Week of celebrations

The whole of last week I have been eating the most delicious meals with the best company.
All started with the Thanksgiving dinner organised by the International Neighbors in Ann Arbor. The International center took a couple of us to this church hall where a sumptuous spread was laid out - all food cooked by members of the International Neighbors community. It was first time to this group and they seemed to have a pretty active group with memberships (they made us sign up for their newsletter). Met a couple of Indian ladies, met Gretchen from the St Marys who happened to be the president of the group! One of the Japanese ladies sitting next to me mentioned that she made the Americanised sushi - a hollow bread loaf filled with shrimp, celery and mayo paste. There was vegetarian turkey, made of tofu - came in 3 different flavors.

Then the next day Anne arrived from Indiana and we had a large thali in Madras masala. Later on we watched Made of Honour while passing ridiculous comments. The next morning we woke up late and went to the Northside grill. I had a potato and sausage skillet with biscuit (this is not the Indian version of the biscuit - its more like a soft sugarless cake dough). Could not finish all of it but was so very full. We then went grocery shopping to Krogers for the party in the evening. I had decided to make the biryani - got the meat, rice and nuts. Before heading home we went to the Mathei botanical gardens - the weather was simply amazing although it was the end of Fall. there were streams in the garden with the soothing sound of flowing water on the rocks - simply music to the ears.
That evening I cooked the biryani, Anne made the lasagna and Carlos made guacamole and shredded chicken chipotle. There was a big spread on the table - chocolate fondue and fruits and pretzels and cookies and chips.
We set up the Christmas tree with all its ornaments - Desiree had packed the tree with numbers for each of the whorls. She had an underlying theme of gold and red - which meant the ribbon was gold and red, the over 100 ornaments were in gold and red. She then put here special ornaments at the end - each with a story - a special gift, or a memento or a souvenir from a city - usually from NYC.
We played cranium, girls versus boys and I was the weakest link whenever we had to spell a word backwards as a team - quarterback,the cheeses - mozzarella, Parmesan hahah. We watched Harry met Sally and simply loved every bit of it.

The next morning we went to Christ the King - this could very well be a post by itself. The entire experience was amazing. Fr. Ed is an excellent preacher - he surprised us all by saying that he believes in LUCK - if it means - Living Under the Christ's Kingship!! The choir which included Desiree, sang the Hallelujah from the Handel's Messiah - simply amazing.

We then went for lunch at Grizzly peak - a pub type restaurant. The grilled chicken sandwich was something different with avocado. We then strolled about downtown and went to Briarwood mall for shopping but did not find anything interesting. That night we heated the leftovers that tasted even nicer.

The next morning being a Monday, we went for breakfast to Angelos, I had this western omelet - not a good choice since it turned out pretty much like the one I make at home.

In the evening Rackham had a dinner for the I-Connect mentors and mentees. I tried to limit myself to a tablespoon sized servings because the omelet seemed to take long to digest.

The next evening on Tuesday we had a potluck dinner at Nabihahs place. Miku prepared this creamy spinach dip, Quang came up with beef fondue and AZ brought a huge lasagna dish. Not to mention Naseem who got chicken biryani and I took a potato egg salad. I also baked a potato cake and in addition Nabihah baked a chocolate cake and AZ too got a cake. So much of food - we were all so full by the end of the dinner. Nabihah mentioned her Ramadan fasting tips where you learn to pace yourself when eating all through the night. The trick lies in not gulping down the food when you begin, take small bites and pause when eating!

The next day I went on a self imposed fast - did not eating anything until evening when I went out with Angie and Ed to have iddly sambar at Madras masala. On Thursday the actual thanksgiving holiday Anthony prepared beef roast for lunch and Desi got a salad while took pudding.

Loved all the moments spent with friends - just so good to have friends.

David Archuleta and the Ann Arbor Symphony

As I sat in the Hill auditorium for the Christmas from the Heart performance last evening I was not quite sure if I was in the right place - with an unusual crowd of teenage girls with beaming faces and tees with David Archuleta all over them!

But the opening medley 'A Christmas Festival' totally tranformed my moods and transformed into a different planet - the harmony of over 60 instruments playing moving seamlessly from one tune to the other brought back memories of growing up in Goa.
The next song Angels we have heard was sung by David Archuleta and set the tone for the remainder of the evening of what to expect of him. Loved the french song Patapan and the Spanish Riu Riu Chiu reminded me of another Christmas carol (still tying to figure out which)
The AASO played tunes from the Nutcraker which were simply amazing - I imagined myself as a ballerina dancing to their tunes, missed my brother Jonathan when they played 'Waltz of the Flowers'

I totally enjoyed the performance and could not wait to listen to all the carols online from his christmas album. Could not help notice the boyish charm and when he mentioned that he would be turning 19 next month, all the girls went crazy. We could hear a lot of 'I love you Davids' from the crowd. The crowd was thankfully well behaved with very few interruptions during the performance which simply increased the effect of listening to Ave Maria and Silent Night in the Hill.
I love the Christmas season and this concert seems to have set the right key for the weeks to follow. This morning I saw the fresh fir wreaths at the Farmers market in Kerrytown, found them too expensive at $25 a piece. I wanted to have an advent candle wreath but found that too expensive. Will have to make one of my own this evening given that Advent begins tomorrow.
One my wish list I want to have a Christmas tree - loved the one in Desiree's house - it totally transforms the entire house and brings this warm feeling. This is one of the times of the year when I totally miss being away from home because everything seems to be centered around the family, making sweets to together, decorating the house together, making the star together, making the crib together, singing carols, attending weddings and parties together - it was the time of togetherness. Not sure when I will get a chance to be home for Christmas again.

5 loaves and 2 fishes

Never thought the meaning of this miracle could be interpreted in such a beautiful manner.

I simply love this hymn by Corrinne May.

A little boy of thirteen was on his way to school
He heard a crowd of people laughing and he went to take a look
Thousands were listening to the stories of one man
He spoke with such wisdom, even the kids could understand

The hours passed so quickly, the day turned to night
Everyone was hungry but there was no food in sight
The boy looked in his lunchbox at the little that he had
He wasn't sure what good it'd do, there were thousands to be fed

But he saw the twinkling eyes of Jesus
The kindness in His smile
And the boy cried out
With the trust of a child
He said:

"Take my five loaves and two fishes
Do with it as you will
I surrender
Take my fears and my inhibitions
All my burdens, my ambitions
You can use it all to feed them all"

I often think about that boy when I'm feeling small
And I worry that the work I do means nothing at all

But every single tear I cry is a diamond in His hands
And every door that slams in my face, I will offer up in prayer

So I'll give you every breath that I have
Oh Lord, you can work miracles
All that you need is my "Amen"

So take my five loaves and two fishes
Do with it as you will
I surrender
Take my fears and my inhibitions
All my burdens, my ambitions
You can use it all
I hope it's not too small

I trust in you No gift is too small

Amazing hymn.

Mishap riding my bike

So I go riding my bike to get a gallon of milk from this really great place that sells 'non-hormone induced' milk which translates to 'organic milk' for the price of the usual milk. Its 8:45 pm and I know that the place closes at 9pm. Am still debating if I can push my diet plan for tomorrow and buy one of their soft, freshly baked donuts and ...possibly a scoop of icecream!

About a block away from the place, I am darting down this inclined road- make it smoothly down the slope and then try to get onto the pavement instead bam! - next minute I am skiding on the pavement like the formula 1 motor bikes, except that I am without a helmet and on a simple road bike. I think I bumped my head twice and my left leg grazed along the pavement for couple of meters. I try to stand - then hear a voice in the dark - 'are you ok' I scream back am fine - totally embarrassed - that guy must have found it a common occurrence on this part of the street.
Check my pant - no tear, my jacket too seemed fine. My legs were trembling but I could manage to get to the next traffic light. Felt a throbbing pain my knee, checked it under the street light only to find it bruised. I wonder how the knee bruised without the pant tearing uh?
After all this effort, I pedal to the store only to find it closed - looks like they changed their timings! This meant that I will not get to have my hot cup of coffee tonight but in addition will now have to nurse a wound(s).
I get home, have a hot shower, examine the wound on my knee, find a couple more mild bruises on my arms and legs. My knee needed an antiseptic cream, check my medicine stash, the one that I got when I first came to the US in 2007 and to my disappointment found that everything had expired!! For once I hoped to use those medicines and they turned out to be worthless. Resorted to the ayurvedic a.k.a kitchen medicine. Skipped the vinegar (could not muster the courage), dabbed a ton of haldi and shed a few tears, put a cotton bandage since I did not want my pink bed spread to turn into vermillion.
My whole body convulsed in spasms in the morning - I realised that the fall was quite traumatic. My wound on my knee seemed to have bled all through the night. Changed the cotton dressing and decided to visit the doctor after the 10am class. Received second glances in class for wearing a skirt - if only they knew the pain and reason!
Expected the Health Center to assign me to a nurse for dressing my wound- but they insisted that I would need an expert clinical opinion on my knee and the earliest they could assign me was at 3:15
A nurse agreed to change the dressing of my wound in the meantime. She cleaned the wound and said 'oh looks like you have used iodine' I smiled congenially. She checked my immunization chart when I could not remember when I last took a tetanus shot, which was not so helpful because the chart mentioned 1981 - the infant shots! We decided to take the Tdap shot, to avoid any complications. She explained that I would have to clean the wound with an antibacterial soap and gave me sachets of antibacterial cream and adhesive bandages ( so cool - you simply stick them over the wound - like a big bandaid strip ).

I come back at 3:15 and the doctor checks my wound, taps my knee and declares that there are no fractures ( I wouldn't be walking to his clinic if I had one) Admonishes me for not wearing a helmet and says I should drop by if I develop an infection in the wound.

I wonder why I fell off my bike - can't see the reason for this incident in my life. Besides being aware of slowing down on the streets am yet to figure out the 'lesson' of this accident.

Colors of Fall

My friend Desi came up with this fabulous idea to drive up North of Michigan to check out the Fall colours. The only hitch being that the earliest free date in November turned out to be a little to late - the trees had shed most of their leaves:(

Two other friends managed to take time off this Monday and we drove down to Pickney a kind of a camping/protected forest area. We decided to take the 6mi trail around the silver lake. The lake actually lived up to its name - you could help use silver to describe its surface. There was a thick layer of brown leaves on the trail and we tried to decide on the type of sound we made when walking - Desi said it was a 'crunch' sound, I offered a 'srul' sound - and that set of the tone for the rest of the trail!
We clicked a ton of pictures on the barren trees and the occasional branches with leaves on them. There were a lot of birds chirping and we did manage to spot some really rare blue, black and white spotted birds.

By the end of the trail we were ready for lunch and had made plans to repeat the hike again in January with the snow - probably in the Arb.
We went to Hell for lunch - yep there is a little town (more like a 100m stretch) with 3 restaurants called Hell in Michigan. I had a delicious pork rib pot pie - and it was one of the rare events when I was utterly pleased with my order. The crust had just the perfect crumbliness and the pie was more like a stew with pork - absolutely delicious - the waitress mentioned that the chef had prepared for the first time, too good for a first timer!

We then decided to have ice cream - but I just did not have any room for more food. We then decided to watch a movie and i think choosing to watch 'where the wild things are' was the only bad decision we made today. The movie was an absolute torture - every animal in that movie seemed to have serious relationship problems needing immediate therapy or counseling. Not sure how it qualified to be a childrens movie - I would not let my kid watch that.

Scott decided that he had a headache and needed to nap - probably to recover from the effects of the movie. We were so zapped by the end of the movie - I just did not want to discuss anything about the movie. We should have walked out of the theater when we saw that were the only 4 people in it!


Anyways next time I am not watching any fantasy movie by paying $7 for a ticket....no am not interested in spending 150mins of my time either!

2 of my friends got married to each other

Last Friday two of my friends married from the grad group at SMSP got married to each other. I was delighted and honoured to witness their nuptials and the reception.
My personal preparations for the wedding began some months ago when I decided to gym religiously to get into one of the evening dresses, about 2 weeks ago another dear friend of mine Desi and myself went out for shoe shopping and for buying presents for the wedding. The excitement was building up and I would have nearly missed the nuptials if I had not checked the invite the evening before for the time. It was conflicting with a class (yeah a class on friday evening!) but it was easy to choose in this instance.

The best of the wedding that touched me was the simplicity. Importance was given to the actual wedding and other details like the deco, the dress and extra effects were subdued. I was told that the bride chose a white bridesmaid dress as her wedding gown 'why pay $2000 for a dress when you get one for $500?'
You could totally sense that they had built their relationship on Faith - God brought them together and they were totally in Love with each other. Witnessing their wedding renewed my faith in love and convinced me not to settle for anything lesser.

There were a couple of us invited from the grad group and we had a great time in each others company. It was great to dance to the tunes of the dj - who at first seemed not so sure on the kind of music to play.

I liked how the bride and groom first danced to an entire song. The next song the bridal party joined them and in the third song the bride danced with her father while the groom with his mother. It was a very touching moment!

I really had a nice time and wish that Anne and Sean have a great married life together.