Festival time

Posted on September 10, 2011 by kkowen

Tomorrow is the last day of Ganpati and the start of the Mount Mary Festival, which makes me think of what was happening last year during these two festivals…I was in the hospital about to have my little munchkin!

I remember thinking that I hadn’t even gotten out to see ANY of the ganeshes around Bandra like I have every previous year. And the traffic getting to Lilivati was absolutely insane with the festival going on – I only knew that because of how long it would take Paul to get from our house to the hospital which is only a mile or two away!

And how things have changed in 1 year. I am thankfully skinnier now than I was when I got pregnant! I now feel like a ‘soccer mom’ with all the running around I do with Cian – play groups here and there, music classes, gym classes, etc. My living room no longer has any “asian feel” to it as it’s cluttered with baby toys and all other signs of adulthood have been removed so to not hurt the little one.  And a huge one for me that is.. I only get online for a few hours a day – during naps and after the little one is asleep for the night!

The other thing I am realizing this year… I have seen these festivals TOO many times. The ganesh idols in my neighborhood are the same ones they have had for the last 7 years – so no real interest to trudge around in the hot steamy weather to see very similar ones as to the previous years.  So then that makes me think…it really must be time to make a move.

will this be our last ganpati and mt mary festival living in Mumbai? only time will tell. Check back this time next year 😉

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Welcome Back!

Posted on September 8, 2011 by kkowen

After a long hiatus – Slaint.com is BACK! And with a new look.  A friend in SF used to host slaint.com for free for years so I never had to worry about it, but he decided to cut his costs and dump all his freeloading friends! So slaint.com was offline for a while until I got motivated (and the time!) to sort it all out again.

So now here we are! A brief into to the new site:

Instead of moving all my photos onto slaint like I used to have, I have decided to keep them at Flickr and just provide links – they are on the right side of this page under “photos”.  I have also put a tab at the top called photos where I will put some of my flickr photosets. I can’t guarantee to do them all because I upload so many photos and it’s easier to just click the appropriate link on the sidebar!

I only take videos of Cian, so that tab should probably just be called Cian, but for now we will pretend that there might be other videos up there at some point! haha. That is also where you will need to check for new additions.

And the blog tab will bring you right back here!  And for all of you that are curious about Paul.. you can go to this newly created website from under the links tab.

I really hope that this new format will allow me to easily update and to get back to blogging. I have actually missed it quite a bit and have a ton of things I could have written about in this last year – but it was difficult to find the time!

Anyhoo…welcome back to slaint.com!

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where does the time go?!

Posted on January 31, 2011 by kkowen

I don’t know how I cannot seem to stay up to date on this blog! I think having a baby is one way, but I mean really, I have full time household help, so I’m not doing the cleaning, but still I can’t find the time??!? haha Baby bear keeps me busy busy!

A short quick recap – We went to Ireland for xmas. It was COLD and we had no water. I fell down the stairs and bounced off my tailbone, which still hurts a month later. I was sick. Cian was sick. Joanne & Mark did not have their baby while we were there. And then we left.
We then went to the US. Paul was only there for 8 days, which we spent seeing as many people as we could and shopping to fill up his 2 empty suitcases. Then he left me and C and headed back to India. Me and C ventured on our first plane ride together alone to Dallas. It wasn’t his best flight, but he still barely made a peep! And then spent a week showing the little dude off to the family. Loved it. It wasn’t stressful and I actually got a little bit of downtime!
Then back to SF for a quick little break before heading back to India on the monstrous 27 hr flight. Before leaving we got some professional photos done of Cian. Adorable! Seriously I could stare at them all day long, even with him sitting next to me!

Anyhow.. the flight home – Thankfully we were in business class, so it actually wasn’t too bad. C was a gem as usual – everyone loved him on all the flights, even the grumpy business class men who were not happy to see a newborn baby up front 😉 haha.
And then back to India and massive jetlag! sheesh.. i didn’t even think about how bad it would be for the little dude. but after a week we are good as gold and even have managed to get him to sleep almost full nights. Its not the whole night, but I tell you it feels like it! He goes to bed around 5 pm and sleeps til around midnight. Paul then gives him a pacifier and checks his diaper and then right back to sleep he goes until around 4 when he wants to eat. Then a quick little snooze til 6 and then we are up. Sometimes I go to bed shortly after C does so I wake up feeling super refreshed!
I really wish I would have written more at the beginning about all the emotions, etc, but I just didn’t have time. But thinking back on it and seeing other friends with their newborns I really realize how great we had it. Granted, we had some tough days, but for the most part I found it all so easy and natural. But I see friends who never had much experience with babies really struggling in their first few weeks. Or maybe it was because we were in the hospital for the first 8 days of his life and got to ease into things a bit more? Not sure. But for me I didn’t find it SO difficult – Paul might disagree though and say he found it much harder.
But we did have our problems at the beginning. I would be a snapping turtle at times out of exhaustion and frustration, but usually folo handled it in stride and just let it roll off his back (thank goodness!). But 4 months into it all, I feel like our communication is much much stronger and that we are finding a better groove (as much as you can when paul has no real defined work schedule).
I’m even starting to think that maybe I need to pump more milk to keep in the freezer so I can leave Cian more when Paul unexpectedly has the day off. I just need to figure out the best time of day to do it.
I need a massage. I need a manicure/pedicure.
And since C is 4 months and we’ve recovered from jetlag, I am not preparing to do the Cry It Out method to get him to sleep on his own. Today we did it for his nap. He woke up after only 45 mintues, so we let him fuss for 15 minutes before going in. Then we just calmed him down and put him back down and he slept for another hour! (unheard of!) And now it’s his bedtime. I put him down awake and planned to go in after 15 minutes if he was still up and/or crying. I heard him fussing around for a bit, but then he just drifted off to sleep (i think!). So perhaps it won’t be so bad with C…he’s so good in so many aspects… i just worry this means he’s going to be a terror for a toddler 🙂
the quick recap is finished!
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Early Arrival!

Posted on November 5, 2010 by kkowen
As usual I am insanely behind on my blog, but thought I better take a quick moment and try to catch up!
On the 18th of September I got up to go to my Saturday exercise class,but I was super swollen and didn’t feel that great, so I almost didn’t go. But thankfully I did go! I forced myself there and then as we started the class my teacher noticed how swollen I was and I mentioned that it was the first day of the pregnancy that I couldn’t wear my wedding ring. My yoga teacher had always told us that if we couldn’t wear our rings then it signified a problem.. it’s not as normal as people think… So she told me to go downstairs and have my blood pressure checked. Again I wanted to ignore her, because always to this point my BP had been perfect! But I did it, just to appease her.
And what do you know.. it is high! I was shocked that it was high to be honest. I asked her what that meant and she said it could be nothing, but could be serious and that I should go see my doctor. I didn’t want to – as is typical of me. I don’t know why I don’t like to call into the doctor like that. I guess I just never want to be seen as a worry wort! I finally gave in around 2 pm and send the doctor a message telling her my BP and my swolleness and she said to come in right away. Hmm…
I got home and researched online and it seemed that I had all the symptoms of pre–eclampsia. this is about the only pregnancy problem that I remembered reading about and the one I sub-consciously was worried about. As soon as I read all the symptoms I knew that I had it.. but I went to the doctor still hoping that perhaps she’d look at me and say that it was just water retention.
Nope.. as soon as she saw me she said I had to be admitted right away. I immediately burst into tears. Paul was at work, finishing up a film and I was all alone. She told me to get him there right away as she didn’t want me to do this alone. In hindsight that was so great of her – there is no way I could have done it alone!
After a long process, I was admitted and put on the VIP ward (of course you pay to be there…) Still at this point I believed them when they told me that they were trying to get my BP down. Come to find out later, they were lying to me the entire time. My BP was going up and up the entire time and they kept saying it was ok. But still I thought that after 2 nights that they were going to discharge me.
Two days after my arrival I was getting an ultrasound to check out the baby. I thought this was my normal ultrasound that had actually been scheduled already for this day. Nope.. it was prep for what was to come! They had been withholding food from me all morning and after the scan I asked a dr if I could eat and she said “No! You are having surgery later!”

WHAT?! I again immediately started crying. Paul wasn’t there, but luckily my friend Natalia was and she was able to question the doctor to figure out what was going on. They backtracked and said no, no, it was a mistake. Come to find out later – they had wanted to do the surgery that day, but were worried about my being too upset!
That night my OBGYN came in and said that there was no choice – we were doing an emergency C-section the following day. The baby was a good size, they had been giving me injections to help speed the lung development and if we didn’t get him/her out, it could be very serious for both mother and baby. So I had no choice.
I was fine with it all up until they rolled me out into the hall and we were waiting for the elevator. I then began to panic. I haven’t ever had surgery. I’ve never been in a foreign hospital, and much less having surgery! I wanted to have a normal delivery. etc etc.
Luckily Paul was amazing. He was right there by my side the whole time. I freaked when they said he couldn’t come into the room where they did the spinal injection.. and i refused to go unless they let him. And they did.. thankfully. I don’t know if I could have done it without him! I was a nervous wreck by this point.
And then it was time for the surgery. I was freaking out because I could still feel things – just not pain. No one had really explained this to me properly. You think that if you have had an injection to numb your lower body you won’t feel anything, but that’s not how it is. You feel the pressure of the blankets, the pulling of the skin, etc just no pain. weirdest sensation ever physically and emotionally!
I was pretty out of it when the little one arrived… Its a boy! And my first reaction ” oh no.. we don’t have any boys names!” haha. They put him by my head and he was wailing away and all I could think is someone needs to hush that baby! I have to say the hardest thing about the Csection is that you just aren’t really there and don’t get to experience the birth like you always imagine you will.
And then my body went into shock. That’s the thing with pre–eclampsia, your BP is high until the baby is out and then it goes back to normal right away. Or for me, it went too low. I had to spend a long while under the electric blanket until my body got back to normal. Paul was sitting there with me on one side and the baby on the other – just making sure we were both still breathing! haha.
So there you go…. the early arrival of Cian Patrick Byrne!
Born on Sept 21, 2010 @ 3:10 p.m. at Liliavati Hospital in Mumbai. He was 7lbs 2 oz and 19 inches. Pretty great since he was 5.5 weeks early!

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BabyMoon

Posted on August 16, 2010 by kkowen
We have just returned from our one week ‘babymoon’ holiday. Of course we waited until the absolute last minute to plan it and book it, but as it happens, it worked out well. Originally we had wanted to go to Berlin, but I just didn’t think I could handle such a long flight again and boy was I right! So instead we focused on trying to find somewhere around India. And what better place than the Maldives! We couldn’t afford a whole week there, and were afraid we’d get too bored sitting on the beach and the return connection was really bad (12 hr wait) so we decided to tag on a few days in Colombo on the way back to Mumbai.
The good…we booked our hotel through this place called Atoll Paradise which ended up being a fantastic option. They are located in the Maldives, so actually know the resorts personally. And they are quick and efficient over email (which our previous travel agent was not!). And the best was that they were there to meet us at the airport on our arrival, and guide us through every step until we stepped off the final boat at the resort. And amazingly, they were also there on our return to do the same. It was really a 5 star experience having them look after us so well. I don’t know that we got our room any cheaper, but just having this little bit of additional service was nice.
The bad… our flight leaving to the Maldives was at 3:30 in the morning, which meant a night of no sleep.. which is never good for me. I was already vomiting before taking off from Mumbai and then started having severe stomach cramps. I didn’t really know what the cramps were until we got to Sri Lanka and i had the runs… uh oh! And a 5 hour wait in the airport didn’t help matters. I just found a few chairs and laid down and slept for a good 1.5 hrs straight which seemed to help, but the cramps continued. 🙁
But then we got to Male and were quickly ushered to a bus which then took us to our sea plane. The one thing I can say is that the Sri Lankans and the Maldivians are very caring and thoughtful of a big ol pregnant lady! They all took such good care of me. We were tired, but so excited to finally see the Maldives from the air – beautiful turquoise waters, clear blue skies, heaven!

The views from the sea plane were amazing – just look at those colors! the baby wasn’t so happy with the sea plane ride though – it was loud, but smooth and the little one was kicking away!
Then we got to the resort – it was beautiful. I was worried that I would be very picky about it since it wasn’t the most ‘luxurious’ hotel on the list – it was still expensive, but happened to be all inclusive which we thought would be better for me and my need to eat 6 times a day! And thankfully, the resort did not disappoint. Our room was a water villa, perched above the lagoon and just beautiful. At the entrance we had a big glass floor so that we could see the fish swim under the villa, then on either side were doors – one to a massive bathroom and one to a bedroom/sitting area – both connected outside by our private deck.

Outside we had a good size jacuzzi/plunge pool, which was actually a bit unexpected. We knew there was a jacuzzi, but didn’t know that it would be so large and big enough to take care of our needs for a private pool! And of course the view from the deck was beautiful. Yeah!! And the best part is that everything was included. All alcohol for Paul and all food/drinks for me! So the mini bar was a own private fridge which was great and we could eat at any of the cafe’s during the day between the designated meal times.
The snorkeling was great. It probably would have been good to go on a snorkel trip, one was included in our stay, but I just didn’t think I could manage out on a boat for 3-4 hours without food and/or a restroom, so instead we just snorkeled off the island which was good enough for us. We even saw a massive stingray that kept me a little fearful for the rest of the day – i always worried that he’d be under my feet when i went to step down. Luckily Paul didn’t step on him… he never even knew to look out for these things! Even though that didn’t hurt paul, he did have a few other injuries… coral on one of his outings cut up his knee and a big cut on his wrist and massive bruise on his rear from falling down our private stair leading to the water. I didn’t witness it.. but I probably would have been scared or cracking up laughing! Poor thing!!
After a beautiful and wonderful few days on our island paradise it was time to leave. Shockingly we weren’t bored and could have stayed a few days longer actually. And we probably should have! The only bad thing is that even with all of the food options, I still struggled to eat at meal times. I think I have figured it out though – it’s the buffet setting. I just can’t handle all of the smells and choices. I need to be away from the smells and then just have a few things to choose from! But I did manage to eat ok – i ate fish for lunch every day and managed to find something, even if it was from the kids buffet for dinner!
Our arrival to Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo was nothing great – no 5 star service anymore and man did that suck! haha. We waited in line for a taxi to be told that it was only for Sri Lankan people – foreigners could not use it. You can only imagine how mad that made me! Then we arrived to our “5 star” hotel the Hilton – major disappointment. It was like we were time warped into 1970. Urgh. Specially after such a beautiful room in the Maldives.. this was a major let down.
And colombo just didn’t seem so great. We had planned one day for site seeing, one day drive out to the elephant orphanage and then another day for shopping and pottering around. Not sure what we thought we’d do with our 4th day! But once we got there, we were exhausted and disappointed in the room, so we just took a nap on the insanely hard bed. (I had to ask for 8 pillows to make myself a little fortress so that I could actually sleep at night!!). So already on our first day/night we were not too pleased. The next day didn’t add much to our happiness either. We saw all the sites, ate at a good foreigners hangout cafe and then again went back to the hotel. It was at this point that we decided that maybe it was best to go home early. There was no way I could manage going to the elephant orphanage – it was a 4 hr drive each way, so with nothing left to do we changed our flights to leave the following evening.
We just pottered around our last day and waited for our midnight flight. And of course.. by the time midnight rolled around, I was vomiting again. Urgh. At least I know it’s mostly do to lack of sleep and messing up my food schedule. But the bad thing was that it lasted the entire flight home and even after we got home. My throat was so sore from all the sickness. Urgh. But there were empty seats at the back, so I managed to lay down for a bit and stretch my legs which was nice.
And then home sweet home.. after my re-entry to Mumbai this last time, I wasn’t sure I would ever be happy to be back here, but I sure was after a few boring days in Colombo!! haha. The Maldives though were amazing and we do hope to make it back again some day with the little one.
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Wedding Photos

Posted on July 4, 2010 by kkowen

I’m not sure who on here wouldn’t have seen these already from facebook.. but just in case you are interested.. here’s the ‘best of’ of our wedding photos!

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Chhanges…

Posted on June 17, 2010 by kkowen

WOW.. you will be surprised with the amazing amount of things that has happened since my last update in Feb! Its been a whirlwind for sure!

So…we didn’t go to Varanasi for two reasons – one confirmed that I was pregnant and two our cat ginger masala was super sick and we didn’t feel good leaving her with no supervision while she was recovering. So poo-y nothing special for the birthday this year. But what other amazing news though right?!
And secretly, or not so secretly i had been planning an Oct wedding in SF but given the baby news, we had to push that up a lot earlier than hoped. And things just sort of fell into place in the most unlikely of ways!
For Paul’s birthday and for a last minute getaway, we decided to go to Dubai. I had been insanely sick with the pregnancy and was dying for some American food from Chili’s and a break from the heat of Mumbai. So off we went – last minute as usual. Had a great weekend – it was the first time in weeks that I had 3 consecutive days of no vomiting. I began to think that it must be India that was making me sick!
Then back to Mumbai.. or so we tried! Apparently something was wrong with Paul’s visa and he was promptly deported from India and returned to Dubai. Well, actually it wasn’t promptly – they kept him locked in a room with a chair all night long waiting to see if they were really going to deport him or allow him to enter and sort out the visa through the foreign registration office. They made me leave since I had been admitted into the country, so I went back home at 3 in the morning not knowing what was going on with paul – and a mess emotionally!
It wasn’t until late afternoon the following day that I got a call from folo saying that he was in Dubai and checked back into the hotel we had just left. Urgh. His work was trying to help and we tried to see what could be done from Dubai. After a day or so it seemed that the only option was to return to Ireland to get a new visa. Double URGH! And so after 3 days of being in Mumbai myself, I returned to Dubai to give folo a suitcase of winter clothes and stuff for the wedding in May just in case he wasn’t able to get back to India!
On Easter sunday Paul headed back to Ireland and I headed back to India. And again my stay would be short. I figured that if he wasn’t going to be in Mumbai there surely wasn’t any reason for me to stay there, so I booked a ticket to the US and headed off after 3 hectic days!
Yeah.. America! I loved that there was nice cool weather in SF, tons of food to eat and friends! Paul was stuck in Ireland getting his visa and I was in SF putting together the wedding. So even though it all seemed like a nightmare, it was great that it all happened and I went to the US well in advance of the wedding. Otherwise I don’t know how we would have done it!
Finally Paul got a new visa and then headed over to SF to help with the final wedding preparations. We managed to pull off a great small wedding, all the family made it over from ireland (even with the volcano interrupting travel again!). And then a week after the wedding Paul headed back to India and back to work. I stayed on in the US to baby shop!
So now it’s almost 3 months later from when I first came to the US. I can’t believe i have been here so long, but it’s been great and I’ve actually really enjoyed being back. At the moment I am ready to go “home” but I am not really that interested in going back to India if that makes any sense! I miss folo and the kitties and having my own space, but I don’t miss the heat, the dirt and the noise. But I do know that having the luxury of a maid and a driver will be invaluable when the little one arrives in oct. so i’ll just have to grin and bare it for a while. and the fact that i have no health insurance and wouldn’t be able to have the baby here in the US anyhow!
So.. less than 2 weeks before I head back to India loaded down to the gills with baby supplies and a bulging belly. Fun fun.
oh and no, we don’t know the sex of the baby. paul wants it to be a surprise and i wanted to know. and since you can’t legally find out in India, I had a scan here in the states and had the sonographer (a friend from jr high) print the sex and put it in a sealed envelope! So now that I have the answer in my hands, I actually don’t want to know! And i think Paul does! haha. So we shall see when we are both together in the same place what we decide to do. Without that official paper telling us, everyone else in our lives seems to think it will be a boy. stay tuned in Oct for the real results 🙂
So… life is changing and moving on. We are excited and scared and nervous, but looking forward to new adventures with a little one in the backpack 🙂
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rantings!

Posted on February 18, 2010 by kkowen

Oh I just need to moan for a bit!

I mentioned that I was working like a dog before going to the US for the xmas holidays – well I am supposed to be working like that again, but I just can’t find the motivation and apparently my bosses can’t find the money to pay me. This leaves us in a bit of a quandary I would say! I need money to motivate…Even though I get paid pennies.. it helps in making me feel like there is value in the work I am doing.
And to top it all off I keep getting crappy rude emails from the funders of the project wanting their accounts finalized and the final report. Except that they have ignored ALL of my emails asking for formats, requirements etc. And they KNOW i am not getting paid anymore… So I really wonder how it is that they think that by being rude and mean will facilitate or expedite the process any???
I’m almost to the point of just dropping all the documents into my bosses laps and saying have fun! when you can find some money to pay me, i’ll finish it, otherwise enjoy sorting through it yourselves! It would NEVER get done if I walked away right now, so I’m not sure why the funder is being so rude to me. Seriously! GRRRRR.
The only thing making me keep my cool is that I don’t want to ruin my relationship with TISS. It seems my relationship has already been ruined with the funders, which none of it is my fault, but there is nothing I can do about that now I guess. Urgh. Just annoyed. And so sick of working with rude, inefficient people who have no clue about what it actually takes to get things done.
In other news… I am equally distressed about the leaving of my last remaining great friend here. Oh so sad. Seriously, I just keep breaking down. I rely on having her here so much as moral support, that i don’t know what I will do when she is gone. Her departure is rather hurried, even though I knew it would come eventually it was only a week since the announcement and her departure. 🙁 But I know (and hope!) that we will keep in touch and that I will see her again soon. But it still is going to be hard for me to find my way here for a while without her.
And not to end on a moany note.. I got a surprise delivery of flowers today – for my birthday (still 10 days away though)! THANKS MOM! It helped this day not be as crappy as it was turning out to be. And I LOVE getting surprises – and it was good that it was so early because I won’t be in town for my bday, so it all worked out for the best! Yeah!
And since the secret is out.. I will be going to Varanasi for my bday weekend, which also coincides with Holi – our favorite holiday in India. (Hence the reason we will be staying in country instead of going to some glamorous locale for my bday!). I think Varanasi will be chaos for Holi, but hopefully we manage to get some good photos.
I will report on it all when we return. Til then….
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Update!

Posted on February 4, 2010 by kkowen

Wow.. It has really been a long time since I have updated the blog. It’s not that i don’t think about doing it, I just haven’t really had much time to sit down and write!

A quick recap of the last few months!
November:
I was hard at work preparing for the 1st National consultation on HIV Social research in India for the entire month. Typically my work week consisted of work from dawn to bed 6 or 7 days a week! I loved it though – well besides one of the conceptualizers of the project who made my life miserable at every turn! But i managed to make it through somehow!
We also went to Ireland for a week for Tom & Syro’s wedding. It was great to go for a visit and see everyone and the wedding was great fun as well. It was way too short though and it didn’t help that i got up at 4 a.m. every day to work for a few hours before everyone else got up. But i was very proud of myself for managing to get work done every day and enjoy myself as well. We did have time for a little bit of shopping when we were there.. mostly for shoes! I got 3 pairs of lovely shoes and paul got a new pair of runners. Yeah! It really does seem that ireland is my shoe shopping destination these days!
We returned to India and I was right back into the swing of work. We completely missed thanksgiving which stunk. The AWC who normally hosts it here had their celebration on the 20th as the actual date of thanksgiving was on the 1 yr anniversary of the Mumbai attacks. We were in Ireland on the 20th and here for real thanksgiving 🙁 But I did go down to one of the memorials with a friend to honor those that died that day for a reminder for myself, but also for all of my jewish friends who found such comfort at the chabad house here in Mumbai. After the memorial, Folo came down to meet me and we had an impromptu thanksgiving dinner at Indigo. It wasn’t real thanksgiving, but it was the best we could do on such a sad day.
Dec:
December flew by in a flash! My consultation was held on the 17-19th of Dec, and our flight from Mumbai to the US left on the night of the 22nd, so I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off for most of the month. The consultation was a success and I was so happy that I managed to pull it off with no real staff or help. After quickly wrapping things up, running around for last minute xmas gifts and packing, we finally boarded our flight to the US at 4:30 a.m. on the 22nd and slept the entire 19 hrs to the US! Man was that a needed sleep!!
After getting delayed in SF for about 15 hrs, we boarded another red-eye to OKC via cinncinati. And in less than 24 hrs of being in OKC we were hit with a blizzard!! Wow! I don’t think I have ever had such a white xmas! We had a great xmas eve dinner with my mom and were showered with gifts on xmas day. Seriously so many gifts we couldn’t fit them all in the suitcases!!
And then due to the blizzard, we weren’t sure what our xmas day plans were going to end up being. We had planned to drive the hour south to my grandmothers on xmas day and not until moments before we packed the car did we know if we would actually be able to go! But we made it. I felt I needed to go and at least try – it has been years since I’ve spent xmas with my mom or my grandmother and the plan was to spend a bit of the day with both!
Another xmas dinner and we were fatter than ever! We spent the weekend with my grandmother which was great, then headed back up to OKC to see my mom quickly before heading to the north of Oklahoma to see Stacie! A great, but short visit to Tulsa and then Chicago for new years!
Blistering cold is all I can say about chicago! We did manage to walk around a bit (well never more than 4 blocks!), but I will have to go back as I have no idea what the city even looks like! A quick visit with Julie and Colin and lots of quality time with Adam and Ang and then I was off again. (And folo was back to India for a short week of work).
Pittsburgh!! I finally made it to Pittsburgh to see grace and her newborn son Wyatt. He was a doll and set my internal clock a tick’n! It snowed the entire time I was there, so we had lots of chatting time and HGTV time!
New York! Another quick jaunt to NYC to see adam and lisa, david and of course for val’s bachlorette party. It was a fab weekend, but way too short. I think I need a good week there sometime soon to really get a chance to chill with people.
And back to SFO to meet folo and continue on with the world wind tour! A quick 48 hrs in Sf and then to LA for a few days and then back to SF for val’s fabulous wedding weekend, some shopping, errands a visits with a few friends before packing it all up and flying back to India.
whew… it was a quick trip for a month, but it was one of the best i’ve had in a long while. it was so great to see people i hadn’t seen in ages and to visit so many places. Not that i’ll be doing that kind of trip again anytime soon though!
And now back to Mumbai…and slowly slowly getting back into the swing of things (well work that is). I have actually been very proactive since returning and have *almost* finished this house – After a year of being in it! We finally, or I finally bought a dining table, got things hung on the walls and got curtains hung up in the living room. Whoa! Now a few more finishing pieces and we’ll be finished and ready to move somewhere else 😉
Now.. i am sure so much more happened, but this is already too long! I will try to be more regular on here if anyone even reads this these days!
ta ta for now.
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US Trip Itinerary!

Posted on October 31, 2009 by kkowen

It has taken weeks of checking flights talking to people about what their plans were, etc. But finally we have finalized the whole shebang! We’d already purchased our tickets from BOM-SFO, but then needed to organize 5 domestic flights… not an easy feat, especially around xmas and new years. But we’ve done it! By we, I mean me, of course! And we even managed to get a first class ticket for one of our domestic flights for not so many miles 🙂

The final itinerary:
Dec 22-25: OKC with Mom
Dec 25-28: Ardmore with Granny
Dec 28-31: Tulsa with Stacie
Dec 31 – Jan 4: Chicago with Adam/Angela (Paul’s brother)
Jan 4 – Jan 7: Pittsburg with Grace
Jan 7 – Jan 10: NYC with Lisa/Adam and for Valerie’s Bachlorette party
Jan 10- 12: SF
Jan 12-15: LA (mark, greg, amit, etc)
Jan 15 – 21: SF (Valerie’s wedding, Dad, friends, etc)
This is probably going to be the least relaxing ‘vacation’ ever, but at least we are getting to see a lot of friends that we’ve not seen in a while, see some new cities and just get some time off of work! Now lets just see how many times our bags are lost 😉 no no.. don’t want to jinx ourselves, but that is a lot of flying in a short amount of time. Thankfully we are using our miles for most of it though so it’s not costing as much as it would have! Glad that all these 22,000 mile return trips to the states is giving back somehow.
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