Paper marks to the rescue

With the weekend all placed in answers I've long searched for, the last paragraph of my research paper had to wait till the usual last moment. With the new resolutions kicking good in the 10 days I'd been following, I had an opportunity to prove one more time that I don't care what other think about me.

My newly habituated 'Can we go out Hari?' and 'What's your schedule today Hari?' roomies getting well addicted in going out every now and then, I decided to hit Steak n Shake as we all wished for. 'Steak n Shake' N my paper in 'Stake and me in Shake' I decided not to mind about others, and so took my 'ever hot' laptop along with me. Yes, I did take my journals too. With 'Steak n Shake closed' we decided to hit the nearby waffle house. A bowl of 'Waltz soup' on one side, a bunch of journals on the other and the laptop on the side, it was all fun listening to my friends philosophical talk on grits, and me thinking of NIPAAm behavior (a polymer am working on). I didn't care what the other customers were staring at. Thanks to Sam - the cook, Jimmy Buffet was scoring good on my list of things happening the moment.

I was happy that I took the gamble and proved one more time, that I am not the person who forgets about my life, and cares just about others. The other times I proved them and still managed to hold on strong to my resolutions where, when I quit on free Starbucks coffee thrice in the week, that too with my new close friend cum sister, 4 opportunities of iHOP syrup - never even touched 'em, quitting on tea offered twice at my friends place and of course, giving clues about my friends true strength, instead of just advicing them what to do and then making them realize their true potential.

Believe me or not, my way of messing up articles I read, had indeed helped me do good in writing my paper. All my 'read articles' are marked in 2 different colors indicating the importance of the lines, marking every marked zone with key words like '4 my paper' 'use for thesis' 'concept' 'data for future reference' 'awesome idea' 'mimic if failed' etc really made me laugh and also organize well for my paper. I have never been the guy who keeps my textbook neat. I always, right from my childhood have scribbled on my textbooks, underlined words or sentences and even torn edges of papers or folded them indicating their importance. I am very happy that I am not as 'neat and organized' as my mother and am happy that I am still organized on my own way. I did throw up this one as yet another reason to prove my mom that I was taken from a trashbin and not born in her womb - Always liked to do this joke on my mom and we laugh on it. How psychotic can I be??? :D

Puddle Pedal

Was it because of the fact that I watched Rush Hour 3 yesterday or was it the tiredness I gained over a period of ‘hardly working’ days or was it the cholay batura I had, at my PhD qualified friend’s place, that I decided to bid my goodbyes even before the clock struck 1 am, is a question even I can’t answer. With the heavens pouring with a cold heart, luckily I stuck on to my one and only orange coat which was water proof of all the winter attire. As I stepped out of the ‘F’un block, my glasses were spotted with the showers in an instant. The temperature too dropped in a couple of hours by at least 5 degree Celsius (still I prefer Celsius to Fahrenheit even in US).

First of all, I was lazy enough to even think about climbing 3 floors, disturbing the introduction of Chris Tucker in the movie and the usual jumps of the stairs. But this was not the only reason I decided to go in the rain. The secondary thoughts were much more ‘enticing’. I had my roomies bicycle, I had a cap, I had a hood in my orange coat, it was water proof, of course it was raining heavily, the weather though cold, wasn’t low enough to freeze me to death and finally I had ‘a raincoat’. Take that ‘huh?’ look of your face. Being a Chennaite, where showers are rare to see and if they come, there is always a schedule in the way it pours. Be it school time or play time, it never showers and so my dad (being the mystic reader of rains), never bought me an umbrella or a raincoat. Seriously saying, back in the good ol’ days, raincoats were considered to be a fashionable cool attire by most teenagers.

Having all the ingredients to get drenched in rain (and still stay healthy), I just picked the bicycle and started cycling fast. Water splashed all over my jeans, glasses fogged with the cold, even my socks got wet and thanks to the ‘mudguardless’ cycles here in the US, the rear of my coat was splattered with rainwater. Instead of quitting the pace, I raced towards my house and slowly started drifting in the longer direction. Never missed a puddle of water and it was fun. Brakes were slipping, wheels skidding and the sky pouring; my sleeps all gone and am still thinking of hitting the sack….. Pedaling in puddles has got a ‘check mark’ at its side.

Carrots to the rescue

Yet another day, where inspite of being organized and following a particular schedule, I ended up sitting in my room thinking of how to finish my work. 'Not another night out' was the first thing that ran into my restless mind. Recently I'd been having a tough time remembering stuff about, me getting up and switching the alarm, talking to my friends 2 hours into sleep (how come u guys always call me exactly when I go to sleep? I don't even have a particular sleep schedule and how can you find the exact time I sleep?), or even attending my parents phone call. Well with all this in mind, I wasn't feeling comfortable in trying to risk another short nap before the night out. Extremely hit with the soporofic wave, I had no other option but to go on the psychological motivation. With coffee, sugar and a few more, sitting deers on the list of 'Don'ts this year' I was a lil perplexed with what would help me stay awake all night. Well, as any confused houser would do, I checked the refrigerator. The arched back took its role and with heavy eyes I noticed a pack of carrots. Great!!!! (Excitement: increased the chance of staying awake for another 1 hr).

A bite, a sip of juice and once an hr peep at the parking lot (the cold does keep me stay awake), had me running all active. One more paragraph to finish and 'nada' - bugs bunny deprived of food..... Just realized, it that I ran out of carrots and the next thing I remembered was 'It's 9 am? When did I sleep? Mom called at 6 and I answered it (checked my phone log)!!! What did we talk about? When did my roomies get up? What the f***!!!!!!!' Guess am blacking out before and during sleep (hehehehehe... Strange way to say that I black out when I sleep). I just wished that my advisor had called me earlier today.

Strange that, whatever bad state I'm at while sleeping (dead sometimes), just seconds into the specially designed ringtone I get when my advisor calls, I bolt out of my bed and respond to his call with so much poise that on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most active) I would score a perfect 20. Once I'm done with the call, I'm still at scale 20 and WOW, it does amaze me. Am changing my alarm ringtone to my advisors ringtone..... Well me back to writing my paper.... Times up!

Shadow Sneaker

It's nearly 3 months that I've started walking back to school instead of riding 'WW 6' (coz I've been deprived of a bike by the school being a regular customer). Walking has literally brought a new face into my multitude of perception about the world.

In the past 2 weeks I've noticed that involuntarily, my eyes go down to the concrete, whenever I cross a person (walking in the same direction). Initially I thought I was shy (Seesh! How can I even imagine that I was shy?), but today, I found the real reason behind my action. My eyes are always focussed on the shadow of the person am crossing and my feet with its own mind, sneaks sideways to avoid it. Guess am a shadow sneaker. Nights are the best to see me going crazy, coz there are at least 2 different lights shadowing at the same time, and jumping in front of a crosser doesn't put me in the category of 'Normal'. I see a natural ability (or should I say agility) in gracing out of the shadows in seconds.

PS I also noticed that at nights I skip head light trails of cars coming opposite of me, by making longer and faster steps as the light crosses me. I know am a really really deeply retarded crazy guy. But as long as I don't break anyone or self or any rules, I'm fine with it.