How is being a recently graduated illustrator working out for you? I like to write. Maybe we can collaborate sometime? I think it’s really great that you’re good at “drawing/ painting, laughing and wine-ing.”
The best advice I could give to any stutterer, or anyone who’s simply stressing over something, is to simply stop giving a crap. When you start to care, you start worrying and your anxiety jumps and your jaw nearly breaks, and what are you going to do then?
You can haggle for literally everything in India — even when there are signs saying “Price is fixed.” The process is like interpretive dance: Prices hang in limbo while unresolved arms sway and strike poses to the rhythms of sari fabrics brushing through sultry dust. The choreography ends only when one partner promenades away or both acquiesce with side-to-side nods of the head, like metronomes syncing to the tempo.
Remember when you were little and you used to steal sips of wine from family members’ glasses and the world suddenly turned into a crazy party for one because you were wasted? Yeah, you do. Not much has changed, seeing as you still get trashed off two beers at a party and you think it’s a little risky to eat penne alla vodka on an empty stomach.
As you may know, drinking is a big part of any adult function, particularly so at Russian weddings. There will be a bottle of vodka on your table at all times. People will be making toasts; you will have to drink with every toast; there will be a lot of toasts.