Keepsake - Week two post two

I have always felt that a place is as beautiful as the time you have spent there...

Along with just the beauty of the place what makes some places more special are the wonderful memories we create while being there.

But this post is not about any place in particular. It’s about how you treasure the memories associated with different places?  Before, I always thought that the photographs are the best memoirs of a place and I never cared to collect any memorabilia of any place I visited. Of course I took hundreds of snaps.

But seeing M collect a souvenir of almost every place he is been to (coffee mugs with a picture of the city on it), I started collecting magnets. And in no time I kind of got hooked to it.

Yes, photographs are still the best way to relive a nice time. But then for that , I really need to open a particular folder on my HD which I don’t unless I am copying some new data etc in there ..You know what I mean right?

Whereas these magnets, they are there on my refrigerator...all the time. So I can just look at a magnet and smile to myself... right there.

Over the time, unknowingly it has now become more like a hobby – collecting the souvenirs I mean. How about you?  

But yes saying that, I do want to add that nothing can take away from the experience that eventually enriches you in a small or big way. Like the parasailing we did in Catalina Islands , or the chopper ride in the Grand Canyon , or the Insanity ride on the 102^nd floor of stratosphere in Vegas , or be it experiencing the night life in Vegas while walking on the strip street with a Margarita, or catching that first glimpse of Mount Rainier after a series of cloudy days in Seattle ,or walking besides the frozen Charles river on a snow laden Boston morning ,or welcoming your birthday on the golden gate or cutting the birthday cake on a sunset at the lake Michigan or catching the rainbow in Niagara …or walking by the river Isar in the suburbs of Munich or taking that gondola ride in the Alps or walking aimlessly in the fog with a bunch of friends and a cup of tea in Matheran  !! I bet no picture or memento can ever capture that  !!

 No doubt, these experiences are by far the best keepsakes …!!

Blame it on my Masters !!!

What does studying in the US (especially MS) does to you –

I stopped drinking tea after coming to the US after first 15 days or so. Reason – Who would get up , make the tea and then wash the utensil ? And then the cup? Isnt drinking coffee or milk much less painful ? So goes tea out of the routine and in comes coffee (very bad for health I know, and now I have stopped drinking it ) and Bournvita. Pour the milk in the cup, Keep the cup in the Microwave . Done ! Afterwork –Just wash the cup. Or which you need not until next day morning. *wink*

Well , now after being married for about year and a half .. (yes though me and M meet only on the weekends)and one more heads up -  M really needs his tea. Our usual Saturday morning conversation would be :

Me : Do you need tea really ? ..(still in the bed )

M : yes ..!!

Me : Cant you make it this time ? (As if I make it everytime)

M : I have to make it daily when I am staying alone on the weekdays (emotional blackmail) ..

Me : (I really don’t buy that ) Ok fine. But you have to make it next time and tomorrow !!

After about 10 minutes :

M: Are you still sleeping ?

Me : Do you really need tea ?? …

Height of Laziness … ??? I know :) 

A small milestone

One year went by, just like that! Of innumerable days and uncountable memories. Some significant, others not so much. You make resolutions of which, again you meet some and wish had not made the others. Well, the point is, you do remember certain days and dates sometimes the significant ones and sometimes the not so significant ones too.  I completed one year of work after my Masters this 9^th of August.

I remember this day last year so vividly. Saying bye to M was so tough that I cannot even start to explain. So during this entire year , I got a job , moved to San Diego , changed 3 apartments , made friends, worked on 3 projects , took almost 70 flights (I counted them yesterday) , went to India for K3’s wedding (nopes, this number is not included in that ‘70’), travelled back on OPT (the worst 26 hours of my life ever – well almost !) , M’s parents were here with us for few months so travelled around with them to different places (like Lake Tahoe , SFO , LA , San Diego , Orange County, Seattle , Half Moon Bay etc…. ) .Travelled to Boston and Newyork for K3’s Graduation ceremony. Took another job, moved to a new place. Stayed there for a couple of months, moved to another apartment in the same city. Got a car, learnt how to drive on my own (as in sitting all alone in the car).

All this happened in one year. No, it dint just fly by. It was way too hectic. This year, I actually plan to concentrate on my work. Sleep more, worry less, read and write more, travel less too – yes, I definitely need a break from that.

As a child, I always wanted to grow up to be independent enough to have the freedom of making my own decisions. Little did I know then that with it, comes the responsibility of owing it up. No matter what the outcome is. Yes, after growing up, I wish, I so much wish at times, that why can’t somebody really  decide things for us and own them too. When I took the decision of joining this job, I badly wanted a job. So any job, anywhere on the planet would have sufficed. Probably after that, I have asked this question to M every time before saying a bye, catching that darn flight, whether it was a right decision or not. He always smiles and owns up for it. 

Iphoned

Life has changed in many ways .. so much that by the time I think of writing about it , boom – comes the other one. So before this life changing experience gets mundane , let me write about it.

Me and M (M&M) recently gifted each other with iP4 – 32 GB and got a supporting 2 Gig data plan !

Insider – Infact its M whos got it for both of us !!

Yours truly being technologically challenged and M being a gadget freak (may I say so) this was obviously his intiative. I was infact not supportive at all initially with the thought of the impending expenditure. Hardly did I know then that it will have such a huge impact on me !!!

But finally I gave in !

The first thing I noticed was its quite user friendly , since I could use it with no assistance at all from day one. App store has a lot of interesting applications and what made it more interesting was the deal Me n M made between us. The one who finds a new app will get the brownie points …:)  And that got me hooked to it.

The FAcetime is awesome. M knows what I am wearing to office and I know what my sister cooked – handy , fast and interesting.

With the CallsUnltd app, you can configure your Vonage connection on iPhone, so that now I can call my mommie from SD using my landline connection in SF !! Whoopieee !!

Camera – The back side 5MB and the front VGA – makes life cooler and colorful. I can take a shot of what I am eating and whoa- How I am eating it !!! It helps me capture the sunset colors of SD very vividly on the way to airport and look I just emailed it to all.

I have my Bank app which hopefully will make banking easy , a southwest app – which makes me have a snapshot of all the upcoming iteneries, check in and see the flight status too.

Dhingana.com app has a very good Radio – I need not bother about downloading music (lil lazy here). M would vouch for Tandora though.

The other useful apps would be weather , navigator, around me, skype etc.

I have configured my gmail and Office Outlook , so I get easy acces to emails ( I know this isn’t something I need to brag about iPhone –for blackberry would do it much better. ) But I love the look of all that on iPhone.

The resolution in awesome. I like watching photos on it over my HP i5 laptop .. huh !

There are hazaar apps out of which one is a chumtracker – oops , I just said THAT !! Nevermind .. !

Ohh and yes, I already dropped it twice – so done with the stress testing too.

The cons - ? High chances of missing your bus stop because you would be busy exploring your iPhone and then getting down at a wrong bus-stop – but well yaa, nevamind – my iPhone will navigate me !!!

PS : I am on FB all the time now :D :D :D

This post is a proof that this url still belongs to me and I haven’t forgotten its passwd :D

Thanks for visiting …. !!!

M

M is none other than my dear husband. He is an absolute sleep lover. He simply loves to sleep and yes he is a deep sleeper too, hardly taking 2 minutes to sleep off after lying on the bed. I was no different until we got married- and since he actually takes no time to sleep I have begun to feel that I am an insomniac.

Like the other day we saw a bunch of seals lazing around doing nothing on the floating wood planks at pier 39 , SFO , it was then I was wondering “what a pathetic life – doing nothing” to myself is when M exclaimed with complete enthusiasm – “look at them , what a life – doing nothing – I would love to be one of them !!!”

Or like the other time , once while sleeping , I mushily digged my nose onto his face struggling to sleep. M was obviously getting bothered since I was disturbing his much beloved sleep . After bearing that for a minute or two , he said

M : “You know what, if you want to continue sleeping like that, we might have to breathe in sync”

Me : “A what??? “

M : “I meant we need to either exhale at the same time or inhale together at the same time”

Me: “And why is that ?”

M: “If I exhale and you inhale, I don’t wanna you to take in all of the CO2 ….”

Now who would want to do that , I obviously turned around and M went back to sleep HAPPILY !!