How’s it going? I don’t know about you but January went pretty fast, we’re already approaching February and there’s so much of stuff to do! Has it been a good New Year so far for you guys? I’m just glad I keep meeting my readers online and am able to interact with you. I want to tell you about my new friend Kimberly, so read on!

I love meeting new friends, and sometimes I’d bump into people on Facebook. If you’re not there, you won’t know that I have over a thousand friends. I love you all! You guys are so active in the group or when you see I’ve updated my status. Maybe you’ve faced this as well, but sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all your social network friends. So my friend, Kimberly messaged me and asked me where we had met, so I told her that I write the newsletter for 123Greetings. Then she remembered instantly that she had sent ecards. She’s never seen my newsletter so I told her that I write about my crazy friends. She said that everyone has them, which made me smile, of course.

Would you believe that she had never read my newsletter? Or she doesn’t recall? Well, I told her a little bit about it and gave her the archive link. You know that you can check the archive vault whenever you miss a newsletter right? There are a lot of people out there who read my newsletter but I’ve never heard from you guys. There’s a lot of folks who know me, too who are on Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Friendster, Bebo, and Orkut. Oh, did you know that I’m on Twitter too? For those of you who don’t know what Twitter is, it’s like your Facebook status message update. It’s called ‘microblogging’ – Steve got me into it and usually I post questions there. You might have seen the same questions on my Facebook status. That’s where you’ll get the latest news of me too.

I loved chatting with Kimberly, and we had a great time. I learned that she was a second grade teacher of languages. We talked a bit about kids, that age is a handful! I’m not able to talk to you guys often, I wish I had more time. That’s why we have the Facebook fan page and the fan group. By the way, are you on my fan groups? If not, just write a comment here and I’ll make sure you’re there. I need feedback from you, and I really want to create a community of readers who are also friends on the various social networks. So if you’re not there yet, join me and my friends there. We’ll be there for each other. Even if I can’t answer a question for you, there would be other friends o’mine who can answer it for you. I mean if I had all the answers, I wouldn’t be writing to you with the questions, right? What are your thoughts on this? Click here to comment back!

“The Super Bowl is here!” yelled Rick over the phone. I was still groggy with sleep and his voice sounded like some Anglo-Saxon warrior swearing at his opponent. “I know that Rick,” I said in a calm voice, but realized at the same instant that there was really no point in holding up my sanity for the tirade that is going to come my way. I didn’t even look at my watch, I knew it was too early. “It’ll be the Cardinals against the Steelers!” he said with enthusiasm. “Ya, Rick, everyone knows that,” I tried to hint at him that I really wanted to go back to sleep. I was really pissed off and knew exactly how to dampen his spirits, though I admit, it was really mean of me to think that way. But hey, what do you expect me to do early at 5am in morning, bugged with work and deadlines, with a Super Bowl fan who’s yelling at you?

I told him, “Yeah Rick, pity the Dallas Cowboys lost!” I regretted it the moment I said it. Rick went quiet for an instant, but he took it in his stride well. To the uninitiated, Rick is a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan, a true-blue Texan that he is. The loss hurt him a lot and if I can remember correctly, he swore not to watch the Super Bowl. Then again, the football fan in him couldn’t lay low for long and he started talking about how he’s a fan of the Super Bowl rather than of the teams etc. “I’m sorry Bob I called up too early. I just wanted to tell you that I’m having a party at my place to celebrate the Super Bowl. Everyone will be there and I’m expecting you too!”

I had heard about this party from Megan a few days ago. They zeroed in on him because he has the best bachelor pad. They had made all the arrangements and I didn’t have to be a part of the process. They knew I had too many things to do lately. I think Rick was waiting to tell me because he got to know that I was really busy. “Yeah, I heard about it and am looking forward to it as well!” I said with the best effort to keep my voice even. Super Bowl teams are a touchy topic and I didn’t want to injure his spirit any further. I diverted the topic to other areas. “Would Kaitlin be there?” He seemed to reflect a minute or two. Did I make another blunder? I remembered Kaitlin had asked him for some time when Rick asked her to move in. Did she get back to him already? His voice tore through my thoughts, “Yeah, she’ll be coming. She said she’s going to give me an answer tonight. It’s going to be a great Super Bowl party!” I was holding my breath, I hope Kaitlin doesn’t go back to him with a negative answer. “I’m sure it’ll be Rick!” I said before disconnecting. Friends! We’ll just have to wait and see whether the party is going to be a disaster or not. Stay tuned on my blog and I’ll keep you updated.

With the start of a new Presidency, Adrian and I started discussing the news over a cup of coffee. This is probably the first time he was not talking about Cathy or his movies. Love can really do strange things to people. He was really excited about the times and I had to agree with most of what he was saying. It was also an experience listening to Adrian, of all people, talking about politics! He was about to hold forth on the next burning issue when the doorbell rang. Adrian was so excited about the topic he was speaking about, he kept talking even while he held the door open! Then he turned around and his words vaporized into thin air.

Standing at the door way was Irina. That was not the reason he froze. It was Irina’s dress. She wore a dress identical to the one Michelle Obama was wearing at the Inauguration. She brushed aside his open-mouthed stupor and walked in with a haughty “Whatever!” She perched on the couch and looked at us. Both of us were still stupefied. She had a new hairdo in place and yes, the shoes seemed new too, although I can’t tell which designer she was wearing.

“Were you guys saying something?” she floated the words in a sing-song voice. I recovered first, “What’s the matter with you?” and then let slip the weapon I was waiting with to shock her, “Who’s the guy?” Yes, the trick worked. Her jaws dropped too! Then she smiled and nodded, “Very good, Bob! Ok guys, since you are curious,” she began, (Curious? Us? She walked in to create the curiosity? Adrian looked completely lost with his jaw still hanging and the door still open. Anyway, it was time for us to listen, not argue so I didn’t say a thing.) “I met someone during the Inauguration party that Fred threw. He was a campaigner for Obama and we hit it off really well.” New love! Just what the season demanded. I was interested to know more about this new alliance, but before I could ask, she got a call on her cell phone.

She talked in hushed tones, smiled, picked up her bag, waved it at us and left. All the while, she was talking on the phone. Adrian had not moved from the door all this time. I tell you it was really dramatic and quick! She came, she spoke, she left. But that’s not the point. The point is that Irina has a new love interest. I guess we’ll be meeting him soon!

Eleanor’s grandson, Andrew is sick again. He’s down with an awful cold and his parents are having a tough time to look after him and juggle their professional lives as well. Mike, Eleanor’s son, requested her again to take care of Andrew like she did the last time around when he fell ill. Eleanor promptly replied in the affirmative and Andrew was back with his favorite person.

Frank was also ecstatic about Andrew staying with Eleanor, though he was concerned about the child‘s illness. He’s helping Eleanor take care of Andrew. Kong is a regular visitor there and so am I. He looks a lot fresh now after spending a couple of days with his granny. Of course, time spent at Eleanor’s place never goes unrewarded! Frank and I had her delicious cookies and Kong got his biscuits, Eleanor keeps special ones for him and Rachael’s pup now.

The best day was when Kong went up to Andrew wondering what had happened to the poor chap. They had been great playmates the last time around and Kong was extremely eager to start up that equation again. But Andrew was weak and only smiled at Kong’s attempts to attract his attention. This is very peculiar of Kong. He never even tries to get attract attention of my friends but when it is a kid, Kong puts on his charm hat and does his best to grab eye balls. It worked with Andrew too, but he was a bit distant. Ultimately Kong understood and went and sat next to Andrew. It was a lovely sight to watch the kid pat Kong for his efforts to help him.

You know how Adrian is a huge movie buff right? There’s a ton of movie trivia that he knows. He follows every award show (even the ones I’ve never heard of) and industry news like a hawk. He’s been watching the Golden Globe awards with considerable interest and told me that I have to really go see Slumdog Millionaire. Now he’s really excited that there’s going to be a marathon of award winning movies on AMC for a whole weekend. He’s planning not to get any sleep for 48 hours just to sit up and watch movies. Talk about dedication to one’s craft and perseverance!

That’s not all, he’s been gathering information about the films that are going to be playing. What’s the surprising thing about this is that Cathy’s buying this whole ‘cult of Adrian’ – as I like to call it. She’s helping him research about the movies that are going to be playing – digging up the old reviews and IMDBing the cast etc. Even Cathy knows more about movies than I do now! She’s helping him find out about the stars, the trivia about the set, what happened with the actors, special effects… the whole nine yards. Movies have always been a passion with Adrian. He especially likes the Italian mafia flicks like the Godfather movies. He told me with a lot of excitement that the AMC will celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the cult classic ‘The Godfather Part II’. Needless to say, this is not unusual for Adrian. He stayed up late watching movie marathons before. Celebrating events in his own little way, now he has Cathy to give him company, which I thought was really sweet. This is something that is really admirable in him. He follows his passion with a lot of dedication, no matter what others think of it.

In honor of Adrian’s dedication to the industry he wants to break through, I’m going to use Al Pacino’s quote as this week’s Zen quote: “It’s easy to fool the eye but it’s hard to fool the heart.” Here’s to those folks who win our hearts every time!