Saturday, July 31, 2010

Margaritas!

Last night, had great time with few Friends at a place called 'Margaritas' in Redwood City. 'Guys, if you don't mind I can fit you in that corner space', said the waitress. Sure! We were hungry and couldn't wait a minute more to put our hands on the MARGARITAS!!! And yes, this place has the bests of bests. Those in and around Bay Area should try this place out.

Here are few pictures taken from my old but still living Nokia N95!
After dinner we all went to Bond's place to have yummy rasmalai. Unortunately did not click any pictures there, but the rasmalai was super yummy!
Funny thing happened as we left Bond's house. We got into the car and headed out of the apartment complex. Suddenly I thought I forgot to pick my bag. Oh no... next thing I see is Navin getting all grumpy and angry and turning the car back. As we approached the house, I looked down near my seat and my bag was right there. Oops. Mishtake! I forgot to search for the bag. hehehe. Now Navin had more reasons to be pissed. Anyhow chalta hain boss... weekend hain :)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Confronting to Mistakes

I missed one delivery at work today. I understood some requirements differently. I even tested the tool thoroughly before delivery but somehow skipped few things. The issue was escalated to my boss and I had to face the consequences. 'Shreya?.. yes she is working on that', that's all I could hear as the boss kept the phone down. I knew I was in for some explanation. The boss was super helpful - did not outburst at me at all. But did ask for details on what went wrong and then based on what I had to say, asked me to cancel my meetings with clients so that I have more time to fix issues before we go ahead.
All this happened just a while ago. I want to pen down my thoughts now itself otherwise these emotions would just pass by and I would not want to remember them again to write them down.
How did I feel while all this was going on? I was feeling bad, very bad. I felt like I made a mistake, because I thought it was my responsibility to be correct. Being wrong was not correct at anytime, right?
As I was talking to my boss, I consciously tried to be logical. I was trying to be correct even in telling the reason why I made a mistake. No, I was not defending my self. May be it was a moment where I knew that something was wrong and at the same time was feeling bad about it. And believe it or not, I was also trying to be consciously aware of my emotions.
I starting telling myself, don't take it personally. All this is related to the work you did or did not do. And it is NOT related to YOU. Be professional. Work does not define who you are. As I walked out of office, I apologised to my boss. He said, things happen!
I know things happen! And I was also trying hard to tell my self this. But I was not able to control my emotions. I felt bad about something. Why did I have to feel bad? What was it that was troubling me?
I was not even thinking about the consequences of the problem on hand. I was not worried that professionally it marked bad on me. It was not such a big deal. But I was and I am feeling sad. Is this ego? Am I thinking of myself as a perfectionist that can never go wrong? I believe it is bit of both.
I just know that mistakes are part of life. But I just don't know how to handle the emotions that run alongside. Knowing and making this knowledge a part of you is how you grow in life.
I am glad that I was part of this experience. It just makes me understand how much vulnerable I still am to life's challenges and how much more I need to learn and grow in life. I wonder how I still have not been ready to grow yet!

Friday, July 9, 2010

Violet Dawn

Got our new Kindle Yayy! Been 2-3 weeks and read 2 books already. It is a very proud moment for me because I have always found it difficult to keep interest in a book and complete it and then pick another one again. First one I read was the Jungle Book :)
And today I finished the Violet Dawn. It is a very intuitive mystery where the author keeps you on the edge all the time. I am glad I came across this book which makes me interested in picking another of the mysteries by Brandilyn Collins.
What I liked about the book was how the book jumped back and forth between the main story and another story running in the past (well, only at the end do you realize the other story is in the past). Both the stories are beautifully narrated giving due attention to each character. You will love this book, if you want a quicker.
I do have one complaint. The mystery around Paige just ends abruptly. I was hoping to see some drama once the true killer encounters Paige. But the story I felt just ends JLT. I would however, definitely recommend this book.

That was sweet

Yes she was sweet. Just met her for 1/2 a second may be. Navin and I were on our way back from a long walk. We were tired, hungry and cold... a sweet gesture like this can make any ones heart warm and happy.
We were in our own world, may be talking about how cold the weather was getting. I look up and boom! A lady pops in front and hands over a small bouquet of flowers to me and goes past us.
Who, what, why? Well, I don't know. May be she was on her daily walk and started plucking flowers and wanted to get rid of them before she reached home. Or may be she just wanted to make someone feel nice. I like to believe the later. I felt nice. Here is a picture of the sweetness :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Yeh kya ho raha hain?

Well, I know you will call this coincidence! In fact when I told some of my friends, they said I look at the watch too often. But today it happened to me 3 times! So whats this magic you may ask. Well, whenever I have to look at my watch or cell phone or the any digital time display, I see doubles. 10:10 or 11:11! Not magic? Does it happen to you too?

Here's the deal! I happened to get up in the middle of the night, rather early morning. I pick my cell and look at the time. It shows 4:44! Later today, I had to catch a 12:30 shuttle and I had to get ready. I look at the time on the stove, it shows 11:11! It could have shown 11 or 11:03 may be. And now, I was reading a book and just realised Navin is still not home. I look at the time on my cell and it shows 23:11... I am like OK.... and turn my head towards the stove. It shows 11:11!!! This is no coincidence. Now somebody tell me this is not magic.

AND NOW! You will not believe this. I edited this post for spell check and save it and the time shows 12:12 on my computer!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Loooooong weekend

Yes! The weekend just seemed too long. With just no plans whatsoever, we rented a car for the long weekend. We will put together something before Friday, we told ourselves. It was Friday night and we did not have any plans but just a destination in mind. Napa! The wine city!

Navin and I have a reputation to maintain. We never, by never I mean just never ever PLAN for any trips. Not that we don't try. We spend hours and hours browsing the Internet and looking for 'things to do lists' and end up with 'blank' on our lists. We are super duper happy when friends join in because that means we can have some fun activities on the trip. So here we were, just nothing on mind, except that we were going to Napa.

Some of our friends who had been to Napa told us about the hot air balloon rides. OKAY! We knew something we could do! We looked up for some balloon rides and decided on one near Sanoma county. Then booked some room near by hotel. As usual we started later afternoon to reach the hotel in the evening. Went to Chevy's for a late lunch or umm early dinner. Stayed in the room so that we don't stay up too late feeling tired to get up early for the balloon ride. For those who don't know, the balloon rides are usually at 5 or 6 in the mornings! I know... that's too early... but this time we had made hotel reservations and driving plans and also decision to stay indoors so that we reach on time for the balloon ride at least.

BTW, America got Talent so not so bad an option for a Saturday night! (#FML) Seriously!

We got up at 4:30 am to be right in time for the ride. But looks like the weekend was supposed to be a quite one, no adventure added. The ride was called off because of windy conditions. What? NOOOOO! Did I hear you right Mr. Balloon Owners? You guys don't know how much effort it was for us to make it this far! But it was for real! The ride had been called off. What did that mean? It meant we head back to the hotel and sleep for some more time. And that is what we did.
That same evening we headed back home... stopped at a couple of wineries on the way. Went to a Premium Outlet mall in Napa :) On the way back we needed just that little more for a fun filled vacation. So we decided to drive to Fremont for a Hindi movie called 'I hate love stories'. Bad choice, we knew AFTER we watched it! Here are some pictures from our not so planned trip.
After the ride (which never happened)
Outside Mondavi Wineyards

Tasted some bests of Mondavi's wines

Drove to a State Park and walked in the woods... was good fun and tiring

On the Streets of the Sanoma downtown

I hate 'I hate Love Stories'

We drove all the way from Napa to Fremont for this movie... new release that weekend, fresh looking promos, cute Imran Khan... seemed a decent piece of attraction for the long drive? Well, a movie needs a story doesn't it? This one has... a lame and dumb one. Why do movie producers and directors spend their time and energy to make such movies?
Anyways! We sneaked out of the theater during the interval and went straight to the dosa corner outside :) So a good ending to a pretty much going off the drain evening.

Those of you who have not watched the movie and plan to do so, please save the money you are going to spend to promote this crap and enjoy a dosa instead :) It will be a guaranteed satisfaction and enjoyment, I bet.