Rain, Nice & Driving

View of I-30 after a slow start has eased up

The drive felt never ending. Of course, it would be so, I was after all doing 10mph on a 70mph road. The maximum speed I reached today the entire route was close to 55mph. It was slow and boring. Mind kept wandering in and out of past, present and future, I was emoting to the songs on the radio or better still sang along with a few to stay away and focused. The darkness of the morning and the pounding rain took me back to the drive from Nice to somewhere just past Monaco.

It was still dark but the alarms were blaring. We had woken up to beating rain. The sky was lit brightly by the intermittent lightning and thunder roared all around us. For a few minutes I wondered if my decision to leave early towards Roma was a very good one. We climbed down three flights of stairs as the elevator had been turned off in the apartment (saving energy, the French way) and got soaking wet while loading into the car. 6 wet adults and 3 barely awake kids started out driving in the winding roads of Nice heading towards Roma. Brother-in-Law was driving and I was navigating. Within ten minutes the car was silent and it was just the two of us awake. The rain seemed relentless and the darkness did not leave us until it was close to 10 in the morning.

When the clouds parted, we were already in Italy getting out of one of the many tunnels. Mountains on one side and blue ocean on the other. Villages crowding up as if they wanted to all be in that one little valley. Tunnel after tunnel and valley after valley we drove through many villages until there were no more mountains but flat Tuscan land. The drive is etched in my memory as one of the most beautiful routes I have ever taken.

The drive was divided in to parts. Parts where we enjoyed the beauty and the parts where we wanted to get out of the misery of driving on boring flat empty land. The part where we had amazing coffee and the part where we were trying really hard to find a place to eat. In the end, it is always worth it. Apparently, everything is.

Like today, when I made it into work after an hour and forty-five minutes of driving, it was worth it. The darkness still has not left us and neither has the rain but the snow has started to drift by gently now 60 miles away at my home. Winter in Dallas, I love every bit of you. You are temperamental, you are 70 degrees on one day and 17 the next, you can snow and also do the rain but you do ice the best. You constantly keep us on our toes wondering what your next step is making every winter fresh and leaving lots of new memories to hold on to.

Cold, Tired and Wet from Rain 

ART

Gems Vs M&M's

I laid them in a neat row. Sometimes they were organized by color and sometimes in a pattern. I would eat them by color or by pattern depending on my mood. And when they were all done, I would wait for the break to go pick some more up from the vending machine. That is how my relationship with M&M started.

I had to sit through 3-4 hour long classes late in the evening during my masters. Tummy would start growling around 7 pm just as I entered the class. My lunch would have been hours before consisting of fries or chicken nuggets. Never enough. I would save a side seat in the class just to organize my M&M’s. The class was essentially talking and understanding architecture through interaction and debate. At the half time break I would head out to pick up one more packet and a coke and finish up the class before heading back home in the cold.

I can only remember classes at Kansas State in the cold, I never took classes through summer. Before winter really ended our Spring session would come to an end and I never walked to a class in warmth. This was my life for two years, go to school in the morning for doing TA work, spend the noon finishing up reading and assignments and end the day in class discussing and arguing over different topics that always started in architecture but ended everywhere else.

Today, as I sat working late through deadline I stole a pack of M&M’s from a colleague and intuitively organized them on a clean piece of paper. Suddenly, the memories came pouring back from thirteen plus years ago. The funniest train of thought started with me feeling sad that the packet I was ripping was not gems. It was a weird thought, surely, I have not eaten Gems since I was a little girl and yet tonight, I would have been happier eating Gems than M&M’s.  And that is how, my brain train took me to my class room in Kansas State. As the evening turned into night outside, I melted out of my office and was sitting at my chair in Seaton Hall, and snapped out of it as an email came screaming by announcing more work.

An M&M’d ART.

Pongal Poi Pongal Vandhadhu

Time flies...I cannot believe that I am standing in 2015 and பொங்கல் (Pongal) is already here. I wish I was eating sugarcane and enjoying சக்கிரை பொங்கல் (sweet Pongal) in my house in Chennai. I wish I had burnt old stuff the day before and beat the drum before throwing it into the fire. I wish I had worn new clothes to celebrate the birth of new and good times and the month of தை (Thai). Oh! Well! Cannot have everything.

If there was nothing for me to wish for or miss then I would not have led a good life, so for that fun I have had and the fun to be had...I would like to wish everyone a very happy பொங்கல் (PONGAL).

And I realize that I have written three posts about Pongal in the past...think I love this festival a lot.

The one I wrote in 2007 was 5 days before I found out I was pregnant. The memories are so vivid and from then on there was a Babs element in all of them :)

http://anurussell.blogspot.com/2007/01/in-few-days-in-south-indian-calendar.html

http://anurussell.blogspot.com/2010/01/too-much-work.html

http://anurussell.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-harvest-time-once-again.html

Love
Pongal Eating ART

The Year That Was!!! 2014

2014, I could not have asked for a better year. When we started out, we were on the rocks a bit. Not really, but health wise, I carried with me a horrible cold after the flu just before 2014 started. It started in a hotel room with friends chatting and almost forgetting the onset of a New Year. In general, the health pattern carried out throughout 2014. I have never had so many colds or fevers in one year like I did in 2014. I worked through a lot of them, slept three a couple but the general immunity seems to be down. This year also coincided with my weight gain. I tried to keep it down, work out, bike, run but everything barely took off for more than a few days. I had so many exams to take, people to entertain that "I" took the back seat in my life.

January: We ended our 4500+ mile drive through the country, driving through mountains and beside the ocean, through the dessert and staying high above the ground in Vegas to eating at Batali's. It was a good month.

February: Was uneventful. We relaxed a bit, visited family in Houston. Spent time recuperating.

March: Brother moved to Dallas and spent three months with me. We had a blast. We relaxed, ate, spoke a lot, and caught up with each other's life after a long time.
We also spent the spring break weekend at a spooky BnB in Seguin, TX.

April: I went with Babs to her school Field Trip. It was super fun to spend time with her and her school mates. We also did Holi in our front yard with friends. It was also the month when Babs started to ride the bike on her own.

May: We spent the time getting ready for summer. I had exams to study for imminent in June and spent more time on that than with my brother or family. It was stressful but we sailed through.

June: Saw us planning our trip to EU. We were mentally ready for a vacation. We rarely take time off from work, which always explains the extra PTO that stack up for me as well as G. We make it to work through rain or shine, especially since I cannot work from home, I have to be physically connected to server most of the time to be able to do what I do. Therefore the trip was something all three of us looked forward to. Off we went to EU for a 15 day break. We went from Paris to Barcelone to Nice to Rome to Pisa to Annecy and spent more time in Paris meeting my BFF and enjoying relaxing.

July: We came back from Paris and did not want to be here. We loved being back on our beds in our home but we missed the break, the relaxation, the fun and family.

August: Our friends spent the month with us. It was so good to have the house full. The kids played and fought but the adults relaxed with some good drinks and food every night after the drama kid dramas went to bed. Babs started another year in school and life got back to a routine. We enjoyed seeing and hearing Mika Singh live in concert in Dallas with friends. It was amazing.

September: Our friends left and we had the house for ourselves for a bit. We had no idea what to do. We missed them a lot. Babs school and classes took over us. We went to SLAM show in Houston with friends and had the best time of our lives.

October: My parents came and spent three weeks with us. It was fun. Babs turned seven and G turned a year older. We did trick or treating and also Diwali. We could feel the year winding down.

November: We had two weeks before G's parents came. We spent time trying to get the house ready for the big family arrival. M and I ran the only 5K this year. We promised that we would run together a lot this year but that has not happened yet.

December: We started December with illness. All of us had something or the other going on but we were ready for the holidays on time for family to arrive. All of G's family is here and we officially celebrated Christmas together this year with tree, gifts, decorations and every thing set. The kids had a blast and do did the adults. We got Kinected (xbox) this year and also switched entirely to Samsung except the one Ipad that is still working. There is a lot of noise in the house with three kids running the show, there is food always to be found and drinks everywhere.

I pray and hope that everyone has a great 2015 and it is just as good as 2014 was to me.

Happy and Prosperous 2015.

PS: This is my 600th post! WooHoo!!

The Selfie Crowd!!!

That is what I called ourselves and most of others who ran the 5K this past weekend with us. My main aim was to not finish last. M and I put in a lot of effort to ensure that we were not the last two to roll to finish line and have everyone sympathetically clap for us. We made it in decent time. I wont ever say great...but we made it in at least before 400 others...so we are good.

The main motivation for the chocolate they promised if we finished the run. So we ran because we were getting food. Yes, not a great way to get back in shape. Four years ago when we ran our 5K, we were fit, we finished very fast and ran the whole darn thing. Last year, I kinda sorta ran the whole thing, this year...oh well...we ran walked it but we ran 2 miles of it. We paced ourselves because we had to and also because most of the 5K people walk and there is never enough space to run freely. Which is when I came up with the title...Selfie Crowd. All the 5K runners are typically selfie crowd. They come to pose, take photos, walk and have a good morning chat. They do this after paying close to $50 per person. Could they/we not have done it around our neighborhood? Uh, no!

If we someone would have the start and Finish air filled gateways near our house we might do it, so we could selfie first and then head out and selfie after we are done. If they had goodies everyday after our run/walk there would be more motivation. If our selfies could motivate others and make some feel J, we might do it...none of this happens...so we run 5Ks sponsored by chocolate companies or charities. We run so we can let the world know we are healthy, and make ourselves feel better that we are at least trying.

So, it was a fun weekend, as my bestie and I ran/walked the 5K, and finished with wiping off dripping melted chocolate from our faces we were proud. We were proud that even after a year of nothingness we could still do it without much fuss, we were proud that we made some use out of our Sunday morning. We were proud that we could make fresh promises of working out better and getting fit, We were proud that as we age, we were doing it in style. We were generally proud because that is who we are!!!

With love
From
Selfie ART