Pause and observe

The last I appeared here, I was planning a party and cooking meals for 20-30 people. It was a good time. It was a good time. I loved my work, was really making progress with my running (6 miles a day....not bad....ehhh) and had good friends. I was also starting to realize things about myself. What makes me happy, what are my insecurities and complexes and so on. Then, in the month of July, it all came to a break and I had to shift base for reasons outside my control. I have a hypothesis that when I refuse to learn a lesson that life tries to teach me the first time, I get another opportunity to learn it again.

Last year during the summer, I was frustrated because I couldn't join work for a long time. I didn't focus on the beautiful city around me. So, this year I had to take a break from work and move back home. I guess this is the opportunity to learn myself and try to become what I have always aspired for. There are small things that I always aspired for but never really did them because I was lazy.  Now is the perfect opportunity to get those straight.

I also will be making travel plans for when I go back. The plan is to go backpacking through Europe. Yaay!

Men vs Women as party guests

Before I start writing the blogpost, I just want to send out the disclaimer that I am not a big fan of the Sheryl Sandberg school of Lean-In feminism. I do believe that women don't need to start behaving like men to make a mark for themselves. Or may be they do. May be all SS says is that IF you want to break the glass ceiling, watch out for these things that might be keeping you from attaining your goals. No matter, what the suggestion course of action for women is, I do believe that there is a marked difference in the way men and women perceive the world around them. No I am going in the broad sweeping generalization territory but men seem to come from a position of entitlement in most situations.

Now, coming back to the real point. I recently had a party and invited a bunch of my friends- men and women. It was a pretty homogeneous mix of MBA graduates working for big firms in their late twenties or early thirties. Most of them had were related to me by a shared workplace or grad school. So, I send out this invite announcing that I will be cooking. I heard from most women I invited asking whether I need any help from them. I heard from very few men and the only thing they asked about was whether I will have the live streaming for India vs South Africa world cup cricket match. You see the difference. Women felt grateful that someone was going to spend a day preparing for a party for them. Men took it as a given and wanted to know if they can enjoy the match or not. I do understand that men are more ardent fans of sports. But these guys didn't suggest the TV streaming as a solution they can help with. They didn't ask whether I would have a TV that accepted HDMI inputs. They just wanted to know if they can watch their match or why else would they waste their time. I know I am being a little harsh here but if you boil the reality to bare bones, harsh is what it sounds like.

Some action after long

Well, my work life and my personal life has been eventful this past year and I feel that I need to re-kindle my blog to share some awesome experiences from the beautiful city of Seattle. I will be doing an audit of the year 2014.

For now, I just want to rave about how much awesome food the city has got to offer. Am I loving it.....hell yeah!!

New characters who are here to stay

It's been long since I made a post about people I hang out a lot with me. I have moved to a new city and have settled down in a building with two of my classmates residing in the same building. As is understandable, proximity and boredom throw us together pretty often in the sit-comishly comic yet mundane continuum of our lives.  There is a couple and an on-the-hunt bachelor and all four of us have very strong views on small and big things in life. This leads to a lot of funny and wise exchanges which, at times, leave me wondering how interesting things can come out of the most uninteresting things. What keeps us going is a good amount of respect (which I find highly suspect at times) and a good amount of tolerance for each others' foibles.

Now I know why I don't like the too nice ones

I just recently read this article and was happily relieved because it helped me realize what is it that bugs me about the too happy people. I have always found that people who are too nice also have this streak of complying and falling in which used to get on my nerves because I can always sense it but never quite put my ginger on it. It is an extension of the Milgram experiment which went on and looked at the people who were willing to shock others when told to do so.

Here is what the researchers found-
People who were normally friendly followed orders because they didn't want to upset others, while those who were described as unfriendly stuck up for themselves.

"The irony is that a personality disposition normally seen as antisocial — disagreeableness — may actually be linked to 'pro-social' behavior,'" writes Psychology Today's Kenneth Worthy. "This connection seems to arise from a willingness to sacrifice one's popularity a bit to act in a moral and just way toward other people, animals or the environment at large. Popularity, in the end, may be more a sign of social graces and perhaps a desire to fit in than any kind of moral superiority."

I am in the beautiful city of Seattle and have a lot of time at hand. I have had my fill of furniture shopping and decorating the place and hanging out with MBAs. I don't want to discuss any more MBA-y topics like how is the new phone going to pan out in the market or how is Google in a unique position or how Microsoft can do certain things better. I am done with thoughts and sharing them. What I need now is action and the company of interesting people who do fun things.

Before, you make a snap judgment that I am another girl whining about life....let me tell you that I have taken concrete steps to help my cause. I have started with listing down the things I can pursue. Here they are-

1. Sailing: I want to learn sailing and then buy a boat and sail around. While the buying a boat can wait, the sailing lessons can be easily fixed coz the school is just one block down from here. I also like the calm demeanor that most of the surfing/sailing instructors have.
2. Golfing: This is something that my friend inspired me to do. Only problem is that it's slightly more expensive and you have to drive forever to find a golf course. Right now, my skill level is 'can-drive-a-ball-fifty-meters-or so'. Guess this is gonna take a lot of time but has its own rewards. To golf well, you see, one needs to have a clear mind. So, golfing is a great way to practice clearing your mind.
3. Rock Climbing: This is something I have always wanted to do and Seattle is just the place to pursue this. I have been working out and I feel that with a little more work on my grip and legs, I will be very rock climbing ready. 
4. Learn a new language: When I think about it I am open to a programming language or a language language. The thoughts of programming language elicits a Blah! from me coz it ain't sexy enough. When it comes to language languages, I think of Spanish and French. While, Spanish sounds cool and I will be able to appreciate a lot of movies, a lot of my favorite books were originally written in French. Also, my French skills are way better than my Spanish right now and I keep getting Rosetta Stone deals on my Facebook every now and then. Winder how they sniffed it. 
5. Crafty Stuff: I have always been a crafts girl but recently the idea of spending an evening quilting makes me balk.This is stuff I can do after I am retired and too old to rock climb or sail. So, no crafts right now. 

Now...

I am starting to feel like myself again and the rest of me will grow back....eventually.