Freaky Friday

Okay, so I was haphazradly watching Montel the other day while I was changing diapers in my room. Montel had the famous psychic Sylvia Browne on TV answering questions from the audience. Normally I'm not into any talk show other than Oprah because they're full of nothing but garbage like "I've had 6 paternity tests and I still don't know who my baby's daddy is!" (Maury), or "I want to marry my brother" (who else, Jerry Springer). But Montel occassionally has some good stuff on his show so I give him the benefit of the doubt before I change the channel.

So on this day, the all-knowing oracle Sylvia was on hand to answer the audiences' questions about missing children, visits from dead people, future careers, money problems, and the like. One guest sparked my interest when she said a ghost called her on the cell phone. And he left a voicemail. I was like "What? Ghosts are calling people now on their cells? What's next, an e-mail from beyond?"

Jokes aside, she had proof of the ghost caller. On the night of the incident, she said, her husband had done her a favor and slept in the guest room. He has a bad snoring problem and didn't want to bother his sleep deprived wife. At around 3 am, the wife received a call from her husband's cell phone. She was fast asleep and didn't answer. She saw the Caller ID and the voicemail in the morning. She asked her husband if he had called her at 3 am last night and he said no, his cell phone has been dead since yesterday and he forgot to recharge it last night. Confused, the wife took her husband's cell phone and indeed, it was dead. After putting it on the charger, there was no record that her number was dialed from his phone at 3 am. Then she checked the voicemail. This is what it said:

"Hi.....It's Johnny...." followed by some mumbo jumbo we couldn't understand, but "Hi, It's Johnny" was clearly audible. Problem was, the husband's name wasn't Johnny. So who was this?

Sylvia Browne, without skipping a beat, says, "It was your spirit guide, your guardian angel in a sense. This spirit is always with you, guiding you through life. He just wanted to say "Hi" and let his presence be known to you."

Okay, so now I was freaked out. I do believe in the paranormal and ghosts, and also believe in guardian angels. But why do they need to call us on our cell phones? Well, actually, I'd rather they call me on the cell phone than appear to me in person out of nowhere, that would probably make me faint.

I've had several strange encounters in my life with near death misses to reaffirm my belief in guardian angels. No, I've never seen them or gotten a cell phone call from them, but so many times it's been like someone silently tells you to "look out, there's a car coming" or "go check if the kids are okay" that I'm convinced that we do have an angel assigned to us by God to make sure we don't trip over ourselves along the journey of life.

I once had a strange incident happened at my maternal grandmother's house. Her house was haunted. She had an incident with a poltergeist once and actually had an exorcism done in her house by a Muslim Imam. In Pakistan, people don't really believe in ghosts as much as they believe in Jinns. So the Imam came and read Sura Jinn and prayed for the ghosts/Jinns to leave. He sprinkled holy water all over the house too. Smoke started gathering my uncles's room for some reason. The children were taken out of the house and sent to live with a relative prior to the exorcism for obvious reasons. Only my grandmother, grandfather, and the Imam were present during the exorcism. As the smoke filled the room, my grandmother walked towards it and said, "I don't know what we did to bother you, but we apologize for it. We have children in this house and I would greatly appreciate if you could leave this home or pick a corner of the home to keep as your domain." The smoke dissipated and the house was declared "clean". The ghost decided to make it's home inside the walk-in storage closet, and my grandmother was made aware of this. After that day, everything was fine in the house, and everyone knew that if you ever needed anything from the storage closet, you just needed to make sure you turned on the lights. The ghost didn't want to harm us, it just didn't want to leave the home (I think it may have belonged to him in the past.)

Fast forward a couple years later, my mother takes us to grandma's house to visit. At night, it got cold. My grandmother's house didn't have a heating system, the climate in Karachi is usually hot, hotter, and hottest, so if you feel cold you wear a sweater or put on extra blankets. Problem was, the extra blankets were kept in THE STORAGE CLOSET!!! My aunts, who were unmarried and living at home at the time, refused to go to the storage room after daylight. My mother refused to believe in ghosts. She was already married and moved out of the house when the poltergeist incident happened and thought the whole thing was made up as a joke. My mom told my aunts, "You all are so silly to believe in ghosts. They don't exist. I'm going to go to the storage room and get the extra blankets, AND I won't turn on the lights!" To prep you for what's about to happen, let me tell you that my grandmother stored the blankets in an old crib inside the storage room. Cribs make excellent storage facilities once the kids have outgrown them.

So my mom went to the storage room and came back with the blankets, but was running. After she came back to the room she started laughing.

My aunt: "What happened? Did you see the ghost?"

My mother: "Kind of."

Me (at age 8): "What happened, tell me!"

My mother: "Well, as I stuck my hand underneath the pile of blankets in the crib, something grabbed my hand from underneath. I immediately pulled my hand away quickly, grabbed the blankets and ran out. I think I left the door open."

Me: "Oh no, he's gonna come and get us!"

My mother: "No he won't, he was just playing a joke. But I'll go back and turn on the lights and close the door so you feel safe."

Me: "Thanks."

Cut to my aunts cracking up because my mother finally became a believer that ghosts exist.

Why Marc Why?

I liked what Marc Jacobs did for his own line of handbags, but it should have ended there. Marc cannot apply those same rules to a classic like Louis Vuitton. This fugly work makes me wonder if he's been smoking crack with Whitney Houston. How else can one explain Marc's update to the Monogram Speedy with... perforations! The result is pure fug. The bag looks like it got attacked by a pirhana or should be housing Paris Hilton's next puppy. The perforations looked great on Marc's own Brigitte bag, but the same does not apply to a classic like Louis Vuitton's Speedy.

This fugly bag is available at eLUXURY.com for $1,200.

Katie's Time is Almost Up

Here's the latest on the freak show that is TomKat.

(click on cartoon to enlarge, makes it easier to read)

comic source: Mary Hartz the Excited Blog

The Hunt for Power Ranger S.P.D. Toys

My son is a big Power Rangers S.P.D. fan. I used to watch this show a long time ago when I was little and it was called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Back then the girls (and some of the boys) watched it mainly to see the one and only female Power Ranger, the Pink Ranger. She was one of the pioneers of the whole "girl power" thing we had going in the 90's. I can't remember her name but she later ended up starring on Felicity and then disappearing from Hollywood altogether. Maybe she's a stay at home mom now with a blog somewhere.

Anyway, I started watching the show again on Toon Disney with my son, the new S.P.D. generation (I must be the only person over the age of 8 who watches this show!) But my son and I are really miffed these days that the S.P.D. series has now ended and has been replaced by a new generation called Power Rangers Mystic Force. We both gave this show an honest shot, but it clearly is not the same as the S.P.D. series. The special effects, the cast, everything was so much better in S.P.D. To put salt on our wounds, Bandai, the company that makes all the Power Rangers toys, has stopped making any more S.P.D. toys and is focusing entirely on the new line of Mystic Force toys. Some people on Ebay are aware of this and charging up to $30 plus shipping for a simple morpher that usually cost $7 in the store. It's like the Cabbage Patch Kids craze from the 80's.

After a relentless search on the internet for an S.P.D. morpher and finding nothing, we are trying to convice our son that the morpher from the highly available Mystic Force line is not so bad (even though it's really cheap). So far he's not convinced. He's still holding out hope and everytime he sees me log on the internet he asks again "Can you check and see if they have S.P.D. morphers for sale?" Every time he asks, so politely I might add, I get more determined to find a damn morpher no matter what the cost. But the husband, who didn't watch the show and has an unbiased view towards all things S.P.D. stops me (somebody's got to stop the insanity!). Oh the problems our kids face!

Oh to be Queen for a Day!

Hot Mama Rania

I am in absolute awe of Queen Rania of Jordan. She is my idol, the epitome of mommy chic. She's the mother of four children, she raises money for charities, she helps the needy, she's smart, she's stylish, and she happens to be a Queen too. I love how despite her wealth and status, she acts so normal and down to earth. Don't be fooled, this is not the Queen who spends all day at the spa. She is heavily involved in human rights and health and social reform issues, and despite working hard all day, she still makes time to tuck her kids into bed at night and read them a story. With servants helping her, she's a working mom that really has it all.

I don't know why but on some strange cosmic level I feel like I can relate to her. Like me, her father is a doctor, she has two siblings, she had a job in banking (she worked for Citibank and Apple Computers too), she's into high fashion (she's got a bag collection like you would not believe!), and she married a big cuddly guy who loves to eat. That's where the similarities end. Her big cuddly guy happens to be the King of Jordan. She's rich enough to buy an entire Chanel boutique, and yet she remains a normal fun-loving mom just like the rest us.

She plays with her kids in their backyard

Her kids climb on her head when she takes them out

She takes her kids to the amusement park and rents the double stroller (I can fit three kids into these buggies! My kids are tiny and I'll get away with it as long as I can.)

They pose for family photos

They go as a family to watch sports games and her husband drinks a diet coke to make it look like he's doing something to watch his weight. That's okay girlfriend, my husband does the same thing. He'll order a Big Mac with a Diet Coke, at least he's saving calories somewhere!

Here's a pic of Rania showing off her post baby body. I don't know if this pic was after her first child or fourth, but either way she looks like one hot mama!

Here's Rania coming back from some important job looking tres chic. I love this classic look with the side parted hair, the trench coat, and dark sunglasses. Her sense of style is really timeless. It also helps that she's drop dead gorgeous.

If you want to read up more on Queen Rania, girlfriend's got her own website which she updates daily. A Queen with a website, who would've thunk it? CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK.

Useless Trivia of the Day

This morning after breakfast, I plopped the kids in front of the TV (electronic babysitter) while I cleaned up the kitchen and did the dishes. While my kids were watching Miss Spider's Sunny Patch, I couldn't help but notice that Miss Spider sounded a lot like Charlotte from Sex and the City. Could it be, I thought? Kristin Davis hasn't been seen since Sex and the City ended, could she now be entertaining the pre-school set to make her living? A quick google search revealed my suspicions to be true. Kristin Davis is the voice of Miss Spider on the Sunny Patch, a cartoon about a mommy spider raising eight little bugs.

The Naked Man Across the Street

Since I'm too broke to lust about any new handbags, and gossip is just on snooze these days, I'm going to tell you a story from my life experience. A long time ago back in 1998, when I had a real job working as an auditor, I was assigned to an audit on the top floor of a really tall building in New York City. I was part of a team of about six auditors and the work was extremely light. So to fill up our downtime, we used to call into radio shows to win some prize of the day, or surf the internet (there wasn't much stuff back then but still), sit around and talk, and best of all, observe what was going on outside through the large windows in the audit room. People watching has long been a past time of New Yorkers, but we took it to a higher level.

The building across the street from where we worked was a typical NYC building. At the street level, there were shops like cafes, bookstores, salons, grocers. Above those shops there were stories of apartments. We started watching the people living in the apartments in the building across the street. These were the people who conveniently never closed their drapes during the day, or simply didn't have drapes. We got to know the tenants pretty well. There was the college kid with the brown leather couch who used to just play video games or talk on the phone all day. He had a giant screen TV and used to invite his college buddies over regularly for pizza parties and football. He was really getting his parent's money worth of college tuition. Above him lived this guy who never wore clothes. He was the most interesting.

It used to baffle us how this man, who NEVER seemed to leave the apartment, would never put on clothes. He used to wake up at noon, eat cereal while standing at the window reading a book, and he even used to workout, stark naked! He used a Total Gym for his workouts. We didn't look at him continuously, we weren't that lame, but it was one of those things we did when we were bored with the other work we were doing, and someone would pipe up, "hey, what's the naked guy doing now?" and someone would be on the lookout and give us the daily update. One day, one of my co-workers got a glimps of full frontal nudity. That was pretty gross, because this was one hairy dude.

Not content at just watching him do nothing all day, one of my co-workers decided to spice things up a bit by trying to find out his phone number. He was successful by walking over to the building and looking up the guy's exact address. He did a reverse telephone lookup on the internet and he was set. On the days the naked guy wasn't doing much, my co-worker would phone him, and we would all watch with glee as he would walk over to the phone. My co-worker would hang up the phone before he answered. We played this game about eight times before it became lame and we stopped. Yes, we were all 24 year old college graduates, some with MBA's like me , playing ding dong ditch on the naked guy. We really should have acted more mature, but blogging was not in full swing back then, and luckily for us, neither was Caller ID.

Like all good things, that audit assignment came to an end, and I made some wonderful friends at that job whom I still miss. But I would like to thank that naked guy for helping us all bond during that hoplessly boring audit.