The 4-day weekend…woohoo!!

So this weekend, like last weekend was also spent in the Bay area.

Thursday – The evening came early and I was home by 8:30 or so. It was an evening of much revelry in anticipation of the joy that was to be – a long overdue break. All 4 days of it. It began with some beer. Watched TV and relaxed for the first time in a fairly long time. It seems so far back already, I can’t even remember all the details. Turned in around 1 am.

Friday - Woke up late to a cup of hot tea. Bliss, to do this on a Friday.

Ran some errands, and then I was ready by the time NG drove in to pick me up at 2ish. We drove over to Woodland Hills to pick up the missus. Some time and some process there we were on the road, as was the rest of LA. I don’t really know why all of LA decides to be on the I-5 when I decide to go to Norcal.

So the 405 was clogged and we lost a fair bit of time getting on the 5. We also stopped some point after hitting the 5 to catch some food. No lunch, no breakfast had left me a hungry wreck.

Wolfed down an In N Out double double, animal style. Yummm!

I think I lost a day of my life with those calories, but I guess it was worth it. It better be.

Finallly, we got to the Bay area, uneventfully around 9:30. Maushi started some interesting topics but I extinguished them. Nipped them in the bud. NG and J had to make it to Ashwin’s place because they had a dinner planned. So off they went while BM and I made small talk. We had a lot to catch up on. A few beers and talking with family made my weekend worthwhile…right there.

We both turned in around 1. Me to my Pune book and BM to sleep.

Saturday- Next day dawned slightly late but no worries. BM was already in two minds regarding our trip to Sausolito. When she figured that it was going to be a lot of effort and that I would prefer staying at home, we scratched the plan to travel. Instead we chilled out at home. Bliss it was, save the heat. The heat was oppressive but was easily overlooked. Spoke with Aji Baba and then some with Ma and Dad. Chatted with BM about lot of things, which is usually good fun if she is not distracted. Basically we gossiped and it was a lot of fun. Finally she got distracted and wanted to draw or paint. I let her be. Aunts always have their own way with things.

Later we got out to get stuff for the evening. Went to all the familiar places, including San Antonio TJs. We got home in time to prepare food and shower before the guests came in. Meeting Rashmi maushi is always good fun and so it was this time too. Sudhir kaka and his family came in too.

BM and I sat up after that watching Cheeni Kum. I fell asleep on the couch and made my way to Mihir’s room sometime around 2 am and fell asleep in less than 3 seconds.

It didn’t seem like a lot of activities but Saturday was possibly the most fun day of the weekend.

Sunday - This day seemed to promise a lot. This also was the third day of the four day weekend and hence a depressing day with the work week looming large over the horizon.

I started Omkara early on the in the day. Was fun while it lasted. We had to go fetch Mihir from Berkeley and so we did. It was a warm day and the countryside, if you can call Fremont and Oakland ‘countryside’, seemed to burn under the scorching sun. I’m guessing Berkeley is that sexy place for uber-liberals but given I’m not an uber-liberal, it was just a place with a lot of smart people for me. M’s place is decent enough but I’m not too hot and heavy for those kind of places. After I heard about the price tag I shook my head…I guess only kids of well-to-do folks can afford to live in a place like that during their under-grad. The trip back was uneventful, and sleepy. We got back to a happy tail-wag from Kiwi and after wasting some time headed over to the Stanford mall. Now this is a wonderful place, especially in summer. It smells of money. It definitely looks of money. And it looks good. Wide walkways, fancy storefronts, pretty trellises, and people relaxing and shopping to their hearts content. In short, the grand American dream in t he heart of Silicon Valley. Everything is marked up 20-50% because of its location and because of the stores.

I walked into a Banana Republic store, the clothes screamed ‘preppie’ or ‘metrosexual’ or ‘both’. At 70 bucks for a shirt and 180 bucks for a pair of jeans it was too obscene for me to continue. I ran out. Onwards we walked through GAP (sale-less for once), Armani Exchange, Bloomingdales, L’Occident, and finally into Macys. After killing a good hour or so in Macy's the gang headed homeward still trying to figure if we should go for a family friend’s party. BM wanted to go out for dinner, as a family. So after spending 30-45 mins at Mugdha’s place, we all headed to Il Fornaio, one of those VC joints on University Ave. I have seen it a zillion times, given that it is located across from the office where I interned back in summer of 2005. The food was OK, the beer less than OK. But that’s what the gang wanted to do. So you shake your head, grit your teeth and do it. We got back home to a few more beers (obviously for me) and a PPV movie. For some reason I had seen most of the movies available. That’s weird given I don’t watch a lot of movies. We ended up watching Casino Royale. Let’s face it…any movie looks good on a 71 inch HD TV. And so I watched every little spot and expression on Eva Green’s face. The action scenes were amazing, especially the one where Bond catches the bomb maker in Madagascar. The gang finally turned in late and woke up late. M woke up even later. He couldn’t make up his mind regarding his return to Berkeley. Finally we headed over to Macy’s for some final shopping, got back to hurried packing, some food and left to get over to meet Dole, the missus and to head over to SoCal. The drive was uneventful. The dinner was IHOP. And the fun long weekend was over.