New Year

This post was written a month ago but never posted.

What a fantastic start to a new year. I have been vacationing in California as if I own the place. Hollywood was fun. Disneyland was pricey and overtly hyped. Universal Studios is where I would want to pay tribute to a couple of times more. Never before have I been able to see the idea, innovation, the skills, the technology, and the hard work that goes behind filmmaking. Sunny San Diego was the best of all. Lots of great beaches, the sun and the sea and the sand -- just my kind of a place. I just made my retirement plans to settle in southern California. Northern California and the bay area had fascinated me so much, but it is nothing compared to southern California. N. CA is a mini-India. Or maybe a mini south India stuck in sand. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s just not my kind of place.

Resolutions. What to say about them. So many are made and broken every year. By the time it is February, the resolution excitement of the new year has died down. Nevertheless, resolutions would be made every year. This year, it should be lots of travelling. This year, it should be getting back in shape and learning to drive. This year, it should be performing in more plays and discovering skills in myself. This year, it should be bettering myself at people skills and personal relationships. This year, it should be more of quality writing to justify the writing courses I have been taking. I want to read more books. I want to go to new places. I want to know of everything. I want to dream for the stars, and actually be able to reach some of them. I haven’t written a poem in ages. I haven’t touched a musical instrument in ages. This year, I want to get in touch with myself once again.

sunshine.

My Space

This is the record time I have stayed away from my blog. There was no apparent reason for me to do so, but it’s done. Anyway, last week, I finally got my own space in office. The last 3 months, I was being trained, which also meant I had to change offices and change teams to understand a little bit of everything that goes on – the kind of projects we handle, the type of clients, the nature of the work, and so on. It was fun, but I had reached the stage where I was looking for my own nook, my own little corner where I can put a little plant, place a few pictures, and personalize the space. Also, I was eyeing that part of the office where every room had glass windows covering one entire wall with a faraway view of the west.

Luckily for me, they finally told me that I was done with my days of office rotation and now I could have my own little corner. I did get the corner with the window overlooking the sunset. A few pictures were soon hung on the wall, a few photos stuck on the cork board. 3 shoots of bamboo plant were by the window, along with a flag of India and a pen stand with 50 different pencils and markers. I have a fetish for office supplies, did I tell you that? My other paraphernalia, aka junk include a coffee mug acquired from my recent trip to the Universal Studios in LA, some random gifts acquired here and there, and a notepad with my “to-do list for the day”. If you are wondering about a photo frame with the picture of someone significant, self, family, or better half (self in my case), a digital photo frame is my most expensive indulgence as of now. Yeah, one of those things you hook up to the power and the photos change on their own, unless you change them using a remote control. Munnu, are you listening? Getting jealous?

Anyway, leg pulling apart, my place feels my own now. I wonder how a few things, a few bamboo shoots, some pictures, some whim-catering stuff like office supplies and a drawer full of hand crèmes and lotions can go a long way to personalize one’s space. I was planning to stick a few poems on the cork board, but that is a different story for another post hopefully soon. So first thing in the morning I reach office, I make some tea in my favorite mug, water the plants, count my collection of pencils, apply some hand crème basking in the nice smell and set to work. Every little thing on my table reminds me of something nice, of some gift from a friend, of some souvenir acquired from some recent trip to someplace, random little things that make me feel more at home. And if you think this is indulging in craziness, my office mate is deciding if she should buy a small puppy and keep it in office.

So how does your work space look?

sunshine.

How I Started My New Year

31st evening after office, I rushed to the airport to take a flight to southern California. I had something about trips to California this year, this being my 3rd visit, the 2nd one being 3 days ago. Anyway, so I had this flight about to land in Orange County at 9pm, giving my friends sufficient time to pick me up, have dinner, and then go see fireworks on some beach.

So I was having fun, occupying all the 3 seats singly in the Alaskan Airline flight, when the pilot announced that fog conditions had reduced visibility and there was a possibility that the flights would be rerouted. What fun, not knowing a single person except my friends. The plane circled over orange county for 30 minutes till I had learnt the entire landscape by heart. I did see some fireworks being suspended midair. The pilot the announced that the plane was running out of fuel and they need to head towards LA.

The plane finally landed in LA, in the middle of a foggy nowhere from where I hopped on to a bus to claim my luggage. LA was my first port of entry to the US, the first time I had landed on US soil, and that’s the extent of my attachment with LA. It’s a huge airport, and they always made us hop on to buses to transport us to the other corner of the airport. That was the case this time too. After claiming my baggage, I waited for another hour for a bus to take me to the OC airport. I was dead tired, and the moment I hopped on to the bus for the one hour long foggy drive, I fell asleep. Sometime then, the clock struck 12.

So this was the moment I stepped into the new year, cold and lonely, rerouted into a different city and travelling in a bus in the dark towards OC airport. Not really thrilling or adventurous, but a friend of mine predicts extensive adventurous trips for me this year after she heard this. Let’s see.

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How did you start your new year?

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sunshine.