Nashville niceties :).

Finally the post I've been meaning to write. So I'm not really going to delay the whole thing with more chit-chat (which is what I seem to be doing now :-p), but get on with it..

This time though July 4th fell on a Saturday, but Sri had a holiday on Friday on the account of the same. But since we had just then moved and knew that we'd be busy, we hadn't really planned anything for the long weekend. So the trip was a spur of the moment thing. We didn't really want to spend the whole weekend away as we had things to setup and so the plan was to leave on Friday July the 3rd and come back on July 4th night. Nashville, Tennessee is about 3 hours drive away, so we thought it'd be pretty okay.




And it was :). We left Lexington after lunch and reached Nashville by evening (it was Snugli's nap-time, so we were able to make it without even stopping :-D). We had been to Nashville before on our trip to Destin, Florida. But we were in a hurry to get to Florida, so I think we just stopped for dinner and rest there, that was it. Sri's friends suggested a couple of things we could see there, the first place being the Sri Ganesha temple of Nashville.




It was beautiful. The Ganesha idol was impressive and really bhakthi-inspiring :)). We spent quite sometime enjoying the indoors as well as the outdoors. Well, photography was not allowed inside, so you know what that means ;-).




They even had a small ratha (chariot) :)). Reminded me of the Udupi rathas that I like so much :).




Snugli had a wonderful time running around in the campus :). Then we left and had dinner at, wait for it, Woodlands!! It was vegetarian and the food was fabulous. Oh man, it had been such a long time since I had had good gobi manchurian here (we have one Indian restaurant that makes it here in Lexington, but it just doesn't cut it :-p). We had a meal of chaat, manchurian and noodles (thats my favourite kind of junk food :-D) and it was so so satisfying :)).

On July 4th morning, we headed to Opryland. Opryland hotel is a indoor resort and there is no entry fee (they loot you enough when you buy other goodies/food :-D). Its also attached to Opry mills, a huggggge factory outlet which actually had a Gibson guitar outlet!! The first one I've seen here in the US. Anyways, the hotel is the largest non-casino hotel in the world! It has 5 sections, with different themes, big number of different types of lodgings and different temperature settings! It was pretty impressive :). The first section we saw was the Delta.




Delta has a small river and an "island" connected to the "mainland" by bridges. They even had a boat ride on the river!! They had waterfalls, fountains, various types of vegetation (all real plants in real soil), ducks and fishes! It was fabulous for a man-made environment :).




See what I mean? We took the so-called boat ride and enjoyed the view :). It was a different thing that Snugli simply wanted to be "in" the water :-D. The ride even came with a guide who informed of the hugggggggge numbers of plants and animals they had! We were also told that the temperature was maintained according to the comfort of the vegetation ;-) :)). Can you believe that? Later we walked around and saw the waterfalls :)..







From there we moved onto the Cascades section which had waterfalls of various sizes and this one was the largest in the entire hotel!




Cascades was more humid (again catering to the plants :-D) and we moved on, first to the Garden conservatory, which had lots of varieties of plants and which is supposedly "the" place for weddings ;-).




Then onto Magnolia where they had discos and swimming pools (they even had a Godiva chocolates boutique where I spent some of our hard-earned money without much persuasion :-D) and later to the Convention center which had very large ballrooms :). Then we returned to Delta and had lunch at a buffet place called the Waterfront marketplace. As vegetarians, we got to eat mostly salads and breads, but they had a heavenly dessert buffet and I must have tried some 6 desserts (I know I know, greedy me :-D). That made the whole thing totally worth it ;-). I had cooked Snugli's lunch and packed it early in the morning, so there was no problem there.

After that, we saw a bit of the Opry mills outlet and then drove onto Louisville where we had planned to see the 4th of July fireworks. It looked like it was going to rain but it held till about 10 PM when the rain and the fireworks started :-p. Anyways, the rain soon stopped and we were able to enjoy the firework show :). It was the first set of fireworks Snugli actually was awake to see and that made it extra special :).

And that was it, we drove back and were at home within midnight and were also able to enjoy the Sunday as we had planned. Just when I keep thinking that we have seen enough of East coast as such, we keep finding places like this :). Lets hope we have many others like this :)). Also, wouldn't really mind going to Opryland and actually staying in lodgings sometime ;-).

The day is back ;-).

Hurray its finally the day!! The day I'm off my diet :-D.




Oh wait, I did not mean to say that ;-). What I meant to say is that today is the day I turn 29!! Yup, I'm 29 :))).

You may think that I am too old for compliments (;-) :-D),




or for cake, or in general for surprises :-D,




But you are WRONG!! :-D :))).




Love them as much as I used to :-D. I'm growing old, not forgetful ;-).

By the way, one thing I am sad about this year. Its one of these weird things I noticed when I turned 20. Since 2000 till now, the first and last digits of the year have matched my age (In 2001, I turned 21, in 2005 I turned 25 and so on). And this is the last year when that happens. Next year when I turn 30, it'll be 2010. So there goes my secret enjoyment :(.

Wait a min. Next year I turn 30. 30?? Now that I'm not so crazy about :-p.




Oh well, looking forward to the big three-oh :-D.

The b(d)rainwaves..

Oh man, I haven't updated the blog for days. I still have so much to write about - our Nashville trip, the fair we went to - Snugli enjoyed that so much, about how I feel I'm becoming more and more judgmental and what not. Oh wait, I've also been planning to write about the lullabies I sing to Snugli, the rhymes I try and teach her and so many things. I don't know where the time goes. There are so many things to be done. Still haven't completely setup this home - am yet to buy some things to make it look good. I have to atleast make the ground floor look good before we start inviting people home. Sri's friend already invited us once, so we have to invite them to our house too. Moreover we have already had lunch and dinner in our 2 neighbours' houses. I have to invite them this week, but there will be total 10 people and I wonder if I can manage to cook for them. They both have parents around so they have some help, but I have to do most things myself. Before that I have to get the house ready. Maybe I'll make chapathis, bisi bele baath...

This is a sample of the non-stop transmission that goes on and on, day and night in my brain. Sometimes I feel it ticking so bad that I feel its going to explode anytime. I wish it'd just take a break :-p, shutdown for a while you know? Its like a constant bee buzzing in my ears. I feel so tired some days without even doing anything. Sometimes I even have trouble sleeping because my brain refuses to stop. You know whats worse? It keeps ticking in my sleep too, I get these weird dreams which kinda end up making me feel more exhausted! I wish I could drain the thoughts into a pensieve or something (thats a Harry Potter reference for those who don't know :-p) and finally get some peace. I've tried meditation, but no use :(. I don't know how to make it stop.

Hellllllllllllpppppppppppp :))))))))))))))).

The quote!

Received this in a forward today and had to share it :))).

If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with. If it just sits in your room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your phone, takes your money, and never behaves as if you actually set it free in the first place, you either married it or gave birth to it.

Hehehehe :)).

A step forward in time..

What if you had a glimpse of a day, say 10 years into future? Or maybe you could travel in time to the future and you see what happens to you then? What if you find out its not what you expect it to be today? I guess there is no question necessary if you find out that everything is exactly as you wanted it to be. Would you think its fate and resign yourself to what you saw? Or would you try to change whats to come? I'm sure you must be thinking what brought this on. Three things actually :).

First was a book I read called "FlashForward" by Robert J Sawyer. Its about a huge experiment resulting in most people in the world having a "flashforward" for a few moments where they see a glimpse of what they are doing 20 years in the future. There are 2 main protagonists - one of whom is engaged to one girl, but sees himself married to another woman, while the other doesn't see anything, which they later discover to mean that the person is dead. The former guy thinks that the future cannot be changed, so he starts thinking about breaking up with his fiancee, since he thinks thats what is going to happen anyways (indirectly causing the thing himself). The latter guy becomes obsessed with his death and determines he shouldn't die, so he tries to find people who know something about his death! I won't tell you what the outcome is, in case you are interested in reading the book (I'd suggest you don't look at the Wikipedia link either) ;-). Its two opposing attitudes which result in very unexpected results..

Second was another book called "The Time Traveler's wife" by Audrey Niffenegger . Its about a guy time-traveling all over the different times and finding out stuff long before he would normally find out. Its a beautiful book about the relationship between the guy and his wife, while the guy is jumping all over time. Some of the time travel concepts are not really "logical" (as if time travel itself is logical :-D), but its a book worth reading. In the book, the logic is that you can't change what's going to happen. But then again would you be able to go on if you knew things would end badly?

Lastly I saw a movie on the same concept, "Premonition" starring Sandra Bullock. The movie itself wasn't anything great, but again on the same concept that I'm talking about. We always hope that things are as good or better for us in the future. What would you do if you knew they weren't? Its a very scary thought. More scary is death (there, I said it). I don't fear death for myself but I'm very scared about my loved ones. I pray that no harm come to them and whatever harm may go through me first (on a different track, there is a saying that we are selfish in the matter of death too. We never think that others will suffer if we die, but just pray that we don't suffer ourselves!). Still its scary. So the best thing to do is to stop thinking about what will/won't happen in the future and to live in the moment as much as possible.

On the same note, 10 years ago, if you had asked me what I expected 10 years from then, it'd be pretty much as it is today. I'd certainly have thought that I'd be managing a career as well, but I'm glad that it is what it is. And I'd probably have imagined my life with my-then-current-infatuation, but this life with Sri is wayyyy better ;-). Well, I have some of my past infatuations on social networking sites as friends and lets just say that now I know whatever happens, happens for the good :-D. I am so so glad to have met Sri when I did and to have what I have with him. And no matter what happens tomorrow, I'll always have this :).

Just putting a song which tallies with the situation, Pink singing "Who Knew?" (the video isn't anything great, but the lyrics somehow are)..

Thanks to GAMBITGODDESS for the video.

As the song says, count your blessings now :).

The move next door :-p

Well not really next door, but just a mile away, so you get the picture ;-). Its been 3 weeks already - first week being too busy to even think about writing a post, second week thought about it, but my PC was down and the third week I got a new laptop, still was too lazy to write anything :-D.

Anyways we moved from here:




To here:




It looks like an upgrade (the extra floor), but actually its a downgrade (it has 1 less room and no garage). To tell you the truth, I didn't really want to move at all. After living in the house for 3 years and having the life-changing experience happening there (if you don't know, Snugli was born while we were there), the house felt like our first home as a married couple. Yes, we were in Bangalore for about 2.5 months and then in 2 other apartments here in US for 6 months each. But this was the house we started building the nest in, so to speak. We bought furniture, our TV all there.

But (there always has to be a "but"), the 3 rooms were unnecessary. Snugli still sleeps in our room , albeit in a crib, so we literally had 2 rooms extra - 1 of which we used as an office and a God's room, other we didn't use at all. So a move to a 2-room house would be the logical thing to do. Saving a little bit rent money was a plus. The problem we encountered was the you cannot find a 2-room, 1-floor house. All the 2-rooms I have seen here are duplex houses. And you hardly get independent ones. Well, a town home was our only choice.

I was worried alright, about the move with Snugli around and more than that, about how Snugli would behave around the stairs. Earlier when we moved from house to house here, there were only 2 of us and we did everything - booked a Uhaul and we literally hauled everything. But with Snugli, we have food/milk schedules to maintain and her getting in the way of the move (we cannot really push her into a corner :-p). We did book an Uhaul truck, but we also engaged some labour through Craigslist (2 labourers for $20 an hour).

We didn't know how it all would work out, but it did wonderfully. The labourers were absolutely awesome. They were quick, organized and worth the $100 we paid them after 2 hours. We had initially thought of only getting the bigger items moved by them, but they moved almost 85-90% of our items! When Sri tried to help them out, one of them absolutely refused to let him, saying "This is what you are paying us for"!! Sri and the 2 guys took care of the major moving, while I took care of Snugli's food and getting the boxes ready for the guys to move :-D. Next day we were done with cleaning the house and giving the key back.

I felt bad when we were leaving, seeing the house so empty, yet so full of the times we had spent in it, but after we came to the current house, somehow I totally became indifferent and got adjusted. Don't know whether I'm still in shock and if the realization hasn't yet dawned on the fool thats me :-\. Whats even more strange that whenever we have moved from a place, be it earlier with my parents or later with Sri, visiting the older house is very rare. But in this case, the old house in on the way to anywhere for us. So for quite a few times, I used to feel a pang whenever we saw the old house, but recently, we have another shorter route we are taking, so its been sometime since I saw it.

The best part of it all was that Snugli got adjusted to the new house so well. She cried the first night (she wasn't used to the window next to her crib ;-) :-D), but then things simply fell into place. She loved the stairs, she goes up saying "Aane, aane" (elephant) and comes down the stairs holding the wall. We watch her all the time when she's on the steps, but thank God, there haven't been any incidents so far. We have decided, upon seeing such a good progress to not even install the gate we have with us :-D.

There are still things that need to get into some kind of order (the closet space is less here than the old house), but we were set into a pretty organized environment the first week onwards. I can only hope that this house will be as good for us as the previous one was :)).