Birthdays are always special, but they are made more special by loving family and friends..That is exactly what I have received in this birthday week of mine..Surprise party from Priyanka to lovely blog gift from Dhvanit and much more....Indeed life is beautiful when you have so many loving friends who are like a family..
Here is Dhvanit's blog:
http://dhvanitdave.blogspot.com/2009/08/bhumikas-surprise-bday-party.html
Thanks Everyone..I love you all....I thank god for giving me this lovely group of family and friends....
Showing posts with label Lathia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lathia. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Driving Fear...
I didn't realize it initially, but ever since my minor accident couple of weeks ago, I suddenly am scared of people driving in the cars behind me. I know I have control over the cars in front of me, since I trust my brakes quite well, but the people driving behind me, now when they come close, I am all scared that they might run into my car. Also when people do not show indicators and cross lanes or drive at high speed when the traffic is slow ahead, makes me think, is it the same place I have been driving for 3 years? Why does all of a sudden everything seem so different? Why are people so less courteous of other drivers..If you are in a hurry, why didn't you actually wake up early, so that your hurry, doesn't delay(because in a hurry you would drive so weird, that the chances of accident are quite likely) the other people who woke up on time to reach their destination on time. If you really have to do makeup, why don't you do it from home, or do it in the parking lot of your office rather than scaring people by applying makeup while driving!!!!!!!!!!!! In one word, RIDICULUOUS is the world here..........
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Serenity...
Earlier sometimes, when I used to be stressed out, my best bet was to put on my headphones and meditate. One of the meditations I like is chakra meditation. When I was in my teens, I had learned Siddhi Samadhi Yoga(SSY), which taught a meditation similar to this. Also my parents being much involved in pranic healing acquainted me with this form of meditation which is a savior in almost all situations. This meditation visualizes the various chakra colors and we cleanse and purify the chakras and thus our energy.
These days in addition to meditating couple of times a week during the lunch break, I have joined an aerobics boot camp, where we practice kickboxing and ab workout, which is a highly recommended stress reliever. My instructor there is highly motivating and I am always eager to attend that class.. The other days of the week, I have started practising Yoga at the local gym...This yoga is different from the ones I learnt in India, but it is quite good. Within 10 minutes of the start, everybody in the class is sweating like anything. It has made me more flexible and helped me with gaining balance during my ab workout in my kickboxing class...I also went for the dancing class once, and plan to schedule it in my routine soon...
My sister recently attended a beginner's class on ART OF LIVING and she absolutely loved it.
BE ACTIVE...BE POSITIVE........ BE HAPPY........
These days in addition to meditating couple of times a week during the lunch break, I have joined an aerobics boot camp, where we practice kickboxing and ab workout, which is a highly recommended stress reliever. My instructor there is highly motivating and I am always eager to attend that class.. The other days of the week, I have started practising Yoga at the local gym...This yoga is different from the ones I learnt in India, but it is quite good. Within 10 minutes of the start, everybody in the class is sweating like anything. It has made me more flexible and helped me with gaining balance during my ab workout in my kickboxing class...I also went for the dancing class once, and plan to schedule it in my routine soon...
My sister recently attended a beginner's class on ART OF LIVING and she absolutely loved it.
BE ACTIVE...BE POSITIVE........ BE HAPPY........
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Volunteering at National Rebuilding Together
25th April was the National Rebuilding Day where University of Michigan, Dallas Alumni Club decided to volunteer. Being part of the Alumni Club, I found out about the opportunity and was quite excited since this was going to be my first volunteer work experience in the USA. One of my friends Nileshbhai and I registered as a volunteer for the UM Alumni club. It was a saturday morning and we were suppose to assemble at the place around 8 am, so I woke up early quite excited about the opportunity. My excitement had two reasons, first it was an unselfish work which I would be doing, that would make someone happy and the other reason was to meet fellow wolverines. Its been almost three years since I move to Dallas, Texas from Ann Arbor, Michigan, but I miss Michigan a lot since I have some of the loveliest memories there...
The house we were assigned belonged to a 90- year old lady. She was very nice and friendly. The week before some other group had helped clean up the interior rooms and organize things inside. Our assignment was cleaning from the outside like the car garage, the backyard, painting the house exteriors, weathering the windows etc. We assembled in front of the house around 8 am and introduced each other and started working. Initially we started with garage, there was hardly any space to walk into the backyard since the garage was full of stuff. We threw away lot of items and kept some, which were her fond memories like a rocking chair of her grandmother etc.
Next when there was enough space to reach the backyard, we went there and started working on it. It looked like it had not been taken care of for years..The grass and the trees were overgrown. Some of us started cutting the trees while others picked up the twigs and big branches so that it would be easier for the lawn mower to work.
It was fun, but scary at times when we encountered small snakes on our paths...Finally we managed to clean up everything in the backyard and it looked beautiful....completely different from what we had started on....
The next work for painting the exterior house. We needed to apply the primer initially and then once the primer was settled for an hour, we could start painting. We divided into two groups, one group was working on the front part and the other group was working on the back side.
Over the door, it was difficult to reach from the ladder, so someone climbed on the roof to get to it..The enthusiasm of people to work and help was tremendous. It was a pleasure to be a part of such an enthusiastic group..
Around noon all of us were hungry and were waiting for the pizza which had been ordered. We ate the pizza and in the meantime, the primer had dried so we started the painting operation. I painted the entrance door and the lady came out to show us one of her pictures as a flight attendant. It was a beautiful pic.
Some of the volunteers were working on painting the floor in one of the rooms where the carpet had been peeled off..We were almost done, when someone remembered we needed to paint the fireplace. So we started working on the fireplace...It was about 3:30 pm and we were done, with paints on our jeans, hands and t-shirts....The house looked beautiful and totally different from the morning when we started working on it.
It was a great satisfaction to be helpful to somebody in this way....I have decided to look for more volunteering opportunities in the future.
In the news
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Turner Falls - A much needed break
My sister Priyanka, had a spring break last week. Most of the time we spent in cleaning the house so at the end of the week, we were all in need of a well deserved break..One of her school friend was visiting us during the weekend. Friday evening when I reached home, our friend Nileshbhai, called us if we wanted to go see some movie...Desiring the much needed break, we agreed and went to see last chance Harvey...Its an Ok kind of movie..Too dramatic..I loved hearing the English and Irish accents...After the movie we went to eat at chipotle and finally went home where Disha and Sapan joined us..While sitting, I was telling them, how it would be a good idea to take a break..All of us were probably enough stressed in the week, that the idea of the break sounded tempting and was met with zero resistance except for one of our friends, sunny who could not join us because of his schedule..So there, on a friday night around 11 pm we decided to head to Turner Falls in Oklahoma and stop by Winstar Casino on the way back..Having been to Turner Falls in Nov 2007, I knew it would be a good place for a picnic, but the fun we had outgrew my expectations, because last time when I visited it was cold winter time and this was the spring season... Most of the friends in the group have know each other for atleast couple of years now and we are very compatible group..Friday night after deciding the final plan nileshbhai, bhabhi, disha and sapan departed my place around 1 am..Next day we were on the way to Oklahoma falls around 8 am..Strangely enough, disha was the first one to wake up amongst all of us and also disha and sapan reached on time at nileshbhai's place..The drive was good, about 2 hours from my place...Pretty much most of it on 35ENorth with the last few miles being scenic. Once we reached the area, we went to the scenic overlook, which we had missed last time. It was beautiful seeing the falls, the castle and the surrounding areas from the top...
Seeing the falls from the top, we all knew in our hearts, we had made the right decision to come to this place...
We entered the turners fall park area..drove through the beautiful scenic sites and flooded water bridge....
We parked our car at the parking to go the falls...It was almost 11:30 and most of us were hungry...So being obvious, we decided to cross the river side and picnic on one of the benches overlooking the river..That morning, I had a chance to cook some pulaav rice for all of us, and disha had brought lots of snacks, so we took all the food we were planning to eat from the car trunk and headed towards the picnic tables crossing the river carefully by stepping on the rocks....
I think treading through the moving river made us forget about how hungry we were and start on the adventure ride...Some of us were involved in playing catching with a small tennis ball sapan had brought along..Some of us were busy in posing for photographing...and so that triggered the reaction of messing into each other business which started with all the crazy idea of throwing ball on the people in the group posing for photos and them throwing the unwanted ball into the river and then people trying to rescue the ball from the river waters...The water in general looked quite good, but at the sides there were some moss, which made going to the river edge to get the ball quite yucky and throwing the ball quite entertaining...
After we had enough of the play sessions, our stomachs were hurting with hunger..So finally we decided to eat the yummy pulaav ;)..It was drizzling a little bit while we were eating, but no one cared...Everyone was so hungry, that there was hardly any noise while we were eating...Also it started to get a little bit cold, since the sun was hiding in the clouds and the water drizzles made the air chilly...Once we were done eating, we went our way back crossing the river to drop off the containers as well as the trash..Finally most of us also picked up jackets from our cars. On the way back, we decided to go to the falls, through the river, stepping on the water and the stones and having fun with the splashes. We showed each other way and helped to pass through places which were quite slippery sometimes...
And so finally we reached the destination...heheh..the falls....Amazing and beautiful as always..A regular walk of 10 minutes was extended into an hour and half fun treading through the river for all of us....Seeing the falls,the first thought, disha and I had was the water was less, comparative to what we saw when we went there in Nov 07, but the water has its own beauty and charm...We were mesmerised by the falls...
We enjoyed the view for quite a while and then decided to take the hike for the caves and view of the top..It was a wonderful adventure, not difficult at all, but fun stepping on the rocks and finding the way through the mountains...we reached a beautiful cave on the top, which had some dangerous pathways, which lead to the top of the falls..Sapan was more adventurous than us all and decided to go there..I am sure the view was heavenly from that place as I could judge from the photos he took from there...We decided to move on talking and walking and admiring the nature..The weather was getting better with no sun, but no rain too, so there were more people coming onto the top...We saw the sight of other small falls and the river and then some tents were visible at a our distance which pinched our curiousity and we decided to go to the river...now we had reached the top and to go to the river, it was a downhill climb, and the route was not normal...so we had to find rocks and paths on our own to reach the bottom, most of it was not bad, except the final one, which was a long rock and thus needed a jump or some support from someone at the bottom to actually reach the end...finally all of us did it..yahooooooooooo....The river reminded me of the river bias in manali, which rocks and water treading its way.....the water had not been much since it was still the start of summer and we did not have much rainfall yet, so that enabled us to jump from rock to rock inside the river and keep on going.....finally after about 2 long hours, some of us felt hungry and tired...so we decided we will head back.....and thus came back again to the falls.....the joy of being one step closer with nature was fantastic...finally after reaching the main falls again, we decided to sit at the main rock of the falls and observe the falls..by that time there were lots of people bathing in the water falls..we also saw a tortoise inside from the rock, which was funny since I was out of water on the rock, but would have been scary if I had been inside..hehehe..
Finally Nileshbhai and Sapan, decided to be more adventurous and climb the rocks from where the water was falling...It was a dangerous climb, though lots of kids were already there, but I think the adventure was worth it...
It was around 5 pm and we decided we will start heading home, since we had plans to stopby at the Winstar Casino...Winstar casino is big, I have been there about 3 times now, but this was the first time, i actually saw the other areas past the front region where we normally play on the 25cents machine..They have made the interiors like paris, beijing beautiful...I had put few dollars and had won about 40 dollars till I lost is all again...But isnt that what casinos are meant for?? Loosing?? Did someone actually win something???(Huh, well if that someone is smart enough to cash out before they start loosin yeah.........)
Overall a fantastic trip and I would look forward to more trips like this in future...
XOXO
Bhumika
Seeing the falls from the top, we all knew in our hearts, we had made the right decision to come to this place...
We entered the turners fall park area..drove through the beautiful scenic sites and flooded water bridge....
We parked our car at the parking to go the falls...It was almost 11:30 and most of us were hungry...So being obvious, we decided to cross the river side and picnic on one of the benches overlooking the river..That morning, I had a chance to cook some pulaav rice for all of us, and disha had brought lots of snacks, so we took all the food we were planning to eat from the car trunk and headed towards the picnic tables crossing the river carefully by stepping on the rocks....
I think treading through the moving river made us forget about how hungry we were and start on the adventure ride...Some of us were involved in playing catching with a small tennis ball sapan had brought along..Some of us were busy in posing for photographing...and so that triggered the reaction of messing into each other business which started with all the crazy idea of throwing ball on the people in the group posing for photos and them throwing the unwanted ball into the river and then people trying to rescue the ball from the river waters...The water in general looked quite good, but at the sides there were some moss, which made going to the river edge to get the ball quite yucky and throwing the ball quite entertaining...
After we had enough of the play sessions, our stomachs were hurting with hunger..So finally we decided to eat the yummy pulaav ;)..It was drizzling a little bit while we were eating, but no one cared...Everyone was so hungry, that there was hardly any noise while we were eating...Also it started to get a little bit cold, since the sun was hiding in the clouds and the water drizzles made the air chilly...Once we were done eating, we went our way back crossing the river to drop off the containers as well as the trash..Finally most of us also picked up jackets from our cars. On the way back, we decided to go to the falls, through the river, stepping on the water and the stones and having fun with the splashes. We showed each other way and helped to pass through places which were quite slippery sometimes...
And so finally we reached the destination...heheh..the falls....Amazing and beautiful as always..A regular walk of 10 minutes was extended into an hour and half fun treading through the river for all of us....Seeing the falls,the first thought, disha and I had was the water was less, comparative to what we saw when we went there in Nov 07, but the water has its own beauty and charm...We were mesmerised by the falls...
We enjoyed the view for quite a while and then decided to take the hike for the caves and view of the top..It was a wonderful adventure, not difficult at all, but fun stepping on the rocks and finding the way through the mountains...we reached a beautiful cave on the top, which had some dangerous pathways, which lead to the top of the falls..Sapan was more adventurous than us all and decided to go there..I am sure the view was heavenly from that place as I could judge from the photos he took from there...We decided to move on talking and walking and admiring the nature..The weather was getting better with no sun, but no rain too, so there were more people coming onto the top...We saw the sight of other small falls and the river and then some tents were visible at a our distance which pinched our curiousity and we decided to go to the river...now we had reached the top and to go to the river, it was a downhill climb, and the route was not normal...so we had to find rocks and paths on our own to reach the bottom, most of it was not bad, except the final one, which was a long rock and thus needed a jump or some support from someone at the bottom to actually reach the end...finally all of us did it..yahooooooooooo....The river reminded me of the river bias in manali, which rocks and water treading its way.....the water had not been much since it was still the start of summer and we did not have much rainfall yet, so that enabled us to jump from rock to rock inside the river and keep on going.....finally after about 2 long hours, some of us felt hungry and tired...so we decided we will head back.....and thus came back again to the falls.....the joy of being one step closer with nature was fantastic...finally after reaching the main falls again, we decided to sit at the main rock of the falls and observe the falls..by that time there were lots of people bathing in the water falls..we also saw a tortoise inside from the rock, which was funny since I was out of water on the rock, but would have been scary if I had been inside..hehehe..
Finally Nileshbhai and Sapan, decided to be more adventurous and climb the rocks from where the water was falling...It was a dangerous climb, though lots of kids were already there, but I think the adventure was worth it...
It was around 5 pm and we decided we will start heading home, since we had plans to stopby at the Winstar Casino...Winstar casino is big, I have been there about 3 times now, but this was the first time, i actually saw the other areas past the front region where we normally play on the 25cents machine..They have made the interiors like paris, beijing beautiful...I had put few dollars and had won about 40 dollars till I lost is all again...But isnt that what casinos are meant for?? Loosing?? Did someone actually win something???(Huh, well if that someone is smart enough to cash out before they start loosin yeah.........)
Overall a fantastic trip and I would look forward to more trips like this in future...
XOXO
Bhumika
Saturday, March 7, 2009
My To-Do List...
Things I have done so far:
Things I want to do next:
- Bungee Jumping
- Rides at Stratosphere
- Ice Skating
- Paragliding
- Snorkeling
- Skiing
- Rafting
- Tennis
- Water Aerobics
- Swimming
- Skating
- Karate
- Bharatnatyam
- BallRoom Dancing
- Drawing and Painting
- Fitness Boot camp, including kickboxing, strength training and abs workout
- Circuit Training
- Watching a football game in a stadium
- SixFlags and Seaworld
- Travel to Canada and Europe
- Sky Diving
- More Skiing and try Snowboarding
- May be deep water diving (I hope the water is not too salty ;))
- Start advanced levels of ice skating
- Learn a new language
- Take a professional development course
- Visit more countries
- Join some interesting clubs and volunteering activities
- Be involved in something where I could really make a difference!!
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