My Alpine path: December 2011

Its been a long time since I came here though I've been reading on others' posts. So, touching base here and trying to do a snapshot of what is going through my mind:

I'm going to India (yay!! And yeah, a second time this year :) so, double yay!!)
I'm also going to tick off another country off my travel list this year (despite my poor traveling this year (no new places except a national park(glacier) and a city (chicago) so far, even though I traveled every single month), I finally get to finish with a bang!)
I'm planning a surprise - keeping fingers crossed that everything goes fine :) I'll update once things are complete.
One of my friends, M is off to his wedding. I'm so happy for him and wish I can attend his wedding. Another of my friends is engaged as well, a couple more married/engaged, this seems to be a season of marriages among close friends group.
Finally saw the finesse of balancing - Respecttttttt!!! I hope I can get to that state soon.
One of my friends lost his dad :( And another lost her mom :( :( This makes me feel that our parents are not invincible :( :( :( #PainsOfGrowingUp
Another couple of friends had/are having kids. Phew! So, I finally am getting into the akka to aunty transition (seri, seri, 25ku aprom akka sollanumnu expect panrathu konjam too much thaan!) #PainsOfGrowingUp
Purged three years worth of blog posts on google reader, as much mail as I can throw out in official and personal mail folders and as many tasks I can finish before I leave to India. Feels cathartic! I wish there was a way to take a snapshot of my mailbox and other stuff now and just diff the differences a year later so I can cleanup just one year's worth of trash.
Plan to get off the grid once I go home - one month of Internetless, emailless, fbless life - I'm sure it would be a big challenge given that I'm on the net every minute of my waking time, either through the phone or my ipad or one of my three computers. Would it be bliss or hell? I frankly don't know. Its a lot more easier to be out of net in India than here. Ok... maybe, I'll restrict it to half an hour a week. Lets see!
The above challenge is one other reason why I purged most stuff - I want to let everything pile on a clean plate instead of another older pile. I'm making sense, no?
Since I'm going netless, this is also going to double up as a resolution lookout post. Here is what I set out to do. " This year would be more a capture-and-go year. So, no resolutions to keep, no to-do lists, no must-finish stuff and definitely no must-experience stuff! For my resolution minded friends, I do have two but they are a secret and do not carry the pressure of resolutions - I've worded them 'nice to do stuff' - they really are nice to do but I can comfortably live without doing them. Also, I have a few things that 'can be done' but again, I can live with not doing them. It would definitely be a big change from my planned life. I plan to leave all the planning to others and if any planning HAS to be done by me, I'm going to do it fly-by-the-pants style. Should be interesting to see how that pans out! " It has definitely been an interesting year - I made a ton of new friends, learned more about balance, learned that I can live with some people and without some others, slowed down on traveling but enjoyed all what I can do, experienced new stuff but really didn't plan out for it, watched only movies that I was interested in (no more lists of movies to watch or books to read - it took some time to slow down but boy am I glad I slowed down!), did a couple of all nighters having fun, learned a few new things, did a fly-by-the-pants style trip to LA and more and more. Most important of all, I learned to let go of some things and learned that emotional roller coasters are definitely bad, for everyone involved.
That said, the next year has a couple of resolutions from me (yeah, I love the 'do as you go' style but that is not me all the time) - the main one would be to mix my resolutions with the 'do as you go' style. And this year, there are two types of resolutions - one for the whole year and another that changes periodically. As always, they are not to be shared until done. Watch out for 2012 posts to see how the next year shapes up.
In terms of this blog, this year barely scrapped through being the bottom in terms of numbers. However, as part of no-obligations year, I think this is good enough and I'll aim for 40 posts a year and call it good enough every year from now on. So, no worries on that one.
I attempted the veggie challenge a couple of times for a period of a month every time and it was a success. Thinking if I should try it for longer periods next year.
Some minor ones: Loved some of the movies that came out this year; didn't understand how 'why this kolaveri di?' became a world sensation; none of the songs that came out this year stick out; same as none of the books.
Time is a strange one - on one hand, this has been the most interesting year of my life, on another, this is the most cathartic, on another, this is a bubble year where nothing touched/stuck. I really don't know.
Life at Neverland has changed SO MUCH, that I barely recognize it from a year back. Even though I was a participant in it, a bird's eye view is stunning.Oh well, guess that is life!