Monday, January 29, 2007

Crushin' on Nathan Fillion


(Laughing), I'm so sad people. Lately, I've been totally crushing on Nathan Fillion. He's this actor in one of my favorite television shows, Firefly and starred in the spin-off movie, Serenity. I received Serenity and the Firefly DVD's late last year and was watching them all over again during my winter break. This is why and where I think the crush has developed (more laughing).

I know, I'm 30, I should grow up. I blame this on my sadly pathetic lack of love life - when one doesn't have anyone in their life, you project onto someone - a dream. In my case, its this actor. Or is this a symtom of stress, financial management has got me all twisted?

In my defense, he is a hottie and Canadian (duh, I always go for non-Americans, see my year-long crush on the guy from South Africa, hey good news I'm over him and we are now friends, yay!!!). Fillion has a wicked sense of humor (from what I've seen in interviews) which is what I love in a guy! Can you believe this hottie - who is older than me! - is not married? The additional funny thing is that I use to watch Fillion when I was in high school- he use to be one of my favorite characters (Joey) on the soap opera, One Life to Live.

ok, I promise to grow up ASAP and act my age, be mature, poised, sophisticated and stop behaving like a 14-year old girl after an N'Sync concert. Thanks for indulging me.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Thank You Kind Souls

I just wanted to give a shout out to EVERYONE, who so kindly sent me birthday wishes and reminded me that turning 30 isn't so bad.

I'm done with the pity party and now onto remembering that I believe everything happens for a reason. I'm here pursuing my MBA, because that is where I am suppose to be. I don't have to be married and have children to be a good or complete person and that I must grab life and LIVE IT, instead of sitting back and whining.

I'm sending all of you wondeful human beings who stopped by to brighten my day positive thoughts and energy, may the happiness and laughter you gave me return to you tenfold - you made a girl in Virginia forgot her woes and relish the good stuff.

THANK YOU!!!

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Happy Birthday to Me!


January 24 - (my Chinese horoscope)
You'll devote much of your time and energy to the task of bringing to a successful conclusion the projects that you have your heart set on, but some unexpected obstacles will slow down their progress and put your patience to the rough test. Also, you'll often be set against yourself, for you will have too much ambition and will forgive yourself no weakness or shortcoming. Try to be less tense and you'll be promptly rewarded, as this year the stars will greatly favor patience and tenacity. Casual encounters may very well end up as profound friendships. These relationships will prove most interesting to you since, apart from their sentimental aspect, a common intellectual research will give your exchanges a non-conventional character that will delight you. Remember that 'friendship doubles joys and reduces sorrows by half' (Francis Bacon).

I'm rather depressed today, have been depressed all week about this event. 30 oh lord! When I was a child I use to think by my 30th birthday I'd be married with two or three kids, have a big house and a wonderfully fabulous husband. Let's see, instead I'm a poor, single, childless, student. Yeah...not exactly the ticket. My entire future is so uncertain, will this MBA pay-off? Will I get a nice paying job? Will I ever find someone to marry me (looking bad in this category, as 30 in Indian culture means I'm basically crap, no worse than crap, crap under crap). Will I ever have children - what if by some miracle I get married but can't have children or run into problems? All these things swirl in my head, making for a pretty shi&#y birthday. Yeah, so happy birthday to me (excuse me while I shuffle to the corner and cry some more).

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Odds and Ends

What - two posts in one week?! Crazy!

There were a couple of things I wanted to blog about so thought I'd do it know and continue to avoid doing my economics homework (smile).

Please head over to my dear Molly Malone's blog - she has addressed a religious question I posed to her, after getting into a bit of a, "discussion" with a Pentacostal chaplain for the US military. Putting into words, what I was feeling, she has eloquently elaborated my spiritual philosphy, despite the fact that this philsophy goes against most major religion's bottom line. Guess I'm more of a rebel than I thought, but again, I reaffirm that the God I worship to is a forgiving, loving God - not a mean, vengeful one. I like the quote Molly placed regarding us humans - from Thomas Merton to God, "I trust my desire to please You, pleases You." In the end, who really knows, no?

I saw John Edwards on Jay Leno the other day - he admited that voting for the Iraq war was wrong. I'm so glad he has finally seen reason - three years too late, but better late than never.

Rumor has it that Prince William is planning on getting married - great just as I lose my flight benefits, sheesh! He needs to give me at least four months notice, so I can buy my air ticket. It has been my life-long vow, that I'm going to be there in London, camping out, for his wedding - just as people did for his parent's nuptials. I wonder if Wills could just wait a year, till I have a job and money for said travel....? Somebody get on that!

If you are thinking of going to the movie's this weekend, I HIGHLY recommend, the Painted Veil. Words can't describe what a lovely, beautiful piece of film-making this movie represents. If the shots of China don't take your breath away, the tragically wondeful story, by Somerset Maugham will have the desired effect.

Right, enough dilly-dallying - must crack that economics book. Joy.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Thank you ABC.com




Dear abc.com,

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Your webcasts of your broadcast television shows are heaven-sent. As a poor graduate student, who can't afford Tivo and has class on Thursday nights, your online streaming video of my absolutely favorite program - Ugly Betty - is much appreciated. After a long week of analyzing Fortune 500 company balance sheets, marketing strategies and globalization techinques, coming home Friday evening, turning on my laptop and curling up with my favorite characters, well... its like sinking into a delicious bubble bath with a hot cup of tea.

For giving an average girl the star treatment, muchos gracias,

- Virginia Gal

ps - congradulations on the two Golden Globe awards, they are much deserved!!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

US Airways - Delta merger PREDICTIONS

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070110/ap_on_bi_ge/delta_us_airways

I saw this story first thing in the morning and had to comment (being the airline junkie that I am). US Airways, now mighty and strong after being saved by AmericaWest, is trying to gobble up Delta. Delta REALLY doesn't want that - they have a big sign on their homepage that is petitioning their customers to "Keep Delta, Delta." Wowzeers. When I first heard about this proposed merger back in autumn, early November, I thought, "eh, it will never go through, Delta is so hostile to the idea." I imagined this idea would die an early death, as so many other seemingly silly ideas have. Yet, here it is again and it doesn't appear so silly.

Having gone through an airline merger, with perhaps one of these players before (I shall leave it to your discretion, good readers to ascertain which airline was Virginia Gal's beloved previous non-descript employer), I feel I have some idea of what will happen if this merger does go through. And I'll be honest, I think there is a strong possibility that this merger will indeed go through, money talks and US Airways is the biggest bidder. I don't think there will be any anti-trust issues as well.

Without further adieu...here are my predictions should Delta and US Airways merge:
  • The company will be based in Phoenix, US Airways CEO Doug Parker is a West guy, he was the head of AmericaWest, his loyalities and clout (read government influence) lie there. This means all the poor dedicated long-time employees of Delta in Atlanta will be personas non-grata's. Sad.
  • Right now Delta has three major hubs in the US - Atlanta, Cinncinati and Salt Lake City. Say good-bye Cinncinati and Salt Lake City, they will be downgraded to minor hubs and eventually puttered out. "why?" you ask - ok here is the lengthy explanation.
  • US Airways has four hubs, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Phildelphia is close enough to Cinncinati and much bigger, with more traffic (re: customers) to boot, hence the departure of Cinncinati's hub status. The one US Airways hub that will get the short end of the stick will be sweet ol' Charlotte - again because of their proximity to Atlanta, no need to have two hubs so close together. Atlanta by virtue of its big city status (particularly in comparision with Charlotte) and as the American gateway for MANY international carriers will remain. Finally on the West Coast, remember Doug Parker is an AmericaWest guy, Salt Lake City is a Delta location, is in the middle of Phoenix and Las Vegas - AmericaWest locations - you do the math. Besides SLC has less traffic than the other two cities.
  • Major labor problems - particularly with the pilots, where seniority plays a large role, aside from the fact that a merger might warrant some lay-offs of certain work groups. That is never a good thing.
  • For the passenger, expect ticket prices to go up, its a simple matter of supply and demand - with less seats on planes, the airlines (all of them) will raise their seat prices.
If this merger does go through and these events do happen, don't forget - you heard it here first!!

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Happy New Year

I am SO sorry this is a week late - but I've been quite bad about getting on the computer, hey it is my winter break (where I become a lazy slug).

Happy New Year to everyone, I do hope 2007 brings whatever it is your heart desires (for me its a great internship and a great guy).

Blessings my friends.