Merry Christmas!

It's been a lovely lovely past few days. My sister Annapurna came to visit on Tuesday night and just left this morning. It was a short but very sweet visit. We had just the right mix of time at home, time with family, time shopping, and time alone. Wednesday was spent grocery shopping for Christmas, getting our nails done, visiting Hasan's grandmother Winnie, and making a yummy mushroom risotto and rosemary garlic shrimp dish. While on our walk in Center City, browsing the streets, a man happened to overhear us talking about the beautiful architecture and invited us to come in and see his building. He owns a law office that fully restored the building - it was gorgeous! 100+ year old oak paneling and fixtures. Just amazing to think of coming into such history every day for work.

Thursday (Christmas) morning found us watching the movie Sneakers, cooking my signature honey mustard and pecan encrusted salmon for Christmas dinner and of course going over to Hasan's mother's home for dinner. While dinner was quick, I probably will never forget the karaoke + dance competition that his sisters and cousins got into...singing Beyonce songs. They tried to pull me into it since Beyonce is totally my favorite, but I don't know these people THAT well yet ;)

Friday was nonstop shopping...seriously didn't realize how much my sister can shop without going bonkers. I always thought her tolerance was much lower than mine. Interspersed in there was a perfectly built fire that Hasan made for us while we relaxed with some sparkling wine, and lots of snacking on the enormous holiday gift basket I got from the CEO at my work. I am not sure how long it will take Hasan and I to get through that basket, but I'm sure I can bet on adding another few pounds to the 6 I've already gained since moving to Philly.

Here are some pictures over the past few days.

Nesting

Hasan has finished his first fall semester back at school and now has time to make our home a bit more homey. Today we put together our dining table, decorated with table linens...and FINALLY, six years after receiving a beautiful scarlet plate from Dorys, I have a place to put it!It's just gorgeous on our new table.

We're prepping the house for the arrival of our first houseguest, my sister. Lots of cleaning and organizing. But now we're done and so it seemed like a good time to take some pics of our apt. (It's also a good way for me to procrastinate getting dressed and going outside...at least the icicles have melted and I have less of a chance of cracking my head open as I do my errands. Then again, with my power Gucci rain boots, I really can't go wrong :)

Here are the pics of our apartment. It's quite bare still, but it'll get filled in over time...and I know we're looking forward to it.

Brrrr...it's cold out here!

Just waking up from a late Saturday afternoon nap. I'm finding I'm prone to those when it's 32 degrees outside. Winter is treating me ok so far. People here and friends afar often how I am dealing with this Northeastern weather. I'm able to make layers of my San Francisco clothes as well as some old holdovers from my days of living in NYC keep me warm - thank goodness for a trusty, about-to-be-well-worn full length down jacket I got at Sports Basement in San Francisco a few days before I moved from there! I'd love to be able to go shop and take advantage of these unbelievable sales, but work is keeping me very very busy. I've been working 15 - 16 hour days as me and the rest of the company is gearing up for our big season which starts 12/26.

I'm loving my work. Not only is building out web experiences for dieters personally relatable and interesting to me, but the real fun right now is in building out and advocating for my team. There wasn't much of a web product management team before I joined the company - hence the reason for my being brought on board. Since I've joined, I've had to restructure some people, and have already doubled the team size. And they are great team - I feel blessed.

The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend I got sick (which I'm blaming on my favorite but booger-full niece Tallulah - more on that later)...I got sick for 11 days. Was at home almost all of those 11 days while it took me a bit to decide it was worth going to a doctor, and then to find one - I hadn't yet seen a doctor since moving to Philly. All it took was some antibiotics and about 12 hours and I was like a new woman. But how this relates to my team is that it is a true testament to them that the entire time I was sick, I never had to worry about the quality or progress of their work. They just got the sh*t done...and done well. Of course the people I had to worry about and keep on top of were the people in other teams. It really made me proud.

Ahhh...so yes, the booger monster. What a lovely lovely Thanksgiving. We had the absolute privilege and joy to join Tallulah and her parents Wendy & Ben in St. Michael's, Maryland for Thanksgiving at his mother's house. St. Michael's is a sweet town in eastern Maryland, right on the Chesapeake Bay. It probably was a sleepy town once upon a time, but is now a getaway destination of choice for Washington elite. Ben's mother Sue has a charming, perfectly appointed home and she welcomed Hasan and I with open arms...as did the rest of her family. It was really, really good for me to see Wendy & Tallulah. I hadn't realized how much I missed seeing my friends. One of my favorite times was taking a Thanksgiving morning walk with Wendy and ducking in from the cold to have some coffee at probably the only place open in town. Another was spending a few moments with Tallulah and Hasan before she had to go down for sleep...she always seems to get so happy around him. I think she thinks he's funny...but I don't get it. It was lovely to decorate the tables for the big dinner and to feel welcomed, like we belonged. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

I am sorry we missed spending our first Thanksgiving here in Philly with his family, but we will be here for Christmas...and so will my sister! So excited about that! She gets here in a week and I can hardly wait. In preparation Hasan and I got our first piece of furniture together - a dining table. We still need to put it together but the very act of purchasing it and watching him carry it into our building was fun enough. :)

All in all, I'm ok. Still adjusting to Philly, still feeling like I don't really live here yet. I think it's being so busy with work that I don't have time for much else, but I think that will change after January. In the meantime, winter means Hasan is baking and making lots of fires in our fireplaces...and who can complain about fresh brownies and muffins??

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and enjoy the season!

A couple of days left

I have to say that I feel pretty anxious. There are only 2 days left until the polls close and I am nervous. Hasan says Obama will win by a landslide...I am not so sure. So many things can go wrong...many places are having voting machine snafus, long lines are typically harder on Democrats, and so on.

Then again, here I am in Philly, in Pennsylvania - a battleground state and boy does it make me feel conflicted about the assuredness of the outcome. On the one hand, everywhere I go there are pro-Obama signs and posters. I woke up yesterday morning to go down to the DMV, and on the main street behind our house, there had been an outcrop of Obama Biden posters all lined up and down the middle island of the street. It was quite a visual statement - like a string of Christmas lights. On the other hand, there are SO many TV advertisements from both of them here. Some of the McCain ads are pretty good actually. It's funny...the reporters on TV often talk about the voters in suburban Philadelphia who should be voting for McCain but don't seem to be. Hearing that has made me be very careful about politics when I'm at work...I work in suburban Philadelphia, precisely where they are talking about. It's kind of strange to go from a city that is so pro-Obama to work where I am so cautious. Yet the other day a coworker, on her way off to vacation, sat down in front of me at my office and told me about her upcoming vacation plans, and then said "and I've sent off my absentee ballot...made sure I took care of that. Me and my family would be so hurt if Obama loses". This was strange, because on the face of it, she fits the demographic that the media is saying McCain is gaining ground with in Pennsylvania.

Who knows...I could be overthinking all of it. Hasan's reasoning on the landslide makes sense as well. And when I think back to the Obama rally he and I went to the day after my birthday a few weeks ago, it feels even more possible. To see over 25,000 people wake up at 5 am on a Saturday morning to hear him speak was incredible. To hear him speak was incredible. To get to experience it all in a state that matters is incredible.

I'm taking Tuesday afternoon off...I'll be working for the Obama campaign in the afternoon, helping to ensure people come out to vote. This isn't in the bag yet...

It's snowing!

Today was a fantastic day. Around 8:30 or 8:45 am, my coworker Chris and I were sitting and talking in my office, and he said "wait, what are those big raindrops...is it snowing??" Which apparently is very unusual for late October here. And over the course of the morning, I saw the snow come in, and it was just GORGEOUS. The flakes got bigger and more distinct. At first the snow wasn't sticking, but then a while later, we got what you see in this picture.

Even taking those pictures was funny. I had about 10 minutes in between meetings and I stole a minute to take pictures with Blackberry out my office window. I could hear people talking about me in the cubicle areas just outside the office ("oh, just give her til February, she'll hate this" "can you believe she's taking pictures?" "hey anita, is this your first snow?") well, no, it's not my first snow, but it is my first snow here. and somehow snow here feels different than when I lived in NYC and had to suffer through it cold and hungry at times as a student. or miserably as I worked for the Mayor and had to go from place to place in the city with no respite.

Plus, snow is just plain more romantic now :)

It's my birthday!

And for those of you who know me - you know this is pretty much the most important day to me in the year. Not for presents or anything like that, but just because it's MY day. So today I have taken the day off and had planned to laze about the house waiting for Staples to deliver our new filing cabinet (yay Lisa! more organizing!) and watch TV etc until Hasan's sister Evelan came over to see our place. However, workmen are here making quite the racket replacing all our windows and they've kicked me out of the living room and the master bedroom. So here I am, on my birthday, in front of the computer. What's so different about that, I wonder...

But, it's a good time to take care of odds and ends, like calling up my old health insurance company to find out where my prescription reimbursements are (joy!) and, much more interesting to you, uploading some photos.

Here are the pics we took upon entry into Pennsylvania and the first few days in Philly.

If Staples comes on time, I'd like to go check out the Water Works which are very close to our home. The Water Works were the first municipal project to actually provide for clean drinking water for ordinary American citizens. Now, I wouldn't drink the water anywhere near the Schuykill River, but the architecture must be pretty amazing.

I am looking forward to Evelan coming over. It's nice to start getting to know H's family. She works a few blocks away as a teaching assistant. That's strange to me - to have family be just a few blocks away. The other night I stopped at his other sister Shineal's house to meet her and her daughter Janae for the first time. We had a lovely and rather deep chat over tea. I look forward to more. The funniest moments had to be when her daughter kept coming up with excuses to come out of bed - one of which was to tell her mother that she wanted Hasan to call her after I left "so they could chat"...presumably about me. 7 year olds are funny.

Later on tonight, we'll go out to dinner at Bindi. Very interesting take on Indian cuisine from what I hear - can't wait to try it! One strange thing about Philly restaurants - most don't serve alchohol and are BYOB (which you will see in every restaurant's URL), and they are cash only. Really annoying. If I were a criminal I would just look for groups of ladies heading towards a restaurant - they probably have a chunk of cash and a liquor bottle...what a catch! (For a quick overview of the alcohol policy in Pennsylvania, read this. I apparently broke the law by bringing the Wendy & Ben Signature Baby Shower wine bottle into this state. It's all Tallulah's fault!)

Happiness is...

• Knowing that every day when I come home from work there will be a group of boys and girls across the street playing handball, cursing each other out as they play but then going home as the best of friends. What fun it is to listen to their taunts and jeers.
• Being able to trust the weather report, and not wonder if the fog or the ocean wind will mean a 72 degree day is actually going to be very cold, or wonder if the report being given for your city is actually for all the areas surrounding your city.
• Feeling like an adult when I have to get dressed like a professional each and every day (save casual Fridays)...and yes Meghan, get my nails done once a week
• Having an outlet for my civic anxiety by volunteering for the Obama campaign yesterday to register voters. An interesting experience - everybody I asked outside the CVS Pharmacy I was standing near said they were registered to vote, except for two people who I got to register. Everybody was pretty emphatic in saying they were registered; you can tell this election means a lot to people, whomever they are voting for. One woman, with a British accent, said that yes she was registered, and that "If Obama doesn't win, I'm leaving the country". Another group asked me if I was volunteering my time in doing this, and I said yes, to which they said "hey that's pretty cool...thank you for your time". I got thanked a few times...made me feel good.
• Having a partner who is willing to wake up first thing Sunday morning and do my house projects with me...and then walk me to yoga class.
• Finding a book club to join. We're now reading The Girls Who Went Away. I haven't met the ladies in the book club yet, but via email they sound very nice. I found them because they were advertising on Craigslist for new members and I guess I met their criteria. It's a bit strange to do this through Craigslist, but I did find my very dear friend Karen on there in Miami...so hopefully this is similar. Just to be sure, I'm having Hasan come with me to the first meeting, since it's in one of their apartments...have to make sure there are no axe murderers.
• And lastly...Happiness is knowing my birthday is coming up! HINT HINT people.

Road trip pictures!!!

Here they are...

(pardon the fact they are all separate - flickr.com was having issues on my beta version of IE)

Yosemite

Drive through Utah

Arches National Park

Dinosaur Museum (right when we entered Colorado) - This is a good story. When we were at Arches, Hasan told me about how when he was a kid, he watched this Reading Rainbow episode that was all about some place where you could go see real live dinosaur fossils in the earth. He couldn't remember where it was in the US, but just remembered he'd always wanted to see that place...guess the historic significance and learning we were doing at Arches reminded him of it. Anyways, not 15 miles into the drive into Colorado, we see this sign that says "Dinosaur Museum - Exit 5 miles"...and we were SO excited! Could it be, could it really be? So we got off the highway, and went to check it out. Turns out that whole area has lots of excavations and museums that you can go see the dinosaur fossils and science. Unfortunately the one thing that he remembered from his childhood was closed for visitors, but we still had a great time. I love serendipity!

Driving the midwest

Chicago

The first week

I finished my first full week as a Philly resident, in our new apartment, at work at NutriSystem. What a week. On Friday we got the keys to our new apartment, with some internal Hasan/Anita bickering along the way to boot! :) Saturday it rained like crazy because of remnants of Gustav or whatever. I mean it was raining SO hard you couldn't see but a car or two ahead of you at times. And the thing is people in Philly are not used to driving in that weather. Me, I've driven in Miami - one thing I can say about Miamians, they do know how to drive in crazy tropical rain. But Hasan and Iwere determined to get moved into the new place so we made a couple of trips to bring stuff from his place to our new place in the rain. I wish someone would have taken pictures of us tag-teaming bringing stuff from the car to the apartment in that weather! It was worth it though - that night, we had such a good night's rest in our new place - it was so quiet. Too quiet actually.

Work has been great. The first couple of days were weird. Everything about the company felt so foreign that I actually got bored in some meetings - bored like you do when everyone around you is talking in a foreign language. But midweek, I took the day off as the movers arrived with my things and when I went back, it was completely different. I felt like I was finally getting my tentacles into things and having ideas about real stuff. So cool! The only drawback is the commute. It's only about 20 miles, but it's 20 miles of street traffic (red lights). And with these crazy ass Philly drivers, I have to be so alert the whole way through. (Facts about Philly drivers: they freely run red lights, they tailgate like no place I've ever seen, they slow down to about 15-20 mph at a Stop sign...meaning they don't ever actually stop, pedestrians do not have the right-of-way, and signaling is an unneeded activitiy to them. I actually had a van enter an intersection, when everyone in his direction was stopped at the red light, and then honk his horn at me repeatedly to get out of the way as I was crossing the street - can you believe???)

And this weekend, I worked like a madwoman to unpack and arrange everything. I think it's funny how I get this quality from my mother where I can't rest until things are done. I also was just so anxious from being transient, and also seeing so much stuff and realizing we have very little closet space. My friend Hillary said admonishingly that it had only been a couple of weeks of transience, but she just doesn't understand that to an obsessive organizer, a couple of weeks of lack of organization is like an eternity.

But now everything is arranged, and I went to my first yoga class at my new gym on Sunday...and my ship is sailing smooth.

I'll be picking up photos tonight from our road trip...stay tuned!

The final day...

After a discussion about family and politics and world order over buffalo wings and oreo sundaes with my cousin Kiran in Cleveland, we're up and I'm ready to drive us to Philly. It's weird - the trip is coming to an end, but as Hasan said yesterday "it's only the beginning of the middle of our lives together". That's a nice way to think about it.

It's been historic and magical the past few days. Ever since we drove past Denver Sunday night - the night before the Democratic convention, we've been eagerly awaiting the speeches Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. As we drove into Iowa City, we didn't want to get out of the car and check into the hotel because we were listening to the Kennedy tribute and speech on the radio. Then we wanted to rush and get food and get settled before Michelle Obama gave her speech. Listening to it on the radio felt like a throwback - like days of old when families would gather around the radio to listen to presidents. We were amazed and re-endeared to Hillary Clinton upon listening to her speech. I am finally starting to believe again that Obama could be our next president after last night's speeches by Biden and President Clinton. But I am very cautious - I realize that once the Republican Convention happens, I probably won't believe again. We've also been listening to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News on this trip - when you hear those people, you realize there are just enough people that - let's face it - don't want a black man as president. I've been sort of feeling like one of my missions in moving to Philadelphia is to help elect Obama since Pennsylvania is a battleground state. You know what I'm going to be doing for the next few months during my free time! Anyways, this whole week has felt magical for us. Can't speak for Hasan but the idea that we're coming together this week to start our lives and our family and this is the very week that Obama was nominated as the first black candidate makes me tear up - I feel like it would just be so amazing if I could actually say to my children (and believe it) that someday they can be president. I was tearing up yesterday looking at the audiences and seeing so many Indians in the delegates. I was tearing up yesterday realizing there is an Indian as a governor of a US state (Louisiana). It honestly feels like a different time than when I started elementary school in Houston, Texas and they just assumed I was Mexican because at that time, you were either black, white, Chinese or Mexican - that was it. They actually tried to put me in the ESL (English as a Second Language) class - but my mom wouldn't have it!

Anyways - Philly, here I come!

The Windy City...

…was windy. As I asked my friend Tanu, is it always windy here? Her reply was Yes. We arrived in Chicago on Tuesday afternoon and decided to stay in the River North neighborhood. We found the hotel through my car’s built in city guide, not knowing anything about Chicago. (My only visits to Chicago were when I was in grad school and I was involved in a sports tickets business and used to attend Chicago Bulls games…when Jordan played – what a time!) Yet again, as has happened so often during this trip, serendipitous choices have treated us so well. The River North neighborhood was wonderful to walk around and we happened on a great place to enjoy something to drink and some tasty goat cheese before we headed off to the Wicker Park area to meet Tanu for dinner. It hasn’t been often during this trip that we’ve stopped to “get dressed” (makeup, jewelry, ironing, etc.) as we’ve been “roughing it”. So, it was lovely to be in a great neighborhood and have a romantic moment. We drove over to meet Tanu at a restaurant called Rodan – ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. I highly recommend it if you’re ever in Chicago. I had a yummy Thai shrimp curry dish – one of the best I’ve ever had.

Dinner with Tanu was one of those experiences that you treasure. The food was good, the conversation funny, the atmosphere urban and lively. But that wasn’t it – it was the remembering that good friends survive thick and thin. It was reconnecting after 2.5 years and picking up as though we’d never left off. It was seeing someone at a place in life you’ve been in before – working full-time and going to school full-time – and being so proud of them. It was telling stories that each of us had forgotten but weren’t hard to recall and be thankful for the experience. It was riding around in my car playing music loud and remembering all the times she and I would drive around South Beach (Miami) and dance in the car with the windows rolled down. Most of all, it was seeing a face and hearing a laugh that I hadn’t realized I missed as much as I do.

After dinner, Tanu took us on a drive around downtown Chicago – which is really beautiful at night. (No, Wendy I didn’t take pictures of the city - I promise I will when I have a digital camera!) One of the things I noticed about the city is the big wide streets, especially downtown. I love that.

It was hard to say goodbye – but we are looking to have her visit us in October. What a treat that would be.

And now we’re off to Cleveland to see my cousin Kiran. The trip is almost over, and that feels bittersweet – I am ready to start this new phase of life, sign our lease on our new place, and so on. But this road trip has been so amazing – far better than I could have ever imagined.

Oh – a random note I’ve been meaning to share. Did you know that all the rest stops in Iowa have wireless internet??? That’s sooooo 21st century, and it totally makes sense. I can’t believe Iowa of all places has that. We didn’t stop to use it, but it’s nice to know it was available in case my phone failed!

Across the mountains and the plains

Since Saturday, we've been in Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and now Iowa.

Utah was just amazing. I think one of my most favorite moments was stopping along the 70 somewhere at a vista point and just seeing God. Seriously. When you see the absolute magnificence of these huge canyons and mountains, I think you can't help but feel the spirituality of this planet, and conversely your own smallness. It was JUST amazing - the rocks were so red, and green, and brown, and white, and so on...you just can't imagine so much earth was carved by so much water. I had to run to the edge of the vista point to look down, to take pictures - all the while Hasan was trying to get ahead of me to scout for snakes and other creatures. He's my Emergency Erwin (safety expert) :)

I'd love to put up the pictures now - but our only digital pics are the few we took with our phones, which don't come out that great. Yes, we're still in the film camera age - but we've decided to save up for a digital camera now...finally!

We arrived at Arches National Park in the early afternoon - it was a 100 degrees! We quickly went into the Visitor Center to change into lighter clothing. As I walked out of the restroom and into the heat, I felt like I must be doing something right in making this move cross-country if I am seeing temperatures like this. I absolutely LOVE hot weather. It felt invigorating. Anyways, after the drive on the 70 in Utah, I kind of wondered whether this Arches National Park would be much more than what we'd just seen. But my friend Matt had suggested it, and we were there, so might as well go in and check it out.

Oh my God. What an AMAZING place. I highly recommend anyone who has a chance to check this place out to do it. Again, I was just amazed at what nature had carved out. How millions of years of rocks were right in front of me, in such strange formations, surviving such harsh elements for so much longer than humans. I was so awed. Even when we hiked up close to the arch formations, I just couldn't believe it was real. At one point, we were driving up the path, and there was this rock formation that looked so precarious that I sped up to pass it. As though this set of rocks, that have been there for so long, would suddenly drop on me - sounds silly, but the formations ARE pretty precarious. See this one.

My favorite formation was something called the 3 Gossips. Ha!

We're still talking about how beautiful Utah and Arches was. Thanks Matt for the recommendation!

We stayed the night in Moab, Utah. Moab is a small lively town that was obviously built up for tourism to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. We just happened to be there the weekend of a motorcycle gathering/convention. I think the experience would have been a lot more pleasant had there not been the sound of motorcycles constantly buzzing and whirring by. And looking like we do, it's not the most comforting feeling when a group of rather menacing-looking motorcycle riders pull up to the gas station and stare at you. It's even worse when they start talking to you about where you're from. I was happy to be out of there. Although we said it's a town we'd like to come back to - when we know there is not a motorcycle convention.

On to Colorado on Sunday. More beautiful driving. And yes, Matt - we saw the Kum n Go. Even stopped at one to eat lunch outside next to the Colorado River. Can you imagine - THE Colorado River that cut the beautiful canyons and mountains we hiked the day before. It was just so cool.

One more thing I'll say about Colorado - they have more cops on the highways than all the other states we've driven through - COMBINED. Driver beware. No - we haven't been pulled over yet.

We stayed Sunday night in Sterling, Colorado. Not much to say about it. Drove Monday through Nebraska and into Iowa. Saw a lot of this - which is beautiful and contrasting to the mountains of California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. But I think it'd be boring if I had to do it again. There are NO cities in Nebraska - even Lincoln is a small town type of thing.

We made it to Iowa City, Iowa last night and happened onto a really cute college town here. University of Iowa is here and the town surrounding it is really cute. The fraternity houses are so gorgeous. It's weird to look at college students though - they still haven't grown into their bodies, so their heads are out of proportion with their bodies. And everyone is pimply-faced (although I am not one to talk about pimples right now). Ha!

We're up and off to Chicago today. I'm so excited - I get to see Tanu who I haven't seen in almost 3 years and who was a great friend in hard times in Miami.

Our route

Here is our route - today we are leaving Moab, Utah and on our way through Colorado.

Music in Utah

Waking up in Utah, amazed at the number of big gas-guzzling trucks that make this cross country trip. There were just endless Ford and GMC trucks parked at this Best Western motel when we pulled up late last night. I don’t know how they afford the gas. I don’t know how the environment will take it…it won’t, I guess.

I wanted to share a lovely memory from last night. A few months ago – in February – Hasan and I had one of our “date nights” which really was time we set aside to be on the phone together and not talk about business of life. To just enjoy each other. So we decided to reminisce about 80s and 90s songs that we loved. Well, I had made a playlist on my Ipod while we were having this date. And last night we listened to this playlist again for the first time on the final miles into Utah. Hasan was so happy to hear these songs – who doesn’t love “What have you done for me lately” by Whitney Houston or “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi? Anyways, one of the songs was Back to Life by Soul II Soul. And that took me back to a time when I was a teenager and I came home from being out with my friends and my mom was so excited to play this new song she found and loved for me on her stereo system…it was Back to Life. I remember how much she loved hearing the bass kick in for that song on her new Nakamichi system. She would play it over and over again – that and Blame it on the Rain by Milli Vanilli and some song by New Kids on the Block that I can’t remember. And then I realized that is something I get from both my parents – a love of music. I have nice memories of making cassette tapes of classical music with my father. I have lots of memories of my mom playing music REALLY loud on her system – she loved her bass back then, and I love it now as well. It’s nice once in a while to think of the things that we get from our parents…once in a while!

We're off to Arches National Park on the east side of Utah today. Can't wait to see it!

We're off!

Friday August 22, 2008

I wanted to write this yesterday but our stay at Yosemite was so nice that spending time looking at a computer seemed dumb. So, yes – we’re off! We left yesterday morning after spending the previous evening watching my niece Tallulah as her parents Wendy & Ben celebrated their 7th anniversary – congrats!

(Isn't she gorgeous?)

I always feel like it’s a privilege to spend time with her and to love her as much as I do – AND I got to watch Hasan put her to bed when I started getting scared that she was crying so much when I tried to put her to bed (good thing to know about him). When Wendy, Ben, Hasan and I were talking when they got home, I realized that me and Wendy (or at least just me) are sort of pretending our impending separation due to my moving is not happening. We talk about it in passing or about superficial aspects, but I can feel neither one of us wants to say goodbye. Starting to cry thinking about it…

Anyways, so we left and drove down to the Googleplex (corporate headquarters) to have lunch with my cousin Bablu. We got to eat a famously free and fabulous Google lunch (from several Google cafes) while watching Googlers bicycle around the Googleplex. It was yummy - thanks Bablu!

Started the drive to Yosemite and in Tracy, CA I fell in love with Hasan again. My thoughts on feeling “in love” are that it’s a temporary thing – like any emotion – that ebbs and flows. Looking for that all the time in a relationship is like looking to feel happy or sated 100% of the time in life – it’s not possible. So when it comes, I treasure it. We were at a gas station and I had stepped out to dump some trash from the car while Hasan used the restroom. I had taken the printed directions out of the car with me to organize them, and it was so windy that the papers started flying out of my hands. I started running after them, so worried that they were going to be gone, that I would end up being unorganized on the trip (yes, my car has navigation – but I believe in backups), that I might get run over if I pay attention only to these pieces of paper instead of the cars driving around me, that the guys filling up their cars were laughing at me while I ran after them, which then reminded me that I had ran after these papers while leaving the car unlocked and unattended. I had gotten a few of them back but decided to walk back to the car, plotting how to deal with the lack of printed directions on the walk back. I got to the car, intent on being positive and not pissed off or nervous. Just as I walked up to the car, I heard Hasan call me and I turned around – frowning, he says. You know what….he had the missing papers! I don’t know how he did it, but I swear I felt like Cinderella. He had all of them and I just couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t believe it. I felt like Cinderella and he was my prince. It was magic and I fell in love again.

On to Yosemite…what a great drive. As we neared the park in the mid-afternoon, the road got mountainous and curvy – apparently something Hasan had never experienced. He got very nervous. I asked him what I could do make him feel better, and his reply was “DRIVE 15 MILES AN HOUR!” That’s when I knew it was a good time for us to switch and him to drive. The drive into and in Yosemite was so spectacular. We stopped shortly into it and joined some others at a beautiful vista point. Here’s Hasan ensuring that a note I had written on that tree was carved in for life.

Ours wasn’t the only note on the tree – but hopefully it will stay there for a long time.

We had a fun time trying to find a place to stay – ended up at a nice place called Indian Flat RV Lodge. No bugs, nice bed, great bathroom. Had chicken strips and hamburgers for dinner – quality road trip food of course, and went to bed.

Today was the day for the scenic drive and stops through Yosemite. We were blessed to drive through there in the summer when the road that goes all the way across is open. We took pictures with Half Dome, took a dip in what Hasan likes to Tallulah Lake (actually Tenaya Lake), and so on. The road – Tioga pass – takes you on the highest point that automobiles are allowed to cross in California…nearly 10,000 feet! That’s pretty amazing.

And now we’re just about to finish barreling through Nevada. Let me tell you – on this ride through Nevada on the US 6 – you see NOTHING but mountains. OK, mountains and deer and cows and horses and coyotes and jackrabbits and desert and other such things. A deer even crossed the road in front of us - and just stood there. Seeing as how I don’t want a deer to mess up my beautiful new car, I was quite thrilled when Hasan slowed down to pass the menacing Bambi lookalike. Sometimes this terrain is beautiful to me, sometimes it’s ugly and drab, and sometimes it’s endless. I’ll be glad to be out of Nevada and into Utah tonight.

Stay tuned!