Too much of this good life?

Right now the most fortunate thing in my life is having an uncle who has, or rather had a bag manufacturing business AND who sent us large bags (and smaller ones too) every time someone in the family went abroad.

Now, to give you an idea of my misery:

My shopping done, the obvious next step was packing, which I(read my mother) started yesterday. And I have LOTS of stuff. I wonder what the Lufthansa guys were thinking when they set the 46kg weight limit on luggage. Don't they know Indians at all? Last night we packed a bag completely with way less than half my stuff and thought it's good to go. But we found that it weighed only 20kgs :-(. Now that's disastrous. Thankfully we have a bag of the next size at home (refer previous paragraph about uncles and free bags :D). Now we have to unpack the packed bag and use the larger one instead, which is really nothing to crib about, but I hate packing (which my mom makes me sit and watch) and I'm on vacation and hence entitled to crib just a wee bit.

Now about other bags... I bought a couple of really nice handbags recently and they make me feel like a girl again :-). I'm also surrounded by a hundred "not so nice" plastic bags containing all my shopping and my room looks like a warehouse. You will find me huddled up and sleeping in whatever space I can find between the bags and my books.

I'm getting a little too used to joblessness and it's heavenly. I don't laze around but I love not having to account for my time or use it gainfully to earn my living :-). Pity the fun has to end so soon. C'est la vie...

Shopping, Swimming, Studying. And yeah, Flying Ants too!!!

My shopping list is shrinking!!! I bought my luggage today and 4 pairs of Jeans yesterday. I still have to buy formal wear and some other miscellaneous stuff. I'm so glad I can finish shopping sooner than I expected :-). And I totally enjoy my hour or so of swimming everyday...

I was getting worried that I might not be able to take waiver exams because I could not find books that have the relevant material at my library except for 2 subjects. I don't want to buy books as I cannot carry them and ironically, buying the course texts will be a waste of money if I manage to waive the courses :-(. But things became peachy again once I saw the dates for the waiver exams I want to take. They are spaced out and give me enough time to borrow books and prepare even after I get to Wharton. Anyway I was secretly wishing I won't have to study too much before school :D. Now I can play hookey, guiltlessly that too!

A very funny thing happened a couple of days ago. I was sitting at my comp and suddenly something fell into my left eye. No amount of jumping up and down, rubbing, scratching or splashing water could get the thing out. Finally, when I managed to twist my left eye completely out of shape and peered into it with my right eye, what should I find but an ant sticking to my eye-lid. Yes, a RED ANT. I tried removing it with my finger, a dry handkerchief, a wet handkerchief, a Johnsons ear bud and other such objects in rapid succession, but to no avail. The dead ant was hanging on to my eye with its tiny little tentacle (as I found out much later). I had to finally visit the doctor who initially put up quite a fight to locate the ant, while telling me all about flying ants/insects and how they put their tentacles to effective use in such situations. Then I, by now very familiar with the art of nearly gouging my eye out, helped him locate it in a jiffy, quite dexterously, if I may say so myself :-). He then anesthetized my eye with an eyedrop which in turn made my tongue and lips numb too. I sat clenching my fists and gritting my teeth as he held my eye open and pinched the ant out with a pair of forceps. Gross? Oh yeah!

Now I have to use eye drops which flow into my throat and make me sick and an eye ointment which sticks my eye closed for about an hour. I never thought THIS will happen in my life. Kudos to the ant!

10 days out of a job

My last day at work was 31st May and my team gave me a really nice farewell. I had to cut a huge cake, make a speech and got a lot of unexpected gifts from friends. I got quite sad during the last few days at work but managed to spend considerable time with all my good friends and hopefully will keep in touch with all of them.

Until 3rd June I was really busy with packing (I wrapped each of the 100 odd books I owned in Bangalore with polythene and taped it, you can imagine how long that takes!), last minute meetings with friends, social visits that my mom insisted on, delivering the stuff I gave away, calling people on my phone book before I surrendered my phone etc. Those 3 days were more hectic than my full time job :-).

I have been in Chennai for a week now. I thought it will be really weird not having a job to go for every morning(or afternoon :D) and I expected to take a long time getting used to it. Thanks to the long list of things I need to do before I leave India, I don't feel much of a difference. On the very day I landed in Chennai I had to rush to get my learner's license, enroll in car driving school and begin my immunization schedule. I also got a new internet connection at home, enquired about money exchange, travel insurance etc. etc. etc.

We are rebuilding the house we used to live in. It is the house I lived in for 22 years and much as I hated to see it demolished, I am still very excited about the new plan and all the ideas I have for the house. So I've been spending a lot of time with my mom picking out wall shades, tile patterns and other fixtures, giving specifications to the carpenter etc. And I must say I'm enjoying it and am quite sad that I will never live there again and will not even stay in India long enough to see the completed house.

The "Get Started" packet arrived from Wharton and I'm done reading the 2 booklets in it. Wharton allows students to waive courses and the waiver information guide (on a CD) is a whopping 350 pages long. Being an Engineer, I cannot waive even a single course by credential. However, I have a list of courses that, with little or no effort, I might be able to waive through exams . Waiving some courses will go a long way in reducing my first year course load. So I'm rather unsuccessfully trying to motivate myself to learn the basics of these subjects.

I went shopping yesterday and bought a bunch of clothes. I still have loads of things to buy before the end of the month. Because I'm not very fond of shopping I'm trying to space out my shopping expeditions so that I don't get frustrated and give up too soon. At least the traffic situation in Chennai is better than that in Bangalore and does not add to my reluctance to go shopping. And yeah, now that I have paid all my previous bills, the wallet is steadily getting thinner :-(. On a side note, I found a really nice swimming pool and will go swimming everyday from today!

I might sound quite busy and excited, but there are a few things I miss about Bangalore:

• My friends at work. I have many friends in Chennai, but they all have jobs to keep.
• The weather which was getting really nice when I left.
• Weaving erratically through the crazy Bangalore traffic, I don't have enough opportunity to do that in Chennai :-)
• My trusty 2-wheeler :-(, although I have a friend's spare vehicle to use in Chennai.

But I guess my mom's food and all the time in the world to do as I please pretty much make up for it... That's about it from me at the moment. I really will blog regularly henceforth...