It’s not that we won’t get through this, we will, but when the battle is won and we go home, our homes won’t be the same.
I love speaking to my parents every morning. I’m also scared everyday about who will I hear about today.
Tag: Friends
Chemical hearts
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Slow, quiet, moody, soft, lovely.
Loved the movie, made me happy and sad. Not sure if it was a good idea to watch it now. Adding melancholy (for a past I never had) to the already strong ennui is a dangerous mix.
Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Continue reading Chemical heartsFive check mark day
A good, early sleep; (nearly) 5 mile run with lots of swims for the boys; lazy afternoon; evening barbeque; two ice creams. It was a good, happy, lazy, tiring day.
Dream diary
SS, my first proper crush, appeared in a dream last night.
In the dream, I was travelling to Bombay and we ended up standing next to each other at the baggage belts1. We both faintly recognised each other, started talking, and then remembered fully. She didn’t like me much, for good reason, by the time we lost touch last time. So she was surprised to still be talking to me after she remembered who I was. I met her husband and her kids too. I think there were 2 or 3 kids, all nearly S’ age2. That was all there was… just a brief, friendly meeting at the airport. Yet, it was really, really nice to have met her after more than two decades3. I’ve been quite happy since :)
I tried looking her up on Google, but she doesn’t seem to have a public searchable profile. So, there’s no chance of actually reaching out to her and saying hello.
Happy Happy
Completed some good, fairly complicated work yesterday evening and this morning.
Weight is down to 77.1 Kg. I haven’t been lower than this since early 2015.
Someone responded to my appeal for help just as I was losing hope that they remembered me.
And I’m about to head out for a run.
Step 2: Call a friend
Warm beer, cold pizza, comforting company.
Chilled beer, sizzling pizza, alone.
No beer, no pizza, no people.
No group chats
That’s the new rule I’m trying to follow.
People are different. Some like being at the center of the widest possible social circle, others just like to keep up with a big social circle. And some, like me, prefer fewer but deeper social connections.
Group chat, like much of social media, is designed for the first two groups. Not just because they’re the heaviest, most reliable users. But also because number of connections (or followers, friends, or people in groups) is an easy metric to calculate and promote.
Depth of those connections is not such an easy metric to devise. And it is naturally capped. It’s hard to have real deep connections with more than a handful of people.
As I continue to clear the noise in my life, this is one more area where I’m making changes. I want a handful of deep connections, and reduce the noise from the many. Continue reading No group chats
Wanted: A friend, again
It would be very nice to have a friend again. I would like that even more than a date.
—Charlie, in ‘Perks of being a wallflower’
A day of too many calls
I have to call parents. Didn’t call them this week. That’s about 45 mins gone.
Then I have to call an aunt who’s visiting her injured son in the US. She’s been calling at odd times, I haven’t answered. I guess she’s bored and lonely. 30 mins.
I haven’t spoken to the sister in a long while. May give her a ring. 5 mins, if she picks up.
And it’s been 100+ days since I fell off the wagon – I was on a streak of calling one of my old friends once a week. 10-30 mins, depending on the friend.
It’s gonna be a long day! Glad that R is going back to London, sparing me some ear capacity.
P.S.: It’s still a ‘phone call’ if I’m calling most of them on Duo, right?