It’s 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning and the brother and I are sitting in his dentist’s office. I’m poring through National Geographic and Sports Illustrated, shivering from time to time because I’m sitting right beneath the air-conditioning vent. (Who in their right freakin’ mind turns on the AC at 9 a.m.?) He’s sitting next to […]

[Read more →]

you let me change lanes/while i was driving in my car
Things that made my day:
One: Getting a road trip mix CD in the mail from Baji, who’s over there in DC, all the way across the country. I swear I don’t recognize half these artist names, but that doesn’t mean I’m enjoying the CD any […]

[Read more →]

L stands for Love
L: so i mean, i gotta get ready for some major discipliningMe: dudeMe: i need to work on that end tooL: let’s make a deal, yasminayMe: such as?L: this year we have graduation to look forward toL: so we need to start off well and do brilliantMe: oh lordMe: graduationMe: dangL: when […]

[Read more →]

to get me through the day
Conversations I had while sitting in a downtown Sacramento lobby, waiting to be interviewed:
She: How old are you?
Me: 23.
She: Are you SERIOUS? I thought you were way younger!
Me: *grinning* Thank you.
Persian guy: Are you Persian?
Me: No. Why, do I look Persian?
He: *throws up his hands in confusion, laughing* I don’t […]

[Read more →]

Less than two weeks ago, we drove up to Sacramento to visit our relatives when we heard the news of our bhabi’s sister’s death.
Towards the afternoon, I took the opportunity to escape the endless crying and sad, drawn faces by ushering my niece, three-year-old Zaynam, and her one-year-old sister – my cousin and bhabi’s […]

[Read more →]

say good-bye to the commute extraordinaire -
- til we meet again, september 30th (or something)
winter hills
summer hills
hit the road, jack
the road less taken

[Read more →]

good things
- L buying me a Carribean Passion fruit smoothie from Jamba Juice
- Sarah McLachlan’s Afterglow album
- The expression on Seher’s face when she walked into her “surprise birthday party,” held about a month-and-a-half before her real birthday
- Wandering down Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, watching Seher pick out her bajillionth pair of dangly earrings. “Stop […]

[Read more →]

I knew it was a red car.
Three boys and a girl were killed, and another girl critically injured, in that freeway accident last Monday. Local articles have referred to it as “grisly,” “high-impact,” “ugly,” and “tragic.”
It has been difficult to escape the aftermath of the accident over the course of the past week. You […]

[Read more →]