Life's like that!

I seem to be having frequent bouts of writer's block. And when I have them bouts I wear it proudly on my sleeve claiming with audacity .. for now I can call myself a writer.. not on days that I actually write but on those that I don't or rather cannot! While being so audacious, I decided to try a few other things.

Reading - Its been a while since I read a book.. I seem to even have developed the habit of falling asleep over books.. something I have never done in the past (at least not over fiction).. this is either the mid life crisis hitting me, or a contagious disease from M who has never been known to read a work of fiction! While I have not been able to figure this out, I have been relentless. I pulled out a book by RK Narayanan last night.. his selected essays! What was I thinking? I was only reminded why I never could be a writer (at least not as good.. for good or not I seem to have taken it on myself to torment unsuspecting souls on this blog unleashing my paltry writing skills.. even when marred by a big block in the brain!!) Back to RK Narayanan, the man is truly amazing!

Higher Mathematics - RK Narayanan wrote about his abhorrence/ intolerance for mathematics... higher or otherwise! My nemesis in school was chemistry - the equations kept doing a silly jig in front of my eyes and for the life of me I never could recall anything when the question paper was handed out. And whats more I had crammed for 3 days straight without much sleep, and still could not get my chemically challenged brain to focus! My friends talked about balancing and valencies and I looked at them with that blank look while I nodded my head fiercely to seem intelligent. At the end of the school I was so glad I never had to see those books again! I did do chemistry yet again in the first year of my bachelors degree.. but thanks to certain friends who drilled me enough but never shared their answer sheets with me .I have to seriously question their friendship right.. I wonder why they were so possessive about their answer sheets.. a peek here and there.. well a rather long peek would have helped my grades! However, thanks to them I only did barely make it through!

Gadget hoarders - Even though I am not geek-ish enough to love Chemistry, I am geek enough to have an inane love of gadgets! I am not geekishly oriented enough to understand the science behind the gadgets .. unlike M who talks in terms of high school physics with such vividity that he scares me! But still I am attracted enough to all gadgets thanks to his highness's influence! We own all those highly regarded gadgets that go out of fashion very soon... In this race we once bought a palm computer. If you haven't heard of these things, you have been saved! They are the most useless things which hold your appointments and contacts and such things, but cannot connect to the Internet without a wire! (I hate to mention it, but it is a very expensive digital diary actually) We have never used this useless contraption we spent 100's of $'s on.. and it still lies in one dark corner of our home! Till recently it was kept charged but never used till I pulled the plug one day out of sheer frustration. So this reminder of our frivolous waste on gadgets has been put out of direct line of sight!

The idiot is home - After months of arguments, the 50" plasma has finally arrived and we have not been able to take our eyes off it. 1000's of $ later there is still nothing to watch on TV!! click click click! But that does not stop us at all..



De clutter the house - It has finally dawned on us that while these contraptions keep coming in, nothing goes out. So we are hoarding more and more stuff everyday. No wonder we keep tripping over furniture and toys in our house. I do agree that this test of agility is very healthy and keeps us fit, but maybe it might help to have a place to sit without bumping on an entertainment unit, a table or sitting on a few hundred remotes! So then I thought of the most dreaded thing, how do I get rid of stuff. In India I just call the Kabadiwala (who by the way is one of Cheeky's favorite people.. he thinks a kabadiwala is a termite... maybe because of the disappearing furniture?) . Here I thought of the dreaded craiglist.. but my paranoid mind kept drawing up images of people turning up with a gun and holding me at gunpoint to take away the stuff! Do I really want to give away all my stuff to charity or worse still the trash can and not gain a penny out of it? If I had the penny wouldn't it be easier to spend? The clutter still adorns my house.. let me know if you are visiting! I might be able to make some space for you to sit as well.. but no promises! (img: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com)

Gaming solutions - While the house is in such shape what other better way to avoid the clutter than leave it behind? In the quest to do that we went to an NBA basketball game this weekend. I don't follow basketball so had no clue that the Charlotte Bobcats were not a great team.. So we cheered and watched our team lose! While Cheeky got tired of cheering and yelling for the BOBCATS who were not even wearing the blue jersey. Also he was very annoyed with the camera man who would not take his video.. so he decided to switch teams. The blue team is mine now.. so he was the only one in the stadium yelling MAGIC!! Unable to put up with the dirty looks from fellow fans we left the game for our cluttered home in the 3rd quarter!

When the guys leave - When the guys in my house leave I would love to lie on the couch and sip a margarita while watching my big screen TV in absolute peace. You would think! But every few days I get tired of my couch potato demeanor and claim to hit the gym! While those immediately around me know that this is a complete hogwash.. as I remain yours truly XL sized self.. others who I make sure to meet only on chat keep imagining my bikini clad image when I claim to hit the gym! A couple of friends found out the true story a couple of weeks back. I went to the gym one morning to find it occupied.. to save my face, I actually attempted to jog on the treadmill when it was running.. who does that? While I managed to stay on it for a full 5 Min's without falling flat on my face, while holding on to my dear life.. what I did on it can only be described as a stroll. The other occupant a lady much to my dismay went on to pick heavy 20 pound dumbbells and exercise. Not to be outdone, I picked up a single dumbbell with both hands and hefted it while trying to lift my hand in the process. Lunges and squats later the lady left and I actually saw the reading on my dumbbell.. It read 2
Despite this, I was found limping and walking like a duck for a full 3 days after this mishap! I have avoided the gym since!

Time to move - Not to be outdone by some clutter and a writer's block I decided it was time to move again! Lets just move apartments I thought! After the reports of vandalism's and thefts in the area I have been shaking on my feet after all.. so lets move miles away to a quieter locality and a bigger home (aha will solve my clutter and now I would have something to write about.. perfect solution you would think?) But no.. my apartment people no matter how nicely I tell them are out to get me.. they want me to pay 4 months worth of rent just to get out of the lease.. you would think they are kidding? But no when I laughed they only glared at me.. the gun point images came rushing back and I rushed back home.. too fast and bumped into my couch! At least I could fall back on the remote and effortlessly switch on the idiot box!!

Back to my writer's block.. any suggestions how to conquer it? Or better still how to get a life interesting enough to conquer it?