Thats how fast I lost my wisdom tooth today. I have had tooth problems since forever. Sometimes I marvel that they all just didn't fall out when I became 20. But they are hanging in there and so was one of my wisdom teeth, which was the only one which had fully surfaced. But with the kind of tear and wear that good food, non-vegetarianism, chicken brings in its wake, the tooth had lost half of itself. And believe me, I really didn't care, even though the tooth had come out facing the cheek.
I would have let it hang in there for eternity come, despite innumerable requests from maa and all my well-wishers to set up a dentist appointment. But just that, it kept me awake for the most part of the night , two nights ago, I just couldn't let sleeping teeth be.
So when today, during what I thought would be a routine advisory type of dentist checkup, he told me that the tooth had to go and if he could remove it, all I did was just nod my head. I was scared, I even asked him whether it was not necessary that someone else be present after the extraction and he nodded a no through all my queries.
And they went ahead with local anaesthesia, and then struggling with forceps to get the tooth pulled out. So as I sit writing, minus one wisdom tooth, I am mighty proud of myself for having had a tooth extracted, gone in that partially anaethesized state to the local pharmacy and bought pain-killers, gone back to work and sat through the day biting a gauze strip to stop the bleeding.
Not the end of it, I even went over to Saumitrada and Maitreyeedi (my family friend's in Redmond) place for dinner and ended up hogging on Mutton Rezala and semi-solid rice, and rice pudding or payesh. Very eventful day.... infact the funniest thing was that since past 2 days, I had been totally down with cold and fever. After the tooth extraction and the adrenalin jump because of the whole episode, my cold did an entire disappearing act. I can't believe colds can get scared ... but I have no other reasonable, logical, rational explanation. :)
Anyway, I am not in any hurry for the effect of pain-killers to wear off....... but tomorrow is another day ... and for all reality, I am on a semi-solid diet, which..... includes ice-cream ...and hence I could wish for nothing more :)
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
An 8 on 10
Who would have thought that at the end of the trip, our respective ratings would be 7.5 , 8 , 9 and 17. (respective being Milind, me, Vidya and Srini) ..... where we had probably started from 4, 5 ,6 or close. As to what changed our minds.... thats a longer story :).
We started out with a breakfast on the house from Best Western (or our beloved B-Dub as we now call it (....synonymous to U-W(Dub) or University of Washington.) ....... and B-Dub is going to be our yardstick for measuring all possible future Motel-6s or better abodes :) ). I enjoyed the breakfast, and took the liberty of forgetting my diet for one meal.
Around 10:30- 11:00, we set off for our wildlife safari. The wildlife safari at Roseburg, has a good variety of animals ranging from cheetahs to llamas, to tigers, lions and bears. Best of all, as you drive around the park, they are all around you .... without a cage. But the animals seemed so bored of us and our cameras ....... with their lack of enthu to entertain us, the trip really seemed a bit tame. We kept talking about Kazhiranga and how maybe we should do that some day ......
After the safari and a whole lot of pics , and a little satisfaction and a lot of ooh-aah at the freely roaming camels and bears, we headed off ....... on what was a last minute change of plans..... to catch the 101 highway which ran along the entire stretch of the West coast. Believe me, when I say that we had not in the least expected what was coming.
We took the Scenic byway along the Umpqua river which was pretty picturesque. This joined the Oregon Sand dunes national park. As an on the spot decision, (adding hours to our estimated time of travel back to Seattle) we decided to take the sand dunes tour.
So, there was this truck with huge wheels and about a group of 20....... the truck rolled through a forest into an opening which , for as far as you could see was yellow sand. Hills and hills of them , ........ sand dunes. In the far distance the light blue of the cloudless horizon, merged into a darker blue...... the Pacific. But ... whoa ! was it fun. The driver took us on the peaks of those dunes and rolled us down like a tora-tora ride. Its been a long time since I have heard grown-ups shout with glee. :)
From there, with already having ratings climb higher, :) we left for 101. The route is indeed beautiful with the Pacific ocean, calm in the distance ....... but near the shores shows these white laces or furls moving towards the beaches.
We stopped at the South Beach..... the water was freezing cold, the sun happened to be playing hide and seek all the time ........and the waves kept tossing up a wind-surfer in the distance.... and we kept racing with the waves and leaving footprints in the sand.
When we finally headed back, we were tired ....I am sure, but I guess satisfied too. When you go on a trip ...any trip, there is always a bit of the trip that becomes a part of you forever. Its like a book that you read or the movie that you laughed at ...... it becomes an inseparable part of you and goes into making you what you are. Well , thats what happened on those two and a half days of our trip.
But its usually not the experience of a road-trip alone. There are also the characters of the play or the people whom you share this with. And in some small way, I guess you always rub off a little bit of you on each other.
At the end of the day, when we had to travel along boring I-5, Srini's idea was to come up with the best and worst qualities of each other .... as had come across in the trip. None of us really knew anyone else more than as an acquaintance, (I was probably the best common thread among all of them, having known everyone in the group)...... and the things we came up with were frank and honest opinions. Opinions maybe a relationship of 50 years would not have revealed ....but nevertheless, in themselves each opinion was a discovery :).... of yourself...... as you come across to others.
I don't know if we were/are the proverbial ships passing in the night..... but apart from a word game that kept us busy all through and landed up with me arguing that bashful means arrogant .... (:) I can not be more ashamed.) , we threw all kinds of questions across the floor and the answers that kept flying across made the 12 hours (with delays) of a journey back seem non-existent. The questions ??? :) what was the luckiest moment in your life ? What would you have loved spending your life doing .... or if you were given a choice to choose what you love to do as your career what would it be ?
I recommend all this for the next road-trip that you take. As I said, you will be amazed at what unfurls. :)
God did not leave me with much to crib about :) .... the state of Oregon which I kept thinking of never going back to warrants another visit. .... maybe exploring the Hood river and the Columbian gorge...... or following the 101 further up till Astoria. Next time ....
We started out with a breakfast on the house from Best Western (or our beloved B-Dub as we now call it (....synonymous to U-W(Dub) or University of Washington.) ....... and B-Dub is going to be our yardstick for measuring all possible future Motel-6s or better abodes :) ). I enjoyed the breakfast, and took the liberty of forgetting my diet for one meal.
Around 10:30- 11:00, we set off for our wildlife safari. The wildlife safari at Roseburg, has a good variety of animals ranging from cheetahs to llamas, to tigers, lions and bears. Best of all, as you drive around the park, they are all around you .... without a cage. But the animals seemed so bored of us and our cameras ....... with their lack of enthu to entertain us, the trip really seemed a bit tame. We kept talking about Kazhiranga and how maybe we should do that some day ......
After the safari and a whole lot of pics , and a little satisfaction and a lot of ooh-aah at the freely roaming camels and bears, we headed off ....... on what was a last minute change of plans..... to catch the 101 highway which ran along the entire stretch of the West coast. Believe me, when I say that we had not in the least expected what was coming.
We took the Scenic byway along the Umpqua river which was pretty picturesque. This joined the Oregon Sand dunes national park. As an on the spot decision, (adding hours to our estimated time of travel back to Seattle) we decided to take the sand dunes tour.
So, there was this truck with huge wheels and about a group of 20....... the truck rolled through a forest into an opening which , for as far as you could see was yellow sand. Hills and hills of them , ........ sand dunes. In the far distance the light blue of the cloudless horizon, merged into a darker blue...... the Pacific. But ... whoa ! was it fun. The driver took us on the peaks of those dunes and rolled us down like a tora-tora ride. Its been a long time since I have heard grown-ups shout with glee. :)
From there, with already having ratings climb higher, :) we left for 101. The route is indeed beautiful with the Pacific ocean, calm in the distance ....... but near the shores shows these white laces or furls moving towards the beaches.
We stopped at the South Beach..... the water was freezing cold, the sun happened to be playing hide and seek all the time ........and the waves kept tossing up a wind-surfer in the distance.... and we kept racing with the waves and leaving footprints in the sand.
When we finally headed back, we were tired ....I am sure, but I guess satisfied too. When you go on a trip ...any trip, there is always a bit of the trip that becomes a part of you forever. Its like a book that you read or the movie that you laughed at ...... it becomes an inseparable part of you and goes into making you what you are. Well , thats what happened on those two and a half days of our trip.
But its usually not the experience of a road-trip alone. There are also the characters of the play or the people whom you share this with. And in some small way, I guess you always rub off a little bit of you on each other.
At the end of the day, when we had to travel along boring I-5, Srini's idea was to come up with the best and worst qualities of each other .... as had come across in the trip. None of us really knew anyone else more than as an acquaintance, (I was probably the best common thread among all of them, having known everyone in the group)...... and the things we came up with were frank and honest opinions. Opinions maybe a relationship of 50 years would not have revealed ....but nevertheless, in themselves each opinion was a discovery :).... of yourself...... as you come across to others.
I don't know if we were/are the proverbial ships passing in the night..... but apart from a word game that kept us busy all through and landed up with me arguing that bashful means arrogant .... (:) I can not be more ashamed.) , we threw all kinds of questions across the floor and the answers that kept flying across made the 12 hours (with delays) of a journey back seem non-existent. The questions ??? :) what was the luckiest moment in your life ? What would you have loved spending your life doing .... or if you were given a choice to choose what you love to do as your career what would it be ?
I recommend all this for the next road-trip that you take. As I said, you will be amazed at what unfurls. :)
God did not leave me with much to crib about :) .... the state of Oregon which I kept thinking of never going back to warrants another visit. .... maybe exploring the Hood river and the Columbian gorge...... or following the 101 further up till Astoria. Next time ....
Monday, September 03, 2007
Travelogue on Crater Lake
Well not all road trips turn out as planned. Not all holidays are really the best of holidays. I am sitting in Roseburg right now, in a Best Western hotel room and blogging.... after quite sometime of a period when I had nothing to write about.
We set off around 9 on Saturday, Sept 1st... almost 3 hours later than what we had thought. A dinner at the Indian restaurant Pabla which turned out to be quite good, and then we headed off to Portland. I am still pretty dis-oriented, so my sentences might not make sense, ...... bear with me. If I don't write this now, I probably never will.
The plan, was to see Crater Lake, maybe do the scenic route through the Columbia gorge, and then do a wildlife safari at Roseburg. Well, with the delay and last minute continuous change of plans, we arrived around 2 in the night at Portland, and spent the night at a very decrepit (not sure of the word) motel 6 room which (due to a mistake while reserving) turned out to be a smoking room. I promise (for lack of a better word) that I will never enter a Motel 6 again.
Its not that I have not been used to the smell of cigarette smoke before, but the dilapidated room and the strong stench of cigarettes would really be enough to turn a holiday mood sour.
With getting accustomed to that, and early morning plans, it wasn't surprising that we sleepy-heads could not make it out of there before 9-10. A hurried breakfast at Starbucks on coffee and cake, a long 3 hour drive playing word games, and we were all in quite a good mood once again. Lunch was at a quaint little place called Eugene which I quite liked..... it had overhanging flowers and a beautifully homely looking mall/downtown. When I say flowers, imagine small pink blue yellow flowers on branches falling out of overhanging pots and you will have got the picture.
We arrived at Crater Lake around 3:30. Its beautiful...... no doubt !!
When you first arrive at the lookout point, and look down into a gorge of pure, pristine, clear blue water with a tinge of sea-green, there is nothing you can do but hold your breath for a second.
So imagine a blue stretch of rippleless water , a small island called the Wizard island nestled in between (so named maybe becoz it resembles a wizard's hat), and surrounded on all sides by the grey dust of steep gorge edges and coniferous trees..... and thats Crater Lake for you. Apparently, there is a boat ride to the island, but becoz of so many others who had decided to make the same plans on the same day and stood in line since 7 in the morning, we had no chance of taking the boat tour. We took the Cleetwood trail , which led us right down to the water. There we sat for quite sometime, dangling bare legs like children in the freezing ice-water, posing for snaps and sitting just quietly or pulling each other's legs. The hike down had been an easy downhill. The hike up.... was a laborious steep climb. :) Needless to say I am sure it was a very good exercise for an otherwise out-of-shape hiker like me.
After that, we took the rim drive around the lake. As one of us remarked, we probably saw the lake from all possible angles. And yet somehow I never felt that this was what we had come for.
On the way back, we stopped at Sun-notch point for pictures. That was a quarter of a mile hike.
Do you know the poem,
"To hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour......."
Out of the entire trip, this was probably the quietest and most silent place that I had been to. It was so quiet infact, you could hear yourself think apart from the calls of birds in the distant trees. Out of the entire trip, it was only there that I felt at peace with myself and with nature. Out of the entire trip, it was only here that I connected... with myself, my thoughts and probably nature. Out of the entire trip this is the part I will remember the most. People talk about why do we go to temples to pray, is it that God is present only there ? Well of all places, it was here that I would have just knelt down and prayed. :) Obtuse , yes but sometimes I can't help myself.
Anyway, at the end of it a drive for 8 hours to see the lake hardly seemed a justification to me. And given a chance, I would probably never do this trip again. Leave alone this trip, I may probably never do a road trip again .....except with special someones. We might end up doing the safari tomorrow, or not. I am really not sure of my thoughts at this point except that it would be good to just get back to Seattle and home, as I know it. :)
We set off around 9 on Saturday, Sept 1st... almost 3 hours later than what we had thought. A dinner at the Indian restaurant Pabla which turned out to be quite good, and then we headed off to Portland. I am still pretty dis-oriented, so my sentences might not make sense, ...... bear with me. If I don't write this now, I probably never will.
The plan, was to see Crater Lake, maybe do the scenic route through the Columbia gorge, and then do a wildlife safari at Roseburg. Well, with the delay and last minute continuous change of plans, we arrived around 2 in the night at Portland, and spent the night at a very decrepit (not sure of the word) motel 6 room which (due to a mistake while reserving) turned out to be a smoking room. I promise (for lack of a better word) that I will never enter a Motel 6 again.
Its not that I have not been used to the smell of cigarette smoke before, but the dilapidated room and the strong stench of cigarettes would really be enough to turn a holiday mood sour.
With getting accustomed to that, and early morning plans, it wasn't surprising that we sleepy-heads could not make it out of there before 9-10. A hurried breakfast at Starbucks on coffee and cake, a long 3 hour drive playing word games, and we were all in quite a good mood once again. Lunch was at a quaint little place called Eugene which I quite liked..... it had overhanging flowers and a beautifully homely looking mall/downtown. When I say flowers, imagine small pink blue yellow flowers on branches falling out of overhanging pots and you will have got the picture.
We arrived at Crater Lake around 3:30. Its beautiful...... no doubt !!
When you first arrive at the lookout point, and look down into a gorge of pure, pristine, clear blue water with a tinge of sea-green, there is nothing you can do but hold your breath for a second.
So imagine a blue stretch of rippleless water , a small island called the Wizard island nestled in between (so named maybe becoz it resembles a wizard's hat), and surrounded on all sides by the grey dust of steep gorge edges and coniferous trees..... and thats Crater Lake for you. Apparently, there is a boat ride to the island, but becoz of so many others who had decided to make the same plans on the same day and stood in line since 7 in the morning, we had no chance of taking the boat tour. We took the Cleetwood trail , which led us right down to the water. There we sat for quite sometime, dangling bare legs like children in the freezing ice-water, posing for snaps and sitting just quietly or pulling each other's legs. The hike down had been an easy downhill. The hike up.... was a laborious steep climb. :) Needless to say I am sure it was a very good exercise for an otherwise out-of-shape hiker like me.
After that, we took the rim drive around the lake. As one of us remarked, we probably saw the lake from all possible angles. And yet somehow I never felt that this was what we had come for.
On the way back, we stopped at Sun-notch point for pictures. That was a quarter of a mile hike.
Do you know the poem,
"To hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour......."
Out of the entire trip, this was probably the quietest and most silent place that I had been to. It was so quiet infact, you could hear yourself think apart from the calls of birds in the distant trees. Out of the entire trip, it was only there that I felt at peace with myself and with nature. Out of the entire trip, it was only here that I connected... with myself, my thoughts and probably nature. Out of the entire trip this is the part I will remember the most. People talk about why do we go to temples to pray, is it that God is present only there ? Well of all places, it was here that I would have just knelt down and prayed. :) Obtuse , yes but sometimes I can't help myself.
Anyway, at the end of it a drive for 8 hours to see the lake hardly seemed a justification to me. And given a chance, I would probably never do this trip again. Leave alone this trip, I may probably never do a road trip again .....except with special someones. We might end up doing the safari tomorrow, or not. I am really not sure of my thoughts at this point except that it would be good to just get back to Seattle and home, as I know it. :)
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