Waiting for Snow

Weather forecast said it will start from 12pm. Schools dismissed at 2 o'clock. I am working from home to avoid the yucky drive in the afternoon. Groceries are done since yesterday. It is supposed to snow all night and tomorrow. I am ready! Where are you, snow?
It feels like you got a nice seat in a cinema theatre and you are waiting for the movie to start. 'Padam eppo aarambippaanga?'
When will the movie start?

Birthday Fun

The annual physical exams for both B and I were scheduled exactly on my birthday. So we both took off from work, dropped the kids off and reached the doctor's office at 9AM. Good news - my weight had not increased even though we all think it looks like it! We were out of docs, getting ready to watch Avatar in IMAX 3D. We grabbed a coffee and bagel before the movie.

Avatar was great. I am not so much of a 'sci-fi' person, so I was skeptical about it. I loved the concept behind it as much as the IMAX and 3D. 3D was not like thinngs jumping at you - but the realistic portrayal of Pandora. It felt like we are in Pandora doing all the things in nature and greenery ourselves. Absolutely beautiful!

After the movie, we stopped for lunch at Bahama Breeze. Nice lunch and then back home in time to receive Niks when he comes from school. After both the kids were home, Nikhil wanted to go out for birthday dinner. The fact that B and I roamed enough and got tired did not matter.
We took them to the Food Court in the mall, where we finished a long pending work.Oh, Nikhil gave me a cute gift of a hair clip, a lipstick and a car freshener - all bought with his pocket money when B and he went to grocery shopping. I love eating out. I love movies. I love to talk endlessly to B when kids are not distracting the conversation. That is when we get a lot of things planned and sorted out. I did all of this yesterday.All in all, a great relaxing day with the men in my life.
The day was made beautiful by the pouring emails and FB and orkut scraps from friends. It was a truly special birthday!

He amazed me

Of late, I have been carrying tension and worries from work place to home. In the evenings, it is about getting up early and driving 45 minutes to work. For a change, last Friday, when I got a verbal acknowledgement from my manager that my work is on track, I felt I should hold on to that for that whole weekend.

I left home to take Nikhil to his close friend's birthday party. My mind was light and I was joking to him and teasing him. We got on the car..and I decided to test him.

Wanting to see if he has noticed anything about my mood, I asked him.

"Hey Niks, what do you think about Amma today?"

I worded it such that it does not give him any clues that I am asking about my mood today. I wanted to see if he interprets it that way and if so, what does he think about my mood.

He said: "Amma, you are joyful and happy today"!

I was astonished - not only did he figure the meaning I intended, he also responded with the correct answer. It is true that the kids can see what all emotions we are going through. It affects them more than what we imagine. And they can understand everything!

I told him 'Kutta, I am impressed how well you read my mind'!

Hakuna Matata

We rented the Lion King CD from the library the other day. Nithin has been playing it over and over in the car since then. He demands a song by number and it has to be replayed till eternity. After couple of reruns, you start hating that song.

But this song left me pondering and wishing for a state of "Hakuna Matata" - a state of no worries - it is a 'problem-free' philosophy.

A big change in me in the recent years is something I never used to do before. Worrying has become my hobby now. I find it so hard to control my mind when the thoughts spin and spin.

Looking from the outside world, I am in a comfortable state and there should be many blessings I have to count. I do recognize that and I am grateful for my life. But all said and done, I have become much more emotionally weak than even before. Different people have different worries. Mine has been related to job/work/career for sometime now. The layoff experience has left me petrified. Adjusting to new work life has been an uphill. It is getting better - I would compare it to the first few months with a new born baby. People say it gets better over months - but each day has to pass, it is a struggle every day - feeding and diapering and wondering why he/she cries. Some days are easy, some are crazy, but no matter what you have to live through this phase to get to a point where you can enjoy the baby. I think that is what I am going through now. Taking life one day at a time!

Disney and beyond

From my unprepared state, I very quickly drifted to the 'too-much prepared' state once I started this book B had taken from library. It is called Unofficial Guide to the Walt Disney World. Here is a link in Amazon to the latest edition of this book. It acted as a bible to me on all days of the trip.
We had a connection flight from Charlotte. This was the first time we ever booked a connection flight. Just as I was thinking 'hey, it is not too bad' - when the flight from Philly landed Charlotte smoothly and earlier than scheduled time, little did I know that trouble was on its way. We were ready to board the connection flight and they announced technical issues with the aircraft and said it won't fly! We waited for couple of hours in the aiport - there were no seats on any other flight to Orlando because of the holiday rush. Everyone was going to the counter and saying the same 'dukh bhari kahani' of theirs or yelling at the poor man who was in charge of dealing with angry customers. We were stranded , felt helpless. If we don't reach that night, we would have issues with rental car, hotel and losing a valuable day of Disney fun. Thank God - finally, they found a substitute aircraft which was ready to fly in an hour or so. It was relief - at that point, I did not mind even if it reached Orlando in the middle of the night, we just wanted to be there before the next day.
I should say I was proud of us four - having gone through all the airport waiting etc and reaching at midnight at the hotel in Florida - the kids were up at 7 and we were ready to roll.

Every day, I would read the chapter related to the park we will visit the next day. Since I am super scared of 'rides', I wanted to know about every ride in detail. I also was referring to Suman's spreadsheet as a quick reference on what to see. A print out of the spreadsheet was in my purse always. Nikhil and B focussed on the roller coaster kind of rides. Nithin did not qualify for those height wise, so i had a nice excuse of going on baby rides with him. We loved those cute rides in Fantasyland. I personally enjoyed all 3D movies. Nithin got scared in a 3D movie when spiders jumped down from roof. He refused to enter any movie hall and absolutely refused to wear 3 D glasses from then on. This meant that I go for them by myself while B watches him.

In short, we had a blast. It was over so quickly. Here are my tips on Disney:

• Inside the parks, the cell phones do not work very well. So if you and your wife split up and do different things at the park, be prepared that when you try to reach him/her, it won't be until you have tried a few times. I was alone with Nithin, trying to reach B and Nikhil over phone and once it gets dark, it is a nightmare. Even if they are somewhere near, you could be looking for them all night if the phones do not cooperate.
• Do not try to coordinate with a bunch of friends. Everybody has different interests and once inside the park, it is so hard to find someone/some place even with the maps. You will be wasting time doing coordination.
• FASTPASS is a life saver. Many people still do not know about it. In fact, I advised a family who were standing in a 1 hour wait line to go get a fast pass. They thanked me and went. Some parks have a restriction of not issuing fast pass for 2 hours if you already have one. Some parks do not. So don't assume anything and just hit a fast pass counter - it prints out the ticket if you cannot take one because you are holding one already.
• Start early. You cannot sleep late if you want to get a head start on the park events/rides. The goal is to reach the park as early as you can.
• Be prepared to stay longer through the night in Ecpot and Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks. Both were truly impressive. Magic Kingdom on Christmas and home theme almost made me cry.
• Going in November during Thanksgiving is a better bet - but Christmas decorations won't be there. It was really cold during Xmas and it is too crowded.

Chalo, bye for now!

Unprepared, nervous

We decided to go on an impromptu trip to Disney World with a friend's family. The decision happened so quickly and the arrangements were done so too. All my life, this was one trip I envisioned myself planning and researching thoroughly for bookings related to Disney. But it never happened so far. Now with Nithin around 4 years, we are at a stage where we can think of making this trip. We should do it now since Nikhil might outgrow the age - it will be his first experience, so will be ours. So we will spend Christmas in Disney. I am not thinking of cooking or baking as I won't be home anyway. Like Suman said, I think I will be longing to eat rasam and potato fry by the end of the second day. I am excited as I will be meeting my close friend and family whom we visited last year exactly during Christmas time.

It is all these tell-tales about Disney that I am reading, thoughts that we have no time for shopping and planning - everything is making me nervous and excited. Can't wait to jump into vacation!

Eventful past weekend

We went to New Jersey to give a surprise baby shower for our friends. Four families with the help of the father-to-be as the organizer, it was fun to get there, pick up the food, decorate the home and wait for the mom-to-be. As she entered the home, we all screamed 'SURPRISE'! This was followed by baby shower games and finally the opening of gifts by the mom-to-be. It was all fun until every one left one by one and we were the last. Nithin has warmed up so much to these folks that he started saying : "Can we stay here today?" and started crying. We thought of waiting for 5 minutes until he calmed down. After 5 minutes, we got dressed for the winter night drive and got into the van - only to find that the van would not start. B tried repeatedly, but no luck. We walked back into the friend's home and spent the night there.

Sunday was probably the most eventful day in the recent past. Our friends had to go to the Lamaze class, so B went to drop them so we will have their car during the day. I called AAA and the guy came within half an hour. While I stood with him, kids inside the apartment, B on his way to us, I was shivering literally. It was freezing. I asked him "Can I go inside, please call me when you have finished checking the batteries". He said "yes" and as I walked back, it slipped - the pavements were icy. I managed not to fall and walked back in. He called and said "it is not the batteries, your vehicle has to be towed." I waited now for the towing truck and thank God, B was here before they came! I clicked some pictures of the van being loaded into the towing truck. We were told that automobile shops do not work on Sunday, so we had no option of getting it fixed the same day.

We decided to rent a car and go back home. Home which was 2 hours away seemed like the destination we were dying to reach. We were comfortable at the friend's place, can't imagine getting stranded in the middle of a highway. But still we were forced to be away from home for a reason not within our control. So we all longed to be home!

The major part of the day went off in driving to the rental place, getting a car, me driving our friend's car to the place where he was attending Lamaze class. If you know me, you can imagine how frantic I get about driving in rain/icy roads - not to mention unfamiliar roads. I managed to survive and dropped the car to the very hands of its owner and it was a sigh of relief!

The kids were hungry by this time and they wanted to go to McDonald's. We searched for one near where we were and drive towards it. Alas, the GPS said that there is no McDonalds in the location when we reached there and asked us to turn around. My sharp eyes caught the name board of 'Dosa Gril'' on the way to the non-existent M. Within minutes, we were all inside Dosa Grill. Quite satisfied by the yummy dosa and coffee which is no match to any chicken nugget in my dictionary, I was thanking my lucky stars. Kids were also happy with the dosa.

Rest of the drive as B drove and I relaxed which is how I would desire it to be always. We wondered at the interesting experiences life throws at us and worried whether the problem with our van will be easy/hard to fix. We were back home FINALLY - one day late, yet safe, but waiting to go back to get the fixed van.

P.S. It ended to be a battery issue and needed replacement. B went on a weekday and got it back.