26 Gifts, 26 years, 26th Jan - My Bday Week

Celebrating my ME time King size! An attempt to promote personal time - Love yourself first! Treat yourself awesome! You deserve it!

My last post was a bucket list of random things I wished to do over a week. Here are the list of gifts I actually gifted myself.

Day 1 - 22nd Jan

1. A relaxing long tub bath – with bath salts and candles. A spontaneous one. Didn't really shop much for it. Went on with what ever I found at home.

2.Hairdo – straighten and/or curls! Straightening my hair took an hour. Loved the output. Curls tried another day, it didn't quite work out. So skipped it.

3. Balu's office party - dressed up and enjoyed

4. Temporary tattoo at the office party

Day 2 - 23rd Jan

5. Made my favorite breakfast - french crepes with chocolate syrup

6. Made myself Choco Chai - Yum

7. Baked Garlic Roasted Potatoes with parsley.

8. Bought a new toy for my car - mini mouse

9. Ice cream at Cold stone 

Day 3 - 24th Jan

10. Went for a spontaneous mid night drive- one afternoon I took a nap, and so that night was quite     struggling to put myself to sleep. Got up, looked around, felt a little hungry, toasted bread and spread jam, ate them. Then a spontaneous idea to go on a short drive around. Ha-ha.

11. Couple Massage at a spa- it was a new experience for both of us. Super relaxing one hour of full body massage.

12. Went to Falls with Balu

13. Jamuns- made them quick in 30 mins and we finished them all in less than half a day.

14. A relaxing long tub bath – with bath salts, music, candles, and hot chocolate chai ;) Loved this one. More planned out.

Day 4 - 25th Jan

15. Bday blog- the plan

16. French toast and added the chocolate syrup

17. Wrote a love letter for Balu

18.  Cake – upside down pineapple cake. Turned out just perfect. I couldn't wait for 12, just got the cake baked right in time when Balu was back from work. Asked him to sing for me. Lol. And I cut my cake and we both fed each other as we sat at the dining table. 

19. Updated pictures on the fireplace.

20. Got myself a little balloon

Day 5 - 26th Jan

21. Bath (unexpected gift turned out to be the most favorite) It's super relaxing- if you find some time and have a tub. I recommend it. Loved it the most. Had this set up every alternative day, that's 3 of the 5 days! I look forward to frequently enjoying a tub bath. 

22. Draped in a new Sari

23. A little photo session and chit chat with friends

24. Visited the temple

25. Had Mango lassi

26. Went out for dinner with Balu - Anjappar

Things I skipped this time-

1. An entire day off Facebook/ all social media - tough during my birthday with friends and family wishing over various time zones.

2. Mastering the art of taking selfies (Should try more)

3. Buying and potting a plant (Not the right season)

4. Dancing - LOL

5. No great movie running in theaters (to watch alone)

6. Nails treatment - Nothing special about it, I do them quite regularly, skipped it this time.

Enjoyed my birthday this year!

Arizona

Places to visit / things to do -

1. Grand Canyon – Dramatic views, rafting and hiking http://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/grand-canyon-national-park
2. Lowell Observatory – storied facility with tours and Star gazing https://lowell.edu/

Grand Canyon has 2 rims – North and South rim. And sadly they aren’t connected directly through the park. Its 3.5 hours apart. North rim is a small stretch. The South rim is the more visited attraction. And the Lowell Observatory is 1.5 hours away from the south rim. It’s a stargazing observatory/ People camp over there as they enjoy the view- lying beneath the amazing Milky Way Galaxy!

26 gifts, 26 years, 26th Jan! - The plan

26 lovely things I plan to gift myself for my 26th birthday! Read on to know how I pamper myself! :D I love myself the most! Celebrating my ME time King size!

These were my ideas to spend my birthday week. I started from Friday and am gonna go on with it till Tuesday! So this is just a tentative plan/ a birthday bucket list. The plan made a week back. Idea given by a friend. Stay tuned for the real story!

1. Massage at the spa

2. Dance to a some music – record it if possible

3. Cake – upside down pineapple cake

4. Jamuns

5. An entire day off Facebook/ all social media

6. A relaxing long bath – with bath salts, rose petals and candles

7. Hairdo – straighten and/or curls!

8. Make my favorite breakfast - french crepes

9. Visit the temple - Drape a sari

10. Do a homemade facial

11. Manicure and Pedicure at home

12. nail art – choose the colors and buy if necessary

13. short drive to the Falls

14. Stop by the plant nursery

15. Buy/add a new toy for my car

16. Plant a pot of herbs in my balcony

17. Have Chai watching the rain pouring

18. Watch a movie alone (never done this before)

19. Make my favorite dinner – Pasta, sandwich and/ or soup

20. Write a love letter to Balu (been a while)

21. This blog –the plan and the real one!

22. Master Selfie taking (not a fan of it- but would like to give it a try)

23. Challenge myself to call and speak to a random friend without mentioning it’s my birthday! ;)

24. Balu's office party - dress up

25. Call friends over for tea and cake! And a little chit chat!

26. Update pictures on the fireplace.

A couple have changed/ switched to more exciting stuff. I still have 2 more days of celebration!

Ofcourse not gonna stop celebrating life! I will still continue enjoying my ME time once in a while! Share how you did like spend your ME time.

Wyoming

Wyoming isn't well heard of, but Yellowstone National Park! It's one of the largest National Parks running across 3 states. But the majority is Wyoming. A beautiful park with active geysers and volcanoes. A must visit place.

http://yellowstone.net/intro/top-10/

http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/things2do.htm

Plan 2 to 3 days! Head to the visitors center first, collect maps and information on how to plan your stay, trails to take, overviews to picture. 

How much is too much - photos and privacy

This is all over my head now. Been speaking to many since my last post or actually from a recently issue. And this isn't the first time, I have been is this situation, it’s been a couple times. Moreover, I don't wanna stand in this place again. So thinking about it deeply. Wanna learn this lesson more rightly and not mess up things again. 

Thinking about it, this incident crossed my mind - My friends put a pic of me years back. I untagged myself. Told to remove / but they didn't. Then I just enjoyed the comments!!! 

Does this include in my privacy then?! 

The first couple of friends I spoke to did support my view. We thought it was ridiculous to be called privacy. Then I told Balu about it, and his viewpoint made me think harder leading to another blog. Ya I agree I am bit jobless currently and the little things around are getting a little more than the required attention. But it is a privacy issue and I want to get it cleared out. 

So Balu was against me. He asked me if it was okay if people clicked pictures of my car?! 

So again how much is too much?! 

The first time my uncle asked me to limit pics of the lab on fb. It was private stuff. I realized n quickly pulled them down.

A second time it was my friend. She wasn’t smiling / didn't like her pic. But it was the only pic I had. She had untagged herself. N I refused to remove it.

A third time-- I did not tag this lady. N it was a pic not showing any of faces. Instead our hairstyles and sarees. She wanted me to remove it. I was mad. N I cropped her out. N my perfect editing led to an awesome pic.

The fourth time now, a freaking pic of a cake, a party hall of decorations and a blurred out pic of the host. I removed the pic with people in it. But they still insisted to remove the others, which I eventually did, but I didn't get it. Does that hurt privacy too?? 

What is privacy? What things come under private? What do u call - u own it?! A party hall, a cake, a car -- who do these belong to?

Yes they are private and require permission from the owners to be posted on your website or social media. Many times people don't get know where their stuff are shared out there but it's just etiquette to let them know and get their concern before posting them. 

Going further may be in addition to photo credits, we should mention picture concerns approved or something like that ... May sound ridiculous to most of us but some people do have their own concerns and issues.

Colorado

A place for skiing and adventure! And most attractions close to Denver city. At the max 3 hour away.

Places to visit–

1. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo – High altitude zoo with giraffe feeding
2. Red Rocks Amphitheatre
3. Georgetown loop railroad - picturesque rail tour of mining’s heyday
4. Butterfly pavilion 
5. The Wild Animal Sanctuary
6. Hanging Lake

Things to do-

1. Pike’s Peak – Mountains, running, hiking, skiing, climbing
2. Rocky mountain national park 
3. Cheyenne Mountain State Park – picnicking, biking, camping
4. Royal Gorge – rafting, canyon, river, adventure
5. Royal Gorge Bridge – bungee jumping

Ski resorts:

1. Steamboat
2. Breckenridge 
3. Beaver creek
4. Telluride
5. Aspen Mountain (upscale with 4 mountains)
6. Keystone
7. Winter park

Facebook updates- How much is too much?

Speaking to my virtual friend -- we realized how our Facebooks suffer from OCD (Obsessive Cleaning Disorder) ! How much importance we give to maintain them just perfect! And how we expect playing an invisibly fair game is on Facebook! You read what's happening in your friend’s lives equally you gotta update your wall and timelines babe! We exactly know who follows us and who spying on us! Watch out!

Here goes a complete Facebook analysis:

There’s no hard and fast rule to use Facebook, but over the years most of us have adapted to this knowingly or unknowingly, read more and you will realize how true it is. 

• Update a profile picture in consistent frequency of intervals- like monthly or 3 months once
• Your profile is up to date on basic information
• Cover pictures have some scenery or a group picture
• Your profile security is at its max
• Timeline pictures are best to be one at a time. If more are posted… they don’t get individual likes
• These days’ people hardly create an album… it’s all timeline/ profile pic and cover pic
• We take an extra minute to add that caption – be it a quote or a story of the memory in the picture
• Check in a special place… check in too often or similar places… people get bored
• Follow the trend of hashtags… its catching up great responses
• Add a picture of yourself with a good cam or good editing and effects – a decent number of likes
• Add a picture of you and your spouse or life partner – double the likes
• A picture with friends – only likes from a little more than the common friends 

I see Facebook as a place where one portraits how they dream to be, the Reel you! Sharing all your life events, good memories, voicing out your views! It surely is a place where your memories are all stored for yourself! 

Yes there’s more than 300 friends – We all look into what’s happening in everyone’s lives, who is following you, who is spying on you and not sharing anything of their lives.

But the truth is… no one remembers where your life is heading… once you have logged out… we are living our real life and have no time to think about the reel world. 

I like so many pictures of my friends, but talk about the picture days later, I would blink! Ha ha. 

There’s no time to think what others are thinking! Just live your life the way you love it to be! Sure that’s true on Facebook! Best wishes to you all for the same in real! 

Facebook is for likes and comments! Not for sympathy and dislikes! But life isn’t always that way! No wonder the virtual world is so beautiful.