iamneo

Up, Up and away!

From right to left, flying:bhavanar, Jacob, Suresh, maniyard, iamneo, Martin, Ramakant, ripul

(Picture courtesy – bhavanar from her collection on Flickr)

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From right to left, standing: Ramakant, bhavanar, ripul, iamneo, Jacob, maniyard, Suresh, bhavanar

From right to left, sitting: jangid and Martin.

Today – Feb 23rd is my good friend jangid and his significant other’s marriage anniversary. Please join me in wishing and congratulating this young couple.

It’s been three days since my last post. Ouch! I am not sticking to my own resolution. But I am sure I will make up for those missing posts with this post. Last Friday, the 18th was my birthday and this post all about the best birthday that I have had in so many years. Here goes…

Thursday 17th.
We have a tradition at our apartment complex where we all gather together at midnight and wish the birthday person and then we present the cake and card and gifts. It’s a small affair that lasts for 20-30 minutes and we all have a good time. I reach my apartment at around 11:40 pm. I was busy making last minute changes to my home page – http://www.ilstu.edu/~bdedath which was my birthday gift to myself.

Friday 18th.
At around 5 after midnight, I hear this commotion outside my apartment door and all my friends march inside while singing the ‘Happy birthday’ jingle. Then I cut the cake and my roommate religiously gives me the first bite of the cake and plasters the rest of the cake piece on my face. The cake was some kind of chocolate cake and was very delicious. Then I open my gifts which were very thoughtfully selected by my friends. The gifts ranged from cool lava lamps to a mp3 cd to a soft toy (dog) for my car. I am convinced that I have some of very good friends. I do get overwhelmed at some point because I do not remember the last time when I felt so special on my birthday.

I get into the bed at around 2:00 pm and had to get up very early at 6:30 am to take my car to the Honda dealer for servicing. By the time I reached office at 8:30 am I was feeling so tired that I was ready to call it a day.

During the day, I was busy replying to emails and e-cards and answering phone calls needless to say that I did not get much work done in the office. My parents and my sister called me up to wish me which was nice. I had a quick lunch with Kelly. At round 2:30 pm there was a small birthday meeting in the office. My director’s birthday also falls in the same week so the birthday meeting was for two people. It was a good time having coffee and another round of delicious chocolate cake with all your office colleagues. The last time such thing happened was in 2002 when I was at NCST. One more time to get overwhelmed

After work I went to church for mass and then headed for home. I spent some time in the evening with my friends who were busy putting the Indian Student Association’s stall for the International Fair which was being held during the weekend. After that a quick trip to Walmart and Indian store for groceries and then back to the apartment. I spent the rest of the day with friends and generally having a good time.

Saturday 19th.
We got up late and missed the breakfast time at most restaurants and finally decide upon lunch at the Indian restaurant. After lunch we go to the mall for some shopping. At the mall we got some very good deals. After becoming poorer by a good amount of money at the mall we go the International fair visit the Indian Student Association’s stall and also the other stalls like the Rotaract, Caribbean Student Association, and European Student Association etc.

In the evening we start watching the movie – Manchurian candidate which we had to stop once people starting coming over for the party at 9:00 pm. We had pizza, bread stick, chicken wings, chips, salsa, cake and soda. Of course we had beer too!

We soon settled down playing dumb charades and I must admit our team was pretty dumb. At one point in the game there were 3 people enacting the same movie and we still did not pick up the movie. The movie’s name – Jerry Maguire! By the time we wrap up the game it’s about 1:30 am and we all go back to our respective apartments and rooms.

Sunday 20th.
We again got up late on Sunday and ended up having the leftover pizzas and chips for breakfast. We complete watching the movie and call it an end to the birthday celebration.

It was a fun weekend and now I all refreshed for this new week.

Yesterday was one crazy day! Tons of things to be done and finally you run out of time for LJ. But I am back and will keep the posts coming. Promise

For now here is my shameless advertisement.
Neosite this is my permanent link to the matrix.

Visit it! Enjoy it!! and tell me about your comments and suggestions. Cannot wait to read them.

More later…

There is some 15 mins left before this day will get over. The day is coming to an end and I am really very tired to any thing more for today. Tomorrow will be a ’shorter day’

How well can a birthday party be planned? I guess this is the commando version of birthday planning. I am posting all the emails that went back forth the group about this birthday party.

Email#1
Hello all!

Kelly has been kind enough to help us by assisting us with our transportation issues and also grace the occasion. I on behalf of every one thank her for this. Here is the brief timeline of things.

Mission: Have a good dinner at Puran – Indian restaurant.
Mission code name: Operation Dinner out.

8:00 pm – A bright silver Saturn Ion pulls in to the parking lot between Alamo and Stevenson. The hazard lights of the car are switched on!

8:05 pm – Anuradha thanks her professor Abulyelam for his wonderful session and then walks out of class and head towards the parking lot.

8:10 pm – Anuradha starts locating the bright silver Saturn Ion car which parked in the parking lot. Anuradha – The hint in locating the car is to look out for a car which has two bright orange lights blinking at the same time. Approach this car discreetly. Make sure nobody is watching you or following you. Incase you are confused in locating the car, I am available on standby on my cell phone. My call code is 123-123-1234. It is important to our mission that you do not panic or get confused. You are advised to remember to breathe at all times.

8:15 pm – The bright silver Saturn Ion whisks out of the parking lot with 3-4 agents as passengers and heads to an previously undisclosed destinations (Anuradha – the undisclosed location is Puran Restaurant)

8:30 pm – The agents in the car is joined with 2-3 more agents and they all move into the restaurant. All this done discreetly and avoid surveillance of any kind.

8:32 pm – The agents have now acquired their positions and ready for action.

8:50 pm – Hell breaks loose. The elite agents are seen mercilessly gulping down mango lassi, stabbing the bread and having generous portions of sumptuous delicacies.

Another fine day for the elite agents of the 5th platoon of the 1245th expeditionary delta force.

The following agents will take part in today’s mission.
Agent Anuradha – Code name: Whois Ram!
Agent Kelly – Code name: Saint
Agent Sulsa – Code name: Mumbai
Agent Reshma – Code name: Power GA
Agent Pooname – Code name: 4th Reich
Agent Satadru – Code name: Probability
Agent Binoy – Code name: Aquarius

Incase of questions please ask. If you replying to this email use the reply all option. Apart from agent whois ram and agent Aquarius who else is volunteering to come in the transport car? Who is the contact person for the second group taking the bus to reach the destination?

Waiting for your replies.

Have a wonderful day agents.

Over and out.

Email #2
incredible aquarius…………..a good plan.
i will be on the public service vehicle ………….code orange H..heading to eastland mall.
will be probably ACCOMPANIED by another agent.
see u all at 20;30hrs…sharp.
over and out
4th Reich

Email #3
Fellow agents.

Yesterday’s operation Dinner out was executed with text book precision. The success of our yesterday’s operations is a testimonial of our training, loyalty, dedication and above all the code we all believe in – Strength and Honor.

Special thanks are due to Agent Whois Ram! Who is responsible for securing the funds and sponsors for the mission. Agent Saint who is an agent-on-deputation with our 5th platoon of the 1245th expeditionary delta force for arranging for the transportation.

It has been my pleasure to work with such an exceptional team. I hope we get to see more action and missions.

There are some technical difficulties in getting the images of our operation. Will post them as soon as they are released.

This is agent Aquarius. Over and out.

Email #4
Hi agents,

Thanks for making the Mission ‘dinner out’ a success. Special thanks to Agent Aquarius for keeping the operation as discreet as possible.
We must thank agent ‘Saint’ for whisking us out from the parking lot to destination ‘PURAN’ with such precision.
Agent Aquarius’ can you send us the images of our operation.
hope everyone is hale and hearty (no stomach upsets) or mission blues.

This is agent ‘who is ram?’ .Over and out.

This is going to be deep. I am so charged with all these love sparks flying around me.

To begin with this is my first valentine’s day where I do not have a significant other to celebrate the day after almost three years. On casual thinking, this experience kind of stinks. But on a deeper thought I think it is a great experience too.

Living a single life after three of years of a relationship is not easy at all. If breaking up process is bad enough then to add to the misery is the time after the break up which is much worse. There were times early on – just after the break up when I would just cry to myself and feel very depressed. I also felt that I lost my social skills since I could not make new friends or interact with other girls. At times I felt that I am standing in the middle of a busy footpath with people moving all round me going about their business. Nobody seemed to talk to me or have anything to do with me. I thought of walking up to some of these people asking them if they would be my friend. I think being lonely is not as bad as feeling lonely in a crowd!

But that was eight months back. I am much stronger now. I have new friends, new interests, new goals, new outlook etc. To quote a nice saying “it only when the glare of the sun is lost in the darkness of night that we are able to appreciate the beauty of the stars” I find this so true. I no longer have a girlfriend or a sweetheart and I am able to ’see’ new friends and appreciate their friendship. I have also realized that the biggest skill one should learn or acquire is the skill to be happy and content with one’s own company. When you have reached that level you would be able to fully love and accept and adjust and appreciate the other person’s presence in your life.

I will get there soon. Each day it will hurt less.

So this 14th Feb is going to be an I (me and myself) day for me.

I-Day rocks!

Just for kelly…

After a couple of crappy weekends I was fortunate to have a great weekend.

In short – Long drive, Great company.

In long -
It was sometime on Saturday afternoon I get a call from my friend Kelly suggesting that we take advantage of the wonderful weather. We go over the different options we have and finally decide on going for a long drive. I drive to her place and pick her up and we are off for a long drive. But where are we going? So call it – Just in time decision making or On the fly decision making, we evaluate a few places and finally decide on Chicago. Now Chicago is roughly 130 miles (210 kms) from our place which is approximately 2 hrs drive. Before we get on to the interstate we fuel up and get some coffee.

We had such a fun drive. The car (Honda Accord EX 2003) was doing a smooth 70 mph (110 kmph), we were listening to music from my iPod (iPod is hooked up to my car audio system using a wireless FM transmitter), sipping coffee and have a wonderful conversation. I think nothing compares to this experience especially if your only other company on the drive is a member of the opposite sex (Hold your horses and do let your imagination take you for ride!)

We reach Chicago after beating the weekend rush traffic near the city and head for IIT where Kelly’s sister Katie is doing her studies. She ‘escorts’ us into her dorm room and we all chat for sometimes. At times I was a mute spectator to all the wonderful conversations and taunts and looks exchanged between the two sisters. Reminded me of my own sister back home. Then guess what! I get surrounded by two greatly talented musicians. Kelly plays a small piece on the saxophone aka Kenny G style and Katie trills us with the flute. Of course I get my self photographed with the lovely ladies and their musical instruments.

After that small musical encounter we decide to go out for dinner and we head for Connie’s Restaurant for some authentic Italian cuisine. The restaurant we went looked very popular because we had to wait for 20 some minutes before we got our place. The ambiance of the place looked like some old building basement with red brick walls and wooden barrels. I ordered a medium deep dish pizza with vegetable toppings. This was the first time that I had tomato toppings and I think I like it. None of us could finish our dishes expect for Katie who finished her meat Ravioli and green salad side order. You do not get to see that kind of appetite every much with all these young girls switching to diet water and low carb air for their meals! As for me love and fresh air is all that I need. Got one thing and looking for the other!

After that great dinner we drop Katie off at her friends residence and we head back home. The journey back was just as awesome as the journey up to Chicago.

I could sum the whole trip like this-
Coffee – $3.45
Fuel – $14.67
Dinner – $48.13 + $5 tip Dinner – $44.00 + $8 tip (Based on a comment from somebody. I wonder who that somebody is?)
Drive+Music+Coffee+Member of opposite sex – Priceless!

There are certain things that money cannot buy. For everything else there is Master card.