Why I vanished for awhile.

Hello! I am sorry I accidentally protected this blog. (Was actually trying to hide my portfolio blog on wordpress- and apparently the password protection applies to ALL your blogs)…I realized when Karen and Mita asked me how come they don’t have the password. Even I don’t know what the password is

Thought I’d explain, seeing as I get about dozen visitors a day. I am amazed! I don’t even post about very interesting things! Or often!

I have not posted for a long time because 2010 has brought several whirlwinds of change for H and I. We still cannot believe them, much less deal with them. Too much info, detail, emotions to post right now. You will know them in time, when I can talk about it…It’s actually 3 bits of news. (And no, I am not pregnant.)
Added to these changes is the fact that my dad just had a quadruple bypass surgery. Right now, he is in a lot of pain, which breaks my heart completely. I wish I could take it all away. All I can do is think about him, and stalk my family on the phone.

White out – blizzzzard

1.5 feet of snow here. We were snowed out today, no work.

6 feet in Baltimore and Washington I think…

Watch these

Another major storm headed to snowy Mid-Atlantic

The trouble that snow can bring (besides being beautiful)

Read this!

Random thoughts by god knows who

A friend forwarded this to me. Don’t know who wrote it but its hilarious. DITTO! (I cut out some as there were too many…)

Random Thoughts of the Day:

* I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

* More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

* Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

* Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you’re going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you’re crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

* That’s enough, Nickelback.

* I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

* Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out. Today’s kids are soft.

* Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the fuck was going on when I first saw it.

* I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

* The other night I hit a new low at an open bar. I had already hopped on highway blackout when, inevitably I had to find a bathroom. Eventually I decided it was probably on the other side of the bar so I tried to walk over there, but ran into a guy coming the other way. We played that, Both go left, Both go right game to no avail, so I finally put out my hand to guide myself past and that’s is when I realized, yup, that’s a mirror I just tried to walk through. And the guy on the other side is me. Even cats can recognize their own image.

* How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

* I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

* I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

* The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

* A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

* Was learning cursive really necessary?

* Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

* I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

* Whenever someone says “I’m not book smart, but I’m street smart”, all I hear is “I’m not real smart, but I’m imaginary smart”.

* How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

* I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

* Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using ‘as in’ examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss’s last name to an attorney and said “Yes that’s G as in…(10 second lapse)..ummm…Goonies”

* What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

* MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

* Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died. * I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

* Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

* Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

* Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….

* You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

* Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

* There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

* I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

* “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

* I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

* I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

* I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

* I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

* As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

* Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

* I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

* Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

* Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey – but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time…

* It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

* I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

* I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

* I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

These embers

A friend just told me about a man saying something disrespectful and sleazy to her- and it pissed me off pretty bad. I am at work. The more I think about it, the more mad I am. It makes me wonder if every single person we come across is a heart or flesh-eating monster. I am so disgusted. And hurtfully disappointed in this person. I thought he was a nice, decent person. I could slap him right now.

It’s strange, this anger. I dont know what to do with it. If it was the old me, this person would have gotten a call right now with an earful of phrases he won’t forget for the rest of his life. But I am older now, and we have loved ones in common. Aurgh. I have to think before I act, and hold my horses. But in my head, I have vision of throwing a stake through him.

Also, I know the most lethal type of scolding are the quiet, gentle, stern snake-like comments. Words you think about later, wors that slowly dig ahole and proggresively make you feel more and more hurt and ashamed of what you’ve done. They eat away at you.

She’s my FRIEND, and no one should be talked to like that. And just thinking about it makes me tear so badly at work.

I don’t know what to do with this anger. I really don’t. I feel torn.

Santa, the wind, the rain and the snow.

Will blog about Vegas later. No time now.

So last week, we had a blizzard warning. The blizzard came. And it was so bad, that 300 flights were cancelled in the Newark airport (but we flew and got to Vegas anyway, more of that drama story later). More than a foot of snow and crazy winds that left people shoveling for hours.

 And today, its -5 to -8 degrees Celsius, and the wind chill makes it -15 to -25! AND we have a strong wind warning. AND a flood warning. This morning as we were driving to work, we saw that all the trash cans are overturned, crap is flying everywhere, and the wind hurled a large, heavy trash bag full of trash at our car!

Also, starting Fri, they’re expecting heavy rains and snow. BOTH at the same time.

Which is the absolute worst combination. It will rain, and as temperatures dip, the rain will turn into snow, and the water on the ground will become ice- and so people and cars are going to be slipping and sliding all over the place. Which is funny, admittedly, but much more than that, dangerous.

What a royal mess this new year’s day is going to be! I would love to lie under the covers until it’s spring again. Dead serious.

Whoever said the weather was a boring topic of conversation? Not here. When I walk past strangers, and we’re all bundled up, eyes tearing, cheeks red and knees shaking, we can’t help but silently smile at one another. “How pathetic we all look. Damn this cold.” or “I’m not crazy right? You’re freezing, too, right?”

………………………

On another note. Watch Santa help a motorist in the blizzard. Hahahhahahahah. I love how he has to pull up his pants over his belly. Watch here

We’re going to Vegas…

For 5 days. Because H needs a break from his 14 work hour days, and being on-call for 24 hours for a week every month. His nose is always buried in that laptop, I want to smash it.

We found a dirt-cheap deal that you can only find in the Great Financial Crisis.

I didn’t think so before, but now the closer we come to flying off, the more I feel I need this trip too. The monotony of waking up early, working, cooking, laundry-ing and cleaning is getting to me. Not that I have much to complain about, I just have almost zero tolerance for routine. There is so much that has to be done every day, I cannot keep up. Even with keeping in touch with friends and family- I cannot call as many of them, as often as I’d like to. (I am not even gonna think about what it will be like with kids!)

This year has been a struggle to adjust to a new place, friends, family, weather, people, financial stress, work culture, not to mention the heart-breaking frustration of sending out hundreds and hundreds of futile job applications.

I can’t wait to get on that plane.

…………………………………………………
On another note: The people I consult for work rent a house as an office (and live here, too, with their dogs and kids). It’s an old, cottage-y looking house, and they decorated it for Xmas. V. festive looking so I took some snaps.

Snow storm warning

Ok so yesterday, I very nicely blogged that we hardly troop about in inches of snow in the NYC metro area.

Ummm…Now I have my foot in my mouth. Nature decided to prove me wrong just when I said that. Just SO that I can look like an idiot.

It will start to snow tonight, and continue for 36 hours. Almost a foot of snow is expected to accumulate. Weather channel said, “Travel may be treacherous.” (lol. Are they serious in their choice of words?). And the state has released so many warnings and precautions. (“Snow fighting” equipment no less!)

So I guess God is giving me what I asked for. Because every day I say, “It SO COLD it might as well snow. What’s the point of the cold without snow??? This is such a pain.” How nice…Except, with his annoying sense of humour, God decides to bestow a mammoth amount of snow when I have to take a flight to Vegas.

Make sense right. How can the pilot see through all that snow? Flight will probably be delayed, and we’ll lose one night in hotel payment!!!

I can’t even get to my waxing appointment tomorrow.

All that said, I am still morbidly excited. What chaos await us when we wake up tomorrow morning to Alaskan views? Shall I take my Flip out for more mountain-tortoise videos of white flakes?

To be continued…

Quick Gun Murugun. Mind it!

H is watching this movie right now, and we find it painfully hilarious! MISFITS. If you haven’t watched this, pls watch it together, you’ll have a riot. The movie was produced in Tamil, and then also dubbed  in Tamil-accented Hindi and English

And this song is funny too, if you understand Hindi in a Tamil accent

Quick Gun Murugun is an Unlikely Superhero (played by Telugu star Rajendra Prasad) a South Indian Tamil cowboy whose duty is to protect the world against arch villain restaurant owner, Rice Plate Reddy, who wants to create the ultimate non-vegetarian dosai! The movie revolves around adventures of Quick Gun Murugun along with his love to-be Mango Dolly (played by Rambha) and Locket Lover (played by Anu Menon).

The movie is based on a character created for television promos at the time of the launch of the music network Channel [V] in 1994. The character had a cult following, and made catchprases like ‘Mind it’ and ‘We are like this only’ popular.

Ohdamnit!

I have spent two Christmases in North America, eagerly hoping for a white Xmas. So I can be in someone’s warm home (preferably with a smokin’ chimney, but don’t have also can), drink hot chocolate in good company, look at a lit-up tree, gaze out of a picture window, and drag people out to play in the snow… Or freeze my ass off drifting around in NYC peeking at Macy’s extravagant window displays, watching the ice skaters near the Rockefeller tree, and listening to cheesy carols until I cannot take the pain of my frozen ears anymore. (This is our tradition now, H and I.)

But alas, it hasn’t snowed on Xmas eve or Xmas day. Thus far.

But this year, the weather forecast says that there will not only be 5 inches of snow this weekend, it will also (75% chance) SNOW ON CHRISTMAS DAY!

But guess where I will be? In bloody LAS VEGAS. The ONE year that I leave this place, it snows on Christmas day! I soooo cannot believe this rotten luck. AARRRGGHHH.

……………………….

So, like you, I always thought New York is shrouded in white on Christmas day. This is our naïve misconception. The truth is, it may not be on most years. Even if there is snow, it’s unlikely to be more than a couple of inches.

December is not as cold as January or February. It’s -2 degree Celsius right now. And it will drop to -9 when I have to walk home in the evening. I literally shudder to think of what January will bring.

And by the way, it may snow for a day, or maximum two, and then a day or two later, it’s all melted and gone. Snow is actually rain that falls in sub-zero temperatures, hence turning into ice crystals (you already know that). If its cold enough, and it “rains” enough, there will be accumulation. Which is beautiful on the first day, and then quickly turns into dirty, wet slush. If it becomes warmer, the snow quickly melts. And while it’s melting, the temperatures might decrease again, freezing the melted snow and making it into slippery ice. Now THAT’s a nightmare for pedestrians and drivers.

And then there is this thing called freezing rain.

So that picture you have in your head of me trudging in inches of snow, is just that. Imagination. The only way I will be frolicking about in inches of snow is if H and I troop to the mountains. (We’re 90mins away from some.)