the next mourning

this past sunday was sujal’s official memorial service in dallas. g pulled together a bunch of his tams friends with help from others who knew sujal and we spent friday, saturday and sunday morning putting together a sujal scrapbook for his parents. it was a great time to remember such a fun-loving, spirited, brilliant and talented guy. great job to the tams folks for pulling together an amazing memory.

moving forward

today, i put my two week notice in at work.

quite the experience. have never done it before so it was a little nerve-wracking, but i am definitely excited for what’s to come.

i’ve accepted a position at a retail marketing/promotions agency – tpn – as an account executive on the bank of america team. really thrilled and pumped for this, as it will 1. be working on the agency side of things 2. be new and challenging 3. be apart of a great company

thanks to all for your support and encouragement these past few years as i’ve been trying to figure out things with my career. hopefully – this is a positive step forward.

roller coaster

what. a. roller. coaster. week.

in the silence

after hearing the news of sujal’s accident, the positive hope still reigned superior in my thoughts. my heart felt warm as i wrote encouraging words on his facebook wall, along with many, many of his friends and family. i told people, “write on his wall or send him something! that way, when he wakes up, he’ll feel very happy.”

a few days go by with some email forwards and exchanges. in reality, things don’t look good, but that hope is still shining within me. on tuesday evening, g’s phone begins to ring as we are watching glee. as he picks up his phone, i see that shahed is calling, who has been the one relaying updates to g.

within the first 10 seconds, i knew. g took my hand and squeezed it as he bravely continued his conversation with shahed. the tears slowly started leaking out of my eyes as that last ray of hope swiftly left my heart. he was gone, and there was no way to bring him back. we sat in silence for a few minutes, then i crawled in g’s arms and we wept.

____

now that it has been two days since the news broke, i have witnessed an amazing amount of support and encouragement that no doubt indicates the type of person sujal was. people have gathered together to continue the human rights and public health work that sujal had started, and keep pushing it forward. it is inspiring and motivating, but as one of sujal’s friends stated in an email, “though it may bring us all together, it is still too high a price to pay.”

____

mementos like postcards and yearbook notes are now treasured possessions. photos are priceless. the memories are invaluable. hearing his voice on video becomes the most beautiful sound on earth.

____

my thoughts are with his family and all that loved him.

____

http://sujalparikh.blogspot.com

http://sujal-parikh.1000memories.com/

____

in memory, with love

risk more than others think is safe.
care more than others think is wise.
dream more than others think is practical.
expect more than others think is possible.
- claude bissel

thanks for being part of the best new year’s eve i’ve ever had. we’ll miss you.

inspiration

i need to find something to inspire me to put my thoughts into action.

clean & simple

i’m going for the clean & simple look. like it?

kite

the weather outside has been really beautiful this week. thus, it has inspired me to tell a story that this weather reminds me of.

the first real date that g and i had was on a day that was bright, and sunny with a few clouds. much like today (but there are no clouds today). it was in the spring of 2006. we took a trip to san antonio where i showed g the utsa campus (why, i don’t know) and walked around the new la frontera outdoor mall. on our way back, we stopped by the san marcos outlets where g helped pick out my first pair of earrings – which – i’m sad to say – are all rusty now. stupid new york & company quality.

by the time we got back to austin, it was still daylight. i don’t recall the exact details, but i think we stopped by wal-mart and decided to pick up a happy kite. what is a happy kite? a fruity white kite with a bunch of colorful hearts with smiley faces on it. yeah.

went back home to the far west area and went to the local middle school which had a large field. g taught me how to fly a kite.

the memory still makes me really happy today.

in weekends past

i’m a little behind on this blogging thing. oops. let’s recap.

boston
boston with the mother was uber fun. we had a really nice hotel that made it easy to relax and just enjoy ourselves. walked around boston a lot. i never realized it was such a small city… it’s just all really compact. we discovered farmer’s markets (in loveeee), boston doesn’t have a good dessert scene, people pee on the park benches, the freedom trail is really long, mother gets drunk (or high?) off raspberry coulis, mit and harvard are right next to each other, i lost the wicked lottery, mother hates bad pictures of herself and makes me delete them, boston has no sales tax on clothes – shopping is awesome… i could probably go on and on, but simply put, it was a great experience. i realized i don’t take enough time to appreciate my mother. even in just the easiest ways like, taking her on a much needed vacation. cheers to the start of the annual mother/daughter trip!

more boston photos here.

grapefest 2010
gather a bunch of “sophisticated” people together on a small street in downtown grapevine looking for everything wine and wallah – you’ve got grapefest. walked around for a bit, boy was it hot. we got tickets to the wine tasting, which consisted of around 40ish different wineries in the area and all with around 3-5 wines to taste. that equals a lot of wine tasting, btw. i had to stop a little more than halfway through to keep myself sane. there was also a kid’s area with this awesome hamster mascot… i was in love with it.

more grapefest photos here.

tx vs ou
ahh, saved the worst for last. (second) sad day in texas football. this year just isn’t our year. oh well, i’ve been able to revel in many years of good texas football – with vince young and colt mccoy… i’d say i’m pretty satisfied. love you, horns!

hammer and alex came into town and it was fun seeing them again. went out with coworkers and friends to addison friday night to do some bar hopping consisting of sherlock’s, flying saucer and dukes. love me some beer and cheese! CHEESE! woke up early saturday morn to get my horns up. headed to steph’s to chill then off to the state fair on the dart. walked around, had some turkey leg (got tired of it after 1/3 was gone) then found varun and gang at a texas tailgate party. hung around, found a tv during the 2nd quarter and drowned my sorrows away in the fair after that. g won me an awesome domo, so i guess not all was lost. stayed up till 3 am that night doing nothing but watching how i met your mother and listening to hammer strum away on the guitar. it’s the simple life.

more tx/ou photos here.

and that brings us to the present. booooring.