Full Moon
Orange sky in dawn/dusk
Fall Colours
White Christmas
Cherry Blossoms
Fresh smell after rain
Ooty weather
Evening in a beach
Hike by a stream
Movie with friends
Early Morning sleep
Hot shower in winter
Dinner with Family
Stroll with sweetheart
Enthralling Novel
Birthday wishes
College Days memories
First Crush

I am tagging DD,VJ,Anu,Skely,Shyam to continue this list.

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Wednesday 11/23, I started out early from Office to Cleveland. It was a long 8 hour drive. I myself not sure how I manage to drive 8 hours just by myself, 8 hours is a whole work day!!!! I listen to music, talk on the phone, but still 8 hours?? How the hell I spend it, I don't know. This journey is sort of like life itself, I think, hardly realizing how fast the years roll by. When I sit back and think how did I spent all these years, Its just a blank!!.

Well,Let me get back to the topic. Now I reached Cleveland Wednesday night safely even though there were light snow flurries on the highway. Thursday was Thanksgiving!! This year we celebrated at Ravi anna's new house. We made the usual Turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, cutlet, lamb and what not! I made my small contributions but running to the grocery couple of times :)

As tradition requires, we (me,ravi anna, babu anna, murugs,venthi anna and all the cleveland gang) played Football(American football not soccer) in freezing weather on Thanksgiving day. The weather was around 15 degree Fahrenheit and windy. It was a crazy game, we all ran, fell, dived for the ball in the snow. My face was frozen that I could barely talk. But it was lot of fun!! Its nice to do some crazy things once in while :)

Thanksgiving was a great reunion. Saw all the cousins from all over US, missed all the cousins in India though :( Did some shopping, watched movies, played cards and did all the fun stuff one does on vacation.

The only bad part was the drive back! First of all there is no motivation!! Who would want to go back to work after 4 days of fun?! Second, the Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend is the most traveled day of the year. I was praying for a light traffic and apparently God was busy answering somebody else. I got stuck for 1.5 hours in a small stretch of highway and took almost 10 hours to get back to Jersey.

On a whole I had a Whale of a time. Its occasions like this that make all you go through in life worthwhile!! Gives hope for the future and motivates to wake up everyday(especially workdays!!)

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Just back from a 3 day trip to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. I flew into San Diego from New York on Thursday night and met with Sunil(college buddy). Then drove to Santa Ana where Mahesh(aka Maggi! Another college buddy) and his wife Uma live.

Friday Morning, we set out to Zion National Park in Utah.Its approximately 6 hours drive from Maggi's house. We rented a new Pontiac G6 car and Sunil was burning tires!! like crazy. Utah is a moutainous state. The Drive had great views all along with the roads winding through the hills.These hills were made of different colored (white,red,black etc.,) rocks in layers giving you an impression that hill are painted strips by some one. There is not much vegetation in Utah just the hills. Zion National Park had deep gorges made by the flow of rivers and land slides. There are trails where you can take a trek. The one we trekked on is by a river surrounded both sides by steep hill rising 300-400 feet.The weather was nice 50 deg Fahrenheit. It was very refreshing to trek listening to the flow of the river and wondering how this timid river cut the hills into two like hot knife through butter. We stayed in Kanab, a town close to the park.

Saturday we left for Grand Canyon in Arizona. Arizona is south of Utah and very similar to Utah in its geographical features. The south rim of Grand Canyon is approximately 4 hours drive from Kanab. We stopped at a scenic view point which had a small unpaved road leading to a elevated viewing area. The 360 degree view didn't yield any sign of civilization other than the highway and a small boat yard. It was just mountains stretched all along till the horizon. It gave a sense of being lost in the wilderness, of being escaped from the day to day monotony, of being completely free and live for just that moment. I enjoyed it immensely.

We reached Grand Canyon Saturday afternoon. There were many view points Lipan Pt, Moron Pt, Hermit Rest, GrandTrail Pt. The view was awesome from all of these points. The Grand Canyon is a big Canyon formed by the Colorado river.Its 270 million years old. It was so deep (7000 - 8000 Ft)that you can barely see the river at the bottom and soo wide (few miles) that you can barely see the other rim. So when you see the canyon its like a big depression dotted with pine cones of small hills arranged zig-zaged. The hills in the Canyon are made of different colored rocks from red,blue, grey, black et., It was quite a site.

We left for Vegas Saturday night(4 hours drive) and reached by 10 pm. Though vegas is more beautiful at night, we were so exhausted to even think of going out. So we slept and set out to explore the city Sunday morning. It was such a contrast between Grand Canyon and Vegas. The city was exploding with humanity, with gamblers and tourists. We didn't gamble much. I lost 10 dollars in the slot machine and called it quit.

We spent lot of time running around and looking at the casinos. My favorite is 'The Venetian'.Its like a replica of Venice with water ways surrounding the the building and with people riding the gondolas(small boats propelled with an oar). Inside of the casino,the shops are built in such a way that their front facade resemble the streets in Venice. The ceilings are covered with drawings. I couldn't make out what the drawings mean but they are one of the prettiest I have seen. The walk ways through the shops have ceilings painted like the sky and they are well lit that you feel that you are actually walking through an outdoor street in broad day light.Almost all the casinos are built with a theme like the 'Paris' representing the city of Paris, the 'NewYork NewYork' representing New York City, the 'Alladin' representing a city in Persia. Oh! I almost forgot about 'Luxor'. Its a casino shaped like a Pyramid. The hotel rooms are lined alongs the inclined walls of the pyramid. They don't have elevators like normal hotels but inclinators to go from one floor to the other. It has a big Sphinx guarding the entrance. The inside of the casino has drawings and sculptures portraying the Egyptian Civilizations. It just amazing to see these casinos and the way they were built.

We saw lot of shows like the water show in front of Bellagio, the volcano show infront of Mirage, the clown show in Circus Circus, the acrobatic air show in Tropicana etc., We were dead tired at the end of the day. It was one hell of a day! and one hell of a trip. I will remember it for a very long time.

I took the overnight flight to New Jersey and spent the Monday like a Zombie in the office.

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Smart but naive!
Loved but lonely!
Hardworking but lazy!
Friendly but reserved!
Intelligent but clueless!

I am a walking talking Ying Yang.

Thanks DD for tagging me.

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Today, On my way to work from my apartment in Princeton, New Jersey, I was stuck in a God Awful traffic Jam for an hour . I wished for the first time that I had a driver here. When you are stuck in a traffic jam, there isn't much you can do other than you know, think about random things!

Then I realized that US is a strange country. Here you can buy an BMW but can't afford a driver, you can buy a house but can't afford a servant maid. You have to just do it yourself. mow your lawn, shovel snow off your drive way, paint your house,clean your gutter, wash and iron your clothes, pump gas(petrol), cook, clean etc.,

I remember when I was in India, I had almost everything taken care of. I don't even pack my clothes which my adorable mom will do it for me. I miss the early morning milk I used to get from toddler till my college days. I miss the idlies on my plate for my break fast. I miss the evening Bournvita after school/college. I miss the oil-bath I get from my grand ma. I miss my mom's selection when I go shopping.

I don't know if its just me being a spoiled brat or there are folks around who feel the same.

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Purpose of life!!! Couldn't figure it out.. learn, work, marry, procreate, die.. is that all to it. Didn't mean to start my blogging with a serious topic, but could find anything else to think about. I googled 'purpose of life' and all the links that came up are religious sites. No offense to religious people, but thats not what I was looking for.

I like to think life is beautiful. But is it really true. Whats the beauty in life is we are all surrounded by war, hurricane ,tsunami and earthquake......

If any one has figured out the purpose of life, let me know whats it all about.

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