So, last week was great with a single run of 11 miles, which can’t be said about this week.
CrossFit and work keeping me busy now and not to forget the chilli Michigan weather, I am finding it hard to run. Honestly, with my energy spent in CrossFit and learning new things at work, I don’t feel like going out for a run. I am not sure till when this will continue, but right now, I don’t see myself going out for runs, not for some time now.
To sum up this week, I ran 0 miles, so the number of miles covered don’t change since the last week.
Last week was okay. I know I am lagging now when it comes to running and a partial reason for that is I STARTED DOING CROSSFIT again and it felt like I never left. Monika, Anupam, and I stopped CrossFitting since the pandemic started, so it was a gap of 18 months for me when I stepped inside the gym again. It was a weird feeling, but, everyone at the gym were so welcoming that I never felt like I left. First couple days were brutal, but my body adapted quite easily than I thought.
Let’s get back to the last time I ran during this week.
Day 220 – 09/25/2021 – 11 Miles I wasn’t planning on running such a long distance. I had a CrossFit class from 10AM-11AM, but they were having some event at the gym, so had cancelled the class, which gave me enough time to go out for a couple hours. Also, Michigan weather couldn’t have been better today. These two motivating factors were enough to try my legs for a long run.
I started with the slow pace as I didn’t know how long I was gonna go. I took my usual route around the Northville-Novi area and it brought so many fresh memories of the past runs I had done around the same area. I really wanted to finish the Half Marathon distance, but by the time I was running back to my place, I think, my legs had given up and I just wanted to get home, this might have been a reason why the last couple miles were the slowest among all. Anyway, I was happy that my legs could bear running more than 10 miles, and it was a feat to celebrate. I was glad that I still had the energy to run such a long distance.
Okay, after the Columbus trip, it was time to get our festive hats on and enjoy some spooky Halloween time with friends and family at Northville, MI.
Halloween had always intrigued me a little as when I was in India, I didn’t understand why people would dress up as someone else to celebrate something. And, not many years later, here I was, participating in the same celebrations! 😀
For this celebration, I needed a costume and my friend, Bhaskar, helped me by lending his Wolf Mask for the occasion. He was traveling out of town, so he was kind enough to let me use it for a day or two.
The plan was to don the wolf mask during the office and Northville Halloween celebrations. I worked at Ford Motor Company during this time and we had recently moved to a new campus in Downtown Dearborn. The place was buzzing with energy and there was no other place in the Downtown area rather than my workplace to celebrate the Halloween. The team had put together a really nice display of Halloween celebration with lovely food. I had donned my wolf mask and stood in line to get some lunch. It was fun to get heads turned in my direction every time someone was walking past me. I loved that feeling.
After work, it was time to head to Northville to celebrate Halloween with Manju, Monika, Anupam, and kids – Aryan and Arnav. Kids had decided to dress up like transformers and they looked as cute as ever in those outfits. I had my same wolf mask on and as it was cold, had put on my red light jacket. It was a fitting output that I had put on as I had dressed up a werewolf with a jacket on. I was glad at least a couple people from the crowd got the thought process behind the outfit.
The area of Downtown Northville was lit up with some of the amazing Halloween decorations and I was astonished to see hundreds of people in the streets of Downtown Northville to celebrate this together. Kids went from one house to another to fetch their beloved candies and the fire truck station had put on display for kids to look at and some popcorns, which kids devoured.
All in all, it was a fun way to celebrate Halloween together! 🙂
After experiencing the thrill of my first hitchhiking trip, it was time to relax for a couple weeks before heading to Columbus, Ohio, for a couple nights’ stay.
The reason for my visit to Ohio was that I was appearing for an IELTS exam there and with the nearby places running out of spots, I had to opt for this one which was at least 3-4 hours away from my place. Plus, as I had expired drivers license, I couldn’t drive to Columbus and had to take the bus from Detroit. My roommate dropped me off at the Greyhound bus station at Detroit.
The exam center that I was visiting was a part of a university. I always get excited whenever I visit a university, because it brings back so many memories of being a student, which I love to be honest with you. Anyway, the plan was to reach my Airbnb during the evening time so that I can get some shut eye before heading in the morning to the exam center. The exam was roughly 3-4 hours long, so I gave myself enough time before boarding a bus back to Detroit to head home.
The exam center was 20 minutes walk from my place, so I decided to Uber to it in the morning. I was very excited and a little bit nervous as I was appearing for an “exam” for the first time in the last couple years. All this excitement and nervousness went away when I entered the exam center and saw more than 200 India-bound American and working professionals appearing for the same test. Their tense expressions told me that these tests are serious for people and I shouldn’t worry too much as I had ample time before my visa expires and I have to leave US.
The IELTS test is similar to TOEFL with one big difference. My IELTS test was paper based, so it was hard to focus when they sat us together in a classroom during the “Listening” section of the test. We were supposed to listen to the audio together and answer the questions accordingly. I wasn’t prepared for this as I had spent only a couple days preparing for an entire test. I must tell you that I screwed up the first two questions, but once I got my rhythm, the test felt like a piece of cake.
I had been writing and reading constantly throughout my life, so once the “Listening” part of the test was over, the “Reading” and “Writing” sections felt like easier part of the test, which I scored more than I expected. The last section of the test was “Speaking” and I was just waiting for it to get over as it had already been 3+ hours of testing and I was getting hungrier by the second.
For the “Speaking” part of the test, they made us sit outside a classroom and the proctor was inside. It felt like a job interview to be honest, which caused some nervousness. But, this turned out to be short lived, as I was escorted to the “Speaking” section before anyone else. It felt good to get it over with and I was just looking outside the classroom windows the whole time to experience the “freedom”.
As soon as the “Speaking” section was done, I was relieved. I confirmed with the couple officials whether it was okay to head out and upon receiving the same confirmation, I headed to my Airbnb, stopping on the way to grab a sandwich, which became my late lunch.
I took a quick nap, before heading out again to watch the local high school football game. Ever since I came to the US, I was fascinated by the American football and when I heard my Uber driver telling me that there was high school football game going on, I immediately decided to head there and eat one more sandwich while sitting on the sidelines. When I reached, the game lasted for about 20 more minutes, which gave me enough time to chill and experience my first live football game. Unfortunately, the home team lost and their disappointment was evident from their faces.
Anyway, after the football game, I happened to have some more time to explore the university area, before checking out of my Airbnb. My bus to Detroit was late at night, so I decided to explore some nearby food places. My host recommended a couple places where I could go to have some local food and beers. I must say, her recommendations didn’t disappoint and I had a nice time, eating and drinking, before heading home.
I reached home during the late hours and my roommate again picked me up from the bus station. As it was Sunday, I decided to sleep in some more before spending it lazily doing nothing! Loved it.
The reason I mentioned it is kind-of running week because I started doing CrossFit again, which left little to no room for my running schedule. More focus on CrossFit now, I feel lucky if I get some free time to go out for a quick run. So, let’s get started with this week’s run.
Day 230 – 09/15/2021 – 5.1 Miles This was the first and only run of the week.
For this run, I chose my Northville-Novi route. I started my run at the eight mile road, where I live. From Eight Mile Road, it was time to get to Meadowbrook. I love running on Meadowbrook Road because the Speed Limit is 30 and I love the way the wind breezes through the trees, making the run more enjoyable. After the Meadowbrook, I took a right on Nine Mile Road, and continued until I reached the Haggerty Road. This route is pretty special to me, since I have enjoyed running here on this route ever since I moved to Northville. The building where I signed the papers of my house was right on Haggerty, so every time I run on Haggerty, it brings all the good memories and excites me a lot.
I completed 5 miles just under an hour, which is always a good pace for me. I didn’t feel that much tired at the end of the run and love the feeling.
Long time no see. It’s been a while I wrote something on my blog.
So here it goes.
Day 240 – 09/05/2021 – 1.5 miles This was the only run for the week.
My youngest sister is in the US now and I have spending a lot of time with her and taking her to touristy places for her to see. This time we were in Chicago and it gave me perfect opportunity to get in a small run of 10-15 minutes when my sister was busy talking to her friends in India and showing them the beautiful city of Chicago through her phone.
I knew I wanted to run at least 1 mile but given that I didn’t bring a change of T-shirt, I ran topless, which I must tell you was the best feeling. I was fortunate to run by the Lake Michigan and enjoyed the amazing weather the Windy city had to offer. I was surprised I hadn’t explored Chicago this way before. I ran one of the fastest runs this year and was glad that I didn’t injure myself. I finished 1.5 miles in just 14 minutes, which was faster than I expected.
After reading “The Woman Who Smashed Codes“, I was looking for something light to read and this book served that purpose. When I was reading the last 50 pages of “The Woman Who Smashed Codes“, I was looking for the next book to read. Being the sucker for memoirs that I am, I was browsing through Amazon’s Humorous Memoir section and stumbled upon this memoir by Colin Jost, one of the hosts of the Weekend news at SNL, one of my favorite shows. The title of the book was catchy and the index seemed interesting too, so I ordered it and read it in just a week.
The first impressions The first impression of the book was okay. I mean I really wanted a chill reading, so I wasn’t expecting much from the book. This book served the purpose in the best way possible, because I wasn’t looking forward to learn anything from it, as I mostly do while reading memoirs. There was only one thing I was looking forward to reading in the book was how he got in Harvard. Guess what? I missed that part as the rest of the chapters and stories in the book became too interesting for me.
The thing I will remember the most The story of 9/11. Before reading the book, I didn’t know Colin’s mom was a doctor. That was the first surprise for me; But, nothing prepared me for the fact that she was one of the first people who were present at the scene when the planes crashed in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on the dark day of 9/11/2001. My respect for his mom went through clouds immensely as he described how she was handling the situation, being the only medic at the scene. It was heartbreaking to know all the damage and human lives we lost, but it certainly gave us some unsung heroes of the tragedy such as Colin’s mom. I was in awe to read that she barely came home to see her family during those days and whenever she came home was for a quick shower and nap, before heading off again to hospitals to take care of the injured. I will not forget this piece from the book for the time to come.
What about the remainder of the book? The rest of the book seemed a collection of ups of downs. I am speaking honestly when I say that I don’t remember most of the stories from the book, but, at the same time, there were a few which will stay with me for a long time. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention while reading the other stories as much as I was reading the stories which I found worthy to remember. The most fascinating thing that I remember in the book was his incident at Google Headquarters. When Colin was invited at Google Headquarters to try on some VR stuff, he was led into a room with a couple engineers at Google who were developing the tech. This was the first time Colin was trying out the VR, so he was both scared and excited. When the engineers put a video of him standing near the edge of the cliff and asked Colin to jump, unaware of the fact that they were just trying what he does next, Colin did jump and injured himself on a sharp metal thing. The title of the story in the book is “You should have sued Google”, which I think is true, because after the incident, the engineers didn’t apologized and were not courteous enough to ask him whether he was okay, since he was bleeding from his abdomen. It was not a cool thing on Google’s part, I think.
SNL How can I end this post without talking about SNL. The stories in the book about SNL are very fascinating, ranging from his early days till the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic. I found it very strange and amazing how he had climbed the corporate ladder at SNL from being a young writer to the head writer. Being part of SNL is big and he was the head writer, which couldn’t have gone any better. Having watched SNL for quite some time now, I have an absolute respect for everyone involved in the show. There were so many instances in the book, when Colin mentioned how many times he had failed in the show; His failure being his acts not getting picked up for the final cut, which crushes some people; But, I loved how Colin had never-give-up attitude, which helped him survive initial years at SNL. This inspired me to never give up on this blog, even when I am not attracting traffic. I just need to keep writing until it becomes what I imagine it will become one day. Thanks for that, Colin. This seems like a good spot to stop.
Week 35 was good. Let’s see what the first week in September brings.
But, before starting off with the September, let’s see how I did in August.
In August, I got to go outside only 14 times in the entire month. In these 14 times, I ran 64.3 miles in total, taking up 13 hours and 05 minutes roughly. It is a good number, but not something to proud of, especially since it is officially a summer time here in Michigan.
Day 244 – 09/01/2021 – 5 miles Which brings us to the first of the week.
I don’t remember the last time I went around the DOGE loop for my run, ever since I picked up my old running route around the Northville-Novi area. This run came around the same neighborhood.
My legs were feeling fine this morning and the temperature was in low 60s, which made the run more comfortable and enjoyable. I told myself not to push too much for the run and just enjoy the route, morning Sun, and fellow runners. I was happy to finish the 5 miles before 1 hour and loved walking the rest of the way back home.
Day 246 – 09/03/2021 – 3.7 miles This was the second and the last of the week.
This week has been busier than usual, so it was hard to get time out of my schedule to go out for a run. For this run, I chose (again) my old route around the neighborhood. But, instead of turning right on the Eight Mile Road, I took a left and headed towards the Northville Downtown area. I have mentioned in the past that I usually run faster when I am around people, because they act as external motivation for me. This run was no exception. As soon as I entered the downtown area, my pace dramatically increased, which helped me finish under 10′ pace, which has happened after a long time. I was extremely happy and tired at the end of the run, loved every single minute of it.
If you haven’t checked out the first part of this story, I will highly recommend reading it as it is one of the most emotional roller coaster experiences of my life. Now, let’s get to the second part of the story.
The second part of this story starts with the struggle.
As soon as I came out of the district court, the next big question that I had was how to get home and I had no answers. It was time to get to work.
The first thing that we did was to get back to motel and pack our stuff. Once we packed everything, it was time to do research and explore options to get home. The emotional basket that we had was that my roommate, Ravi, was ready to drive to Newberry once his work finishes to come pick us up; But, we didn’t want to trouble him, so we thought if we could get a head start and meet him somewhere in the middle, that would be awesome.
We glued ourselves to our phone screen (thankfully, the Motel had a good WiFi). I checked at least 10 ride sharing apps. Unfortunately, none of them had a service in the remote village of Newberry, MI. I tried calling several taxi or transport services in Newberry and surrounding areas and they also said they have services only in Newberry and not outside. We spent a good 60 minutes doing this, which clocked in at the checkout time. Unfortunately, we had to leave the Motel at that time; so, we got the brilliant idea to hitchhike to our place, or at least to a close spot somewhere.
I tried googling a department store nearby and fortunately, a Dollar Tree was minutes’ walk away from the motel. The struggle was about to get real. I purchased necessary supplies to come up with a sign to hitchhike. It felt so surreal when I was writing on that green fluorescent paper. As I couldn’t find a place, I went to the only bank I could find, hoping to find some surface to write my sign down. I saw many people entering and exiting the bank, hoping that someone would notice and pity on us and give us the much needed ride to our destination; Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
After struggling for a good 10 minutes, the decision was made to shift our base to the nearby Gas station, which was much closer to the State Highway and had more foot traffic than a bank. As we were walking from the bank to the gas station, I didn’t know how much time and effort we would have to put in this venture. It was a big unknown factor and we were scared because of it. We had kept all our friends updated on the progress and have let Ravi know that we are trying something so that he doesn’t have to drive 10 hours for the day, after working for the same number of hours.
Little did I know that whatever efforts that we had put so far, all of those were going to bear some fruitful results.
Remember when I told you that when I was writing the sign, I hoped that someone would notice. Well, as it turned out, someone did notice; And, the same person noticed us when we were at the gas station. When we reached the gas station, a person walked up to us and asked where exactly we were headed. I wasn’t sure how much he knew about the Lower Peninsula or Southeast Michigan for that matter, so just told him that we were heading south. I turned out, he was heading the same direction and asked us again to give us the city name, to which we responded “Detroit”.
The next words that came out of his mouth, I will never forget in my life. He told us (these are his exact words) “I can give you a ride until Lansing”. Oh My God!!!! I couldn’t believe my ears. I asked him was he sure and how much he would charge us to drop us off at Lansing. He was so sweet, he said there was no need as he is heading there anyway. Man, each word that I was hearing were giving me better news. I just couldn’t believe it. He was kind enough to help us during this time and he went a step further and helped us load our bags at the back of his pickup truck. I just couldn’t believe my luck, we didn’t even had to stand outside the gas station for a few minutes and were already on our way home. As kind as he was, I just didn’t want to take any risk, so I quickly snapped a picture of his license plate, just to be on the safe side. And, the journey to our home bagan.
I told my friends that I got a ride until Lansing, and they were equally surprised. I shared my location with them and asked Ravi to head to Lansing whenever he is done with his work.
The guy who gave us the ride to Lansing was really sweet. As it was going to be a long drive, we started talking about our lives and friends and families. He was very considerate of the fact that we might be uncomfortable riding in a stranger’s pickup truck through the empty roads, so whenever he took a turn which was not recommended by Google Maps, he clearly explained it to us why he was taking that turn and how much time it would take to get back on the State Highway. His kind demeanor and soft voice helped me relax a little bit and I felt like he was really a savior for us during these tough times.
After talking to him and sharing each others’ stories, I got to know that he was a veteran and was working to help other veterans who were struggling to meet their ends. I found it extremely commending, which justified his helping nature. We stopped a couple times. The first time to adjust the cover on his exposed pickup truck bed and the second time to fill in gas. I offered to pay for the gas, to which, he kindly denied.
As we continued our journey to Lansing, I got to know more about him and how his family members are scattered across the Upper Peninsula, which I found fascinating and adventurous as it is my dream to have a beach house by Lake Michigan, especially near Munising.
When the Google Maps showed that were an hour away from Lansing, I called Ravi to let him know that he should come to the Indian Restaurant (the name of which I am blanking on right now). He called his wife, daughter, and her boyfriend to the very restaurant so that all of us can have dinner together and spend some lovely time with each other. It was an awesome way to conclude the evening.
I met his wife, who used to work for the state of Michigan, inspecting the piping infrastructure across the city and county, to make sure the residents get clean and pure water supply. His daughter was also working and her boyfriend worked for a contractor in the nearby area. When we all met and sat down for the dinner, it felt like such a blessed evening to me. I was happy that we could reach our destination without much hustle; But, more than that, I was happy with the fact that I got to meet this wonderful person and his entire family. This lovely evening is etched in mind forever and I am and will be forever grateful to this wonderful person. I knew that he would not take money from me, so I requested our server to bring only one check and directly to me. That’s the least I could do.
I was glad that I got to spend time with this wonderful person and we bade goodbyes with the hope that we would meet each other soon.
Before I close this second part of the story, I know what you must be wondering – what’s the name of that person. Well, his name is “Steve“.
I must tell you I was scared. This was the first time, I was pulled over, handed a speeding ticket, and was sentenced to present before a county judge. All three things were happening with me for the first time, so I got really scared because of that. I was lucky to have been surrounded by my friends, who made sure that I was calm and told me to relax and not to think about it too much.
Had I not been pulled over by a cop, we would have been on our way home. Now, the circumstances were different, so we left our Airbnb in the morning and headed to the nearby motel which had a spare room for me to spend a night there. Before this day, I never stopped at Newberry. We drove through Newberry to get to Munising and witness the magnificent Pictured Rocks, and while doing that I didn’t imagine I would spend any time here, but here I was, trying to spend a night so that I can get before the judge in the morning and defend my actions for the speeding ticket with an expired license.
When my friends dropped me off and left, there was nothing to do except to take a nap. I tried doing that, but my mind had different plans. I was thinking only about tomorrow and there were countless scenarios (all bad) going on in my head, the worst of them being the judge deporting me to India, and me losing everything and everyone in the US. I can giggle about it now, but trust me, I was really scared that day. Before I knew it, the evening was upon us and wanted to grab a bite. The place of Newberry was so small and kind of deserted that I could find only one spot to eat. It was a dingy bar at the corner of the street and roughly 15 minutes walk from the motel. I felt dreaded walking to the bar in the dark and thought I was going to get mugged, but there was no other way to feed myself. Fortunately, nothing happened and we got back to the motel safely.
Now, I knew I had to spend a night somehow, which was a hard thing to do. I was glad that the TV of the motel was on and it had TruTV on it. They were playing my then-favorite TV show “Impractical Jokers“, which was just I needed to distract myself from everything that was going on. I was so happy that IJ was on that I forgot about all my worries and slept off quite nicely after watching a couple episodes. The night turned out to be comfortable.
The next morning, I woke up with a dreaded fear as the time of my court appearance was getting closer. I got up at around 7AM to call around the attorneys’ offices to see if anyone can represent me. The downside of it was that it was Monday and I was trying to get hold of the attorney at 7.30 in the morning. Obviously, after trying for an hour, I gave up on the idea as I was fed up with getting negative responses from the attorneys’ offices. I had a 10AM appearance at the court, so I got all ready at 9AM as it was a 20-minute walk to the district court.
The walk felt longer than it was, maybe due to the fact that I was nervous. When my Google Maps showed that I was just around the corner, my heartbeat started beating faster and I could foresee what might happen in the next few minutes and hours. It took me a couple minutes to figure out the entrance to the building. When I finally got inside the building, I saw a couple people standing in line. I enquired where to go for a court appearance and they pointed me towards the reception.
As soon as I reached the reception, I told myself – “This is it!”. The next course of my life is going to be decided now and there is no turning back. There were two lovely ladies sitting in the reception and I greeted them. Upon exchanging pleasantries, I tried to explain my situation and asked where I should wait for my hearing before a judge.
What happened next, I will never forget.
The two ladies just looked at each other and gave a big smile. One of the kind ladies told me to hand over the ticket to them and confirmed that there was no need to see the judge as they are too busy today. Their response got me confused. I checked with them again and got the same answer. The next thing on my mind was how do I pay my speeding ticket and (this was simply unbelievable) she mentioned there was no need to pay the amount. I couldn’t believe my ears. I asked for a reason for that, for which, she said that she would discard the charges. Man, this was simply becoming unbelievable.
I literally had tears in eyes. I couldn’t thank them enough about their generosity and helping nature. Man, I felt like I just got my freedom back. All the worries and frustrations just disappeared in the thin air and I could finally breathe freely. I was happy and excited at the same time.
This happiness lasted for 15 minutes as we had to figure out how to get home, which was roughly 6 hours drive away. That’s where the second part of this story starts, which is also equally interesting and enjoyable, so stay tuned!
stochasticity 