I was tagged!

Hi Everyone,

I was recently tagged by Le Midget to share 6 random facts. So here goes!Here are the Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website

Six random facts about me:

1. I love salted butter. I have to have butter in my fridge at all times or I get paranoid. I dab some on hand-rolled bread (roti), I add some to my dal (lentil soup) and the list goes on. Every time I go to Denny's or IHOP I always ask for extra butter on the side. Clearly, I am not concerned about the huge bulges forming on various parts of my body. Final point: I love butter!

2. Night-time weirdnesses: I grit/grind my teeth at night a lotttt (probably pent-up stress). The nice orthodontist in Oman gave me a night-guard to wear while sleeping. It helps. Another, I wake up at least twice to pee in the middle of the night.

3. I am terrified of loud noises. Could be a thud, a burst, crackle or anything. From fireworks to gun-shot sounds, I am absolutely horrified of all kinds of loud disturbing sounds. Hence my hands are always shoved up in my ears in the event of a loud sound (even when I go to sleep I shove a bit of my blanket in my ears to block any sound).

4. I like walking around aimlessly in grocery stores and I'd rather do that than go out dancing. I go from aisle to aisle peering at the latest deals and steals. I particularly enjoy the bulk nuts/candy section...nice to try stuff out while I am there :-D

5. I have never had a laptop. Ever.

6. My absolute favorite food is tandoori chicken (besides many more). Particularly, the one that is sold at a food vendor 5 minutes drive from my house in Oman. They make the chicken just right on the grill with optimum char and they provide a delicious tart yogurt dressing on the side. Right next to that food stall is another stall that makes stuffed bread and I love their chicken stuffed and cheese stuffed breads. They make them hand-fluffed inside a clay oven. You could wolf an entire meal for about 5 dollars and be stuffed up to your neck.

And now I tag:
Le Midget
Nessasary Makeup
Makeup By RenRen
A Day in the life of Jinah Chae
Ask a Makeup Guru
The Indian Make-up Diva

contacts or not to contacts (colored might i add)...

So I think I've mentioned before that I used to have brown contacts before (like in 2005). I got the non-prescription disposable ones. I wore them for a while and then obviously I had to throw them. Recently I got the urge again to get them. I like how they bring focus to your eyes and of course draws much more attention to them. Anyways, so I was at Sephora on Friday before Brad's halloween party and I notice a friend who is a makeup artist in sephora (I promise the contacts part will tie in soon). She was like ' I can do makeup for you if you want'. She did my makeup and she did an awesome job. I just came home and put on some fake lashes. So while she was doing my makeup she goes like :'You know I like you because you're one of those real brown girls who doesnt do any of that bright red highlights and contacts shi*.' I was dumbstruck...how did she know? lol. She probably said it just as a passing comment. Obviously after having heard that from her no way can I get contacts. I mean she called me 'real'. Thats something that I want to live up to. So...no contacts :(. But I guess I have to embrace what I have (blech I was so excited about getting contacts. So guysss its so greyy and horrible outside...yuck! I made some pineapple cake with cranberries and walnuts. I also added cream cheese..Yummy. Okay, I think I should probably go eat some more lol.

updates

So, the weather's been a brat. It's been changing like a mad man but mostly its getting cold and as sinister-ish as it may sound, I am liking it :-D. Maybe I've been in Buffalo for just that long that now I am used to it. Anyways, so I have been going to the gym and doing a lot of free weights followed by cardio because this one friend I know (who has personal trainer certification) said that doing weights before cardio is much more effective in burning fat. I am happy and all with my workout plan however, I have not lost any weight per se, I have actually gained weight. The only thing I can hope and pray is that it is muscle weight. I don't know man, I work out then I get home and gorge on a big plate of rice, curry and what nots while piercing my eyes into either tbs or food network. I mean, I give up...I will never ever be pin skinny or needle thin or whatever jargon they use. I will always just be a little bigger. Day by day this world is losing some if not all appreciation for flab a.k.a meat. Everyone wants to be skinny skinny skinny with voluminous hair, voluminous lips, voluminous *ahems* and everything else should just be juiceless and emaciated. Most of the people that matter to me and are close to me never complained about me being a chubster. I really am doing this for myself...Mahrin's wedding on the horizon is also a big, big factor but I am trying to make this a regular thing. *Mahrin I am so excited to catch up with you!* I definitely sleep better at night after a day of working out. Ew I've written so much about workout. So tomorrow is Brad's Halloween party and I won't really costumize myself...um just got like a $3 kiddies princess set which has a tiara, wand, ring (that i broke), earrings (that don't stay). So, yeah, I'm just gonna don that. Mkay. So peoples, my skin is being bad again...I am so sick of this. I don't care anymore...it is what it is. Job status: Zero. I am probably really brave to put that on here so openly. I mean, for the last few weeks haven't heard from anywhere. I have started applying to other countries now mainly united arab emirates. I say that I am being brave because I have seen people who recently got laid off (from fortune 500 companies) and one person went like 'I just didn't want to do the big city thing anymore so I resigned'. Yeah okay...you worked for a year in a company on wall-street and you quit beacuse of what? pshaw. okay, sorry, i shouldn't be so mean and believe what they say but it really is hard to when the economy is in a coma and ppl are trying so hard to keep up.

funtimes

I had a wonderful weekend (beginning Thursday night). I just did a whole bunch of fun things from meeting up with girlies to hanging out at the mall to watching a movie. Yeah. My life is so drab that stuff that might seem mundane to others is delightfully fun to me. The movie I saw was 'Body of lies'. I really, really, really liked the movie minus the overpowering title. I just felt that the title wasn't as befitting. I won't start a movie review here but yeah, I liked it a lot. I am a little lazy to write today but here's a picture of my delicious caesar salad that I had in fuddruckers on Friday! Good times!

*Skin Alert* and then some

So guys, I am so so so sooo grateful to God that my skin has started to clear up considerably (compared to a month ago). I am so happy---although my forehead is still a little grainy. I just think my skin likes fall and winter season much more than the summer. I just hope nothing else pops up. I am okay with monthly singular zits but not a patch full of little ones. Anyways, so I have been diligent about going to the gym but not so diligent about eating healthy. I mean I ate burger king and fries for dinner :p. So as I was saying, Mahrin's wedding is less than a month away and I just know that it will be a fabulous wedding and lots of fabulous people are going to be there and I want to try to look...well fabulous! I always need some kind of motivating factor like that to give me the drive to workout. So Mahrin, you are doing me a huge favor! Brad's halloween shindig is also the weekend after next. I don't know what I am going to be...I am probably going to do a ganguro look that I saw this beauty blogger, Le Midget do and it looked awesome! Job status is still sucky--I am considering going back home (to Oman) early January. I had a very disturbing dream last night and I just realized 'why am I here ridiculously far faraway from my parents and sister?'. What am I achieving out of this? The slim possibility of finding a job? *sigh* I have to be home with my mom and be able to give her a hug anytime I want.

My story...

*Took the pic while walking to the gym today...it was a beautiful day and I had to get a capture of a perfect autumn day!*

So whats my story? I mean yes this blog is all my story but then again is it really 'my' story. LOL. I'm just messing with your heads! I just wanted this post to be about somethings that a lot of you might not know about me. I have only listed three facts as I have gone to great lengths to explain each of them. Hopefully I will list more facts later that will help you all understand my story.

1)I have ridiculously low self-esteem and I (most of the time) do a ridiculously good job at hiding it. Explanation: Ever since I was a little girl, I always felt unpretty. Always. As I grew up, I always kept an eye out on how to beautify oneself. I am pretty darn sure that this fact has raised over a dozen eyebrows...Thank you so much to all those of you who consider me beautiful. I will be ever grateful to you. Trust me though, makeup and other shennanigans helps a lot! I am not not not not naturally aesthetically appealing! But the fact remains, when I look in the mirror---I see an insecure, unsure and confused person trying to make it through every day. I need lots of reassurance! I am trying to change that and hopefully I one day I will!

2)I cannot, cannot, CANNOT stand dirty, staunchy, musty, laundry. I wash clothes all the time (even at 2am!), be it three t-shirts, one hoodie or even two *ahems*. I love it when all the clothes and linens around me are smelling fresh and fragrant of some fruity or floral laundry detergent. To press your nose against a cold, freshly laundered pillow case (in a pillow)---heaven!

3)I love good bread with good butter or dipping oil. I am an aficionado of all things carbohydrates and as much damage as it has caused to my gluteus maximus, I still continue to gorge on fluffy, moist and luscious loaves of bread with sweet cream butter or some flavored oil. I am particularly in love with this one type of bread at the moment that this local grocer makes, its called Cheese Bread and its baked with tons and tons of cheddar cheese. I usually eat it with some sun-dried tomatoes pesto and slices of turkey breast on it. It's amazing!

::My new dish sponge::::

So excited to try this.

Pure Luxe Pigment Samples

*Make-up Post*
All those of you who love MAC pigments but don't have the nerve or budget to shell out $20 a pop, Pureluxeminerals is the best place for you. You can order samples for $1 and you get enough for a lifetime!!! If you're in the U.S, shipping is only like $3.50 (for up to $10 worth of products). Check out this video on youtube to figure out what colors look like: Pure luxe sample swatches. I haven't bought any yet but do plan on getting some soon!

In other news, nothing much has happened. I hung out with Brad for a bit today and he is the most awesomest person ever! There should be more people like Brad! Also got to see Vinny for a bit since they both were meeting up for some game-buying related stuff. It was like a mini-informatics gathering in front of the center for the arts. I came home, watched American History X (lovee Edward Norton). What a beautiful movie! Loved it. Well, beautiful might not be most appropriate to articulate it but it really was a good watch!

Career fair..

And there I was, standing in a huge, blue auditorium, among five thousand boys and girls where and odd combination of professional attire and bulky bookbags prevailed. The list of employers were semi-impressive. I has to go through the list of employers to see the ones that are accepting students with OPT eligibility and there were only 15 or so out of 79.(previously)You know I was having one of those days, when you're running late, printing out resumes, scooping out dirt from under your nails all at once. yeah! I didn't have a snazzy suit to wear (read:deadly broke). I wore a black button down shirt and grey trousers instead and ironed my hair pin straight because thats how I like it best although the process i abhor. I liked Bloomberg, Valucentric, Cannon Design and Synacor in particular because they had positions specific to my major. The guy at Bloomberg was particularly nice and I got this nice bag with lots of goodies in it from a t-shirt (hello gym clothes) to a memo pad to a rubik's cube. I saw people treating the goodies laid out by the various employers like dishes at a buffet bar. They grabbed everything they could and more no matter whether they had talked to that employer or not. I somehow can't/couldn't do that. And seriously, how many mouse pads, magnets, pens do I need? After 2 hours (which flew by miraculously by the way and which I didn't feel because I wore flats! yes flats! nice black shiny flats though--- because its not like someones giving me a job!!!), I went back to the women's locker room where I'd stashed my workout clothes. I changed and stepped out for a bit to get some fresh air and also use my phone (tmobile sucks and doesn't work ANYWHERE!). I got hungry and ate a boiled egg and a turkey sausage that I brought from home but then I got more hungry (read: fatass). I went to Starbucks and saw that they had this new menu where they listed supposedly healthy stuff---I couldn't resist the multigrain roll with almond maple butter. mmmm it tasted just like it sounds...delicious! After eating that I went to the gym and biked for a little...didn't feel like doing much. I'm sleeppyyyyyy....mmm...oh I made flan by the way! recipe in another post...if ur on my facebook, i put on my status so there :-D

I don't know what to say...

So we are all aware of the recent/current showdown on wall street--as a result of which many people and their lives have gone into a sudden financial shock. I just read this story about a 45 year old man in L.A. who shot his children, wife, mother-in-law and himself because of financial woes. The man had a master’s of business administration in finance and had worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sony Pictures, but he had been unemployed for several months (New York Times). I am so disheartened to have read this. Unimaginably devastating. I am praying day and night that all these problems go away soon and everyones lives that has been affected by this crisis be restored to normalcy. On a different note, I went to the gym today for a bit. Don't have any energy but I just go because I get to sit on a bike and watch E!. Whats up with b.o that smells like puke? Something to think about...(unless its like a real disease).

time to eat something. yes its 2am

Eid Dinner 2...

This time the dinner was at Mohammed's place. This guy single-handedly made an array of dishes for so many people. For main course he made biryani, kababs, tandoori chicken, yogurt salad and for dessert he made creme caramel and to top it all he also made some chai with zesty spices such as cardamom and fennel. Wow. After devouring that delicious dinner, Kanta apu put henna on the top of my hands ( i dont like putting it on my palms because it becomes a task while washing face, making food, etc.)I am not a big aficionado of henna (because of the herby astringent like smell). I let her put it on me anyways after seeing the beautiful design she drew on zinnia's hand. As you can see from the picture, she really did and amazing job! I really enjoyed this Eid. It was a fun night. It relieved me of my sadness and depression that I was undergoing due to not being able to celebrate eid with my family back in Oman. So there is this tech career fair on Tuesday and I am thinking of going to it. I need to go and buy a suit or nice button down shirt. All my stuff looks kind of run down. I overwash all my clothes and so they start looking really tattered within months of buying. Oh so my cousin, Shabab, (mom's sister's son) is getting married early november. I wish I could be there. Gosh sometimes, I just regret being here, I should be back home with family and relatives. I mean I love my friends here and my life here in general but my heart does lie somewhere else most of the time. I didn't grow up here and this isn't my home. Just a temporary sort of camping spot (weird analogy). The untimely deaths of my uncle and aunt keep running through my mind and I am left stark sleepless at night. I wouldn't be able to sanely live with myself if (god forbid) I have to hear any more news like that while I am still here thousands of miles away. I am sorry that I took a sharp turn from eid dinner to deaths but yeah I just thought of writing about it. Hope to make it to the gym today for some biking. I just realized that my clothes are getting tighter...

*shoutout*

Hey Kawsar, I know that you frequent my blog sometimes...just wanted to give you a shoutout.
Thank you for always dropping me here and there and everywhere.
Thank your for all the great cookouts and everything for many years.
Thank you for always being so so nice:)
P.S.: I didn't have any clearer picture of you :p
so every once in a while guys, I will make a shoutout to someone special...who knows, it might just be YOU next:-D

Eid dinner...

Its starting to get cooler now (it is 44F now and feels like 41F)-- so thats kind of cold for fall. Anyways, I went to the gym today for some low-key workout (ever since my backache, I haven't been able to run or go on the elliptical). I did that for a bit and came home to get ready for the eid dinner at ifti bhai's house. I had an awesome time. Ifti bhai's wife just came a few days ago and she prepared a delicious spread for a bunch of us. She is this beautiful and serene woman who has the prettiest smile ever! She made khichuri (rice with lentils), chicken curry, egg curry, etc. and boy she made lots of it! Enough to feed a few armies! I ate so much and as you can tell from the pic, I wore a salwar kameez after so long! It felt good :) We chit chatted about so much stuff. I miss hanging out with bangladeshis...theres just a handful of us here and with conflicting schedules we rarely get to hang out like this. Just got back not too long ago...going to go to sleep soon *yawn* after finishing my relaxation tea (which is a blend of peppermint, licorice, chammomile and some other jazz). I really like it.
*Runs to kitchen to pour tea*

Jobs: Worst in 5 years

How I spent eid...

Eid Mubarak everyone! Yay! Smiles! Okay, so my day went by like any other day mainly because it was a weekday and no one really did anything today. This weekend hopefully there might be some eid celebrations. I went for a walk, but before that I whipped up this amazing salad and I have to, have to share with y'all:

Wheatberry Cranberry Salad (adapted from ellie kreuger's recipe)

2 cups cooked wheatberries
1 cup chopped dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 chopped cucumber (ellie kreuger used celery)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

Mix, chill, eat.
Yeah its health food it is so so good.

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