Perfumes
I love perfumes..I donot like the sporty perfumes, neither do I like very floral perfumes. I like exotic smelling perfumes. My favorites are Paris (by YSL and my mom has been wearing it for a number of years..love it.), I like Obsession by Calvin Klein, and I simply love Joop!. Its a very different smelling perfume, and believe me, I get complements every single time I wear it. I remember I was in Carl's Jr in school, and this lady stopped to ask me what I was wearing, then as I was leaving my apartment building in CO, another girl asked me, and when I bought in Wal-mart (!!), as I carried the bottle to check out, another woman asked me if they were selling Joop!. So my first pay, I pampered myself to a bottle of Joop!. As I ran out of my earlier bottle last year. Anyways, thrilled...oooh...just smells divine....

These are a few of my favorite things.....

I had two days of training specializing in a particular tool. I had to go at 9 am officially get done at 5 pm. Today, I started at 9:15 am..and was done by 2:30 pm :D. This was such a welcome break! Since that was the only thing expected from us, I took the chance and rushed home. Never been out of my office that that time..It was nice and sunny. I was so thrilled to be home. I docked myself in front of the TV, chatted with aai, slept, chatted with friends, cooked. I have not done this since I joined work. I know people who have been working for a year or more, will think how lazy I am. But I got a break!! :)

So I have been very happy. Such small things make one happy.
1. Getting an unexpected break!
2. Sit in front of the tv, rate of channel change 1 per milli sec
3. Soda with ice-cream
4. Weight loss with no efforts.
5. Getting loads of emails that are not junk.
6. nice new shiny credit cards...no scratches
7. new clothes.
8. new pens and pencils
9. new shoes
10. My hair being manageable
11. Clean, vacuum cleaned carpets
12. Sugar cane juice on a hot sunny afternoon
13. Sleep when u are sleepy.
14. Good music.
15. a good hug
16. warm feet

There are soo many things that make me happy...Helps to not think of the pain and suffering of all the people in the world..as shallow as it sounds.

Matrubhumi jyachi tyala...
Matrubhumi jyachi tyala...
Hot bandishala..
Parvashata paash daive jyanchya gala lagala

YAAAAY weekend.

I must apologize for the incomplete and haphazard post. It was written over a week. Should not do that.

Had the most relaxing weekend. It was raining quite a bit in CA. I got my first pay on friday. Took Vandan, Rahul and Anu out for a treat. Neeraj recommended "The Cheesecake Factory". Awesome food. If gluttony is a sin...I think we are all guilty of it three times over. I started off with virgin Pina colada. Neeraj has same. Then for starters we had buffalo wings, pop corn shrimp and bruscheta. (thats garlic bread with a lot of salsa on it.) Then I had Jamaican black pepper shrimp, Neeraj had Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp, Anu had Chicken and Cashew, Rahul had Chicken Madeira and Vandan had Miso Salmon. Then to top it off, we had dulce de lycee and caramel cheesecake. It was sinsational :)

Every single one of this had a different taste that was very authentic. Reason for this confidence: I have been to Jamaica, big fan of Jerk Chicken. I know the black bean rice they serve with every meal. It was all there. There was a mango pickle (not the indian pickle, more like mango in vinegar). I know it was authentic. Neeraj's dish was very very authentic far-eastern. Been to Indonesia and Singapore. So I know that those two dishes were authentic. The others were equally yummy. The only thing that was kind of different that did not taste authentic was the buffali wings. The tangy, spicy sauce was just not there. It was dry. Buffalo wings are supposed to make your hands all dripping with the sauce, should make your lips tingle. Strangely that was a letdown. But one not-so-good dish out of all the out-of-this-world dish we had was just very forgivable.

After we got out, we just had to get some exercise just to settle the food in. We decided to go bowling after much debate :). Vandan, Anu and I wanted to play cards at home ( we are lazy :)) and Neeraj and Rahul wanted to go bowling. So as we all believe in democracy, we went bowling ..hehe. Neeraj won the game. I managed to break my all-time career low of 36. :). I score a 49. awesome isnt it? Then we played pool in the alley. And then a round of darts. At about 2 am, when they were about the lock the alley, we left. Saturday was spent much in cleaning the house, watching the most aweful movie, Encounter the Killing. Naseer, Dilip Prabhawalkar caused us to be misled. Then we had guests over for lunch. Made Tandoori chicken tikka, bharli wangi, gawar bhaji, matki usal, kanda-tomato koshimbir, polya. We also has mini samosa (ready-made) for starters. And for sweet dish, we had lychee and falooda icecream.

Then we went to buy some clothes for me...I never seem to have enough clothes. :D Bought myself a leather jacket. I still feel silly wearing a smart jacket..coz I dont feel smart enough to wear it :D
Anyways, really restful weekend full of gluttony. Back to work tomorrow....

A week of work

Today I completed an entire week at work. Its kind of hard to imagine that I started a week by. Days are literally zipping past. Its a plethora of new technologies, new people. Almost everyday I am learning new things, not always technical :) Like how the coffee machine works. It is quite funky. The first couple of days, it was quite hard to stay awake in the afternoons, given my leisurely routine. I needed coffee just to keep my eyes open. So in absolute stupor, I was reading a 1000 page user guide, when Vaughan, an extremely cheerful Australian, stopped by my cube.(There is something about australians ..cheerful and Australians fo hand in hand, except on the criket field:)) He reprimanded Warren, my mentor, for not showing me the most important thing you need to survive first few days of training.Vaughan showed me the coffee station closest to my cube, and gave me a quick demo of how to use the machine. At about 3 pm, when I realized that I had a reached the point when the lines I was reading were converging into each other, I realized I needed coffee. I made Leena tag along with me. This time I kind of grasped how to use it.

Managed to survive the next couple of hours. There are meeting, web meeting, weekly reports, certification exams, HR stuff, taxes...phew!! just too many things. It was so much better in school ;). Even in grad school, you are spoon fed almost every step of they way. Almost all the ladies who work as secretaries in our school are about 45-50 year old, extremely loving, absolutely lovable women. I actually has Carol, our department's acountant call me her Indian daughter. So whenever I had any trouble, all I had to do was rush to them and they were always willing to offer help, or at times even a shoulder to cry on :). As compared to that laid back life of grad school in CO, the fast paced work life in the Sillicon Valley is way too stressful. In CO, you were always a "hun", "sweetheart"..Here you are Ketaki..plain ol' Ketaki

I guess sometimes I miss the warmth In CO. Well I am sure I will get used to this also...After all first few days in CO..I was scared of probably the most loving women I have ever met.....

First Day At work

I must look like a lost puppy..It seems to me that I am the only one around here who doesnot know what she is supposed to do..Everyone else is doing their work, and basically look busy..
Well my mentor Warren called in sick today, so I was given some stuff to read by my manager. I read that and now I am supposed to hang on till 5 pm. Well since most of the things are explained by the mentor, and since he is not here, I am at a complete loss of things to do. I have completed everything in that checklist I was given..And its still only 4 pm.
Feel slightly more courageous now, I have installed MSN messenger. Connected me to the outside world. :) Being Neeraj ;). Now I am gaining more and more courage...I am blogging :D
So how is my cube like? Well its slightly bigger than my CSU cube. And a lot more equipped. There is a welcome gift for me, that has a MI cup, glass, card holder. And a big welcome note posted on my cube wall. :) And I have a packet of stationary( heheh..Medha will know why I am sooo excited...I looooooove stationary).
I have helped myself to the free coke..tried to get coffee...couldn't figure how that works...
(reminder to self: learn to use it)
So survived on water. What else??!! I have a pentium 4 machine. It is blazing fast as compared to our machine at home. The monitor seems smaller..
How do I find my way around? There is this absolutely huge stuffed toy from Monster's Inc, right by my cube..That sits on top of the cube walls. You can see it from anywhere. So once I am there..I know my way around.
I also know how to make phone calls out of MI. Went to the HR and guided myself back with reference to the Monster's Inc toy. (Sully??!!) I think thats what that guy is called in the movie.
Blessing, to have Leena (Neeraj's band member Ajay's wife here) I would not have been able to pee if it werent for her. They need an ID to get out. duh??!! Dont want to spend the first day locked in the loo. But the traffic in the loo was pretty heavy. So may be I could have let myself out. But don;t want to risk it and make a fool out of myself.

Hehe..Now to people who pass by my cube..it must seem like I am doing some work..Thank God for blogging. :) Atleast the keyboard is clicking :D.
Another reminder to self: to get one of those mirrors that you can attach to your monitor. This was a problem I faced in CSU too..Since I face the walls, I can not see whoever comes in. A lot of the people here seem to have a generic mirror, maybe I can get it in office supplies or whatever its called :)

All in all, nobody ate me, nobody killed me ..and I think I will survive the next 45 mins...

New Job
I start my job tomorrow..I am excited and nervous. I have been out of a job (well not a job technically, since May 2002. Thats when my funding as a TA ended) And since I have been studying all these years, I have never actually had a job. The only two things I did that put money in my bank account was my little teaching stint in my under-grad school, MIT, in pune. And being a teaching assistant in CSU. So this is my first job ever.

Tomorrow is a big day for me. People with experience in the big bad professional world tell me such varying things. Neeraj quotes the pedro's law...Nobody can go beyond their level of incompetence. :) that sure makes me feel better. I can never go beyond being "my worst". :)
So things I am scared about:
1. Making a sheer fool of myself.
2. Sounding like a child when talking to customers. (I have been told time and again that I sound like a kid on the phone :(. Its genetic. )

Things I am excited about.
1. PAY PAY!!
2. lots of shopping ..
3. Neeraj has to drop me off every morning at 6 am...thats romantic..hehe
4. some more shopping.
5. paying of those credit card debts.
6. just having a job in this market.

So well there is more I am excited about. Makes me feel a wee bit better.
Anyways..I have loads to read..better get back to it!