Glad other people are here to explain the loan thing. I understand, but I'm not sure I could explain.

PC, I'll drop you an e-mail or something, and we can try to make plans.

Is your loan through a private lender or is it a Stafford Loan, P-C? Subsidized Stafford Loans are deferred until 6 months after you complete your schooling. Unsubsidized Stafford Loans, you can choose to pay the interest while you're in school, but you don't have to pay the principal. You can also choose not to pay the interest, but then it is added to the principal balance and inceases the overall amount of your loan. A lot of options there.

I'm going to murder someone.

Supposed to be a meeting at 2- I was asked to clear time for it. I do. I don't take my lunch (in which I should have gotten the car inspected and oil changed). Meeting kept being pushed back until just now, when it's been cancelled, and I can go home, less than an hour before I'm supposed to anyway. Grrr.

Thanks for the loan info, guys. I think I'll figure it out eventually. It's all making my head hurt right now, though, so I'm going to post the first India entry. Although it's more of a pre-India entry. But it sure was an interesting beginning to the trip.

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12/18/04

Now let us christen this new journal with a story of Just How Weird Sunil's Life Can Be.

Our route to India is thus: Dallas -> New York -> Paris -> Mumbai. We had a couple hours of layover in JFK, so we ate some pizza from Sbarro. After we ate, my brother went wandering around.

He returned and motioned urgently to me. I could tell he meant business, so I got up and followed him. The only thing I could think that would require such urgency in an airport was that he wanted to show me a really hot girl. And sure enough, there seemed to be an attractive female in white standing by Sbarro.

Huh. She looked like Mischa Barton.

Whoa. She sounded like Mischa Barton. Mischa Barton has a very distinctive voice.

"Excuse me," said my brother, "are you Mischa Barton?"

"Yeah," she said.

I said something like "How weird" or "How absolutely bizarre."

And then she walked away as if we weren't even there.

No chance for us to save how much we loved The O.C. while skirting around the fact that we didn't care so much about Marissa. This was my brother's first celebrity encounter (and my first completely unexpected one), and we totally got the brush-off. I mean, I get that she's a regular person too and we were total strangers getting in the way of her monthly meal, but I thought she'd be used to this sort of thing and be a little more gracious. It's a good thing neither one of us were, like, totally dying to meet her cause OMG we're ur #1 fanz!

Some supplemental information. My brother had seen her and her mother (and, I'm pretty sure, her sister, as the girl I saw with her bore a striking resemblance) at the gate for Venice. He had casually followed her when he saw she was heading for the food area, so he decided to get me. After our sole interaction, we saw the two of them in the Burger King line, and I later saw her with a BK bag in hand. So, rest assured, Mischa Barton is eating. Be proud. And finally, we noticed there had been a gate change for the Venice flight. It had used to be a hundred gates away. So clearly, we were meant to meet Mischa Barton.

For the record, she does look pretty good in person. And she's kind of tall, too, about as tall as I am.

When I was in NYC a few months ago, I thought I passed Chris Carmack (Luke) on the sidewalk one night. Maybe it really was him. My brother figures we're going to run into Ben McKenzie in Paris and Adam Brody in Mumbai.

But Mischa Barton's on our Bitch List now. We would have given good conversation, dammit! All we asked for was, perhaps, an acknowledgement of our existence. I think we're going to spend the entire trip making fun of her. I never got on the Mischa Barton hate train before; I had little problem with her or her acting. Now I have a personal vendetta!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'd expect as much from her seeing how she's a buddy of P. Hil's and is dating that yucky Brandon Davis. How does it feel taking Shannen Doherty's left-overs, Mischa? Huh? HUH??

t /Gloomy!Gossip

Okay, I could use some Bitch advice:

Tomorrow, I'll be 18 weeks pregnant and I'm going to the ultrasound that will tell us the Minian's gender (if he/she cooperates. BTW, i've been told to drink a can of Dr. Pepper prior as the sugar/caffeine will make the baby more active. Anyone heard of this?)

My FIL is the kind of person who will be thrilled if it's a boy and disappointed if it's a girl. I have told Joe I'll tell his family, since he's not here, but I am not ready to hear anything less than complete enthusiasm about my baby. I'm thinking I may just send FIL an e-mail either way, but I'm worried that is somehow not very personal. Any ideas/suggestions?

You can try framing the conversation.

"I know you'll be as thrilled as we are to know we're expecting your granddaughter!"

Or is he boorish enough to ignore that set of cues?

Nonian, the Dr Pepper thing makes sense. I have never heard it specificially recommended, but once you start feeling the baby move regularly, if s/he seems too quiet for too long, one of the things you're supposed to do is have some cookies and juice, and lie down, and see if that doesn't get him/her going.

I have no in-law advice. I can't imagine caring about a baby's sex.

Is the situation too touchy with him to preface the news with a kind of jokey-stern "Now, no grumbling either way but it's a (Insert Minion gender here)"?

Pre-emptive medical-ma for Hubby on Thursday. I get to go in with him while he has a test on his spine, something myo-something or other. His ongoing pain is either one or all of three potential bad discs--or he's allergic to the stainless steel in the clamp they put in before.

I'm hoping it's the metal, because taking that out is easy, just not cost-effective.

The test is apparently one of the bad ones, where everyone is apologizing ahead of time for what they're about to put you through. And I can't hurt the people who are about to hurt my husband. Do you think our esteemed future Attorney General needs some back testing done?