friday was my birthday.  we celebrated at cinch in santa monica.  my best friend, vikas, was in europe for the 10 days before travelling with his family.  he had a chance to stop in amsterdam.  i often remind him to get me a souvenir from every country he visits - something that the country is known for.  on this trip, he blew me away.

for my birthday, he brought home something so lovely.  he brought a yellow paper wrapped present.  i picked him up from the airport and we put the luggage and gift in the back of my red pt cruiser.  when we made it back to his place, i unwrapped my gift.

do you know what it was?  60 tulips from amsterdam!  can you believe it?  60.  he carried from amsterdam.  stashed in the overhead compartment.  through customs. 

imagine a brown man in today’s america asking for any more attention from customs.  but he did.  he got searched and harassed and he got them through.

it was the best birthday gift ever.  not only because i love flowers, but because of all the thought, effort and love with which he brought them to me.  i am ever grateful.

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i’ve been working on artwallah stuff all day, with a minor detour to the chrysler dealer for an oil change and a stop at disk factory to pick up cds for radio promotion.  soumya, our new addition to the pr team, is in charge of getting radio play.  we just got word that a few more stations have joined the list of radio play.  thank you toronto and our very own kcsn here in LA! 

sometimes i can get so tired and not be able to sleep.  when it’s really busy like it is right now, then i can’t sleep because i’m tired and my mind is racing over all the things that need to get done.  the festival is 3 weeks away - there’s a lot left to do.  i’m also in rehearsals for our rangoli company show.  my body is getting used to the rigorous rehearsal schedule, but it’s still taking its toll.

but what to do?  these are things that i absolutely love to do.  and why not?  why not sacrfice the sleep.  i often tell my friends, i can sleep when i die.  plenty of time to sleep.  now’s the time to really live.  to experiment.  to travel, explore, wonder, make a ton of mistakes and bad decisions and know the world as best you can.

i’m about 200 pages into the queen noor memoir and i am so fascinated by this malibu girl who grew up to be an urban developer, graduated as part of the first princeton class to admit women, and then become queen.  and do you know that in the chapter i’m on, she is simultaneously talking about the politcial unrest of the times in jordan, egypt, syria and israel and also talking about negotiating her first year of marriage to the king. 

it’s unimaginable why a person would sign up for that life.  but her answer is pretty simple actually…love.  and then she could never be with him, because he was the king keeping his country from civil war and now she was the queen and had committed to a life of public service.  life’s travels can take you to places you never thought possible. 

i have been there.  i mean not to queendom or to jordan, but i have felt like i would never have thought i’d end up where i am today.  a singer/songwriter waiting to tour and having an album.  it was all supposed to be so different.  mind you, i’m not complaining.  i’m just marveling at how when you least expect it, life can show up in a big way with lots of compelling material for you. 

my brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first baby in september.  i wonder if when you have a baby, you start to just think of life as completely surreal or completely grounded?

okay…enough rambling.  it’s late and these wee hours often inspire some peculiar musings. 

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before i start rambling about other things, i have to first say that Clementina was freed two days ago.  anil wrote me and told me that she was released, but i forgot to relate the great news to you.  i apologize for my tardiness on such an important piece of information.  thank you all for your prayers and good wishes.  good things do happen.

i never know if i should put my friends full names in here, but tonight i thought i would.  so tonight, at samata’s "white party" at the vine street lounge, i struck up a conversation with some folks about my blog.  well….it wasn’t that casual.  actually, i finally decided to get out of my own way.

see…samata sent out an evite telling us to come dressed in white to a club in hollywood.  cool.  today, i had time so i went shopping.  yes, folks, i did go shopping.  in santa monica on the 3rd street promenade.  i bought earrings, a white halter tank, a white miniskirt (jump back, i wore a short skirt!), and some kick-ass spiked heels.  i thought i would brake my neck so i put them on when i arrived at the club while the valet guys were peeping through my window.  god only knows what they thought i was doing.

anyhow…i got into the club and hardly anyone was there.  and when folks finally started to arrive, they all knew each other.  so, i tried to strike up some conversations, but nothing sparked.  i felt totally out of place and insecure.  i grabbed my cell.  texted kathleen.  told her to give me some best friend words of advice.  she texted back "you didn’t buy those clothes for nothing.  get up and flash ‘em!"  i didn’t flash them, but i did get up and out of my own way.

i made a few new friends.  let’s start with prasad hedge from australia, who told me that he was at my cd release party.  he also told me that though he liked my voice, he felt like all of my songs sounded the same and suggested i do a cover or two.  prasad, your advice is duly noted.  i am on it!  any thoughts as to what cover i should do? 

i also met a very dear man named samir naik.  (don’t worry.  both of these guys said it was cool for me to use their full names.)  he was sitting by my purse and i asked him if he could hand it to me.  he did.  in a bit, we started talking.  we kept talking.  we danced.  (he’s a great dancer.)  we talked.  i asked him to hold my phone.  he did.  he said guys like to feel like they have a purpose.  i know…adorable. 

i promised both of these men that i would blog a bit about the party when i got home.  men…it’s 3:30am and i kept my promise.  it’s important to keep your promises.  it’s how god knows that when he comes to meet you at your promise, you’ll be there to receive his gift.  that’s how he knows to show up.  he can trust you.  you can trust you.

samata…girl, happy birthday!!!  boys, goodnight.

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this one is going to be short.  i just got back from dance class - 5 1/2 hours of rehearsal for our show on the 25th of june.  i’m wiped out!  but i came home to check my email and see what happened during the day.  then i visited my blog site. 

i got my first comment!  someone actually read my blog and wrote back!!!  i had just been saying to my friend megha that i wish someone would write in so i could know that the blog isn’t a silly thing.  the art hub family wrote.  thank you thank you.  you made an exhausted girl smile on the way to her shower to wash off the day.  oh yeah, i forgot to mention that i did a radio interview today at KCSN in northridge with fred johnson.  it was cool.  i’m too tired…goodnight!

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i just got back from the oc shorts film festival, where i got a chance to perform for a sweet group of folks who were all eating orange rock candy.  i have a box of them left from the cd release party so natasha reminded me to take a bunch to the gig.  it’s so fun to see everyone enjoying themselves getting thrown back to their childhood with a little rock candy.

i came to my folks’ place after with my gig high.  singing louisana bayou really loud in my dad’s face, yelping.  he laughed.  mom came with me to the gig.  when we got home, she made me dosas with sambar and they were watching private benjamin.  one of the best sounds in the world to me is my dad’s laugh.  it’s really infectious!  he loves to watch comedies and especially slap stick silly fun.  private benjamin had him cracking up.  just love his laugh…

now i’m here at my computer and tasneem sent me an email telling me that she misses me.  she’s my songwriter sister out in new york city!  you must check her and her band (jungli) out.  she’s crazy and i love her!

another email i got tonight was from an old friend from school.  his name is howie and he runs this non-profit webcast called "the word nerds."  right now i’m listening to one of his old shows on the language of love.  they are featuring this beautiful songstress on here and i can’t wait to learn more about her.  you can join the listening group.  just sign up!  howie wants to put my song on the show.  that would be great.  i’m definitely a word nerd.  i can spend hours playing with words in my head to express a piece of a thought.

i bought two books today.  one is queen noor’s memoir.  the other is goldie hawn’s memoir.  i was really in the mood for some feminine women who have stood up for their version of love and peace, despite all the voices in the world and negativity. 

recently i got word from my friend anil in nyc that his friend clementina was kidnapped in kabul.  she works for CARE and was going to her home in kabul.  her car was stopped by men with machine guns.  anil is a human rights/immigration lawyer.  it got him wondering what the point of his efforts to make this world a better place were given that there is still so much insanity and hatred that we face.  it got me wondering too. 

if you believe in God, please pray for clementina’s safe return to her family.  and to all of us, please help the world heal by living from love and peace.

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