Goddamn turkeys were invading my bedroom and attacking me. What did mom and Nilesh do? They just sat at the dining room table chatting about my exercise and eating habits. Turkeys attacking! And yet, they just sit there. I'm being pummeled with giant wings and floppy turkey wobbly-bits, and my mother and fiance just sit and chat, drinking tea.

In waking life, It's 7:21 am, and I've been up since 5:30 (half asleep since 4:00) because now I'm this weird little happy homemaker. I get up while Nilesh is at the gym to fix his lunch. This usually involves strange indian spices and rice and the pressure cooker. I pack his lunch, making sure to include some kind of fruit to balance out his plethora of white and brown/yellow food. Then, while he's showering, I fix his breakfast. Sometimes I'm lazy and he gets a peanut butter and honey sandwhich, other days, like today, he gets cheesy eggs with salsa and bell peppers, served with a slice of oven warmed rye bread. Meantime, I fill the waiting time in the morning by listening to Morning Edition and reading Truthout. It's been almost a full year since I've felt this up to date on current news and political events. After he leaves for work, I turn the radio off, drink some water, do some yoga, meditate and go work out at Curves. come home, have my own breakfast, nap, read, and write. I never would have thought I'd be living like this. It's not bad. But I still feel like I'm on vacation in some way. Gah, no wonder I'm dreaming of rabid turkeys attacking me.

Temperatures in Chicago were supposedly above 100 degrees today. But that didn't stop Nilesh and I from hopping on a bus and going to Devon Avenue. Devon Avenue is kinda like a little strip of India. Sari shops. Crazy hot spices and nifty keen fruits and vegetables both in cans, and in fresh produce section. After we got some spices, mango puree, a monster bag of rice, and some other miscellaneous stuff, we stopped at the young coconut stand on the corner and we each got a coconut. I was ready to walk off, happy with a straw stuck in my coconut, drinking milk. But Nilesh knew the score. We found a little place to sit in the shade near the stand, finished drinking our coconuts, and then he took them back to the stand where the dude chopped them in half and gave us a spoon. We then merrily scooped and scraped the inside of the coconut for the yummy coconut goo/jello that would have turned into regular normal coconut if the thing had been allowed to grow old. As we munched and sipped our coconuts, I watched the same vendor guy squeezing sugar cane into a cup for people with this cool machine. He'd add a little fresh lime, a little ginger, and voila... an all natural, sugary, refreshing drink for a hot sunny day.

Now, we've finally come home. I'm sitting at our brand new table that we got used for only $110 plus $10 for free delivery along with four lovely reddish orange wooden chairs. (Thank you to craigslist. Woot!) We're gonna get cleaned up, and head back out for more adventures. Public transportation rocks!

Tee hee. This is my neighborhood. I've moved to Chicago. I'm engaged and pregnant. (For the few of you who may read my blog and not be aware of this fact) and I was thinking of my sister Lori as I journeyed to Borders the other morning to get the new Harry Potter book. I know how much she loves nifty architecture, and Chicago has a lot of it, so I took my camera along. Then, just a block or two down the street from my house, I saw this pretty apartment building with gorgeous flowers that made me think of Mom AND Lori. So, I snapped a picture. I was taking another picture from a different angle, and this lady stopped, put her hands on her hips and glared at me. I got my picture and continued walking down the street, merrily minding my own business. As I passed the lady she starts shouting/mumbling at me something along the lines of, "I wasn't waiting for you. Just so you know. I was NOT waiting for you. Get it?" It amused me to no end, and so... my first photographic and blog offering from the windy city is dedicated to the grumpy lady in front of the pretty building with lots of flowers.