How Long Does It Take To Fall In Love?

A stray cat that hurt his leg in a fight with another stray has been in my care for the past two weeks. He was more than a little hesitant about taking his antibiotics the first few days. After a few more days, I gained his trust and he has been a really good boy ever since. He likes it when someone sits near him and will meow loudly if he wants company. I just gave him his last dose of medicine. He’s doing really well. :)

My heart is heavy with the thought of letting him go soon. :(

Lost and Found

The little break I’ve taken has done wonders. I’ve chilled out, contemplated, rejoiced.

Lost
My husband and I went to Little India, an ethnic enclave a few minutes away from the city centre, last week. We ate chicken biryani and samosas. Walked through rows and rows of colourful shop houses. After awhile, it became evident that we didn’t know the area that well.

We were lost. For hours we were wondering aimlessly, discovering quaint little corners tucked away from the main road. It would have been really fun if not for the 32-degree (90 F) heat. But that’s okay, a day like this makes an icy cold glass of coffee taste just that much better. And I need to maintain this positive mindset because we’re probably gonna get lost quite a bit come May. Why? We’re planning on going for a month-long vacation to Europe and I’m very, very excited about it. It will be our first time and I didn’t know where to begin! It would be nice to get some info from family and friends who’ve been there but the general consensus when we hinted about the trip to them has been negative – “better to save your money”, “it’s a bad time to go”, etc – so no, we didn’t get much help from them.

Found
I’m thankful to have people around me who cared enough for me to dispense well-meaning advice. I’m grateful too for the privilege of being able to make my own decisions. I decided that if I didn’t go now, I would probably regret it later.

Firstly, the exchange rates are very favourable now. Secondly, I have less work now. Yes, you heard that right. Less work. While I couldn’t possibly envision myself taking a month off work last year, there’s a definite dearth of projects in the coming months. Time, once a great luxury to me, has become more affordable now. Still I felt that I need a little reaasurance, and turned to my best friend.

“Just go,” said my best friend.

“But why?” I asked.

“Because,” she laughed.

Embrace the now, be spontaneous, grab the silver lining, get inspired, live without regrets – she summed it up with one word.

Different But Still the Same

I met the other half of my sludge worm fellowship a few days ago. So glad to finally see her again! All the anxiety I had about meeting her quickly melted away as we chatted about the old days and how much (or how little) we’ve changed.

On the surface we looked different – we’re no longer giggly schoolgirls in uniforms, we’ve grown a couple of inches taller and our fashion styles have evolved – but essentially we’re still the same persons. She described our reacquaintance succinctly when she said,

“Everything’s different yet nothing’s changed.” :)

Rekindling Old Flames

A girl friend I’ve been out of touch for nearly 14 years sent me a message out of the blue a few days ago.

We’ve had so many, many good memories together. I shared some of my first crushes with her – Christian Slater, and the boy in who lived at 9th floor in my old apartment. I didn’t know how we drifted apart when we used to be so close in school that we called ourselves “sludge worms”, because of the way we tend cling to each other.

We agreed to meet each other soon and to be honest I’m quite nervous. As Anya commented on my previous post, this feeling is indeed natural. I’m probably afraid that I’d be disappointed with the possibility that the “now” is less sweet than the “then”.

Recently I started baking again, an activity I used to enjoy tremendously.  I had reservations on whether it I’d still be in love with it.

The first batch of cookies I baked was complete failure, something I don’t recall ever happening before, which led me to thinking whether I still had “it”. Disappointed, I decided to continue with the next batch with a different oven setting and sure enough, it did the trick.

It wasn’t me — the new oven just needed some getting used to.

There are a couple more activities I used to enjoy that may need revisiting:

Crochet/Knit
My grandma loved to knit and crochet and I picked the skill from her at a young age (about 8).  My interest in it waned when she passed away — I didn’t have access to books on crocheting then and my mother wasn’t into it. Now, there’s a web of online resources on how-to-knit/crochet.

Read Fiction
My reading list is decidedly non-fiction — personal development, psychology, art, science, autobiographies. I love reading and love a good story, I just don’t know why I never thought of picking up a book from the fiction section anymore.

Go to the Theatre
I used to watch, if I could afford it, a stage play every month. I enjoyed watching actors perform in real-time. When I started working in multimedia and video production, my interest shifted to film.

It’s a little harder to renew a friendship because there are two parties involved but if my recent baking adventure were of any indication, the result could be sweet – though we may need to make some adjustments.