I woke up this morning drowning in existential angst – the kind I haven’t felt in a couple of months. Last night, in an attempt to distract myself, I poked the bear and got an earful in return. I had to hear (or read) things I didn’t want to, hurtful things that were dramatic but also a little true. And then I cried while watching Enough Said. When you’re sobbing through a romcom, you know shit is hitting the fan.

So this morning when I woke up, I was in a bad mood. But then I watched The Princess Diaries 2 on TV, which I don’t even like that much, but it’s Mia Thermopolis in some form, so it was fine. Then I watched The Hundred-Foot Journey, which a friend has raved about in the past. I loved it. It made me want to learn how to cook and live in a small French village (I know that I’ll hate that kind of life, but still). And then I watched Julie and Julia, which I’ve already seen some five times. I fell asleep in the middle of it and woke up hungry.

There are two kinds of movies that make me want the protagonist’s job – dance movies and chef movies. I love dancing and I hate cooking. But since I had no way of dancing today, I decided to cook. I told my mother I’ll make paneer tonight. She tried not to look too thrilled and jinx this turn of events. So I made paneer, the really basic kind. Just marinate it and shallow fry, no curry, nothing. But it was still cooking, it was still me spending 10 minutes in the kitchen, which is a progress from zero.

I’m watching this really average movie called This Is 40 right now, but overall it wasn’t a bad Sunday.