Monday, December 25, 2023

Divorce Survival Guide

Divorce is a very challenging time. During the wedding everyone’s there, gathered around, celebrating with you, your most special day! But during the marriage, barely we have people who check up on us, and even if they do, when problems a raise, it’s very hard for anyone to step into it without making it more complicated. With the emotional side of the feminine energy and the logical instincts of the masculine energy, it’s really hard for these two to co-exist. 


Anyways I trust you all out there, if you have taken the call to divorce your partner, I trust you and your call for it. Marriage is hard and so is divorce. Choose your hard!  


If that’s what you have chosen to do. Here’s a survival guide that barely anyone speaks about. How to survive through these hard times. 


  1. Emotional support group - you need your friends who will support you. To deal with those mood swings, those hard feelings, those hard times and to vent out. 
  2. Food and Sleep- Take care of your basic needs. It can be very hard to cook and get enough rest everyday when your mind isn’t focused. 
  3. Financial situation - figure out your finances. Whether that means more education, or a better job, or saving up some extra cash. 
  4. Separation - figure it out. Who moves out. Finding another place. Sorting out the childcare situation. Balancing your job, food and finances. 
  5. Apply for the divorce -get a lawyer, figure out the terms and conditions of it. 
  6. Have fun - enjoy your life! You deserve the best! 



Monday, May 29, 2023

How I felt suffocated in my marriage

I remember the number of days my husband mixed the dates of his travel. And never once accepted his mistakes and every-time blamed it on my memory. 


I remember the numbers of months my husband ignored my emotional needs after every conflict and argument. 


I remember the number of years my husband blamed me for the house purchase. 


I remember the number of times my husband bought up my past mistakes and questioned me for the things I did years back. 


I remember the number of times my husband complained to our parents on me. 


I remember the number of times for years my husband refused to have physical intimacy with me. 


I remember the number of times my husband skipped our pregnancy doctor appointment and wasn’t present for me during my most stressful times. 


I remember the number of years my husband wasn’t present in our daughter’s life - physically and emotionally and just claimed he supported monetarily. 


I remember the number of times my husband vacated for a month of vacation. 




Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Reasons for Divorce

1. We married too young and for all the wrong the reasons. 
2. Communication was least effective. 
3. Parents were involved more than needed and they couldn’t help effectively to fix anything. Things only blew up bigger. 
4. We kept changing, evolving and so did our goals and expectations. 
5. Emotional and intimacy needs were not met. 
6. My career was always a problem. I couldn’t keep anything stable. That led to a lot of financial issues. 
7. We were incompatible. Took counseling help too- but in vain. 
8. Breaking this made us Happy! Great friends and focus on parenting Tvisha better. 
9. ENDING this journey on a Happy note! 

Monday, April 11, 2022

It wasn’t too many years… but feels so!

I still remember the first time we spoke.. I was standing by the window of my master bedroom.. in my home on the Seattle hill drive… we chatted for a while and then called .. spoke for an hour or two.. we didn’t even meet then.. then I guess we first met only at sagari s home. Then quickly it from daily walks to chilling at each other’s homes.. few play dates here and there.. Thara and Tvisha of same age was such a coincidence! 


2020 

Feb 8 - clubbing 


Feb 15 - sagari s home getto 



Feb 22 - Sai’s cradle ceremony 



Feb 25- your home , sagari joined too! 



Feb 28 - just us at the trampoline place 



Mar 1- at Raghavi’s place 



Mar 3 - at 85 degrees 



Mar 14- Sagari and us at my place 



May 20 - at my place 





July 31- varalakshmi vratam 



Aug 15- at my place ! 



Aug 18- Yash birthday 



Aug 30 - onam 



Sept 1 - jogging 

Sep 2 - woke u up for walk 

Sept 3 and 4- walks too! 

Sept 6 - walk in the morning and evening getto for b s biriyani 



Sept 8- morning tea with u .. walk later with sagari.. you flew out somewhere lol 😂 (must be MN) 

Sept 27- Agni s birthday 



Nov 29- catch up at Redmond town center 



Dec 2- getto at your place 



Dec 12- Thara s 4th birthday 



Dec 20- Tvisha’s bday 



Dec 26 - Xmas at Febi’s 





Dec 29- at my place 



Dec 30- stopped at yours 



2021

Jan 7- You got driver license and after drove up to give cookies 🍪 

Jan 17- Porkhodi’s home getto 



Jan 25- my bday surprise 



Jan 30- my taco party 



Apr 9- Abi s surprise baby shower 



Aug 20 - varalakshmi vratam 



Oct 15- Ilan s bday 



Nov 6- Diwali party 



Nov something - workouts at the LA fitness gym every night 

Nov 17- workout at ur community gym 

Nov 20- booked my car, walk with you! 

Dec 3- clubbing 

Dec 4 - Porkhodi’s new home getto 



2022

Mar 19- clubbing 

Apr 2- suja s home getto and cherry blossoms 🌸 



Apr 11- fusion india - cried coz spicy food instead of u! Lol 😂 



Definitely that’s not all… remember Apna bazaar and my school days (I mean the time when I was working as a teacher) … I stopped by one or two days. 

Plenty of days stopped by your home .. mostly to wake u up! Poor ashwin… lol 😂 


I will miss you my workout buddy and my saruku buddy! And ofc the only one I can randomly stop by at! Those kinda friends are super rare! 


Good luck for your future! Wish you only the best! And waiting to see you again! Keep in touch! 

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Milestone - 10 years USA life

July 14, 2011 to 2021 


And it Went like 

From being single to being a mom of one! 

From being an engineer to being a teacher! 

From mid west to the West! 


It was a memorable journey! 


From KY to UT to IL to VA to IN to NY to WA 

Each state calling 2 houses or cities as home! 


Chicago and Seattle had big groups of friends! 


And then and there little trios of friends ! 


Shoutout to 

KY - Sugi and G3 

UT - Mom and Dad 

VA - Foram and Chandrika 

IL - Pranitha and Sruti 

IN - Lokesh and Jai (Moni and me) - 4 that was 

NY - more like a visitor there 


Chicago I had the best of best time! 

And then it’s now Seattle. I have huge families in these places! Lots of love! ❤️ 💕 💗 

Friday, June 11, 2021

Since covid.. the roller coaster ride

2020 Jan went from snow storm to Portland trip for bday! Feb was all random things. Then came March with the news of a deadly virus. B got wfh for next 3 weeks. April went by, May end b fell sick and isolated himself in the basement. June beginning test result was negative! July mid I got severe unbearable stomach ache and went to emergency 🚨- drips taken! Then a couple days later with couple of scans taken found out it was gall stones. Cured with medication. August Balu and me had severe fights, friend Jen counseled us. We worked on it for a week and then went back to normal. Sept went by fine. Oct me and Tvisha went to Utah.. a much needed break from all the chaos! Once I came back, b was fully stressed by work, he went to the doc to find out he has high bp, then the doc prescribed a medication and that changed the entire story. Soon he faced many side effects. Rapid Weight loss was the most visible one and that was due to all the food allergies that arose. Nov end Balu went to emergency 🚨 with tooth ache. And then the next day for an emergency extraction of a then recently done root canal tooth. And then the same day he dailed 911- said he had confusion. While he did answer all the general questions he asked me to ask him, he still felt jittery and hence called 911. The professional advised him not to go to emergency. And he was just nervous and anxious. It was a panic attack that mimicked a stroke symptoms. 


2021- hoping it gets better this year. Lol. Jan was all dentist appointments for me - 2 extractions and one root canal. Feb too had some dental things going on. Till March it was horrible days, and I waited for Balu to go to India, hoping things get better there. April- my parents came we had a gala time. May he and his parents came, my parents left, I told his mom everything that happened. She said she felt things were getting better from March. B continually questioned himself why all these was happening to him. Connecting all the relevant and irrelevant things together.. and then May- I closed peekaboo- my small business and sold everything. June we sold the house stating vaastu issues and hence all these were occurring. Once he sold the house, his boss at work left the job, who was causing a lot of stress at work! We got 30 days to move out- and we didn’t make a decision on where to move until really late. Found an independent house for rent. One Friday we moved out. Moved stuff to the house owners garage and got keys on Monday. And then we moved our stuffs to the new house that we are taking for rent. Inbetween we resided at a hotel. Can the rollercoaster ride just end? 


July looking forward for some positivity! 


Edited to add - July I burnt my mouth with hot tea, fighting with gums and tongue stinging- unable to eat anything. Really hot red the inside of my lips are. It hurts. Took 5.5 days to heal and eat normally. 


August - loosing a friend - heart breaking 


Sept - water pipe in bathroom broke and flooded home 


Oct- Tvisha got throat infection, 

have to vacate home for a week for bathroom repair work 


Nov - falling out of love, decoupling moment- major fight! But recovering! When fights frequency is yearly once- they r huge, full on mental strain! 

Crashed my car once again- on the ramp- rainy day - my bad day! 


Edited to add: 


Dec - was pretty fine- got my new car and a job! 31st night partied hard.. and fell a couple of times.. leading to body aches.. lol 


2022 

Jan - again fights began.. balu was going to casinos almost every night.. there was a lot of problems and silence leading to me getting really restless and clueless .. sad.. and upset.. 


Feb - fights continued.. I told my parents about them. B said he will try to reconcile. 


March - went for therapy and art of living to deal with the panic attacks 


April - May - June - tensions with job lasting, contract extension and job search.. 


June - balu was pressurizing me to take up all financial responsibilities. 


July - went to Utah.. vacating Washington and then to California 


Aug - Dec - new job was good.. settling in 


2023 


Jan - balu was maintaining multiple phones and chatting with numerous girls .. and made a trip to Texas to meet a girl.. 


Feb - we decided to separate ways 


March - applied for divorce 


April - Hawaii - divorcemoon 


May - lost job 


June - job hunting going on , Seattle trip - balu and his emotional dramas began 


July - confessed divorce to parents 


Aug - got job, moved a hour away from T, met her only weekends 


Sept - again divorce and lawyer things continued 


Oct - 


Nov - car issue 


Dec - Tvisha s bday! 


Jan - court 










Monday, March 23, 2020

Coronavirus update from Seattle

Early this year, in the month of January. B was flying back to Seattle from Canada on a business cum personal trip. On that very same day, I received a forward message, stating some deathly virus infecting people at the SeaTac airport. I would hardly ever send forwards to B. But that day, that message just struck me, and I quickly sent it to him. And I remembered he said we all need to be safe and not step out. Hmm well, I was like “it’s at airport, you be careful. Let’s think about us staying at home later.”


Fast forward— March.. the virus is doing its rounds, lots of news, virus spread by a man who traveled from China to Seattle. The word - Quarantine being used a lot. People in panic mode. And there’s another term- Paranoid. And soon another term- Social distancing. 


First we received a huge volume of news. Then there was a never ending lot of forwards on social media. Soon memes started out by mid March. Meanwhile, people started prepping to be in QUARANTINE (meaning isolating yourself from the rest of the world). Stay home they said! So started the overdoing of stocking up on grocery, cleaning/ sanitizing stuffs, and cancelling on events. That went overboard a bit, where the grocery stores got emptied out.. out of toilet paper, out of tissues, wipes, sanitizers, out of many necessities. PARANOID is the word! And then government officials and news stated to avoid gatherings. The size of gathering was limited. It started at 250 and then went to 200 to 100 to 25 to 10. SOCIAL DISTANCING was the latest thing. At groceries and parks, people started practicing standing a couple of feet apart. 


The unfortunate part of being in Seattle- it started here. We are leading in the count of cases and deaths too. As of today March 21- the city hasn’t been lockdown yet. While Italy, China have locked down and things are getting better. Also recently New York and California are going lock down as well. In Seattle, there’s a equal number of people out there- on the roads, trails, and grocery! I know this as I too had been stepping out fairly a lot. 


But I stopped going to any other place, other than walks and grocery! Guess we will be cutting down on grocery too going forward! 


The situation is only getting worst. My prediction is that this state of the virus 🦠 spread will cool down when summer is here. But might be back once winter comes each year and along with flu vaccine, we would be taking a covid vaccine as well. That’s my PREDICTION, from what I have been reading and hearing so far! 


Our City, State and Country, maybe even this World is being affected in many ways- all businesses are affected - malls closed, restaurants closed, airports/ flights grounded, events cancelled, movie theaters closed, casinos, and all enclosed indoor locations. Even government offices. Visa processing’s in standstill. The country’s borders are closed. Many rules put in. And on the bright side, a polluted misused EARTH is getting back to a beautiful place- with less pollution, less fuel consumption, more work from home, meaning less office spaces, no commune time, more family time, and then there’s everyone eating healthy, cooking fresh wholesome meals at home! With endless possibilities to better our lives! While maybe the initial transition would cause some depression and being a couch potato!  


It’s easy for the HOMEBODIES, but like jail for ME! Hope I soon make this time more productive and creative! Luck to me and all of you’ll struggling with this huge change! 


What a 2020!