October 2010 to July 2012

Tags

2010, 2011, 2012, baby, boy, coming back, Food, husband, kunju, love

wow it has been a very long time since I logged in or even visited my blog.
This doesn’t mean that this is a coming back blog. I might go away again and disappear for a long time. Who knows!

I hope Vimmu, Priya, Anu etc still remember me 🙂

So many things happened/changed in the last 2 years. My perspective, priorities, likes, dislikes etc…

I still like coffee, food (of course!) and yes I still talk a lot.
I haven’t been to a movie theater in the past 10 months (there is a reason for that)
I don’t like to go for shopping as much as before but the little stinginess that I had before is still staying intact 😀
Working in the same company as I was in 2010.
Made few new friends. Few old ones, whom I considered close, turned out to be not that genuine.

Still married to the same guy and planning to stay with him till death do us part … (cheesy..)

what else… hmm… hmmm… oh ya…

I’m a Mom (amma) to a naughty 9 month old baby boy now 🙂 …. how could I forget that big change in my life 🙂

 

 

 

 

Friends, Acquaintances or Strangers?

Tags

acquaintance, airport, book, boring, flight, friend, fun, smile, stranger, time, travel

What would you call two people who meet once and get to know a fair amount of information about each other or about their life but never keep in touch or might never see again? Usually when I travel I try to get some reading done or get some sleep. But this time unfortunately I picked a book by J.D. Robb and it was horribly boring. So there I was wide awake and bored to the core. I thought of chit chatting w/ someone but the man next to me looked little scary and when I smiled he kind of gave me serious “nod” and that took me right back to my boring book.

The next connection flight was for 4 hrs. Due the earlier “nod” situation I didn’t even bother to look at the person sitting next to me. The turbulence was really bad and unknowingly I had my palm on my chest.  Then I heard a nice friendly question from the next seat “are you nervous?” Then that person introduced him/her self as “MT” and we talked about movies, our lives, travel etc.  Sometimes MT asked for my opinions and I could give my honest opinions because I didn’t have to worry about this person judging me or keeping a grudge :P.  MT never asked anything too personal. Neither did I.  We had an on and off conversations for around 4 hrs.  Then the flight landed and we went separate ways saying good bye and a “nice to meet you” handshake. We didn’t exchange email addresses, phone number or social networking usernames. I don’t even think MT knows my last name.

So this takes me back to my previous question. What would I/you call a person like MT? A Friend? An Acquaintance? or a Stranger?

My love affair!

Tags

addicted, aroma, coffee, daily, day, espresso, love, monday, shots, tea

I started writing this post saying “I never knew I need you so much”. lol… after reading it myself I felt  the whole post was too cheesy and decided to start all over again.  My weekdays start with a COFFEE. I’m not an addict (yes I’m not admitting I have a problem :P) and I only drink it once or twice a day.  But nowadays I started feeling as if it is a jumpstart for the day. Especially on Mondays when I hate leaving home, the only thought that keeps me driving is the freshly brewed coffee from starbucks/peet’s beans. When I’m having a bad day or when I’m angry at someone, a hot freshly brewed coffee really calms me down as well.  Too much caffeine is bad for you but there is nothing wrong w/ mild coffee right? I have many arguments like these with myself from time to time. I know people who take espresso shots on a daily basis. I can’t drink espressos, it is too strong for me. I also love the Bru coffee from ICH (Indian coffee house) and the regular thattukada. I remember watching Koffee with Karan. They start off the show showing coffee and steam (as if the aroma is spreading). Whenever I see that I crave for it and pause the show (you tube) and make one cup of coffee (usually bru). On weekends I have to cheat on coffee and drink Tea coz of my Mr. & few of my friends 😀 … It’s past lunch time I should probably go get some work done rather than sitting here babbling about my love affair with coffee.

Adios!!!

Back to Work :)

Tags

back, close, good, home, job, parents, quote, reason, unemployment, Work

End to that unemployment phase… I’m back to workkk… 🙂
I’ve always tried to make myself believe that “everything happens for the good”…
But I seldom remember it when I really need it. 😉

When my last job contract ended, I was like “now what????” :O and I thought the time until the next job is going to be the worst ever. But actually, it turned out to be THE best. I got to spend time w/ my parents, we took a 1 month India trip,read few books,got to chill @ home for almost a month and half and now back to work… :)… It was like the perfect vacation time.. sometimes I get scared thinking abt all this… coz it sounds too good to be true.. I looked for a job for around 3 weeks…3rd week I got an interview call for a fulltime job from a company around 5 miles from home.. had 4-5 rounds of interviews including face to face…finished the last interview on a friday and got the job offer letter on monday… started working on the next monday… I feel all of this happened too fast and still cant beleive its true :).. I beleive its all god’s grace and natn else..

Those who are out there looking for a job, I understand how frustrating that period can be.. but hang in there… you will find something soon… dont lose hope..something really good is waiting for you…

Keep in Mind:
“Everything happens for a reason. Every action has a reaction. Always remember that whats meant to be will always find a way to come about.”… 🙂

Home Sweet Home :)

Tags

chicken, cooking, family, fish, Food, hunt, india, job, kerala, kovalam, life, onam, reality, restaurant, sadhya, trip, unemployment

yes thats right!!! home sweet home.. that’s where I’ve been in the past 2 months. 🙂

I’ve enjoyed sooo much in the past 2 months :).. We were planning for an India Trip in August. So once my contract (job) was finished, I didnt bother looking for a new one. I decided I will look for one once I get back from India. So I had no stress or tension thinking about the “unemployment” phase. I sat around, watched tv, stupid sitcoms, movies, read books, cooking experiments,visited my family in east coast, shopping && soooo many more stuff..

Then here comes the best part… 1 month in Kerala… god’s ownnnnnn country :)… I cant explain how much we loved our stay.  One month went sooo fastttttt :(.  First week, we took a 1 week road trip w/ my inlaws. The main aim was a theerthadanam ( basically a food”adanam”). The taste of kottayam fish curry, kozhikodu biriyani… hmm I dont think I will ever like my cooking again :D…

Some Restaurant suggestions for foodies like us : Kozhikodu Sagar (try the old sagar), Al-Bake , Alapuzha Brother’s (its a small crowded  hotel , but their fish curry meals & chicken curry — just superb) , TVM (Tharavattil, Rajadhani (just ok), Zam Zam, Sindoor, & sooo many more)

For those who love beaches, but dont like to go crazy if people are around : try the private beaches in Kovalam. Somatheeram, Thapovan, Coconut Bay Beach Resort etc etc,… there are sooo many of them.

After  looooooong 9 yrs, I got to spend Onam in Kerala. Eventhough, my amma made a big sadya every year & we went to all the onam celebs in US, it can’t be compared with the Onam in Kerala. I think its the feeling of being around w/ the family.. not just parents… but the whole big extended family… I just love that … 🙂 & ofcoz the sadhya w/ adapradhaman, paalada etc.

Few days before the trip, I had a small tension coz this was the first & longest time I was going to stay w/ my inlaws since wedding….. It was totally a great experience… I never knew inlaws could spoil you more than your own parents… and I experienced that….  and hats off to them for dealing with me :D… lol …  & on the way back we got free upgrade to business class 🙂 🙂 🙂 … So, overall it was a greaaaaat trip. It’s been more than  a week since we got back and I’m still talking about the trip lol..

Now back to reality… back to job hunt .. back to “my” cooking & housekeeping 😛 …  😦

Finally… The Wait is Over…

Tags

company, job, lay off, managers, time, unemployed, vendor, wait

Post Dated: May 8th, 09

In the last 2 months, I saw many people (friends, colleagues) losing jobs and leaving their companies. Our team had 7 (incld. me) contractors and I saw each one of them leave. Every time VP announced a lay off, my heart beats increased at least by 50 or 60.  😀 But my name was never on the list 🙂

One week back they announced a 15% pay rate cut for all contractors to avoid massive lay offs. To tell you the truth, I was bit relieved. 😛 Finally 2 days back, the vendor company told me “Sorry we have a bad news, “My Company” let us know that Friday will be your last day. Please work with Mr. MX to transition your work to someone else in the team. They also mentioned that they are very sorry to loose you… bla bla bla bla bla”. I didn’t say anything for few secs, and then I said “ok… thanks for letting me know”. Im not sure what I meant by that statement but that’s what came to my mind at that time. I was not surprised, depressed, sad or anything (may be confused 😉 ).

I tried to talk to my manager AD but he is in Japan for a conference 😡 . So I went and talked to KK (another manager, higher level to AD) and he was very surprised because he didn’t even know about this. I told few of my colleagues and they were also shocked. I guess only AD knows the real reason. KK is trying to track him down and kick his ***. lol … I guess I will only get to know the final decision by eob today…

I’m still not sure what I feel, but inner inner mind I’m feeling bit relieved.

Finally the wait is over….

yea rite… thats what I thought….

Update: May 14th, 09

On May 8th, I said “ I guess I will only get to know the final decision by eob today…” Its May 14th today and I still dont know their final decision.  I handed over most of my projects to other people.  I’m still in a standby mode waiting to hear a final decision. Either tell me “we are sorry… but you have to go..” or “hurrayy you are staying..” .. now im more like “chekkuthanum kadalinum nadukku” situation…  lol …

Update: May 28th, 09

I’m not in that situation anymore… things got finalized… today is my last day… hurrayyy!!! (not for loosing the job but for knowing the final decision) ;)…

good luck to everyone out there who lost jobs & searching for one… one more member to your club 🙂

Sleepy Day!!!

Tags

birthday, blog, brother, excuse, Friends, hariharnagar, month, Movie, night, sleepy, tweety, weekend

It’s been almost a month since I logged in here. I thought of writing here whenever good/bad, a disagreement, a fight, or anything that sort happened. But I was too lazy to open this up and write.  In the past 1 month, I got too busy at work… bla bla bla… I think I’m just trying to make up excuses to console me that I didn’t get time to check my blog.. lol. . anyways… 😀

This week was special to me, coz it’s the birthday week. It started off with my bro’s bday, and 2 of my friends’ bdays back to back  🙂 :).. We all are planning to get together for the night and most probably will go for a movie (“Hariharnagar 2”). I have heard bad & good reviews about the movie. But I’m just going to take my chances and watch it.

I’m not getting much to scribble down. I’m feeling very sleepy .. Don’t get me wrong thinking its late night, its just 2:19 pm.

All of you out there, wide awake and reading my blog…  :P… have a great weekend & have lotssssssssss of fun…

Adios…

March ??? Not my month in ‘09

Tags

babies, company, contractor, death, driving, health care, kids, lay off, love, march, month, parents, rip, stop, ticket, violation, Work

I usually hate Sunday evenings & Mondays, especially because of the thought of getting up in the morning to go to work/school. However I never totally disliked a month in a year. Beginning of this year was going totally well & then March came and all the bad things started happening. May be they are not the worse in your eyes but its worse for me.

1^st week – Violation

“If they think I’m going to stop at that stop sign, they’re sadly mistaken!”

Whenever AB & I go to our friends’ place, he is always the driver and I just entertain/torture him with my non stop talking. One day Smit… told me about her mom’s famous kappa biriyani and I just couldn’t stop drooling. She offered me some & I just couldn’t wait till the evening to pick it up. So I drove to her place following the GPS madam’s instructions. This stupid gps ammachi didn’t bother to tell me there was a stop sign coming up 😦 hence I missed it 😀 (ya she is the last person whom I can blame..) . Who knew a cop (on cycle) would be there waiting for someone like me to miss that stop sign. Anyways long story short, I got a $250 traffic violation ticket & I have to take an 8 hr (slow death) traffic class.

2^nd , 3^rd week & 4^th week – Delete (y/n)

These were the weeks of lay offs. I always thought the best field or the safest is the health care field. Well I still think it’s the safest comparatively but nothing is “safe” in this economy. My client company announced there will be a small cut down of resources mid 2^nd week and on Wednesday my coworkers Vid & Apm got their notices saying that they have 2 days left in the company. But they managed to contact some other group and found 2 positions there and moved there. 3^rd week Monday, they lay off 890 FTs and our manager told us that they will cut down the contractors as well. None of us knew who all are going to be kicked out. 3 days later, they announced the names. Luckily I was not one among them, but I really feel bad for the other 3 who had to leave.

The # of projects we are currently working on (incld. me) are very less and we got an email that says they will consider reducing the contractor staffing even more… 😛 hmmm, so nothing is for sure… There is going to be another set of layoffs pretty soon…

4^th week – Deaths

I don’t want to go in details here coz I don’t like to write about deaths. I heard about 3-4 deaths this week and all of them were about kids/babies. I don’t know why HE took them away from their loved ones at a young age itself.  I can’t even think about how their parents must be feeling now. And I really hope & pray that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.  May they all rest in peace!!!!!

I don’t think I need more reasons to dislike this month. Few days are still left in March for the 5^th week and I just can’t wait for the next month…

19 : 19

Tags

chicken, dance, dark, donate, fish, Friends, kappa, kerala, life, love, money, place, saree, tag, teacher, trust

How to and what to :

1. You are given a set of questions.
2. Google the image which best suits the answer and post a picture from first page of image search with minimal explanation.
3. After you finish tag 6 other blogger friends and let them know.

Vimmu tagged me on this.  Let me try to finish it in the next 30 minutes 🙂

1.Your age on your next birthday

2. A place you’d like to travel to

Always God’s Own Country 🙂

3. Your Favorite place

again my hometown in kerala 🙂

4. Your favorite food/drink

Kerala paratta & Kozhi curry

Kappa Vevichathu & Fish Curry

karikkin vellam

5. Your favorite pet

6. Your favorite color combination

Red, Black, Dark Pink

7. Your favorite piece of clothing

8. Your all time favorite song

there are many songs I love… this is just one among them

9. Your favorite TV show

No question on that 🙂

10. Full name of your significant other

cant beleive this came up 🙂

11. The town in which you live

the map is too small right… I know 😀

12. Your screen name/nickname

cant beleive its there 🙂

13. Your first job

Internship @ GE

14. Your Dream Job

wanted to be a proffesional classical dancer or a teacher :).

15: Bad Habit you have

I usually trust everyone I meet and most of the time I get hurt in the end.

16. Your worst fear

Im scared of darkness.

17. The one thing you would like to do before you die

hmmm I cant answer that … hmmm… hmmm… still thinking :D….

18. The first thing you’ll buy if you get $1,000,000

First thing will be donating some money to charity..

19.Your favourite credo in life.

I love everyone :)…

Try to forgive & forget, if not, atleast forgive and learn a lesson from what happened.

ufffffffffffffff…

It took me more than 30 minutes to finish this. I have no energy to tag anyone today… I think I will do that the next time I login..

Till then… Be Happy… Keep Smiling… Adios ~ Remya

p.s : tagging : – Alice , Aparna , Rads, amreekandesi , Rekha

Connected to the cyberworld

Just like any other work day, after replying to the urgent emails & work, I clicked on Firefox to check gmail.  It gave me the “page load” error. I thought it was probably an internet connection issue. But I noticed that all the company.org sites, email & sametime chat were working fine. I got shocked thinking what if they blocked all the other sites :O.  I tried yahoo, cnn, IBM  etc etc etc. None of them worked.. I had a similar experience in one of my previous work place where they blocked all the sites. Life was kinda horrible during that 8 hrs I spend in the office since there was no connection to the outside world. lol … In order to feel better I told my coworker V

Me: hey V I think they blocked all the sites other the .org ones
V: [shocked face] 
 reallyyyyyy???? Let me check.
(checking…..) www. google.com”
(relived face) its working fine…
Me: [shocked face]
:O really… I think its just me then…
let me ping the desktop support specialist

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me: Hi T
T: Hello and HNY…what’s up?
Me: thx… Happy New Year to you too
I’m in the office (not connected through vpn) however I can’t access any other than kp.org sites
T: What sites are trying to access?
Me: [oh shoot… why did I even ask him 😦 😦  😦  ]
Hmmm uhhhh ohhhh…
I was trying to access “some ibm support site”.com
T: there seems to be an issue with internet at the moment
The connection to the internet is “broken” somehow and I’m sure they are on it
Me: Thx.

Well Im much relieved, it’s not just me 🙂 … I kept trying to connect every 30 minutes or so… After a 3 hr wait… It connected to google J. Hurrayyy !!!
ആ 3 മണിക്കൂറില്‍ ഞാന്‍ ജോലി മാറുന്നതിനെ കുറിച്ചു വരെ ആലോചിച്ചു
(I had to write that in Malayalam…)

lol

I guess most of you will feel the same way if they block sites (mail, orkut, wordpress, blogspot…) at work… or is it just me 😉 ??