Dorky Me

Friday evening Mayur and I went on a date.  Our first date after the wedding.  This was a special date because the next day Mayur was flying to Puerto Rico for a week.  One week without him, I'll miss you bauth sara Bebu. 

 

Mayur made 9 o'clock dinner reservation for two at Maggiano's.  As one dresses up when they go on special dates that's what we did.  Both of us were in formal attire looking forward to the time we'll spend together that evening.  

 

We got to the restaurant a quarter to 9.  At 9 sharp we were seated at our table.   Our table was shaped like this "_l ".  A part of the table was against the wall facing everyone in the restaurant, that's where Mayur sat.  I sat next to him facing only a few people.  The seats were the nice cushioned sofa like.  As we took off our coats, the waiter came with menu and filled up the glasses with water.  

 

Mayur browsed through the menu quickly, debating if he should order half of the Salmon Lemon & Herb for $22 or the full for $26.  Then his eye caught something interesting Family Style Menu.  It includes 2 appetizers, 2 salads, 2 pastas, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts.  All of this for $26.50 per person and is unlimited (all you can eat).  I'm thinking how on earth are we to eat all of this and how is it going to fit on the table.  The waiter assures me that part of their job is to make the plates fit on table and that whatever is leftover we can get a to go box.   

 

Satisfied that we won't waste any food we place our order.  For appetizer we had Bruschetta and Stuffed Mushroom, both really good.  Mayur and I aren't big fans of salad so we only ordered a Cesar salad, which neither of us liked.  From the Pasta menu I ordered Eggplant Parmesan and Spaghetti in Marinara Sauce.  The Eggplant Parmesan is the best.  Mayur got what he wanted Salmon Lemon & Herb .  For our second Entree we ordered Chicken Marsala, which wasn't that good. 

 

Dessert the best part of the five course meal.  Mayur ordered Tiramisu and I ordered the Chocolate Zuccotto Cake. 

 

It took us 2 and 1/2 hours from start to finish for the five course meal.  The service was excellent and the food was delicious. Everything was perfect that evening. 

 

We did have some leftovers, which was our lunch for the next day.  To sweet things even further, the waiter gave us an extra Tiramisu without charge.   

December 13, 2006 a wind storm hit the northwest area.  In the afternoon around 1:30 the weather forecast  was windy and rainy.  In the evening when I left work the weather had become heavy rain with strong winds.  By the time I reached the bus stop (a five minute walk from work) my pants were soaked up.  The roads were filled with water making it hard for pedestrians to cross the road.  Traffic was really bad because my five minute bus ride took 45 mins. 

 

Between 6 pm till 12:30 a.m. the next day not much happened.  Like usual we had our dinner and saw a movie.  I was asleep by 11:30.  (Mayur's version) the power went out at 12:30 a.m.  He stayed up for the next three hours doing something on the laptop (basically till the battery lasted).  Luckily we had the heater up slightly on the high side so the room stayed warm all night long.   

 

The next day I woke up at 7:30.  Santy woke up around 9:15 and left for work around 9:30.  Microsoft campus had lost power so he came back in an hour.  Santy's ride to work takes him 5 mins. but since the traffic lights weren't working it took him an hour to get back home.  Around 10:30  both of us had a PB & J sandwich with milk.  That is the only time in my life where I had a PB & J sandwich for breakfast. 

 

Mayur work up around 11:30 and we went searching for hot food.  Pammi joined us in this adventure.  We drove two hours to find a place that served hot food.  Just the thought of not getting hot food made me really hungry.  We ate at Thai Rama in Bothell.  Oh it felt really satisfying.  Now while heading back home we planned to go over to Ashish's place in Downtown Seattle because his house had no power outage problems.  (In our minds we thought we would be back home by the next day, but were we wrong).

 

The storm had caused a power outage in 700,000 houses.  We lost power for ten days.  Imagine that in this cold wintry days.  At first everything seemed fun because all of us (meaning 10 friends:  Mayur, Santy, Pramod, Deepa, Munjal, Ashish, Devika, Akshay I, Akshay II and I)  gathered at Ashish's house (who had no power outage problems) and hung out there for two days.  Within two days most of our friends left because their houses were restored with power.  We were the unfortunate ones who had to move from this house to the next feeling like refugees. 

 

Santy even stayed in his office for almost three days.  Hey, why not when you have all the facilities of a home in the office except for the warm food.  By the end of day three he was tired of it and moved into Paaji's place.   For one week Mayur and I stayed at Ashish's then moved in to Paaji's place on day eight. 

 

It was Christmas Eve and around 6 pm we got the news.  Our power was back.  Yoooooohooooooo!!!!!.  That was one moment in our lives we were the most happiest.  Now we know what electricity means to us. 

Here are pictures of my blog that I wrote up yesterday evening.  My laptop freezes at times and I have to restart it.  Well I didn't feel like retyping the whole thing again so I just took some pics and I hope you're able to read it.

Finally I've uploaded my wedding pics online.  About time.  It took me four months to do this.  To all my friends who've been waiting for them here they are  http://community.webshots.com/user/DorkiMe Sorry guys I got real lazy and forgot about it.  

 

Diwali-2006, I had tons of fun this year.  We made the best rangoli eva, all thanks to Richa who's a master at making outlines.   All of us friends gathered at Deepa's place and had dinner together, played some poker or Theen Patii and did Aarti.  I volunteered to search for some aarthi's and get them.  I found this Laxmi Aarthi, why Laxmi because that is the god you sing to for Diwali.  Hoping she'll bring in lots of money for you the coming year.  While singing the aarthi all of us start cracking up.  Some of the words in the aarthi were really funny.  I know its very disrespectful, but we couldn't help it. 

The other day Mayur (my hubby) and I were talking about Orkut being popular amongst Indians.  Most of the people that Mayur knew in his elementary, junior high and high school are all on Orkut.  Even the people from his undergrad.  Mayur has done all of his schooling in India except for his Master's Degree, which he finished at Texas A & M. 

 

When I searched for my fellow classmates on Orkut, I got some positive results.  The school where I studied at was H.M. Patel.  I was there for only four years.  Through Orkut I found some of the people I use to know.  

 

I found people I use to know ten years back.  People I never talked to after I moved here.  People I would think of at times, imaging how life would have been if I never moved here.  But even with the distance and the years apart, there are some faces or even people you just can't forget. 

I'm planning to head back to college for a Master's degree in Teaching; something I love and am passionate about.  I am applying for the M.I.T. Teacher Preparation program at Seattle U. and City U.  I'll like to teach at the elementary level because currently with my bachelor's degree that is all I can do.  You can hold  a degree in any field except for education an be applicable for the program.  I've graduated with a bachelor's degree in Finance and have no background in education so this is a reall great thing. 

 

It is a full-time year long program, with teacher certification that starts in March and October of 07 at Seattle U.  and May of 07 at City U.  I have submitted my application to Seattle U. and now am working on the City U. application.  Let me tell you, working on this application is not an easy thing.  Although, you don't have to take the GRE, you have to take two standarized exams for the teacher certification before starting the program.  You've to take the Praxis II and the West-B.  The Praxis II is an exam that test you in the subject area you will like to teach.  The West-B is a basic skills test that tests you in reading, mathematics, and writing.  Applicants to Seattle U. also have to take a spontaneous writing exam, which is to read an article and answer the question in an essay form.   

 

There isn't any good study material for the written section of West-B so to help myself study I'll be blogging about it.  I need study material for the multiple choice part of the exam because my blogging will help with the essay part of the exam.  

 

P.S. If you know of any good book that can help me prepare for the West-B exam please let me know.  I really appreciate it.

 

 

Oh its so good.  It's my supervisor, Krista's favorite place.  The first time I had Panera Bread was in Kansas City and I didn't like it much. I guess it was what I had ordered, but the second time Mayur, Santy and I went it was really good.  Well today Krista and I went to Panera Bread for our bi-weekly one on one meeting and we spend over an hour in there.  We were just enjoying the food and hanging out.  For some reason it was really good today.  Well both the food and the day becasue I got a lot of planning done for my upcoming projects and finalizing my currently projects.  Overall a really good day.