke bought by one of our American lab mates and the drinks was on the other and "Tandoori" chicken with green pepper by yours truly.

Delicious would be an insufficient word to describe the dishes..except for the Ahipoke (which is basically raw, fresh tuna marinated in different sauces). Since I do not eat raw meat of any kind I do not know first hand on how good it was but seeing my lab mates going in for seconds it can be fairly concluded that it was delicious as well! I like food but I am not as adventurous as I would like to be with food. I LOVE watching Andrew Zimmerman and Anthony Bourdain and consider them two of the coolest people on this planet, after Ian Wright of Globe Trekker i.e.
(One reason why I love twitter - you can follow people you are interested in without appearing like a crazy stalker and although I would love to follow Mr Right (I mean Wright) in real life, considering how unlikely that is, I am quite happy following him on twitter - for now. I mean- dreams shouldn't have any boundaries Wright? (I mean right?)).
And although I aspire to be cool foodies like Zimmerman and Bourdain, I can never gather the courage they show in trying out different food from different lands and often consume them with relish and gusto!

And speaking of food, my kitchen cabinets got a fresh coat of paint and has a sweet, clean, fresh look. Lots more I want to do to make it look sweeter but time and finances need to happen simultaneously which is a rare occurrence in my case. Then on second thoughts, since this is just a small, temporary, rental accommodation I wonder if I should be dedicating all the time and money to pretty it up only to move out later. Then on 'third thoughts' (if there is such a thing) I tell myself-as long as I live here, its my space and if keeping it a certain way makes me happy and since happiness (most times) come at a cost, then I must! In other words its time and money well spent.

It is almost the weekend and some friends are coming over and we will all eat and be merry and I believe it is also some one's birthday. Merry Christmas everyone!

PS: I wish I had pics to accompany my ramblings but alas! this aspiring photographer ( one among many other aspirations ) often forgets to take her camera along! Something to be kept in mind for the next post perhaps.