Road To Mysore

I had lunch yesterday with co-workers. The lunch converstion revolved around how under staff we are this season and how the experience staff which left were replaced by virtually inexperience staff. At some point I said something like, "I can't believe I'm working the hours I'm working right now." A co-worker looked at me and said, "You knew what you were getting yourself into when you signed in." I thought about what she said and I realized that I guess I didn't. Maybe I should have known better but I didn’t…sucker!!! I was very clear when we talked last October on what I was willing to bring to the table. Was I so naïve to think that when push comes to shove they would not remember or even care? Apparently not. I realize that once you become an employee, your pretty much a slave. I've lost what ever control I have on my time this past 8 weeks and the next 2 weeks and whatever we discussed last October doesn't mean jack shit.

At the moment I feel tired and beat up. My practice is nowhere close to where it once was. My mind is angry for letting all this happen. I've dug myself in a deep hole and there's no way out. The only thing I'm holding on to at the moment is Rome…Mysore is still too far away. In the meantime, I have to suck things up until April 17.

I can't continue on this road. At some point in the near future, I going to have to make some major decisions. I have a general idea on what it is but I have a lot of options and they all look good. I could either tweak things or just go all out. The conservative side of me is saying a smal shift will do but the never say die part of me is saying, "Fuck this, just do it and worry about the reprecussions later." I'm inclined to do the later only because it seems more exciting and my life has become a bore.

I got an email from my friend L last week. He wanted to touch base with me since his heading for Mysore in June and he wants to take my apartment for 3 months. I initially told him a couple of months ago that I would prefer that he take in May because it's difficult for me to rent it out for only one month. Most of the people I know stay in Mysore for at least 3 months and I don't like renting it out to strangers. He told me that he had a couple of his students were going from mid-April to May and they might want to rent it. I don’t know what I was thinking so I said what the hell, why not.

The next day, I got an email from L introducing them to me. A couple of hours later one of his students sent me an email. I don't have the exact email but it went something like this…"Do you have internet? Do you have a washing machine? Is the maid service included in the rent? And can you send us pictures of your place?"

I almost fell off my seat when I read this. Instead of responding to her I forwarded it to my friend L and told him, "I think your friends are far removed from reality and maybe in for a rude awakening. They're better off staying in a hotel first. They should check out apartments when they get there instead of getting one right now." What I really wanted to say was, "Where the fuck do they think they're going…Paris, New York???" I know, I know, I know…I need to be more compassionate. I must have asked those kind questions too when I was planning my first trip. I told L, that I was too busy and could not deal with it at the moment. I'm still tired and grouchy. Unfortunately I'm going to be feeling this way for another 10 days.

One of the partners came to my desk yesterday and asked me about a client I was working on. I told him I was working on it as we speak and will get it to him tomorrow. This particular client is worth at least $100 million dollars so instead of extending his return, which we did last year, he promised to give it to him by Thursday. Which means, my ass has to work today. He also reminded me that this client has a son and I also need to finish his return so he could give that one too. He told me that the son was an only child who is theoritically worth $100 million. The only problem is that this child has an illness (I forgot which one) and is on a wheel chair.

My boss asked me, "Would you trade places with him? Be worth 100 million but confined to a wheel chair."

My answer was simple and obvious, "I won't trade my life with anyone."

He continued to ask me, "Would you trade your life with mine?"

I looked at him, smile and said, "Hell no!!!". By the expression of his face, he was obviously surprised and did not expect that answer. He easily earns 10 times more than I do, his my boss obviously, he has a family and is happily married, he drives a nice Lexus and lives in a nice house so he is in most people's standards a very successful person.

After a few awkward seconds, I asked him, "When was the last time you took a whole month off?"

His answer was, "Aaaammm..." Then he graciously changed the topic.

My boss is around 51 so the answer would have been about 27 years ago. I may complain a lot but I have a good life and a lot going for me. Yes, there maybe things I wish I had but I chose to see my life as half full and not half empty.

And for the record, I took 3 1/2 months off in 2006, 6 1/2 months in 2005 and 6 months in 2004...thats no a bad life......Would I trade that for 100 million and a wheel chair? I don't think so....

There is a remote possibility that I my become an Ex Pat. I've always wonder what it would be like. I had friends whose parents were Ex Pats and I thought it was so cool. I'm still in the beginning stage of the process. After, I get back from Rome we're going to sit and talk about it. I have no clue on what the other side is thinking. I'm not sure if they really want to do it or if they're just exploring the possibilities. I've realized though that if it doesn't work out with this group, at some point in the future someone else will come along especially if I put it out there.

I didn't realize it until lately but I have put myself in a unique situation. There are a lot of people who are more qualified than I am but there are only a handful of people who are willing to move to India or in my case, Mysore…yes, Mysore. If I can close the deal, it has to be for Mysore. Bangalore is too congested and I don't know anything about Hydrabad. I will definitely stir them away from any other city.

Yesterday, I kept telling myself…"it's going to happen, it's going to happen, it's going to happen!!!" Today I decided that I'm going to make it happen. Wish me luck.

I have 5 days to go before this chaos will be over. This has been my worst tax season in a very long time. I seriously have to rethink my future. I have 2 more returns that need to get out of the door and a gazellion extensions. The last count yesterday morning was about 640. I think last night we were in the 500s. So with 5 days to go, we need 100 a day...that's a lot. Our client are a little more involved.

It's 7 more days till Rome. I've been too tired to get excited about the trip. I'm looking forward to it but I have do plans. I was debating on whether I should visit other cities or just stay in Rome. I wanted to pick up a Lonely Planet book or any travel book so I can have an idea on what places to see and things I might want to do but who has the time. I've decided that I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants when I'm there. I'm so ill-prepared for this trip and I have no clue on where to go and what to do. I think I've be happy just to be there and spend most of the time asking Gabriele to pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming. I've never been to Europe so this trip means a lot to me. I've always dreamed on going so being there will be living a dream...everything else will be icing. I will be travelling to Rome with no expectations.

I called Ramya (my landlady's daughter) this morning to check on my new tenants in Mysore. They arrived this morning from Thailand. It's the same person who was inquiring on whether I had maid service and a washing machine. I had told my friend Luke that I couldn't deal with her and recommended that she stay in a hotel. Luke must have given her a dose of reality. She was very pleasant and grateful after that. I told her later that I normally don't rent my place out to strangers. Luke is such a good friend I couldn't say no to him. I would rather keep the apartment empty then have a stranger in it. I told Ramya that she will be looking at other places before deciding if shes taking the place. Ramya simply said, "It's her first time here. She'll figure it out soon." I think so too.

I thought I could cruise through this day with simple extensions. All my difficult returns are done or I thought they were. I had 5 trust returns which I thought were already reviewed when I realized that they weren't. I asked a co-worker to prepare it for me and was hoping the manager would review it. Even though I didn't prepare it, I was primarily responsible since I control the whole group of entities (around 60 entities). Anyway to make the story short, it wasn't done and we needed to get the client numbers so they can request the bank to cut a check on Monday. If it were a small amounts then the client would have covered for it temporarily. I knew the numbers were not small but I didn't know the ballpark figure.

So it's 3PM and since the manager couldn't review it, I have to review it myself. The stressful part is that I needed to give the client the numbers by 5PM…shit!!! I had no clue on what's going on so I asked my co-worker to walk me through. By 4:30PM, I'm sitting with my boss and reviewing the numbers. It's about $160,000 each for 2 of the trusts and the rest are around $60,000 each…holy shit, nice chunk of change. The client is not going to be really happy when they have to scramble to have the bank cut the check. I make the call a little pass 5PM and break the news. After that call, my adrenaline crashed. It took about an hour before I could continue working again. I had a small can of Red Bull this morning…first time. That's probably what's got me going today.

It's 10PM now and I'm ready to go home. We already been told that we have to be in this Sunday. So I have 4 more full days before this is all over…crap, I need some sleep. I would like to complain but this shit pays for Rome, Mysore and hopefully Bangkok (Luke are you out there)…oh well.

I walked in the office late this morning and noticed one of my co-worker D didn't arrive yet. I asked another co-worker where D was. She said, "We left around midnight last night and when we reached the parking lot D realized that he need to go back and prepare his own return. We don't really know what time he went home this morning." Holy crap!!! It never even crossed my mind. I haven't prepared my own tax return yet. It's pretty simple, relatively speaking but I totally forgot about it.

It's funny that I've prepare at least a hundred tax returns the past 10 weeks and it never occurred to me that I needed to at some point prepare my own. I'm so tired when I get home everyday and the last thing I want to think about is another tax return. I would have done it now but I forgot to bring the information. I thought I was done preparing all my returns. I guess I was wrong. I have one more.

Today, tax season officially is over. Now I can look forward to other things and get back my life together. There are going to be a lot of changes this year. I'm going to be making some difficult decisions but they're all going to be good. Hopefully I can get my practice back on tract too.

I leave for Rome in two days. I got an email from my friend Gabriele. He said he will pick me up in the airport. I also got an email from Rebecca who now lives in Germany. She is my good friend from Mysore who I travelled with to Delhi, Varanasi and Agra almost two years ago. I haven't seen here since. She told me she'll try to take flight to Rome in one of my weekend so we can hangout. I think that would be a lot of fun to see her. We had a great time together in Mysore and a blast when we travel up north.

I have a lot to blog about but I think I need to get some sleep first. Today I have my last cup of coffee. Last year I promised myself the I wouldn't have any coffee during tax season this year but the last month was too much. I couldn't get through the day without it. I picked up the habit again. In the next week or so, I'm looking forward to headaches from the caffiene withdrawal. I know I should ease myself out of it but I love the taste of coffee especially with a lot of sugar and milk...just like my chai. I don't want to get addicted to it. So I'll probably get my first headache tomorrow afternoon.

I'm finally done packing. My plane takes off in about 6 hours. I still have a few things to do like buy a Lonely Planet guide and maybe get some cash. I've been so busy I haven't had time to plan and enjoy the process of preparing to leave. I have so much in my mind in terms of my future career and/or future choices, this trip will help me sort things out.

I have a lot to blog about...no time. Gotta go.

I got into Rome late last night. The flight coming over was exhausting. I'm a little disappointed with British Airways. The seats were very small and the person beside me was also big. I had a difficult time sleeping but eventually got some. I think Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines has spoiled me. I don't think I will be flying to India through Europe anytime soon. A fellow passenger told me that Luftansa is just as bad.

My friend GS picked me up in the airport. He told me that we were invited to a party and asked me if I wanted to go. He didn't think I was interested because I was tired. Yes, I was tired but what a better way to spend my first night in Rome in a party with his friends. I said why not. He called his friend but it was too late for us to go. Some of the guests would be leaving by the time we got there. I was a little disappointed but I was tired anyway so it was cool.

I crashed last time hard. I think it was a combination of the long trip and not getting enough sleep the past 4 weeks. I spent the whole morning at home and did a short practice at around 11AM. GS had a few classes to teach today so it was all cool.

Sorry, I have to cut this short. I have a lot to say...it's an amazing place and even more interesting because I'm with a local. We're heading out to meet his friend and hangout in a local bar...no tourist. Oh forget, GS has a sweet apartment which is a two minute walk from the Pantheon. I'm in the middle of the historical city. More later.

Last night, Gabriele and I scootered to his friend's apartment to meet up with his other friends. Scootering through Rome was a lot of fun. Rome is an amazing city. It reminds me of Hampi with all the ruins scattered. It is such an old city. It's also weird seeing the cars. They are so tiny.

When we got to Fabrizio's place, I met his other friends...Alessandro, Simona, Manuela and I forgot the rest of the names but they were all cool names. We did the cheek to cheek greeting which was funny especially when you do it with another man. We then all scootered to the jazz club which seemed like the middle of nowhere...but then again, to me everything is in middle of nowhere. I would have never imagined that there would be a club in this area. It seemed like an industrial area and the club was in a converted warehouse. It was cool being there though. The music was OK. I enjoyed the scenery though. It was fun talking to Gabriele's friend coz they barely spoke English but tried their best to converse with. I'm not sure how this happenned but I think I'm giving Manuela a massage today. We stayed in the club until 2AM and headed back to the apartment. It was an interesting and fun night.

I must still be jetlagged because I didn't wake up until 11:30 this morning. When I walk in the living room, Gabriele was already in the middle of this practice. I joined him 10 minutes later and did a short practice. It's almost 3PM now and we're preparing lunch/breakfast. Everything here moves slow for some reason. Even much slower than in Mysore. It's strange because I've been going 100 miles per hour in LA so this slowing down is good for me. I've decided to just stay in Rome for all of my 9 days here. I decided that I want to just soak everything in and not rush to see all the places. If I miss a few things, it will give me an excuse to come back. I think lunch is ready and I'm starving.

My days in Rome have gone by quickly. Tomorrow is my last full day. My plane leaves at 8AM on Sunday which means I have to be in the airport by 5AM. That's going to be difficult since I've been waking up at around 10AM everyday. I'm almost like a Roman. I eat breakfast at around noon and dinner at around 10PM. I'm sleeping at around 1 or 2 AM too. It's strange for me since I usually wake up at 5:30AM. My whole body clock is so out of whack. It doesn't really matter at the moment since I will have to adjust again when I reach LA in a few days.

My visit here has been great. Being in Rome is like living in a museum. There is no other way to describe it. The historical center is one big museum. Every building or structure is at least 200 years old and has a story of it's own. According to Gabriele, the building we're living in is at least 400 years old...amazing. Everything here is so old. There is no other way to describe it.

I've spent the past 4 days being a tourist. I think the most impressive place has been the Vatican City. A friend of mine once told me that after visiting the Vatican, he vowed never to give money to the Catholic Churh. I now understand why. Humility was never factored in when they built this city. I spent at least 3 days there and there was so much more I didn't see.

Today I decided that I wanted to check out Lino Miele's school. I wanted to go to Tina's school but Gabriele told me that it's too far and that she takes only 8 students at a time. I've been hesitant on practicing in Lino's school because the class is at 1:30AM...these Romans are unbelievable. It's been a very long time since I've practiced after 9AM. The downside to practicing this late in the day is that I could not eat anything all morning so by the time I reached the shala I was already starving.

The shala was a good 30 minute walk from the apartment. It's just behind the Colosseum. I got there about 5 minutes late. It was a good thing Sergio, the teacher let me in. The shala was nice and big. The energy of the room was really good and focused. I haven't done a full practice since arriving in Rome. I'm not very good when I'm practicing alone. I tend to shorten my practice. I was a little worried I would pass out in the middle practice since it was a least 14 hours since my last meal. I managed to get through practice and was very pleased I went there. I enjoyed Sergio's adjustment and had a chance to speak to him after practice. I don't remember seeing him in Mysore but he told me he remembered me. I regret not going there a few days earlier. It was worth going there and I felt so good after.