Coming back to life!

It turned out that my first day without my wisdom teeth was not the hardest one, the bad ones were still on the way - Saturday and Sunday - when painkillers became my best friends. Them and Dr. House. Although, he made me just worried about more things that I could even imagine to know.
Luckily on Monday my doctor thought I had enough of the torture and placed some medicated band aids in the wounds! Anytime I open my mouth, it smells like a pharmacy (tastes like it too), but I will take this any time over the pain.

This whole experience made me realize again that just the fact that I can see, walk, smell, hear, feel no pain is enough for me to be very happy. :)
Speaking of other little things that make me happy: recently I discovered Pandora. It is an internet radio place, where you can create channels yourself. Say, you like Fergie, so this is what you type into the search. And Pandora creates a station that will play Fergie's music and similar music of other artists. You can thumb up or thumb down the songs further personalizing your station. What can I say - I really love it! It makes you discover other artists and keeps the music fresh, new. Oh, and then - you can share your stations with your friends. I've put mine to my blog's right hand side. Enjoy!
A question - are there other internet radio communities that you'd like to lead me to? What's your favorite? I'd love to learn about them!

The Wisdome is Gone!

My own happenings this Friday were not festive: I got 2 of my wisdom teeth pulled. You can already feel this post being sillier than others, right? :) As a person that survived through this terrifying procedure (I nearly fainted during my consultation when the doctor just spoke about it), my message to those who still have wisdom teeth removal in their future - not really all that bad! The key to the happiness is Valium, once it is added to your bloodstream, you just become drunk-like! Nothing is scary after that! Yet, you are not knocked out completely, you remember and understand everything vaguely, and the story of the day stays continuous, with no gaps. On the second day you become a chipmunk, but hey - it is all over, at least! So, Hi from the chipmunk!
By the way, chipmunk fiances actually have some very cute & tender perks to enjoy - hand made mashed potatoes for dinner, pancakes and scrambled eggs in the morning from their non-chipmunk fiances! :)

Two Happy Birthdays

My dearest and closest friend, Svetlana had her birthday on Friday. Happy Birthday, Svetochka! I will need to speak about this person separately a little later, as she is my friend, shrink, partner in crime and my pillar of support, so this post is only an introduction.

Also, my future father-in-law had his special birthday - 55! It would be great to be a part of the family celebration on this special occasion, because my future part of the family knows how to celebrate! So, Happy Birthday, my future father-in-law! :)

One more reason to never cancel your after work Gym plans

So ... I have promised myself that THIS time I will go to the Gym without skipping. I decided not to give in to the little voices telling me that I can skip one day - nothing will happen.
My realization today was this: every time I don't go to the Gym, I am not making good on my own promise! This melts away my self respect! And then I let go of some other promises I made to myself - it is a domino effect.
I am glad to report that for the last two weeks I kept my promise to myself, and it feels great in so many ways!

Engaged (!!!) and sharing the happiness

It has been 21 days since I got THE question. And, girls (and guys) this is how it feels: you think you are ready to hear it, or you can even see it coming, but it will catch you by surprise!
So, of course - how did he do it? Right? Well, in an unusual way. And i love unusual. Very romantic, but predictable would it be to pop the question at the Central Park, or after seeing "Legally Blond", the musical, or in the morning at Waldorf=Astoria. Every one of these times during our surprise visit I saw him becoming nervous, that made me nervous too. But he chose not to do it there (this is the version for the press) ... :) ... so cute!
I got this wonderful question at 7:40 am on a Tuesday, after he brushed his teeth, put on his fluffy dark blue robe and woke me up. With my 1 sec preview of the future I thought he would now say: "Would you marry me?" The next second he said: "Would you marry me?". For several moments after I was left with a mental dilemma - did he really say that or did I just thought he said that? But the tender words he continued on mumbling matched with "Would you merry me?", so I knew this all was really happening! That very moment had become a part of our shared history and it was happening!
So I gave it 21 days to settle it in my mind. During this time I also realized, that you can spread happiness by creating happy moments in your own life. My family, HIS family, our friends, coworkers, all were so happy to hear our news - I really feel we started a whole new wave of good energy! Lesson: creating happiness in your own life makes it enough to go around.
So, I am engaged! I am a fiancé and I have a fiancé!
We have almost settled on the place and the date, so, - stay tuned!

Russian Rules of Courtship

Here is a lesson on how to get attention from a Russian girl. Not very logical, but this is how it works out in our culture... and, I actually like it this way. Poor guy! :)

It is definitelly fall!

Yesterday, stepping out of the car, I noticed it was very quiet around. We live by the forest edge, and all summer long, day and night, there was a never ending concerto of bugs and birds. Sometimes the "music" was louder than the hum coming from the highway during a rush hour.
And yesterday I realized that the concerto was over. No whistling, no squeaking, no movement - everything was at a stand still! Some trees lost all their leaves already, some are in the peak of their fall beauty, showing the variety of colors from green to red. It seemed somebody decided to stop life for a moment and study this little corner of the world thoroughly, with no rush. So he clicked his fingers and the life numbed.
If this seems to be a sad scene to observe, I haven't yet mentioned one really important detail: everything was lit by a mild, tender evening sunshine. Sunshine complemented the yellows and reds and made everything just very ripely beautiful.
I find it very interesting that both Asian culture and Jewish religion celebrate really big holidays at this time of the year - the Moon Festival, Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Yom Kippur (The day of Atonement). I wish Christianity had a big holiday at this beautiful time as well. There is some culture and religion envy (the white one) I am experiencing! :)
BUT, Halloween with its overwhelming orangeness is just around the corner, as well as my most favorite American holiday - Thanksgiving! I like anticipation of a holiday as much as the holiday itself, so I am already enjoying them both.

My New Right

It was a very interesting experience to become an American. I almost separated into two people - one was sworn in to become a new American citizen and another one was a scientist studying the first person's reactions on how it feels to become a citizen of another country, while staying very devoted to people and culture of the home country, Belarus.
The scientist learnt: the subject simply remains a very responsible person. You see, the only difference between a permanent resident (also known as an alien or a green card holder) and a citizen of the USA is that a citizen has a right to vote. To the subject that means impacting the course of the country for at least the next 4 years. Therefore, she feels this is not a right, but a responsibility to participate and vote, especially in the country, where this right seems to be as powerful and as honest as it can get.
Thus I am picking up this really cool video from Jessica Clair's blog to pass along to all new and old citizens of the USA. The message there is: if you decided to vote, you have only a few days to register to vote. Proceed to this site, please.