Happy Birthday...

... to me! :)

What a year it has been! Last birthday I had just got to San Diego and this time around I am here in Los Angeles... If someone had asked me two years ago where I would be celebrating my birthday two years from now, I am sure I would not have guessed this! Frankly, I don't know where I will celebrate my next birthday (I hope its Ann Arbor :D)

Am in a contemplative mood right now so forgive me if I begin to ramble... It truly has been an eventful year this 2008... traveling, learning, meeting, cooking, holidaying, applying, interviewing, living and I loved every moment of it! I truly am a changed person... I know myself better, I know my limitations and more importantly, I know my strengths... Today as I look forward to a new year (calendar too) I feel optimistic and confident about what the future has in store for me... It might be misplaced (or maybe its all that chocolate in the chocolate cake glazed with semi-sweet chocolate ganache talking ;) but the last couple of weeks, it almost seemed like I could do no wrong... small everyday incidents but lucky coincidences nonetheless!!

Being in a new place on your birthday does have its drawbacks though... no friends who come over at 12 in the night to perform the 'cake facial' routine, no family to pamper you... I do miss them all a lot but I am not exactly sad... far from it! I feel I am at such a juncture in life right now when something good, something big is going to happen and the anticipation is a wonderful feeling :)

I have read the saying 'Enjoy the journey' often... and through the process of b-school application, I have realized that the journey has always been more exciting, more energizing than the destination itself for me... Once I reach what I had set out for, its time to set another goal, target another milestone and make a dash for it!

This last year I set my goals, I ran my race and now as I wait for the results, I pray for success and plan for next steps...

SD to LA

Today was my first day at the new client in LA and it was quite eventful! Here's how -

I drove up to LA in a rented car (Kia Spectra) in about 2 hours and it took me another 15 minutes to figure out which building exactly I had to enter... the campus is huge! Once I got in (after the customary delays at the security for the badges) I was glad to see a normal office with spacious cubicles awaiting me... standard in today's IT world, you say? well not if you knew where I was coming from at my previous client location! :)

After I settled down, the rounds of introductions began and soon I was getting all muddled up with the names and faces... frankly even now, at the end of the day, I am not quite sure who I am sharing my cubicle with! I met the managers I had been interacting with the past couple of days and also the others on the various teams... All strategy & change guys so it should be fun to pick their brains... there also is a recent USC MBA grad student on the team... she seems nice enough, should remember to pick her brain too!

As the day wound down, I accompanied my team to the cafeteria and it was lovely too... there were stalls for different cuisines from round the world... I even spotted my ever fav - chicken quesdilla - on one of the menus but for today I opted for Chinese food - chowmein and orange chicken - instead... yummm! Lunch over, I headed back to the desk to do some more online hotel and apartment hunting but soon I felt my eyelids beginning to get heavier.... the effects of the daylight saving time shift, the early morning wakeup, the long drive was finally starting to kick in...

A colleague came over to rescue me from the state of certain stupor that I was beginning to enter into and she showed me around the campus... the corporate headquaters building was beautiful! I fell in love with the shiny black Lexus in the lobby... it was soo plush... ooooohh! After the long walk and chat, I headed back to my desk and soon it was time to start packing up... I was wondering about dinner when someone mentioned a team dinner! My ears perked up and after some debate, the venue was decided - Addi's Tandoor.

My sense of direction being what it is I was confident of getting lost and so I drove all the way to the restaurant almost stuck to the rear bumper of my colleague's car in front :) even almost jumped a light! Finally when everyone got in, there are were a few awkward moments when no one knew what to say but slowly everyone got into the groove and it turned out to be a fun dinner... One gentleman (colleague, i should say) had such a great sense of humor that I was glad the food had finally arrived coz my jaw had begun to hurt laughing! The food was not bad but I truly believe that Indian food should be had in India by Indians... nowhere else can they even come close! On the way back too I again used my 'stick to bumper' routine and reached the Doubletree hotel uneventfully... checked in... freshened up.... called home... switched on my laptop... and here I am!

Day 1 - finito... and here's to the coming days of work, shopping (just opp to the hotel is the second largest shopping mall in US), interviewing (Atlanta, LA and hopefully more), essay-writing (ISB still remains... the last bastion) and hopefully some more fun on the way!

Lessons Monopoly taught us

Remember Monopoly? The game we used to have so much fun with, part of our family time with no TVs drowning out the sound, no kids glued to the internet behing locked doors... the time when I was a kid (which wasnt so long ago really!)? Well, I came across this really wonderful article on BusinessPundit on the business lessons that the game of Monopoly taught us. The lessons are listed below -
1. You have to ask for what you want
2. Niceness matters
3. Its not rocket science
4. Take risks
5. Business can be boring
6. Luck counts for a lot
7. Dont expect others to support your strategy
Want to read more? Just follow the link...

And once you have done that, take out that dusty old Monopoly board, get your family together (atleast, you can try) and enjoy a few rounds of putting your competitors 'out of business' :)

Who said Business (and life) can't be all fun and games?

Grand indeed!

Grand Canyon - the two words that invoke images of incomparable desolation and beauty at the same time... the barren rocky landscape wrought about by years of erosion and tectonic movements turns into God's own canvas painted with a melange of colors as the sun sets over the horizon!We also had a lot of fun setting up the tents and cooking and camping out...
All in all it was a memorable and thoroughly enjoyable trip!

Race against time...

Will it? or wont it? I reallllly hope it does...

What am I talking about, you wonder? Well, its the new camera that I ordered on Amazon after months of search and contemplation and now the situation stands thus that on Friday evening, we are driving out to Grand Canyon (the perfect photo-op) and Amazon estimates the delivery date to be Saturday!!!

Now my experience so far leads me to believe (and hope) that the parcel will make it to me by Friday but what if it does not?! I cannot imagine missing such a perfect opportunity to test my new camera - Panasonic Lumix TZ5 - but all I can do is wait and hope that USPS does its magic and delivers it on time...

The race is on!

[Edited on 06/19/2008 : We have a winner! The camera was delivered today... a good two days before scheduled date :) God Bless USPS!]

Recap

The last one month has been quite eventful with parents arriving in US on the 6th of April, trip to Chicago on the occasion of bro's convocation on the 11th followed by another trip to New York, New Jersey and finally my moving to a new apartment and visit to Dana Point...

Bro's convocation was wonderful and coming on the weekend of Mother's Day, it was also the perfect gift for all mothers! It was also the first time parents were meeting my bhabhi so there was a lot of excitement in the air. I also met up with my friend in Chicago when we went on a downtown exploration trip - the highlight of the trip had to be the beautiful Millennium Park and the walk down the Magnificent Mile.

Later parents went on to Canada as Dada and I returned to San Diego only for me to fly back to New York a week later :) It was a sudden plan but that was a wonderful way to spend the Memorial Day weekend! I visited a lot of my relatives for the first time and went on a complete NY tour though even two full days of sight-seeing in Manhattan didn't seem enough. We visited Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Empire State Building, Wall Street, Times Square and much more and by the I got back to San Diego I felt I have had enough of cities to last me a lifetime!!

Due to my apartment woes, had to move in with my bro for a week and I rented a car and traveled up and down (30-35 miles two-way) on a daily basis. This was the first time I was driving on the freeway alone and so regularly but it was a lot of fun. We drove down to Dana Point on Sunday after a hectic Saturday (morning spent at office and moving in in the evening).

Driving a long distance proved to be therapeutic for me and we had a great time at Dana Point. We spent some time there and then visited the nearby Pines Park and went down a little further to San Clemente Pier. It was very beautiful and the weather, though a little chilly, was perfect.

All in all it was a weekend well-spent but one that went by too quickly, as usual! And I am putting in this post as I count down the final few minutes left....

Oh Camera! where art thou?

21st February?!! Wow, has it really been that long since my last post! I need to get back to this blog more frequently but truth be told, there hasn't been much to write about anyways this past month... I took an unscheduled break from the whole MBA-researching, career-planning and future-worrying thingie for the month of March but now I am back!!

As April came, it brought with it the 'keeda' of buying a new digital camera and what began as a simple task of ordering a heavily discounted SONY model (DSC-H9, to be precise) at a employee sale soon turned into something infinitely more time-consuming and confusing when I thought... DSLR, why not? Thus began the saga of long hours spent staring at the computer screen trying to make sense of ISO, sensitivity, 35 mm equivalent, noise, stabilization, EVF, telephoto lens etc etc, checking out one model after another from Nikon, Canon, Sony and Olympus - Nikon D40, Canon EOS 400D, Nikon D400, Olympus E-510, Canon 30D, Sony A100... the list was endless! There were so many options and so little to differentiate between...

But now after spending a lot of time and learning a lot about how a DSLR works and what its advantages/disadvantages are I think I would be better served by going back to my previous decision of getting a compact high-zoom (if I can find one, that is!).

The one reason why I had first thought of getting a DSLR was because I was looking for a super-zoom camera (zoom in the range of 10+) . The cameras got very SLR-like as the zoom range increased so much so that they almost felt like one (size and weight wise) and I thought if I am going to be carrying such a big camera with me, why not go the whole distance and get a DSLR instead? But now I know that for a amateur photographer like me, a DSLR would be an overkill especially because all that I am truly looking for is a super-zoom stable camera that produces great pics and is easy to carry around.

So now that I have sorted that out, there still is a long way to go till I finally decide on the model I will buy but the following criteria are an absolute must (in order of priority) -
1. super zoom
2. sleek design, no SLR look-alike for me
3. not too pricey
4. not older than early 2007
5. does not have outright negative reviews
6. video feature

So the hunt for the perfect camera continues....

I am now a proud holder of California License!!

My behind-the-wheel test appointment was on Tuesday, the 19th, and I passed it with flying colors (just 4 mistakes out of the allowed 15) in my very first attempt :)

Feels great as everything worked out to plan - no rain (50% chance was predicted), not-too-strict lady inspector, good idea of the test routes around the DMV (thanks to my driving instructor) and fairly quick service at Escondido office! I must admit I was quite scared before the test (measured by the cold hands that I developed waiting for the inspector) but an almost-perfect driving coming after a perfect 100% on the writing test means that I am all ready to hit the roads of California with a vengeance! :D

Who moved MY cheese?

Today, I had a learning experience today thanks to the world-famous 'Who moved my cheese?'
Now I had already read the book and so when I heard that Anant Bull-winkle(thats not his surname really but I like calling it that!) wanted to hold an audio session with the team on it, I wasn't exactly thrilled.... I mean, I had already read the book and in this day and age of videos and 3D and 4D, plain simple audio would be soooo boring!

And as the session got underway, my opinion was only reaffirmed but then as I tried to make a genuine effort to pay attention, I realized that the book (or rather the audio) did indeed have many lessons to share. Anybody who has read the book would know that it talks about change and how different people are impacted by it and how they react to it. It also tells us that change is inevitable , not good or bad... what makes it so is how we face it. Change, most of the times, is actually a harbinger of opportunities and more change, like right now! There is a major change in progress at work and though nothing is clear as yet, I feel it in the air. I just have this feeling that it is all going to end well for me :)

Speaking of change, there is one another thing that came out repeatedly in the story and that is - the power of dreams, of wishes! Everytime Haw felt scared, depressed he imagined himself reaching his goal - the next cheese station - and it made him feel good, gave him the courage and energy to carry on. Don't we all feel great when we imagine ourselves achieving the goal we have set, living the dream we have dreamt? I sure do.... these days I often dream of my graduation day, actually :D I am actually feeling quite good about myself these days.... I know the road is long and the destination distant but I am on my way and I will get there!

Like a wise man once said - 'God did not give you a wish without giving you the power to fulfill it. You would have to work for it, though.'

Resolutions to keep!

This new year I will begin and keep an exercise routine was one of the resolutions I had made for myself alongwith learning to dance :) Dont know about dancing but I have started implementing the exercise routine thingie!
Started last week with surya namaskar, easy to do and quite beneficial! Last week was more of a start-stop week with me oversleeping on a number of days but next week on I am going to be more rigid with the routine. Aerobics is also one form that I always wanted to try out and so am reading up on it... is it safe enough to try out alone? what are the requirements, if any, for practicing it? where do I get videos and aerobic music? etc etc. I found this one video routine that I really liked - Latino Macarena
I have also begun (or should I say, re-begun) my school hunt and I am making slow but methodical progress and hope to be done with it by March. Self-analysis and introspection is also in progress and with the loss of contract, I have to do it on more than one level so taking it nice and slow for now.

the Big Blue gets dinged!

What does one feel when something that was so expected to happen a certain way that it was almost taken for granted does not happen that way? Shocked? Stunned? Bamboozled??!! Ok ok i guess all of them mean the same thing but you get my drift, right? Thats pretty much what I was feeling this Monday morning. Why, you ask? Now thats a long story....
The Big Blue has many clients for which it provides IT services, one of which is the makers of the acclaimed PS2 which also happens to be the client I am working for. The client, with intention of keeping costs low and also competition and thus performance high, had engaged multiple vendors for handling its IT services in the US. Now BB (for Big Blue) got the grand idea that if all the vendors were to be shunted out and a single vendor was to get the consolidated project, wouldn't it be wonderful? And thus began the 'CONSOLIDATION' saga.... It all began when I was in India with constant upper level meetings and and the little news that trickled down to us kept us on our toes! Later when I got to the client location, things got hotter.
Going into the year-end holidays, everyone was on tenterhooks! There was one meeting that I clearly remember where my boss's boss's boss came over to talk to us and reassure us by talking about how confident they were of landing the deal. There even was talk about how when (there was never an 'if', always a 'when') we do land the deal, there will be a greater business opportunity when BB would try to leverage this deal for proposing other ideas like PS3 with BB chips, Vaios with BB software pre-loaded etc etc!! Man, were we excited by the prospects!! Reassured, everyone went into the holidays with a smile...
One week back into the office and one Monday morning, the bomb is dropped! BB (suddenly less of the Big Blue and seeming more like a Bombed Bimbette) has lost the bid and also all the chances of landing the multi-billion dollar 5-year deal!!!
So what does all this mean for me? Is it back to India? Another project? in US? No idea, frankly! We are still in an uncertain phase regarding the future plan and for now, I am taking one day at a time and concentrating on my 'other' plan. I was quite scared and worried but now I know that there is not much I can do until the picture becomes clearer, which probably would be later this week or the next... and until then I am keeping my peace. We will see what the future holds!

Vroom! Vroom! Vrooooooooom!!

I rented a car over the weekend on an impulse after spending the whole of Friday debating over whether I should or not, especially after the flash flood warning that was issued for the whole of California! But then i just went ahead and did it...
Picked up the car from the enterprise rentals at Iberia place around 9:30 on Saturday, a royal blue 2007 Nissan Sentra (license: 5ZTS423)! my first rental car :)
Took it for a spin and then got back home for lunch only to leave immediately afterwards for Target and Kohls! Did a fair bit of driving and since most of the while i was lost, i ended up driving around a lot towards the evening! Finally managed to reach home after doing my own shopping in my own car! Great feeling :D
The next day, my roomie and I decided to revisit Kohls for some shopping and also drop in at Walmart/Vons on the way back. We had hardly turned a corner when one of the car drivers alerted us about a flat tire! My first day at driving and I alreay had a flat!! Well, then we got back to our apartment, called up the rental office and arranged for the tire to be changed. The spare tire in the bonnet was the 50-50 tire (good for only 50 miles that too at a speed not greater than 50) so that ruled out any freeway driving for us! Anyways, we set out once again and after getting the air pressure checked at a nearby gasd-station we were on our way to Kohls...
I ended up shopping a lot unnecessarily and have now resolved to abstain from all kinds of shopping till the monthend, atleast! That done, we also dropped in at Walmart and Vons to pick up some groceries and then we were on our way back.
I was planning to go around a lil bit in the evening but i guess I have had enough driving in the two days ( i wonder, how many miles?) so now I will be returning the car tomorrow morning but before that I have to fill up the tank and also take a picture of my FIRST rental car!!

New Year Resolutions and Mishaps

The New year did begin quite well with me coming right after the wonderful road trip and all of the fun and enjoyment reminded me of the major task i have ahead of me this new year - the MBA process! Yes, it begins again...
I have a couple of resolutions made up for it and I intend to stick to it. The one thing that staying alone has taught me is 'no sin bigger than procastination' so I am already getting started (just hope i dont lose the fizz midway!)
But the new year also did bring some minor mishaps like my laptop getting conked off which resulted in my losing all the tons of photographs from the trip, though I had shared quite a few before the crash and others do have lots of pics of their own, losing my lot is very distressing :( I also had so many other photographs right from the time i got here in SD but nyways no point in crying over spilled milk! I have to now be content with the photos that are there and depend for the rest on my memory...

Road trip - Winter 2007

I am back in the blogosphere after a long hiatus and there is so much to update, especially the road trip that I went on with a few friends and friends' friends!
It was a time of many many firsts - first time on a domestic flight (made all the possible security breaches that were possible!), first time on any kind of road-trip that lasted for almost 11 days, first time experience of snow (3 days of snow and i was ready to get back to Sunny San Diego), first time going out with a group of almost complete strangers and having so much fun!!
The trip took us straight upto Oregon state to the Redwood national park and Crater lake as our first stop and then we slowly travelled back down right upto San Diego downtown with stops at Mount Shasta, Lava Beds, klamath Falls, Redding, San Fransisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Diego National Park, Point Loma, Santa Monica, Carmel, Fisherman's Wharf and finally ending with the New Year's party at an Indian joint in downtown San Diego.... It was one helluva ride!
Looking forward to many such trips as i already have a list of dream destinations ready for the new year :)

Sea World!

Yesterday visited Sea World near Mission Bay and it was great! I was accompanying a group of 3 couples and 2 forced-bachelors and we were to start at 10 and though I came to know of the plan only at 9:30 I was ready by 10:10 but then there was a big delay and we left only by 11 and then later at the entrance there was another delay as one car lost its way but then since we already had our tickets we entered Sea World without any further delay.

We had picked up the map which also mentioned the show timings and since the first show was scheduled only at 2:30, we just went around and the for the first time ever I took a roller-coaster water ride - The Journey to Atlantis :) It was sooo much fun, there were moments when i was scared shitless but it was just great, I so plan to try out more rides in the future! I was totally drenched by the end of the ride and combined with the December chill, i was absolutely chilled to the core...

We also went to the 'Wild Artic Interaction' (a helicopter simulation of the artic landscape complete with polar bears and also a storm!), Penguin Encounter (an enclosed area with all kinds of penguins and unusual kinds of water birds), Mama Stella (for some late brunch), RL Stein's Haunted Lighthouse (a 4D movie, was fun with the 3D glasses and splashing water), Flamingo Cove (a cove with flamingoes, what else?), Clysedale horses stable (these horses are world-famous, for what reason I dont know :), Pacific Point (white whales, walrus, otters and the kind)

But the highlight of the day had to be the 'BELIEVE' show with the wonderful killer whales (better known as 'Shamu') It was mind-blowing with great music and audience hand signal and killer whales flying in the air and dancing with the trainers!! Awesome! The highlight had to be when the shamu picked up one of the trainers on her snout straight up in the air and then when one of the trainers surfed in the tank with one of the shamus as his surfboard!!

There were a few things that we missed but I plan to make it up when I go there next - the skyride and the skytower and also the dophins and sharks. The DIP program, Shamu Rocks and Clyde and Seamore show will be top on the list shows for the next time!
All in all, it was a fun Saturday...

Pending Updates!! - Epsiode Two

26th November : My birthday finally dawns! I wake up wishing 'Happy Birthday' to myself and deciding not to feel bad or sorry for myself! Little did i know that this day is going to be one eventful day!!
I come to office and call up home and have a long chat with them that brings me to tears, i miss them so much....
Later in the day Kim takes me out for lunch to a Chinese restaurant and I have some king-sized prawns and chicken... enjoyed the lunch!
I wanted to get back home quickly and i did not have a ride back so i decide to walk home, its far but i feel that a walk would do me good after the heavy lunch and then starts the most tiring and scary and memorable 75 minutes of my life!! I probably took all the wrong turns and ended up walking almost 4 miles mostly in the dark and in the cold! Man, that was scary like hell... there were times when i thought i should stop and probably try and look for a phone but then there wasnt any around!! and frankly even if there were, i dont think i would have called anybody (Stupid me, worried about what they would say when they found out i was lost trying to get smart!) but then when i finally did reach home I had a gift waiting for me - my phone set!
I was really tired but glad to be home so i went ahead and cut my cake and had my pudding and also distributed it to the two families who have been so great to me!
Whew! that was some birthday!!!

27th November : just went by with office and preparing for my written test!

28th November : I was all ready for my driving written test and after my one-hour class I went in to the DMV at Clairemont, mentally prepared to spend a loooong time waiting! I did have to wait but not as much and my number was called almost to the hour after i had reached there. The lady took like forever going through the formalities and I was asked for my passport and Indian license and then after getting my rather sleepy-eyed picture taken I was off to give the test... and the test took me less than 5 minutes to complete!! I was out in a jiffy and I had scored a perfect 100%.. Yipee! :D The BIG achievement of the month!!

29th November : With the written test out of the way, the focus now was on getting an internet connection. I was researching it for some days and finally decided on getting the landline connection as that way it was working out cheaper for the internet thingie. I completed my booking hoping that before the next weekend i should have the internet connection setup.

30th November : As I was preparing breakfast, I heard some water splashing somewhere and as i looked out of my window I could not believe what i was seeing! It was pouring outside!! I was wondering that the day before it was so sunny and hot, it being end November and all and today it is raining!! Man, the weather here is crazy... I thought that the rain will soon stop and so I didnt bother picking up my umbrella while leaving for office and I was punished for being lazy! The rain did not stop and I was drenched by the time I reached office :( It actually continued raining the whole day.... at night after dinner I just stepped outside for a while and it was still drizzling and I thought to myself ' So this is what 'November Rain' is all about!' :)

Pending updates!! - Episode One

Been a long time since i last updated the blog... not because there was nothing to update but because there was no internet connectivity available :(


But the last few days have been eventful! So lets begin - -


21st November : I received my SSN, exactly 2 weeks after applying for it, guess I was lucky to have not faced any delays or trouble in getting the SSN.
This was also the day before the long Thanksgiving weekend began and the day when I was to shift from 199 to 207! That evening was probably the most tiring in my entire life... picking all those heavy items and transferring them to the new apartment, with no one to help, almost took the life out of me!


22nd November : For the first time in my life, I prepared lunch!! Rice, Dal and Bhendi fry... the bhendi fry was nice and oily :) It took me the whole morning and a bit of the afternoon too to get my lunch ready!! Have to work up on my speed at chopping and frying, i guess!
I also assembled the drawers finally... got some pictures while doing it too! It was a lot of fun, making your own furniture! All the boards are chopped to the right size, screws of every shape and size provided, all one has to do is deduce which screw goes where and then twist :D Did that for the rest of the afternoon after lunch and then finally had it ready by evening... stuffed it with all my stuff and admired my work-of-art for some time after that....

23rd November : Did nothing special really this day... actually got quite bored in the morning. In the evening though, i went to Target with Sarika and did some shopping... picked up a cute cuddly brown dog as my birthday gift and named him 'Chantu' (pronounced 'Shantu' like in French ;)

24th November : This was a fruitful day... I visited the nearest public library, again with Sarika, and got my membership done! Now i wouldnt have to bother about getting bored... i will have all the books i can handle to read :) The library is free and not too bad either... will keep me happy for a long time! Later in the evening, I visited Vons and picked up a cake for my birthday... not a cake but just a slice of it. It felt odd buying a cake for my own birthday and there was also not going to be a big party with many people so got a small one.... I really miss my family :(

25th November : A day before my birthday and i am all alone in my 2-bedroom apartment with no telephone, no internet! It probably cannot get worse than this :( I try to keep busy by making some chocolate pudding (which by the way turned out real good) and trying my hand at some more cooking, but this time i try something less time-consuming - an omlette.

So this was how I spent my Thanksgiving weekend, all in all, eventful four days!

grocery shopping and me!

This week is turning out to be a week of 'firsts'! Yesterday I went shopping for groceries for the first time EVER in my entire life, I actually checked whether the apples are fresh, the bhendi looks good(though did not know what to look for in a bhendi!) and also bought a loooot of house-hold items. Another first was cash deposit in a bank... had to deposit the rent in my room-mates bank because of some nonsensical setup she has and therefore first had to withdraw close to $1200 dollars from the BofA ATM then go to US Bank and deposit it!

Yesterday evening was a fun-filled evening with tow major events: shopping and dining
The evening began with a visit to Costco(a BIG warehouse) where everything is sold wholesale(read, cheap but only in bulk) where we bought tissues and milk. Nothing jazzy about the shop and nothing small about it too! Everything comes in XXL sizes, right from chips packets to double container oil jars to huge packs of tissues! Did not like that shop too much but its good for essentials shopping for a family.
Next stop was North Park Produce, its a place where we get grocery and masala and the kind. Not too big and quite boring actually... just a fancy 'Santosh ki dukaan' :) This is where I had my first experience of buying groceries!
Later we went to the US Bank and finished off the deposit work... much to my relief, because my room-mate was bugging me off with her constant reminders!
Last stop for the day was Walmart where I did most of the shopping, right from trash cans to a microwave! Ran up quite a huge bill to but then most of the things are not perishable and a necessity too!
Shopping done, returned home, stored all the stuff in the hall and ran off to the dinner party...
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Interval
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The dinner party, hosted by the kind soul who drops and picks me up from office every day, was just getting started and after some light discussion we got on to playing dumb-charades... after a long time, I had so much fun, laughing and screaming, I almost lost my voice for the evening :) The dinner was also too good... luchi ghugni and paneer bhuji and jeera rice... yummy! I really feel now that it only is a matter of some initiative and there is no reason why i cannot cook like that and have some good food! Chatted for quite some time after dinner about getting a new car, the insurance, the furniture etc etc and I felt overwhelmed with all the work! But then i had a ferrero rocher and i was feeling good again :)
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THE END
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So this is how my Saturday ended and today, Sunday, I plan to sort out all my financial details and also get some office work done....

driving on the freeway!!

Just got back from my first driving lesson :) Was a lot of fun and work too... so many rules to abide by, so many speed limits to be aware of! I did a good job, i think but do need to take at least one more lesson before I am confident enough to rent a car. The freeway experience was also good though i should remember to maintain speed at all times... got honked at once on the freeway!
There are few more things that i should be careful about:
1. quick acceleration at signals, especially when getting onto the freeway (got honked at one more time here while getting on to the freeway!)
2. left/right indicators only 1-1/2 houses before the turn... NOT before that!
3. while taking a right turn, get onto the bike lane only 100 feet or less before the turn.
4. while turning or changing lanes, slow down, look in the mirror, indicator, look over your shoulder and then turn/change lanes
So its decided now that I got to take another lesson and then go on for the driving test but before that there are a couple of things i have to check out:
1. receipts for the driving lessons
2. drop and pick-up for the written test
3. written test possible without SSN?
Ok so thats that then... good start to the weekend but have some office work to complete as well :( its beginning to get hectic now! Will be going grocery shopping today and also have to buy some essentials before moving into the new apartment... and also have a dinner to attend in the evening!

another first!

Just a small note on how I saw another first... someone breaking the signal!!
Not such a big deal in India but I was shocked to see someone jumping the red signal here... here where people stop at a 'STOP' sign painted on the road on an empty road with no one in sight door-door tak! Was suprised indeed and may i add, it also made me feel that people here too are falliable and not automatons driving :)

PS: the Friday dinner invite that was expected did not come :( but another one on Saturday came up! And I am not complaining :D