"It's good...isn't it great...isn't it swell..."

I know what you're probably thinking.  Alright here comes another Priya post and she's about to let loose on all this stupid job stuff that's been happening to her.  Well I've been dwelling too much on that the last few days so instead I am just going to talk about my trip to Chicago.

I went to Chicago for 3 days with my mom, Anumasi (my mom's sister) and Auntie (my aunt on my dad's side).  We went to shop for clothes and jewelry for the wedding.  There is a street right outside of the downtown area that is seriously like little India.  All along it were Pakistani, Israeli, and Indian stores, restaurants and beauty parlors.  We spent two days just on this Devon Ave.  It was...an experience.

I loved the clothes and I loved hanging with my family (especially Auntie who I haven't spent time with in a while).  But...it was tiring and the bargaining...ohhhh the bargaining.  I just don't like it.

Either way, we had some good laughs.  We must've stuck out like a sore thumb because we would come into stores and the employee would say "oh I see you walking up and down for the last 2 days.  You look like you're all rush rush."

Here are some pictures from my very Indian Chicago weekend:

Freezer section at Patel Brothers, the Indian grocery store

Chutney Bar

The result of our shopping trip

On the last day we made it to the city.  This was my first time to Chicago.  I really wish we had more time to do stuff around there but we were all so tired by that point anyways.  We got to walk around the river area.  Chicago is beautiful! I definitely need to go back!

It was so overcast that we weren't able to go up to the Willis Tower.

It was a little chilly.  These are my family members in their neutral colored sweaters.

Hehe...I love this picture.

We ended the trip with some Chicago deep dish pizza....soooo good.  Awesome ending before flying back home.

"In my room...in your room"

Some of you may remember the Great Shower Leak of 2010 that occurred a few months ago. If not, it was...well, a shower leak...that messed up the carpet of my room and the family room. It also cause the vanity in my bathroom to somewhat fall apart from the dampness.

Since then, we have been working to renovate these areas. We got wood put into the family room. We also got new carpet in my room and replaced the mirror and vanity in my bathroom.

While our insurance gave us enough money to replace my pepto bismo pink 80s furniture, we decided to keep it and save the money for the future house that Ojas and I will have someday. Working with what we had, we painted both the room and the bathroom.

I've had this idea to have a giant tree on my wall and got excited when I saw there are companies that make vinyl wall stickers of what I wanted. Unfortunately, these stickers were like 70 bucks. I took the much cheaper route and decided to paint it myself.

Tree Wall

Finally hung up the lamp I made in undergrad.

The bathroom

LOVE LOVE LOVE my little corner of the house.  Perfect for reading Harry Potter and taking naps :)

"And so...Priya waits, Priya waits, Priya waits...."

It's been over two months since my last post...whoopsies.

I stopped for a long time because I never wanted this blog to become an obligation. I didn't wanna have to feel like I HAD to post on it every once in a while. But I think I'm ready to come back to it because I need some kind of venting ground. Besides, there is only so much you can share with people through facebook statuses.

So what has happened in the last two months...hmmm...
Well Ojas is here and situated. He's now the pharmacy manager of the CVS that most of my family goes to. He's liking it here. We're still unsure of where we will end up after we get married but for now Naples it is.

The job searching is getting extremely frustrating. More than anything the thing that discourages me is that no one seems to want to follow up after an interview. I call several times and email but I keep feeling like people are blowing me off. I know I'm doing my part but how much more can I do? Even a "no" would suffice but in every case (there have been maybe 8 opportunities at this point) I have been forced to play the waiting game. Grr.

Unlike job hunting, wedding planning is going well. Pretty much have all the major things covered. Next up is food...which is the part Ojas is really excited about :) I feel like I'm productive when I plan for this wedding. Generally I think of myself as a really lazy person but then I have these moments when I love to be organized and love having to stay on top of things. It's those times that make me realize that I need some purpose. More than money, I need a job to feel useful again.

I have been using downtime to work out. Since school ended last year, I've lost about 17 pounds. Crazy...doesn't even feel like that much. I guess it has been really gradual. I've been spinning and going to these weight lifting classes but once it gets a little cooler I want to start running again. I actually really like running. It's just making it off my couch and outside that's the hard part hah.

Alright well that's that for now. I will do another post tomorrow...and I promise not to complain so much.