Blown away!

I am blown away, by a cold summer breeze.

It is a new place with some old friends and lots of new people. Life's changing a bit. I am in a new city, and I am loving it! Spending a year at KGI can really drain you. But an internship ain't easy either. I now get to work at 8 AM (oh my god!), hope that coffee will help me stay awake through meetings, grab a quick-ish (but yummy) lunch, go back to coffee + reading stuff and then hope I don't miss my shuttle! Get home, hang out with friends, enjoy the Lakers win with some good wine; these seem to be the good times. Then I crash, and now I understand why some 'old' working people don't want to do late nights.

What else is up? Well, another realization: I freaking hate house hunting. Hate it. Especially when I am being picky, and there ain't much choice to pick from. Grr... And the cold breeze... I kinda like it when I am all cozied up, but when its unexpected.... Brrr...

We went to a street fest in downtown SF last weekend. It was the Haight-Ashbury street fest, and man, it was an experience! The area there has a colorful history- it was (probably still is) the center of sex, drugs and roll n' rock in the 1960s. It had very interestingly named shops/hotels like the Vapor Den (sells legal pot), Amoeba, Mad Dog, the Grateful Dead house and many more. Look it up :)

Now my first week here is over, but the mind-fuck I was stuck with earlier simply doesn't leave me. Its the same stuff over and over, all sad and soppy. Brain, get out of here before I drown you in alcohol. Consider this fair warning! This reminds me: A, K and yours truly had an interesting night out partying. It was a great send-off guys (even though it wasn't meant to be one!), and I miss you all! And I am super-sad that I am missing AR Rehman's performance live in LA :(

Ta-da till the next!

Free fallin'

I am falling and I am flying high....

I can't decide which! My brain switches from one to the other without warning!

For the past week or so, I was hit by the worst case of nostalgia/home-sickness/feeling sorry for myself in a long time; and then I had an amazing Friday. One hour and five minutes was all it took to flip my luck on its head! So now, Dee is going to spend her summer in San Francisco, and is super excited about it! But a part of me is sad, there were certain aspects of staying back in Claremont, which promised to be as much fun, though in quite a different way. There is this contradiction in me which I have not been able to figure out yet: I am so unattached to so many things/people, and so attached to only a few. I am not even sure what the selection criteria is; it just is!

The past couple of weeks have been an endless series of people moving in, people moving out, people graduating, and moving on. Two weekends = Two graduation ceremonies! Standing next to these fresh graduates (with stars in their eyes :P) makes me proud of what they have achieved. I am looking forward to when I will ask them to be with me for my graduation. There is change in the air again; it's exciting, fun and scary at all once. Then last weekend, we got together (B, C, K, R and me) to go to Solvang. It is a pretty little town with original settlers from Denmark. Yummy Danish food, great trinkets to shop for, a cycle surrey ride thru' the town and some wine tasting. Throw in a beautiful drive by the coast, a gorgeous lake and a waterfall; with great conversation, laughter and Skip-Bo --> supreme perfection.

My biggest hope amongst all these changes is that this tenuous thread of friendship should not die off. It's very easy to let time and distance do their evil magic; it takes a lot of sweat and effort to maintain relationships. It is something that is weighing on my mind. Not to say that I am an expert in this; actually, judging by the present state of events, I suck! But I want a chance to try, and (hopefully) to try again. Maybe I will get one, maybe I won't. This time, I want to make it work better!

So now, for my own sake: Fingers crossed. Also, I am putting the smile back on!

Snip-Snaps from the months past...

Looking back on my posts, I seem to have missed a few steps between doing crazy fun stuff and bidding adieu to my seniors. Which was fine till I had the all-powerful excuse of KGI wringing the life-blood out of me. Damn, but I miss the place and the pace when its all over for the semester. After a year, I am glad that I am happy to be here, anyone who is still having doubts has been undergoing unnecessary torture! 'Coz this is the place where people have wacky ideas and do super-fun things together, like 12 girls setting off on a chick trip to Las Vegas! Woo-hoo!

Ah, the pleasures of not having men along with you. No one to hog the shower, nobody to protest when you spend time to get your make-up 'just right', being with people who appreciate sexy heels, no waiting in lines anywhere, bartenders getting you your drinks first, even better- guys offering to buy you your drinks, and the best part: girls encourage you to shop. Till you drop. Then they pick you up, get you a coffee, and send you out again on a mission to activate the pleasure centers of the female brain. If all those benefits don't sound enough, we also heard lovely comments like "Oh Ladies, you make this place look so pretty!" Sweet!

Vegas was exactly like it is projected to be, just much more alive and vibrant; and smack in the middle of bloody nowhere. Actually, that sort of makes it all the more impressive! Vegas has this way of luring you in with her charms, and spinning this fantasy web all around you. She tempts, and there is no escape from her temptations! The KGI ladies ate, drank and danced our shoes away. Then, to refresh our tired eyes, we went to enjoy the "Thunder from Down Under" which is basically a show with very hot, almost naked Aussies! Lasciviousness at its sizzling best! Mmmhmm. To top up the experience, the two bawis stayed up gambling little bits of their money away all night long! Hell yes, it was crazy, and worthy of being turned into a Kappa Gamma Iota tradition!

Oh, did I mention that the evening before going off to Vegas, I went to see John Mayer, live in concert? No?

Now that was another amazing experience. The crowds, the music, and the artists! Such energy! As with all great artists, his passion for creating music shows. At the end, JM treated us to a guitar solo which was smokin' hot, both musically and literally! The guitar was down on the ground, JM's intensity was palpable, and it was simply awesome. Very very wow!

There is more to come, a mish-mash of words and emotions waiting to be let out, but I thought these two good times deserved their own post. So here it is, with the pakka promise of more!