Mindy Lahiri is Our Spirit Animal ...

We all have Mindy Lahiri moments while working out. Whether we need to imagine award show fantasies to get through our workouts, or convince ourselves we really need a new “performance rhinestone” J.Crew workout outfit, we are all Mindy Lahiri in those times.

Some of Mindy Lahiri’s most quotable moments come from the very little time she spends in clubs. She asks the DJ for the Wi-Fi password, she orders red wine with ice because they don’t have sangria, and she even gets her pashmina stolen by Amar’e Stoudemire. While most of us probably haven’t had that last experience, we’ve definitely at least thought about asking the DJ for the Wi-Fi password at one time or another.

Mindy Lahiri is really good at defending herself, and I think we all wish we could take a lesson from her at one point or another. When someone insults her appearance, she simply retorts, “I’m adorable. I look like Keira Knightley running errands!” When her best friend calls her a mess mid-fight, she puts on a gorgeous dress and says, “If I’m going to be a mess, I might as well be a hot mess!” If only we all had the quick comebacks and witty one-liners of Mindy Lahiri.

This may be a spoiler if you’re not completely caught up on The Mindy Project, but Mindy and Danny have recently spent a solid amount of time making out. I don’t think there’s any woman on this planet between the ages of fifteen and eighty who doesn’t wish she were dating Dr. Danny Castellano. You’re a lucky girl, Mindy Lahiri.

Okay, maybe “well” isn’t exactly the right word, but she copes with them. After she finds out her boyfriend cheated on her, she makes a pact with Danny to kill each other in five years if they’re both still single. After she breaks her engagement with Casey, she demands and is denied heartache days, which by the way, should be a workplace requirement for everyone.

One of the most quoted bits from the series is, “I’m not overweight! I fluctuate between chubby and curvy!” That doesn’t come as a shock to most women, because I’m almost positive that every woman has had that thought at one point or another. Mindy Lahiri goes one step further and shouts it at her overbearing patients! Recently, she’s even defended herself against people calling her overweight by saying, “Look at these wrists! Look at how dainty they are! They can barely hold up the huge calzones I eat!” It’s okay, Mindy. I’m almost positive we’ve all found ourselves defending our wrists at some point.

One of the reasons I started watching The Mindy Project was for the romantic comedy references. The amount of people who have told me I am young Mindy Lahiri when she recites You’ve Got Mail in the pilot is one of my prouder accomplishments. Like her best friend tells her, “Your life is not a romantic comedy. Right now, it seems more like a documentary about a criminally insane spinster.” Still, that doesn’t stop her from informing her date she’s the Joan Cusack character in the romantic comedy of his life after he realizes he’s in love with his best friend. Just like Mindy, we all want our lives to be like a romantic comedy, but it almost never works out.

Do you watch The Mindy Project? Is Mindy Lahiri your spirit animal? What’s your favorite quote?