Oh my gosh – where to begin????  Hum, well yesterday mornings practice was good – exhausting to the bone but good nonetheless.  Guruji always leads a very fast paced practice and I found myself trying to catch my breath!  After practice was over I rushed home to shower and get ready for the Rashinkar’s Puja that was to begin at 9am…I had plenty of time but got a bit distracted talking with Tina for a bit so had to make it quick to shower and try to make myself presentable…Then the first of many dilemma’s surfaced….I was planning to wear a Sari to the Puja – the blouse was supposed to be waiting for me at the Rashinkars….I had the Sari and slip….But when I was gathering my belongings I realized I had the slip, but the Sari was no where to be found!  Oh my gosh – I realized I must have left it in Girish’s rickshaw last night!  So I called him – he answered the phone and I told him I thought I left my Sari in his rickshaw – when he answered that ‘yes’ I had – he sounded broken….He told me his Uncle was killed that very morning – about twenty minutes ago…He somehow touched a live electric wire and died immediately….The power had gone out at Tinas (and later found out all over Gokulam) about twenty minutes ago – and it was b/c of this horrible accident that took my friends cousins life….   And although he was in such a state of shock he kept insisting on getting my sari to me – I told him not to worry about it as he was dealing with a lot right now – but he told me his friend would drop it to me in twenty minutes….And somehow a friend of his did bring it to me…

            After I got my Sari I headed to the Rashinkars….Got there about 10:30am but no worries as they had just arrived themselves (so glad I didn’t get there at 9am after all)….And guess what – my Sari Blouse wasn’t there!  Go figure…Said it would be there in ten minutes (turned into three ½ hours later that I finally got it)…But it didn’t really matter…I enjoyed my time there – The Rashinkar’s whole family was there for the Puja celebration…I was the only foreigner the whole day aside from one other lady who showed up for a few minutes to drop off some flowers and wish them well!  But I had met nearly all the family a few weeks ago when I had dinner with the Rashinkars…So I felt quite comfortable being there alone with 60 Indians – really getting used to it actually….It was a wonderful time…Got to see the whole Puja ceremony up close and personal – ate some really tasty Indian food, and had some good laughs…

            The Sari blouse did arrive finally – and about six Indian women got a huge kick outta helping me get it on…They went all out and braided my hair, put flowers in my hair, gave me jewelry to wear, the whole nine yards….It was simply too cute to see them get so excited helping me….And once I had it on everyone got a kick outta seeing me wear it!  (I promise I’ll have pictures soon – got one in it but can’t upload pictures just yet)…But the fun was short lived….I wore the Sari for about two hours when it was all said and done…Why?  B/c I personally needed to get outta there and b/c I wanted to go see Girish and b/c I needed to make sure I could stay at Tina’s another night b/c my apartment still isn’t ready….I was a little erked about that when I arrived this morning to see the state of the place…Not uber far, but far from being ready and not at all possible to move in today…They assured me it’d be ready by evening but I didn’t even bother wasting energy thinking about it b/c I knew it wasn’t possible….They still had to add the final coat of paint (I’ve had enough of inhaling paint fumes thank you very much), put the sink in the bathroom, and tons of other stuff….Oh well…..

            I am sorry – I know I’m rambling and likely making no sense – but that is kinda how my life has been the last few days…..