mevathome

wow. this is different. instead of sitting in a dusty indian computer lab with rickshaws blaring their horns and hindi music, and cows meandering past the open doorways, i come to you from my parents' kitchen table, on my laptop. there's a cricket outside, and cat dander pollutes my lungs instead of exhaust fumes.

home is comfortable, nest-like, full of love and baked goods. a part of me misses india, but i am certain i'll return. maybe with my cousin one day;) i'm definitely happy to be home, happy to be rooted in one place with my own bed, and happiest of all to spend time with my family.

the trip home was eventful: from mumbai to france; france to dublin; dublin to home. i'll post a little more on those little stops, along with pics, sometime in the near future.

here are some pics from the first part of my trip: a buddha statue over a lake in hyderabad, some bovine booties, and my friend heidi and i in front of another big huge buddha statue.

i was going to try to surprise my brother matt for his 30th birthday on thursday, so i didn't post that i was home until now. some astute readers might notice that it is not yet thursday....but the cat mysteriously got out of the bag.

headed to d.c. for the next couple of days; but right now i'm headed to the park to soak up some verylatesummer sunshine!

peace and namaste.

less than a week to go...

it's very hard to believe that this trip is coming to an end in less than a week. of course i'm ecstatic to see 3/4 of my family in france, but my heart has definitely taken root in this magical land.

in other news: amy got her visa today, so the party has officially been moved to dublin. i think there was some reason for this visa mess, but not sure right now what that would be.

right now i'm at the sivananda yoga ashram in kerala, where i began my trip. it's been a really good period of yoga, relaxation, without any stresses of travelling. i'm feeling very shanti shanti (peaceful peaceful) at the moment. 3 days should be enough to jar me back to my regular state!

i will be home the first week of october. not sure where i'll be for your bday rach, but i'm dressing up like an indian woman this year for sure; the bob ross costume will rest in peace after serving me well for 2 years!

so the blog will be coming to a close soonish - last chance to post, slackahs!! ;)

Take Your Visas and Shove 'Em

Please come home soon. I need some serious Thai massage and I know just the little lady who can help me.

With the exception of the Buckeyes kicking some Longhorn wazoo last weekend, my life has been relatively tame lately. ("Tame" meaning booooooring.) I have had no run-ins with the Indian government, although I did watch the True Hollywood Story on Bollywood - does that count?

I have to cruise down to San Diego tomorrow morning for a meeting ("cruise" meaning sit in traffic banging my head on the steering wheel). "Ahhhhh - San Diego - German for a whale's vagina..." I shall reminisce the duration of the drive on all the good times had by all in the big SD and all the times yet to come!!

I'm getting so excited for your return back to the land of cell phones and homeless men cackling incoherently during yoga about "the big one". It has been FAR FAR FAR too long. You may not even recognize me!! I will wear a sign - like a sandwich board - just to ensure that does not happen! Do you actually have an official date of return? Hopefully, you will be back in So Cal in time for my bday - this time, can you NOT dress like a man? I'm trying to convince Woo to come down from the frozen tundra - so that would be some good solid times!!

Oh, a little info for you to catch up on - so you're not completely stunned when you get back stateside. Britney had baby numero two (poor kid) yesterday. Whitney and Bobby are getting a divorce. Rosie O'Donnell started "The View" and everyone hates her. Suri Cruise was shown in Vanity Fair and she looks like she's sporting a toupee at 3 months. And finally, rumor has it Brad and Angelina are going through some tough times.

There. You are caught up and I watch far too much television!

Ok, love, I've babbled enough. Safe travels!!!!!

LOVE YOU!!!

here with weapon

hi miss,

sorry for my absence from the blog, i'm trying to cram the 3 months of work i missed into the past 3 weeks, and it's not working out for me, so i sit at my desk at 0900 on a sunday morning trying to get my lectures together for the week and catch up on the myriad of tasks on my to-do-at-some-point-in-time-before-I-get-relieved list.

Charece left for the land of "Everyday is a Monday" on Friday night. She got to meet her Commander in Chief an hour before they boarded their flight to Iraq. Her flight departed from Andrews Air Force Base in DC and they were delayed for the arrival of Air Force One. "W" got off the plane and shook the hands of everyone in her unit, when he got to her, he looked down at her rank and said, "Captain, make sure you bring them all home." Almost makes me cry! She should be in-country by now enjoying the triple digit temperatures that the region offers in September. Please keep her and her Marines in your prayers.

Other than that, I ran my 2nd triathlon yesterday. It was good, but i was still recovering from my scorching PFT the day before, so I wasn't 100%. Temperature at race time was 54F which doesn't make the swim very fun, i brought a wetsuit, but opted to tough it out, I was rewarded with 70F water temperature, so the swim was really nice. The bike was cold and I got passed by a couple of girls (they must have been Olympic athletes to pass me =;)) and the run was agonizing, but i thoroughly embrace that kind of agony. I figured out the hardest part of running the triathlons for me is dragging my ass out of bed at 0530 on a Saturday.

i'm debating on not getting cable in my apartment, not sure if i can bring myself to do it, if it was summer i wouldn't have a problem, but winter limits the number of things to do around here, so we'll see, whadya think?

stay safe and relaxed, i'm rooting for you and @my to get together to hang in india together. see you soonest.

The Few, The Proud,
Amen Pookatalka
Capt USMC

"you are looking very indian"

here are some pics from the onam festival in kerala. (that's me on the left!)

tomorrow i leave my indian family for the sivananda yoga ashram, where i also went in january. i will do yoga, meditation, and wait for some good news from el cooz.

om shanti namaste, bloggers!

she'll be comin' 'round that mountain when she gets deported!

so the much-anticpated arrival of my dear cooz remains just that: a much anticipated arrival. yes, i awoke in the wee hours of the morn on monday to meet and greet her at the airport. i was in the process of putting my bells on, when i discovered that she was immediately kicked out of the country due to a visa-less passport.

cooz obviously had it worse than i, and now she's chillin' (festering? atrophying? moping?) in dublin waiting for a visa.

last night we got the joyful news that her visa was processed early and we had quite the gleeful IM session, which included the words, "wiggling", "stomping", and "giggling".

pffffffffffffffffffft. that is the wind exiting our sails today when cooz went to pick up her visa and learned that they goofed - her visa is, in fact, not ready.

the ups, downs, twists, and turns of the whole experience are much like traveling in india - so cooz, let's just say that this visa ordeal is giving you a vicarious taste of india - keeping my fingers crossed that there is some sweet to follow this bitter!

good times ahead

greetings from south india, where i sit like a lump on a log all day. sometimes i read or do yoga. mostly i sit there and allow myself to be mothered and pampered.

i have 2 indian "ma's" here: one lady gives me massages and steam baths, speaks to me in mallyalum and the other one lets me 'help' in the kitchen. i think it's a ruse though - really she just lures me into the kitchen and proceeds to stuff my face with some delicious indian food - nummers! as you can imagine, i put up quite a fight.

the onam festival is underway here, with the big 3 days of celebration coming up early next week. this is the biggest festival in kerala, my favorite indian state. it celebrates an ancient story involving, um, a king. basically it's a time for families to come together and eat a lot of food. which is perfect because coozin amy arrives on monday - only 4 more days! i'm jumping out of my skin with anticipation!

our 'plans' include going to the yoga ashram that i first went to when i got here, hopping around in kerala, going to goa, and finally mumbai where we hope to be extras in a bollywood film!

cooz, your arrival cannot come soon enough...safe trip and see you soon soon soon!