M-back

I havent really been writing in a while. Maybe its the weather. I've never quite understood Providence weather. I've been here four years and I still dont get it. I think the weather is partly to blame for my mood swings. The weather seriously swings. Its warm and sunny and chirpy and happy now, but any second we're expecting a thunderstorm, says the oh-so-white-and-unfazed-by-strange-moving-screen-behind-him weatherman. What on earth? Seriously? I dont ask for much. Just good old consistency. It makes me wonder if London is better than this. At least its consistently depressing. This is just plain ridiculous if you ask me.

Anyhow. This wasnt meant to be a post about the weather. I'm not even sure what I started out to write about. I was reading one of my older posts (umm yeah, like 4 posts old of the giant collection of 10). The one about music made me want to re-hash my musical thoughts. And unfortunately I realized I havent had any musical thoughts in a while. I used to when I was a teenager but not for a very long time. And so I dug out some Beatles. The Anthologies. My favourites when I was younger were definitely 'Imagine' and 'Let it Be', but for some reason 'Hello Goodbye' and 'Lady Madonna' and 'Across the Universe' resonated a lot more. I like 'em Beatles. I really do. How I've wished when watching their old videos that I could be a screaming groupie with flowers in my hair and devote my life to their cause. Or scream 'na na na na' at the end of 'Hey Jude' at the top of my lungs in a live concert. Like the concert where they let people come on stage and crowd around them while they sing '..make it better better better aaaaaaaaaahhhh!!'. Sigh. All I've got is crappy youtube videos that dont even hold the camera on McCart-breaking-my-heart-ney long enough for me to swoon.

But then going back to my musical thoughts, I did have one right now while orgasming over the thought of doing their harmonies for them in a crowd. I wish I were a backup vocalist. Thats what I wish. A famous backup vocalist if there ever were such a thing. The girl who sang for them all. From them Beatles and Queen, to them divas - madame Streisand and Aretha Franklin, or even to the new age acoustic-ers. Loverly. Mimi the backup. Or Mimi the back. Or just M-Back. Or maybe not. That sounds dangerously close to Tupac. But either way you get the drift. I would spend my time figuring out seconds, train my own little band of backups maybe, swing left and right in a little black dress, right behind Aretha, click my toes and snap my fingers and bask in the glory of their attention. And when I'm sixty I would tell my grandchildren how I was such a diva! Rather than such a sociologist. Umm yeah no.

Khair. Ab jo ho gaya so ho gaya. I will settle for youtube. But when I sing them backups in the shower, I will pray that someday Lennon's spirit will pass by my window and appreciate them vocals. Amen.

25 (very) random things. About the me.

1. I am not half as nice as people think I am. I can be mean. In my head.
2. When I was young I wanted to be a Boutrous Boutrous Ghali. Only cos I loved the name so much. I still hold part of that dream.
3. I add Tabasco to everything. I mean everything.
4. I also dream of singing full time someday. Sandi Thom style.
5. I am very very scared of the dark, and till date look for excuses not to go to the second floor of my own house after 8 in the evening all by myself.
I’ve lived in that house 20 years flat.
6. I also hate scenes from movies or TV shows that involve blood and / or violence. They give me nightmares. For real. I stopped watching House for the same reason.
7. I want to shave my head one day.
8. I have so little time to myself, that I look forward to walking from one place to another. It’s the only break I take besides showering and sleeping.
9. I love traveling, but not ‘sightseeing’. Vacations are not supposed to be about jumping from one tourist spot to another.
10. I like rooms with wooden floors. I like my floor.
11. Until I was about 15, I assumed every movie and song that was in English, came from America. I wasn’t very smart.
12. My favourite hobby as a kid was to collect stickers and paste them on my parents’ cupboard door. I had collected about 121. Unfortunately my parents decided to re-paint the cupboard while I was at school one day, and I lost my entire collection to a layer of paint. I had to start all over again on my grandmother’s cupboard door then.
13. I can’t cook. Anything. Unless toast, instant noodles or coffee counts.
14. I am very proud of the frothy coffee I make.
15. I have an inherent fear of dogs, and I think they know. They always come to me first, even in a room full of dog loving people.
16. My worst fear is tripping over a long flight of stairs and dying. Or worse, ending up disfigured.
17. I love wearing flip-flops. So much that I wear them in winter too. With socks.
18. I don’t enjoy reading as much as I’m supposed to. I think.
19. Grad school has been my best and worst life experience at the same time.
20. It has taught me how to read 2 books in one day. Skimming is an art. I think I’m getting better at it.
21. When I think of my elementary school teachers, I always remember them being at least a foot taller than me. I was surprised when I bumped into one of them the other day and she turned out to be about the same height.
22. I forget that I’m short sometimes. I remember only when I’m walking with taller people and they’re taking the same number of steps, but getting further ahead than I am. I feel very short then.
23. I dream of tracing my roots when I’m older.
24. My post-retirement plans are clearer than my post-grad school plans. That might just be because the further you are from something, or the more distance you get, the clearer it looks.
25. I love staccato. In songs, sentences, as well as in my thoughts.