snagabag

Yes, I’m about a week late with the post, but by now you know snagabag is not the blog version of 24. Anyway, I’m happy to announce that my niece Rani turned 1 on May 23rd! Aparna, Liah, and I were in Atlanta for the long weekend to attend Rani’s birthday party and hang out with the fam. Look for pictures soon, but for now I’ll leave you with a shot of the party favor from her party. Yes, these were made possible by my current employer.

ps - I can’t finish without publicly thanking Irma & Manish for accommodating my fascination with the Dallas Mavericks. I know I shouldn’t have taken almost half a day out of the weekend to watch two basketball games, but I did. (& they won both games!)

Happy Anniversary to us!

As of today, Aparna has survived being married to me for six years! Hard to believe it’s been that long since that fateful day in Corpus when the hotel staff stopped some of my caucasian friends from partaking of the refreshments we made available because they were for “wedding guests only.”

Aparna & I are in Atlanta for Rani’s 1st birthday. As such, we have babysitters! We took advantage of the situation and went to dinner at a fantastic restaurant called Nava. I highly recommend it to anyone who is in the Atlanta area.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Liah has a lot of hair. She’s 10 and 1/2 months old, and we haven’t cut her hair yet. Let me give you one last look at her birth hair.

Last look? Yep, today Aparna & I finally cut Liah’s hair. Aparna really wanted to take her to a “professional,” but I’m not about to raise my daughter on a silver spoon! Ok, so maybe my idea of raising her on a plastic spork isn’t so bright, but I still thought it’d be cool to give Liah her first haircut ourselves. So here I am hard at work.

I’m happy to report the haircut was successful! Keep in mind, I measured success by Liah not bleeding or being bald at the end of the haircut.

Without further ado, I present the newly trimmed Liah!

Isn’t she adorable?

Congratulations to Tina on graduting from UT with her PPA degree!

It was the first gradution I had been to in a while…5 years I think. I’m not sure if this is the way all graduations are now, but they didn’t walk the students alphabetically! From what I could tell, the order seemed random. I figured one positive side is people with last names beginning with A, B, or C would have to stick around.

I went to the final Mavs/Spurs game of the season last month with Suresh, Aparna’s cousin in San Antonio, and I had a great time! Going to the game with Suresh is always a good time, but it’s even better when the Mavs win (which they did), but this time, Suresh and I went early so I could try and get autographs from the Mavs. Yes, I am 32 years old.

Ok, so here I am waiting for the players to finish warming up so I can harass them when they walk back to their locker room.

So I did manage to get quite a few Mavs to sign my shirt, but not everyone was interested in signing.

Yep, that’s Dirk signing my Dirk t-shirt while I’m wearing a Dirk jersey. The picture on the right is Jason Terry signing my shirt, and the picture in the middle? Why that’s the Mavs coach, 2006 NBA Coach of the Year, Avery Johnson. He did not sign my shirt. I asked for his autograph, and as you can see he glanced my way. However, that was all I got besides a “Sorry, not now.” I’m telling you, that is one intense man. He was already in game mode and wasn’t about to be distracted by a grown man wanting autographs.

Well, here’s the end result. Happily hanging in my closet next to the t-shirt I have that was signed by the Mavs in 1988 (including little known Jim Ries.)

I’m so happy to report that our first ever fundraising efforts were a huge success! We sent out the request only a week before the event, and we still received a great response. Who knew so many people want me going to the bathroom less? Really, I think the one thing this shows is no one we know has any ties to Charmin.

In case you didn’t click the link below for more info on the 5k we participated in, allow me to toot my wife’s horn a little bit. That’s right… check out the top fundraiser!

Way to go Aparna!

I won’t print the list of donors here, but you know who you are… and you have our deepest and most heartfelt thanks.

This ends my mini-run of UC-related posts. I’ll conclude with my take on my condition. Being stricken with this disease isn’t the worst thing in the world. There are worse thing in life, and there are even more severe afflictions of UC than what I have …but it still sucks. If that sounds a little bit like I’m waffling, then you’re right. I spend a lot of my time when I’m suffering through a flare up vacillating between appreciating what is right with my life and getting tired of what is wrong with my health. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who know me, but I spend the vast majority of my time appreciating what is right. What can I say? I’m an optimist.

“Life is not about dealing with the hand you’ve been dealt. Life is about dealing your own hand.” - not my quote

Aparna, Liah, and I participated in our first 5k recently. This was Aparna’s idea. She found out CCFA was having its first ever San Antonio 5k. She said that Liah and her were going to walk in support of me, and I was honored. It just so happened the 5k was the same weekend Raj and Monica were visiting, and they were adament in coming. Raj in fact, was determined to push Liah in her stroller the entire 5k. In addition, some of our favorite people live in San Antonio, and the Koneru’s were also enthusiastic about participating. Well, except for Suresh, but he had a Spurs game to go to. (Ok, not really, but he did have a prior committment he couldn’t get out of.)

Deciding to “go public” with my condition was a big decision for me. Sure, most of my local friends knew, if only because when I have a flare up, I am for the most part home bound (which can be for weeks or months), but I had never really advertised my UC …much less raised money to fight it!

Yep, as part of the 5k, Aparna sent out our first fundraising email. Reproduced here for your reading pleasure:

Hello Family and Friends,

As most of you know, Mohit was diagnosed with acute ulcerative colitis in the fall of 2000. Since then he has had several “flare-ups” and takes maintenance medication daily. Colitis has become a part of our lives.

In honor of him, and to raise awareness and money for the ongoing research to one day cure Crohn¹s and Colitis, Liah and I will be participating in a 5K walk/run in San Antonio this Sunday, April 30th.

That being said, I am asking for any donation that you feel comfortable in giving to possibly eradicate this debilitating disease.

To read more about the walk and the Crohn¹s and Colitis Foundation of America go to: http://ccfa.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=148026

If you’d like to donate, you can do so online by going here:
http://ccfa.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=148026&u=148026-127472451

Please feel free to e-mail or call me with any questions.

Thank you.

Love,
Aparna

Well, as many of you know by now, I finally decided to go public with my disease… Ulcerative Colitis.

What prompted me to go public? Why Aparna of course! Who else does a better job of getting me to do the right thing? Specifically, Aparna told me a few months ago she and Liah were going to walk in the inaugural San Antonio “Guts & Glory” 5k. The Guts & Glory walks are run by CCFA, which is the only national organization dedicated to finding the cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Anyway, more on that in my next post…

If you aren’t familiar with UC, you should click the link at the top of this post to get a quick summary. You should also know that UC is not a 24/7 condition for me. I do have it all the time, but its symptoms come and go (this is how it is for most people who have it). I’m happy to report that I am feeling pretty damn good these days (other than sulking over the Mavs losing today).

Well, I sure have been gone from the blog for a looooooong time. I can only wonder if anyone besides my mom is still here? Actually, I can only wonder if anyone besides my mom has ever been here?

My excuse for being gone so long? Believe it or not, I have no excuse. I simply failed to make sharing my awful sense of humor with the world a priority, but don’t worry because I heard your cries and misinterpreted them to mean you want me to continue blogging.

So quite a bit going on over here… Rather than create a lengthy post that no one will read, I’ll create lots of smaller posts that no one will read.

So go spread the word. Warn your friends and family. The blog is back.