I Just Wanna Be A Girl!

  Happy Thanksgiving from the wonderful city of New York.  That's right. I'm in New York!!! Since it's Thanksgiving, I went to the Macy's parade. I was there with a friend's family. Our journey started from Jersey City at around 8.15. We took a Park train to 33rd Street and walked a little bit to get to a viewing spot.  It was super crowded. Obviously. But, there was this trash truck thing that people were starting to climb on to get a better vantage point. My friend climbed onto it first and then helped me scamper on. Now... It's a trash truck, so imagine my initial hesitation. But, once I saw the view, I was sold. I could actually see the floats and balloons. It was amazing. Eventually, there was a teeny spot to sit - on top of the trash truck. I sat down and settled in... Until... The police told everyone to get off the truck. It took me some time to get off. I couldn't do it the same way I got in. Well... There went my perfect view. After that, we climbe...

So... context first... I am spending a couple days in Dallas at a friend's house over Thanksgiving break, before I head off to New York for the rest of the week. (It's back to college soon).  Dallas is apparently known for having a mall where you can ice skate in. My friends and I decided to take advantage of that and tried our hand at skating. It was my first time skating, and it was definitely interesting. Did I fall? Multiple times. Did it hurt? Not too much. Did I keep going? Absolutely! So, getting to the story I want to share, we had all given our phones to Natalie Aunty, my friend's mom, whose house we were staying at. We had locked our shoes up in a little locker and she had the keys. So, she left to go find food (or atleast that's what we thought) and when we were done skating, she was nowhere to be seen. We tried to call her using a borrowed phone, but there was no answer. We waited near the rink for a little bit and then decided to split up to hunt her down. ...

You might be wondering what's so special about rasam. You might be so bored of eating it all the time. But for someone who hasn't had home food in a long time, rasam is divine.  So, I'm in Dallas for Thanksgiving break and I went to an Indian restaurant. My friend's mom bought a full veg thali, complete with rice, naan, and apalam.  A little while later, she was offering to see if anyone wanted her untouched sambar. Me being me, I said yes immediately. I love sambar, especially restaurant sambar. When she handed it to me, I sniffed it gently, just to know what was in it and to take in the beautiful aromas. I instantly realized that it was rasam. It felt just like home, when after a heavy meal (which I had) my mom tells me to drink a little bit of rasam.  I took a sip and it was like ambrosia to my deprived tongue. Again, it might not sound like much, but to me, it was exactly what I needed. 

For some context, TOTOCS means 'Trick or Treat on College Street.' Basically, it means that children and their families from around Longview come to LeTourneau University to trick or treat (a Halloween ritual).  I was so ready for this. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays ever. When the announcement came asking for volunteers, I stepped up immediately. I became the head of TOTOCS for South Hall. My job was to first pick a theme and second, collect volunteers for the event. I also had to order decorations and costumes within the budget they gave me.  The theme I chose was pirates. I got myself a costume, and I ordered a bunch of pirate-y decorations and accessories to go on our table/booth. The event was postponed by a week because of the ,weather, but I was still super excited for it. On the day of, I spent a good amount of time getting everything ready and making sure it was perfect. Now, volunteers were the hard part. I only have 2 people who confirmed that they would b...