Sit it out or dance

The pattern is the same, when I when look back at a year gone by, it seems to be in varying degrees of overwhelming although at the start of the year I just *knew* that this was going to be THE year! Resolutions aside, I don't have such emotions about 2012 being THE year, so I think that's the first good sign.

2011 was my year for intensifying friendships and a little about making new ones, although the latter seems like a constant struggle as the years go by and also the only year in the past few years that I've stayed put in one place and that is a huge relief. I know that is what I ultimately want, the not-knowing if I can be the maid of honor for a friend's wedding here in April doesn't appeal to me, it never did.

Do you know why heaven has such huge air-conditioning bills? that's because God keeps opening a window when he closes a door, I wouldn't mind a dent in my electric bill if I can open a few windows for myself and when given the choice of sitting it out or dancing, I hope there isn't a moment's hesitation despite my lack of dancing abilities.  

Focus, slow down and think more linear.

Don't look back

Realized something interesting when I was thinking back to the past 6 years I've spent here in the US, of course there's a lot of first and second's and n'ths but this is only related to the parish I've attended on important occasions and who I attended Mass with.

Easter:-
2006 - Prince of Peace, Plano
2007 - St. Francis Xavier Church, Bejai
2008 - Stanford Memorial Church, Stanford
2009 - St. Francis Xavier Church, Bejai
2010 - St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Rogers
2011 - Mission Church, Santa Clara
2012 - St. Patrick's Church, San Francisco
2013 - Church of the Resurrection, Sunnyvale
2014 - St. Francis Xavier Church, Bejai
2015 - St. Dominic's, San Francisco
2016 - St. Dominic's, San Francisco
2017 - http://cathedralphila.org/
2018 - http://cathedralphila.org/
2019 - St. Dominic's, San Francisco
2020 - youtube!

2021 - Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco

2022 - St. Dominic's, San Francisco

Christmas:-
2006 - St. John Vianney Catholic Church, Houston
2007 - St. Francis Xavier Church, Bejai
2008 - St. Anthony's Catholic Church, Seattle
2009 - St. Stephen Catholic Church, Bentonville
2010 - St. Clare Parish, Santa Clara
2011 - Mission Church, Santa Clara
2012 - St. Francis Xavier Church, Bejai
2013 - Mission Church, Santa Clara
2014 - St. Patrick's Church, San Francisco
2015 - St. Dominic's, San Francisco
2016 - St. James Catholic Church, Redondo Beach
2017 - St. Francis Xavier Church, Bejai
2018 - St. Dominic's, San Francisco
2019 - St. Francis Xavier Church, Bejai

2020 - Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco

2021 - St. Dominic's, San Francisco

Chasing Cars

Chasing Cars - May 16, 2006 - Old Shepard Place, Plano, TX

Thankful for

 ... Family
 ... Friends
 ... Faith
 ... Employment
 ... Literary Works
 ... Music
 ... Movies
 ... TV Shows
 ... Games like scrabble, Jigsaw puzzles!
 ... Idyllic moments on the train
 ... The ability to sprint and not miss the train by a second
 ... Amazon (no, not the rain-forest but the one that ends with .com)
 ... USPS, UPS, Fedex, Ontrac for making it possible to list the one above)
 ... Ginger wine

If I could ever

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Hemophobic madness

She walked in bearing about five test tubes, who in their right mind would be happy to see test tubes? Okay, maybe my 15 year old self would raise her hand, the one who could balance chemical equations like it was nobody's business and who was always excited during chem lab and could titrate the heck out of sodium bromide! Well, my not-so 15 year old self was apprehensive, although in reality all things considered, I was pretty calm, how could that be?

Warned the lab tech about my not so colorful history with drawing blood, no not the kind of method used by blood sucking vampires, this was actual blood-work! It is strange, I mean being a past blood donor and all, that I could be averse to the idea of letting them take a tiny sample of my blood. It may have started a few years ago, after a few faintish incidents incidents involving above scenario and this was in India where they are pretty conservative with the amount of blood they draw almost like Dexter and his slides, it probably has something to do with all the malnourished patients they get!

In any case, here they almost take enough to call it a minor donation, I mean really? Biology wasn't my major, but from what I have learnt owing to my great commitment to all the three CSI's for a very long time, is that a tiny sample can reveal everything about you, including where you are born and which year, God forbid that they do such a kind of analysis on me, so I reckon a routine lab test should not need so much. The lab tech was pretty cool, trying possibly to distract me, asking what I was doing for the weekend, in a tone that suggested she wished she could join me! while I went on about the pumpkin festival at half moon bay, one that I wasn't even going to.

While we discussed on the intricacies on growing pumpkins and if they would be carved or not, it was all done in a matter of minutes, in all this I may just have conquered one of my fears (fingers crossed) and not to diminish the fact that this came with a 12 hour fast.

A journey of 1500 pieces

Labor of love

Power, Appreciation, Reward, Pressure, Nada

The question is almost cliched, every interviewer has this question listed somewhere in their black book, the clever ones will ask you this multiple times camouflaged with thorns once and roses the next time. It is not them I am concerned about, I remember this rather curt one-on-one discussion (just makes me laugh writing 'one-on-one' but the subtle hilarity of that term somehow seems lost while used in conversation!) I had with one senior manager, that was in the relatively early days of my career, he asked me where I saw myself career wise in the next five years, I was tongue-tied for a second and then blabbered on about new technology, learning and promotion while he seemed to be taking copious notes (for all I know he was composing an email to the class mate he bullied in high school). My point is I had no ready answer, I'm not sure I still do and that concerns me at times (clearly not enough to get off the cozy chair I'm sitting on), it is my amazement at the answers I come up with each time this question pops up in my head and it has ever so frequently in the past few weeks.

I am not going to attempt to answer this here but continue to come up with answers, maybe the question will matter no more, maybe the answers will be just enough.

Serenity with a smile

Why do most, some people who go to church seem so sad or make long faces or seem disinterested? Why isn't the choir more lively? Why does the priest sound as if he's being forced to deliver the sermon?


Of course I am not implying that they seem disinterested in other walks of life, I would have no clue about that, just commenting on what I see and this is very specific to just two parishes I've noticed around here, I don't know if it is an Asian thing, not wanting to sound racist, I think it just might be. Of course, another line of thought would be to be grateful that there are other people who make the effort to come at all to share the fellowship. 

Why was the only person who seemed joyous at yesterday's saturday's service a boy who was slightly challenged and was being cajoled by his mom (or someone who seemed to be his mom) not to shriek and jump up and down every time the music started playing?

Where has joy disappeared to? I know I can't generalize, but this is the state of catholic masses here of course, there are some parishes in the surrounding areas which are more lively, which is why I keep going to different churches  whenever possible, my church-going habits notwithstanding. You may ask why do you want the service to be lively? While I enjoy the peace and serenity in the presence of the blessed sacrament or on certain sections of the mass, since the mass is a community offering, it would be nice to acknowledge the same. 


I have attended service at the non-denominational Lakewood church a few times and within seconds you'd know what drives the crowds. Serenity with a smile, is that a tall order? 


On a completely different note, was considering moving my blog to google+, I hope they come up with an integrated solution for this.

Pocketful of sunshine

Growing up, you must have had some kind of collection, maybe a collection of creepy crawlies or feathers or visiting cards, if nothing else you surely collected stamps? I started off early with the stamps, it was an inheritance of sorts from my Dad (or a forced inheritance if you ask my siblings!) and I do have it to this day. I don't think I indulged in feathers for more than a few days, but remember some girls in school who had an amazing collection, colorful bird feathers on different pages of a book.

Somewhere along the way I started collecting newspaper and magazine clippings on a myriad range of topics from lateral thinking puzzles to song lyrics to bridal gown cutouts to anything that could be used for the somedayinthefuture collage competition and to religious pictures for our catechism albums! Going snip snip on the 'Weekend' was common, whole sections of Richard Coram's page along with the pop quiz and everything else that caught my eye. I've got rid of most of them but there's a few birthday cards and scrap books and some other odd memorabilia that's stored away for that day in the future.

Today it's all bookmarked, favorited, starred, ever-noted, hearted, pinned on the web or stashed on some usb drive somewhere. It isn't the same, there is some peace in holding on, in possessing and more so in what's not tangible.

Last Supper

Have not used this brand of puzzles before and this one seemed a wee bit harder, the lack of distinction between the various hues of color used could be the reason, nevertheless I enjoyed the journey and the end too.

Central park in the fall

So long May

Or more like half of the year, this is not a coincidence and you'd be only just a little smart if you knew why.

The ETA for the 1000 piece puzzle was today, it's called 'Central park in the fall', you may ask fall in summer? but then it's almost inline with the crazy weather we've had, winds capable of blowing me away and a gloomy, rainy first day of june, but every time I find myself complaining about the weather, I stop and want to be grateful considering what other regions have been through weather wise, back to why I've slipped on the eta for the puzzle and I'll blame the runny nose and this slippage has no penalty associated with it unlike my current project.

Are there days when it just seems like the burden of the whole project is on you and everyone around wants a slice of you? The flagged items in my inbox is just an indicator!

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