Bollywood

Last night was our last Bollywood class. We went every Monday night for 10 weeks with our friend Diane to class at a local rec center. She graciously took me shopping in a suburb of Melbourne that has a retail district called "Little India" and we had a lot of fun getting what I call my "sari for dummies" - it had a skirt built into it so I wouldn't have to figure out how to wrap it around and keep it on while dancing. We also got some bedazzling bindis for our foreheads, bangles and a hilarious hat for Tom. It's comforting that, should the hydrologist thing fall through, he now has the gear for doorman work at the Taj West.

There are so many ethnicities of people here, no one pays much mind to different kinds of dress or the dozens of languages you hear people barking into their cell phones on the train. We sure got noticed last night though. You could almost hear people wondering, "What's this now?" as they tried to piece together what were up to.

When we got home, we were playing cards (actually a card game we are obsessed with called Killer Bunnies) and talking about Tom's mother's upcoming visit. He has always been close with her and we knew that immigrating would hard in terms of only seeing each other once a year or so. His mom is a real "do-er". She doesn't sit around and complain. She doesn't yack about what she would/could/should do - she just gets out there and gnaws at every morsel of marrow from the bones of life -always in school, travelling, even still working in daycare, because, as a retired pediatrician, she likes kids.

Knowing we only have a finite amount of time to spend with people we care about gives us a different perspective than when we can be around each other all day/every day. Or a limited amount of time to experience everything there is to do out there - and isn't that the case for everyone? At least, shouldn't it be? I waited so long to find Tom - now that he's finally here, I need to remember what it was like without him and keep my torturing of him to a duller roar.