Vacationing ;-)

Almost a year ago, in fact exactly a year ago I was on a vacation with friends for the first time ever :-). Visited California and New York. It was a fun trip [expensive being a student]. I loved every bit of the time I spent but longed to go back to Baton Rouge since I had some work to finish up :-).

This year, now that I am working didn't have the luxury of a months holiday during Christmas. However, made the most of the 4 days by visiting Los Angeles. A brilliant trip and totally unexpected fun in its own way. Day one was just driving through the coastal roads for 10 hours, day two was Universal Studios , day three was exploring Los Angeles other attractions and visiting Santa Monica Beach and day four was a non stop 5 hour drive back home and hogging the much missed home cooked food :-)!!! 

Vacations need not be days long, what makes them vacation is the experience, joy and content of vacationing! I have been lucky to have it for two consecutive years and am making a mental note to follow the tradition in the following years as well :-)

Happy Holiday Season!

Arpitha

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 2012...........

All excited for 2012 to end and 2013 to begin.. hoping for some exciting and wonderful things in 2013 [ So the rush duh!!! ]... 2012 has been a mixed bag and often times I get caught up with what went good, what went bad, what I did was good/bad/ unjustified !!?!!!......

The likelihood and impact of the events in 2012 has had a Material effect in my life....looking forward to placing some  right controls to mitigate the risks and address the deviations ... hmmm these are the words of the THE EY Auditor :-)... if you get it good if not no worries.....


-
Arpitha Prakash
Advisory Staff
EY

In Reality...

It will be hard to blog on this though...but let me try...

The financial status of my family has grown from poor (grand parents) to middle class  ( parents
) to "hopefully" upper middle class during my generation. Though I wouldn't say I have faced a lot of financial issues during my lifetime, I would definitely say I have seen, learnt and to a large extent practiced spending on a need basis rather than a want basis [ few exceptions included]. And this has grown over a period of time in me with various exposures, experiences and responsibilities.

Just reflecting on this after a shopping spree during Thanksgiving 2012! My third thanksgiving in US!!

For the first one, I recollect buying nothing for myself except for body lotion for my mom and an electronic camera for Abhijith. Off course I did not have to pay for both of them. My second thanksgiving I was rather more flexible and shopped for a dress and socks if I remember. This time I had planned for a good amount of things, since I had not shopped after I started working. But my budget was very very low due to various reasons. However, I ended my shopping a whole lot [ No regrets[. This is only because I feel I am capable of handling this expense and the reason is also because the shopping items were on the border line between need and want. The human tendency to just break the rule once. I am content and should not be shopping till I plan to visit India next.

However in reality.... ;-)

Balancing Equation!

I am sure this feeling is shared by ALL of us! If not I would think something is definitely wrong with me!!! Not that I know of  it already :-D

If I don't get calls from family when I expected them to call, a wish from a dear one when I felt it was needed, an update about something I think I should know...if any of these things don't happen two things follow:

1. I feel so angry with the person who did not meet my expectation ;-)
2. I feel so alone thinking no one cares for me ;-)

Well it is true and I know both 1 & 2 are just a temporary passing feeling  but still once in a while I get caught up with it :-)

And then there are those days when someone does something totally unexpected:

1. A friend and a student at LSU mentioned my name in his Master's Thesis "Acknowledgement" section. I have no clue what made him do that, but it made me feel good and guilty for having my name mentioned .

2. A random person from Craigslist who has emailed me after 6 months to know  I am still interested in his palce. I was the one who had contacted him 6 months ago and unfortunately he had already picked his tenant that time, He had told me he would get back to me once something comes up!

Well I always say Nature has it's own way of balancing: Some examples are
1. Boys vs Gals :-P
2. Vegetarians vs non vegetarians (Obviously)

And may be the expected being full filled by an unexpected is one of these Balancing Equations !!!



Arpitha

BUSY BEE!

Gone are the days when I could "afford" to reset my alarm in the mornings...gone are the days when I didn't have to set an alarm during weekends...gone are the days when Friday afternoon meant no work...gone are the days when weekend meant no work and finally gone are the days when I had the luxury of TIME!

Well when someone recently told me "BUSY" is the norm now a days I agreed to it completely not knowing the implications it can have on me can be this drastic!!!! I never ever used to accept me being called "Busy Bee" by many of my friends..but I am left with no option but to call myself BUSY BEE!!! I know people say "Busy" means you have prioritized one thing over another..I would not agree to that..At times you do things out of choice, at times you do things to make others happy and at times you do things without a reason :-)

Anyways the whole point is my life is getting busier by the day and the way I justify the fact that I am unable to do many things is not my mistake completely :-)

Letting go.....

One of the hardest things to ever do is to let go of things..be it memories, people, things......I have always have a gazillion things which I tag along to and find it hard to let go..in fact at times the guilt is so immense that it eats up the happiness not only from me but also from the people who are with me...Last weekend was one of those days when I was thinking about it and found out that if I really wanted something that bad I would have never ever let it go and if I have let it go means it never was meant to be....

Hmmmmm....

:-)