Thursday, February 26, 2009

Spring has arrived

It looks like spring has finally arrived. We woke up to a dense foggy sky, and right now it’s showering thunderously. After what seemed like ages, we saw our neighbor barbecuing last evening with an oh-so-obviously-summer-tee on. His kids were out in their lawn, playing in the swing. Finally – yes, finally, we could hear the cheerful, gleeful noises of children, birds chirping, dogs barking – yes, how I missed all that!

I’m going to have to buckle up and fix a date and time for my road test. I’ve been managing excuses all winter – I guess S will whip me if I procrastinate any further. Luckily, my Temporary Permit is valid till October this year. No, I’m not going to wait that long. I can’t wait to have my license issued so I can begin dropping S at work and using the car for myself – grocery shopping, gym, guitar lessons… ah!

I’m so famous for never getting a route right. Some of my friends in Chennai had to draw maps and give signal counts in order for me to reach my destination. Yes, signal counts, that is when I count the number of traffic lights and turn accordingly, pretty much like Gatlinburg roads, huh. And now, I’m pretty familiar with the roads out here. In my defense, I get to memorise routes the more I drive, and I haven’t driven a lot yet. Of course, expressway driving doesn’t figure in this.

That apart, this has been a good and bad week so far. One of my very close friends delivered a beautiful baby girl, as beautiful as her. And one of S’s very close friends lost his job. After all, no one can understand that trauma better than S and I, considering all the emotional stress we had to go through in January.

Here’s to a silent prayer to the beautiful soul that has just arrived and to another who is in anguish.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Epitomes of Irony

Sometimes you want to stitch your sides after laughing at all the incredibly funny things some people say or do.
Quote Unquote - I hate it when nice looking (even though a little plump) girls wear hideous clothes and take fashion disasters to the next level !! i want to give them a piece of my mind.. but then.. there would be no one to make fun about !!

This comes from someone who wore what looked like a 100 kilograms of gold jewelry and jazzy, ugly, disgusting looking sarees on her wedding day! Yes, you guessed right, one of those Mallu weddings similar to the ones you get to see in email forwards. And then you see funny looking outfits that probably she construes as front page Vogue fashion. Well, if someone could dress herself up in such clownish clothes on her wedding, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to imagine what her taste is like. Now, this is what is called irony. Well, in her own words, as long as she’s around, we’re going to laugh to death. Oh well, if she looks plump she blames it on the camera angle – now that’s a riotous way to go down laughing.
Quote Unquote - Funnier i understand... ironic is what i dont understand...

Well, if you’re slow on the uptake it ain’t my fault, chica. I know you plagiarize my phrases after reading my blog posts, you know that too. So when you read this, I hope you get your definition of irony in place. Where do these people come from? Beats me! I hope her better half soon gets her a Belgian Mirror and monster magnifying glasses, she should wear them, take a look at herself in the mirror, and then use the magnifying glass to take a look at her wardrobe. Jokes apart, it’s sad to see people like this still exist. And this poor girl probably doesn’t know that her husband once had the hots for me, even until the time before I met S. So if she's right, that says what she's probably like, LOL.

Well, like I always say, I don’t like fighting a battle of wits with the unarmed, and this one is way too unarmed in the wits department amongst many other general departments. So, as the old adage goes, ignoring works best. I hope she gets the picture soon. I don’t like dealing with immature people, unless it’s a 2 year old or someone with a handicap. Boy if she’d caught the younger me, she sure would have had to buy a dictionary of mean, stinking, riotous comebacks just to cross-refer what I would have meant. Lucky that she’s caught me at a rather mellowed down phase – I cannot afford to look as foolish as her in forums where friends from work (both S’s and mine) and several high IQ people are regulars.

Having said that, it was a wonderful weekend that just snapped by. Time spent well with real friends. A complete contrast to the hovering witchy images you get to see through such girls throughout the week.

Tip: Learn to spell well, type correctly, and get a copy of Wren and Martin before you want the whole world to read the grammatically erroneous crap you type. Conceited indeed, as one of your friends rightly said :)

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Is it Spring already?

Whatever happened to the notorious Illinois weather? It’s early February, it’s sunny, and there was a thunderous downpour yesterday – signs of advanced Spring? Well, no, the trees haven’t begun leafing yet. And weather.com predicts colder temperatures for the next week. But largely, it is going to be warmer in the coming weeks. Global warming, tsk tsk, has taken its toll on formerly spine-chilling-weathered states like Illinois. Apparently, last year, it was white all the way till late April! S left to India last year on May 4 for our wedding, and he said it was cold and white till the day he left.

Well Spring calls for a lot of cleaning – who’re we kidding, we’re always cleaning. I’m not complaining though, early Spring, early Summer, we get to go out and bask in the warmth, enjoy our outdoor routine and catch a cool-looking tan. While I dream about a green and luscious Spring and Summer, I’ll have to face the fact that it might snow this weekend in Chicago… there you go, the notorious, unpredictable, ever changing Chicago weather…

Here’s to a Happy Valentine’s Day, a heartwarming Spring, and beautiful days to come.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Drained Brain - Tried walking in a Sagittarian's shoes

I’ve been up at the computer for the last three days, downloading GMAT and PMP preparation material for S. Yes! Now that his work situation looks less hazy, and now that he’s joining a pretty renowned and fabulous American firm, I’m trying to push him into achieving his long term desire.

My brother is the most intelligent guy I’ve known since childhood. Mum boasts that he could spell ‘albatross’ at two, well I believe her, despite the fact that I wasn’t around to witness that miracle. Bro was always ahead of his peers with a double promotion during school. He is one of those who has a logical brain and can always think rationally and calmly. He moved on to IIT and then to the renowned ISB and is now sky soaring in his career and making me wish my kids take after him and not anyone else.

S is also very intelligent, but sadly, he thinks he digressed from his goals when he should have stayed put. S is finally getting all that he deserves, I’m sure I am his lucky streak. Hopefully, with all the pushing and prodding (and support) he gets to score well at these tests. A friend, Major K, who is with the Indian Army, recently scored the highest I’ve heard of till date, in the GMAT test. He shared his work material with us and that’s precisely what I’ve been downloading the last few days.

Besides that, S and I purchased Kaplan’s Math – we think that’s one area he’s going to have to work on real hard! I wanted to try my hand at the verbal section which was completely manageable. The math was alright here and there, but after a point, I thought my brain was hurting. This is basic CBSE 10th standard mathematics and arithmetic – papers I scored real well at in the past. But now, it’s completely different! Scary! Probably because of all the stress, the lack of practice, and being tired after endless ongoing mundane downloading … nice excuses, but I know even with a clear mind I can’t do this shit! Hats off to K, R and all the others who’ve managed unimaginable scores – I wish I had a little bit of each of your brains – that’s all that it takes, I’m sure.

Having said that, that’s why I want my babies to be Sagittarians, lol. Bro, Major K, Pa in law, Bro in law V… these are just a few of the people that I know who are November born Sagittarians that are laudably intelligent. There’s a good chance if we try at the right time, with double genetics working our way. Now, I’m proud I’m at least half a Sagittarian, whew.

Here’s wishing S all the luck with his tests, whenever it is going to be. This is going to be a new kind of trying time for us.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

An inflated ego and a pin-prick

I cannot believe the attitude on some women, well, I should call them girls because they obviously aren’t grown up, smart, or mature enough to be called women. However, that doesn’t change the fact that they look older than they act. They are those girls who just grow old, but never grow up. Sad! Sad but true!

It doesn’t take a psychology degree to decipher that someone who is so damn obviously just an average looker boasts about being “hot” and flaunts unrealistic compliments (which probably were made up) in networking sites, is suffering from serious bouts of superiority complex. I feel so sorry for them.

What makes it worse is when they try to put down others. Typical expressions of jealousy – they so badly want your life and are trying to sound like they don’t. It just makes me wonder why we’re even dealing with such people in the first place – if you’re wondering why none of this makes sense, it is about someone I haven’t met or known for a long time, she’s just someone I know through someone I’ve met a few times. And I, along with several others, feel sorry for that ‘someone I’ve met’ for he could have surely ended up with someone better than this. Well, who cares as long as they’re happy with each other!

The other day, we were at some friends’ place and this lady asked me to guess her age. Since she was with two kids and some basic math was running in my head owing to some details I had gathered in our previous conversations, I assumed she was somewhere between 28 and 30. Then we figured she married immediately after finishing high school and she was just 26, a whole year younger than me! And she thought I was 22. No kidding, I’m three years away from 30 but don’t look that way. Every time I go out with my college going cousins in India, I’m assumed to be their friend, not older sister. Probably kids these days look older than they're supposed to, who knows. But this someone who hasn’t even met me goes “HA!”, and I think, “In your face, I know you so badly want that compliment but too bad it doesn't suit you. And you haven’t even met me, you narcissistic woman. Besides, you don’t even look hot and there’s not a single good feature in your face. So you should first try working on your attitude to camouflage that face”.

And then I realise I shouldn’t bother wasting my time and bandwidth on such wannabes. At least she’s a little more popular now than she claims to be – with this blog post and all.

I cannot understand what goes on in the minds of such narcissistic people. Another friend of mine very recently met a guy for matrimonial purpose and the narcissistic that he turned out to be for an overweight, short, average looking guy, he had a problem with her looks! How ironic… And everyone felt all the way long that she was making a compromise by willing to take things forward. At least in the first case, he is happy with her looks and attitude especially, irrespective of what the whole world thinks. I couldn't survive a day with someone who possessed an attitude like her - I'm glad no one I know and like being with is like that even if they completely had reasons to be proud of themselves.

I hope these people just realise what they’re worth and grow up someday, before it’s too late. Coming from a family of amazing achievers in various walks of life, it makes me want to laugh out loud seeing such people walk around with haughtiness when the ones who really have reasons to be proud of themselves and show it off are truly modest and simple.

In Absentia

I haven’t posted anything since December 15th and I have some excuses for that. S and I have been through trying times and now things are looking brighter and better.

So in the last couple of months, here’s what happened –
- We went to Richmond for our nephew’s first birthday

- Travelled to Washington, DC and stayed at an expensive star hotel in the 11th floor, a room with a gorgeous view indeed. Had a wonderful time turning 27

- Had our flight to Richmond re-routed through Detroit and landed in DC, and drove all the way to Richmond! Our flights were cancelled due to a so-called ice rain that never happened, in our opinion. At least not while we could have still flown out.

- Took a bus to Chicago, and flew out of O’hare instead of our original flight, and we stood in the cold since the bus was late. A nice university cop opened up one of the university halls and we waited there. School was closed for Christmas at that time

- Went to Excalibur, Chicago, for New Year’s and gave up drinking and non-veg since then – no, they aren’t directly connected, it was just a resolution

- Woke up on the 3rd day of the new year to the worst possible and most unexpected news ever and have been in stress since then – the Satyam fiasco

- Began a food blog with cousin and mom and have been blogging there more regularly than here.

Finally, our prayers were answered and Satyam allowed rebadging as an option for S’s client. So S is joining a new vendor, an American company, on Feb 19th, and is resigning from Satyam on Feb 18th. Whew! Good times are surely ahead.