Clearing my mind

On August 20, 2010 we arrived back in NY.  These are a few things I noticed about life since I got back.

• The traffic - It seems to me that the traffic has increased substantially and driving in the city is like being on a battle field. 
• Tolls- The price of tolls has hiked since two years. Traveling has become more expensive for us since the west coast pampered us with toll free roads and wide open spaces.
• Getting started - It is turning out to a challenge to get started or perhaps to get restarted. It is easier to change lanes when your car is already moving than a parked car. The job situation is much worse than I had actually imagined.
• Pursuit of happiness - The drive for the pursuit of happiness is ever more obvious now than ever. It really depends on what "happiness" is to you. Is it earthly or eternal? 
• World of self service - Payment counters, grocery check out, ordering kiosk, donation counters, among many others have adopted self service.
• Fearing the known - People seemed to have adopted this slogan today. Fearing the UNKNOWN is no longer applicable when people have enough to fear about the KNOWN.
• Out of Focus - My recent love of photos and my hubby's amateur shots has got me thinking. It is natural to want to have everything in focus. It is easy to have job, school, family, church, sports, music, and entertainment in focus. Americans are thriving and we are doing a good job  I think. It is much harder to get everything else out of focus but one. 

There are probably a lot more I can think about and jot down but like my title says I am using this post to simply clear my mind.

Harder reconnnecting than connecting

Contrary to the popular belief, I found out today that it was harder reconnecting than connecting. Perhaps I have to blame myself for that. It felt like life was going in a circle and it was tougher to get on and off. Finding solution to problems are hard. I have learned that it's much easier to let God figure it out. It is not easy.

Baby shower today was fun. Laughter, joy, and gifts filled the room. I am eagerly waiting to meet my little "cupcake".  May God bless their little one.

The Human Tripod

Since coming to the west coast, Ajo & I have made a fair number of trips in and around the NV and CA area. Along the way, we developed an interest in photography and hence decided to upgrade our point and shoot camera to a DSLR. We have only a handful of photos with both of us in it and the reason is quite the obvious. We have to rely on others who usually accept our request to take  a shot or two of both of us together. Prior to the SLR, this was not a big concern since point and shoots are fairly simple to use and not bothersome for a passerby.

The numerous human tripods we relied on until then, caused a good amount of anxiety when we switched over to the SLR. A lack of confidence and security in our human tripods developed and hence we decided that we will never hand over the SLR to a stranger but continue to use the point and shoot camera in order to take a picture with both of us. What this meant was that we had to carry two camera at all times and that we would never have a picture together in the out SLR camera.

Gradually, we had to be compromise our decision and hence we started using other tourist who owned SLR's or people preferably young who seemed fearless to handle a complex camera. I have to say that there are times when our hearts are  pounding when some one is handling our camera. Regardless, the fear and the uneasiness we feel every time we rely on a human tripod, we continue to use them to get a shot together.