Scrubya!

One of my childhood friends Kavita is now a small business owner who make politcal soaps. I used to go to her house almost weekly. If I wasn't at Kavita's house, I was at Priyanka's house. We lost touch after college. I'm not exactly sure why. I think part of it was the distance. She was in New England and I was in the Bay Area. She went into politics (volunteering for some presidential hopeful a few years ago) and I really don't know much about politics. I think it's great to see her be successful and still be able to voice her opinions. I haven't tried her soap yet, but I will be ordering some. If you know of any liberals who would get a kick out of soap with a political statement, I recommend it. http://scrubya.com/

What I think is even more remarkable is how I came to know about Kavita's business. My cousin Vivian was her first Canadian customer. Kavita was one of my closest friends in high school and we went to Toronto with Priyanka and Mariko and stayed with Vivian's family when I turned 19. Since Kavita's picture is on the website and she still looks like she did when we were in college, I'm sure that Vivian recognized it was her. It's such a small world.

Edwin left for Nicaragua yesterday on his surf trip/Tom's bachelor party. I am definitely jealous. I am not that jealous of Nicaragua because I have never really wanted to go there. What I am really jealous of is the travel. I want to go on vacation to another country, but I haven't even updated my passport. I get the travel bug every few years and it's definitely hitting me. I thought after Australia, I was done with travel. I remember being glad to be home after being gone for so long. I don't think that I need to go away for a month. I just get guilty about all the money I'm spending and all the food that I am eating. A nice long 10 day or 2 week vacation is what I would want. We were thinking about attending a wedding in Italy this summer. It would have been awesome, but the cost is just too great right now. $1500 per ticket and that's without food or lodging. I'm so glad that we went 5 years ago when the dollar was stronger.

I am also jealous because Edwin is on a trip with his guy friends. I used to travel with my girlfriends on trips. I went to Boston, Philly, Toronto, and Cancun in college with girlfriends. It just doesn't happen very often anymore. I don't know why. Maybe it's because people have kids or because many of us have coupled up and that changes the dynamics of things. We'll go on trips with couples, but not really all guys or all girls. Maybe it's because there's no one left to organize it. Maybe it's because I'm too lazy to do it and I had more time to plan when I was single. For whatever the reason, I don't get to go on trips with my girlfriends much anymore and I miss it. It just reminds me that I need to enjoy the moment because things can change very quickly.

Don't worry. I'm still going on a vacation to NYC. I'm leaving on Tuesday and will be staying there for almost a week which is still somehow not enough time. So much to do and so little time! I'm saying that a lot these days.