Some Thoughtful Meanderings

UPDATE ON EMOTIONS:

Starting a new life, making new friends, building a new career, clinging to the past and that which is familiar, reaching for the unknown and all the promise of adventures... Growing up is confusing...

I've been in Chicago for 4 months now. In such a short, yet at the same time very long time, I've been through so much and so little all simultaneously. I thrive on new things, new places, new challenges, new adventures - ask anyone that knows me very well and I'm sure they will agree. This doesn't come without the struggles of being thrust into unfamiliar territory. I don't always land on my feet, I do not always walk gracefully - I'm sublimely clumsy and pretty bruised from very poor entrances into these new adventures. Every new chapter in my life seems to start out great, take a moment and depress itself with some struggles, then simply soar on to the next great adventure. It's a trend that I've been through many times from starting college, to moving to India, and now in my transition to Chicago. The time frame changes for each new experience on when the downside will show itself and for how long it will last. Usually I get out of it pretty quickly due to the fact that I always seem to find super amazing people to help get me through it all. I'm now looking for that super amazing person for this adventure because life can get to be a bit much. Hey - that's what growing up is all about right? Tackling new challenges and meeting new obstacles face on and over coming them! I'll manage!

I'm hurting now for the pain my other home is currently having. Mumbai will always have a special place inside me tucked somewhere behind the heartstrings. I'm so fortunate that those who I care about are safe, and those they know and care about are safe too. These acts of violence are so confusing to me that I don't even try to rationalize them. I can only ask that every one stays safe and that everyone continues to send positive thoughts their way.
Mein tumse pyar karti hoon India, mein tumse pyar karti hoon...
में तुमसे प्यार करती हूँ इंडिया, में तुमसे प्यार करती हूँ...

I've also grown to really dislike Christmas music in the month of November and I live by the words of NPR as my main news source.
UPDATE ON ACTIVITIES:

I've had quite the busy last few weekends with visitors and traveling to Gurnee for Thanksgiving. Two of my best friends from Purdue, Alan and Megan came to visit for a weekend, three weeks back. We got to go see one of my favorite bands The Clarks play a show. I had a great time because I love there music. I think Megan and Alan enjoyed it too even though they didn't know the songs. We also got to hang around the city and eat at some fun restaurants as well as go out to the nearby bars. Philip came the following weekend and we also had a good time. I think the highlight for both of us was getting to have drinks on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building! The view was amazing and the drinks were really tasty too. Here are some pics from our time out in the city!

The 95th Floor!!

Chicago's tribute to the Jelly Bean (j/k)

Philip is actually Spiderman... Sorry the secret is out!

Two awkward people staring into the bean...

United States Politics

America has elected its first president of color.
California has voted to change its constitution to make gay marriage illegal.
Alabama has passed a law prohibiting any unmarried person from adopting a child.
Colorado failed an amendment to define a person as "any human from the moment of fertilization".
Democrats hold a 6 person majority in the Senate and a strong majority in the House


Obama is half black - not totally black. This race could never have been about race, it could only have been about the unity of a country and the strength of its people when they come together. America is a melting pot of people. No where else in the world do you have so many different ethnicity co-mingling in a single place. No where else do you have a large population of people who trace their lineage back to countries on all sides of the globe (Irish and Phillepeno? Colombian and French? Or how about Irish, English, German, Russian? - yup we' have those here). In what other country are there every single major religion practiced as widely as here? Everything from Bible thumping Catholics to free-love spiritualists, from Kosher Jews to Zen meditating Buddhists, they all worship here.

Obama to me is a reminder of those things a reminder that the United States is welcoming, tolerant, and inclusive. And then California goes and dashes my feelings of elation by making gay marriage illegal. Never in my life time (which albeit is not that long) has there been a time when an amendment to a constitution was made to REMOVE rights from people. The only instance that I can think of prior to this would be prohibition and we all know what happened with that. If someone can explain to me why allowing gay marriage is so terrible, why it is so 'unnatural' or why it threatens the supposed 'sanctity' of the institution of marriage, I will be more than interested in this rational. However, I don't see why who someone else chooses to love, or who they choose to make love with is anyone's business or anyone's right to be at all involved in. I certainly don't understand why the government feels the need to be involved, if Catholics think its wrong, then they don't marry gay couples at their churches, if Jews think it's wrong, then they can deny weddings at temples - but in a court room in front of a judge and the welcoming, tolerant, and inclusive governing body of the United States, there should be no denial of two people wanting to pledge their lives together.

So while as a nation I believe we turned our backs on the path of destruction and international disapproval that the Bush Administration was so proudly marching us down, I fear we are only retreating to an intolerant, non-progressive, judgemental society. There was a time that women and black people could not vote, a time when blacks and whites could not marry, a time when black people didn't even count as a full person, and now we are denying another group of people their rights. It makes me sad, it makes me bitter, it makes me confused, and it makes me fearful that more intolerant people exist in this world than I thought.

But on to more happy topics - the US economy!!! I listen to NPR (National Public Radio) every day to and from work. For the past two months every day I hear the same story told from different angles and spoken by different people. The story of the failing US economy. The emphasis changes from day to day to capture the political side and the personal side and the business side and the corporate side and the urban side and the rural side and the international impact.... uggg I could go on. Point of the matter is this, the people who are suffering from poor loans made to them by banks who gave them more money than they will ever be able to pay back are hurting. They can't pay their bills and the banks are going under and people are loosing faith in the market. So what happens? The government comes in with a $700 Billion plan to 'bail out' companies. What I want to know is this, WHY and with what money? Hasn't anyone taken a class on economics? Does anyone understand Laizzes-Faire? Does anyone understand simple bad luck? Oh and where did this $700 billion come from exactly? Which foreign nation ponied up the dough to pull America back out of this rut that the unintelligent people who don't understand what variable rate loans are got us in? The people who that $700 billion bail out should go to are those who were just a few years away from retirement, who are watching as their savings slip to zero dollars. If you were a bank foolish enough to get involved with such awful practices, you should have to dig yourself out of this mess, not the government, and definitely not the tax payers.

I could continue to rant, I could continue to rave.... but I'm far too over joyed about Mark and I's random refresher of the laws of thermodynamics to really care much for the moment. So instead of trying to comprehend the minds of my fellow Americans and why they made the sometimes good and sometimes questionable decisions they did this past election, I'm going to ponder what my crystalline structure would be if I were a molecule in a beaker full of myself sitting at absolute zero.... Yes at time I don't understand myself.

Pics of life from various sources...

Halloween

Chicago triatholon swimmers - GO!

Chicago's view of Lake Michigan

The skyline and my current home.

Enjoying Chicago when it was beautiful weather.