The big Three- Oh

Yes, I finally hit it today. And you know what, I don't care! I still feel young at heart, just as if I was 25. I guess it helps when your birthday is officially called "the first day of spring" and even google does a little art deco with it's homepage to celebrate it :) And it certainly was exciting to keep getting calls right from yesterday- my dad insisted on wishing me on India time, since that is where I was born. Hmm, can't really fault that logic!

So plans for today include getting a nice haircut (nothing like that to perk me up!) at a nice expensive parlor (duh-is money an object on a birthday???!!) and a nice dinner out. And of course, the mandatory birthday dress was bought after a lot of nagging ("you know, my parents always bought me a nice dress to celebrate my bday") which worked. And when you consider that was the second option given to The Better Half (first being a diamond- had to try!), I let him off pretty cheap.

So enjoy the first day of spring, folks! Have a good day :)

So I'm back...

...but who knows for how long! The last time I posted , I said I'm back for good. But apparently that wasn't quite true. So this time I'm making no promises to myself, for what's the value of a promise or an intent if you can't keep it? So this time I'm just gonna go with the flow.

Alright, so I'm back for a reason- I have news to share! And it's of the type that will make a huge difference in my life this point on. So without further ado,

#1. I'm going back to school in August to get my 2nd MBA- Yay! I'm so looking forward to this since it seems a waste of my education and capabilities (not to mention the monetory short handedness and loss of independence) to be a Stay at Home Wife when I could be so much more! The only thing that gets me here is that the schools I applied and got into are not the ones my marks deserve, but it's a compromise mainly coz of #2, which is-

#2- The Better Half and I are expecting a Lil Bean in our family! Yay again! :) And all the time I spent away from the blogging world was spent in the world of TTC (Trying to Conceive) and all the totally new lingo there. Can you believe "sex" is referred to as BD (baby dancing)? LOL :D Ok, and let me answer the question you've already asked by now- he/she is due in late Oct :)And we had an ultrasound this week and even saw and heard the Lil Bean's heartbeat. That was simply awesome! The Better Half is bursting with pride already :)

So #1 and #2 are now the biggest challenges of my life, simply coz they are falling in my lap together. The school I'm gonna go to has an accelerated one year program, which made a whole lot of sense to me, since I can get back to work that much sooner. But #2 has just made that a whole lot tougher! Luckily, my parents will be here to help me out during that time, thank god. Also since Lil Bean was being planned, The Better Half and I needed to be together and the school I chose needed to be within an hour's commute. Hopefully, all the compromises won't turn out too bad when it comes to hunting for a job in Silicon Valley.

Ha! 2008 is sure one happening year for me!

One more year gone by

Last week was when we did the big move, packing up all our stuff and moving into a new apartment, where we will hopefully stay for a long time. Really, really tiring since the whole process of packing took around a week! Luckily the Thanksgiving holidays helped in giving us enough time to settle into the new place. I am the sort of person who hates to see boxes lying all around and the sooner everything was put in it's proper place and the boxes removed, the happier I was.

I hope everyone had a fun filled Thanksgiving with lots of turkey! We were supposed to have Thanksgiving at NR's place (NR is The Better Half's cousin, the closest family he has here) like last year but unfortunately that got cancelled. Not that we minded since we had an adventure planned for the next day, OUR ANNIVERSARY :) This was our 2nd, and this time we decided to do something together instead of exchanging gifts. Since we are so close to Napa and Sonoma valley, it seemed appropriate to go visit the Wine Country.

I was a little apprehensive of how enjoyable the evening might be, since wine has never been a huge favourite with us. Both The Better Half and I would rather pick out a bottle of vodka or a beer before considering wine. But what a wonderful experience we had! We visited 3 wineries, all in Sonoma valley, since Napa is supposed to be equivalent but more expensive (coz that's where all the tourists go). We must have tasted around 15 or more wines before we gave it a stop coz the wine was getting to our heads- literally! We liked it enough to buy a bottle of Pinot Grigio Chardonnay and some really expensive Port wine. Yumm...I'm imagining how much more delicious it would taste after storing it away for a couple of more years! So from now on, we will definitely give the wine selections a second look instead of just going for the hard liquor.

Oh let me not forget to mention, we also did some cheese tasting at the local restaurant, The Cheese Factory. Several simply yummy types of cheese were available to taste for free and cheese does go so well with wine! ;)

We also visited Muir Woods on the way to Sonoma and Napa, which was so beautiful and peaceful. Not too many tourists there, so we really enjoyed walking up the trails. For a minute you could imagine that you were the only ones there.

Muir Woods is famous for it's coastal sequoia or redwood trees, which grow up to huge sizes. Check out the pictures below.

That hollow in the tree trunk can fit upto 4-5 people!!

Well, that's all from me for now. I wish I had pictures of grapes in the vineyards but unfortunately grapes are picked anywhere from mid- Aug to Thanksgiving, depending on the type of wine they are for, so we didn't get to see any.

Have a good week, folks!

Lights and savouries

Yep, that's going to be the tune all the Indians will be singing this whole week. It is the festival of lights, Diwali, that puts us in this mood where even the most weight conscious of us (including me) make a few exceptions to eating yummy snacks. It is one of those times that really make me miss India. The festive mood, the snacks (did I mention that before? ;)), the family gatherings, the feeling that for a couple of days, we can just take some time off work and relax with the family. It's probably the lights everywhere that I miss the most which makes every city in India come alive. Of course we Indians try and do our best abroad but without the fireworks, it's not really the same.

So without further ado, let me wish all my Indian fellow bloggers "A Very Happy and Prosperous Diwali".

And here's a picture of the "chaklis" I made. :) Those 2 huge ones are specially for me and The Better Half. It's just a reminder of how my mom always made one last big one for me. (Psst- I felt guilty eating that one alone, so I made one for him too.) A special thanks to Asha for the recipe!

So let me get onto what this post was originally going to be about- Television. No, I'm not going to preach about the evils or the pros and cons of the idiot box. To be fair, whether it deserves to be called an idiot box depends on what sort of shows you watch. There are tons of educational and informative shows on there and it's upto the viewer how much of an idiot he/she wants to be. Anyway, I was specifically going to talk about some shows that I really like. If I were to list down what I'm watching nowadays, it would be like this:

1. The View- This has 5 very talented and opinionated women discussing current topics. Sometimes it's politics, sometimes it's about current news/events and sometimes it's just plain gossip. Hey, whatever it is , when you've got the likes of Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters, it's going to be more than just plain talk. I did mention opinionated, didn't I?

2. Dr. Phil - I am just a huge fan of this guy ever since he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show. With a tell-it-like-it-is style of counselling, this is one shrink I would like to visit if I ever needed one. Blunt and to the point, he is a "human reality check".

3. The Biggest Loser - One of the best reality shows I like. Very inspiring and incredibly motivating not just for people who have weight issues but also for those who have trouble dealing with life's issues. It definitely is a winner for the human spirit. I'm a bit disappointed with the current season though with the manipulation going on to remove team members; this is the first time anything other than hard work and perseverance made an appearance.

4. The Tyra Banks Show - Oh I love this woman! An ex- super model with her own talkshow now, she is least like what one expects a model to be ; superficial she is not! She is not afraid to tell her age, not afraid to talk about how she is no longer model skinny. A terrific model for the African- American community after Oprah Winfrey, she makes you feel proud to be a woman.

5. Ok, now that I have talked about all the inspiring shows I watch, it's time to reveal that I'm a huge fan of all the sitcoms too. I love FRIENDS, Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens, The 70's Show etc etc. Hey, what's better than a comedy to shoo away the blues and put a smile on your face?

So tell me what you like watching. Or don't like watching, if you wish.

AWOL

Absent Without Official Leave- that's been my status for the last 4 weeks. This is the first time I've even looked at my blog since my last post. I've been equally bad at visting my blogger friends too . :(

So what was I upto and why did I vanish? It wasn't that I was tired of this blog or that I had nothing to write about. In fact, as I'm typing this, I realize that I've really missed blogging and putting my thoughts out there. But the last 3 weeks were sort of weird for me, like somehow trying to find myself and fighting my private demons. I had lots of things on my mind and I was doing a really bad job at dealing with the stress. You know how those bad days are- you get up in the morning and the first thing you remember is all the bad stuff and the bad feelings. Ditto before you go to sleep, so much that you desperately want to go to sleep but it refuses to come.

Anyway, I would talk about the stressful stuff except that it involves some things in the works and I don't want to jinx it. But I will mention that one of them was moving into a new apartment again, and boy, anyone who's done it will know that can drive you crazy. From finding the right one to fit your budget to liking it and wanting to stay there. You would think that it shouldn't be that tough since there are so many apartment communities out there, but liking your future home is the toughest part. Anyway, we are done with that, so that's a load off my mind. Another 3 weeks and we'll be in our new apartment. As to why we are moving, since the in-laws have gone back to India, a 2 bed apartment is too big for just the two of us. Plus the really great deal we got on the rent will no longer be applicable once the lease expires next month. So it makes sense moving out. We would have loved to stay in the same community since we like it here, but paying $1600 for a one bed apartment is just way too crazy for me.

So things are better now. Just when I thought the whole world was conspiring against me (yeah, I know...how paranoid can I get??!!)and it was just one bad thing after another, suddenly the bad things got better. And I realised things don't need to stay bad. And if they do, I can find a way to make them better. Maybe not always the way I would have liked, but at least getting better than they were. And I don't have to deal with everything together. I don't have to over-analyze and always be ready to face the worst. Sometimes it makes sense to deal with things one at a time, so that your brain can deal with it better. And if you are going through a crazzzzy phase, it helps a hell of a lot if you have a person, a partner to just listen to you. Just one person to hold you, to hug you can help you from getting crazier. Yup, I had The Better Half to do just that, thank God! (love you, Sweetie! muah!)

Hope you all have one special person to hug you in your bad times too! And don't forget to tell that person back how much you love and appreciate him/her. After all, loving and supporting you even you're being whiny is a hell of a job!

P.S- Will be visting all my blogger friends this week, yay! Can't wait to catch up on your posts :)