daily life part II

Daily life part Deux:

Well, now I'm in my bachelor pad, which does indeed have a kitchen, for those of you that may have wondered (I just don't use it ever. I think I may never cook again!- too hot, too messy, need to0 many things to start, never was a big fan of cooking anyway...). Anyway, now that I live only three minutes from SM Clark, my days of missing shoe sales at SO FAB are over! I usually shower under my "whale of a time" (yes, that's what it's called) water heater, throw on some clothes (see "the fashion project" for reference as to what the hell I'm wearing over here. Let me just add that internet guides HAD NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT).

I usually get greeted by the boys who run the car service since they live across the street, and then I toddle over to Starbucks, cutting across the PUJ terminal on the way, past the lean-to shacks that have videoke, super cheap food, cell phone accessories, and the like.

I usually pick up one or two things at SM upstairs: In the towel section I browse for a minute, trying to think of what color matches both peanut butter *and* pale pink (my dreadful bathroom colors) when someone bounces over:
"Towels! Towels, ma'am!"
"I'm way ahead of ya, atte."
I growl, for the millionth time, as I always do when someone shouts out the name of the thing I'm looking at.
Pants, ma'am?
Yeah, gotcha. Pants. I see that.
PANTS!! PANTSSSSS!!!
yup, still with ya.
Pants! We have sizes!! PANTS!! (frantic flapping through the rack I'm looking at to "help"me).
And so on.
This happens even with patently ridiculous items that are on "special", and must be promoted that day, regardless of the "fit" with the customer. Bodysuit the size of a hanky? BODYSUIT MA'AM? Um, hon, have you seen me? Yeah.

Off to work. My new "big boss" Ram is....the latest thorn in my side. Sweet, sweet teddy bear. However, after our initial meeting, he got so excited and ahead of himself that now I get about 9000 emails a day "are we doing X? we should, like, totally do X!!" Yes, Ram, we've had that program in place for 6 months, dearie. The other Indians laugh and nod knowingly when I mention this. "Oh, Ram. Yeah....." That's one of several "Indian" looks I get.

One is the "oh, no she didn't!" This is what I get in meetings when I am too direct. Eyes wide, pouting mouth, George Clooney head tilt.
the other one is "yes, I know exactly what you're talking about, but I won't admit it since it impinges the honor of my countrymen. But yes, you're TOTALLY RIGHT!" This is an eye roll to heaven and a bowed head and then a sigh.
The other one is the eyes cut to the side and the small smile that means "I can't believe this is happening right now, but it's so cute! So American! Should I say something? Where would I start?" I usually get this one when I try Hindi or try to explain "feminism" or something like it.

And foolishly I added Ram to OCS so now I can pinged by Sukesh, my CA's (my analysts), Antony, Ram, Shah, and everyone else ALL AT ONCE!!
Emergency!! Can we please have a conference call at the same time you're training three different waves ( incoming new hires) of people? Cool, thanks. Oh, and can you call Mannikadan? Naomi, can you please make this report for me, I'm swamped. And so on. Love ya! Sigh.

Off to mini stop to pick the drink for the night (since I sleep days I usually have one or two glasses of wine to shut off the brain and settle down before trying to sleep in the blazing sun). The other day I picked something that sounded so cool: It was a tiny bottle of "refreshing blend of gin and pomelo juice". Sounds terrif! (they sell liquor at the 7-11 here). What they should have said was "extremely high- alcohol content gin with the pomelo juice bottle *waved* over it". I mean, three sips in I was out for four hours! I told Antony "Maybe the fact it was clear should have been a giveaway, but it wasn't." Hee.

Home to text Ryan "I never thought I would miss you but I do" D'Costa (yes, this was the flaming-ly gallant text I got from him the other day. What a lovah- lovah, eh?) who's in India and terribly bored and lonely, to practice my Hindi, and text Davie the latest gossip. Sleep.

This is what I'm listening to right now: dedicated to Ryan. Heh. "Cookie Jar" by Gym Class Heroes and The Dream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrjRj4uQQ1o