2

2 years done....since the wedding.

Edited to add: I am in Pune with my family. All my sisters are here too, along with another guest family. So I celebrated with about 19 ppl at home. And the husband is back home all alone in the US, probably cooking his own dinner. Sigh :(

Highlights...

Some of the most interesting things of this trip so far...in chronological order. There were so many things I did this time that I had always wanted to do! And others were additional bonuses.

1) The plane I was in took off while my seat was more or less, completely reclined, and I was flat on my back! Now that was a first, and it better be the last!

2) Landed in Pune instead of Mumbai or Delhi. Being home within an hour is priceless!

3) Finally getting to meet my colleagues in India. Working formally through emails and conference calls is just not the same as brainstorming something and sharing gossip over tea and coffee! The ice-breaking was SO important and beneficial to everyone. Am glad I got this opportunity. (The length of this bullet point says it all I guess! I really enjoyed my time here)

4) Another road trip with my school friend, Sona. We had gone to Hubli by overnight bus earlier to surprise our very close friend. This time, we went to Mumbai, to surprise our school teacher. She was stunned! We met her after 20 years! She was still the same loving, Didi! This was an amazing experience!

5) Finally getting to meet Ria and Princess Mia. This was a huge one too! We connected instantly (at least I felt so!) and I wish we had more time, and more blogworld friends (Ella, missed you for sure!) And throw in Anuraag Baasu as a bonus! Right, girls? He took a picture of the three of us, and we didn't even realize who he was!

6) Watching a Gujarati play after a long long time!

7) Meeting Tabbu (yes, the actress!) at the foot massage place at Mumbai airport. No, I didn't bug her for autographs or photos or anything. We just exchanged smiles and went back to enjoying our massages. Yes, she is absolutely lovely in person too!

8) The BIGGEST thing ever on my wish list, I saw the Pyramids of Giza! I touched them! I climbed up on one of them too! Oh, I am so happy, you can't imagine!

9) Another first for me, I traveled alone. All the way to Egypt and back. And enjoyed it!

10) I won a belly dancing competition in Egypt. Against Columbian and Jordanian girls! How cool is that, huh?

11) I danced with a whirling dervish! That's even cooler, no?

12) I have actually been taking the bus to and from work. Not everyday, but some times. Another first for me!

13) Met my first "best friend" ever. Met her after almost 18 years. Yet another experience I am utterly thankful for! And Sona was with us too.

14) This one's weird, for me at least. The bus driver asked me to jump of the moving bus :) Ok, so it was not moving full speed, it was not completely impossible (thinking of the Mumbai locals!), but I still find it amusing.

I have another month or so to go before I return home. Hope it brings me some more pleasant surprises!

The Power of Just One Goal

Did I tell you I have re-joined Toastmasters?

I had joined a club in my previous company in 2006. I gave my first two speeches within a month. My audience totally loved me. After the first one, I was ecstatic. After the second one, I thought if I am so good already, why do I need to do this? I switched jobs after my second speech, and never joined the new one until 3 weeks ago. I went back because I wanted to finish all such initiatives that I started with a lot of enthusiasm, but quit halfway out of boredom.

I am glad I went back. I am having a lot of fun. The various topics under discussion really stir up the brain cells that have settled down lately to think only about work and home. It is definitely good for the brain, the confidence, the variety of thoughts, the challenge!

I attended the area level International Speech Contest hosted by my club today.
The title of this post is the title of the winning speech at the contest.

The power of just one goal!

It was about the speaker's sister: mother of 10, grandmother of 24, who decided one fine day that she wanted to start running! She wanted to run everyday. That is it. Just run, no other goal related to time or distance. After she did it for a month, she decided to run every single day for a year! Once she achieved that, she wanted to run a marathon. She took a year preparing for it, and won the first marathon she ran! She participated in marathons all over the country, and one day decided that she wanted to run the Boston Marathon. No mean feat this one! Yes, of course, she did it!

It started with one small goal of wanting to run. Nowhere in the picture was the Boston Marathon! Yet, that is where it led!

The speech got me thinking about the way I dealt with personal projects. They all start with lofty dreams. I have dreamt of being a fashion designer, a writer, a social worker, a singer, a dancer, a winner of this very speech contest where I was among the audience! While I had more than the basic talent needed for all these things, I never understood the power of humble beginnings! I just wanted to be at the top while I was still eyeing the bottom rung. While I had a flair for a wide variety of things, I never understood the importance of focusing on just one of them at a time! My head was always full of more ideas than I had the time and energy for. The result was that I achieved nothing significant! The result was anxiety and a sense of helplessness that there is so much that I can do, yet nothing that I am actually doing!

What a revelation that speech was! I started thinking about all that I wanted to do, why I wanted to do it, how it fit into the bigger picture of my life. Thoughts churned, and I started to see things more clearly. I was able to categorize tasks into must-do, can-do, and einhhh…why bother!

The things that bubbled up to the top were:
• Social work
• Writing
• Speaking

The more thought I put into this, the more I realized that they can all be connected!
I now have just one goal of my own that I feel really good about.

Present a speech promoting charity work within one month!

Wish me luck!

:O

I got a speeding ticket a couple months ago.
I signed up for traffic school
There's an online option. Yayy! I don't have to spend 8 hours in a classroom!
I enrolled
I clicked on the "Start Course" button
First thing I see...

A gal with brown sunglasses in a light blue BMW convertible!

Now that's called really rubbing it in!

Groan!

So thoughtful!!!

I am amazed at how thoughtful my husband is! Really!

I had knee surgery a week ago, and he has been the best caretaker I can ever have.
Preparing 3 meals a day, making sure I get the right nutrients, helping me exercise my leg, icing the knee, helping me take my first baby steps to get off the crutches, making a fun game out of walking. Am so glad and grateful to have him by my side.

But what inspired this post is today's lunch. He had to go back to work since yesterday. Yesterday he stayed home till lunch time, fed me and then he went. Today he couldn't stay, and didn't have time to make anything for me either. So he asked me if I could make some maggi? I said sure, since I am walking a lot now, and maggi is no big deal. Just put the pot and the maggi packet out on the counter so that I don't have to look for them.

When I went into the kitchen to make my lunch, I was amazed!
He had set the pot, filled in the required amount of water (so that I don't have to go to the sink to get it!), broke the noodles into even pieces and set aside in a plate, set out a spatula and a scissor next to the masala pouch! He knew I liked my maggi without any extra additions, so had prepared everything exactly like I would have wanted it. I did not have to move an inch to get anything else! He had even laid out the table for me! So much thought into something as simple as making noodles!

I am sincerely grateful to him and for him!

Daal? Ummm....green, yellow, white...

April 2007:
I am invited to dinner...by a very formidable lady. I get there, she looks me up and down, from head to toe. And I was kinda looking around, waiting for someone to say something, wishing I could run away, or disappear into thin air. Uncle asks me some thing, I answer, silence again, again some inane question and answer. I ask Uncle and Aunty how their flight was, how do they like it here so far, you know the usual pleasantries. And this goes on for some time. Then we all head to the dinner table.

I try hard not to head into the kitchen, and warm up the food and do my thing. I had to really restrain myself. She looks for some things in the kitchen, muttering where did it go, looks at her son, where did it go, he looks at me, and all I can do is smile. I know exactly where it is, but I am not supposed to know, so I just watch in amusement.

We finally sit at the dinner table, and she asks me,

खाना बनाती हो? (Can you cook?)

I nod.

क्या बनाती हो? (What do you cook?)

रोटी, सब्जी, दाल, येही सब... (roti, curry, daal, etc)

कौन सी दाल? (Which daal?)

Holy shit! I know their colors and how to cook them. I know a few names, but I cannot always link the name with the shape and color! I bet her son, who had his head down and was eating quietly, was dying to burst out in laughter! Coz I knew HOW to cook daal, but I hadn't actually done it in at least 5 years. He probably must be thinking, "Maggi, frozen food, more maggi". But I digress...

So I blurt out a few names...

मूंग, तूर, मसूर, उड़द, और वोह तेल वाली दाल.... (A few random names of daals, and finally...oily daal)

तेल वाली? वोह कौन सी होती है? (What's oily daal?)

And I mentally say a BIG thank you to my mother who cooks that oiled yellow daal every day at lunch (Kanan, do you know what I am talking about? Is it tuvar daal?). So I give aunty all the gyaan about this very special oily daal. She is content that I know what I am talking about, and, me, well, I am happy that she doesn't know exactly how much I know ;-) And the ice is broken :)

This, my fellow bloggies, was my first meeting with my MIL. We got along quite well after that, but man, was I nervous that day!

Earlier that evening, as I got ready to go to meet them, I felt SO alone, I so desparately missed my parents and my sisters. Weren't they the ones supposed to go meet them? Why just me alone? That was the first time in 10 years that I absolutely HATED being in this country, so far away from my home, all alone going to meet my future in-laws for the first time. This was a very big deal, and I was all alone! I had spoken to my sister much earlier in the day, and that soothing voice had already been forgotten, replaced by mammoth butterflies in my stomach. I called my best friend, even she didn't pick up the phone. I had the strangest of emotions that day. My dad was coming to meet them a couple months later, but this first time was just ... I don't know, just wanted to run back to Daddy and let him handle the important things.

Thankfully, today, I have "aunty's son" by me through everything, and I know I am not alone :)

Da tomatoes...

These are technically my hubby's since he takes care of them like little babies. I just eat :)
The cherry tomatoes are growing wild now. We got 2 kgs in a single day!
Tomorrow is another harvesting day, I think it will be more than 2 kgs!




This is an average sized one...


"Mommy and babies" is what a friend said when she saw this one...

And some MORE good stuff!

Looks like Uncle God is happy with me, and is sending unexpected gifts my way.

We have been looking for a "kadi patta" plant for the longest time now. So long, that I don't even remember since when! I went to the Indian grocery store an hour ago, and walked in to see a whole LOT of very healthy plants. I called hubby right away asking if I should get one (they were a bit expensive...$40). He was a bit like..hmm...$40, what if it doesn't survive. After a bit of coaxing he said, ok, get it if you like.

So there it is...standing about 3 feet tall!

Now I need to find instructions on taking care of it! Don't want it to die!

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While I was browsing the aisles in the store, I heard a tiny voice somewhere saying, "Mera Bournvita lena hai". I totally went awwwww......! Bournvita was my favorite too! I drank 3 glasses everyday! Kids still like it, thats total awwwww.... inspiring :)

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Believe it or not!

We bought close to 2 tons of rocks today!

(No, this pehelwaan didn't lift them! whew!)

Soo...what do ya think we will do with them?

Samby, I know you know, so don't answer just yet :)

Perceptions...

My nephew S, (cousin's son, he is about 4 years younger to me) and his wife, P, have moved to the Bay area from Pune. They have been here for about a month now.

I had invited them for paav-bhaji dinner this Sunday night. Had fun talking to them..especially to S, since he brought up all those long forgotten stories of our childhood. We spoke about our cousins and all the weddings in the family. Apparently they had the same photographer for their wedding that we had for my sister's 23 years ago! S was like, oh man, you don't want to see our pictures, they are very much similar to what he did for badi masi's wedding. Then P started telling some story she heard from my mother about my parents' wedding. Not one I had heard of!

S then mentioned that P is really impressed with my mother. She is so organized, talks so much and is so funny! And I was thinking, Who're you talking about? She is organized, yes, but she is also always tensed about "how will this get done, when will this get done, nothing's ever going to get done, are you getting up now, or should I go do your chores". Constantly worried. Non stop!
And she doesn't talk much, not to me...not now, not when I lived there. She would only tell me what chores I need to finish, ask me weather I am hungry, feed me, etc. Nothing like what P was saying! They said she always had so many fun stories about her life to tell them every time. And funny? Nooooo...constantly worried and hassled is what I saw! Very hard to make her smile.
But these two painted a completely different picture.

That got me thinking... we all have different faces, different personalities based on who we are communicating with. I know I am very reserved when I am with my parents, a child with my jijus, a bit serious at work (just a little bit though, hard to be serious with such fun colleagues here!), completely crazy with my friends, and a little bit of everything when I am at home with the hubby. But still...the perception of me as a person is not so different. Not like what I know of my mom, and what S and P know of her. So my new resolution is that the next time I meet her, I want to bring out what S and P bring out in her, the fun, the laughter, the stories!

On the flip side...I emailed my sisters that I had invited these two for paav-bhaji, and so much fun it was and all that. The only response I got was, "You know how to make paav-bhaji"? Now here is another perspective. No matter what I or anyone else says, regardless of how fancy my daily meals are, the perception that "kashmira cannot cook to save her life" is not going to change. The next time I get that question I am going to say, No, I invited P and then asked her to have some pity on me and cook for me!

Awesome awesome week...

Getting lots of good news this week :)

A friend of mine who had been laid off a few months ago got a job. Just had lunch with him, and he looked SO upbeat and happy!

My cousin's son who moved here from India only last week also has an offer in hand (even before he got his SSN in hand!). He called me right after I got back from lunch to share his news.

How awesome is that!

And I am super relaxed because I have been sleeping REALLY well last two days (last week was hell because I was getting only about 4 hrs of sleep everyday, and a lot of driving around and organizing to do for the aforementioned nephew and his wife). They are nicely settled into their apartment three days ago, and my life's back to its own pace.

And I feel good about being a good aunty to two people...

1. To the aforementioned nephew and his wife (she went "yikes" when I told her, "You know P, technically, I would be your मौसी-सासुमा!" I went "yikes" at that too, and the hubby said, "that's cool, उस से सेवा करवाओ")
2. 
   
3. To Aneri. Its her birthday on Monday and I sent her a "Jakks Vmigo Handheld Dog Chihuaha". I have no clue whatsoever what the heck it is, but thats what she wanted, and thats what she gets :)
   

And I am super thrilled. About what? Welllll....I have coral colored nails today :D
And I am wearing this t-shirt I bought from Alaska. Its white, and has line drawings of butterflies and flowers in black. You know...the kind of drawing's you'd see in a child's coloring book? Ho-hum, what's so great about that you say?
तो सुनो इस्पेसिअल बात... The minute I step out in the sun, the butterflies and flowers turn blue and pink and green :D
Super, eh? My colleagues and I did this drill of going in the building and out again a couple times just to see the colors changing. Ha ha, such fun!

And oh, the work on the spa has finally begun. Now I wake up to see some guys digging in the backyard (and of course I do go yikes! every time I see them) instead of squirrels and birds and cats!

Have an awesome weekend, yall!

Pics...by the hubby :-)

Have had a few people remind me about my dead pic blog. Its dead since I have not been inspired by anything recently. But I do have some good pics...taken by the hubby on our recent trip to Monterey and the aquarium there. Here's a sneak peek...will ask him to pick his favorites and put up the lot later on the pic blog.

That be me and a very pretty bottle-brush tree :)

Anemones!!!

Jelly fish! This picture does NO justice to the actual display out there!

PS: I know, I know...the pics are HUGE. Am too lazy to resize them. The next batch will be a better size! I promise!

PPS: Resized after Tanu's warning :)

Tidbits....some sweet...some funny

Some of my friends are missing me :D So a short update...

• Saw a tow-truck broke down in the middle of the road. I found it so strange :) Who is gonna tow that poor thing away now :D
• 
  
• Saw a stupid kid riding a bicycle yesterday. What's stupid about that? She was riding it in the middle of the road! In the opposite direction. I mean, I see this stupid kid coming straight at me on the road. She got off the road when we got closer, and back again in the center until she came across another oncoming car. Stupid, stupid kid!
• 
  
• I saw my friend's week-old baby! So adorable! And the parents were so delighted, that was a treat in itself!
• 
  
• We added YET another gardening tool to our tool-shed. Got a hedge trimmer this time, the hubby's having fun trimming things around the yard.
• 
  
• Our tomato plants are getting out of control!
  
• 
  
• FINALLY saw Jab We Met :) Enjoyed it quite a lot!
• 
  
• My sister is going ballistic over her 15 yr old son's hair :) He's grown it out and straightened it. I like :) The boy's having fun!
  
• 
  
• I saw a 3D sonogram of an unborn baby. His wife's parents actually bought the ultra-sound machine that could do this. When he told us that he has 3D pics of the baby, I jokingly asked him, does he look like you, he answered very seriously, well...my wife's parents think he looks like her, but his foot is exactly like mine. Then he showed us the pic of the baby's foot, and then his foot.
  
• ***P asked me in her comment how we reacted to this. I said nothing, hubby said, hmm..yeah, it IS like yours :) Guys ARE getting more sensitive these days ;)
  

• My little niece got her own email account, and wrote to me today! She sounded so excited.
  
• 
  
• My old laptop died and went to heaven. I have a new one now, haven't quite bonded with it yet :(
• 
  
• Made some awesome ras malai for the first time (and probably the last time! It took so long!!!)
• 
  
• Have been on a parantha-fest...made aloo paranthas, and then some mooli paranthas :)

And now again I am wondering why would anyone want to know all this!? And I can already see a comment coming my way saying, yeah, why would anyone care about all this?!

Animal Update

The squirrel seems to be getting quite comfortable in our backyard. I was watching it eat some stuff off the ground. It ate, ate and ate, I guess till it was ready to bust. Then it slowly walked up to my doorstep and lay down. I guess it was trying to sleep! I walked close to it (inside the house of course, didn't open the door), sat down with my biggo camera next to it. It was awake, but hardly moved! A few weeks ago, it would dart around in a nervous frenzy if it so much as saw me or the hubby inside the house. Guess it has adopted us now :)

I have a few grainy pictures...the camera refused to focus on it. Will upload it in a couple days. It looks so tired! Almost dead!


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On other updates...the fruits on the neighbor's plum tree have ripened. They are SO sweet! Unbelievable! Brought a bag full to work today.

PS: The neighbor doesn't mind, she's hardly ever at home, and her plums go waste unless we eat them.

We have a patch of cherry tomatoes. We're seeing some fruits now. Can't wait for them to ripen. We had over 12kgs of tomatoes last year! Lets see how much we have this year!

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And there is a new post on the blessings blog...for those who missed all my gyaan these last few days ;)

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Family Time!

What a weekend!!! Went by in a blur!

My sister, jeeju and their kids (Aneri and Jaanvi) visited me over the weekend.

It was all so blurry and went by so quickly, that I am not even able to collect my thoughts to write a post about it! Maybe I will do it over time, little by little, in multiple posts.

A few things I learnt watching my sister interact with her husband and kids:

- Take light, life's not so serious!
- Be yourself
- Don't be afraid to ask for what you want, but don't always expect to get what you want! (Learn to accept "no" for an answer!)
- Say no if you want to say no! Its ok!
- Kids are people too! They have feelings, they understand.
- Be tactful! (Oh geez, I really need to learn this one big time!)
- Be sly when you need to (टेढी ऊँगली से घी निकालना सीखो!)

And lots more I guess...these are just from some observations.


BTW, there is another post before this one. More recent in the chronology of my life (since the incidents in there happened today, and this post is about the weekend!)

Will write more as and when I remember stuff...till then...comment away :)

Good Thoughts

A friend of mine sends out these Good Morning messages everyday, which are truly awesome!

Here's part of today's:

The beauty of the morning is not the sunshine!
But the thought of GOD giving us another beautiful day!
Another chance to declare our love to our loved ones...!

Now this helps me a GREAT deal. Because I am one of those folks who need sunshine to feel like waking up! Winter is very hard for me, because its so dark and cloudy. Dark and cloudy translates into gloomy for me. But this message puts things into perspective! My loved ones are my sunshine, and they are always there.

**********************

Yesterday I saw this totally cute scene...
I was on my way home. I turned right on a major intersection. Right at the signal, a mommy ducky jumped off the divider, followed by the tiniest of baby duckies. The baby looked sooooo cute jumping off the divider and following mommy! I wish I could have taken a pic, but of course I couldn't. Not like that, in the middle of the intersection :)

What I really really found cute was that they were using the pedestrian crossing to get across! Not anywhere else, they were perfectly in the center of the crossing!

And that baby ducky, so so so cute!


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I must have been really worn out yesterday. I got home at 5, and fell asleep immediately to wake up only at 8:30! And slept soundly again at 1! I do feel all happy and refreshed today.

I have guests visiting for 4 days starting tomorrow. So am glad I got my rest before they come. I will need all my energy to look after them.

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A kind request to folks who comment on my ramblings...

I don't like comments starting with "don't worry", "no worries", "things will get ok" etc. Because fact is I am not "worrying" about anything. Things are as good as they can be. I am just thinking out loud. I have a very curious mind, so if I ask questions, thats all it is. Questions of a curious mind. Not worries of a troubled mind.

PS: Yeah, yeah, I know you are so tempted to say "don't worry, I won't think you're worrying!"
But. Please. Don't. ok?

Random thoughts

I think I am suffering from Writers' block right now (if I may allow myself to be called a "writer" in the first place!)

My mundane life which I sometimes present like a three-ring circus is still just as mundane as ever. The words to embellish it and make it sound fun are lost somewhere.

I can't even remember what I did this weekend. I'm gonna try and remember some random things I did.

- I saw that squirrel again, with a HUGE orange in its mouth. It was running on the top of the wooden fence. All I could think was, how on earth is he able to see! The orange was at least 3 times the size of his head!

- I saw movies, lots of movies - Princess Diaries, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Along Came Polly on TV, and Harold and Kumar Escape Guantanamo Bay in the theater. I really enjoyed the Indiana Jones one and the Harold/Kumar one. Hilarious!

- We had a lot of fun trimming down a tree...and plucking oranges.
We got three bags of oranges, which hubby put by the living room door. One of the oranges escaped the bag it was put in and rolled into the living room to watch TV :)

(Sorry, guys, if this doesn't make any sense, just move on)

- Am reading "The Hindi-Bindi Club" by Monica Pradhan. It is a very well written book (language wise) and I am actually able to identify with the content in it too!

And now I am wondering why anyone would want to spend 2 minutes reading my list!

I do have a lot of thoughts in my head, but all of them are so serious. Am in no mood of getting any "gyaan" from anyone, so in no mood to impart any either.

Oh well, I hope the funny bone returns soon!

Here's a question...

We were returning from the theater last night, at around 12:30. There's a church on the way, and the car in front of us turned to go to the church parking lot. I was surprised, and asked hubby,

M(e): Did they really go to the church?
H(im): yeah, you wanna go?
M: No, I wouldn't know what to do there...church, temple, mosque, i wouldn't know what to do there.
H: bhajan gaao.
M: I don't know, I mean, aren't you supposed to have a lot of faith and feeling and all that in your song. Now if I go in there and sing a bhajan, I would probably have the same feeling as singing some Govinda gaana. Wouldn't it sound all the same to God?
H: Sure, go sing Govinda gaana.

And we prattled on some more...can't remember about what.

So the question to the "faithful" ones is, would God get mad at me if I went and sang something stupid. When I do go to the temple, I look at the idol, say, hey, wassup, and get going. Now if I add a little song and dance routine to that, like trying to entertain him, would he like it? I know, the folks around me would want to throw me out, but wouldn't God like some entertainment too?

I hope I am not offending anyone, just pouring out my random thoughts :D
.

Such is life...part II

So after that totally disappointing day, comes a bustling day like yesterday!

Work went fine, got a lot of stuff done = Tech stuff
Was able to put up a couple posts on my blogs = Writing
We planted 3 different types of chillies. :) = Gardening
Hubby had collected a variety of chillies that he liked, dried them, de-seeded them, planted the seeds, and handed me the "chhilka" of the chillies, saying, can we use these in today's dinner? He's so cute :)
Chores are there of course! = House work
Exercised, yayy! = Something I actually like doing, but don't do that often
Cooked, with the afore mentioned chillies, of course = More house work.


Had a nice conversation with hubby about stuff I was a bit afraid to bring up. He listened, I know he did, but when I asked him, suna, he said, yeah. Kya suna, he said, "Peter" :)
Peter is a bird (or birds, we have never seen him/them) in our backyard, that keeps twittering all night, and sounds like he's saying "Peter, peter, peter". We are thinking about putting up a birdhouse, and then putting some sleeping pills in there for Peter, so he can sleep :)
Digressions aside, he heard what I had to say, and I think he understood :)

And the highlight of the day...that door from the previous post!
Its an unfinished door, that we have to put a cherry wood stain on. I cleaned it, we propped it nicely for him to sand. He was all excited about it, because he just bought a new tool, a sander! And a shop vac that would attach to the sander (men and tools, I tell ya!). I was a little disappointed though. Sanding used to be my job, I used to do it by hand, and really liked doing it. Now I was replaced by a machine, sigh ;) He sanded it while I exercised, then I cleaned it with some thinner, we turned it around, he sanded the other side while I continued my exercise, then cooked and watched TV and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Now that's what I call a really full and fulfilling day! I am looking forward to applying the stain today.

And I got some really really good pictures this morning. Will post them on the photoblog soon!

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 :(

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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