The more you say goodbye I say hello...

Its been ages since I've really blogged. I've just been incredibly busy. Let me see if I can remember all thats happened. I don't have time so there won't be any pic right now. July 18th I had my last day of work at TowerData. In August it would have been 2 years at the company. The longest I've worked anywhere. It was a great opportunity it and I enjoyed but I was totally ready for a change. Call it the waterloo co-op syndrome. After switching between working and school every 4 months for 5 years it was definitely a bit difficult having to stay put in 1 place for so long. If I hadn't got into grad school I would have started looking for a new job. I think I'd gained all I was going to from that job anyways. I flew home to Mississauga that night and drove back to NY the following day with my sister. We did a lot of walking and a lot of eating. Went to some restaurants for restaurant week like Terrace in the Sky and Sea Grill that were just fantastic. Went to a couple of broadway shows that were wonderful (Les Miserables and The Drowsy Chaperone). And spent a good deal of time just walking around new york and chilling in union square. It was really nice and I'm definitely going to miss nyc. And of course all the friends I made there. As a going away present they made a little scrap book for me with pictures from the last two years and then signed it with messages like a yearbook. It was an awesome awesome gift. Drove back on the 22nd and left behind new york, my home for the last 2 years. And returned to my home home! My house for the last 19years. Its sold now. My parents have bought a new house, still in Mississauga. Actually its only 5mins away from my current place. We just needed a house with a room on the main floor we can make into a bedroom for my grandmother. Going up and down stairs is just too difficult for her now. I like the new place. Its certainly bigger. And I guess its nice that its the same neighbourhood so its not too different...and yet, it'll be totally different. I know I haven't really been living at home for about 7 years now but still. 19years in 1 house...I think it'll be awhile for the new place to be home. Anyhow, once I got home I didn't unpack at all really. Instead I had to start packing some more. I thought I had packed a lot into my place in new york.....it doesn't compare at all to this house. I've been packing forever and theres still so much to do.... In between the packing I had the 5th annual bbq with my friends. It was a smaller turnout than previous years. But we still had 17 people come and all the food turned out great. We played some good games of soccer baseball, ultimate frisbee, badminton (thanks Mezba for bringing the equipment!), and then we ate some more :P The weather as well turned out fantastic, those weather people predicting thunderstorms don't know what they're talking about. Near the end of the day as what has become an unfortunate tradition, my friends did chase me and try to get me wet. They only semi got me but it turned out fine since afterwards most people got most people anyhow. So I wasn't the only victim. And with the weather as it was I was almost dry by the time I stepped back in my car to leave. You can see some pictures on my friends online album here -> BBQ Pictures I saw the Simpsons movie. It was alright. Good but nothing great. And then i packed some more. And in the midst of all this packing there was the stress of travelling. Or at least trying to travel. See the plan is for my mom, sister, and I to go to fly to Saudi on Saturday for Umrah! But to get the visa's my sister and I needed birth certificates. We're both canadian born but we have the original small birth certificate cards and apparently when applying for visas we needed the new longs ones that state who your parents are and everything. We applied for this early in July and it still wasn't here! After several trips downtown and a visit to the MPs office to try and help expedite the process, we finally go the birth certificates just this past monday. So then we sent them off for the visa application and finally we got visa's today! A full 2 days before the flight...my parents shouldn't have worried so much hehe.... So tons of packing to do since we'd fly out this saturday. Return on the 16th and the move on the 18th! Thankfully I've finished my school loan stuff but as for finding a place downtown...don't think I'll have time when I get back. So it also looks like I'll be commuting from the new house downtown for school for at least a little while. I just haven't had anytime whatsoever to look for a place downtown...hopefully the commute isn't too bad...anyone done the commute before for school? How was it? I'm really excited about Umrah. I've never been and everyone tells me its an amazing experience. So inshaallah it will all go very well. I don't think I'll be blogging again till after I'm back...well who knows...but if anyone has anything in particular they'd like me to pray about please let me know. And please pray I remember as well :P thanks. I will definitely try. And finally please pray about the following. A few days ago I was just sitting at the computer as I am now. Eating some food while reading some random articles when my friend sent me a link to a new article. I clicked on it and started to read. The headline said a local Waterloo student died in an accident at school. I though omigosh (I went to waterloo) thats terrible. And then I started to read the article. And it totally shocked me. I had to read it again. The boy who died was a friend of mine. We weren't particularly close we only chatted online every once in awhile. But still he had worked with me on school projects, group assignments, and had studied with me. He was a real honest and down to earth person. And its just really tragic that his life has ended at such a young age. InshaAllah his family and friends able to find strength and peace. My prayers are with them.

Los Angeles Pictures!!!

First, yay! This is my 200th post! =) I wonder how many posts I'd be at if my old blogs were still around... And now for California pictures! Omar's place in 1000 Oaks, California After dropping off our gear, we're ready to roll. Driving to the Beach The beach! Another beach pic The Ocean! Aamir and Omar at Muscle Beach Venice Beach Promenade Venice Beach park area Me playing catch with Wilson and Tom Hanks Poking the Lion at the Famous Grauman's Chinese Theater The Mall beside the Theatre Aamir attempting the water-defying walk through the randomly spraying fountain Me trying to eat the Hollywood sign Then I saw some of Cap't Jacks treasture and just couldn't resist. Hook tried to stop me. But with Shaft on my side I wasn't scared. At least I wasn't until Jason showed up...ahhhhhh! I ran, but Neo & Trinty put an end to me....don't ask why, it was a weird script. For our amazing performances Omar won an Oscar for Best Lover (that scene was not shown do to the PG-13 rating of this blog). I won the Best Body award. And Aamir won, Puss in Boots Still not entirely convinced show business was for us. We went to work at the construction site Omar is supervising/planning/some sort engineering or whatever supposedly does while chatting and facebooking with us. Zoom, Zoom I wonder how long it takes to change the tire... And then we were off again To Downtown LA! ...but that was rather meh. Though the Buddhist Temple was nice. So we were off again! And driving on Malibu Canyon Rd was awesome. The scenary was just amazing. We went to Bevery Hills and Hollywood Hills. Sorry, I'll only post 1 pic of this b/c I don't like how they turned out. None of them really captures how hilly/steep some of the roads are and how nice the houses look. Santa Monica! Walking along the beach Just chilling and enjoying the view. The Ocean is so fun to just sit and watch. After chilling on the beach we decided to get some Chocolate! And head to Universal Studios for some fun I just barely missed out on the discount =( But I still had fun on the kiddie rides And the not so Kiddie rides, yeehaww Bull Riding! That was fun! I actually didn't do that well though, 14-15secs or so. But I fell off not b/c I slipped but b/c the jerking action of the bull was hurting my hand a lot and so I let go, maybe I wasn't holding the reins right...). Omar lasted the longest at about 17-18 secs. Thanks for making me do it though Omar =) Random pic I had to take for any Waterloo'er out there. Random scenary shot taken at Univeral. Good night LA, I'll be sure to visit again. ps. There are a few more pictures on facebook for those interested.

Back from LA!

I'm back from LA! And it was awesome!!!! It wasn't a very relaxing vacation but thats not what I was really looking for anyways. It was a lot of going here and there and seeing a bunch of stuff and being a tourist. And I definitely saw a ton of stuff, Long Beach, 1000 Oaks, New Port, the OC, Leguna Beach, Topanga Beach, Santa Monica, Beverly HIlls, Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, Malibu Beach, Malibu state park, Universal Studios, and lots of other stuff which I'll point out when I put up pictures. Which unfortunately will not be with this post. I went out with some friends last night and I'm going out again tonight so pictures will have to wait till the weekend. Sorry! hehe. The only disappointment was downtown LA. Theres really like nothing there....its like the anti-new york. Everything worthwhile is outside of downtown in the suburbs. And the downtown core itself is really small. I also got fairly well versed with the layout of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). I arrived in LA late on Friday, about midnight. Omar was driving to pick me up but was running a bit late so I had some time to walk around and explore the terminal for about 30mins or so. After he picked me up, things became a bit interesting. Without detailing the entire story, let me just present you with: Ahmeds Traveling Tips: 1) If you're flying 3000 miles across the continent to visit friends, please provide your flight details. Simply saying 1am at LAX isn't enough. 2) If you fail #1 please bring your cell phone. 3) If you instead decide to leave your cell phone behind with your family...it helps to leave your flight information with them as well. 4) If you've now failed the above 3 steps, remember to bring the phone number of friend your visiting. 5) If you fail #4 and mistakenly call the older sister of your friend waking her up in the middle of the night....you might as well get your friends number from them. 6) If you've now left your friends with the only option being to drive in loops around the airport terminals hoping to spot you.....it helps to stand outside.

Name that summerlicious californian beat

What would you do if I blogged out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your eyes and I'll write you a...post I will try not to press the wrong key, yeah... I had the a few random songs stuck in my head this morning. Although I've butchered it abit, the above was one of them. Any guesses what it is? While writing that up, an old post of mine popped into my head...Pakora, Pakora (should be very easy to guess since the answer is in the comments)...and now I'm a bit hungry and wishing I had bought those chocolate ghiradelli squares I saw this morning....oh well. Its probably best I didn't. Speaking of food, the last 2 weeks of July are Restaurant Week! Yay! Restaurant week is like Summerlicious, where restaurants have reduced price lunch and dinner menus. So far I've booked 3 places, Fleur de Sel, Sea Grill, and Terrace in the Sky. I wanted to book this other restaurant since it got 2 Michelin stars! But unfortunately its booked solid. Actually quite a few places are, crazy eh, trying to find a spot in a restaurant over a month in advance and not being able to. I'm not sure yet if I want to book another one or not...I do love Food!...but even at reduced prices, it adds up. We've been on the run Driving in the sun Looking out for #1 California here we come Right back where we started from California, California! Here we come! In other news, I'm going to California this weekend! Woohoo! Aamir and I are flying out to see our friend Omar who moved there a few months ago! Leaving Friday evening and not back till Wednesday, a short but nice 4-5 day trip and a good break from work! It should be a blast, I haven't really hung out with Omar in well over a year I think! And I haven't really been there before so that adds to the excitement because I love to travel! And thats a lot of exclamation points I just used!!! hehe I'll definitely be taking a lot of pictures this trip. And btw, I've updated my Picture Archive. Here's another song that popped into my head this morning. I'll leave this one alone and it should also be fairly easy to guess what it is. There used to be a greying tower alone on the sea. You became the light on the dark side of me. But did you know, That when it snows, My eyes become large and The light that you shine can be seen.

Returning Home

Wednesday I got the email. Haven't got the actual papers yet so I don't tell anyone. Friday I left work early, got back to my apartment for some last min packing before going to the airport.....awk...I forgot the key at work...but the super let me in...so it was fine. Checked the mail on my way up and I got what I was waiting for. Took the cab to the airport and flew back home to Canada. My family was out at a wedding so I took a cab home and just relaxed. Its nice to be able to just sprawl on the couch, at home, and just watch tv and eat a home cooked meal. It was also really weird to be back. Well weird is not the right word. But...I haven't spent very much time at all in Canada in the past ~2 years. It was odd having so much space again. And not huge buildings everywhere. Saturday Woke up (I heard birds when I woke up!) and came downstairs to greet my parents. And tell them, I got into Rotman (University of Toronto) MBA program! They were naturally very happy to hear I got in and of course that I'm moving back. I'm really excited! I feel like I've missed out on tons not being home. I dont' regret leaving. I've experienced a lot and seen so many things here in NY. Still...you miss not being at home at times. That said, after my initial YAY when I found out on Wednesday. I'm going back to school!!! My 2nd thought was ok....I have 8 more weeks to do everything I want to do and haven't yet in NY! So after that I quickly got ready and met up with Jessani, Nadin, Gabriel, and Al to play squash. I haven't played in ages and oh man...I'm out of shape. But I still managed to go undefeated! :) Afterwards we went played some basketball. I'm terrible at basketball but I'm a decent shooter and managed to win at 21. Then in American, everyone was tired so we only played to 4 points and I somehow managed to win that too! After that we met up with James, Bradley, Seiji, Bill, and Ruth and just chilled at Jessani's place for awhile and played ping pong and a couple more games of 21. I was undefeated at pong and won 1 more game of 21. I'm on a roll today! After getting ready we all went to Alice Fazooli's (which coincidentally is the same restaurant we all went to when I was leaving Canada to come to NY) where Ali, Shahzad, Hillary, Dave, Ken, June, and Gordon joined us for dinner. I have to say the Calamari was excellent. The rest just ok. Jessani raves about the pizza....I haven't tried it but compared to NY pizza....I dont' know...afterwards we went to Ken&June's place and just hung out. And my lucky streak was broken as Shahzad destroyed me in pong. Twice. Ah well, better him than Jessani :P It was great to see everyone again and just chill and talk. I can't wait to be back and doing that more often. Sunday I met up with some bloggers (Mezba, Ruby, Isheeta, Liya, & Samosa) at Yorkdale mall for the first time. I've never met other bloggers before so I really had no idea what to expect. And I'm a pretty quiet person until I get to know people...but then I semi-sort of know them....but anyways it turned out to be a lot of fun. Everyone was very friendly, cool, and pretty much like their blogs. I'm looking forward to hanging out with them some more when I'm back. The rest of Sunday and Monday (its was a holiday for me) was spent with family. And that was....fun, annoying, silly, frustrating, awesome. Everything families always are. :)

So I finally made it to NYC!

So here is my new blog. I had to give up the waterloo blog. Maybe i'll finally blog more though cause with this it is easier to blog. Anyways, I'm in NY now. Everyone keeps asking how it is. And what have I done. But really I only got here a few days ago. And the 2nd day here I was already going to work. Oh, if your wondering about my whole visa staory...well ask me later, its old news now, so blah. Where to start. Ok the beginning. The short version. Flight was only 1hr. Some turbulence which was a bit scary but otherwise it was fine. Was really tired on the flight though. Took cab from airport to apartment without any big problems. I'm living with 2 guys from waterloo, Anojan and Punit. I've known anojan since 1st year and i know who punit is but i'm only getting to know him now. He's a cool guy. I live in the living room. Its big, but it lacks privacy. I'll figure out something for that eventually. Work is overwhelming. I was hired to do some research into an RSS product they were thinking of. But my would be supervisor is leaving the company so I am now assuming many of his responsibilities. So I write functional and technical specifications. And I will be managing one of the offshore development workers in the Ukraine. Thats pretty cool I think, but yeah its all overwhelming. And I tell people this. and they wonder why i'm scared, but part of it is, I've never done this before. And its a small company. I have a lot of responsibility. I'm only the 6 person in the company, not counting the offshore ppl or the guy thats leaving. also, i was hired and interviewd for the RSS thing not the work Im doing now. Well maybe sort of I was, the guy interviewing is the guy leaving and he knows what was going to happen (sort of) but still. I worry. It really is overwhelming. oh, my title is product manager. :) How is new york so many ppl ask? Its nice I guess. I haven't seen much yet. I just have a lot to do for settling. And its hard. I miss my car. and Van. You have to walk for everything here. Walk to subway, take subway, get off, walk to supermarket, carry it back to subway, carry on subway, carry back home. Walk to store, buy desk, carry box home. My arms are just tired afterwards. Almost to the point where your muscles shake involuntarily cause its heavy and they are tired. Caitlin called me a squirrel. Going back and forth getting stuff and bringing it home. I did go biking with Noah on Saturday. Central park was nice. But getting there was an adventure. Biking down the streets of new york with no helmet. hehe, I didn't look around at the scenary I was just watching out for cars and my life! but it was fun. also tiring, i'm so out of shape. i need to start excercising. somehow, just cardio at the apartment i guess. the local gym is way too expensive. so yeah just basic cardio at the apartment they have some threadmills and a bike and stuff. I'm sure there is a lot more to tell. But I think thats enough for now. I know ppl want pictures, but i haven't taken any yet so you will all have to be patient. if you have any questions though i'll try to answer. oh there was a team event yesterday. typically they go bowling or a bar or movie. they went to a internet cafe though and we played unreal tournament 2004 and had pizza. it was cool. normally i'm the free kill for others cause i dont' know what i'm doing. but this time. they didn't know what they were doing either. cept for 1 guy, we were all novices. so i did decently well. consistently coming in 2nd or 3rd but usually 2nd. though i was feeling quite sick yesterday, i felt like throwing up actually, but i think that was just lack of fluids and proper eating i'm fine now. k, thats really enough for now.