Today, my mom went back to Bombay (after around 6 months). Now there is a sudden lull in the house with no one to talk or yell at. I wish she could stay longer but she has a task at hand. I never felt this lonely when coming to US from India but this is the first time I had family at my place and am overcome with emotions.
The good thing is that mom's flight took off without a problem and she was also able to make it to her connecting flights. Glad that it was a day earlier else she would have been stuck in Charlotte and some legal problems.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Hello - Queen City
I drove about 11 hours from Detroit to Charlotte but it took me approx 14 hours to make the complete journey. After moving all my stuff from the car to my new apartment, I was too tired and dozed off. In the morning, I woke up to what you see in this image. It was an amazing feel to see this but watching everything covered in snow and sipping hot coffee tops that.
Btw, I managed to get internet at my place and also went on a self-tour of my new place to get myself acquainted with the place. I went to meet my auto and renter's insurance agents and I think I made friends with them. My worst fear coming to this place was that people may not be friendly; but going by all indications people here are more friendly - well at least the native Charlotteans as they fondly call themselves.
I am eagerly awaiting my movers to drop off my stuff at the place so that I can unpack, go get my driver's license and get NC tabs. I might be able to get IU tabs after all.
Since I am starting a new phase of life with new work and new place, I am beginning to think that it may not be a bad idea to look to buy a house out here. The weather seems nice (but no snow) and people are friendlier and the place has top-notch schools but I would still give the option of IU to my kids.
Now to make new friends after 1st week of March when I can live my life again.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Ode to Detroit - The City of Champions
As I write this blog, I am well into my last 24 hours in Metro Detroit as its resident. It has been a jolly good ride - my last 20 months of my life has been very memorable to me. I have gained a great set of friends, friends who made up for the lack of family, relations, etc; friends who helped me forge my identity and made me come out of my shell.
The only true way to conclude my episode in Detroit would be to list the things I will dearly miss -
1. Friends - could not have asked for more
2. Playing softball
3. Inexpensive golf
4. Cheap gas
5. Long drives
6. Mountain biking in State parks
7. People passionate about their cars - esp. American Muscle cars
8. Woodward Dream Cruise
9. Detroit Tigers
10. Detroit RedWings
11. Change of seasons in Michigan
12. Old Detroit mansions
13. Architecture in Detroit
14. Detroit Institute of Arts
15. Hindi movies in Novi
16. Living close to IU campus
17. 12th floor banter
18. Michigan beer
…………………… and the list goes on but I will mention that the thing I will miss the most is waking in the morning to see the entire area surrounded by white pristine snow and sipping coffee blankly staring at it. There is never a better soothing feeling.
Now having compiled the above list does not mean that I love everything about Detroit. Here are few
1. Casinos – people gamble too much
2. Very few career opportunities for Banking professionals
3. Smoking inside bars – thank god that is changing soon
4. Too many lazy people – hence the term ‘Michigan Fat’.
5. Michigan ‘U’ – come on you are supposed to just have left turns, not go round about to make a simple left
6. High insurance
7. Detroit Lions – only professional sport I did not watch live in Detroit
8. Cobo arena – they could have built it better
9. City of Detroit Mayors – scandals is not the way to keep the city in news
10. Lack of ‘Happy Hour’ bars near RenCen
11. Seats at Joe Louis Arena –they are small even for me
Overall, it has been a very satisfying and humbling experience for me. My milestones –
1. My first true job – where I earn to keep the fire in the house running
2. Dad passed away – lack of a father figure has really made me grow up more faster
3. Maturity – I like to think that I have matured very quickly from just being a pampered kid to being responsible for my own actions and behaviors
4. Money management – I now have decent amount of savings but no significant asset yet
5. First date ever – I went for my first ever date and I am happy that it did not work out well
6. First new car
7. First house (well almost) – since it is tough for Librans to make up their mind; esp. for me
8. 5k for Walt
9. First ankle twist
10. First bicycle
Signing off from Detroit - ready to start a new episode in my life
The only true way to conclude my episode in Detroit would be to list the things I will dearly miss -
1. Friends - could not have asked for more
2. Playing softball
3. Inexpensive golf
4. Cheap gas
5. Long drives
6. Mountain biking in State parks
7. People passionate about their cars - esp. American Muscle cars
8. Woodward Dream Cruise
9. Detroit Tigers
10. Detroit RedWings
11. Change of seasons in Michigan
12. Old Detroit mansions
13. Architecture in Detroit
14. Detroit Institute of Arts
15. Hindi movies in Novi
16. Living close to IU campus
17. 12th floor banter
18. Michigan beer
…………………… and the list goes on but I will mention that the thing I will miss the most is waking in the morning to see the entire area surrounded by white pristine snow and sipping coffee blankly staring at it. There is never a better soothing feeling.
Now having compiled the above list does not mean that I love everything about Detroit. Here are few
1. Casinos – people gamble too much
2. Very few career opportunities for Banking professionals
3. Smoking inside bars – thank god that is changing soon
4. Too many lazy people – hence the term ‘Michigan Fat’.
5. Michigan ‘U’ – come on you are supposed to just have left turns, not go round about to make a simple left
6. High insurance
7. Detroit Lions – only professional sport I did not watch live in Detroit
8. Cobo arena – they could have built it better
9. City of Detroit Mayors – scandals is not the way to keep the city in news
10. Lack of ‘Happy Hour’ bars near RenCen
11. Seats at Joe Louis Arena –they are small even for me
Overall, it has been a very satisfying and humbling experience for me. My milestones –
1. My first true job – where I earn to keep the fire in the house running
2. Dad passed away – lack of a father figure has really made me grow up more faster
3. Maturity – I like to think that I have matured very quickly from just being a pampered kid to being responsible for my own actions and behaviors
4. Money management – I now have decent amount of savings but no significant asset yet
5. First date ever – I went for my first ever date and I am happy that it did not work out well
6. First new car
7. First house (well almost) – since it is tough for Librans to make up their mind; esp. for me
8. 5k for Walt
9. First ankle twist
10. First bicycle
Signing off from Detroit - ready to start a new episode in my life
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Needs, wants & desires!
Today is the last winter-storm I will be experiencing for sometime. I mean a real winter storm and not a splutter of snow and everything shuts down but where there is accumulation of snow and people still go about business as usual.
Most people hate the winter and would want to get out of the place if it was not for any other reason but seldom get that opportunity whereas I love the snow and winter weather but I am being forced to go out of the region by my own personal choice. If it was not for want of a better career; I would have loved to stay in Michigan.
There is so much to do in Michigan - biking, golfing, UPper region, etc. I do agree the roads are horrible, hardly anything to do during the winter which a lot of people would enjoy, plethora of accidents, wearing thick winter coats to a bar/club where there is no coat closet, etc... but people don't realize that the positives of the region are also because of the winter - lakes are always full of water, land never gets destroyed due to heat, no dirt flying around, short summers but busy summers, extremely active people etc.
One of the few things I have learnt in my life is to look at the positive and trying to make it bigger than the negative for there is both positive and negative in every walk of life and the more weight we give to one vs. the other, the more biased we will be. Now how will Metzger be proud if we cannot use bias to influence our and others' thought processes to get the desired outcome. :)
Most people hate the winter and would want to get out of the place if it was not for any other reason but seldom get that opportunity whereas I love the snow and winter weather but I am being forced to go out of the region by my own personal choice. If it was not for want of a better career; I would have loved to stay in Michigan.
There is so much to do in Michigan - biking, golfing, UPper region, etc. I do agree the roads are horrible, hardly anything to do during the winter which a lot of people would enjoy, plethora of accidents, wearing thick winter coats to a bar/club where there is no coat closet, etc... but people don't realize that the positives of the region are also because of the winter - lakes are always full of water, land never gets destroyed due to heat, no dirt flying around, short summers but busy summers, extremely active people etc.
One of the few things I have learnt in my life is to look at the positive and trying to make it bigger than the negative for there is both positive and negative in every walk of life and the more weight we give to one vs. the other, the more biased we will be. Now how will Metzger be proud if we cannot use bias to influence our and others' thought processes to get the desired outcome. :)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Celebrating New Year's Eve?
Today, I was having another random conversation with two of my co-workers and that was about celebrating NYE. Everyone around me seems to have plans and/or is conflicted between more than one plan for NYE whereas I did not have any plans up till yesterday. I had half a thought of just sleeping through it as NYE did not have any special significance for me except completion of another wasted year of singleness.
One of my co-worker was mentioning that it is very lame to sleep through NYE as it marks a new year. Having seem 27 NYE of which I rarely remember any, I don't see the point of having to celebrate it. I wonder why is there such a lot of social pressure to celebrate the NYE with drinking. Is it a celebration or depression drinking? Well everyone would have their answers but is it such a big deal.
But just for sake of clarification, I do have two invites of which I am not sure if I will accept either one. Start or end of an era for me does not have specific dates on the Gregorian calendar. It is more to do when I have made my mind to move on to the next phase of life. I wish everyone thought of it.
One of my co-worker was mentioning that it is very lame to sleep through NYE as it marks a new year. Having seem 27 NYE of which I rarely remember any, I don't see the point of having to celebrate it. I wonder why is there such a lot of social pressure to celebrate the NYE with drinking. Is it a celebration or depression drinking? Well everyone would have their answers but is it such a big deal.
But just for sake of clarification, I do have two invites of which I am not sure if I will accept either one. Start or end of an era for me does not have specific dates on the Gregorian calendar. It is more to do when I have made my mind to move on to the next phase of life. I wish everyone thought of it.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
First Casualty
I was wondering all this while about which part of my body would hurt me the most since I have not been going to gym for past 2 weeks and the upcoming move to the Queen City. It seems I got a late Christmas gift (if I believe in Christmas). I sprained my neck trying to lift an old corner couch on my head while trying to take it to the garbage. I guess this blog would be a nice way for me to keep a track of all my injuries.
Anyways, to another topic now. Why is it sometimes everything starts going in the correct direction, that things just go haywire. The other day I ordered gifts for my friends' new born and to be born (actually two couples). I had ordered a bib and shoes for the newborn girl - Molly and a bathrobe for the to-be born. It so happens that the bib has not been delivered yet whereas the bathrobe is already at my place. Now the newborn does not get her gifts for they are not delivered whereas the to-be born will get his gift when arrives which is in another 20 days or so.
Life is truly tough to understand.
Anyways, to another topic now. Why is it sometimes everything starts going in the correct direction, that things just go haywire. The other day I ordered gifts for my friends' new born and to be born (actually two couples). I had ordered a bib and shoes for the newborn girl - Molly and a bathrobe for the to-be born. It so happens that the bib has not been delivered yet whereas the bathrobe is already at my place. Now the newborn does not get her gifts for they are not delivered whereas the to-be born will get his gift when arrives which is in another 20 days or so.
Life is truly tough to understand.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Moving dilemma
Recently I accepted an amazing job offer within the same company I work with. My work would involve exactly/very similar to what I have been dreaming to work on - heavy number crunching, talking geek, etc. The job offer could not have been any better except that it does not compensate me for lack of snow.
Anyways back to the job offer, my work would now be out of the Queen City. I am already having apprehensions about moving to a city which is very narrow minded. On top of that, I am moving for the fourth time since 2006. I have made some amazing friends, grew closer to people who I studied with but never interacted much, was part of the various family/friends' activities and finally had a good social network which was not work related. It took me about 2 years of hardwork and sweat to make friends as family.
My apprehensions arise from the fact that I know myself better than most know me. Even though I am a very social person, I am very introvert and don't speak my mind out. I make friends easily but I don't make best friends at all.
Anyways back to the job offer, my work would now be out of the Queen City. I am already having apprehensions about moving to a city which is very narrow minded. On top of that, I am moving for the fourth time since 2006. I have made some amazing friends, grew closer to people who I studied with but never interacted much, was part of the various family/friends' activities and finally had a good social network which was not work related. It took me about 2 years of hardwork and sweat to make friends as family.
My apprehensions arise from the fact that I know myself better than most know me. Even though I am a very social person, I am very introvert and don't speak my mind out. I make friends easily but I don't make best friends at all.
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