And the skies are not cloudy all day-ay-ay

Wow, I so need a hobby. Painting? Sculpture? Kickboxing? The freelance world is excellent, but it means I have a lot of extra time on my hands and not much to do with it, except, well, write. And when you write for a living, it kinda stops being a hobby.

Today's post is for BB, who sits far away in the United States, after abandoning me to wander the streets of Bombay all on my own. Sigh. I have nothing to doooooooooo anymore. Technically, and on paper, I have a fabulous life. I have no worries on a Monday morning, I just got my first royalty cheque, so I have quite a bit of money, I have a steady boyfriend who is lovely and sweet AND I have access to all the Babysitter's Club books, so I've been doing plenty of reading. It's just, I dunno, I feel the need to make some new friends, meet some new people, be excited a little more. Why is it so hard to make new friends these days? There was a time when it came so easily to me.

JC and I are going to be making our first trip together (if you don't count the distastorous trip to Manori, which I certainly don't.) We're going to Delhi on Saturday, and I'm over the moon with excitement. For one thing, I love, love, LOVE Delhi in the winter time. I love the idea of wearing jackets and feeling the nip in the air and smelling familiar winter smells. I'm always so homesick this time of the year. Somehow, though, when I imagine Delhi in the winter, I'm taken back to college, where I can just see the four of us pouring out of the gate, faces upturned towards winter sunshine, some of us with our sweaters taken off and tied around our waists, the weekend stretching gloriously in front of us. I know it's been close to six years since I got out of college, but that's the image that always stays with me. There used to be this place, very close to college, called Cals By The Bay, a low calorie joint which was trying (unsuccesfully) to be competition for the Big Chill, across the road. One winter morning, me and Pieces and Puja went there for breakfast, right after our nine am class and I ordered some kind of lemon grass soup. (This next bit is kinda gross, so if you're squeamish, you should skip ahead) Anyhoo, so we got back to campus, and I really had to pee, and all I had eaten was this soup and I kid you not, my pee smelled exactly like lemons. And it was so cold, steam started coming out of it. Ick. I don't know why that's the memory I chose to (over)share with you today, but it was a funny moment.

Another reason I'm really looking forward to JC coming home with me, is that I really want him to know what "my" city is like. Give him some context. Introduce him to people I have known for years and years. Show him where I went to school and make him sleep in my adolescent bedroom where the pillows still make you dream yearning adolescent dreams. Of course, I'm going to have to sleep in a separate bedroom (sigh), but I think we can manage to have minimal contact for a week or so. Plus, I'm taking him up to Agra to see the Taj. I've been there so often, I think I could do the guidebook patter on my own now.

I don't think he's tremendously excited about it--he's heard bad things about Delhi, plus a couple of weeks of knowing only me is making him a little bit nervous--but he's willing to try the city out. Which is why I'm also glad we're going now, when it's at its best. And he's also quite kicked that he gets to take along his leather jacket which he's barely worn. I'll wear my lipstick red leather jacket too, and then we can be all biker couple-y. Come Friday, and we've been dating six months. Can you believe it? I certainly can't. It either seems like we've only known each other a week or two or that we've been dating FOREVER. But six months is a nice, respectable amount of time, and a conservative amount to meet the fam. (And by 'fam' I also mean Leela and Hobo and Samit and Iggy and all the rest of my circle of friends.)

Yesterday, we went to this guy's house to watch people spinning fire. There's apparently this Facebook group called 'Poi Mumbai', and people get together every week to work on their skills. Here are a couple of links which will explain it better than I can. JC is into the fire spinning, but he prefers to do it with a staff, lighted on both ends rather than a ball. You know who else was into the whole thing? Volt, that's who. Whose house we went to the other day and where I had an epiphany. I do indeed have a type. They both liked the same music, both had crazy-ish hair, both did the fire spinning, I was quite surprised. JC is quite good at twirling around the staff (that DOES sound suggestive, no?), leaving me amazed. I'm not only terrified of fire, I'm also hugely uncoordinated. Well, still, it was quite a turn on to watch. I love my men all skillful!

After the spinning, we went next door to a restaurant called Penne for dinner (and as I'm writing this, I remember I have some left over pasta in the fridge and instead I had a fried egg with roti for lunch. Damn.) My royalty cheque just came in, so I thought we'd celebrate our anniversary a week early. We had a lovely dinner, it's nice to know you can still make conversation with someone even if you do see them all day, every day. I guess it's the sign of a healthy relationship and if we are going to be together forever, as I suspect we might, it's nice to know we can still make each other laugh.

Anyway, BB and all the rest of you, that's all the updates that I can think of, this week. Ira and I have done our Goa bookings for New Years, we're going to be there for a whole week! And our resort has a pool! And wifi! (Which I am very geekily super excited about). Plus it's my birthday soon (Sagittarius, NOT Capricorn or Cancer, sorry to the readers who attempted a guess!) and I'm planning a very fun party. It's on a Saturday this year, so I can do a full on weekend celebration. No deets till I figure out how I'm going to manage it, but I'd really, really like to have a karaoke party. Thoughts? Suggestions? I'd love your help.