Tuesday, February 22, 2011

So We Meet Again

Let's fast forward through the apologies and reasons for not blogging. I have not been doing anything special and this time round, I don't feel particularly sorry too. :-) I do have about 5-6 drafts, waiting to be concluded and polished. I think I will make that my March resolution - to publish my drafts.

I have begun French lessons again. The current teacher switches completely to French during the lesson and expects me to answer all her questions in French too. It has been interesting to say the least. But her methods seem to be very effective. My previous tutors were French exchange students studying at UW. While they were nice and sincere, my current tutor is a teacher and it shows. I would really benefit from 4 hours of studying for every class, but sadly I just flip through her notes the day before her class.

There seems to be so much I want to do with my life lately that I don't seem to have the time for. These include, but are not limited to - completing Super Mario Galaxy 2, finishing Donkey Kong Country Returns, getting 3 stars on all levels in Angry Birds, reread Lord of the Rings, reread all Harry Potter books before the last movie, reread "A Room With a View", watch something from Netflix, steam vacuum the apartment, vacuum the car and so on. I don't know if I can ever get all this done. When I was young, I would dream of having a huge library filled with all my favorite books. Now I realize that even if I do have a huge collection of books, I would most likely never read any of them again. This realization made me more accepting of the Kindle. I have been reading a lot more since getting it. And the instance gratification of just buying another book when I finish one has been awesome. When I was really young and believed in genies and granting wishes, my wish was that whenever I finished a book, a new one should magically appear (new books then, meant changing 2 buses to get to Eashwari Lending Library in Gopalapuram). Kindle has made that wish come true and so we are uneasy friends now.

Speaking about books, the Borders in Madison is closing. I really feel upset about this. I realize that Borders drove out all the independent booksellers out, but I really liked Borders. The staff there actually read books and could always pick out any book I wanted without looking it up in the computer. They also had a staff picks section and I've discovered some gems that way. The Kindle felt very heavy in my bag when I walked into Borders one last time for their closing day sale. We didn't buy anything though, the checkout line was a mile long. Barnes and Noble will get all our book sales now.

Moving onto cheerier things, the weather here is positively unpleasant. We have this thaw-freeze cycle which coupled with fresh snow makes driving an absolute nightmare. I swapped my Sonata for S' Yaris today, since the man drives farther for work. The roads were not kind to the tiny car. I literally skated and skidded my way to work. I have endured this long winter and the last stretch is trying my patience. I can't wait for Spring and then glorious summer. I can't wait to do some more traveling. Definitely Door County and Upper Michigan again. Visiting New York in summer would also be nice, I am itching to watch the new Spiderman musical before they close it for good. If only the snow would melt and the sun would come out soon!

So what have you all been doing?