long over due update

Where to even begin...

We managed the insane rickshaw run without killing each other. Yeah! We met great people out there and loved our adventure even though it was tough. I will hopefully be putting up detailed recaps on the Karma Kab blog and I have put up photos on flickr. Link is here. And hopefully soon Paul will get busy with the video. I've had problems loading it onto my computer for some reason... but we'll get to it soon enough so you can all live our adventure from your own home!

Getting home was great, but has also been a transition. Our house is still empty and needs lots of help, so we've been trying to spend our free time going to furniture shops here and there, with little luck so far. We find things we want but they are astronomical in price (10,000 dollars for a simple L shaped couch!) or we find something that is close to what we want, but cheap quality. urgh. shopping here is not fun I tell you. And I do have this feeling that as soon as we finish this apartment we will have decided it's time to leave Mumbai! I'm getting to that point... but maybe it's just itchy feet for travel and not longings to leave India?? But how can I already have itchy feet after only 2.5 weeks back from our last adventure?! maybe I just need a trip on the horizon to plan for!

My life has changed a bit as well. Stacie has moved out. It was sad, but has also been good since I feel like we make more of an effort to hang out now whereas it was too easy to just see each other in passing before. But I still miss having her around and haven't stopped calling the front room "stacie's room"! And another friend who I really relied on as my 'rock' here has virtually disappeared from my life. It's been an adjustment, but not one I've not done before, so I am getting through it. As Folo says, one door closes and another one opens and that seems to be what has happened once again.

And... last week folo got up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to stop smoking and to do this Master Cleanse (the lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper 'diet'). I thought he would not even go a day, but after 2 days I realized he was fully into it and thought I better join as well since I wasn't getting much food without him eating. So now it's been 5 days for me and 8 for him. we seem to be doing pretty good. Yesterday was a rough day for me, but he's been powering through it like nothing. You'd never know he's even on it. And he's doing great with not smoking. Sad to say..i've not stopped :( I wasn't prepared for his declaration that day!! But I have been wanting to quit for quite a while, so I hope he sticks to it and then slowly I will feel more like an idiot and stop myself!

Lets see.. what else....I have been working again which is good. I am doing lots of stuff with CORP, I am going to help out with the organization for the American Women's Charity Ball and I'm doing a bit of 'consulting' with an HIV orphanage outside of Mumbai. Nothing full time which is nice, but enough to keep my days full.

It seems that 2009 is already the year for transitions. I hope there aren't many more that we have to go through! Since 9 is my favorite number I have sort of looked forward to this year for a while... and in numerology (the calculation) it is the same as my birthday, so I feel it will be a good year somewhere somehow!