Sopranos is inspiring!!

So I watched another episode of Sopranos the other day where the family just attended Junior Jackie's funeral. Junior Jackie was just 23 and had just broken off with Meadow Sopranos a few months before his death. Meadow was talking to her Mom about how she wished she could see him alive once again and then she said, I remember you once told me -

"We must maximise the good times we have with the ones we love."

Wow, what an amazing line. I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. Kind of goes along the same funda of -Kal ho na ho! ENjoy today, enjoy now ... live the moment ... stop waiting for things to happen ... there is so much happening right here right now.

I peeped into my own pattern and this is what I found, before I go on a vacation like say to India, that's all I can think of - how good India will be and how much fun the shopping will be. Then I reach India, and shopping on the streets of Mumbai, now we all know that's no fun. So I miss the Bartoncreek mall airconditioning and I am sick of all the diarrhea. So I wait for the vacation to end so that I can go back to my luxurious Austin lifestyle. I am back and I start looking forward to a trip at my sisters in Atlanta. I reach Atlanta and I miss my friends and the party scene and call everyone in Austin a million times to see what they have been upto!!!

I thought to myself - Why am I like this?? And after speaking on this topic to a few, I think I can safely say that many of us are like this!! We are always looking forward to something else, but forget all that there is to enjoy now.

Soak in the good times we have today cause if we can't do it today, we can never any other day!

Relationships

The more I think about it, the more I confirm the fact that each and every relationship that we have & value today, is purely need based. Yes, we love to attach some feel-good reasons like love, respect, admiration blah blah as a cover up. But I am telling ya, it's all need.

Think of those friends who meant the world to you maybe last year or the year before. The people who you thought you couldn't survive without just 2 years back. Yes, some of them are still with you but many of them have drifted away. I know many of us are good at making those occasional hi-hello calls. But I am talking about people you spent 10+ hours/week with and now, not even 10 in a year. It's not that any of these people have become bad or that you don't get along with them or any such thing. You are the same and so are they. It's just that the situations/circumstances and NEEDS have changed. Maybe some of them got married while you are still single, some of them just moved cities and the outta site outta mind came into play, maybe you made a new bunch of friends who keep you occupied for more hours than you can handle and the maybes go on.

Making a harsh turn: there was a time when our parents meant the world to us. We didn't know anything outside them. Whatever they said or did, was what defined the word 'right'. Why? Cause they provided us the security and comfort we needed then. And today, yes, we do miss them and love them, but do we really think of them more than our current best friend or current crush? In many aspects haven't our time and energy spent on them become more of a duty?

It's harsh, it's sad, but I fear, it's true. As someone rightly put it, it is Need and not Love that makes the world go round!! :)

Got Sleep?

As every weekend approaches(and I truly feel the next one approaching every Sunday evening), I decide that this is the one that I am going to catch up all that lost sleep and with every Monday morning, I realise how unsuccessful I have been.

But I thought this one would be different. I had a 4-day long thanksgiving weekend. I was so sure that this would be that weekend of the year that I would get to sleep and sleep till I slept no more. And guess what ... I averaged around 4 hrs/day!! All I could think of on Monday morning was SLEEP!!! How did I manage this?

It all started when a dear friend suggested that we should run the Turkey trot 5 miler on Thurs morning. I had already committed to dropping another friend to the airport at 6 in the morning. And since I have the whole weekend to catch up on that sleep, why the hell would I sleep early on Wed. night, right?? Thus, wed night - 2 hrs of on and off sleep.

Ran the 5 miles, and wow it was awesome. 9500 ppl running through the UT campus on Thanksgiving morning. Route was all hilly, strenuous and fun! As I completed my run, I told my gal pal, "oh I am definitely going to go home and sleep cause that's what I need". I got home, and with all the rush, how could I rest? I cleaned my house, washed dishes blah blah and before I knew it, it was time to get ready for a dinner invite at a friends place. Got back home past midnight and crashed. Thurs night - 6 hours of sleep.

It's Black Friday. With no alarm, my eyes open at 7! How could it not, I am a shopaholic! I felt wide awake and well rested. The 'happy hormones' must have been doing a good job cause logic tells me I couldn't have been well rested!! Got my comfy gear on and headed to the mall. It was an estrogen fest there and I did manage to bag a few deals. Fri evening was a potluck dinner which I promptly left at 11 cause I was 'tired' and 'needed to sleep'. I could have gone home but no, I couldn't possibly let that happen right? A few calls and I was jamming to some Tamil Hip-hop till 2 in the morning!! Ya ... I know! Anyway, so I slept by 2:30 and guess what? I had my Sat. long run with the half-marathon training group at 7:30! So was up by 6:30a. Thus, Fri night - 4 hours.

Ran another 5 miles on the town lake trail. The weather was beautiful and I felt I could run and run and run! The day brought with it a lot more - lunch with pals, a little of Fight club, first experience at a shooting range (pistols, AK-47, the works!), a pathetic 3 hour Hindi movie ( I could murder Ms. Rai), dinner at Trudys with mexican martinis floating around followed by 3 hours in downtown jumping to some hella good techno music(thank u Vicci for the new playlist). In bed by 3:30 ... up by 9a! sat night - 5.5 hours of sleep.

That is when I realised, I should stop expecting to sleep more on the weekends. In fact, with the amount of activity we sign up to do, it's insane to even think of it. Maybe I should aim on catching up on sleep during the week!! HA! Now that schedule is worthy of a brand new post! :)