april 12--saree day

i can't get enough of the cherry blossoms. i took this in the morning when i woke up because i loved green and the pink together.
















i dug this special effect.


















tanya took this of herself in our pantry at work.











fatima and i met in little india at approximately 5:45pm. our purpose for 'meating' was to purchase sarees for her her brother's wedding. i get to go to the muslim ceremony (the nika or something like that) and i get to wear a sari too! i was nervous. i thought it was going to be hard. an old lady was helping us and fatima told her to bring me blue saris. well she would get one and then lay it out in all it's glory on the counter. some of the first ones she got were soooooooooooo beautiful, but they cost over five hundred dollars. i had eighty dollars in my wallet for saree purposes. i started to feel discouraged and didn't know what to say when she asked things like "does she want heavier?" the lady always spoke to fatima, not me. finally fatima told her the price range and that's when we got sent to the other side of the store and another energetic lady started digging sarees out of boxes and yelling out the prices like "45!, 10!, 15!" fatima's chin dropped to her chest when she heard the prices and she looked at me with a voiceless "whaaaaaaaaaaaat?" so i found a blue one that "pops" as fatima liked to say, and a classic black one that was only 25 dollars. i dont' know why i got two, except that the black one was so cheap, why not get it? fatima said if we didn't have anywhere to wear it we'd just dress up and take pictures. ok i said happily. i was so relieved that i actually found something.

then the ladies at the store had the unfortunate task of finding fatima something. fatima actually had her heart set on a beautiful yellow sari that was on a manaquin in the front. but it was in the five hundreds. everything the ladies brought for fatima was not to her liking. my energetic lady especially kept bringing duds for fatima. but there was a young girl who was more in tune, who eventually brought a pretty blue one with a pink border. so fatima tried it on and the lady tied it for her. she looked so beautiful. but fatima still had her heart set on the yellow. so she decided to try it on and if she liked it (ya right, as if she wouldnt'.) she said she would get her mom to pay for part of it. and so she did. and i couldn't believe the transformation. she really is an indian princess, like i've always said. and so the long and the short of it is, that she got a discount on it and she bought it and i bought mine, and then we went back to my place and fatima tied mine on me because i didn't get to see them on me and elicia was suitably impressed and randy came over for survivor just as we were tying the black one. and fatima stayed for survivor and then she had to go. a saree day was done.