CAROLINA’S BABY SHOWER

Carolina, whose comments you might have stumbled upon on this blog, is one of my best friends. We’ve known each other since class 5, yes, CLASS FIVE people! and that will be 14years this year (I know, almost longer than I have known my younger brother :)

So anyway, she’s expecting a baby girl early next month and because we’re the best friends she’ll ever get ;) we threw her a surprise baby shower. You can read about Messy’s Baby Shower here.

Took us a month to plan it, and it turned out absolutely perfect we’re still not over it. For basics:

We invited all of her friends and cousins, settled on the Shower theme, Jojo came up with games and activities for the shower, we went shopping, baby gifts, baby clothes, shower food and drinks, then Messy spent the eve of the shower calling Gidi every ten minutes ensuring her hubby had kept our surprise a secret.

Sunday morning already, Carol and hubby went to church so we sneaked into their apartment and started drinking wine decorating and cooking. This is how it pretty much went down in the kitchen:

And while we were busy making lunch, some of us were busy making memories:

In the meantime, food was almost ready. So we waited. 12pm. And waited. 2pm. And waited.

At some point, when she was too high and hungry, Terry threatened to call Carolina and let her know we were tired of watching the clock tick. (And this was supposed to be a surprise) Luckily, Pesh’s mum is in the medical field so Pesh had carried a type of anesthesia and we just injected Terry into sleep. Am kidding.

Minutes later, Gidi brought Carolina home and we deafeningly received them:

Carolina was so shocked her water broke then she went into labor. Not exactly, but wouldn’t that be more memorable?

Anyway, we ate and drank and laughed and teased and screamed at each other the whole afternoon then we played games.

Game 1: Taboo: This is when you’re given a specific baby-related word to define, but the most obvious words you would use to explain it are taboo-ed. E.g. Define the word umbilical cord without using the following words: Baby, Mother, Food, Nutrients, Long and Attached. It was pretty tough. Rita said a breast is a ball of meat with a button in front.

Game 2: The Laughing Game: Seated in a circle, you’re supposed to say “Ha” in turns. This is then meant to sound as “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha…" as the team goes on echoing. If you laugh out loud, you’re out of the game. It’s harder than you think and even after playing two rounds, no one came out victorious. Especially since you look extremely stupid saying Ha like you’re retarded and also because the first person out, bursts out laughing and you just can’t hold it in a second longer.

The games also did not work out so well since there was so much shouting and yelling and because something is clearly wrong with us, this is how we played:

Happy parenting Carolina and Gidi, we love you guys so much and we pray that your baby girl grows to be God fearing and wise.

ICE SKATING IN PANARI

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably know by now that I grew up in Kenya. Not that I've stopped growing up or that I currently don't live in Kenya, it just feels precious to say it. Here if you missed it: 

I grew up in Kenya.  

Just like Lupita Nyong'o people :)

Anyway, this post isn't about my origin but yes, they are closely related. 

So last weekend, two of my best friends and I went Ice Skating at the Panari Sky Centre and presumably unnecessary to say, prior to that, the largest collection of ice we had come across, our.whole.life sits in a freezer. Stocked in an ice cube tray. Hence you correctly guess, skating on an ice rink, 32 by 24 feet wide, was an adventure we were definitely excited about.

This is how skating looked like in my mind:

But I obviously, no. I OBVIOUSLY, didn’t think this through. Ice Skating is the worst thing anyone can be subjected to. Ever. Especially, for people who’ve NOT grown up around ice. 

It’s scary and difficult and humiliating and everybody who doesn’t know how to feels like they’ve been lied to. And those movies you see tiny girls doing ballet dancing on ice? They lie. We should probably sue them.

Standing tall on a platform, please allow me tell you what ice skating really is:

Ice skating is when you attach knife blades to the soles of very stiff boots. As if that’s not stupid enough, you are expected to balance your whole weight on them, then swiftly start running on a shiny, slippery and cold surface.

For fun.

It is traumatizing. Some of the kids had an amazing time. But us? First timers on the skating rink? We had our egos bruised. The entire surface of the ice was covered in pain, agony and suffering. This is what it really was:

Defeated and angry, we gave up and stayed snuggled together in a corner. 

We watched people fall down and this made us happy.

We saw kids arrive in smiles and leave in tears and bruises.
Then we went to claim our money back. No, we didn't do that.

Sooo, stepping down from my platform, here's my advice to you. If you've been having an exceedingly happy week, like I did six days before Sunday, or you have an enormous ego people always complain about, please go Ice Skating at Panari. Then we'll have a larger number to sign a petition against movies that take advantage of our naivety.

*Then Lupita will probably not want to be associated with us anymore.

APPARENTLY, I CANNOT SPELL

I really can, I swear.

You know, when the bug is healing. I was texting my friend this morning and I needed to write “Necessary” and for the love of my life, my mind went blank, my brain froze, so I wrote “Neccessary” And I stared at it like, damn how do you spell that again?

I then changed to “Neccesary” and seeming very wrong, I deleted and typed “Necessary” which is in fact, the correct spelling but looked worse. I know. My brain is useful like that.

After nail pecking on the phone screen for approximately seventy seconds, and my brain totally refusing to cooperate with my hand, I gave up and turned to spellcheck. Thank heavens for spellcheck!

And who in the whole wide world invented the word cheque? Because it’s supposed to be a correctly spelt word, but you know, not according to spellcheck. Although spellcheck also doesn’t think that “spellcheck” is a word. It’s like some twisted self-denial.

But seriously, this isn’t even the first time this kind of thing has happened either. Only that it’s occurred severally the last couple of months and at 24, I feel awfully. awfully. ancient. These recent moments of brain death coincide with not being able to come up with the simplest words when I’m speaking or writing and it drives me insane. I’ll ask DK something like, “what’s the name of those things people use to collect trash after sweeping?

“Garbage bags?”

“Dustbins?”

…….”DUSTPANS???”

And to that one I reply, "YES!!" he then puts his palm below his chin, raises his eyebrows, gives me a deep stare and is convinced beyond reasonable doubt that I was born seventy years ago.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014

Yeah well, eight days later isn’t a long time to say it, right? What, it is? Oh, just take it.

With all the Christmas and post-New Year celebrations, you have to agree it takes a while to get back on track, especially when getting back on track means getting back to work. Not that I hate working, maybe a little, but I wish there was another holiday to recover from the festive holiday hangover. (Know what I’m saying?)

Anyway, 2014 already? Honestly, this is a BIG deal. I think back to this time last year and I want to bow my head in prayer. It has been a long journey worth travelling and I’m so thankful for all that I have accomplished and all the lessons I’ve learnt along the way.

Six days ago was my parents' Wedding Anniversary. 26 years, three kids later, they have remained living examples of love, patience, and devotion...They are my idea of a best couple and I hope my marriage can be just as amazing as theirs.

In Other Great News, I’m dreadfully hopeful for the New Year; I have so much I hope to accomplish that so much actually feels like an understatement. It is what we would commonly call resolutions, but these are my dreams, these are my heart commitments. I summarized them in a list of 14, most which were focused on personal and financial growth. I then rolled them in a bottle, just so I can refer and not veer off.

More than anything, I’m simply thankful to have a place to write my thoughts, adventures and memories. Thank You Cyberspace.

Happy New Year Great people!!! DK thinks you’re cute. And that’s why he’s in trouble.

xoxo
Kagwi!