Another new year

This past year had a lot of good things but a bunch of bad times for me from the end of the year...Yes! things I wished to change had not changed and I realize that things don't change on their own...I have to be the instrument of change...Hoping that this new year I can be the change I wish to see. So happy new year everybody! Rise and shine!!!

Gardening 101

 Bush rose..waiting for it to grow..Grows all summer, so grow up, buddy!!!

This one is a bunch of varied colours... I love the yellow in particular :) Daisies!

Tulips and others...

Geraniums

A beautiful set of blue hyacinths!

All these we bought at the start of spring this year and my DH helped me plant all of it while I sat on a chair sipping a cup of hot coffee on a lazy Saturday evening! Of course, I was the handy-man getting rid of some mulch, removing soil from one area to another, cleaning up the pathways as they got messy, and all other menial chores! All said, a very happy and contented evening after an hour of hard work!

What to expect from Atlantic City!

It has been quite some time when we went out to gamble! Oh what fun it is to gamble just a bit! I am the finance guru whenever we go to gamble simply because I somehow can restrict myself without getting too greedy or without wanting to try to win whatever we lost over and over again. So I decide to hold the purse strings which my DH reluctantly agrees J We start off with a budget for what he gets per day, and what I get for the entire trip (I love to have some fun but not too much coz I know how much I do sweat to earn that li’l paltry that I do earn!). Sometimes if the DH did end up losing it all very soon in the day and I have some winnings or if I haven’t spent it all I do share it with him. He is a poker dude as I would like to introduce…he not only loves poker but he is also good at it! I do watch poker stars on TV with him sometimes and jokingly ask when he is going to join that group! Well, all is well until of course he decides to do it for life! Keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn’t come up with such a decision….Not that I would want to restrict his interest or his way but it is just that as an Indian, we are more focused on providing for family and our extended families consisting of both our parents and our siblings and their families. Also, according to our whims and fancies somehow we Indians cannot simply go on with the flow like a river does..Neither would most Indian men raised in India. My DH though, has an ultimatum, to spend up to his 50^th year with us and I have told him if he is good until then, he can then go on to be a poker player for the rest of his life, provided his kids would let him lead that life as well!

  Usually I know the drill – we’ve been to Atlantic city a couple of times and to Las Vegas once; my DH ended up losing all his quota and also lost a bit borrowed from me – so I am bracing myself for a whole weekend, in fact two entire days and two half days of arguments, and fights and what not about how much to lose and when to call it quits at the casinos. DH had a very long, tiresome, and taxing week so I decide to let him have fun. I agree to be the designated driver throughout the trip and promise not to bother him while he is at play. Also, I do not have the holidays that he has and with my office working on Good Friday I do a remote login from the hotel on Friday as hubby ends up at the casino! Somehow, I do not envy him; I am happy he got some comp time on Thursday afternoon so he can drive up to my work place early and we start off on Thursday early afternoon, end up in AC around 7.30pm and head off to the casinos. I call it quits around 9.30pm, come back to the hotel with hubby and he leaves me at the lobby and goes back…..I try to spend some time watching TV but decide to get to bed early, wake up early, finish off work early so can start having fun at the casino…Somehow, kept tossing and turning and then ended up sleeping…Tick, tock, tick, tock….Around five’ish in the morning hubby returns with a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig smile saying he won a huge pot at the end and is so thrilled to start the next day…I am half asleep and half awake, but still end up pocketing the majority of his winnings (I know for certain that I have to hold on to some of it ‘coz he is bound to lose it all the next day!) Friday at the poker table he ends up losing so we go out for lunch at a famous Chinese cuisine near one of the casinos, take a small walk on boardwalk and then I head back to hotel to continue my work and he heads back to the casino…I finish work early and pack up our bags..I want to leave on Saturday as one of my friends has invited me over for lunch on Easter. Not sure how hubby is gonna react to starting for home the next day…I meet my DH at the casino, walk for a while again on boardwalk, and then I gamble a while. My usual play areas are slots and roulette and in both I end up losing around a total of 95 bucks. I tell myself this is more than what I should have lost and want to save the next five bucks that is also part of my budget. I go to check on my DH who is winning and doesn’t want to get up from the table. I sit with him for a while and then request that he drops me back at the hotel as I do not want to loiter alone in AC in the night. The same drill as yesterday and hubby leaves me at the lobby…returns back around 5:00am the next day and tells me that he lost whatever he had but that he is happy as he now knows that you cannot win every hand, every day at a poker table. I tell him about our friends invite and we decide to head back the next day.

                Overall, our daily budgets + our expenses for car, food, lodging = DH’s winning on Thursday night   which means- a totally happy me! One of us had the luck this time and our costs or expenses = our winnings.

This indeed ended up as one of our best gambling trips ever! So what do you expect from AC? Nothing. You may end up emptying your pockets or end up winning a little. In the end, what matters is your ability to call it quits when it is time to and when you haven't burned a large hole in your pocket!

Of Nightmares, Habits, Movements et al.

This was one bad weekend! Not something that I wished for but something I had anticipated quite a while ago...We all know the feeling/instinct that comes to some of us regarding something....a foreboding, like a deja vu, that this isn't going to be good...I had that for quite sometime and so wasn't keen on doing some stuff over the weekend! However, the DH was hell-bent on having to do the same stuff that I wasn't keen on doing. So long story short, the stuff ended the way I had anticipated - badly - and in ways that I had not even dreamed of - horribly!!!
  After the eventful day and evening, the night was full of bizarre nightmares, making the lovely ritual of snuggling under covers, and waking up all fresh and ready for the next day - sour grape! Woke up more miserable than the night, but thanking heavens for keeping us all safe through the ordeal and heaping praises on God who somehow knows when exactly that we need him and being there for us...I am reminded of the "footprints on the sands of time" and how God carries us in times of trouble and doesn't even let us walk beside him. Somehow, we all go through that phase sometime or the other during the course of our lives...I, and am sure my entire family, feel blessed for being here alive, whole, and ready for all the course of events that are going to follow from now onwards....
    Of Habits - Sometimes, we do not want to listen to others. We feel that we as adults know what to do and what not to do and refuse to heed to what others have to say. We refuse to listen to even our dear ones. All this, when deep down we may either know the other person in right, or may really be ignorant of how the habit is affecting the family, or refuse to even think about the habit...However, there comes a time when we have to decide what is most important in our lives, what our priorities in life are, what are the things that are more important to us than following some habits and leading a lifestyle that best suits us. And when we come to the point when we have to make the decision, I hope and pray that we make the right decision as these determine our lives, the lives of those we love who are around us.
   Of Movements- To add to the misery of the weekend, my lil one refused to move- just the little flutters now and then that I was starting to feel- making me dread our next appointment and also at the same time, wondering if I need to call it an emergency and get to the hospital immediately! Well, after giving us - me and my DH a mighty scare- my li'l one is now moving- or rather making me feel his little movements..the flutters inside..Oh what joy it is to be a mom! Oh what joy! The unhappiness, the pain, the anxiety, the distrust, the disturbances, and all that is negative gets packed away with one tiny lil flutter. Again, we are truly blessed to have a wonderful God, who has granted to us women this heavenly duty of caring for the bit of ours - our tot- until he/she is ready to face the world!
 I haven't said it enough so here I go once more...THANK YOU GOD!

தமிழுக்கு அமுதென்று பேர்...

தமிழர் அனைவருக்கும் என் இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள். பதிவுகள் செய்ய ஆரம்பித்து சில நாட்களே அகியுள்ளமையால் என்ன எழுதுவதென்று யோசனையில் உள்ளேன். இந்நாளில் தமிழில் பதிவு செய்ய வேண்டும் என்ற ஆசையும் ஆர்வமும் உள்ளமையால் இதோ இந்த சிறிய முயற்சி. தமிழில் எழுதி பல ஆண்டுகள் ஆகிவிட்டன. பள்ளி நாட்களில் எழுதியது, படித்தது. எழுத்து பிழைகளின்றி எழுதும் சில மாணவிகளில் நானும் ஒருத்தி என்பதினால் எழுத தயங்குகிறேன். நக்கீரர் பரம்பரையோ என சிலர் கேலி செய்யும் அளவிற்கு இருந்த நான் இப்படி ஆனதுக்கு மிக முக்கிய காரணம் பள்ளிப்பருவம் முடிந்ததும் தமிழ் புத்தகங்களை படிக்காததுதான். வல்லினமா, இடையினமா என்ற வினா ஒவ்வொரு வாக்கியத்திலும் எழுகிறது. சந்திப்பிழைகள் உள்ளனவா என்ற அச்சம் உள்ளது. எதையோ பதிவு செய்ய தொடங்கி என் தயக்கத்தையும், அச்சத்தையும் பதிவு செய்கிறேன். இது எனக்கு ஒரு நல்ல பாடம். "சித்திரமும் கைபழக்கம் செந்தமிழும் நாப்பழக்கம்" என்பதுப்போல காலம் சிலவற்றை நாம் மறக்க காரணமாக இருக்கலாம். எனினும் அதை மறக்காமல் இருக்க நாம் முயற்சித்ததாக வேண்டும் என்ற ஒரு உணர்வை தந்துள்ளது. இது எனக்கு ஆரம்பமே..இனி தொடர்ந்து தமிழில் பதிவு செய்யப் போகிறேன் என்ற உறுதியுடன் என் பயணத்தை இன்று இங்கு முடிக்கிறேன்....மீண்டும் தொடரும்...

Beauty in everything...

There is beauty in everything. Just look around! With spring here, there is so much beauty that my eyes cannot stop seeing. A couple of days ago, me and my friends, found a neat little pond with a fountain that had started and birds happily swimming across...Trees blooming everywhere with flowers - white, pink, red, and many more...Taking a minute to look at these, to stop and stare, to stop and admire, a minute is all we need. The above picture is actually the view from my room. I open my eyes to these beautiful flowers and cannot but help smile! "What a wonderful world ...." is the tune with which I am starting my day, everyday...thanks to nature's beauty and bounty!
So all you folks out there, take a minute to stop, admire, and smile at the beauty that nature has bestowed upon us in the name of spring...and feel the energy that these bring on to you!!!

Who am I?

It has been quite sometime that I wrote on this. And, I am starting to get a panic attack :) Am I going back to forgetting to blog, am I going to do something else, and all that. But, it is just that I had got a ton of other stuff to do and I do not want to blah blah on the blog that I have not done it. I was just thinking that I need a blog on myself! Who am I? What am I going to  achieve? What is important in a person's/my life? So let me go ahead with documenting a few things, without having to go on a blah blah blah of questions!

   I am a woman getting close to the thirties, getting close to accepting, loving, and understanding this stranger with whom I started sharing my life close to a year and a half ago, and getting closer to being  a mom of our first child, among other things. I am a working woman but would rather give that up in helping to raise a healthy, lovable, well-behaved, good son! Yup that's going to be my first-born - a son! I am reading and have in the past read so many books, and articles on how to raise children or be a good parent which put one seed onto my head. Teach your child by deeds rather than words; kids learn by watching rather than by listening. So here I am: with the start of a new career, a new wife, a newer mom, trying to get rid of all or at the very least most of my vices and trying to be a good role-model for my son as he is starting to grow inside me. I can see the difference, a difference, that never happened before in me as well. I am growing along with him, into a better, more responsible person. Well I tell myself if anyone can be a mom, I can! I am not perfect, cannot be perfect, but can make changes, accommodate new life styles to suit another tiny li'l one who is going to be taking up the largest part of our hearts....

...I cannot believe that I chose to write about my thoughts, ambitions, my life, and ended up writing about this lil guy ;) Anywyz now our life is going to revolve around this bud, so be it!