My last Top of the Five was a lot of fun, and the last bit of dancing for a few months. Kiki, Sarah, Andy and I head there around 10 pm, and then Amber actually came so that we could dance one last time. She is Tara’s friend who can dance marvelously since she’s been dancing for as long as Kiki has. I did my first and last dance, with canned music with Amber as we talked and my leads went on auto pilot as we talked through it. The weird thing is that it was the first time my lead went on auto pilot. I guess there are always a first to everything. After the four of us from Coe, went to Perkins and hung out. I bid good bye and good luck to Kiki, and the other two.

I got to see the Da Vinci Code on Friday during rush hour with Kiki. The movie was good, unfortunately, there was no mystery left because the plot follows the book faithfully. However, it was entertaining nonetheless. Apart from that, I got to eat out a few times, especially to Genghis Grill (Kiki) and Irish Democrat Grill (Kelly and Britta). Both these restaraunts are superb! Genghis Grill is Mongolian BBQ, go figure . For people who don’t know of the concept of Mongolian bbq, we are given a bowl that we fill up with veggies, meats, sauces and seasonings, which we subsequently give to the grillmaster. So, the entire deal is that if the food sucks, it’s our fault. Smart marketing, eh? Irish Democrat has amazing burgers, and good beer. I had monster mugs of beer at both places and absolutely enjoyed it.

I felt really wonderful hanging out with couple of my best friends Kelly and Britta. Kelly stayed the last night with me in my room, and helped me out a ton getting stuff done last minute. I’d say the best part was the last dance that we did at the airport in a corner . It was an amazing last dance, and I felt warm with joy all over. We laughed and hugged tight before I went through security. I saw Britta off earlier in the day after lunch at Brewed Awakenings. She is going to miss me. I’m glad that I had such intimate relationships with friends who are genuinely going to miss me or miss me when I’m gone.

Finals week was me at my most boring self. I studied more than any other time during the school year. I was practically living in the library. There were a few people who studied with me on the last study table on the 2nd floor, most often being Angela F. I think we got to know each other better during the end of our time here. I’m glad about that. I guess the studying paid off. I made A’s in Thermodynamics and Hindu Gods, A- in Modern Algebra, and B in Set Theory/Topology. Topology was the toughest and highest level course offered in my four years of math at Coe. So, I’m actually happy with that grade because I deserved it. Thermo was also my first A ever in Mario’s class with a 100 on the final. Hindu Gods was a friggin’ breeze, and Modern Algebra was interesting.

The week before graduation were incredible dinners. It started with the Annual Physics lavish feast at the Czech Village. We had a spectroscopy presentation by a Coe grad (Dr. Rachel Boekenhauer) doing research at Argonne National Lab. I like the fact that at this time of my academic life, I can actually understand basic and advanced talks at a higher level and can ask intelligent questions. I was very curious about the thin film analysis of Gen II superconductors. After that, physics seniors were invited by Doc for steak at his house. We finished 13 pounds of expensive T-bones within the 9 people present. I have never eaten such a big piece of red meat that was prepared so well. Doc is indeed a Pro. Finally, President Phifer had invited the Class of 2006 to the Country Club for dinner on Thursday and it was amazing! The set up was formal and it was great to see others dressed well. The food was great. Now that I think about it, I should have bought a senior picture because it may have turned out well. This was an excellent and relaxed night to be with people from our Class one last time before the craziness of Graduation decended on us.

Dad flew in on Thursday, and Robi on Friday to attend my graduation. Mum couldn’t come because she had to stay for Dida’s last rite. It was great having them around. Saturday, a bunch of friends and I went dancing at the Top of the Five, and had an amazing time. I really like slip and slidig on the floor. I was the only guy amongst 8 girls. I had a ton of fun dancing with Angela M and Kiki. I got a few pictures that I put up on flickr. I got to say this again. Angela is an amazingly natural dancer and she blows me away. She’s only had one formal class in swing and she dances like she’s been doing this for a while. Arm tension and movement is exactly what I look for. She also has a great time dancing and smiles through out. I wish I had known her before and gotten to dance with her some more..

Dad, Robi and I walked around a lot and saw quite a bit of downtown. It was nice to just hang out together. We were missing Mum. Goms ate out with us quite a bit. They got to see the campus and really liked it. Then came, D Day as in Graduation, and formal end to my life at Coe College. Graduation was practically flawless. After ringing of the Victory Bell, it was really quick after that. I had two tassles for double majoring, two sets of cords for Mortar Board and Sigma Pi Sigma (national Physics honors society), graduated with Cum Laude (GPA 3.6+) and College Scholars Program, GPA of 3.82, and along with some other miscellaneous honors for leadership and merit. The speaker Mass. Gov Mitt Romney was really good. We were happy that he didn’t turn the commencement speech into a campaigning test bed. If you don’t know who he is, he is Democrat-turned-Republican for the next Presidential election. A lot of people on Coe weren’t too pleased about him speaking but it turned out to be a great speech, one which I didn’t snooze through. I met Andi’s parents later and then went out to Taj Mahal for some Indian food after taking more pictures with my friends. And so the day ended, and I hung out with Dad and Robi at the hotel again. They left the next morning, and I’ve been relaxing since.

And on to Graduation presents, my parents got a Swatch 2006 (Chemical Blue) from Dubai. It’s an incredible good-looking watch. This is to augment my existing Casio wrist watch that I bought 4 years ago in Hyderabad with Bhavya.

Andi’s parents gave me a quilt with written sentiments of my friends. She asked Komal to get them signed by my friends and then sew them together. I love it!

Goms and Himali got me a giftcard from Express. Anh got me a cute little memento, and some spending money.

We grilled, chilled and danced. She showed me a few videos that she took at the Iowa City swing workshop. Out of the ones that we watched, the trip move with partner’s legs wrapping out mine was the coolest. So, we tried it and I finally got it after several tries. I found my mistake. I wasn’t tripping the girl hard enough for her legs to get off the ground. I’ll have to put a clip up sometime when I try that with a partner next. And oh, this move needs the dancers to be very close to each other, as in full frontal contact. Thereby marking this move as very intimate and not to be done with everyone..

After a Dairy Queen double fudge cookie dough, we head out to watch Take The Lead (Official, IMDB) starring Antonio Banderas, and a set of great young dancers. I enjoyed the dance sequences and loved the music. So, I got the soundtrack. Now, I wish I had better speakers to underline the bass in most of the hip hop music. I have noticed that the new fad in movies revolving around youth and creative arts is fusion. Fusion of the new and the old. This movie obviously mixed jazz and hip hop. We have always known that we can dance jazz forms to hip hop too. The style is more sensous and erotic. It’s amazing! I’ve danced to hip hop music and love the innovations that can be brought to the form. The friction, the spins, the rhytmic gyrations .

And while we are on the topic of dancing, I created a new YouTube group dedicated to swing dancing and all its forms.. A lot of swing dance videos have been added. So, go check them out !

There are a few nightmares that are really bad and make you sweat and palpatate. Well, I had one of those right before I woke up Friday morning. I had just given a test on Thursday on Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics. My dream was that I had gotten a D. I was really scared and depressed in the dream and then I snapped out of the dream. Thank God!

I need to remind myself not to wear jeans during the day before it’s getting really hot and I get awful sweaty. Yuck!

Thursday night, it rained and hailed. There was a tornado warning but I didn’t see a tornado again! I really want to see one before I leave. Kiki told that several car dealers in Iowa City were hit by the tornado and had serious damage to the cars..

Couple of nights back, I spent a few hours diagnosing and fixing yet another compatibility issue with Mozilla Firefox and one of the extensions. This time, the culprit was “Amazing Media Browser” which worked fine till the update I performed earlier in the week. I found the problem as firefox was not rendering Flash. I think I might walk through the process if any one cares. So, when I found the problem, my first impulse was to check extensions, especially the ones I had installed recently. But none of that worked. Then, I restarted the computer thinking it might just be that simple. Still no luck. So, I attempted to reinstall firefox which didn’t really work either. And then, I went through the list of extensions to find possible culprits. I decided to take a chance by disabling Amazing Media Browser, and that worked. I think the latest update screwed up something. Anyway, after two hours of poking and prodding, I found the root to the problem and hence the solution.

I went out with a bunch of friends to watch Failure to Launch and She’s the man. I drove up there with Jessi and caught up on the week. We also had some fantastic home made tacos from a small bar/restaraunt in Makoqueta, IA. Apart from getting really cold and taking a bunch of pictures while attempting long exposures, the movies were okay. I liked She’s the Man better, and that was the general consensus with the girls in the other cars too.

To begin with, I finally have a standing admission cum monetary offer from Vanderbilt University for spring 2007. They are one of the prestigious schools in the US with an acceptance rate of 11%. I will be offered a TA position for the first semester I’m there and then get upgraded to RA. I am very happy with this offer because I get to be home for a little while longer and also go to India for a longer period of time to see family and friends.

Now onto the weekend. Friday, after watching 40 year old virgin with Britta, we head over the party at Charlie’s just to check it out. I ended up staying there for the whole thing, and grooved to the house music that was playing. After that, I ended up going to Murray and hanging out there till 3 am! Doing the Polka with Kelly on 7th Murray around the walkway through the restroom was awesome!?

And finally, the limelight of the weekend. The Presidential Ball 2006. A group of Rugcutters went out to eat prior to the dance at Bennigans, and then head to the dance to find hardly anyone there. So, Kiki and I kicked off the floor and that induced more couples to get on and dance. It was slow starting and I used that time to take a lot of pictures with friends before I got sweaty and gross. I intended to dance with most of my friends and I am happy to say that I accomplished it. The best dances with people not in the dance group were with Angela M, Jessi, Beth and Komal. I had a ton of fun with Angela and Beth because they were natural follows. You have no idea how refreshing that is.

Here are pictures from the Coe College Presidential Ball in the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Started with the low of panicking about graduate school. I can’t believe how stressful this entire experience has been. I wouldn’t have ever expected to be rejected by so many schools. I only have 3 more to go. I am calling them Monday morning to get an update because otherwise I have to start applying to other schools. So, sitting by myself in my room, I hit bottom in several weeks. And then quickly recovered, and went out to eat with Jessi to Kaji Japanese Grill for dinner. We had some good sushi and teriyaki chicken, and also realized too late that their dinner portions were too big for us to finish.. After that, we got back and watched the last three episodes of Related. To end the night, I went to the Coe College Annual Drag Show 2006. One of their main aims is to fund a “Gay? Fine by Me” campaign that started in Duke University. I am surprised no one has posted pictures from the drag show on Facebook. Maybe, I don’t have friends in that group.. Wait, there were a ton of people taking pictures..

Anyway, then came Saturday. Jenn called at 8.30 am!?! That was a half an hour conversation that I don’t remember completely. I talked to my parents as they were trying to reassure me about grad school, and applying to more schools. Nothing out of the ordinary happened till 6.30 pm when the weekend dancing began. I met Amber, one of Tara’s friends, who happened to know how to swing dance exceptionally well. I got to dance with almost everyone and some of them were mighty fun. Cornell College hosted a jazz band called Phat Noise, and there were so many people there. It was crazy! The music beat was incredibly fast and the songs were long. I was wiped out after every dance.. And then, we head to the Top of the Five where we met more of Tara’s friends including Heather. Once there, the pace of dancing mellowed with slower dances. I really enjoyed dancing with all of them, and loved teaching a few things to Heather.. After a late night stop at Perkins, I crashed..

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