This weekend

What did I do this weekend ?? .. What do I generally do on weekends ?? ... writing this one hoping that after a couple of years will re-read this post and try to remember how it was.

Weekend fever generally starts getting its grip thursday evening when we try and decide over dinner what can be done friday night.

So its Friday ! .. Last day of work ! .. mails/phone calls start afround 4pm... unlike some of my friends I enjoy working on fridays knowing its going to be fun after work. This friday we started with our extended session of foosball at around 6 (I play foosball everyday anyways). Ro came up to our floor and three of us were playing for about half an hour with other teams. Later we decide on a restaurant to go have dinner. Three of us of us hop into Vishal's car to CEDARS - an Indian restaurant in UW area. They had about an hours waiting time so I get this brilliant idea that we do our grocery across the street to save time but end up missing our reservation. Finally, after listening to gaalis from friends who had come from Belleuve we decide on another restaurant near downtown - Roti. After eating (its already 11) we discuss the options -
Bowling - been doing that for the last 3 weekends,
Movie - seen all of them, nothing new coming up,
so we go to Vishal's place to play poker but end up playing judgement till 3 in the morning. Later that night we went home and slept.

Next day everyone was up by 12 which is pretty early for weekends, although lately I have been waking up early on weekends than on weekdays. Being a sunny day we immediately decide on soccer (football for ppl in India). After a few phone calls and planning, 15 of us meet at a ground near Microsoft campus. Soccer is an exciting but a tiring game. 4 of the 15 get injured while playing.
My right leg is in pain. We pick up Vinay and 5 of us head down to eat some fast food (samosas and something similar to pav vaada). Ro gets a DVD from the store and we crash into vinays place. Ro' first cousin is a super star in Mallu movies and he got a hit mallu DVD from the indian store. He starts the movie while we are resting and we end up watching the whole movie ... as expected, its like a typical hindi movie except its in malyalum which only Ro understands .. all I have is the subtitles which sometimes read funny. After the movie there is argument on where to go, everyone is tired but most of them still want to go clubbing ... so here
we go again, back to Seattle downtown from Redmond (its a 25 min drive). We go home, change from our soccer gear and head out for Belltown Billards at 12:00 am. I am not a huge clubbing fan but its a good place to hang out.

After couple of games of billards, we get kicked out at 2 am .. closing time .. Few friends wanna try out another club next door - Venom, which is open till 4. They go in while four of us head back. We drop a friend and drive back to Redmond to reach just in time for the first F1 race of the season. Race ends at 5 with Alonso winning and Shumacher coming in second ... and its sleeping time.
Everyone again wakes up at 12. Sunday is also sunny and so we decide to go to the beach and play volleyball. Before that its Udipi palace for our breakfast cum lunch. After lunch, we get back home, play some carrom and change from party gear and head out for the beach. Beach volley ball rocks. Tired after playing, we stop at Subway for dinner and head out home.

Monday morning, I reach office and I have no idea what I have been working on .. It takes half an hour for me to remember what is the work that I do. I think it's a successfull weekend if it makes you forget what you do for living ;)

People we meet

I have been residing in downtown for a couple of months now. Everyday I see lots of homeless people. They are smiling, holding placards asking for clothes, money. They are kind, they will never tell you anything aout the problems they are facing, but I know they are in pain. They dont have the comfort of turning the heater on when its cold. They dont have the liberty to complain.
As I cross their path almost daily, they have become part of my daily life. There is this guy who will look into your eye and give a genuine smile everytime he sees you. He looks really intelligent and experienced. I dosent matter that I havent given him a dime yet, he will still smile. I often wonder what did he do to deserve such a life? As I think about them and their experience with life I cant help but say -

My life is perfect, even if it's not