Californication

I have been having a claustrophic feeling to get out of the midwest . The dream to see something beyond corn fields in Summer and the cold snow in winter . Thanks to a very adamant wife and coaxing , I decided to buy tickets to California this winter .


Unfortunately , my wife got into a serious car accident in Milwaukee early December of 2005 , which almost made me cancel this trip . Thanks to ... (God , Inshaallah , Good karma ) that my wife is recovering and this trip finally materialized on December 29th .

It was a vacation only for 5 days , but anyone else would have thought otherwise . Until the last minute I was trying to get over my Ipod mania . I was struggling to get my Ipod FM car transmitter to work reliablity . Finally after installing the darn thing , the quality isnt worth it . For the time being , my dream of a CD'less car (akin to paperless office) is not materializing . I prove this to my wife in the car by comparing a song " Chup-Chup Ke " played via a cd and via the ipod fm transmitter . The CD pounds the FM quality hands down . So much so for ipod . The night is spend downloading , encoding , transcoding a plethora of songs and movies into that tiny thing called the ipod . Here's a list of the video variety onboard
1 . Cricket Masterclass - a short documentary on fast bowling hosted by Damien Fleming
2. Jaspal Bhatti's Flop Show
3. A R Rahman's concert in the US
4. Hindi Movie - Apaharan
5. Hindi Movie - Salaam Namaste

Most of the night is spent in getting these things done . I must have slept for 4 hours that night .

We get up early and make preparations for the trip . These preparations include setting up my computer so that I can operate it from California to download more stuff . We also prepare some food ( Veggie Burger ) so that we do not have to starve on the flight .

The cab driver arrives and it is a quick drive to the ariport. I was expectant that we might get a class upgrade (due my ailing wife) , but the flight has been booked to capacity.

After a brief wait at the boarding area , comes our turn to board . We are seated at the last seat in the airplane .

The flight is arduous for my wife Arthi , owing to the inconvenience caused by an external metal brace that she needs to wear due to the accident . The in-flight entertainment is movie titled " The polar express " . I spend some time fiddling with the ipod , to realize that my ipod has suddenly stopped displaying the song title name . The rest of the flight journey is spent trying to figure this out , by talking to the flight attendant , stealthily eating my veggie burger to prevent the aroma of "curry" from spreading around .

The pilot announces that the weather in California was "weather between rainstorms " . This did not set a good precedent and I was not sure we would do in California , considering the fact that we had made plans to travel to the Wine County in Napa valley .

We finally arrive in San Jose . We are received by our friends Balajee and Anu who also have had a long and arduous journey to get to the airport from their suburb .

I take the bus shuttle to the car rental location . This happens all the time , where I expect to get a really good car and I end up getting something really "crappy " . This time it was somethign similar where all they have is a Chevy HHR .

We reach the house and eat a well cooked home meal by Anu . After the heavy lunch and gifting Balajee the bday boy with an ipod , we care for a little siesta . The siesta sees us through most of the afternoon .

We decide to go shopping as Balajee needed to purchase some furniture items from Ikea . After Ikea we make a pit stop to Home depot to get a garden chair for Arthi so that she can sit straight .

We have dinner at a restaurant called as Masala Grill and we are treated to some good fast food .