Monday, February 23

I asked Radha how many Oscars "Slumdog Millionaire" ended up winning.  "I already told you," she said annoyed.  In case you didn't know, Radha is not the best morning person, especially when we're on our way to school.  "No, you didn't," I said.  Radha gets annoyed at me when she tells me something and I forget and then ask her again.  I was upset that she brands me like that because sometimes she's wrong, like this time, for example.  But generally, she's right, my memory is not like it was.  Still, I pointed out to her, it's no reason to be rude.  From there it escalated.  She thought I wasn't giving her a chance to talk and I thought she was being rude and disrespectful.  Finally, I raised my voice and told her to never say the words "I've already told you that" again, especially in that tone of hers.

Later, I felt bad that I yelled and texted her "I love you."  Even later, I told her that even if I completely disagree with her and feel she's being obnoxious, I will not resort to yelling at her anymore.  "I don't care," she responded.  But later in the day she was nice to me again. Probably extra nice.

Shyam had me proof-read a 800-word paper he wrote Sunday night on preparing for a job interview.  I was surprised to only find three minor errors.  It was well-written also.  In the morning he told me he had to make a presentation to the class and was preparing note cards for it.  I told him to make eye contact with the class, praise them, establish his crediblity, and then after referring to each point on the index cards, pause and wing it with a humorous comment.  He seemed to take in what I said pretty well. Later, I saw him in B-building getting ready to "go on stage."  I also saw Syami  who is going to take some Spring-B classes.  He asked me where the assessment building was.

I wrote a letter to Nila Madhava concerning his mother's passing on Saturday and let him know I was there for him if I needed him.  I let him know about my mother's passing when I was 14 and said I know how hard it is to talk about it sometimes.  He wrote back that he appreciated it and told us that his mother liked us a lot and really loved Glani.  He also said he feels relieved that his Mom's suffering was over and was happy to think of her as participating in Krishna's pastimes now.  

I ran four miles, or should I say briskly walked for four miles at the gym on Monday night.  It felt great.  I tried to jog several times during the hour but my knee started hurting.  It was better than previously, though, and I obviously have more energy now.  I held off on the weight lifting until Tuesday.  I want to give my muscles more time to recover from the previous session, after all I'm 44 and not on steroids.  I experienced momentary muscle failure last time on about the eighth machine.  I was taking to it too fast.  Waiting another day will help, I thought. Besides, Tuesdays are ruled by Mars, which rules muscles.  It's a great day for exercise, weight-lifting and physical activity in general.  I'm excited about getting in shape.  I hope to get down to near 210 before the summer and under 200 by the time the fall semester starts in late August.  

Speaking of the summer, I will be doing some traveling with Dhrits, who is a fellow food-enthusiast like myself, so I will have to be vigilant.  Dhrits is hilarious.  He has so many stories to tell of his days in the air force and later as a hippie.  He joined the Hare Krishna Movement in the 70's and explained how an "attractive mataji" invited him to the Sunday Love Feast and how he was partly thinking there might be an orgy.  When I traveled with him two years ago, every night he would call his wife Tulasi and give her the run down on the day.  It was always highlighted by our food experiences, even more so than the money we made.  If Tulasi vented about difficulty dealing with someone Dhrits would say "Don't listen to any of them.  They're knuckleheads," and leave it at that.  At the end of the conversations he would always quickly say "Love you, miss you."

I think I did decently on my Algebra test.  The Topics of Math quiz was postponed until Friday (thank God).  I had to guess my way through the Geology quiz.  It was just matching terms and definitions.  I usually do good on those things without studying because I am pretty good with the English language.  I told my teacher Dr. Mead that I take six classes and by the time I get to my hardest class, Geology, my head is in a fog.  I was hoping to get some sympathy points from him at the end of the semester if it came down to it.  It seemed to initially work as he acted surprised and spoke with a more compassionate tone as he answered a question I had.

Glani and I ate around 3 p.m. at the Fat Tuscan. She didn't want to go but I talked her into it.   The salad and sandwich were pretty good.  Glani liked her veggie sandwich a lot.  I had the Formage a Trois Panini, which of course sounds very suggestive.  The atmosphere is nice and the decor is cute.  Later, I discovered a cool dining area outside replete with brick floor and Italian-style fountain.  I want to take my daughter and eat outside there on a warm day.  They are only opened until 3:30 p.m.