Random observation -- no matter what I eat at home before coming to work, I MUST eat breakfast at desk to really wake up.

Day dreaming is what I do when I have a lot of stuff to do.

What made my morning happy today? I am a Starbucks girl. Strictly. But at work they have the 8 o'clock coffee, and frankly, I hate it. But of course to get by the day, when the clocks strikes two and there is a never ending list of things on your planner that still need to be addressed. to-do list still to be followed, you will have to drink whatever coffee you get. But my day was made when I saw Folgers. The glitter in my eyes that followed the sight of Folgers lit up the whole room and I ran towards it. Made myself a full pot of coffee and aaaaaaaaaaah! Great start to a great day :)

I love holiday season. But celebration is accompanied by uncontrollable sugar supply at work. No matter how much you try to avoid it, whether you like it or not, you will end up consuming this unwanted fattening substance that your body absolutely can do without -- Candy, desserts, soda, bread, more candy and some more candy. I am only human after all.

Yes I am that person -- I have not watched The Wizard of Oz, I forgot to prepare for the Wizard of Oz quiz today, I don't have cable AND I read.

Early morning rant - I love shoes. And we have talked about it several times. But today I know that Diego loves shoes too. Only difference is that I wear them and he chews on them. Yes, he chewed my stilettos away. Right in time during the holidays. I might be able to get it fixed. But obviously just like how a tainted relationship can never be brought back to normal, a shoe chewed by a dog can never be repaired and made to look like new again. RIP my BCBG super shiny red shoes. Sigh.

On the brighter side, I got to wear new pants to work today. Well, that’s not the bright side of course. The real news is that I bought it yesterday and it's a size smaller than what I used to wear! Total victory!!

Dear readers,

Here is the reason for my expected absence from the labyrinth - I am in India and I might be too busy having fun or just being lazy. Please consider this to be my O-o-O auto reply if you don't see any new posts here this month. Meanwhile, please visit http://sowmyatta-gps.blogspot.com/ for my travel updates, reviews, experiences and new posts :)

P.S. If I don't reply to your e-mails/texts, it's for the same reason and I will get back with each one of you once I reach home.

Love,

Sowm

Welcome home Diego!

Fear of animals that I talked about in my last post, is a complicated emotion. So there are some animals I find cute and I want to go pet them and play with them. But there are some that I absolutely cant stand. For an example - I like dogs. But of course since they are not human beings, I am a little scared. But cats, or birds on the other hand - I can not stand them. At all. I respect the fact that they exist and make an important part of the ecosystem but I do not want them in my surroundings.

But just like always, life happens and we end up with things we think we can't handle. And perform surprisingly well :) Something similar happened to me --

Diego' first day of existence for me was when a coworker told me that he found an abandoned puppy who needed a home. I had been wanting to try my hand on a pet for a while. I have a fish at work which I inherited from my ex-boss, but that’s about it. I thought may be its time I fight my fear and do some good. And bonus is that it will save a life. It was just good timing and everything fell in place. I brought Diego home :)

He's a black pug - don’t know how old cz I have no details of his history, may be just a full grown puppy. And he is a good kid! Now all he has to do is to learn the rules of the house - not jump on the bed or couch, not jump at people and he will be perfect!

Since we are both strong minded individuals, we are having fun adjusting to each other. And since I am bigger than him, I usually win Buahahaha. We have a loooong way to go still...

Oh, why do I call him Diego you ask. Two reasons --

1. I love San Diego and I have gathered great memories from that place/time, learned some important lessons, made some good friends and had a great time at probably otherwise a difficult time of my life


2. Diego - the cute (saber toothed) tiger - from Ice Age

Here begins a new phase. And I like it!

My fear of non human living entities is famous across the world. All my friends and family know how uncomfortable I am around animals and birds. But this has never stopped my parents from having pets. When I was a baby, they had two dogs - Tommy (German Shepherd) and Puffy (Pomeranian). But they made sure that they stay away from me - thank you mom and dad!

And then when we moved to our current house, they were given away to friends.

Then we had some fish, which really didn’t bother me, in fact I liked it. Cz it sits in the corner looking pretty and doesn’t come in your way or ask for attention. Just some food and some cleaning and you are good to go. But we got rid of those and got a tortoise. Yes a tortoise. I cant remember what did we name him, but he was okay too. He would just stay in the tank and not walk around in the house or bother anyone.

Then for a long time, we didn't have any pets. And I got more comfortable with life cz now I was able to walk around in the house without fear of some random animal popping out of nowhere. And I loved it.

But one day, soon after I moved to US of A, I get a call from my sister telling me that they had found my replacement - a dog. What. A dog. Nice. This didn’t bother me too much because I was away from home and I had nothing to do with the dag or him being around me. I didn’t care too much, until now. I have to visit home after sooo long and I will have to deal with this situation as soon as I step in. Sigh.

How to peel an orange?

There are multiple ways of peeling an orange. Of course.

1. Common man's way - Take the orange. Peel it. Eat it.

2. Sowm's way - Put it in a plate. Go around the orange with a small knife and peel the skin off. Cut it. Eat it.

3. Adam's way - Also called the Oklahoma way. Dig your thumb into the fruit. Squish it. Take the skin off (somehow). Knock the trash can down. Wash the orange. Eat it.

Friday

You want to spoil my day? Easy. Just spoil my morning. I have recently noticed how much I value my mornings. Stepping out of the bed into soft fur (like) slippers, a hot shower, steaming cup of coffee, glance at the still emerging sun light, a quick read and the morning prayer. Now that is what I call a perfect morning. OK I can compromise on a thing or two sometimes. But how many such mornings have I had this week. None. Nada. So I guess I don't even have to tell you how my week went. Boy it was a looong week.

But guess what. It's over :) So now I can start over with a beautiful weekend and a new week :)

Monday

Monday morning, and I feel like I was hit by a truck on my way to work. This will certainly affect my productivity. It also means that it's not a good day to take up any new responsibilities, rather finish the ones that I already have and are waiting for my attention. May be today is their lucky day.

Sowmyatta is a bona fide city girl

This was my status message on facebook. If any one wonders why I said that - out of plain realization. This is regarding my hiking/camping trip this past Saturday. I will be honest when I say that I am not an outdoorsy person who enjoys such trips every weekend. I like to keep it once in a blue moon event. Cz when it happens, I want to feel good about it. I was very excited about this trip cz it had been an awfully long time that I had a chance to get out of the town, closer to the nature. The hills, the greens and the waters. Refreshing!

So we start the day with a quick breakfast and drive to the destination. The drive was great cz we ditched the highway and took the country roads, some through typical southern small town downtowns. The tallest building in this downtown was three floors I think. Old architecture, people sweeping the floor outside their stores and getting ready for the day, one lane roads - pretty country I must say. Very neat!

Another highlight of the drive was an interesting conversation - about travels and cultures and foods and people and all the things I like :)

So after we reached, had a snack and set up the tents, we were ready to get started with the almost all day long hike, which by the way was pretty vertical. And good thing was that I didn't know that before I started. We took frequent breaks at spring waters on the way, and the castle for more super interesting conversations.

The only bad part about the day was the heat. It was 95F and I had forgotten my sunscreen. And as y'all know brown people tan easier and faster, I was burnt by the end of the day. Few of us wanted to stay back and camp for the night (me too). But after the tiresome hike, and sun burns, and more heat I decided to ditch the plan and drive back. This was the moment when I realized that all these unnecessary hardships are not my cup of tea.

The first thing I did after I got back home was to take a shower and do my hair and nails. And then went to bed. Had a very good night's sleep that night after sweating the toxins out. All in all I had a wonderful time. But I also realized that there are some things I definitely want to stay away -

1. Too much heat

2. Dust

3. Public bathrooms

TIP: When going for a hike, NEVER forget this stuff. It might just save your life.

Sun screen, water, more water, some Gatorade and a back pack. Bonus if you carry a camera with you :)

By the way, a question - When the human race has advanced enough to come up with life saving technology like Air conditioning, mattresses and lights, why would you want to put a stuffy tent in the middle of no where in scorching heat and sleep on the hard surface. If you know the answer please let me know :)

How to fix the day that you start by yelling at some one, no breakfast and people around you that you don't want to see?

Suggestions?

Well well... I must say that I was a little too harsh on myself yesterday (referring to my last post). It's something I like, just doing it cz someone else asked me to doesn't make its an effort to 'fit in'.

And yes, Saints won :D

Sorry Swap, I promise this is the end of cryptic posts!

SHIT SHIT SHIT!

I have always been a very strong believer of doing things that I like and not the things that will help me fit in. And that is what I have always preached to the world. But guess what I just did - committed to something just cz everyone else was doing it. The reason of jumping in is totally, absolutely wrong.

In my defense, I actually kinda like this activity, but I surely am not a religious part taker.

Things you have to do in order to 'fit in'...

I hate myself right now!

Buh-bye summer, hello fall!

Labor Day weekend! And just like every single labor day weekend, I did not travel I don’t know how this time around the year, every year, I am always either broke, or sick or both. But hah! This time at least I did what is on #2 of my love list – Shopping!

Besides an extra day off and bargain sales, Labor Day also means an official start of FALL. Yes!! :D

Fall for me is festivities, football and fashion!

Fact that the summer is coming to an end doesn’t make me happy, but I guess this summer wasn't the best summer of my life anyway. So I don’t care too much about it ending. Oh by the way, wondering why this summer was not so much fun? Simple one word answer is – Work. As much as I like my job, I don’t like the fact that it leaves me with no time to get out and do stuff (which primarily means the two very things I enjoy a lot i.e. travelling and socializing).

But fall brings with it hope. I expect this fall to be beautiful and fun :) Enjoy!

A thought

Musing over the morning cup of coffee, staring outside the window of my 50th floor room in Las Vegas, Nevada, a quick thought crossed my mind that changed me in a lot of ways.

When I was a student, I always thought that when I get a job and a stable salary, I will take travelling more seriously. And I waited long enough. Now I have the job a.k.a money to spare on my favorite hobby and doing things that I always wanted to do and honestly, I realized that I travelled more as a student compared to now.

The realization made me think about all the things that I have been putting off for 'The day when I...' - Shook me up! That day never comes cz when it does, we put it off to some other day and the circle goes on forever.

Now what is that I absolutely love? Travelling, of course. So after I got back home, I started a travel fund. The idea is to put some change in the fund every now and then. At the end of the year, I should have saved up enough money to swing by another country on my way back from India :)

P.S. Donations welcome :)

Just so you know - this blog is not dead!

I have a ton load of stuff that is worth posting here. But what I don't have is time to do it. I know I am not as busy as Barack Obama (yet!). But I have a life.

So wait a little longer and you will agree that it's worth it :)

See you soon!

I don't know how many of you read the about me page on this blog. But I am very glad that I wrote it. Why? Cz after months and months of pestering and yelling by my mom, I updated my jeevansathi profile. Yes kill me!

So anyhoo... I just copied pasted the 'About me' from my blog. Not sure sure if it was for good or for bad... LOL

Just added a new page in The Labyrinth...

So I am working on composing an 'About Me' page for this blog. And I am sure everyone knows how hard it is to come up with a nice yet true piece about your own self. So I asked a friend for help. Here is what he wrote about me:

End of First Day: Cute, Nice, Sweet, Lively

End of First Week: Complaining, bitchy, "I deserve better", "Why am i stuck here?"

End of One Month: "I Know you help but I dont care, this is expected"

End of Second Month: "I hate this", "I hate that", "I hate everything"

Thanks my friend. This helped.

Stagnant - This word freaks me out, literally! Just the thought of life coming to a halt and me living my life in a strict routine where I don't gain anything or learn anything = gives me goosebumps. Life to me is moving on, doing something new everyday, learning something I didn't know yesterday, seeing something I have never seen before, doing something that I haven't done ever or in a while, and just enjoying it moment by moment.

This weekend I had a chance to have some alone time, and I was in for a surprise... I realised that I was being sucked into the vicious circle of meaningless mechanical life. And that's when I decided that this needs to change! Since then, I have been doing things to bring it back on track - cooked, cleaned, played guitar, read, and am updating my blog. And oh boy I feel good :)

It's wonderful to see what ten minutes of head clearing can do!

Useless e-mail conversation #1

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 3:05 PM, Vandy wrote:

Anyone interested?

Place: you guys pick

Time: around 8ish?

-Vandy

----

From: Sowmyatta Bhardwaj

Date: Wed, May 5, 2010 at 3:27 PM

Subject: Re: time for non-constructive conversation?

To: Vandy

Cc: Rishi, Tommy

Estimado / a todos (Spanish for 'dear all'),

I am very interested in this uber awesome plan, but I am sick :( You see, when you are sick you don't want to go out and even if you do you don't enjoy it as much as you would have otherwise. And hence other people don't enjoy it either. And then they don't like you and stop hanging out with you. And obviously I don't want to deprive my lonely soul of y'alls' wonderful company! Who would any way? (This is a rhetorical question, please don't bother to answer this).

Also, I think Tommy is out to San Antonio on PCI tab. So I propose we meet up tomorrow or the day after (whichever suits you better) and then discuss about all the topics of utmost irrelevance ever known to mankind. Meanwhile, we all will have a chance to take a moment and search the web for fresh non sense to discuss over the table whenever we meet. This way some of us (directly implying Hrishikesh) will not have to hide their phones under the table to google jokes.

Let me know of your thoughts on this. And as always, your suggestions are welcome.

Love, Sowm

P.S. Never mind

Buzz about the Buzz!

You can do a lot of things with Google Buzz, which is great! One of the many things you can do is link your personal websites to your account. I thought it was pretty cool so I linked my blogs etc to my buzz. So now a summary of my blog shows up as my buzz – pretty cool I thought. But wait – what I see here is that everyone started commenting on my buzz, and stopped going to my blog :-O WTH

So now, I shall un-link the websites from my buzz. Now below are the rules, that WE will follow-

1. I will blog more often (and as you see, I have been trying to be a little more regular with that lately)
2. I will update my buzz (and twitter) with the link to the blog
3. You will go to my blog-site and post the comments there

Great! So we are all set then?

Post soon,

Sowm

Eleven reasons why I should buy a TV

Talk about people who don't learn from their mistakes! Yes, I am one of them :( I again lost a post just cz I compiled it in notepad++ and rebooted the machine without saving the document.

So I was writing about why I decided on buying a TV (yes, finally!). Few reasons that motivated me and helped me make this decision were:I don’t have room mates

1. I don't have room mates

2. I don’t have a boy friend

3. I have friends but they are all so talented that they have jobs

4. I love watching movies – and I already have a blockbuster membership

5. I need to catch up with the rest of the world – day to day update you see

6. I want to be left alone at times – so that I can just lie on my couch and watch useless reality shows

7. I want to have girls’ nights often – fruity cocktails, giggles, chick flicks and my girls

8. I want to be able to host drinking video game parties at home

9. There is a huge corner in my living room which is empty and needs something to be put there (yes this argument qualifies cz a TV CAN be put there)

10. A TV will keep me home (hopefully?)

11. I want a TV – Wait, we don’t need any more arguments! This discussion is over!

Well, so we just decided that I NEED a TV. Now the question is what kind. I have everything figured out except, I have a question – is it worth spending extra 200 bucks to get a 120Hz instead of 60Hz? How big is the difference? Suggestions?

So Hewlett-Packard Thinks It Needs to Sell Computers to Women As If They Were Stilettos

Rubbish! To sell PC to women like stilettos, they also have to make their PC way prettier and more expensive. Just how Apple does it. We like expensive designer stilettos, that most other women can‘t afford… Can HP do that with range starting from 400 some bucks?

So... yeah it's been long! My blog has bee slow, really slow. And no one else but I am to blame. I can make a million excuses, but this time I want to look for a solution instead. I miss blogging!

Bless these smart phones, lazy bums like myself don't need to turn their computer on to be online. I have been following a new routine, not entirely by choice but convenience - Every morning, I wake up and check my e-mail/facebook/twitter in bed. And then get ready and take off for work. The whole day I am staring at my work computer screen (not one but three!) and in the evenings, I just don't want to look at the computer screen any more. Not even for a minute. Not even for a second. Hence no writing...

So when/how do I blog? I think the best way for me would be to invest in a good blogging app! for my iPhone I have been looking at some options, but none of the apps have more than three on five star rating. This confuses me!

So far I have shortlisted the following -

• iBlogger ($9.99)

• BlogPress ($2.99)

• ShoZu ($2.99)

• BlogWriter ($1.99)

Suggestions?

What should/could have I said?

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Okay! So here is the deal...

Whenever I play the vanish act on you, I always try to come up with a good enough excuse. But let's face it - I am human and I get caught up with life too. So moving on... Let me tell you the highlight of this weekend (Yes, I know you are dying to know that lol)

IKEA - Yes, I am talking about the furniture store! I have been wanting to get done with furnishing my apartment, but three months into my lease, I still don't have some basics. So This Saturday, I decided to make a quick trip to Ikea. Drove three hours to get there, spent about four complete hours deciding what to buy, what color, quantity, size etc etc. And got all excited that finally I can come back home to a cosy, nicely furnished apartment - only to find out that the stuff that I wanted was out of stock! W.H.A.T??

So to relieve the heartache, we decided to eat at a (supposedly) nice Indian restaurant - Mayoori. But the food disappointed me even more. So we decied to call it a night and just drive back to Norman. Some weird sequence of events happened - GPS went out of charge, our phones died, and we were super sleepy. Somehow kept ourselves awake - coffee always does the trick :)

Reached home at about two in the morning. Crashed!!