My dil goes mmmm...

...every time I hear this song - all three versions of it :)
And when, my long-lost friend calls me to tell me that he is majorly crushing on someone after eons, my dil goes mmmm...The Return of Hope.
My dil went mmmm when my cousin and I picked up a paintbrush (after, guess what, eons!) here.
My dil is going MMMM (loud and excited!) at the prospect of the long weekend...looking forward to spend it with loved ones enjoying some of the famous Oregon outdoors before summer totally leaves us.
My dil went "mmmm..my arteries are clogging" when we ate ice-cream from Coldstone Creamery - the bestest ice-cream I've had for a long time. Maybe ever. It had strawberry, banana, vanilla, roasted almonds, crushed KitKat candy, pineapple pieces..Yummmy for the tummy, as my friend says!
My dil went mmmm when I succeeded in introducing three more people to a movie that's close to my heart. And even louder when they loved it too.
On my way back to Portland from Seattle this Sunday, as I was traveling in the train, I sat next to an old woman who taught me so much in a few minutes...that's another post, another day, possibly. Anyway, talking to her filled me with hope, wonder and awe at her grace and wisdom, and my heart went, mmmm..I want to be an old woman like you one day!
Also when I come back from a day at work wondering whether I am accomplishing anything at all in my career and what to eat for dinner, and what my bank account looks like, and what my boss thinks of me...and I see a rainbow break the bleak Oregon sky with the reminder of life's transcience, beauty, unexpectedness, and rewards when we open our eyes and hearts to it.
My dil goes mmmm...I feel lucky!
Little post-script: My dil and my voice are both going mmmm..over Fuzon. Not often have I loved all the songs in a single album the first time I hear them. This guy's voice is going to haunt me all week at least..especially "Mora saiyaan" and "Tere bina" and "Ae Chaand"..heck..all the songs!

Ore-gone!

Thanks Robyn, for the idea for the post title…there’s hope for you, yet, in the punning world!
Wow! It's been a month since I lifted the blogging finger…first time in the entire year I’ve been a blogger that I've missed my once a week (on average) entry. How did that happen? Well, let’s see… a combination of factors, really. 20 days back I left Akron, Ohio to come to Beaverton, Oregon for about 6 months at least. I am an intern (no, pardon me, an ‘assessment specialist’!) with a fantastic company in a group that’s growing rapidly, at a time when I can really make a contribution (or influence millions of people’s chances of getting a job, actually!!) My transition has been a busy one. Two weeks since I started the job, and this is the first day I am actually sitting and doing almost nothing and have had the time and inclination to write this post. I haven’t had Internet at home, and I wasted 2 hours today trying to set it up only to be informed that it was in vain and I need to try tomorrow. AAARGGGHHHHHH! Plus, the fact is, I am too chicken to do this at work, and at least the first month, I need to impress the boss with my diligence and so on, don’t you know!

So, what’s new and happening in my life? Besides everything?
· I have learned the pain that moving to a new place can be. As a new international grad student four years ago, I felt no need or pressure to get at least semi-decent furniture or plates that matched or a real shelf for my books (instead of a cardboard box covered with a dupatta!) Now that I have graduated to intern status, I somehow felt that I shouldn’t settle for stuff I could scavenge from the road-side or from garage sales. So with a lot of help from my cousins, I bought furniture from IKEA (which I assembled myself, with no major mishaps, much to my surprise!), and with a few additions my apartment will soon be complete!
· I also spent some fantastic days with said cousins, learning a lot more about them and through their eyes about myself.
· I recalled after a long time what it feels like to discover a good friend in someone you think you know, but you don’t quite KNOW until you spend a few nights with them chatting into the wee hours of the morning or a few moments thinking the same thoughts or a few tears shed together or exchange a few embarrassing stories or complete a few of each other’s sentences. The person in question is probably reading this, and for everything, my dear, thank you!
· I saw Mount Rainier in all its glory one beautiful summer day. The northwest is certainly unsurpassed in its beauty and its surprises. Because it’s usually so gloomy and rainy and depressive, these sunny days are such a blessing. And I felt doubly blessed to be seeing it with people I love being with.
· I discovered the meaning of ‘expensive’ again! Whatever its faults, I’ll say this for Akron, living there was affordable. I have always been kind of a penny-pincher, but let me tell you this, when you start paying $5 for something you used to pay $1.88 for four years, you’ll start acting stingy too! So what if Oregon has no sales tax, they make up for it, by charging three or four times the price of everything.
· Except for this one section in one grocery store in one corner of one neighborhood in Beaverton, where they sell old books for 25 cents. I bought “Mystic River” and LOVED it. Dennis Lehane’s style is powerful as hell. The imagery, the poetry, the raw emotion and the stark reality in his writing…like this: “(The words) formed a wall in front of her and Jimmy and then that wall sprouted a ceiling and another wall behind them and they were suddenly cloistered within a tiny cell created by a single sentence.” I mean, to convey so much with words…it’s beautiful!
· I watched “The Aviator” (liked it a lot), “Mangal Pandey” (liked Aamir Khan a lot, liked the movie more than a little but not as much as a lot!), “Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi” (finally! And I loved it a lot!!), “The Sound of Music” for the millionth time and still loved it, and parts of “Casablanca” (the parts that I love a lot! “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine!”)

Ok, now that I’ve semi-explained my absence from the blogging scene, let me thank all you fabulous people who faithfully posted responses despite the fact that I didn’t reply. Of all the blogs in all the websites in all the Internet, you browse into mine!
Welcome, newcomers to my curb and old-timers, keep returning!