Scarred for Life.

So back during my high school orientation (wow, that was a decade ago for me) we were broken up into groups and given a tour of our high school. Yes our school was huge and a tour was necessary; Independence High is one of the largest high schools in CA with 4,500 students. In our groups we introduced ourselves and as an ice breaker we told a story behind any scar we had.

This morning I looked at my hand and cringed at the newest scar I got. While taking cheesecake out of the oven, my un-mitted hand touched the inside of the oven and was burnt. That left a mark on my left hand which I’m hoping will lighten up a little with time. Sadly, I think I’ve gotten more scars this year than all other years of my life combined.

One upon a yesteryear I used to think scars were badass and hotttt. Not so much anymore; its like another physical imperfection that you may need to start covering up with make-up or a band-aid. So in addition to my hand scar, I got another 3 (2 on my knees and one on my elbow) from playing soccer with Hondurans. The game was brutal. Pouring rain, concrete floor, no soccer gear, no pleated shoes… kinda bad idea.

The scar on my left shin tells the story of a wild night in Davis involving drunken dancing in the Jacuzzi by my apt. From previous years, I have a scar above my eye, on my forehead, my wrist, and my chin.

Yep, if every scar tells a story, I’m about ready to publish a huge autobiography based on them.

Knocked Up.

(My convo with 'lil Preets on AIM today)

Me: Dude I had a nightmare again yday before my final!
Preets: oh no!
Me: I dreamt that I was knocked up and bout to try to explain it to my rents
Me: (thats what I get for studyin the reproductive system b4 going to sleep)

Preets: Should've used protection
Me: Anyway, I managed to explain it to them, dont rem what I said anymore thou
Me: But they were more horrified by that fact that my cuzin overheard everything
Me: Than the fact that I was knocked up!!

(IM at the same time)
Me: So the dream ended w/them plotting to kill my cuzin!
Preets: Did you guys end up killing ur cousin and burying him?

Me: Dang, you can predict my life, friendships, and now even my dreams? Creepy.
Preets: Thats how I roll
Preets: Psycho style ;)

Donuts for Dates.

My friend Danish is teaching an MCAT class and decided to bring donuts to his office hours for his students. Unfortunately, not that many students came, so he thought it would be "fun to hand out the extra donuts to random strangers."

Cindy, another friend of mine, thought it would have been amusing if Danish (a rather shy guy) had handed out donuts for dates. I thought the idea was brilliant! I mean, I know I love donuts! Who doesn't?!

However, how would you approach someone with a donut and ask them out on a date is a totally different question. "Hi. I have a donut. It has your name on it if you go out with me." Ok, definitely not tempting. And taking food from stangers, especially here in Berkeley is probably not advisable. So how would you pull it off?

I thought back to the most random opening conversation a guy has ever started with me. Back in my food science class, a guy and sat right next to me although there were countless empty seats in the lecture hall. As the guy tried to adjust his desk, he realized it was broken. He turned to me, shaking his head in mock-disapproval, and asked, "Miss, did you break my desk?!" The accusation definitely made me laugh and give a playfully offended response; an amusing conversation and great friendship did follow.

An accusation, I decided with Mr. Desk Guy, would be a perfect opening line for the donuts. "Hi. I've lost a few of my donuts. Did you eat them when I wasn't looking? And do u want another one while you explain to me why u did such a thing?" ;)... and see where it goes from there!!

(Note: In a city like Berkeley your random stranger of choice may just assume that you're high, trippin' over missin donuts that you probably ate and forgot about.)

Analyze This.

I have the most absurd dreams ever. I feel like I should start keeping a dream journal again. So in my dream I was walking through this village with homes that were not completely walled. You could see everything going on inside the “houses”; they were packed with children running about, huge TVs blasted on full volume, and old men smoking pipes on the porch. I was in what looked like a third-world country, walking on a stepping stone path to the Gurudwara with my mom.

At the Gurudwara, I ate some snacks in the outdoor Langar Hall and left my purse by this sardar and non-sardar guy. I thought to myself, “Whatever. This is the Gurudwara. People won’t be sinful and steal here. I’ll just get my purse later.” Before I turned away I saw the two guys makeout in the nastiest, raunchiest way ever. I turned away, disgusted, and left to go sit inside for the Kirtan.

When the Kirtan was over, I went outside to eat lunch and the sardar handed me back my purse and keys and said, “You almost forgot this.” and left. I looked closely at my keys and each one was engraved with something. The first key read, “Will you go out with me?” The second key had his name, the third his bday (Year 1987), and a fourth one about him being a student at Sunday Gurudwara School.

As I looked at the keys, I was first skeptical about his age because he looked a lot older than just 21. But I chose to disregard my suspicions because I don’t think I can ever guess a sardar’s age right. Then, I wondered why he’d ask me out if he was allegedly involved with that other non-sardar guy I saw him with earlier. Finally, I realized he was lying about his age because 21-year-olds can’t go to Gurudwara School (or at least in my dream they couldn’t) and deduced that he must've lied about everythin else too. (so my logic may be a little skewed in my sleep)

Needless to say, I woke up feeling pretty disturbed.

A Safe Landing.

I saw my neighbor after months yesterday evening, walking her new baby pitbull. Though some people find pitbulls to be intimidating, I fell in love with them after watching "Homeward Bound" and seeing the movie's mischievous pitbull, Chance. My neighbor's puppy's name is Bubba. He's also a cutie pie.

Well, I reached over to pet Bubba and he was just so jumpy! I decided to pick him up (as I'm used to holding and cradling kittens, bunnies and such), which was NOT the brightest idea. The little dog was as heavy as a sack of bricks, so I decided to drop him back onto the floor. To my sheer surprise, dogs DO NOT land on their feet as cats do. *CLUNK* yeah.

Ok, Bubba wasnt hurt, because it was like a 3 foot drop. I did, however, decide it was time to do some research on cats and their landing abilities.

Here's the jist of what I got: The Cat Righting Reflex is a cat's innate reflex to orient itself when falling to land on its feet, often leaving it ininjured. Cats develop this reflex at 3-4 weeks of age. When a cat is falling, it visually and with the aid of its inner ear determines falling distance/orientation and angles itself upright. In addition, it speads out its body to increase drag and slow the fall. (A falling cat's terminal velocity is 60 mph whereas that of a falling man in a free-fall position is 130 mph.)

...And now I also know why they say cats have nine lives. (Go look it up!) ;)

Beginning Blogging.

I've never had a blog before. So what in the devil's name made me start one after years of scoffing at people electronically publicizing their lives? The answer is "Sunshine, Butterflies, and Cupcakes." No, not rays of sunshine streaming through my window on an icy, winter morning. Not butterflies fluttering around my presence at a park. And certainly not chocolate-covered cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles at a local bakery just pleading to melt in my mouth and not in my hands.

Here. Let me provide you with a visual. It's on the left because I don't know how to center and adjust images on this blog just yet. Blogspot is not as user friendly as I expected, or I'm just not as tech saavy as I thought. Ok, back to the image. That is my itty, bitty, wittle brudder *pinches cheeks* Preets who goes by the blog name "Sunshine, Butterflies, and Cupcakes". We decided it was time to stop hiding from the world and unleash our dark side online!!

Being the nerd that loves random facts and statistics, I decided to look up some random facts on blogging. Let me share my findings:

• There are currently 15.5 million active blogs (updated within the past 90 days)
• Only 33% of all blogs are in English (the next most popular languages are: Portuguese, Polish, and Farsi)
• Brazil is the 2nd largest blog-using country after the U.S.
• 40% of Americans, 25% of the French, and 13% of the British read at least one blog per week.
• 10-20% of US blogs are "related to religion"
• Males are more likely to abandon blogs than females.
• 92.4% of blogs are created by people under the age of 30.

"Blogging remains the dominion of geeks, wittier-than thou, twenty-to-thirty somethings in Manhattan and angry, gay Republicans." --Leigh Philips