random update vomited out into the recesses of cyberspace: today all the whitespaces on webpages are coming up as gray. all the printers are on the blink. my cd rom drive is a big toothless hole in my pc. i cut my nails last night and typing is satisfying again.

we went bowling yesterday (didn't have the worst score thank God - i love N), and i invited JAS to the saturday night party but then remembered that N told me that saturday was going to be the day his sister died 6 years ago. oops. i remember we all went to the janaza even though we weren't shia and we didn't know him too well, and then J and M proceeded to have a giggling fit till they cried because an old aunty next to them fell asleep amid the chest thumping and snored really loud.

we tended to do that. the times we were supposed to be most reverent and silent were the times when we always broke into helpless manic giggle fits.
J's mamoo had just been shot because he was about to testify against zardari (in anti PPP glory days), and everyone had stepped out of the social pages to come to the soyem. J was there totally unfazed, stuck a pin in my ass when Aunty came over and i was saying my salaams and some sorry-for-your-loss type line. then we sat down under the oil painting of Jamil's pigeons and wife, and M took a hair pin and pretended to put it up her nose, and all four of us cracked up, then tried to muffle it, and the more we tried to stifle the giggles the more we laughed, till we were crying in pain and hilarity. and then some aunty came by to J (who was in helpless hysterical giggles), and thought J was upset over the death and crying about that, and hugged her against her pointy conical bosom, making J go "ouch, my EYE!" really loudly. and that made us explode into a vicious cycle of never ending side splitting PAINFUL heaves which we tried to hide (i bit on my fist - even that didn't really work).
then i only heard about the time when K's mom passed away. and N got the giggle fits on that one (thank GOD i wasn't there), to a point where she was hiding under a dupatta, silently shaking, looking like she was getting electrocuted or something, and A came up and lifted her dupatta to see what the hell was wrong with her and she ended up spitting up a fountain of rooh afza through her mouth and nose all over him, herself and some poor bystander.

i would like to think that i now have more control over my funny button. i have to confess i almost had a bad moment a couple of weeks ago in the middle of a meeting, but i bit the inside of my cheek till i practically tasted blood. so i guess its been four years, eight months and twenty eight days since my last manic giggle fit, and i'm proud of it :)