I had to make a quick trip to the US to get my employment visa to be able to start work on Oct 15th. I was quite weary about making a trip back since we just moved here recently and would have preferred to make a trip next year some time. But given I had no choice, I decided to make the best of it and boy did I have fun! First, I stopped in Seattle, I had originally planned to stay there for 2 days but given that the visa was only supposed to take one day to get, I decided to postpone my trip by 2 more days. That was the best thing I did, although my SF portion was short and I had a bit of a panic attack when I found out the India visa office would be closed for Mahatma Gandhi Day, all in all it turned out ok and I got my visa in the end. In Seattle, I visited Sarathy, Seema and the twins. My parents and Ravi were also there the same weekend, my parents actually surprised Sarathy and Seema. I had such a wonderful time with everyone, I wish I had brought my camera and posted pictures of the Seattle leg. I was fortunate enough to meet Seema's parents too. Arjun and Ahisha were an absolute delight, I forgot what it was like holding an infant and feeding them. They are just so cute and cuddly and you could just hold them in your arms for hours on end. It was so easy to get sucked into all the feeding/pooping/gas discussions that were plaguing them for the past few weeks. Anyway I was thrilled to see how well the babies were doing and could definitely appreciate how tough it is to raise twins. I was also able to make a short trip to see Lakshmi, Gopal, Arnav and Samhita. Although I was there only one evening, we had a great time catching up. Samhita had especially changed over the last 3-4 months, she had grown and was talking quite a bit. Arnav and her were having a great time playing with each other.
I was then off to SF. I spent one night a different place so I could see everyone. I managed to see mostly everyone except the guys from the two playgroups, other than TK and Subhas. I spent a night an Manju's, one night at Sri Devi's, two nights at Krithiga's and one night at Kavita's. They all showed me such a good time and were wonderful hosts. Sindhu sent me letters to give to many friends so I had to drop in at many of friend's homes. Many of them wrote back to her and she was thrilled to get the letters and small gifts they sent her. The 5 days were like one big "Girl's Night Out" I had a such a wonderful time. I even managed to get in some shopping and a quick trip to the office too. Much of the discussion in the US was surrounding the elections and I also saw the Vice-Presidential debate while I was there. The economy was another huge topic of discussion. In India, the topics in the news are so varied but in the US, the climate has changed a lot in the past few months and so the elections and the economy are the main topics. I do now see that the economic climate has also changed in India and we're hearing about more doom and gloom here too. Prasad and the kids did wonderfully without me, I was quite impressed with how well they managed considering he had about 5 days of holiday to fill up too. I now feel I could do this again. I felt at home in the US and it was to be driving again. The first day back in India took some adjustment but now I'm back into the swing of things again.
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