March 31, 2004

quarter-of-a-century.

It's been a long time since by brother wasn't on this world. Twenty-five years to be exact. To commemorate this special day, I'm going to write twenty-five brief memories of my big brother. In chronological order (my age in parenthesis):

1. Sunil dumps apple juice in Jogi's cereal (six months) - I don't have a vivid memory of this because I was very young, but my parents and my brother always talk about when I did this. Apparently, my parents made my brother eat his cereal even though baby Sunil dumped his apple juice in the cereal. My brother apparently hasn't forgiven me since.

2. Jogi and paternal parent live in Boulder for a year (7 years) - I didn't know for the longest time why exactly half my family moved away for a while, but whatever the case, I don't think I'll forget father-son Sundays and skiing for the first time.

3. Jogi experiments with stupid hairdos (8 - 10 years) - My brother's a retard. He came home with random red hair one day, which at first was like "woah, what the heck?" Everything else that came after that completely overshadowed that. He came back with a mohawk and another time with a hand shaved in his head. I guess, all in all, it was pretty cool, but he's still a retard.

4. Jogi mentions something about the parents (around 10 years) - When my dad was stopping off at his friend's house one day, he left my brother and me in the car. My brother said something like "you're gonna have to decide?" and I didn't have a clue about what. He then told me about how I'm going to have to pick with parent to live with because they're probably not going to be together for much longer.

5. Jogi graduates from high school (10 years) - My brother graduated on my best friend's birhday, and my dad wanted to send me to his house. My brother was obviously pissed because this was like the biggest day of his life so far, and I realized that, so I went to his graduation. I was so young back then, it was crazy.

6. Jogi goes away for college (11 years) - We'd never really been great friends when he was growing up. In fact, I don't really remember talking to him a whole lot when I was a kid. But before he left, he said something like how when he leaves, we're going to become great friends. And that was oh-so very true.

7. Sunil goes down to Tucson to ski with Jogi (11 - 12 years) - Now that my brother was in Tucson, my dad would take me down random days to get my brother and go skiing at Mt. Lemmon. I acquired my liking to skiing during these trips.

8. Jogi decides to go to school in Toronto (12 years) - The first of my brother's many "I want to live here" deals was when he decided to transfer from Tucson to Toronto. I wasn't in Phoenix when he left our house, but I remember him coming home and telling me he wasn't going to be going to school there.

9. Jogi steers his Jeep into an offramp rail (12 years) - My brother was moving to Santa Barbara for a summer, and when we were driving on one of the freeways, my dad told him that he wanted to send me to visit. My brother thought that wasn't a great idea because he was going to work all the time, and my dad just said that my brother doesn't care for me. My brother got insanely pissed off and steered his car into a rail and left, walking away in anger. I don't think my parents still realized how close my brother and I really are.

10. Jogi deals with the Hippos and Rhinos Scandal for me (15 years) - My brother thought it was his duty to tell the school that they shouldn't mess with his little brother. He told me afterwards, "Remember, it's only the intellectuals that will get it trouble; they are the only ones that will push the limits."

11. Jogi roams around Europe (15 - 16 years) - My brother went to 17 countries in 21 days and sent me a postcard from every place he went to. I still have all those postcards and on each one, my brother makes a similie between me and some type of chicken.

12. Sunil meets Shannon, Jogi's girlfriend (16 years) - When I was at Fashion Sqaure with Robin, Jogi called me up and told me to meet Shannon, his girlfriend at the time. Pretty much everything after this had to do with her in some way or another.

13. Jogi takes Sunil on a random excursion to Coronado (16 years) - One random day, my brother just picked me up and took me to Coronado because he was pissed off about something. My parents didn't know and didn't like it when they found out. He was having relationship problems with his girl and when the song "Running Away" by Hoobastank came on, he said something like "you don't understand songs unless it happens to you."

14. Jogi and Sunil go to Sedona with family for Thanksgiving (17 years) - When we were walking about Tlaquepaque (or however the hell you spell it), my brother and I were talking about what would be cool baby names. It's so incredibly weird that literally a week later, he found out that he was going to have to name a kid.

15. Sunil eats dinner with Jogi on their mother's birthday (17 years) - For about a month, my brother had been telling me that he was going to tell me something incredibly important, and finally on my mom's birthday, he took me out to dinner and he told me that he was going to have a kid. My parents were out of town and our house was flooded, so he had picked me up from my friend's house just to tell me the news. The fact was that it wasn't as happy as I thought it was going to be.

16. Super Bowl Sunday '03 (17 years) - On this day, my brother broke the news to our parents that he was having a child and he's wasn't having good relations with the mother. My parents didn't even allow me anywhere near the conversation, so I went to a friend's house. I bet that was probably one of the hardest things he's ever had to do in his life, and he had me help him as much as possible.

17. Sunil graduates from high school (17 years) - After I threw my hat up in the air, I found my brother on the field with a bunch of his friends. It completely reminded me of when my brother graduated from high school... seven years before.

18. Jogi and talking to Sunil about girls (17 years) - Only a few weeks before I turned eighteen, I talked to my brother about how I had a girlfriend and blah blah blah. And it's funny how the big bro' told me to be safe and stuff and all the good stuff that a parent tells their children. I found it quite hilarious, but insightful, or something.

19. Sunil turns eighteen (18 years, obviously) - My brother gave me the best birthday card ever. I'm not afraid to say that I almost cried.

20. Jogi has a kid (18 years) - This would be quite self-explanatory. I still can't believe that he has a kid. I don't think I'll ever forget just before Konnor was born and my brother called me of all the people in the waiting room to come in and talk to him. My parents were so astonished that my brother picked me because they don't know how close we are. We talked about how crazy it is that in a few minutes, he's going to make the world go round. At 10:17 AM, both our lives were changed forever.

21. Sunil goes away for college (18 years) - And just like he left for college, I did the same, except I went 3000 miles away. I think I talked to him more than anyone else in Arizona.

22. Sunil and Jogi drive around finding food on Christmas (18 years) - My parents decided to have some random Indian party on Christmas and they wouldn't cook normal food, so we had to roam around the city trying to find a food place that was open. The only one that we could find was Vaquero's, which has the worst burritos ever.

23. Jogi lets Sunil borrow his ID (18 years) - My brother has waited a long time for me to borrow his ID. The truth is, because I don't drink, it's lucky that I ever did. I just wanted to keep it just in case I wanted to get into the over 21 Scottsdale New Year's party.

24. Jogi and Sunil go skiing at Sunrise (18 years) - It's been a long time since I went skiing with my brother and it was an awesome day trip to Sunrise through all the forests and stuff. And like usual, my brother's knee screwed him over.

25. Sunil surprises Jogi for his birthday dinner (18 years) - This just happened like a day ago.

I love having a big brother. I just can't believe he's twenty-five; I still think he's seventeen and leaving for college.

I'm listening to Hoobastank - Running Away
I'm feeling content
I'm constantly saying skittles

Posted by Sunil at 10:25 PM | Comments (1)

March 25, 2004

a full moon half-covered by clouds.

A few days before August 22th, 2003, definitely before the weekend before that date, Mike Anderson and I decided to drive up South Mountain and see what the heck was up there. We both were scoping the place out, you know, just in case someone (not male, obviously) was going to come up there with us. We drove all over the top of the mountain, seeing all the different cliff points and watching the Phoenix power grid go off, because the sun set when we were up there. After some time, we looked one direction, and between to mountain tops, there was the moon, full, except we couldn't see all of it. Half of it was covered by a cloud, but the cloud was the same color as the sky, and you couldn't really tell cloud lines, because the two mountain peaks were so close together that the cloud encompassed the whole area. So basically what we saw was a semicircle, sorta glowing, floating in the air. If I had a digital camera, I would have taken a picture of that, because it was freakin' crazy looking.

The moon was freakin' cool but to talk about that here was just dumb. There's something more important than the stupid moon, and that was what the whole situation reminds me of. I remember too much, and I can never forget.

Why won't someone fuckin' remember things too?!

I just typed profanity on the screen. I normally don't do that, but I feel the need to express what I'm strongly thinking sometimes.

My trip to Boston was one freakin' awesome trip. I got to see pretty much everyone that I talked to over there. I ate at Anna's Taqueria three times in less than five days (which, by the way, is probably the coolest thing that I could have done) and I got to chill with Eamon in Boston for the first time. When we were downtown by Boston Common, there was this guy holding a Bush sign and praising him in front of the Massachusetts State Capitol. I thought he was so awesome that I walked up to him and talked to him about why he supports Bush. He told me that it was because he was doing the job. And that's all he said about politics. From there, he went on blabbing about our duty and helping others and all this nonsense that I wasn't listening to because it was an old man rambling about gibberish that didn't pertain to politics or anything I wanted to talk to him about in the first place. He has chocolate on the side of his lips and all over his teeth. I thought it was blood, and I still think it was, but Eamon insists that it was chocolate. He was dirty. Everytime he looked and me and talked, I wanted to burst out laughing. Whenever he turned to Eamon, I made faces and whenever he turned back to me, I went back to the straight face and nodded at the things he said. Eamon did the same, except vice versa, of course. I talked to him about football because he was wearing a St. Louis Rams fan and I told him that his team stole a championship from my team, and then he went on about how the Patriots stole a potential championship from the Raiders (which I'm not going to argue against because there was no such thing as the 'tuck rule' until two years ago). Man, this guy was weird. We took a picture with him when we were done, and that's what you see above.

That night I hung out with my lab partners, Amanda and Dana, and one of their roommates. It sucks that I never really hung out with them when I lived in Boston, because they're really cool people. Regardless, we had a fun-filled night of Taboo, Sex on the Beach, and Badger Badger Badger. Damn that sounds like a bunch of sexual innuendo. Something that will not be forgotten from that night will be the fact that dog rhymes with log. Because my lab partners are from New York, they say dog "do-awg" and log "lahwg." Apparently, they were sad when someone told them that dog and log rhyme. It's big, it's heavy, it's wood. It's better than bad; it's good.

I'll be back there sometime. And I'll go and rock hard when I'm there again. It's fun there... and cold.

When I got out of my Chemistry exam, the moon was a distinct crescent with a star slightly to the right of the bottom part of the crescent.

I'm listening to Maroon 5 - This Love
I'm feeling angry-lazy
I'm constantly saying goatmilk

Posted by Sunil at 01:11 AM | Comments (2)

March 20, 2004

i can't look out the window next to me.

So on St. Patty's Day, I flew out to Boston to visit all the friends I made last semester. Most of the kids didn't even know I was coming here, so it was surprise time, oh yeah.

I told three people that I was coming, Mike D., Mr. Feeney, and Jenn Phan, the only girl that watches football religiously. The flight and bus ride to Boston blew, but once I saw the Warren Towers, it was time for some fun.

Mike D. and Feeney met me downstairs and got me a guest pass and then we went upstairs to drop all of my stuff off. I tried to hide when trying to pass the dining hall because my old roommate was there and I was going to try and surprise him. Because Ashwin was downstairs, we stole his TV and put it in the common room and watched the Simpsons. People from all over the floor started walking in and watching with us, not knowing that I was there until I said "How's it going, xxxxx?" And then they freaked out or whatever. Ashwin never came up when we were in the common room, that bastard.

Mike, Feeney, Andy, Dan and his girlfriend and I went to Anna's Taqueria. I think I may have missed that place more than I missed my friends. Yeah, that's right, my friends are dumb, and I came here to use them so I could eat the best burritos ever. Anyway, instead of being cynical, we ate Anna's burritos and my life was complete (sorta) once again. Boston had been kicked off... in style.

So when I came back to 15A, I still needed to surprise my old roommate. We went back to 1515A and I walked, without expression, and grabbed his toiletries and left. I could hear him say something like "oh shit, look who's here" or something stupid like that because he's stupid. He came after me and then I told him to take his toiletries back and see what else was missing from him room. He didn't even notice we took his TV. He was ready for a weekend of fun, and a weekend of me bothering the living crap out of him all the time. It's funny because he liked me, even though I was such a cynical bastard to him and made fun of him all the time. Oh well, das coo' wit' me.

I brought cactus candy for everyone to eat, and I kept telling people that there may be needles in it and stuff. I can't believe some people believed me. They should know that I thrive on gullible people.

I just ran upstairs right now to talk to the girl that looks like Ashley Elston. She's a cool kid. She being either Ashley or the Ashley look-a-like.

I'm going to stop writing here for right now because Eamon should be here soon and I'm going to have to find a way to sneak him in. I'm going to show him around Boston because I still remember my way 'round this place. I'll be back with more details.

I'm listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Zephyr Song
I'm feeling anxious
I'm constantly saying hizzy

Posted by Sunil at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2004

two hundred fifty-two.

So would I be out of line if I said...

I'm listening to Incubus - I Miss You
I'm feeling detached
I'm constantly asking why

Posted by Sunil at 03:05 AM | Comments (3)