Spring is here

There’s a crisp and alive feeling in the air. It started with the woodpecker outside my bedroom window a few days ago. I was jolted awake with a confusion of feelings that can only be associated with a woodpeckers intrusion at that godforsaken early hour. The oddly electrical drilling noise sounds like someone is accidentally carpentering in your bedroom — that is until you hear the woodpecker’s distinct call. This is followed by an immediate welcome relief to hear a bird again after the dead quiet of the winter months. And then reality strikes and I am filled with a genuine indignation at the indignity of being woken by a bird.. followed eventually by frustration that any subsequent attempts to lull myself back to sleep are futile.

I go about the rest of my day grouchy and sore at the woodpecker, who is not evolutionarily advanced enough to realize that his tree has been replaced by my humble abode. And so it is, with my rekindled love-hate relationship for the woodpecker that I welcome spring each year. Making promises to my garden, fertilizing the azalea and rhodie bushes, starting off cleaning projects in the yard in the small window of opportunity between the frost melting off and the weeds showing up to ruin whatever grand plans I had concocted of a pristine garden.

This year, the muscari and tulip shoots are pushing up from the soil. My success with our fall bulb planting are boosting my confidence for a vegetable garden this summer. Or maybe I should hold my breath for a few weeks until I am able to see and touch the flowers.. to believe that they really exist.

At what point does this change of season occur? Is it during an instant, a day, a week? Is it the first morning that I hear the woodpecker outside my window? If I listened closely enough, would I have detected life in winter? Were the bulbs that I planted last fall not alive? At what point does matter really turn into life? And so I ponder these and other deeper questions about my life, while trying to shake myself out of this cold dark spell and facing the future one morning at a time.

Year of the Optimist

Wha? When? I can’t believe its already 2009.
2008 sped by so fast.. hmm, but it was a very good year and I have nothing to complain about. I made some very crucial decisions and I am very proud of how I persevered through the past couple of years to get to this juncture. I am glad that I got a chance to travel to a few new countries, enjoyed a fabulous spring and summer with close family, took up yoga and experimented with vegan-ism, learned all about detox, and finally made the most of the holidays – which i must add was the opposite of detox . I also experienced my most beautiful hike in the northwest so far. More than anything the year 2008 for me was the year I made a genuine effort to destress and declutter my mind.
I have designated 2009 to be the year I really work on my inner sunshine. Now Seattle is such a wonderful  city to live in – we go for months  without glimpsing the sun. What a great place to develop a positive attitude and cultivate it to last through the winter doldrums! (Whoa I am so good at this – I rock!)
In any case, there wasnt a single dull moment in 2008, and I sure will be getting my money’s worth if 2009 matches the fun and excitement of last year! Happy new year to all!

Got junk?

Yesterday was recycle day in the city. One of the local churches with a massive parking lot had been desginated as the recycle drop off location. As we pulled into the parking lot with a SUV-full load of junk, I wondered what had happened to us.
I arrived in this country 10 years ago with 2 suitcases full of clothes and miscellaneous knick knacks. Now I probably own 10 suitcases that I accumulated with new ergonomic advance in suitcase design, hard to miss deals and sales, and the changing rules and regulations of allowed baggage in domestic and international travel. But really, how can a basic object like a suitcase become an example of slipping into this rampant consumerism? I look back at my recycle load and guess what – no suitcases there! What I do see is a 7 year old computer, a bulky garage door opener that was manufactured before I was born, and about 2 dozen old batteries.
As I glance about the parking lot at discarded large screen TVs and other large appliances in perfectly good condition, I congratulate myself. Maybe I need to cut back on using disposable batteries, but other than that, I am really not throwing out anything symbolizing decadent materialism.
And then I remember the < 5 pounds of garbage that our family of 5 generated each week back in Bombay. The city I live in today doesn’t even provide a garbage container small than 20 gallons. I also recall that we didnt have any scrap metal, or recyclable junk to discard ever. That was the type of thing that industries needed. We did carefully recycle newspapers but we got money for it, that went back into mom’s purse for buying groceries and other essentials. I smile as another childhood memory comes floating back – eyeing the newspaper recycle vendor suspiciously hoping he wasnt upto any tricks as he weighed the old papers I had lugged to him on my bicycle to determine how much to pay me. Recognizing the papers as he piled them up on the scales, my dad’s endless hours poring over the newsprint and fighting with my siblings over who had dibs on the word scramble and the crossword puzzle. The thrill with which I clutched the money and looking forward to mom’s reaction of pleasant surprise or utter dispproval at the cheating vendor when I handed the money back to her.
Back to the present – as we pull back into our junk filled garage, I look again at the loads of stuff waiting to be taken to goodwill. I wonder how much time we have spent running around like ants in summer, doing the rounds of the mall, closet, garage, recycle center and/or goodwill. No wonder we are so busy! Maybe its not a bad thing that we take the garbage out only once in 2-3 weeks, and maybe it is no so bad that Ankur spent several weeks of effort trying to get that garage door opener to work before finally replacing it.
I take a deep breath at this glass half full realization as I head upstairs to swap out my 3 bags full of summer clothes with my 4 bags of winter clothes.

A new king in town

I have accepted the fact that my laptop controls my life. Up until last month, my strategy to limit my laptop hours was to wait until the battery dies. Laptop asleep was implied consent for me to sleep too. Every night was a race against the battery – one last edit, one more email. But last month, my 2-yr old HP laptop decided to start dozing off in 10 minutes barely after rising out of hibernation. I had no one to turn to but the power cord. Reluctantly I plugged in and let electric power wreak havoc in my perfectly balanced night time rhythm. I should have seen it coming – my laptop had started to slow down for a few weeks and turn all eccentric on me.

Then, a few weeks ago I got that email that is every techie’s ultimate fantasy – to be only experienced in the real world only every few years. I was up for a laptop upgrade. I was faint with joy as I took my new Lenovo T61p out of its box. This is the highlight of Spring 2008. The keys are singing with the birds (seriously – I could have sowrn the keys sometime read my thoughts and type themselves) So what if the Ctrl and Fn keys are switched and I keep going to Help as the F1 key is where Esc used to be. It is just so good to not be resigned to the screen in medidative silence through the long pauses while the bits scampered around in painful chaos while I waited and waited… and said silent apologies to my old laptop for pushing the limits of the clipboard.. or running a pivot table report with more data than could ever be expected out of a humble 2 gigs of RAM.
There is so much to learn as I start on a new and exciting journey with this new king, my mind is filled with exciting possibilities. What if the battery lasts for a long long time – what a treat! What about the second battery? What a cute wake up sound – I wonder what other sounds I may discover. So far it hasnt heated past 40F – can I really get rid of my lap coasters?

With every new journey start new commitments, so its time to reiterate my vows. I will not fill up the hard disk, I will not stress out the battery, I will keep my files organized, I will delete anything and everything that is irrelevant or obsolete… I will stay on top of the technology and not rely on the OS to tell me whats good for my laptop, or worse to control its destiny.
It remains to be seen how satisfying and stable this regime will be – but for now I am riding high on the change of power with the colors of spring!

That little voice in my head..

..is not my conscience. When I am merging on 405-S at 60 mph, or racing across lanes to the Seattle Center exit on I5-S, it is an annoyed lttile voice saying “So what if that lane is moving too fast!!!!?? … at least begin to indicate to communicate your intention to change lanes“. Its been so many years, I wonder, why I am still a chicken.. My knuckles tighten on the wheel. I latch on to the voice – take a deep breath – turn on the indicator…

At other times – the voice in my head is from a long time ago from a place far away. I am sitting across a hostel bed – the voice sounds passionately reasonable and is making a lot of sense. I am straining to hear, but can only see a lot of gestures, no words. Its been too long and I have drifted too far.. I can catch bits of it – “for christ’s sake yaaaaar….” ..and then a cup of friendly warm pours in and grounds me.

Then there are times when the voice is shouting from the back of my motorbike over the chilly air and carbon monoxide fumes. I maneuver through the chaotic traffic, and turn my head responding in monosyllables sensing the city grime through my flimsy bandit cloth mask. I am irritated at the disconnected conversation, more so because I am quietly resigned to the broken dialogue with my bikeless codependent co-passenger who has earned herself a pent up rant about the overratedness of education, to pass the time on the long hungry ride to Marz-o-rin.

Or the times when the voice comes from a quiet apartment on a blazing hot summer.. bouncing reason off the tiled floor. I hear a steady gaze in deep thought, followed by a very explicit long-lashed blink and a shake of the head – accompanied by a tsk. I haven’t asked the question yet – but the answer is clear.

Then there are times when my mind disengages just enough between frantic errands and a constant whirlpool of never-ending whatnots to send a distress call- and there’s a little voice in my head from far away Edinburgh or far away China saying that everything is going to be o-kay!
I lean back, check my blind spot and glide across to the right lane.

999 places to see before…

There is something depressing about the name of a book that urges you to do something before the-inevitable. So I never looked at this book. Imagine my surprise then to end up at an inn recently that has the distinction of being mentioned in the aforementioned travelogue of fame! The inn was quite beautiful in an old country antique sort of way – not quite the kind of thing that we are the best appreciators of. The room was very beautiful and private. We had gone away for the weekend just to catch up on some rest and sleep. Not sure if it was part of the country living experience – but the 8 a.m. breakfasts and the cozy clanky noises during the day throughout the house as folks went about country chores made it a tad difficult to oversleep or catch long daytime naps. The cool thing was they had a very accessible dining room with a small kitchen for guests to make their own tea as often as they pleased. This was quite handy given my current herbal tea phase. The landscape though stark and wintry was beautiful and even though the sun was in peekaboo mode, we were lucky to get a dry weekend.
The food was quite nice.. but just that – quite nice. We were impressed by the marketing and the mention in all the distinguished travel magazines and books. The inn has published its own cookbook too. The hosts and innkeeper were very friendly!
It was pretty cool that I inadvertently checked off a place off the 1000 places list.. but given that I have experienced at least 2 B&Bs that I would rate higher than this one, I am glad I have managed to not let that book title intimidate me or influence my limited planning for vacations and weekend getaways!

Quinoa for the Flossless Anonymous

A couple of months ago, my terrific naturopath doctor recommended some changes to my diet to help combat stress and stress related insomnia. I discovered since then, that eating healthy is much easier than it seems. My previous attempts at trying to eat healthy were all based on random facts garnered from the Internet and common folklore. Getting an actual consulation with a naturopath or dietician made all the difference. What really worked for me is that my doctor tweaked my diet rather than have me start from scratch.
I was always aware of the ills of simple carbs in white rice/ white flour when compared with complex carbs in whole grain bread/brown rice. I had been trying brown rice, white-brown combination with mixed results as it did get boring after a while. However, I wasn’t aware that there are many white rice substitutes out there – one of them being quinoa - a grain with high protein content. My first reaction when I saw a bowl of cooked quinoa (I washed/cooked it like rice in my pressure cooker) was that of amusement. There was something just plain cute about cooked quinoa with the little white tails on each grain. Other than being yummy, quinoa is healthier and not as chewy as brown rice.
My doctor had also removed protein from my diet and had me increase my consumption of healthy nuts, especially almonds. Now that I have been almonds by the fistful for a few weeks now, I was wondering how much calories I was obliviously putting on as a result of this. I noticed this info in a Seattle Times article about healthy Super Bowl snacks. Apparently 3 ounces of almonds (72 nuts) have 580 calories. With that math, I probably eat about ~100 calories in almonds per day – not a bad thing at all!
For years now, I have been cramming a six monthly quick floss at the 11th hour before my dental cleaning appointments with the desperate hope that my flossing habits (or lack of) will not be exposed. I then mutter some vague pleasantries when the dentist asks me if I have been flossing. The most exciting part of my renewed organic eating lifestyle was that instead of the usual tsk tsk.. from my dental hygienist, I almost jumped out of that dentist-chair-which-is-so-difficult-to-get-out-of when I got a miraculous “Wow – your gums are actually looking healthy” remark this time. I almost asked her for a gold star to stick to my toothbrush. I guess the Tom’s of Maine toothpaste helped too..

We are what we eat

That saying never made a lot of sense to me. I have drastically cut back on meat and junk food and am rediscovering foods that are natural for this time of year (a surprisingly small set). But I don’t feel particularly flattered to me a butternut squash rather than a turkey. Jokes aside, I have been feeling pretty good ever since I turned veggie and organic after reading Skinny Bitch.
I have always noticed that when I really get into something that I think may be odd, I discover scores of people who are into the same hobby, passion, goal.. Organic food is a whole subculture out there. Some of the popular vegetarian restaurants such as Sunlight cafe, and Carmelitas are quite busy and I have been running into more and more born-again vegetarians lately. I was pleasantly surprised to find several CSAs in the area that supply farm fresh food right to my doorstep. I am currently trying Pioneer – they have a cool feature on their website that allows you to customize your order. Its been fun so far – grocery shopping, for organic food – no less, from the comfort of my laptop. I think the only remaining outdoor chore (besides window shopping ) is getting gas.. hmm smells like some conspiracy.
Anyway, the downside is that some of the veggies are not perfectly shaped and squeaky clean. Kinda like from back home..
They are nice enough to send recipes with some of the seemingly eclectic veggies.. though I have so far been quite happy using the simple recipes of my reliable, spiral-bound, feel good, green Simply in Season. Did I mention spiral-bound?
I saw some pink cherry blossoms already on Sunday and today’s weather was a sneak preview of spring (trying not to think about the brief hail episode). I have managed to keep my indoor plants thriving through the cold spell and am looking at spring gardening challenges with renewed enthusiasm! My mind is already bursting with ideas but I have to first find those fall bulbs and sneak them into the soil - ouch!

Hair-raising experience

In retail, selling an add-on is a common sales strategy and something that most of us encounter when we go a-retailing. But what about being offered hair products after a haircut with the looming threat that the cut is only guaranteed with the product being offered? Add that to an already 3 figure tab and we are talking serious money here.
On the other hand, there is nothing more exhilarating than a haircut and whats another 60 bucks in hair product? Buy when you are depressed, buy when you are euphoric.. buy buy buy.. but I digress.
So there I was clutching Paris made organic hair product that as sadly discovered couple of days later did nothing for my hair – in fact reminded me of some of the earthy. old-wives type treatments from back home. However, I didn’t realize that expensive haircuts come with customer service and follow up! They actually took it back.. wow! Oh the things you can return! Hmm.. Maybe I should call my car dealership, that is if they are still in business after the shady deals they have meting out.
Holidays and 2007 is behind us. 2008 sounds very promising – what a beautiful number! Happy new year to all!

Nose-talgia

Have you ever been to a place that took you back to feeling like another time in the past? As part of a new effort to relax on weekends through explicit activities, we recently went to an evening show at the Comedy Underground. For a change, we reached early enough to get good seats. As soon as we were seated, the smell of the place brought back an overwhelming memory of being in Buffalo. I still feel foreign enough to not be able to identify the source of that musty odour, but there was something warm and fuzzy about the memory. Now not all deja vus taking one back to grad  student days are warm and fuzzy – which lends itself to enhancing the overall satisfaction of the feeling itself. Like that extra bit of ginger in your morning tea. 
The evening itself was enjoyable, with the comedians getting more and more vulgar as the evening wore on. I thought some of the pre-comedians were better than the main guy – or maybe I just needed to raise my vulgarity tolerance threshold up a notch. As far as relaxation – nothing can beat spending a couple of hours listening to a bunch of folks who rely on political incorrectness for a living.

As rightly pointed out by my small but loyal readership, I have lately been neglectful of my blog. If it helps, I have been talking to my blog in my mind all these weeks and have a lot to type in. So thanks for reading and stay tuned!