To Cross or Not To Cross

"What do you do all day?" Is the question that I often get asked these days. Having graduated without actually attending my own convocation and not have found a job yet, people wonder how I manage to waste all this time that I have on my hands. Well to be honest, I really don't know how weekdays come and go but I can give you a sample of what happens during the weekends.

After one of Barobax got offered a 6 figure (;)) job and was flown to Boston for his training, we got invited to a luxurious 5 star hotel soon after. But making a trip to Boston wasn't cheap, so someone came along with a Google map in his hands and suggested that we drive, noting that it was a 9 hour drive to Boston, Massachusetts.

Home of Harvard and M.I.T. is surely a great place to visit. But Ehsan M. had stronger reasons to be the first on the list to be willing to make the 9 hour drive; Boston is also home to Sanaz A. The other three, being bored out of their minds and sensing the great opportunity to share the gas money also welcomed the idea and agreed to leave on Friday after work and come back on Sunday. Leaving Saturday as the only feasible day for touring Boston.

But Google had forgotten to mention that once you drive half way through highway 405 and once you're on your way to highway I-90, there's a little boundary called the U.S. border. Tightly guarded by the officers of US Customs and Border Protection. Now these nice little officers really like Iranians, because we noticed that people of all other nations were being ignored by them but us, out of all 999 other nations of this blue planet were invited for a little chat at their office. What a pleasure that must be, having been selected as the chosen ones to enjoy the company of these fine men and women whose job is to protect America from terrorism and threat. The shiny blue covers of my friends' Canadian passports were not enough to let us slip through as our dark black hair, eyes and eyebrows and bold letters of the Place of Birth shone in much greater glory in the eyes of these officers.

The hospitality of the Americans was more than charming and even though we were eager to leave as soon as possible they insisted that we spend two to three hours with them. Citizens of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Libya were among the other lovely guests of that wonderful Friday evening.

But what fools were we, because Ehsan had already "told" us that we were bound to be stopped at the border and that our arrival at Boston would inevitably be delayed. However, he had forgotten to consider the 45 minutes that we spent driving North back to London instead of driving South to Niagara Falls, plus the 3 hours of rain, fog and thunderstorms that welcomed us as we entered Massachusetts, or even the 2 hours of confusion when we got lost in the maze-like streets of Boston with 3 maps and 2 driving directions in our hands and still being unable to figure out the way to our destination. Departure time from Waterloo: 4:00 PM. Arrival Time at Saeed's hotel room: 6:00 AM.

A fourteen hour trip better have been worth it. And it was. We had fun driving to Boston and Saeed and Sanaz showed us a good time. And I wish that Sanam was also there, even though I know that she is having a good time in Shiraz.

So my message to you dear barobax is to be bold, don't let the length of the path scare you, instead make the trip to your destination and enjoy the company of your friends.

3 New Albums

I have added 3 new albums. They include a total of 310 pictures. Some of the pictures date back to January and some, like the ones under "cottage" are as recent as today.

I almost forgot; half of the cottage pictures are by Hamed. Many thanks to him.