1 year / chicken soup

watever happened to May, you ask? it came and went and i barely looked at my wristwatch, forget about seeing the calender. whirlwind! good or bad, 'twas definitely interesting.

am in redlands... at work... on a saturday... weird! reminds me of my research days... used to be the only one in the entire building. i'll never forget the oddly-shaped key specially made for us; it ran the elevator on such godforsaken hours/days, when only a desi research assistant would possibly be working. back to me workin on a saturday...

i'm juggling 3 roles at work now: developer, builds engineer and, well, "the CruiseControl guy"... yeah that really isn't an official post, but well, it takes up so much of my time! (fyi, in layman's terms, CruiseControl is this software we use at work... in lame-man terms (read: geek), it's a continuous integration software that monitors our source-control system to keep our project build status in release-mode up-to-date... phew...nauseous yet??? i know i am! LOL.)

it's a lil chilled out though... had thai for lunch with roommates and my office colleague. shes among the better things in redlands. good company and always up for coffee, lunch... or a non-veg joke! hehehehe. rushed back to work, got an hour's worth put in; then off to watch ocean's thirteen! yay! good movie... paisa vasool types. and yeah, if ure wonderin if a pretty-boy like brad pitt can act... unfortunately he can. and george clooney and matt damon are funny in their one-liners. if only each work-day were like this! with thai cuisine and a movie to kill that horrendous 3:15 to 5:45pm time-slot! hehehehe!

sunday:
one year gone... my employment permit expires on the 11th. at work today, again. don't get me wrong, the money's welcome. but a 9-day work-week, 11 hrs a day, is murder... no matter what they pay you. if i skip this, others will end up doing it. that's really why i'm here now. yeah i know, i know... how boy-scout of me. the way i see it, am pretty much jobless after monday right up till october, so it's kool.

time sure has flown by. i remember walking into this very office 10 months back, wondering if i'll ever be comfortable here. (ironically, this is the very room they interviewed me in!) the very 1st week i was assigned a very difficult task, which i did an awesome job of, fyi! (no! modesty ain't my cup of mocha frappuccino!) now as i look around this room, i see it as mine... my office... the tiny basketball net, the dilbert, garfield, calvin comic strips pasted all over, the random keychain with tiny boxing gloves at the end, my bag thrown in a corner... and a post-it note on my monitor that still states that "today is a good day".... yeah its my office.

(continued on monday night)
started the day by buying some chicken soup. had to put it aside coz of my appointment and this early meeting. rats. i luvvvv soup.

finished my last physical therapy session today. i bought stephanie a double dvd set of Patch Adams & What Dreams May Come...(i luv that movie). she was really happy :D . she'd once mentioned "Patch.." is one of the factors that got her interested in med-school... i just thought it'd be the perfect gift. it's really fascinating to talk to people from different walks of life, and hear what they have to say about their choices... why they made them, how they made them. it's like an insight into what drives them. pure passion. but i'm missing my soup!

finally! i get to open the cover of that soup bowl! my outlook reminder flashes a message: meeting with my manager in 5. crap! 1 hour later: rushed back for that soup, but my roommate had an emergency and wanted to see me rt away (sigh... sure dude, i'll be there). money-matters, tricky they sure are!

i had to finish this really complicated piece of code... had been struggling with it for 2 whole days. the chicken soup just sit there. had to choose between the soup and lunch... can't waste time on soup now, 've just 10 mins... eat something solid!

6pm i finally got to it. hours after the intended period, it was cold, with a lot of condensation around, and it tasted kinda funny... but you know what? that's just fine ;) i luvvv soups.

i see a comfort zone now. one that i've worked very hard to create, beginning from a time filled with anxieties. but for how long will this be? will i have to go over this again? if experience has taught me anything (and i'm a difficult student, mind you!) the answer is probably yes.

its what we do... 1) adapt, 2) settle, and 3) eventually move on. repeat from step 1.

as i spilled a drop, i looked down on my office ID, and noticed that i was wearing the same shirt today as i was when i joined the office. and that code that i was struggling with? i solved that..... by looking at the stuff i'd written on the 1st day of my job. (told ya that i'd done a great job of it!)

cycles, circles and u-turns...