My appy Birthday was awesome!

I am 29! Yes, I am loving it! This birthday was one my best ever...S came home with a bunch of flowers hiding behind his back, which he cleverly hid ( yeah, right!!)...made dinner for me even before my birthday began!

I was a little upset that I would be alone at home on my birthday and wanted to scream its my birthday!! :) ( Yeah, I am like that, I love my birthday and feel like a princess!). So I expected S to go to work and I thought we would celebrate in the evening, coz its a weekday. Surprise of surprises, S took the whole day off...served breakfast for me. (We had to get a medical test for the social security. So we got that done) ...and just roamed all around Paris...did some shopping...came home, S made lunch for us!! ....Went out again and did some more shopping....went to the Eiffel Tower and had the awesomest view of Paris!! S got me this awesome red coat for my birthday gift that I have been drooling over, as we pass by the store everyday!! :D ( among many other things, which we can discuss later!)

S wanted us to have dinner at the Eiffel, there is a cool place right on the tower. But he found out that they don't serve any vegetarian food. Anyway, it was a good thing...coz we just took the Metro and went to the Notre Dame area and found an amazing restaurant and we had dinner with candlelights and good conversation!

We then found this really interesting lane and washed off dinner with warm crepes filled with Nutella and walnuts! :D It was such a pleasant feeling...really cold weather...the warm crepes....I had a warm fuzzy feeling as we ended the fabulous day!

My parents / inlaws /family sent me an e-mail and e-card, I was pleasantly shocked!!! I did call them and speak to them anyway. I got a lot of wishes from all my friends, thanks to orkut and facebook! :) Thank you all for making me feel so special on my birthday! S, as always, you made me feel out-of-the world!

I celebrated my Birthday in Paris!!!... and the entire day was romantic!! Like my dear friend N says, what more do I want? Dear God, I thank you for this fabulous life and for all the love I recieve...look out for your child. I know you will and you do :)

Edited to add: I just noticed that this is my 201st Post!!! :) Double Century is not bad at all, eh?

25 random things about me!

My friend Sudha, has tagged me on Facebook to do this tag. The rules of the tag are:

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I am never lost for words and make friends very easily.I tend to give the impression that I am close to everyone but in reality I have very few close friends.
2. I am a narcissist who loves to look at herself!
   
3. I love tall, suave and intelligent men.
4. I believe that S is the best thing that ever happened to me. He perfectly complements the 'hyper' me.
   
5. I am a classically trained singer and can sing reasonably well.
6. A highly emotional person, am very expressive about my feelings for everyone.
   
7. WYSWIG ( What you see is what you get).
8. I am an open book; very transparent and easy to read, even to a stranger!
9. Lots of people assume that I am arrogant and over-confident looking at my personality. I would like to think I am confident, definitely not arrogant. So i tend to make an extra effort to appear friendly.
   
10. I envy people who are naturally slim, who don't really need to make an effort to look that way!
    
11. I am very enthusiastic and get really excited about even little things in life and believe that's what makes every day and moment interesting.
12. I strongly believe its important that you love and respect yourself before you expect others to show love/respect for you. So I do LOVE myself :P .
13. Music is a quintessential part of my life and I believe is highly theraupatic.
14. I am a very bad judge of character; I hope to get better over the years.
15. I have understood that I have a blessed life unlike so many other unfortunate people and am thankful for the life i have...Indeed, I am contented.
16. I love the smell of babies; their innocence.
17. I enjoy every phase in my life; be it school or college or now that I am working. I never feel that I want to go back to a phase in the past.
18. You can always find a permanent grin on my face and sometimes, my mouth hurts from all the talking!
    
19. I am a people's person. I love to meet new people and many of my friends come to me for advice. I am everyone's agony aunt! ( I am glad to help in anyway i can!)
20. I am very good with interiors and home decor. I hope to run my own business someday!
21. I don't really worry too much about what others may think if I do or say something. I just say it or do it as long as I am not hurting someone.
22. I love the beaches and can never have enough of it. I love travelling as long as it does not entail hairpin bends and winding roads to the Mountains. ( S, can you read that?)
23. I may forget but I do NOT forgive!
24. I am short-tempered and am very much aware of it. So when I am angry I just keep quiet lest I say something hurting I may regret later.
    
25. I cry very easily; even if I see someone crying...I end up crying without finding out why! I just can't see people sad. So I am good entertainment for people in movies!!
    

Thanks, Sudha! This was indeed interesting and got me thinking. Anyone interested in doing this tag, please take it up. Do let me know when you do it, I would love to read it! :-)

Is MY happiness OTHER's state of mind?

Why do we all (especially yours truly!) see happiness confined to a few milestones? good job, get married, buy a house, have kids, have another kid, save-enough-to-have-an-independent-life, children well settled, etc. etc...well, I am sure everyone would say 'well, that is the natural course that life takes for everyone!!'. My point is why can't it be different? Why am I answerable or questioned about each milestone at every point of time? Does it matter at all to anybody what really makes me happy? Most importantly, Do I know what really makes me happy?? In pursuit of reaching these milestones, more so due to pressures from peers, parents, neighbours...even strangers, all my attention is on the 'standard milestones set by others' that I forget to enjoy the simple pleasures and joy of life.

I had an epiphany (shruthi's fav. word!) and since then, have changed a lot from my previous self and have learnt to let go of myself. I think we are all conditioned to think that it is most important to think about others and please them than thinking about or caring about yourself. There were times I would feel guilty about being happy with S, away from my parents. Now, I know its silly. At the same time, I also think you want something to happen coz the person you love wants the same things too,more fervently than you do and succumb to it. But isnt that conditional love ( if such a word exists, but you get the drift, right?)

I am judgemental. PERIOD. I think its my basic nature, coz I dont seem to be able to change that about me :). I have judged people who choose to remain single and not marry at all or at couples who decide not to have children for whatever reason and so on. When I think about it, maybe that makes them happy. Who knows? It is important to respect their decision just like how I would like to be respected for mine.

S once told me 'You dont get hurt unless you want to get hurt'. I scoffed. I hate to admit now that it is indeed true. Over time, you learn to filter some people from your life and for your own good, its best to have positive people around you who revel in your happiness and accomplishments and at the same time, help you move on with life. But when you are young and raw, and have no idea of how cynical and cruel words can be, it comes as a shock that shakes you up...

Amma tells me ' Nobody is worth suffering!' Amen to that!!