Dear Internets,

 

Today I turned 37 years old and since I am having such a good day, I want to wish you all a great day too and share 37 fun links with you. Some of these might be oldies, but they are all goodies.

 

1) Charlie Bit me!

2) Fred Goes Swimming!

3) Hilary Farts!

4)Top 3 Laughing babies!

5) World of WifeCraft!

6) Hard Like Heroic!

7) Leroy Jenkins!

8) Gas Prices!

9) Facebook Gangsta!

10) Obama Girl and the Personal Democracy Forum

11) In the Jungle

12) Crazy Frog in The house

13)CPR training

14) Michael Jackson Indian Style

15) Dog, Cat, and Rat

16) Skateboarding Dog

17) Very Angry Cat

18) Sneezing Panda

19) So you Had a Bad day!

20) News Bloopers

21) Numa Numa

22) Leave Britney Alone!

23) Choclate Rain

24) Tron Guy

25) Afro Ninja

26) Dramatic Look

27) Star Wars Kid

28) Evolution of Dance

29) Miss Teen USA '07

31) Good Cop, baby Cop

32) Cochicken

33) Ask a Ninija, What is Podcasting?

34) Ze Frank's Little Duckies in The Pond Song

35) Dancing Baby Macarena

37) And I saved the best for last!

 

 

I am relaxing on the pedicure chair at the nail salon with my feet dipped in the bubbling warm foot spa, thinking life is good. A petite and pretty young Asian lady is applying pink nail polish to my fingernails and talking to the woman who is sitting on the chair next to me. In fact, all the four women who work at the nail salon are listening to the conversation, and so I turn to look at the woman who has generated so much interest in the Salon.

 

The first thing that catches my attention is her short haircut. Her blonde her is cut in a bob style with the back shaved short and the front corners cut in an angle so they look pointed and sharp. It's a power hair cut, the kind of hair cut a woman gets when she is trying to make a statement. "Nice hair cut!" I tell her smiling as our eyes meet.

"Thank you!" She beams back. "I just got it done today. I used to have my hair all the way to my back."

"Well it looks good on you," I respond genuinely as the haircut really does look good...she looks good. With her big baby blue eyes, soft blonde hair and fit form, anything looks good on her.

"Thanks! I just got a new hair cut and as I was telling these ladies I just got a new job in Monterey so I am moving this weekend. New hair cut, new job, new place, new life." She says excitedly.

"Well, I still can't believe it," says the Asian lady working on my nails and shaking her head. "You always seemed so happy. I never knew anything was wrong."

I must look lost, because the blonde woman looks at me and explains:

"They are all shocked because I've been coming here for so long now and they just found out that I got divorced." She is still smiling.

"I am sorry." I tell her thinking to myself what kind of fool would let her go.

"I am not." She says. "I tried to make it work for thirteen years, and I finally realized it just wasn't gonna work. We are both good people. We were just not good together. I have already met someone too. We were good friends when I was married but once he found out that I was divorced he asked me out and it has been going great. So now I have a new haircut, a new job, a new place, a new boyfriend and a new life. I guess you could say I've got a new lease on life." She ends with a soft laugh. We all start to laugh with her.

 

The Asian lady working on my hands is done and has moved to my feet, but the woman next to me is all done. She pays for the service, wishes everyone a nice weekend and walks out in the bright sunlight to claim her new lease on life.

 

"A new lease on life," I repeat after her and smile at the manicurist. She smiles back and says, "and we all thought she was so happy with her old life. Who knew?"

I sit back in my chair and examine my pink fingernails while my toe nails are being prettied up. I wonder what finally made her walk out of her marriage, change her hair, her job, her house and her life. It takes so much to start just one new thing but to change everything and start all over, and reinvent oneself, that's not for the faint of heart. I wonder if instead of a new lease on life, I could ask for a longer lease on the one I got. Who does one need to talk to about these things?

How about you? How is your current lease on life going for you?

It's Monday morning and I am standing at the bank teller's window waiting for him to do whatever it is that tellers do when you ask for something and they start punching stuff on the computer in front of them. It always takes longer than you feel it should. They could be playing solitaire. They could be watching youtube. You never know. So I am standing there waiting and I start to look around, because that's what you do when you are waiting with nothing to do.

The teller next to mine is a young attractive woman in her mid twenties. She has an exotic look; her face has the best features of whatever different ethnicities her parents were. She is definitely a mix; you just can't guess which ones. She is wearing a tight black suit that covers her petite form well and accentuates her exotic look.

There is a business sign next to her window so I figure her customers should be regular ones and she probably knows most of them. I gather this much as she is smiling at the customer standing in front of her who is a young man in his thirties. The customer is an average looking guy wearing the typical california business casual look. Now I want you to know that I am not exactly eavesdropping, but they happen to be in my hearing range and my hearing system happens to be functioning quite well.

He asks her how her weekend was and she brightens up: "It was awesome!" She responds excitedly with a big bright smile.

"oh yeah," he says, "What did you do?"

"We went to Great America. I hadn't been there for four years. The rides were fantastic." She says breathlessly as if she is still on the rides.

"Which one was your favorite?" He says curiously.

I am kindda glad that he asks that, because I haven't been there myself for a while and I am curious to know as well.

"The Survivor. That had to be my favorite." She smiles again.

He asks her something else, and she responds with the same breathless tone, and I totally want to know what but my teller decides that he is done watching youtube or whatever it was that he was doing and asks me some stupid questions about my account which annoys me to no end and make me miss the end of their conversation. Happy with the answers, he goes back punching stuff on the keyboard again and leaves me waiting idly in front of him once again. The young man has left and an old man in his sixties is standing in front of the beautiful teller to my right.

She is counting money for him and he asks her how her weekend was.

She responds with a flat tone so quietly I can hardly hear her, "It was OK."

He asks again, "Oh just ok. Did you do anything fun at all? Going to the movies? Going out with your friends, or anything?"

"No." She says with the same flat quiet tone. There is no smile. She is done with the counting and looks at him with a cold professional look on her face.

"So you just stayed home?" He asks again smiling trying to continue the conversation.

"yes." She says flatly again.

He wishes her a good day and walks away and the next customer walks up to her.

My teller is done with my requests and I wish him a good day as well, but before I walk away I look at her one more time and our eyes meet. She gives me a sweet, innocent smile and goes back to helping the customer in front of her. As I walk out of the bank, I am left wondering why her answers to these two customers were so different.

So how was your weekend?

 

This one is for my favorite Fatblogger, the one and only Mr. Jason Calacanis. I've finally decided to join the movement. There comes a time in a mother's life when you can't call it baby weight any more. I'd say atleast for me, that's when your baby is about to turn nine months.

I begged one of my best friends who is a health and fitness freak and a certified fitness trainer to come and train me at the gym for weeks. I promised I wasn't gonna give her any attitude, and I was going to listen to her. She finally gave in and we were supposed to meet yesterday.

Of course my body decides that after a year and a half, yesterday is the first day of that time of the month for me! I woke up with the worse cramps. So of course I call E to back out at the last minute.

I moaned at the phone: "I have cramps. I am in pain. Can we please reschedule?"

E snaps back: "Do you think Olympic athletes call in sick because they have cramps???"

"But I am in pain. I don't think I am ready for this E!" I moaned some more.

E didn't waste a minute on me, "You have cramps? Take a hot shower. Pop a couple of Advils. Put your gym clothes on and meet me in an hour. See ya!"

"BUT..." I wanted to continue on, but she had already hung up.

So yesterday I got trained and today I went there all by myself and actually exercised. Truth be told, I feel so much better already. Helen would be so proud. Wish me luck people. Actually wish me less cramps.

So how is your health and fitness plan working out?

My friend Cathia always sends me great stuff about Iran. The latests are a slide show by Rick Steves as he travels through Iran and a beautiful website done by an Iranian-American visiting Tehran. Some of the pictures are truly stunning and make me miss Iran so very much.

 

Cathia also wrote me about a UW staffer who recently went back to Iran and has lots to report. One of the best emails I got from her though was about six Iranian Americans who have received Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Note how many Iranian American women are honored. That makes me so proud!

 

In other Iranian news, Firouzeh Dumas, the author of one of my favorite books, Funny in Farsi, has a new book out called: Laughing Without an Accent. My friend Mahshad already called me and said she was getting that for my birthday so you have to wait for my review for a month or so.

 

Thanks to Mahshad and Cathia, I have some good news to relate regarding Iran and that doesn't happen everyday.

Just finished reading The Iranican Dream, by Siamack Baiameri and I am still LMAO. It's David Sedaris meet Mil Millington with some whacky Middle Eastern spice for good measure. The book follows the misadventures of an Iranian-American Generation Xer in post 9-11 US trying to raise his teenage kids, getting his ex-wife back, dealing with weird relatives visiting from back home, and avoid getting arrested.

I am not sure what part was my favorite: when he tries to teach his teenage son how to kiss men as a form of middle eastern social greeting, or when he gives his ninety year old grandpa Viagra and takes him to a Nevada Brothell to cheer him up or, the list goes on...

Here's one of my favorite excerpts from the book about dealing with his Iranian wife's family, which Robert should've read before marrying me:

"My lack of social skills didn't become apparent to me until I started dating my wife, who happened to be Iranian.

Dating an American woman does not require many social skills or trickery. First of all, you don't have to deal with her dad, mom, sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, nieces, nephews, family friends, neighbors, milkman, butcher, etc. Dating an American woman is like a game of tennis. It's one on one. Chances are that her parents live in some faraway state and she has limited contact, if any, with her immediate family. That makes life so much easier.

However, dating an Iranian woman is like a game of soccer. You constantly bump into other players. It's a full-contact sport. Unexpected slide tackles, violent kicks, tripping, pushing and shoving are all common."

I definitely recommend this book. It's short, sweet and hilarious.

 

 

We've been living in the Half Moon Bay area for the last two years now and have had a chance to try out some of the local restaurants. If you are in the area and looking for recommendations, here are some of our favorites:

 

If you are watching your budget:

 

1) Barbara's Fish Trap has the best fish and chips hands down. It has nice views of the water and friendly staff and fits most budgets well. The only down side is that it is small and usually crowded so you might have to wait for a table.

2) Tres Amigos has the best burritos and is the best bet if you are watching your budget. We love this place.

3) If you are staying in town, and looking for a place for breakfast, try Main Street Grill's French Toast. That's where the locals go for breakfast. You can listen to Bill sing to the oldies by the grill. It's traditional American diner food, good for breakfast and lunch.

4) For the best Deli Sandwiches we always go to San Benito House Garden Deli.

 

For the best water views,

 

1) Sam's Chowder house has the award winning Lobster roll.

2)The Miramar restaurant has an amazing seafood Paella.

3) The Ritz lounge has the best peach Mojitos; we also love their cookie jar and tea.

4) Moss Beach Distillery has the best Fried Artichoke Hearts.

 

For the best ambiance,

 

1) Half Moon Bay Brewing company has a blazing firepit outside that you can sit around and chat with your friends and family. They also have live music on weekend nights and it's a fun place to hang out at.

2) 3 Zero cafe is right next to the airport and it's a great place to go have breakfast on weekends and watch the airplanes.

3) speaking of breakfast, you should try Green Eggs and Ham at Half Moon Bay Inn. When the weather is nice dinning out at their patio is quite fun.

4) Cetrella is by far my favorite restaurant in Half Moon Bay, but it is pretty pricey so we've only been there a couple of times and on special occasions. I definitely recommend it though.

 

There are a few more places that only locals know about and we like to keep it that way :) You should have plenty to choose from though from the list above. Hope you enjoy your stay in foggy but friendly Half Moon Bay!