What a wonderful week it has been! My parents are visiting and I love being with them. I've been in Philly the entire week. I'm still not over this city :( As much as I love ny and what it has done for my career, I miss Philly terribly. Maybe because remnants of my life are still here -- my friends, my sister and my R. I go back to NY next week for the next couple of weeks of hard core work.

I quit my work at the major fashion magazine I was at - and I quit it on the day of the beauty sale :( Probably my last-est beauty sale ever. Fashion magazines like the ones I used to work for, have these events a couple times a year and they sell all kinds of cosmetics and beauty products imaginable and un-imaginable for $1 each. But I had to quit. Sigh. The thing is, when you know how ridiculously worthless all this frivolity is, you simply cannot justify paying $10 for a tube of cream or $50 for a bottle of fragrance! It is going to be painful the next time I buy perfume or nail polish. I haven't paid for any self-beautifying products in 2 years. Oh well.

And the good news still is, I *may* be writing for America's number one beauty magazine. It's national, its super glossy and its super rich and its a conde nast mag. I'm very happy with my new job, but I do want to have an external life out of my job that involves writing and building my identity apart from that of my new job's.

But anyways, it is SOOO wonderful to have my parents here. I will not make any bones about the fact that I am different than my most friends. I LOVE it when my parents visit, I love staying with them. And now that I have some financial freedom, I'm enjoying taking them out to the best restaurants in Philly. Yesterday I took my Mom shopping and no matter how much I insisted, she would not shop at anywhere expensive. She still wanted to buy shoes from Payless and clothes from Burlington Clothes Factory. :) I love her.

So last night, after shopping I took them to Pad Thai and R joined us. It was sooo wonderful... they were talking about Kerala, trying to to understand his hertiage and just.. general talk. R is making such an effort and I think he had spoken to the waitress before coz she bought the bill straight to him and when I offered to pay.. when my dad offered to pay...the waitress wouldn't let us!

My parents were impressed with his gesture. As was I. :)

I think my mom is almost okay too... I hope so atleast! I'm coming to India this december and almost al my friends are. Three of my friends are gettng married and R won't be able to make it coz of his H1 visa status :( I will miss him so much.
Maybe next year......