For whitey

Dipti passed the above link to me while I was searching for "warning signs of such disasters [policies that aggravate disasters] and where they point endquote. They point to the Army Corps of Engineers by the way and all the fake beaches they are trying to make to raise property values, etc.

Please listen to the link-- it is not about flood insurance, but about race. and eavesdropping on white people eating mexican food.

God, please advise

I think I found a job in Richmond that I could take... See the above link. It is basically what I did over the summer, but on the Virginia side... I assumed we'd leave Richmond. The whole job search makes me nervous-- especially if I have to make a decision on whether or not to accept job A while still waiting to hear back from people at job B, etc.

Pros to living in richmond: family, stability, proximity to DC, Guddu gets to pursue his career, we can invest in a duplex, cheap living...

Cons: not DC or NY or Delhi, possibly locking myself out of National-level work FOREVER, constantly having that "sold out" feeling and wondering what could have happend...

but then again, richmond doesn't have to be forever... it takes 2 years to get hired by the Feds anyways, so it could be a good way to rack up work experience, or if VEDP ever wants to open up an office in India, I am so there!

In situations like these, I prefer to sit and wait and let God direct things (by denying my job offers, etc.). This line of action has worked well in the past.

Deepak's Homecoming

Click on the above link to hear about Deepak's trip home to Lucknow this summer. I think it was his first time back since moving to the US. It's wonderful to hear how Indians view India differently when they go home after being in the US for a while. I remember Guddu saying India was so hot! and Anand said it was so Dirty!

my fave part is Deepak's description of the train and the sounds in his house when he wakes up. There's a "Part 2" as well. I'm pretty impressed with C'ville podcast overall-- some neat local and not-so-local features there.

should women have their necks shaved?

i got my hair cut short today. my hair lady wanted to shave my neck and i screamed "NO!" but in the end i gave up and now my neck is shaved. i thought shaving necks was only for men.

i should abandon this now-- i have bigger battles like determining the market rationale behind businesses going green or how to perceive huge potential policy disasters or how to make the Medicare trust fund sustainable...

whine

i'm jealous of all of the people who i see outside running. it hurts to even walk or lay down or sit, basically to exist. yes, the hips are bad again.

took off from class again today. feels like the senior year of high school kind of. but less maymont and shopping and more work.

big toe on right foot is super-sore. someone must have clobbered it friday night.

lots of work and lots of play

i took thursday off from school and i think i will take monday off as well. i can't justify 2 hours of driving, $10 in gas, and an achy lower back to sit in 80 minutes of class hearing something i probably already know. i have a new LEAN policy-- only go to school if there is more than one obligation there that day.

friday my PRS group went to DC. it was the longest day ever-- getting up at 6am for meetings at EPA at 11am and then with our client at 2pm. but the night made up for it all. good sushi followed by a LOT of dancing at this latin dance club, and then some chill time at some middle eastern/indian all-night place. thanks to 2 red bulls, i was still quite fresh after being up for 24 hours, then teresa and i crashed at dipti's.

i *think* i stumbled across dipti's blog...

what made guddu vomit?

guddu vomited this afternoon at work. here is a list of the possible culprits (what he ate since yesterday evening):

Sunday night: milk bikis (glucose biscuits), PB, roasted peanuts and rice flakes, SALMON SKIN
Monday: yogurt, go lean crunch, OLD BAGEL

pancakes

sunday morning... means pancakes.

guddu and i had a discussion this morning about how to make pancakes. We basically concluded that both "Indian" and "American" pancakes exist. Indian pancakes are flat and kind of rubber and are basically whole wheat flour, sugar, and water shallow fried in canola oil. American pancakes are far superior-- light and fluffy and buttery, containing eggs, baking soda and salt.

we made banana walnut pancakes. if you ever go to rajasthan, be sure to have banana pancakes (chocolate banana if available) for every meal. yum. with nescafe.

Kingfisher Quiz

Kingfisher is what?
A. The most popular beer in The Subcontinent
B. An airline serving The Subcontinent
C. A movie starring a Williams and a Bridges
D. A bird

clutter accumulation

thank god amvets are coming next week. amvets is wonderful. they send you a hot pink or hot yellow bag and you go through your house and fill the bag with all the things you don't need but can't throw away: old books, magazines, clothes, trinkets. it is amazing how much we americans accumulate.

amvets is coming next friday and i already have a bag of clothes ready to go. and i am not a huge shopper, so you can imagine how many unworn clothes other people have! guddu himself takes up 2 closets for shirt-- one for regular button shirts and the other for his saturn uniform shirts. honestly, a lot of our possessions are inherited (aka hand-me-downs) and not bought ourselves. we're lucky to have such generous family who always think to pass their old furniture, etc onto us (no sarcasm intended).

we will be moving over winter break to a nearby apt. it is a pre-move in anticipation for our real move to wherever i get a job whenever that may happen. what will we bring? a lot of clothes, hindi movies and books on economics, south asia and public policy.

Where were you?

Here's where I was Sept 11, 2001:

I had just returned from India 2 weeks before. I had class at 11am (SOuth Asian Lit with Valerie). I was living with Alison and Jessie in that cute apt on Sadler Street in C'ville. Before class, i ran to Carla's to do the Tae BO advanced workout. After the workout (about 9:20am), we switched the VCR off and the TV was on the Today show airing the WTC with smoke spewing out of it. Then the 2nd plane hit... I went back to Sadler Street, and found the plane in PA had crashed. Took a shower and then found out that the Pentagon had been hit. Craziness- when would it stop?

Friday Night Lights

Guddu went to his first high school football game last night. We saw my little brother, Henry, play. I don't know what position he plays, but he is not on special teams and he plays both offence and defence. Maybe he is a linebacker? He crouches at the line and blocks the other team (I think). I think he is just to the left of the boy who snaps the ball.

Highlights of the Game:

1. Krispy Kreme sales to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims. Score: Mom's friend=1, Granddad=2, me=1, Guddu=3.

2. All the young girls wearing skimpy skirts and tight tight tank tops. I really hate those pleated mini-skirts that the girls wear these days.

3. Henry made a tackle that was announced. but they mispronounced his name.

4. Parents yelling at the refs. Always fun. Alltime favorite heckle: Get those f*cking zebras off the field!

5. The marching band performing "oompah loompah" from willy wonka. the chubby flag girls in white overalls and black turtlenecks really looked like oompah loompahs!

6. oh yeah-- we won the game. a big moral boost for the cadets.

surfer boy

here's a picture of guddu learning to surf at VA beach. the wave looks small in the picture because the only reference is guddu who is just over 7 feet tall.

tapas, revisited

i have not written in over a week. that is pretty much the story lately: never catching up, always behind. that's how school is, right?

we went to DC Sunday night. that was lots of fun. we ate at a tapas (not to be confused with "topless") restaurant. there is an unwritten law that when in DC, i can only eat tapas.