Delhi!

I really wasn't expecting how different North India is from the South,
but I'm so glad I got to experience it. The most obvious right off
the bat being the break from humidity... thank god! Everything is
brown rather than green. Architecture looks much more Arabic. Men
tend to wear trousers rather than the white sheet-like things that
wrap around the waist then fold up at the knee. And there is much
less head bobble. Delhi, being as massive as it is, has much larger
highways, but with the same total lack of regard for any/all traffic
laws. That being said, we did notice a significantly less amount of
horn honking. We didn't get the standard 3 honk minimum warning every
time anyone passed a person, goat, bike, cow, scooter, truck, or car.

The city is crowded, even more chaotic and you are constantly
bombarded with a million things or people to look at and an equal
amount of people looking at you. Laura and I spent Tuesday
sightseeing and were constantly approached by strangers with requests
to have their photograph taken with us, or followed persistently by
groups of boys. I felt like we should have been on an episode of
national geographic with the British voice narration... "Notice the
two light colored fertile females slowly being outnumbered, inevitably
backing themselves into a corner as the males close in on their
prey..." Unfortunately, it started to become more than uncomfortable
and we ended up cutting some stuff short because of it... bastards.
In Kerala, it's not like we never got looked at but for the most part
people could care less that we existed. I suddenly understood the
concept of veiling your face as a way to control who has the right to
view you. I guess I never realized how invasive it can be to be
stared at, as simple as that may seem. In fact, I'm being stared at
as I'm writing this... go figure.

Next we visited the site where Ghandi was cremated. It was a gated
park with tree lined walk ways and huge open aired grassy lawns. In
the center there was the black marble platform made into a monument.
You were required to remove your shoes about 20 meters away from the
monument. aThe stone walkway was so hot in the sun you could probably
fry an egg on it, making the no shoe thing seem like a really cruel
joke. But it was worth it.

Between sightseeing we got to partake in a lot of wedding
preparations, my favorite being getting henna painted on the back and
palm of both hands. I noticed after comparing mine with the other
girls how much less intricate my designs were, but then I realized how
overwhelmed the artist must have been when first laying eyes on my
gigantic sasquatch hands and figured he did an outstanding job under
the circumstances.

Dancing machine.

Goa. Im not sure if its possible to sum up our time in goa in words
but ill give it a shot. Too short, for starters. Paradise. Once we
settled in to our beach hut we checked our shoes at the door and
didn't touch them again for 4 days. The sun was so intense that even
though we went through an entire bottle of sunscreen we still ended up
just as tan as after a month in Hawaii. The water was warm but still
refreshing with endless, perfect waves. We had somewhat of a little
community of amazing, crazy fun friends in neighboring huts. Two of
the beach dogs, the governer and Scarface became loyal friends who
would bark at anyone they didn't know walking around our huts at
night. They even followed us to the silent disco and managed to sneak
in so they could hang out while we danced. In the evenings we'd sit w
a cold beer and watch the sun sink into the haze over the ocean. And
in the mornings we convinced our Irish friend, Ger, to greet us w,
'top o the mornin to ya!' every day. Laura nearly had a heart attack
one morning while she was relaxing and waiting for her breakfast and
he crept up behind her. I think for a moment she was convinced that a
leprechan had just sprung out of the bushes. Anyway, apparently, Irish
people don't actually say that...or 'where are me lucky charms?' for
that matter. I don't know why... Id sure as hell use it all the time
if i were Irish.
Our last night there we danced up until the last minute we had
and then left to catch our taxi to the airport. On our walk home, as
we descended onto the beach from a stone path, apparently i got teary
eyed and made everyone stop and watch the ocean in the moonlight
saying over and over, 'its just the most beautiful thing I've ever
seen!'...um yeah i may have had one too many. But it was really
pretty!! As much as i wanted to miss our flight out and end up
'having' to stay another few days, we somehow managed to navigate
through 2 airports and land in Delhi safely. We had a few hours to
sleep and headed straight to an engagement party for our friends jatin
and Pam. Within minutes we were pulled out onto the dancefloor and
taking shots w their friends and family. We were exhausted but the
pure energy and enthusiasm filling the room kept us going. Cousins,
aunts, uncles, grandparents... I don't think I've ever met a family
that loves to dance so much. Its been amazing and a nonstop party...
And we havn't even gotten to the wedding yet!

Cathy

little puppers are everywhere. it's the BEST life a dog could have!

cows chillin' on the beach

to do list

just such a good representation of that night

amazing boogie boarding and new friends!

view from our beach hut hammock in Palolem, Goa

shhhhhhhh

So we are in Goa right now and it is absolutely AMAZING. I've never seen such a dense collection of palm trees and the beach is PERFECT for body surfing/boogie boarding. Cathy's blogging about this too, so I'll just talk about our awesome night last night

We met some dudes on the beach yesterday and ended up boogie boarding for a while. they were super fun and introduced us to their giant eclectic posse (5 french people, one dutch, one south african, one british, one irish, all fun). the french dudes were really excited about the silent disco that night and although our boogie boarding buddies had vowed to make it a quiet night, we quickly got them to change their minds and we all went to the party after dinner (at midnight... when things pick up here). So we walked down the beach (you don't have to wear shoes at all here... our friends haven't worn shoes, even sandals, in 2 weeks) and we followed a sign and a dark pathway lit somewhat by neon lights on the palm trees. we got the to club and it was so weird because it was really quite. See in Goa, they have noise restrictions... the cops really cracked down because I guess it would get so loud and rowdy and all these places had to turn off the music at 10PM. so some genius came up with the idea of having a club where everyone wears headphones. There are still DJs that spin but the music goes straight to the headphones. then in another genius move, they decided to have two channels to choose from. So you can be listening to your favorite house/trance music and your dance partner can be listening to matt and kim or kanye or whatever else is on the random channel. everyone's happy. every now and then you'll take your headphones off and head people signing the words to whatever they are listening to. and then there's the "HEY WHAT STATION ARE YOU ON?" and you take a listen to their set... "OH SWEET ME TOO" (all yelling because your music in your ears in loud but really you're just in a quiet room screaming).

it is AWESOME. supposedly there is an even bigger one tomorrow night. since our flight out is at 6:55AM and it takes an hour to get to the airport, i have a feeling we won't be sleeping... seeing that we left at 4AM last night and that was an "early night."


we are staying in these awesome beach huts for about $12 a night. they are RIGHT on the beach and there's a hammock out front. i can't even describe how awesome it is here. our group of friends (who all came separately and met here) were each supposed to be here a few days, but they have been here two weeks now. they said everyone postpones their trip here. in a way i wish we could, but in a way i'm really glad we can't because we have Jay and Pam's engagement party in Delhi! (and if we did postpone, i feel like we may get stuck here forever).

i'm off to go back to the beach... i got SO burned yesterday. the sun is really intense here, but once the midday heat is gone, we're kayaing, boogie boarding, swimming, playing vollyball, going for a run/doing yoga.... :-)

And so it begins...

We learned a new term yesterday. BIITL. or 'bittle'. It's an
acronym for 'been in India too long'. A week ago I didn't understand
that concept. Having arrived in Goa, it makes so much sense. Goa is
the place were backpacking hippies stop into town for 2 nights and end
up staying 10 years. Within 24 hours of arriving we've made about 15
new friends from all around the world and have all ended up extending
their stays. It's amazing. The waves are absolutely perfect for
boogie boarding and makes you feel like a kid again. The palm trees
are thick and the ocean breeze could not feel any better.
Conversations are always interesting partly due to some of the
mis-communications from all the different accents. Last night a
french guy was explaining to me and an English guy how his dad used to
be a rocker and wear tons of "lazer"... after about 5 minutes the
English guy figured out what he was trying to say and said to me,
"oooooh i see i see.. it's 'lever'.. his dad wore tons of 'lever'"...
then about 5 minutes later I finally realized he was saying "leather"
and then it made a lot more sense. We ate dinner and drank on the
beach after sundown and headed the silent disco around midnight. I'm
totally bringing this concept back to the states. It may have been
one of the best nights of dancing I've ever had. Four days is not
long enough here.

~Cathy

Med School: check.

Our last rotation in medical school is coming to an end. Amrita
Hospital definitely offered a unique experience, to say the least. On
the wards, it wasn't unusual to find Hindu/Ashram style hymns playing
over the sound system, or smell insense burning from a patient's room,
or find one of your patient resting on a bed of bannana leaves. We
had last friday off for the Hindu holiday called Vishu, which is a
celebration of a new year, differenct for every state depending on the
cycle of the harvest. One of the 'sistas' (ie nurses) placed a 2
rupee coin in each of our hands to wish us wealth and prosperity.

We were excited to have a day off but soon came to find that everyone
else had the day off and therefore nothing was open. We decided to
head to the touristly part of town (Fort Kochin) to watch a
traditional Indian play/dance performance called Kathakali. The story
was narrated by a singer who also played the symbols alongside a
drummer. The character's faces were painted with very intracate mask
like paints involving rice paper as accenting. Their only
communication during the play was through gestures and really
exadurated eye movements. To cut to the chase, the grand finale
involved the protagonist eating the disemboweled body of his enemy
while he brushed the blood through his lovers hair. It may just haunt
my dreams for a year or two but no big deal.

Buuuut anyway... on saturday two of my friends flew into town (Greg
and Kate) and we spent our Sunday lounging next to a pool at a ritzy
hotel in Fort Kochin... eating, laughing, eating, swimming, laughing.
The pool, although luke warm and small, was incredibly refreshing
nonetheless and felt amazing. The only drawback was that there were
these odd little beatles in the water that would bite you if they came
in contact with you. Then as the sun set several bats were swooping
down for a taste of the water just feet away from us. Blood thristy
pool beatles and aggresive crazy bats flying at your head
unfortunately only fed into my irrational fear of unprevoked animal
attacks. Later we befriended a pose of really cute (and friendly)
neighborhood dogs that Greg insisted were his 'minions' even though
they flocked to Kate that second she came around. Then indulged in an
assortment of delicious french style tarts. What a life:)

After sundown we walked along the waterfront which turned out to be
beautiful with strong waves popping up onto the rocks during hightide.
The moon was full and breeze was heavy and cool. All the fishermen
had the last of their catch out on display trying insistently to
unload them on anyone walking by. We were offered an enormous 3 foot
fish for 100 rupees... raw, or cooked up on the spot. I mean really,
what did they expect us to do with a 3 ft long fish? It's not exactly
street food.

And as for today.... the heat is oppressive.... oppressive!!!

~Cathy

where are the tiger?! I mean LOOK at this field! How are there not tigers here??

this ballsy monkey was just taking his sweet time drinking from the faucet

i was nervous in this pic bc he REALLY looked like he wanted to jump on me and these monkeys were little bullies... stealing food from people and pulling on ladies scarfs

here's the limit... i'm bad ass

Our weekend getaway

Laura and I decided to escape the heat this past weekend by traveling
inland towards the Wetern Ghats. It's incredible how nice and cool
the air was up there. We had a private taxi cart us around all
weekend which allowed us to squeeze 2 weekend trips into 2 days.

We left Friday evening and drove out of Kochin a way we had never been
before. It's election time now so the street were packed full of
supporters and speeches and demonstrations and weird jeeps with 4 foot
speakers blasting music or political propaganda driving around. We
past a crowd marching in all white carrying red communist flags and
chanting. Pretty bizarre to see, coming from America. The 2 major
parties are the Communist and the Congress parties. Our tour guide
told us that he thinks the Congress party will beat out the communists
this round. Mainly because the communists are very resistent to
change and development. Election Day is today so we'll have to wait
and see!

The sun was setting as we entered the mountains and the smells changed
quickly from those of the city to forest and dirt and rain. The air
was so humid and cool and there was mist everywhere. For a moment,
the drive actually really made me feel at home... driving down a back
road in the woods on a cool summer night after a rainfall. It was
nice.

As we got to Munnar, all you could see were the sillouettes of the
mountains with scattered lights and the stars. I could see the big
dipper perfectly from my window. The scoop was facing down towards
the earth... which I'm pretty sure I've never seen it that way in the
US (but I could be wrong). I told myself it was a unique experience
regardless.

Our hotel was awesome. Except we were expecting to walk out onto our
balcony and see the lush green hills only to find the next hotel 3
feet away looking directly into the window with a couple in bed.
Awkward.

The next day we spent hopping all around Munnar seeing the sights. We
hit up the Tea Museum which showed a cool documentary of the history
of the area. The rooms had all the british influence with heads of
animals that were hunted at the time. "A lovely room of death" as
Laura would desrcibe. Next we went to a national park and took a bus
up to about 1 mile in elevation and hiked around this area where a
really rare breed of goat hang out. We pet one and almost got butted.
At the boundary for where we were allowed to hike there was a sign
marking the area that said, "Here is the limit". So we obviously had
to take pictures dashing across it.

We saw a big damn with a lake and shopped at all the merchant shops.
It started to rain and ended up downpooring. We saw bees nest high up
in the tree tops and people selling huge jars of "honey" on the side
of the road... which we learned was actually just colored sugar water.
Rascals! Then we moseyed around a flower garden and hit the road for
Periyar, a four hour drive on this windy, narrow beautiful road
through the jungle.

Periyar is a wildlife/tiger preserve with a really cute town at its
border. We stayed overnight in the town and then got up at 5 am to
catch the first boat ride out on the river. 2 1/2 hours later... we
set sail. (I could go into the extreme inefficient use of time our
tour guide used, but I'll leave that up to Laura). We got to see some
wild elephants, bore and buffalo from the boat getting their early
morning river drink on.

Then we went on a guided 3 hour trek through the jungle. Our guide
was very nice, but tiny and had no weapons on him. Initially he said
that there wasn't any tigers in this part, and if there were it'd only
be at night. Then about an hour into it he said..."well, actually I
guess there are some tigers that come this way to hunt... but I don't
have a gun... haha". We were like WHAT THE.... But it was okay. We
saw lots of moneys and these crazy big deer that bark at you when you
startle them. Also lots of cool birds, a mongoose, swarms of
beautiful butterflies, elephant tracks and big holes that bears had
dug up to search for terminites.

Then we got to ride an elephant!!!! She was BEAUTIFUL...and 27 years
old, just like me!! Her trainer was soooo nice and said that he had
been with her for 12 years and that they were very good friends. He
would speak to her in Maylalam and she would do exactly what he said.
We asked if she had any babies and he answered, "Oh, she's not
married!" It was a lot of fun.

Pretty successful weekend. Long winded description. Enjoy the pictures!!

~Cathy

she was so sweet!

!!!

elephant!

from atop an elephant

crazy barking deer

waiting forEVER for this trip. god this country is so inefficient!

beautiful tea fields at munnar

rare goats only found at this one place in the world in munnar

this picture should have been posted earlier with cathy's story about catching me in the act

Cathy and I would be lasered To death if we lived here

Ok so I have a lot to say but first, I wanted to follow up the picture
of Cathy with a post explaining...

Last week we had a med student (actually more like an intern) named
Kalai. She was awesome and we picked her brain about a bunch of Indian
culture things... Some of which Cathy already mentioned. But the thing
we found particularly shocking was this...

According to Kalai, female medical students are only allowed to leave
the Amrita hospital grounds once per month (ps - according to our
other intern, subhas, men live outside grounds and can go wherever
they want). To leave the campus, a woman (these girls are 18 - 23) has
to get a form filled out by the guard saying where she is going
(really the only option is to your family's house) and what time she
leaves. Her parents have to fax something to the guard saying they
know she is coming home and only home and acknowledge what time she is
leaving, how long it takes to get there, and what time she is
expected. She then has to get her time card stamped by the guard. When
she gets home, her parents have to time stamp it also and then again
when she leaves saying that she was only at home. Then when she gets
back to the hospital campus, the guard has to approve everything and
again, stamp her card. This happens once a month.

We asked her "what about going right outside the gate to the ice cream
shop?" she said that counts as your one outing a month. It's insane.

So now on to the picture...... So you have to have seen the
never-ending story (2 I think) to get this reference. But in this
picture you are seeing Cathy by the main entrance gate of the hospital
grounds.

Do you remember the scene in the never-ending story 2 where atraeu has
to ride his horse through those different gates in the desert? I
haven't seen it in so long that I can't remember where he was going
but anyway... During that scene laser beams shoot out of the eyes of
the columns that are made of lions or something and he has to go fast
and dodge them on his horse. That's exactly what I picture happening
to the girls who try to 'escape' Amrita...

A girl can't take it anymore so she decides to make a run for the
scoops ice cream shop but they are watching her and as she makes a
break for it through the looming arch, lasers made of curry shoot out
and pelt her to death. Once again the conservative society wins. No
sex for her

And that is why Cathy and I would experience death by (curry) laser if
we lived here. We are just too bad ass to be contained by rules. And I
think death by curry would be better than living like that!

Apparently, as a general rule...

It's best to avoid seafood in coutries w horrible water systems.
Lesson learned. And that's all I have to say about that.

The bus system is a different story though. Crowded, chaotic and fast
but not necessarily to be avoided. My friend accompanied me downtown
to have a lawyer notarize my medical license application, and it
turned into quite the journey.

Im standing there about to have a heat stroke, there are a
million buses flying by until one stops. You basically have one
opportunity to sprint and lunge for the door. I was confused to watch
Rahul run off as I got on. The conductor is screaming at me, 'hurry
up! Hurry up!' so I do. Then I realize that women and men are
segregated and Rahul was running to the back entrance. Even though I
was towering over all the other women I still couldn't see him because
it was so packed.

Watching the conductor work was like watching a comedy sketch in a
foreign language. I swear his sole purpose was to yell at people
getting on and off to keep show rolling. I was filling in my own
words with English in my head. Because people are so bluntly honest
here, I kept picturing him heckling everyone...kinda like a drill
sergent 'move it or lose it, saddle bags!'... 'what, have trouble
seeing the stairs, four eyes? Let's go!'. (laura can attest to this
scenerio actually being possible.). He kept running off and dropping
money off at these little stations and telling the driver to go ahead.
Then sprinting full speed to catch up and leaping back on. I was
thinking, man... This guy takes his job seriously! But hey, it
worked... We made it there about as fast as if we were driving.

It was interesting to see how everything functioned based on the
assumption that everyone was able bodied and could run, jump, leap if
you had too. If you couldn't... Good luck to ya.

So it ended up taking us forever to find this guy but we did. We were
hot, sweaty, thirsty, hungry... It really was like a long ass wizard
of oz journey. We walked into the office and it's a long, narrow
single room w shiny white floors and walls w nothing on them. In fact,
the only objects in the room were a single water cooler and one desk
at the other end of the room. He didn't acknowledge us for 5
minutes... Even though we were literally the only other things in the
room to look at. Mission completed!

Got back just in time for a weekend in the mountains, tea plantations,
and jungle tiger preserve! So much to tell about!

-Cathy

Sent from my iPod

blog accompanying this photo to come soon...

A real conversation.

Crossing the road together-

Laura: 'look at that bone, it looks human.'

Followed moments by:

'hold on, I just don't wanna slip and fall into the sewer'

Ill let your imagination fill in the rest of that scenerio.

-Cathy

Sent from my iPod

India is obviously a really diverse and complicated place that's
insanely different than America, but I've found some of the really
subtle differences to be just as interesting. For example, all the
switches flip down instead of up to turn on... The doors all push
rather than pull open... When the elevator doors are closing, they're
no joke. I've gotten knocked off my feet twice already trying to catch
it when the door was closing. Today I watched it close onto a
patient's ankle that was hanging off the end of the gurney:/ Watching
2 guys run to catch the bus (literally. The bus didn't stop). The
word for mother is slightly different depending on whether you're
Hindu, Muslim, or Christian (amma, umma, and mama respectively).

The hospital has diffent levels of rooms depending on price. The main
medical ward is one big open space with tons of beds in rows. They
cost about 100 rupees a night. That's a little over 2 dollars. There
is no insurance and if you can't pay, the hospitals won't keep you
there. Our hospital is one of the exceptions because the founder also
runs a charity that covers the bill for people that can't pay. Laura
and I are slighly freaked out at the level of worship that goes on for
this woman, but we're learning why more and more.

Every day we get to pick everyone's brain about the culture, caste
system, religion, arranged marriages... I write everything down in my
journal every day (including all my very personal thoughts)... And the
other day one of the interns took it from me and said, 'what do you
write about?!?' and proceeded to read the entire thing. She was like,
'oh, is this personal?' at which point I responded awkwardly, 'um well
no, kinda... Uh no?' how embarassing. That gives you an idea of how
personal space is perceived around here.

-Cathy

Sent from my iPod

Adding to cathys observations

Annnnnddddd everyone smells incredibly strongly of BO. Like a guy just
sat down next to us (literally 4 + feet away) and now we have to leave
because I feel like I'm going to puke up my oatmeal.

Adding a point Cathy said she forgot... This stench is especially
noticeable when in "line" for anything. India people either do not
understand or do not even know he concept of a line. Everyone butts
ALWAYS. In the pharmacy, getting food, driving, buying sarees.... I
mean I'm not one to really heed to the idea of this so called
"personal space" - y'all all know how touchy I am but COME ON! Haha.
Cathy and I are learning to push and shove and butt with the rest of
them. Today I just stuck my ass out really far to set a pick for Cathy
so she could make a break for it to pay for our food

-Laura

Delicious

We saw a big fat rat chowing down in our hotel's moat (aka the sewer) today.

I began to question the possibility that this little guy is a carrier of the bubonic plague.

If i had a pet rat, id name him Bubo.

-laura
----------
Sent via Nokia Email

12. another shot. this little girl was SO pretty but she looked so mad and wouldn't stop staring at us. her brother was also on the bike (in front of the dad)

11. typical scene... note the baby being fed while driving in traffic

10. me and cathy in an autorickshaw... this is like a taxi but only instead of a car it's a box on a motorbike

9. our bathroom... that bucket is our shower

8. opposite view of our room... i am trying to put up pics from cosmo/magazines that give us a little reminder of what life where there is AC is

7. one view of our room

6. this is what we have to wear to work in 90 + degree weather. i really like india but being this conservative in this climate is just dumb

5. "one pen please! one pen please!" all the kids want here is pens and they are obsessed with them! luckily i knew this ahead of time and got like a billion old drug rep pens from my dad... thanks dad :-) the kids loved them! hopefully they won't lo

4. by the prawn fields/rice fields (depending on the season)... being sweaty

3. long lost lovers

2.cathy petting the little guy

trying one at a time...

let's see if adding photos works...

1. baby elephant getting a bath!
2.cathy petting the little guy
3. long lost lovers
4. by the prawn fields/rice fields (depending on the season)... being sweaty
5. "one pen please! one pen please!" all the kids want here is pens and they are obsessed with them! luckily i knew this ahead of time and got like a billion old drug rep pens from my dad... thanks dad :-) the kids loved them! hopefully they won't look into what 'morphine injectible' is
6. this is what we have to wear to work in 90 + degree weather. i really like india but being this conservative in this climate is just dumb

Cricket!

India's dearly loved cricket team is playing in the world cup today!
Which means it's hands down the most exciting day for all 1.2 billion
people in india... (excluding Laura and myself). When I first got here
and heard people talking about cricket, all I could picture was a
bunch of men in polo shirts w sweaters around their shoulders knocking
a ball through a wire U-shaped loop in the grass w a mallet... In a
stadium w thousands of fans cheering. Well, needless to say it's not
that.

As Laura mentioned, people are very affectionate here and value the
necessity of platonic human touch. And it goes for men too. You see
two male friends holding hands or touching the back of the others
neck... Which would make the typical westerner very uncomfortable but
here it's not shameful or embarassing. It's sooo metro-chic.

I guess the comfort level w touching is also where some of the phobias
and superstitions about skin diseases stem from. We learned that
people get avoided and treated like they have the plague if they have
any weird skin condition. Everything is assumed to be highly
contagious and people become the object of discust very quickly. Most
people never had the chicken pox bc if one child gets it, they're
basically quarintined for over a month. We saw a elderly man w new
onset chicken pox just the other day.

One of the reasons why our head professor is such a good doctor is
because he spends so much extra time counseling and educating his
patients about their condition so they feel like less of an outcast.
He's so goofy and fun and loves to make everyone laugh. Oh, and he
recommends yoga to everyone... A dermatologist recommending yoga!! I
love it!

-Cathy

Sent from my iPod

To clarify...

The reason I was smelling my OWN scandal was because I was catching
whiffs of rotten salt and vinegar chips and I wanted to make sure it
wasnt me. It wasn't...........

SNOW!

Mmmmmmm sweet mama, snow! I've never been so jealous of the folks back
in Amish town.

The heat here seems to slooooow down the pace around here. The road
is really the only place you're going to see any sense of urgency.
Everyone kinda mosies along w there business. Today our attending
told us to hang around her office and read while she stepped out... 3
hours later we didn't hear many voices so we checked it out and
everyone was gone with the lights off. Meanwhile, I had been reading
aloud to Laura about the exciting and ever so stimulating topic of
exfoliative dermatitis... When I happened to look up I found her zoned
out sniffing the inside of her own sandal. Totally caught red handed!

Then we dropped off our tunics to be dry cleaned and it took the guy a
solid 15 minutes to take each one out and write up the bill. He told
it was gonna be ten days until we talked him down to two... Which
probably means seven. In which case we'll be wearing the same outfit
for seven days. Well, it's a good thing Laura is so comfortable w her
stank-nastiness at least.

- Cathy