christmas weekend

it was a pretty busy christmas weekend! and we didn't even do that much shopping or visiting with people. friday guddu had to work, so it gave me the opportunity to finish up some job applications. at night we drove out to powhatan with lucy and tif to go to a bonfire. saturday we shopped for his shoes and for a sweater for my brother, Huddy. and we ran 7 miles. then had dinner at my mom's cousin's house. christmas day we went to church and then guddu and i drove around with my grandmother. she REALLY wanted to go out to eat somewhere, but we had to keep reminding her nothing was open. i think she originally thought we were lying to her. in the evening we ate dinner at my aunt's house, as usual.

we really don't get too crazy about gift-giving. we got henry an iTunes gift certificate, and my mom's gift literally knocked on our door friday afternoon. A russian girl was selling these beautiful faberge egg enamel pendants. so i bought one.

guddu is getting 3 pairs of shoes for christmas: work, casual and running. he has never owned so many shoes before. he didn't ever wear shoes until he was a teenager i think. this is why his feet are so wide.

today i was supposed to go translate at the hospital. but the patient didn't show up (not his fault). the cool part: i get to bill for a no-show! i deserve it-- i had to watch fox news for an hour in the waiting room.

for hire

we are available for all types of interpretation and translation (medical, travel, legal, etc.) in the following languages:

• hindi
• urdu
• nepali
• bhojpuri
• panjabi
• bengali
• maithili
  

california recap

california was awesome. here's a list of what happened:

• i was nearly dive-bombed by a predator bird, maybe a condor.
• we helped arjun (baby, above) get his vaccinations
• we toured google. they have this cool monitor with a spinning globe that shows the search terms, language, and geographic spread and density of searches. there is also a lot of free, organic food. here is what we looted: 2 cups of coffee, 1 luna bar, and about a half pound of cashews. oh, and a few bottles of naked juice and jamba juice.
  
• we had good thai food. twice.
• we watched the following movies: millions, LA story, meenaxi, mangal pandey, namak haram, sideways, pukaar, nayak, etc.
• guddu ate many nuts. i ate many chocolates.
• we drank bottled water ONLY
• i made awesome turkey sausage
• guddu shook arjun and stopped him from crying by yelling "pandit... PANDIT!" at him.
• i stopped arjun from crying by blowing in his face. while i thought i was calming him down, his father thought i was preventing him from breathing (no breathing = no crying)
• natalie and anand stopped arjun from crying by shooting him with the blow dryer.

california was good. and it was never cold. i don't know why people would ever come to the east coast after being there. well, one reason: the house prices.

see the title for the link to the pics.

California

Sitting in a park in paris, france
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won’t give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn’t want to stay here
It’s too old and cold and settled in it’s ways here
Oh, but california
California I’m coming home
I’m going to see the folks I dig
I’ll even kiss a sunset pig
California I’m coming home

I met a redneck on a grecian isle
Who did the goat dance very well
He gave me back my smile
But he kept my camera to sell
Oh the rogue, the red red rogue
He cooked good omelettes and stews
And I might have stayed on with him there
But my heart cried out for you, california
Oh california I’m coming home
Oh make me feel good rock’n roll band
I’m your biggest fan
California, I’m coming home

Oh it gets so lonely
When you’re walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues

So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading rolling stone, reading vogue
They said, how long can you hang around?
I said a week, maybe two,
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I’m going home to california
California I’m coming home
Oh will you take me as I am
Strung out on another man
California I’m coming home

Oh it gets so lonely
When you’re walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
More about the war
And the bloody changes
Oh will you take me as l am?
Will you take me as l am?
Will you?

cher, you are so ruthless

i have sooooooo much grading to do this weekend. and then solve Bihar's development problems. lucky for me, there's a movie on FOX with Cher and nicholas cage. cher is marrying cage's brother. cage is mad at bro bc cage sliced off his own hand in a bread slicer and then got left by his fiance. now cage is trying to hook up with cher, while bro is in italy at his mother's deathbed.

tuesday we go to california!

yesterday guddu and I went to INS to have his fingerprints taken. VERY EFFICIENT OPERATION, and i am not being sarcastic. it took like 10 minutes. the only inefficient part is that there is no office in richmond. i think guddu will have his citizenship by Feb. then we will both apply for OCI "overseas citizens of India" cards so we can go to India and "operate" there without Visas. the only things we can do there are study and climb mountains. and i think we still get preferential status for buying train tickets. it REALLY is the best of both worlds!

after INS we came back to williamsburg and ate the lunch buffet at NAWAB. guddu and i are suspicioius of Indian restaurants that serve beef or pork on their menus. Nawab is not too bad. but i think the best indian restaurant so far is Indian Garden and Grill on Midlo trnpk. fresh food-- like homemade. not loads of cream. and they cook only in canola oil and keep theire non-veg and veg foods separate in the kitchen.

my back pain is slowly getting better. today i have not taken any painkillers.

today's haiku:

should i grade closely?
or give 'em all full credit?
no one will e'er know!

so you like how i deleted the "V" put of "ever" to make the syllables work? i got that trick out of the hymnals at church!

daily haiku

i am going to start writing a daily haiku (5-7-5 syllables)

here's today's:

Winter came too soon
SpaceHeater, make my words flow
to fill blank pages

i didn't promise you GOOD haikus

bihari peanut butter

last night while sleeping i seriously hurt my back. i pulled a muscle or slept in a weird position, and it still hurts after 4 advils! guddu said this morning, "yeah, you were sleeping really crooked." thanks for waking me up. i remember dreaming about an airplane crashing or something- so maybe that inspired my contortioning...

right now i am formulating a development plan for guddu's village. basically, i want to sell shares to the villagers to invest in a new factory. egg farming was a good idea, but i reconsidered after remembering all the chickens that have been killed in vietnam and thailand. his brother already runs a brick factory, so that would not be good for his sales. we need a product that doesn't require electricity for production... india really needs peanut butter. maybe a peanut butter factory would be a good idea. it could also be traded to calcutta and patna. it's a pretty stable product-- all you need to do is grind peanuts. we could grow peanuts on some land, and then find some non-electric grinding machines. voila! peanut butter factory!

all of this planning is for a paper i need to write for economic development class. i am motivating myself by considering to actually implement this plan in the future. so if i work hard now, maybe it will come to fruition? at least i can hope for an A in the class.

can i complain about the weather? it is so COLD. i am going to try to make myself run today. OUTSIDE.

reindeer on the roof?

i think i jinxed guddu's sister's marriage by announcing it yesterday. guddu called india last night and the potential in-laws were acting VERY strange. like they are trying to bluff that they are marrying their son elsewhere... we'll see.

so it snowed yesterday and i was stuck inside ALL day. today the snow is melting and there is the continuous sound of reindeer prancing on the roof as chunks of snow/ice melt, fall and crash.

i got some good news today about a job. not an offer, but i don't want to jinx the opportunity so i will keep my mouth shut.

match fixing (the good kind)

richmond has frozen over... i am trapped in the house, forced to finish my essays and papers. no distractions from holiday shopping or yoga class for me today. but that doesn't stop the ever-present distractions of Google sidebar and day-time talk shows.

there are a lot of scary noises. i think it is the snow moving on the roof? or maybe the mouse?

BREAKING NEWS: Santosh Kumar's wedding has been fixed! nevermind the girl is younger than me-- at least their horoscopes match! engagement set for december 14th.

SEMI-BREAKING NEWS: guddu's sister's marriage also looks like it might be fixed. lucky groom is the civil engineer in Delhi! we'll be headed there in either May or November. i absolutely ADORE bihar in May.

here's a haiku-like poem inspired by Bihar in May:

crajy heat
a jillion flies
up to the roof after dusk to escape

Project Green: completed

yesterday was a very very busy day:
6am: wake up, start doing final checks on paper and make corrections
7am: print out slides and prepare presentation
9am: kinko's to make bound reports
10am: drive to school, get held up by vehicle fire (not in my vehicle)
11:30: practice presentation, fool around with broken laptop
12:30: lunch with chris the client and finifter-- wait outside in freezing wind
2:30: present
4:30: fool around with broken copy machine (W&M needs more funding!)
6pm: home and hot bath
10pm: sleeping