7th Annual Arti-Gras celebration!

I'm assuming if you're reading this blog, you know me.  If you know me, you know that my favorite holiday is my birthday.  That may sound arrogant or weird, but allow me to explain.  I'm Hindu, therefore all the cool holidays like Christmas and Easter, weren't really celebrated in our family to the same extent as others.  Instead, my parents went ALL OUT on birthdays.  My dad would refer to me as the birthday princess and everything was magical for that one day out of the year. 

Don't get me wrong...Hindus have their holidays as well.  There are so many gods, that pretty much everyday is some sort of religious holiday.  Sure, I got gifts at Krishnashtami...but they were useless things like gold bangles and saris or other indian clothes.  Compare that to my 9th birthday where I received a Pocket Rocker and mini cassettes of both Debbie Gibson and The Bangles, and you'll see...there really is no comparison.

Over the years, I've moved around a lot.  I have friends from High School, friends from Undergrad, friends from Kansas City, friends from NYC...this made it kind of hard to get together to celebrate birthdays.  What ended up happening was I'd celebrate with different groups at different times over the course of a week or two so it felt like the entire end of January was one blur of birthday cheer.  Hence, Arti-gras was born...a veritable festival of birthday debauchery.

I don't think it's any secret that I consider myself one of the luckiest people on the planet because I have stellar friends and family that I'd hang out with even if I wasn't contractually/legally/morally required to do so.  As such, I've had the pleasure of having some pretty kick-ass Arti-Gras celebrations.  I'm relatively certain that this year will most likely be the last year that I do something big for my birthday.  This is for a number of reasons, really:

1. I'm not that excited about getting older anymore.  Unfortunately, each year I celebrate is a year that I find a few more grey hairs, can handle significantly fewer drinks without feeling it, and I'm not gonna lie...my knees hurt :(
2. In the past, I've been really excited to go out and party and buy a cute sparkly top...that's acceptable in your 20s.  Now, I'm starting to fear that I'm gonna be that lady at the bar who's inappropriately dressed for her age and actin' a fool from a few too many malibu and cokes.
3. As I get older, my friends seem to be at different phases of their lives.  It's getting to be that the friends I have without a child, or even multiple kids are fewer and fewer.  The point of Arti-Gras is to be with the people I love and spend time with them.  That's starting to include the mini-me's of my closest pals.  Believe it or not, people actually frown upon babies in bars.  Go figure.

So there you have it, I have compelling reasons to not celebrate my birthday the same ways I used to in the past. In the spirit of the impending end of the tradition, I felt that it was probably worth revisiting highlights of Arti-Gras past...

2004: 

This was the 1st annual Arti-Gras. I had just moved to KC, made a bunch of new friends that quickly became like family, and we went to dinner at the Jazz (where I was presented with an AWESOME cake) and then we proceeded to take Westport by storm. That night was the night that I consider the beginning of my close friendship with Cec. She took such good care of me and made sure I got home safely. I think I remember stopping at Kelly's on the way to her car, just to warm up and get a birthday shot :)

2005: 

By this point, I'd moved into the penthouse on the Plaza with Sarah and Salena.  All of our birthdays were within 2 weeks of eachothers.  We aimed to have a joint celebration which included Tom Fooleries and some dancing at The Empire room. 

2006: 

At the end of 2005, I moved to NYC to be with Sudhir.  Moving there was hard for a lot of reasons.  Things weren't going to so great at the beginning of 2006 for a number of reasons.  That year, for my birthday, a group of 4 KC girls flew out and we had a crazy time.  We got tattoos, went to dinner at Bed (a place made famous by SATC), and went to a club.

2007:

I had a huge party in 2 places: NYC at Tutta Pasta and the Tikki Hut and KC at MG's house and Westport (Stabus cafe!) You can see that MG baked Sarah and I a cake and we celebrated Arti-Gras and Sarah-thon together :)

2008:

The last birthday of my 20's!  Friends flew in from Boston and Michigan and we had a blast!  We started out the evening at OddFellows (my favorite Cajun place in Hoboken) and went into the city to hit up a club called R-bar.  Think VIP, stripper poles, etc.  It was an awesome time!

2009: 

The big 3-0!  Since it was such a big birthday, we thought we'd make it real fancy by going to the Big Easy.  The best part of this birthday was the number of people who flew to NOLA from all different parts of my life that TOTALLY got along fantastically.  You'd think that they'd all known eachother FOREVER!  This will also go down as the birth place of a lot of awesome quotes:

"Get it iiiiiiin!"

"I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T, do you know what that means??"

"NOTORIOUS!"

"It's RED, mother f*er!!"

"I spilled the bourbon in my hurricane!"

2010:

The final frontier.  The 10th anniversary of my 21st birthday...

The plan is to go to Angel's Rock Bar for bottle service and some head banging.  This never fails to be a good time.  I'm also extremely stoked that 3 of my very favorite people on the planet are flying in to attend to the festivities.  I'll be sure to blog about the celebration.  It promises to be a rockin' good time!  This really is gonna be the end of an era *tear*...

What's in a name?

So one of my very dearest friends from my graduate school days is about to have a baby girl.  This, of course, brought about the inevitable question:  "Do you have any names picked out that you like?"  Naming a child is probably one of the single most important decisions someone can make, and shouldn't be entered into lightly.  Case in point:  I went to high school with a girl named Sunshine...yes, that was her first name.  It's a bright and sunny name.  it conjurs images of a blonde haired, blue-eyed, dainty cheerleader-type, no?  Precisely the problem, amigos.  Sunshine was a 300 pound goth chick who looked like she was, quite possibly, the most unhappy individual on the planet.  No amount of therapy can undo the wrong her parents inflicted upon her with that one impetuous, not-so-well-thought-out decision...

Back to my friend, though...

She's having a baby girl, and she wanted a name with a beautiful meaning and of muslim origin preferably.  I scoured the baby name websites in order to help her.  (The best part was that 2 out of the top 3 sites were blocked by my company under the category "Shopping/Baby".  Uh, I'm not trying to purchase a muslim baby girl...I'm trying to name one, fools...BUT, I digress...)  I found some good contenders, but they didn't really resonate with my pal.  She listed out a few of her favorites as well.  This entire conversation is happening over IM, mind you.  The beauty of that little fact was that I couldn't hear her saying the names...I could only use my powers of sounding them out.  As someone who's first name is not spelled phoenetically, I feel that I must act as the guardian angel of any child who might be subject to being named something the american kids can't pronounce.  If my name were spelled Arthi, think of all the time I could have been doing something more productive...like curing cancer or figuring out how to achieve world peace.  The world will never know...

I have a friend who had a baby boy that was unsure of what to name him.  She made a game out of it at her baby shower, aptly called: "Name My Baby".  She ended up naming him something other than what won the game (I believe Fletcher won...at least I'd like to think so.)  The point is, that the name she picked totally fits the kid.  Maybe you need to meet the person you're naming before you name them. Maybe the name you choose changes the person they eventually become.  I know that I'd probably have fewer rage blackouts if people weren't calling me Arty, Ardy, or Arthur. 

Just a thought....

Wait a minute...ALL doctors don't suck?? I've been duped.

Today, I had an excellent experience at a doctor's office.  It was so fantastic, in fact, that I felt I had to share it with the 3 people that read my blog (You know who you are...)

In the past, I've had some pretty terrible experiences at phsycian's offices.  It would be an epic blog entry if I tried to document all of them...so instead...I'll give you the top 3 WORST experiences with physicians.

#3:  Random doctor at University Health Services at University of Michigan, cerca 2002 - I had gone in because I had a slight fever and was feeling dizzy.  The fine medical professional told me the only obvious things that could be wrong with me:  You're either pregnant or have HIV.  We should run some tests.  Uh, okay, lady.  First off, if I'm pregnant, we've got some problems.  Immaculate conception only happens to religious figures in Christianity...not to Hindu girls in grad school.  Second of all, I don't think I've had any major blood transfusions, so HIV is out too.  Maybe you should just give me some antibiotics and not scare the crap out of me.

#2:  Dr. Jones, Midtwn Manhattan, cerca 2006 - I was sick.  I had a fever, I had a sore throat, I had nausea, AND, I was at work.  Why was I at work?  Because at the time, I refused to use one of my paid time off days being sick instead of on vacation doing something fun.  Anyway, I went to work, had such a sore throat and bad cough that I could barely catch my breath and then all of a sudden had to take off in a sprint to go yak.  I go to the doctor (next door) and I look and feel like a wreck.  Dr. Jones sees me, asks me what's wrong, doesn't even come near me to check my throat or glands, and prescribes me two things:  Naproxin (pain med) and Clonopin.  I ask him what clonopin is and he tells me it's an anti-anxiety/sedative.  This obviously confused me so I asked him why he would prescribe that to me.  He said on my medical history, there was a true/false statement that read "I feel anxious sometimes" and I had marked it true.  Yes, no shit, dude...who DOESN'T feel anxious sometimes. Have you ridden the subway lately?  Or have you been to the basement of Port Authority?  If you DON'T feel anxious doing those things, you might want to check and see if you have a pulse, homes.  So basically, I walked away from the doctor's office, with a legit flu and nothing but some aleve and some crazy pills.  Thanks, Dr. Jones.  Thanks a bunch.

#1:  Dr. Beracha, Midtown East, cerca late 2008 - As most of you know, near the end of 2008, I was starting to slowly lose my mind.  Apparently, working 80 hours a week for more than a year isn't sustainable and is not so good for your mental OR physical health.  Around that time, I decided to go to a dermatologist to have some skin tags removed.  Upon taking a look at my skin, she asked me if I'd ever been tested for a condition called PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome)  Sounds scary, but mostly it causes some less than desirable symptoms and difficulty having children.  Anyway, she told me the symptoms, and yup, I had every single one of them.  Based on this new discovery, I make an appointment with my obgyn to get it tested out.  I'd already had my yearly exam 6 months earlier, so when I show up at the office, she asks me what's up.  I show her an article I had printed from WebMD and I'd highlighted all the symptoms I had (99% of them).  I tell her, "I think I have this."  She pulls out my chart and takes a look.  Then she points to her notes section where it said "PCOS".  Dr. Beracha says "Yeah, you have it.  See, I wrote it down right here..."  Yes, I see that.  You wrote it down. Good for you.  Was I supposed to come to your office and read that for myself or might it have been a good idea to TELL ME???  Then she went on to say that she couldn't believe she wouldn't tell me something like this.  At this point, I told her that I could assure her that's not something I would forget and I'd rather have each of my fingernails pulled out one by one with pliers than come to the gyno voluntarily.  To make a long story short, I reported her to the board of ethics and I hope she lost her license before she forgot to tell someone they had cancer or something.

So today, as I left the doctor's office after spending no less than 1.5 hours talking to my new doctor, I felt as though the universe is trying to make it all up to me.  My new doctor is patient, talks to me like a real person, and has an actual plan.  I hope it's not a trick.  If it is, don't worry...I'm sure you'll hear all about it.

My entry into the Blogosphere...

I never thought I'd do it...but after months and months of reading my friends' blogs, I felt like it was time to take the plunge...put my thoughts out there...overuse ellipses...

I have no idea what the purpose of blogging is, but I guess I have a lot of funny stories that I could share.  You most likely won't believe them, but I can assure you, you can't make this stuff up...

Here are some things you can look forward to in future blog postings:

• Stories about my dad:  He really never fails to deliver comedic value.  Think: woodchucks, nazis, country hoes, etc.
• Stories about my mom:  Who knew that 5 foot, 2 inches of Indian woman could be so damn funny.  I expect there will be plenty of tales of her education via the best Christmas gift ever: the urbandictionary.com word of the day calendar.  And yes, it's as funny as you think it would be.
• Stories about my husband: I could fill a blog with just the funny things he does and says.
• Stories about my friends/family:  Hilarity at it's finest, I assure you.
• Projects I'm working on
• Pictures
• Tips and Tricks

I sure hope ya'll won't be disappointed.  However, I'm not toooooo worried since I doubt anyone will read it anyway.