The Concerns Of Mindy Kaling

Mindy Kaling is an actress, comedian, writer, producer and shopper. She can translate Latin and is an avid slow jogger that covers small amounts of distance over long periods of time. This is her Tumblr & her concerns.
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Best Friends Rights & Regulations Winners

I had so much fun reading people’s Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities under the #BBFrights hashtag. It made me laugh and miss all my friends. It was extremely hard to narrow it down, but these were my absolute favorites. Congratulations! Winners will be contacted this week for their shipping information to receive their signed copy of my book. Thank you all for participating!

Winners From My Blog Comments

Anne Cuddy
There will never be enough time with you.

Melina
At a party or a social engagement, or even just a bar, our drinks
are interchangeable.

Aunni
When I don’t agree with you at all, we don’t say “We’ll agree to
disagree”. We say “I mean, either way, that shit is still crazy”

Maria
I will plan to run a half marathon with you and print out the
training schedule (but we won’t actually do it).

Nat
if you are driving, i will automatically assume dj
responsibilities (that best suits your mood, not mine, though
they are almost always the same) AND i will buy the diet cokes
from mcdonalds… gas isnt free.

Lindsay
Your iPhone charger is my iPhone charger.

Erin Lynn
Best friends never say “I told you so.” She may lightly remind
you that “This is what I meant when I said he may, possibly,
maybe be the kind of guy who still calls his mom Mommy and
cries during silly fights.” But never, ever, “I told you so.”

Vanessa Butler
Classy ladies can order poutine at 4am

Winners From Twitter

@fernleaf1013
Regardless of how pretty she is, I will always tell you you’re hotter than his ex.

@yeyelindsay
#bffrights we have to get pregnant at the same time and force our kids to be bffs!

@lmfoxy
you can buy the same shirt as me, but every time someone compliments you on it I get the credit

@bethanyglaser
You let me sleep in the car on long drives. But not at sleepovers.

@nicoleby3
you know to keep driving when any showtune comes on in the car so we can finish singing!

@jillianirons
First dibs on your brother. #Bffrights

@serenavora
only person allowed to log-on to my FB account w/o supervision

@ivorytuskmeg
You will always have honorary ‘Aunt’ status with my kid(s).

@DowntownDana
Even if u hate the weird upscale Mexican-overpriced-&-tasteless place they want 2 go 4 their b-day, U STILL MUST GO

@Annamolly9
You wait until I finish my story to tell me I’ve told it already.

@viachicago
I will hold up ten pounds of taffeta so you can pee on your wedding day. #BFFrights

@jennaahdaya
my kid thinks you’re just a cooler version of me. #bffrights

@Jennelizz
You defriend the boy who broke my heart even though I don’t #bffrights

Things I’ve Bought (on Ebay) That I Love: Missoni For Target Bath Towels

People may or may not know that when Target ran out instantly of their Missoni line, and when their website went down for the entire launch day, I was Nancy Grace-level furious. I was like Nancy Grace and Target was Casey Anthony. I’m serious. I was pissed.

That was all very immature because, well, it’s just material goods and that is a really stupid thing to get upset about. But THEN when I found out that most of it had been bought out not by young grad student couples hoping to jazz up their apartments with colorful zig-zags but by scheming Ebay smugglers— who wanted simply to procure Missoni and jack up the prices and re-sell it to OTHER AMERICANS (yeah, I went there)— I became apoplectic. I was now the Boston Celtics and Ebay hoarding trolls were the Lakers (or vice versa).

That said, I saw these Dylan Candy Store-level pretty towels and went onto Ebay just to look at prices.

They are so damn pretty. I live in an Spanish style house built in 1928. I guess in 1928 homeowners were totally in touch with their femininity, because the tile in my house is girlier than the womens bathroom at a Justin Bieber concert.

So, I couldn’t resist and had to buy some towels off Ebay. It was a work day, so I made our satellite room help me strategize a bid so I got fleeced a minimum amount. Coincidentally the room was full of Office greats: Charlie Grandy, Justin Spitzer, Aaron Shure and writers assistant Ava Tramer.

Be very, very careful to sign out IMMEDIATELY after you buy your Ebay item. Otherwise you succumb to the high of winning an Ebay item and you’re toast. After I bought the towels I felt so good, I just wanted to chase that feeling like a freaking addict. I also purchased an unfortunate poncho, of which Grandy asked: “So, is that, like an ironic piece of clothing? Or do girls wear those when they feel sick?”

Here’s what they look like, folded on my dining table. I will never use them, I just like looking at them.

For: resigned and sad Missoni lovers who realize they have to deal with the devil in this situation
Price: the insane amount of $50 (but worth it)

Things I Bought That I Love: Regency Tangle-Free Hair Brush

I was the ripe old age of 28 when I realized that if you want to have long, fine, hair, you need to comb it out while it’s wet, or otherwise you will tear out large clumps of it. I always used a wide-tooth comb, then every few months or so, I’d clean out the tangles of stray hair so no one could steal it for a voodoo doll.

I like having long hair, but it’s hard, man. I live in a state of being constantly ten minutes away from having a hair stylist chop off my hair. Mine is the personality type that is a sucker for that, because usually when a hair stylist wants to chop off your hair, you’re like their favorite person in the world for an hour, and I love that feeling. You’re their respite from hours of their boring duties of trimming long hair and doing blond highlights on people. I basically feel like Gaga to them and so I let them chop off my hair.

The Regency tangle-free hair brush does the job of the wide tooth comb but is faster and gentler and you lose much less hair. It separates more strands and afterwards you hair is ready for volumizing product or sheen serum or flyaway goop or whatever. They come in fun colors (I put a big premium on this, as you have probably learned), and are cheap! However, these are not good for a blow out. For those I recommend one of those round, hardcore boar bristle ones that are intense and scratchily, and kind of look like they might try to kill you.

Good for: Girls with long, thin hair who want to have hair like a Beverly Hills housewife.

If you’re like me, when you heard about the passing of Steve Jobs, you had a panicked moment where all you could think about was how much more Mr. Jobs had to give the world, and how sad you were to be robbed of the fruits of those years. My love for Mr. Jobs is a selfish one, but it made me think how much I have come to depend on him to be the one — clad in signature black from the waist up, like my Pacific Northwest Johnny Cash— to introduce me every year (or if we were lucky, twice a year) to some technology so amazing and fun you hoped that you were the one who got to break it to your friends. If you’re also like me, you looked around the internet to learn more about him. I found out a few sad things, of course. One was how he passed away. Mr. Jobs battled a rare form of pancreatic cancer, neuroendocrine cancer. I have a relationship with pancreatic cancer, which has astoundingly, the same one-year survival rate as it did forty years ago - a mere 5%. Julie Fleshman of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network said it well, of Jobs’ passing: “It is also a stunning reality that even those who have unlimited access to the highest level of care available cannot defeat this insidious disease.” Those of us who know and love people with this sad disease could see from Mr. Jobs extended periods of time off, and gaunt frame, that this was a man fighting for his life. I felt inspired to donate to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, a truly wonderful resource that actively petitions our leaders to provide more money for research for this incredibly under-funded disease. If you want to donate too, you can! Just go here: http://www.pancan.org/index.php Donating there was something that I bought that I really love. I also learned that Steve Jobs was adopted. Adopted. My God. This, to me is a movie in itself. Can you imagine adopting a baby and watching him grow up to be this kind of historically important thinker? His brain itself already so miraculous and mysterious. And now, fell into the lap of these loving parents through adoption? In my mind, the Jobs family found him floating down a river like Moses. People can tell me otherwise, but that’s what I’ll always believe, sorry. I was delighted to find this great picture of him from when he was a younger. I had this computer! My older brother and I fought over it to see who could play Gauntlet on it. And then I saw this picture, where Mr. Jobs is excitedly presenting the very computer I am writing this blog on: That’s an almost thirty year span of computers he’s created that I’ve depended on and loved. And for every change in technology, every tweak made to make the computer more and more perfect, I’ve stuck with him to see what would happen next. Many of us have had a lengthy, happy marriages to Steve Jobs creations. That’s pretty amazing. And then I found something he said which really stuck with me. Mr. Jobs considered himself an artist, which I love. Here it is: One of my role models is Bob Dylan. As I grew up, I learned the lyrics to all his songs and watched him never stand still. If you look at the artists, if they get really good, it always occurs to them at some point that they can do this one thing for the rest of their lives, and they can be really successful to the outside world but not really be successful to themselves. That’s the moment that an artist really decides who he or she is. If they keep on risking failure, they’re still artists. Dylan and Picasso were always risking failure. This Apple thing is that way for me. I don’t want to fail, of course. But even though I didn’t know how bad things really were, I still had a lot to think about before I said yes. I had to consider the implications for Pixar, for my family, for my reputation. I decided that I didn’t really care, because this is what I want to do. If I try my best and fail, well, I’ve tried my best. —CNNMoney/Fortune, November 9, 1998 Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. You are the best.

If you’re like me, when you heard about the passing of Steve Jobs, you had a panicked moment where all you could think about was how much more Mr. Jobs had to give the world, and how sad you were to be robbed of the fruits of those years. My love for Mr. Jobs is a selfish one, but it made me think how much I have come to depend on him to be the one — clad in signature black from the waist up, like my Pacific Northwest Johnny Cash— to introduce me every year (or if we were lucky, twice a year) to some technology so amazing and fun you hoped that you were the one who got to break it to your friends.

If you’re also like me, you looked around the internet to learn more about him. I found out a few sad things, of course. One was how he passed away. Mr. Jobs battled a rare form of pancreatic cancer, neuroendocrine cancer. I have a relationship with pancreatic cancer, which has astoundingly, the same one-year survival rate as it did forty years ago - a mere 5%.

Julie Fleshman of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network said it well, of Jobs’ passing: “It is also a stunning reality that even those who have unlimited access to the highest level of care available cannot defeat this insidious disease.” Those of us who know and love people with this sad disease could see from Mr. Jobs extended periods of time off, and gaunt frame, that this was a man fighting for his life. I felt inspired to donate to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, a truly wonderful resource that actively petitions our leaders to provide more money for research for this incredibly under-funded disease. If you want to donate too, you can! Just go here: http://www.pancan.org/index.php
Donating there was something that I bought that I really love.

I also learned that Steve Jobs was adopted. Adopted. My God. This, to me is a movie in itself. Can you imagine adopting a baby and watching him grow up to be this kind of historically important thinker? His brain itself already so miraculous and mysterious. And now, fell into the lap of these loving parents through adoption? In my mind, the Jobs family found him floating down a river like Moses. People can tell me otherwise, but that’s what I’ll always believe, sorry.

I was delighted to find this great picture of him from when he was a younger.

I had this computer! My older brother and I fought over it to see who could play Gauntlet on it. And then I saw this picture, where Mr. Jobs is excitedly presenting the very computer I am writing this blog on:

That’s an almost thirty year span of computers he’s created that I’ve depended on and loved. And for every change in technology, every tweak made to make the computer more and more perfect, I’ve stuck with him to see what would happen next. Many of us have had a lengthy, happy marriages to Steve Jobs creations. That’s pretty amazing.

And then I found something he said which really stuck with me. Mr. Jobs considered himself an artist, which I love. Here it is:

One of my role models is Bob Dylan. As I grew up, I learned the lyrics to all his songs and watched him never stand still. If you look at the artists, if they get really good, it always occurs to them at some point that they can do this one thing for the rest of their lives, and they can be really successful to the outside world but not really be successful to themselves. That’s the moment that an artist really decides who he or she is. If they keep on risking failure, they’re still artists. Dylan and Picasso were always risking failure. This Apple thing is that way for me. I don’t want to fail, of course. But even though I didn’t know how bad things really were, I still had a lot to think about before I said yes. I had to consider the implications for Pixar, for my family, for my reputation. I decided that I didn’t really care, because this is what I want to do. If I try my best and fail, well, I’ve tried my best.

—CNNMoney/Fortune, November 9, 1998

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. You are the best.

Things I Bought That I Love: Zingerman’s Reuben Sandwich Kit

This spring I shot a movie called Five Year Engagement that Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller (@nicholasstoller) wrote, and Nick directed. I shot all my scenes in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which I had never been to but had heard was a gorgeous and fun college town. I also got a feel for it when I watched a documentary on the Fab Five, a highly interesting college basketball phenomenon from the 90’s.

The movie— which I think Nick is editing now— is really funny. I’m scared of getting in trouble by giving anything away, but I have most of my scenes with Jason, Emily Blunt, Kevin Hart, Rhys Ifans and Randall Park, and it’s like a United Nations of fun and talented comedy actors. You guys are going to love this movie.

Because of filming, I did not have a lot of time to shop in Michigan. What I did get to do is eat my weight in delicious Jewish deli food at Zingerman’s Deli, a super famous deli in Ann Arbor that, like Oprah talks about sometimes. Their reubens are so good, I became that tedious person talking to my family about them in detail on the phone. 

CONTINUE READING…

Welcome!

About four years ago, I started a blog called “Things I’ve Bought That I Love”. I know, I know. You’re like: Mindy, of course we know your blog. We all lived and died to your postings on that site, you don’t have to tell us. We love you. You’re an angel.

For those of you not lucky enough to have seen my old, very materialistic blog, there’s a link on this site the little ghost town where it lives now, suspended in time and space.

Things I’ve Bought That I Love was created primarily to do something during long breaks at work when our bosses, Paul Lieberstein and Greg Daniels, were editing or on set directing, and we had finished our assignments. Comedy writing is the best job in the world but there can be stretches of achingly boring downtime. Sometimes, instead of reporting back to the head writer when I was done with an assignment - only to sit idly in the writers room playing Word Mole on my Blackberry - I chose to update my blog. Because I am lucky enough to have a little disposable income, I would write about some of my purchases and pack them with anecdotes from work or life so that my mom could read it an have fun learning about my life. I even got some of my funny friends, like Danny Chun and Steve Hely— who I never got to see enough— to post very occasionally. Now Danny and Steve both work at the Office, so I get to see them a lot. Too much, even. Eventually, I got more and more responsibility on the show, and that precious downtime was less and less, so I couldn’t keep up with the postings, and I had to let the blog go.

A few months ago I thought about starting up the blog again, but I saw that someone had purchased “thingsiboughtthatilove.com”. I thought “Oh well, it’s not meant to be.” But now that I have my first book coming out and some writings in various magazines and, frankly, some hot photos of myself I want the internet to see, I thought: let me get my web presence back! Also, 140 characters is too small of a space to discuss the things I want to discuss.

So, stay tuned for some Things I’ve Bought That I Love posts, and hopefully some other stuff too. Visit Mon Amie for links to my loved ones and friends, and check out some photos of me in my Showroom. To reward you for reading this far, I’m going to share a photo of you that my Dad sent me when I was writing my book and wanted some kid photos. Enjoy (if that’s the right word).

Love, Mindy

This Tumblr is under construction, but we promise fun things will be here soon.

This Tumblr is under construction, but we promise fun things will be here soon.