thanksgiving pt. 2, 11.26.21

tonight, we had dinner at uncle dave’s. it was thanksgiving part 2. like last night, there was plenty of delicious food. we ate the main course, then we had soup, then we had spinach wraps, then there was pumpkin pie. i didn’t have enough room for pumpkin pie, but i think some was brought home. during all the eating and story telling, we watched nebraska lose to iowa in typical nebraska fashion. we were up 21-6 heading into the fourth, but a blocked punt ended up jumpstarting a 22 point run unanswered. we’ve been hella competitive this season with ranked teams, but we couldn’t get the job done time after time. it reminded me of watching the chargers, but no matter what, i still believe in next year. we ended up coming back home around 7:40pm, and i swear time is moving slow. i feel like i have nothing to do, yet so much on my plate i don’t know where to start. these are good problems to have though.

hope i can be productive tonight, but this food is giving me the itis as i’m writing this.

-ratha, 8:11pm, 11.26.21

thanksgiving '21, 11.25.21

happy thanksgiving if you’re reading this. this was the first year in 10 years that i have spent thanksgiving with family. it was such a nice change of pace meeting a lot of my cousins, eating homecooked food, and being surrounded by good enery. although i do enjoy being alone, this life is a balance and lately the balance has been way off. there was plenty of food, even two iterations of corn. idk what it is, but i love corn. it’s the best thanksgiving side if we’re being real with it. after a plate, one of my cousins was teaching me how to play poker, and though i didn’t join in, ima do my research and jump in next time. in between learning poker, we were all watching football. chicago beat the lions, oakland beat the cowboys, and the bills should beat the saints, but we’ll see what happens.

overall, i think i still prefer to be alone on most occasions, but tonight was awesome.

definitely thankful.

not for a little, but for a lot.

-ratha, 8:43pm, 11.25.21

rmv appointments, 11.24.21

i took the day off from work and pulled up to the rmv. luckily the manager was so kind and was able to schedule me for next week to transfer my out of state license. it’s way better than waiting 2 months for the next available appointment. the next thing i need to do is get vanity plates, but i’ll handle later.

for now, i need to go back home and get all my paperwork in order, then hope to look halfway decent in my photo the day of lol.

-ratha, 3:27pm, 11.24.21

(almost) bad timing, 11.23.21

i came to work early to set a reaction so i could hit the gym later in the morning. around 9am, i went to the gym for a little over an hour. as i’m carrying on doing my thing afterwards, i get undressed and put my towel on the shower rod. i notice there are lights flashing in the bathroom. it catches me off guard so i pause looking at the lights. then i hear the noise. it’s the fire alarm. i rush to get dressed, then head outside. as soon as i open the gym door, i see ashley. we talk about how about how she got her degree and needed her foot in the door so she got a job at dens. i think she’ll do great if this is the field she wants to stay in. when we get to the blue garage, i see brian. he said i’m getting big, but truth be told i’m tryna get like him! after a while, dad pulls up and we talk about how chilly it is. a few minutes pass, then we walk inside. hitesh joins my dad and i and we talk about holiday plans. when i got back the locker room, i got undressed again and thought about how lucky i was to see the light before starting the water.

it was almost bad timing.

almost.

-ratha, 6:13pm, 11.23.21

the joys of time off, 11.22.21

short week this week. it’s got me feeling like i’m in school again. i’m looking forward to the thanksgiving break to spend time with family, eat good, but probably most importantly, find time to spend in solitude. i wanna read more and write more. i might record a few songs, too. whatever i decide to do, i’m looking forward to it.

-ratha, 5:37am, 11.22.21

lunch with ayman, 11.21.21

today i got lunch with ayman. it’s been a while since he left the company, maybe 2 months or so. the plan was to go get lulu’s. i’ve never been before, but when i pulled up, there was a line out the door and ayman said it was about an hour wait. hungry, we decided to pull up to the nearest mcdonald’s. we sat for an hour and caught up on life. ayman is a really great guy. he even brought some sudanese bread he baked for me. he gave me guidance and advice. one of the things he told me (that pertains to life in general) is to do what’s best for me. i think i struggle with that because many times i question if doing what’s best for me is the right decision. i know it doesn’t make sense, but these things are complex and i’m sure an explanation is out there somewhere if i think hard enough, but now isn’t the time for thinking, it’s the time for action. i told him we’d get lunch/dinner again in december before heading out. traffic was bad so i stopped at the mall to kill time. madewell had 30% off so i bought two shirts. i just got home and jt scored 5 touchdowns against the best running defense in the league in buffalo. man, i still remember everybody laughed at me for having my mind deadset on jt in the fantasy draft, guess i’ll enjoy this one lol.

time to walk btg, relax, and hang until my chargers play on primetime tonight against the steelers.

-ratha, 4:47pm, 11.21.21

family portraits, 11.20.21

mom, dad, and i took some family portraits today. the portraits were cool because after the photos are taken, they aren’t sent to you. instead, they are put in an application where an artists finishes the portrait like an oil painting. they stretch it over canvas, then send it to you. the package we got was 2 or 3 thousand, but some of the portraits go up to 20k. 20k!!? that’s hella bread lol. it was a good experience, a nice break in monotony from staying at home and watching college football all day. it’s got me thinking about family traditions and how when i grow up (lmao) i’ll have to develop my own family traditions.

maybe it involves 20k family portraits, maybe it doesn’t, but one day i’ll find out, not soon, but one day.

-ratha, 4:55pm, 11.20.21

last days, 11.19.21

one of my favorite coworkers, maria, is leaving us today!! after lunch, i stopped by her office and told her how much i enjoyed working with her. actually she just stopped in the lab to throw a lab coat in the hamper as i was writing this lol. it’s sad because she brings so much positive energy to the building and she is a fantastic worker. maria is extremely kind and has always greeted me with warmth. i will miss her for sure.

it’s sad to see her go, but i know she is off to bigger and better things!

-ratha, 2:16pm, 11.19.21

running into cards, 11.18.21

i went to the tewksbury walmart to pick up some beef liver for my grandfather. as i’m there, naturally i check on the cards. to my surprise, they had hella cards. i copped a yugioh monster box, a yugioh tin, and some pokemon cards. as i’m walking around, i see another shelf with celebration tins. excited, i picked up two. i’m on the phone with e, and he says his walmart has cards, too. as we’re talking, i decided to head to the local walmart in my town. there, they had a new maximum gold set, el dorado. natrually, i picked up a few boxes. when i got home, i opened the celebrations and two maximum gold boxes. i got a few good pulls, but again, the charizard escapes me.

at least it softened the blow of the 26 points the pat’s defense put on me this week in fantasy.

-ratha, 11:16pm, 11.18.21

sharing moments, 11.17.21

one of the last things i said at your funeral was that if you ever come to visit us down here, make sure you make your presence known. today at a training, our it guy was sharing his screen showing us this new joint called box, where we will host all our files as we move on from dropbox. he was demonstrating the search function and he searched ‘dns.’ although those are your intials, i thought that was still mad random. earlier in the night, after i got home from work i was laying in bed scrolling through ig. this dude with a growth on his face came up on my feed. i go to his page and i’m watching his videos and in one video, he asked his friend to guess the word written on his hand for $1000 bucks. it was 'nah’, and his friend said nah in the context that he’s not participating. the thing is, his friend’s name was donovan. that’s when it hit me, like okay, you here with me right now. i stopped scrolling, looked at your figures sitting on my top shelf and said whatup dono!! your mom added me on facebook earlier in the week and i sent her a message hoping she was doing well. we all miss you down here, thanks for checking on me today dono.

i really needed it.

-ratha, 9:14pm, 11.17.21