Thursday, May 29, 2008

Signs

Got this pic from the plane, on my way back from Houston. Reminded me of the movie "Signs" :)

It was pretty amazing! Such huge farmlands, and such symmetry! I have another pic without the wing showing. But I like this one better. It looks like its actually on the ground, not high up in the air.



Some of you asked me how my trip was...so here goes.

It was an Indian wedding, one Patel marrying another Patel :) I was in the baraat, the groom was my cousin's son. Met a LOT of people from my extended family. We got there on Saturday evening, immediately got ready to go for dandia. The wedding was in the morning the next day. Attended that, and slept through the afternoon, went to the reception in the evening. And came back home the next day. Thats it :) All the events were in the hotel we stayed at, so didn't see any part of Houston other than the hotel and airport. Just hung out with my cousins. Fielded a lot of questions about life post-marriage. Most people were nice, trying to get acquainted with my husband, and helping him mingle. But there was one annoying observation by a very stubborn person "you have lost so much weight after you got married!" I kept telling her, no, dear, I am just the same, and she kept insisting that I was wrong. Such random things people say when they want to talk to you, but don't really have anything sensible to say! I am 10 pounds heavier if anything. Ugh, I think I am still annoyed!

Was a good trip overall, did nothing except eat and sleep and talk. Felt quite well rested when I got back home to the grind.

BTW, there is another post I put up just before this one. So please do scroll down :)

Such is life...sigh!

Yesterday was a totally disappointing day.

I had trouble falling and staying asleep the night before, so waking up was hard :(

We have a small dwarf cherry tree. This is its second year. First year, it hardly grew. This year we had one single cherry. We were watching it eagerly, the small green fruit growing bigger, turning pale yellow, then orange, then slightly red, then a nice dark cherry color. I went outside to check if it was ready to be picked. I suppose it must have been, since the squirrels had already gotten to it :(

I found a tiny nest in our jasmine vine, with 5 little blue robin's eggs. I was hoping to see the little ones when the eggs hatched. Went to check on them, they were gone too :(

Work didn't go as expected either, couldn't finish what I had planned due to some "technical difficulties" :(

I had wanted to finish one major "home improvement" task as well. Got dinner to-go so that I would have time for it and all. Still could not get to even starting with it, because of myriad other niggling things coming up that I needed to take care of :(

This was just so frustrating. Like someone (yeah, veens, you) once said, its like running on a treadmill and getting no where.

Sigh...I am hoping today would be a better day.
I did sleep well. And the first of my lilies bloomed today. Had been waiting for months now to see them! Work was uneventful, nothing good or bad about it. Hope the day ends well, uneventful is also ok, I just don't want yet another frustrating, disappointing day.

Such a dull, boring, post :(

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Oh Wow!

I got an award! For the first time in my life! And that too simply for being who I am!

See.....La Vida gave it to me! Such an awesome feeling! Thanks so much dear!


And I pass it on to Veens, Pri, Ankur, Ria, Preeti and Cinderella.

10 Things...

-xh- tagged me to write down 10 things I miss, and 10 things I want to do within the next 10 years.

What I miss...
1- My dad!
2- Vacations with my family. We used to have at least two good trips every year
3- Leisure! There's always some chore or the other to do :(
4- Maid-service! After 11+ yrs here, I still miss that!
5- My innocence. Am glad I am more practical and all that now, but I do miss being all bhola-bhala!
6- My carefree life with my roomie and best friend...from abt 5 yrs back. We're all married and all now.

I think thats about it!

What I wanna do...
1- Grow up and not be such a baby at times (I know, its quite the opposite of "missing my innocence")
2- Learn how to balance home, work, and still make time for myself.
3- Visit Egypt
4- Be an awesome cook
5- Be more involved than I am now in community/social work
6- Have a great relationship with my in-laws (its very formal right now since I barely know them)
7- Be a good photographer
8- Write a book, dunno about what, since I can't write fiction
9- Be more social. I am always so tongue-tied.
10- Manage 10 blogs! Just kidding! 3 is good enough!


Am tagging...no one in particular.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Houston, here I come

Will be off of blogger for 4 days. Going to Houston to attend a wedding.

Also, I have a poll up about which blog of mine people like the most. Do lemme know!

I was hoping to have more traffic on the "Blessings Blog" but I only have maybe 2 or 3 people come in :( After threatening and dragging them there, read it or else!

I try to update it everyday (haven't been able to lately because of laptop issues, but that blog will definitely have more updates soon!) Please do visit. Its a little on the serious side, but makes more sense than some of the silly stuff I write here :)

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

My morning commute

A few days back, hubby dear and I were talking (or rather, I was talking and he was listening) about the "mehengaai", everything getting so expensive, grocery bills doubling over (yeah, yeah, the regular aate-daal ka bhaav waala discussion), etc.

I mentioned how gas prices sky-rocket every summer when we need to run the AC and use more gas...blah blah. And then Ms Big Mouth said, you know we should car-pool to work whenever we can. His office is across the street from mine, and running two premium-gas guzzling BMWs on the same route everyday does not make sense, economically as well as environmentally. And I even offered to drive. He was all happy, I mean who can refuse a free ka chauffeur, right?

I usually get to work by 10, and he by 11. Today, he had a meeting at 10 as well, and I asked him if wanted to come with me. He said, sure.

Now start my trials and tribulations! The drive to work is 15 minutes on a good day, after 10:00am when the traffic thins out a little. And there is a signal between his office and mine. And he leaves exactly 15 minutes before his first meeting of the day, and wanted to do that even today. He figures that I would need 5 minutes to get back from his office to mine, so we should leave at 9:40. I got a teensy-weensie jolt in my heart, no way was this plan going to work! I survived that one though. Whew!

I was getting all nervous, I am SO going to be late! And he goes no, no, we will be fine. He's happily taking his time getting ready, while I have all my stuff loaded in the car, getting more nervous with every passing minute.

We get in the car at exactly 9:40, and I am already jealous. Why does he get to sit there happily and not me? And he doesn't even observe things on the road like I do. He should be driving, and I should be sitting and observing the world and talking about it. Anyway, we get out on the main road, and all 4 lanes are packed. I whine, "We are going to be so late". And he's re-assuring me, it'll be fine, dear, relax. I realized then that there is no point in fretting. I brought this upon me, I offered to do this, and anyway, worrying is not going to get us there any faster.

But damn these cars, why can't they move faster. Why do I always get stuck behind the driver who's slow coz he's lost and has no clue what to do. I started my tirade about why the driver ahead of me is stuck in the same spot, why can't he move, and husband says, he IS moving, see? No, me no see! I am so itching to drive like I always do, zipping between lanes whenever I can, squeeze into whatever space I can find. But he hates that, and has non-stop commentary every time I am driving. So I try to be patient for some time. But can't take it anymore, and try to switch lanes and he screams, "car, car". I got back in my lane and start to wonder, why did I not see it?? Ahaaa, because his head was filling up the window! Grr! I finally do manage to get ahead of the lost tourist in front of me. We reached an intersection, where I decide to turn left, and husband speaketh: Go straight.
Me: What?
Him: No, nothing (yayy, he's learning! Finally, after 5 years, he is learning to let me be!)

I dropped him off in time for his meeting (and btw, he told me at the very last minute that he needs to be in a different building, not his own!), and heaved a sigh of relief, a BIG sigh of relief, the minute he stepped out. I was SO tempted to just go back and do the drive all by myself, without this..this..this stranger sitting here . He wasn't even doing anything to annoy me, just sitting there quietly, thats all. Still, I was like, whew, he's finally gone!

I always drive when we go out together, so its nothing new to have him there by me. But this was totally unexpected! Almost like a sacrilege of my commute, my time to myself! I am surprised that I did not like it! I guess I will get used to it, but man, I feel so weird about it right now!

Well, he was right, I made it in time too. Now I just hope I don't forget to pick him up in the evening!!!
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Monday, May 19, 2008

Virtual vs Real

I went to get a pedicure yesterday, and read a bit of an article where the author said she prefers real, flesh-and-blood friends that she can talk to face to face, not someone virtual, on MySpace of FaceBook or something. I didn't complete the article (my pedicure was done, and I was SO ready to go home!) . She mentioned having friends to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, someone to laugh and talk to through the night while she was in college, someone in the next room in her dorm. And thats what she wanted, not some picture on a website.

I completely DISAGREE with her!

First off, my friends that I keep in touch with through the internet are all REAL people, they are not computers or programs! The feelings they convey to me, the joy and sorrow they share with me is very REAL. They make me feel more loved and cared about than the friend that I meet for lunch maybe once in 6 months! They come meet me everyday. They ask after my health, give me advice when I need it, laugh with me, cry with me, tease me too!

It will be very unrealistic and foolish to expect your friends, or at least one of them, to be around whenever you need them for whatever reason. Be around in flesh and blood, that is. But my "virtual" (I hate to call them that! But for lack of a better word, calling them virtual) friends will be there, at least someone will be there at any given time. Even if they are not there at the exact moment, they ALWAYS leave me a note when I wake up in the morning. In fact, with blogger, even people who don't know me leave me messages that always make me smile and feel happy.
I am always surrounded by the love of REAL people! I feel good about my friends on orkut, FaceBook, and Blogger!

I am not trying to downplay the importance of real contact, of meeting in person. I am only trying to say that the online interactions are only making our lives richer, giving us broader perspectives on lives of people in different countries, in different phases of life, from different cultures. Sure, I would love to meet each and everyone of my blogger friends if I can (only that when I do that, I will be dumbstruck and not utter a word for at least a few hours!)


More power to online socializing, mesays!
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The Actual Weekend

All of you who read about my perfect weekend, and said "Have fun", "Enjoy", etc...well...that was just a dream of mine. Something I wished I could do. And something written down and already planned for some weekend when I do have the all time and leisure at my disposal.

The weekend was good nonetheless. We had friends over for dinner (4 Indians and 1 Chinese guy) on Saturday. So I spent pretty much all day cooking. These were my colleagues from my previous job, and it was SO good to hang out with them again. I was still making rotis when they arrived, and the Chinese fella was totally fascinated when my roti puffed up so perfectly on the flame. He wanted to give it a shot, so I let him play with the last bit of dough. The guy was simply amazing! He rolled out a perfect circle, thin like a born gujju would make, and roasted it to perfection! We did take pictures, but looks like they got overwritten :(

Sunday was spent cleaning up (3 loads of the dishwasher!), going out for lunch to find an art-and-crafts festival going on in the street where the restaurant was, getting a well-deserved pedicure (I love the flowers on my toes :) and finally a movie on TV.

Not the perfect weekend, but still good :)

Friday, May 16, 2008

LeechBlocked!

I am spending WAYY too much time on blogger :(

So starting Monday, blogger is going to be LeechBlocked from 10:00am to 4:30pm(Firefox users will know what I am talking about). And my orkut, facebook, gmail and yahoo accounts too. I will visit in the morning, before 10:00 and in the evening between 4:30 and 5:30. That'll mean fewer posts and comments from me.

But I am sure you will understand, and not miss me much! You don't want yet another addict now, do you?

See ya on Monday then!

The Perfect Weekend

Its Friday evening, and I am wondering what my ideal weekend would be like...

Saturday

  • - Wake up araam se
  • - Brush, drink coffee, sit in the yard (which is all done up nicely, not covered in weeds that made me sick)
  • - Araam se get ready
  • - Eat something quick
  • - Get a good book, and read for a few hours.
  • - Go out in the evening to a park or something
  • - Then dinner some place quick (I guess I don't like long, lingering dinners)
  • - Movie
  • - Come home, read for a while and sleep in my cozy bed
Sunday
  • - Wake up a little early
  • - Drive up Highway 1 North, or down 1 South (Hwy 1 is along the coast, so its beautiful either way). Stop wherever I feel like to take pictures.
  • - I think I will go South, so I reach Monterey at lunch time
  • - Eat, then rent a bicycle and ride it for a while on the bike trail
  • - Head back home. No stops this time. Hopefully I get home by 7
  • - Nice long bath
  • - Cook something quick and eat (quick is the keyword, I guess I am not a foodie!)
  • - Either read my book, or work on some embroidery
  • - Off to bed.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Don't you dare wake up!

Haven't written a funny memory in a while, and that's just not like me. So here's a story :)

In my single days, I had a strange "relationship" with my alarm clock. I am an insomniac since...oh, I don't remember when...so I would fall asleep some time close to early morning. And would have to go to work by 9, so every morning would be a fight with the alarm clock. It would ring for at least an HOUR before I would actually stop hitting the snooze button and get my body out of bed (the soul would still be there for some more time ;-)

Every morning, my brain would conjure up some weird dream close to wake up time...some how related to the clock, and why bad things would happen if I woke up. It would usually be something related to the hottest news in the world or whatever had been discussed heavily the day before.

During the 9/11 days...when Osama was the biggest news here in the US, I had this dream about him, right around the time my alarm was supposed to go off. I don't remember the details of what happened in the dream before the alarm went off. But when it did go off...I sort of saw Osama sitting on my clock, saying, "Don't you dare wake up, or I'll bomb you!"

It was very believable too! I snoozed a few times before my brain finally woke up and registered what was going on :)

I had quite a few funny dreams. Some thing new every day, that I don't remember anymore. I guess this one just takes the cake. No more dreaming anymore though. I am quite awake at least 10 minutes before Kishore Kumar starts to sing "Aa chal ke tujhe...main leke chaloo, ek aise gagan ke tale..." on my alarm.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Huh!!!!

Just read the news that Madhuri Dixit received the Padma Shri award!
Ummm...why????? For her distinguished contribution in the field of art!

Ohhhkkk!

UPDATE: After reading some of the comments, I feel kinda okay about it. I guess it is based on "popularity" of the person. I am not a huge fan of her acting, but I do admire the way she has managed her life. She is one of the very few big stars who has not been embroiled in some scandal/controversy/affair or other, and has not compromised her principles either.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Hello Mr. Murphy

So...Pri, should I blame you for this one (this post is going to be a proof of such an expert I am at blaming some totally unrelated, unsuspecting, random person for something that happens to me :)

Ok, so we start by blaming Pri.

She did a tag about what's in her handbag. She didn't specifically tag me to do it, just all the ladies that read her blog. So she did mean me, right?

So then I see what's in my handbag, I write it down, and also what's missing from it...my checkbook. I used to look for it in the mail everyday since I ordered it, but didn't really do anything about it not arriving until I did Pri's tag. Right after I did the tag, I wrote to the bank, asking them what happened to the 150 checks I had ordered 15 days ago. They promptly responded that they had sent them, the checks should have reached me within 10 days. Since they have not, they are assuming that they were lost/stolen, and are putting a "stop process" order on all 150 of them. I was so glad they were so prompt and careful and all that.

I went home that day, to find the box of checks on my doorstep. Checks that I can't use right away! Will have to write to the bank again.

See Pri, how it all ties in and how you're responsible :)

What? Why? How?

Can we really "know" someone based only upon what they are today? Based upon where they work, what they eat, where they live, what they do everyday, how they spend their weekends, where their parents live, how many siblings they have? Can you really know someone based just upon something that resembles a resume, and nothing deeper than that?

With no past experiences shared, no mention of any ups and downs in their life, without knowing their memories, happy or sad. Without knowing anything about what makes them who they are? Without knowing what their relationship with their parents was like while growing up, what the environment was like? Without knowing what they dreamed of when they were teenagers? Without knowing whether those dreams were fulfilled or not? Without knowing who their friends were, what they did for fun?

Is it really possible to "connect" without any past knowledge? How do you get through to someone who says "I don't remember all that", "Nothing eventful ever happened in my life", "I have no special memories of anything". How can you ever break that wall of reserve, that defense they have put up against the entire world, not wanting to let anyone in? How can you make them happy without knowing what goes on in their mind? How can you heal their scars without knowing that they even exist?

You can be a friend, but can you really reach their soul? Is it possible?

Monday, May 5, 2008

Whats in the bag?!

Do read the previous post...its an important one :)

Pri tagged all her woman readers to do this...so here goes, its hardly as interesting as her's though...

  • wallet
  • camera
  • pen
  • small spiral notebook
  • an envelope they gave me at the doctor's office today (I am too lazy and uninspired to see what's in it)
  • my Avaya id
  • keys
  • a few receipts
That's it! Pretty clean! I used to have my checkbook in there too. Just that I ran out of checks, so no point in keeping it. And thinking of which, I need to check with my bank why I haven't received my new checkbooks yet. That also brings back a not-so-nice memory. I realized I had only 2 checks remaining...on April 13th. And I needed to send out my tax checks on April 15th! 4 of them (Don't ask me why 4!) Luckily for me I could do online payments for two of them! Whew!

Yet another one!

Since I am not taking up enough space in Blogville, I added yet another blog! This one is a direct outcome of my previous post. Its called

This I am grateful for today...

I hope to update it everyday, and maybe quite often in a day too, based on when I remember what.
Do visit, and tell me your blessings :)

Friday, May 2, 2008

Thou shalt not crib!


Sourish has written a more in depth article about this...he calls is Acedia, I call it, in layman's terms "cribbing".

It is pretty amazing how Bloggerville kicks me in the butt and makes me "see" things every time I crib or feel bad about something petty! Its almost like some blogger friend or the other has some telepathic (spelling??) connection to me, and puts up something more hard-hitting that tells me, chup kar!

A couple weeks ago I was feeling really low that all we ever do is fix up the house (there's still a lot of work remaining), we haven't gone out of town even for a weekend. Created quite a ruckus. And Samby put up his post of how passionately he wants to join the army, and cannot. Cry baby had to admit, his issue was bigger!

I can absolutely not tolerate noise and chaos. My office is always bustling with activity. I love everyone here a LOT, couldn't ask for a nicer bunch of colleagues, but at the end of the day, I just want to shut myself up somewhere and not talk to anyone for at least an hour! Was telling this to the hubby the other day, and he lost his patience with me, saying, You seem to have a problem with everything, you like nothing! I took it to heart and did not talk to him for two days , and...well I felt terrible about it. Because I DO NOT complain that much! I am always trying to make fun of things (I mean, come on, read my posts, did y'all not laugh??) and trying not to take stuff personally and all. I felt really bad, and once that starts, the ball gets rolling, and I end up feeling bad about pretty much everything about my life. And then Sourish had to put up this post today...you hate noise he says (well, he didn't really say that to me, but...you know), here, look at this family, a bomb ripped through their home! You feel you are misunderstood? Look at this little boy who they thought was stealing and is in prison since a long time. Cry baby had to admit again, there is some REAL pain out there!

I sometimes feel lonely with no family here and very few friends who are caught up in their own lives (and so am I). My sister lives with her extended family, and I sometimes feel, I wish I was in her shoes. Well, no, not really. Here's why...Everyone remembers the super treat I got on my birthday, right? My sister's birthday was just 4 days after mine, and she did not even get to go out for dinner because her sis-in-law said, "nah, too expensive". Cry baby had to admit, her life is quite good indeed!

All that said, I think I am a pretty cheerful person overall. I try to cheer things up around me as much as I can. When someone says something nasty to me, I feel hurt and lost...about "what did I do wrong to deserve this". Sometimes I am grouchy (usually when I am hungry and/or tired), sometimes I am unreasonable (usually when there is too much noise, especially the chewing kind) Overall I think I am a good soul, but I suppose there is some room for improvement. And Bloggerville's helping :) Thank you all for putting things in the right perspective for me!

I shalt not crib!!! Well....no promises, but I will try! I promise to try!

Wanted to add...
A few months ago, I used to write down at least 5 things I am grateful for everyday. Some things got repeated (like my friends and my cameras because they bring me so much joy). Don't know why I stopped doing it. It used to make me feel much happier through out the day, since I actually took time to figure out what is "good" about my life. The process itself cheered me up so much! I think I will start putting my list everyday on my blog.

Image credit to: Helen Bae Photography