Nothing but blue skies all day long...

California is quite sunny. In fact, I'd like to give you a sampling of the 10 day forecast in San Diego, CA:


Jan 15
sunny
61°/44°
10% (chance of rain are the percentages)
61°F

Jan 16
Sunny
62°/44°
0%
62°F

Jan 17
Mostly Sunny
65°/48°
0%
65°F

Jan 18
AM Clouds / PM Sun
62°/48°
20%
62°F

And so on... As you can see, there's not much variation. Actually, yesterday, it was quite cloudy and drizzly in San Diego... I was driving around with the future in-laws, and it was kinda weird cuz there wasn't many people on the road. Sameer (who is Anita's elder sister's husband) explained why, "Yeah the city shuts down when it's not sunny." Californians are interesting people. Back at Anita's parents house, we were watching the news, and the weatherman came on. He was going a little crazy while explaining the 24 hour doppler... I think it's because there were actually green blobs that were on the screen. I think it made him happy to have green blobs cuz then he'd have something to on TV. I'm sure his wife and kids were proud...

Ok, enough of that. Here are some fotografias of my trip to LA, where I completed 2 interviews. I ran into Liz and Jen T, which was super fun. On Tuesday the 17th, I fly to Baltimore!!!

Sunset at Santa Monica Beach

Jen and Liz at 3rd Street Promenade

Liz and I also at the 3rd St. Promenade in front of a very fake looking Christmas tree

Me at the Getty

Cute lil Indian girl waving to me and Liz from down below (don't you love her hat??!!). I think her family was a bit frightened that I was taking pictures of their granddaughter/daughter, but I figured it didn't look too bad since I have brown skin also. And Liz looks kinda Indian anyways... ok maybe not.

I took this picture while driving to my LA Children's interview (located on Sunset Blvd) on Monday the 9th. I took it because you can kinda see the Hollywood sign on the hill. Devi the driver has got some skillzzz!!!!

So this picture is actually the Pacific Ocean at night. I'm not kidding. I took this picture with my friend, Rajan. He made me take it. He thinks cuz he's got a PhD or something that he's all smart with cameras or something.

Ok, that's it!! Hope everyone is well! I'll be back in Houston on the 25th!!!

The Year of the Oh-Sixers

Happy New Year to all of my friends and family!

I had a beautiful New Year's.

I met up with Yasmin - we decided to make dinner together. Yasmin said she wanted to make something with eggplant, so we looked up "eggplant" on epicurious.com (one of Y's favs) and found this recipe for Eggplant Rolls with Spicy Tomato sauce (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/108381).
We went shopping for all the goods and then went to Y's to make our feast. The hardest part of the recipe for us was slicing the eggplant so that it didn't tear. Anyhoo, we had a lovely dinner! The eggplant rolls were extremely YUM! I highly recommend this recipe... it's very healthy and very tasty, especially when you add extra red pepper.





After dinner, we got ready to go to Monica's, where we arrived circa de 11 pm. Gonzo, Sonia, Tyson, Peter and Matt were already there, hanging out. Apparently Y and I missed a key moment on TV where they caught Dick Clark making out with some blond chick. I don't know all the details... Monica had a theory that it was Hillary Duff. But I do not wish to start any CRAAZY rumors with my blog. Oh no. That would be wrong. But if anyone wishes to start rumors in my comments section, feel free.








Me and Gonzo






So, of course, the inevitable moment at midnight arrived, which we followed using FOX news, who was broadcasting from CST (one thing... ok... one of many things... that i miss about CT is that the ball drop is a bit more exciting being in the same time zone!). At approximately 00:00, we exchanged hugs and HAPPY-NEW-YEAR's. Then I got a chance to salsa with Tyson. I've read on Tyson's blog that he's this huge salsa-fiend, so I wanted to see what it was all about... and he is pretty good! Better than me - it was fun.

Then, me and Yasminawala left to go back to my place (I made her stop at all the intersections on the way home... we were both paranoid - rightly so, don't you think- about drunk drivers!!). Yasmin spent the night with me... we stayed up maybe till 2 just talking and me fixing her spazzed trapezius.

We got up at 6:40 to catch the sunrise at 7:15. I heard from Tibor that watching the sunSET from this random parking garage on Main St. is quite beautiful, so I figured maybe the sunrise would be nice from that location also. It was actually Yasmin's idea to watch the sunrise - that's how she wanted to start the new year this year. We made it over there just before 7 am... and we saw nothing but clouds in the sky! So we couldn't see the big ball of orange rising above the horizon, and there was thick fog that was blanketing the whole city!!!!

But it was still beautiful to see the new year's morning light, and see it outline the thick Houston fog and clouds with fiery orange lines. It was nice to spend the first morning of the new year with a dear friend and witness the power of the sun (AKA Surya Deva!) warming up the central time zone. Although the clouds were thick, Yasmin and I spotted clouds that were alligators, anteaters, smiley faces, stairs... we also saw birds that apparently wanted to catch the sunrise too. There was also a man walking by the bayou, walking his two dogs. We saw the train pass by several times, tooting its horn. We saw the Galleria and the downtown skyline in the distance. I saw a lit up Texas Children's also... a place of potential employment!! I saw my apt complex close-by and was thankful that it so far had provided me with 3.5 year of safe shelter. I saw a bird fly by and literally cut the air in front of us as it zoomed past us. I saw another bird walking along the edge of the wall, and it nearly lost its balance and fell. That kind of made me smile...




The view from atop the random parking garage on Main. You can see the ledge that the bird almost off from. And you can see Reliant where the 2-14 Texans play from. And you can see my apt complex (not very well) on the right.

So it was a nice New Year's Eve, and a nice New Year's Day morning. The morning of the year of my graduation. The morning of the year of my intern year. The morning of the year of the rest of my life. Sorry to be so dramatic, but hey, it's Jan 1, 2006. I'm allowed.