New Profession: Wedding Lengha Designer

Until I got engaged I’d put very little thought into my wedding…I hadn’t planned it for years or dreamed of “my day”. The only things I knew with some certainty were that I wasn’t going to have a lavish, over the top, four day Indian wedding, I’d probably wear Indian clothes and it would give me the perfect excuse to buy a whole closet’s worth of new shoes. I have no idea why I feel that I suddenly deserve so many new shoes, I just know its the right thing to do.

Our wedding is going to be a two day event, the mehandi on Friday and the wedding on Saturday. I was considering wearing a lengha for the ceremony and then changing into a white gown for the reception…but the thought of yet ANOTHER dress I spent far too much money on and will never again was too much for me.

I must have visited every Indian bridal boutique in the city, flipped through a hundred magazines and I came up with nothing. I was just going to order a run of the mill red lengha with gold work like everyone else when I came across the long forgotten taj duputta. See the first link where the girl has the shawl draped over her heard? There is an old, old, old style wherein those few inches of cloth that are right on top of her head are decorated with the same style of work that is on the dress all in the shape of a minaret. Nobody does this anymore, not in about 100 years. So, while its really old and traditional, its also really different…and of course, what catches my fancy is something that nobody creates anymore.

And that is how I came about designing my own wedding dress. I’ve been able, with multiple middle men, to find an artist who will hopefully be able to execute the design as I see it in my head.

This.Is.RIDICULOUS

My car is cursed. There is no other explanation for this.

I got rear ended last night by a crazy woman with orange hair in a red Ford. I’m fine, nobody was going very fast but what the hell! The first thing out of her mouth when I got out of my hexed car was “Is my car ok?”

I must take up skateboarding.

Adventures in Babyland

A couple months ago my sister-in-law (to be) had a baby boy. I went to Babies R Us and bought him lots of things that were blue including a huge elephant and was really sad I couldn’t buy pink dresses.

I hold him when I’m asked to and otherwise I just remark how cute he is and move on.

Not being a baby/child person I’ve never once in my life babysat. I have lot of cousins but I’ve never had to be responsible for them. I am very good at buying them presents though, that part is fun.

My SIL was asking me to take her along when I start shopping for centerpieces so yesterday we decided we’d go. When I got to her house she told me she was going to pop into the shower and asked me to watch the baby, I asked if there was a bottle ready just in case and she assured me he’d just eaten and would just sleep the whole time. As soon as she left the room he woke up – screaming like a banshee – and of course, I have NO idea what to do with children so I picked him up and wandered around a little bit. Then there was twenty minutes of me popping a pacifier into his mouth to stop the screaming, him spitting it out, me putting the pacifier back in, him spitting it out…and me losing my mind. And then, miracle of miracles, I spotted a half full baby bottle on the kitchen counter.

And then I fed a child questionable milk.

Lesson of the day? If you leave your infant with someone else for even two seconds, give them a fresh bottle of milk.

#@*%!!!!!

You know what’s really fun? When you’re just sitting at a red light minding your own business and some asshat who doesn’t think red lights, speed limits or lanes appy to him comes flying off the highway, across three lanes of traffic and then into your car. That’s really, really fun.