christmastime

Hello campers. The holidays are almost here! How exciting. Unfortunately or fortunately, I am relieved of the stress of holiday shopping given my Indo/M-Class combo. Gifts? What gifts? What kind of holiday is this? The closest we Ismailis get to any sort of religious holiday inspired gift giving is on Eid, when little children do Namaaz then run around asking for "Eidi" - or money. I'm not totally sure what's the genesis of this tradition, but it's been around as long as I can remember.

Economists may measure market basket prices and run complicated models to understand inflation. I could tell it to you automatically at Eid. A few years ago kids demanded $1. Then it went up. Now, if you don't fork over at least $5 to a child on the holy celebration of Eid, you might get yourself in a very sticky situation with a pesky 8-year old.

Although, I can't really complain. I'm at an age where a select few "adults" still give *me* money. Since I'm an adult and people pity my unmarried status, the going rate for me is $20. Score!

Other than that, nothing much new going on in my lazy Susan of a life. Here are some updates:

1) My computer is not infected! Turns out the problem is with the internet connection in my apartment. The problem is that the account is under my mean roommate's name. I tried to call to get them to send someone over, but I needed said roommate's SS # to verify the account. No Go. I left her a note (since she refuses to speak to either me or my nice roommate). I have a feeling this will not be resolved. On the bright side, I pick up great free wireless in the apartment. Oh, and I found a great website to help you with computer problems. They are very friendly and it's free.

2) One of my best friends came to visit this past weekend. It was SO fun. We laughed, hung out and relaxed. The only negative part of the weekend was when my psycho roommate went nuts and decided to full on yell at me and my nice roommate. It was totally unwarranted and frankly very very mean. I don't want to rehash the entire situation; but basically we had made brunch on Saturday. The kitchen was a mess after brunch, but it always is after any big meal. The mean roommate came home and suddenly got really angry about the status of the kitchen. As opposed to discussing her opinion rationally, she decided to yell at both me and my other roommate, calling us "pigs" and "disrespectful." We both walked away while she continued to yell at us. She told us she had a friend coming over that afternoon and she was pissed about the way the apartment looked. We decided to be kind and thoroughly cleaned our apartment. My friend who was visiting generously chipped in and even mopped the floor.

What was the outcome? When our doorbell rang, mean roommate ran out the door and shut it. We heard her from outside. "I'm sorry, I can't let you in. It's really embarassing. My roommates are really rude and have left the apartment in a state that I can't share."

WTF? We were livid. It frightens me to think that some people are virtually incapable of behaving like adults. In what world is yelling acceptable to get what you want? This woman is in her thirties. Furthermore, she never speaks to us period. So when something finally bothers her, she decides to yell like a child? Quite frustrating. The moral of the story: never live in a place you find off of Craigslist.

3) My brother is coming to visit me today. How fun! He is bored at home, so I convinced him to be bored in Boston instead. Just joking. He's bringing me a TV as a belated Eidi gift. For real though. It's from Costco, where else? But a TV for my room; this will change my entire life. Especially considering nice roommate is studying abroad next semester. He's here for the day, and then we head home for the holidays tomorrow. I'm hoping we can catch a show of A Very Long Engagement. J'adore Audrey Tautou.