My year so far - Chronicles of the Leon

I have nothing to write, but since it has been such a long time since I visited my blog, I felt compelled to write a few lines to reassure myself that I havent turned illiterate. Not just yet.
Last few weeks have been very eventful in terms of the mental turmoil that I have been going through. Weekends have passed pondering over what my next career move should be, or whether I should pursue higher studies. I have spent hours reading up Servlets, EJBs, JSPs and struts. And ofcourse, someone told me that a 5 year experienced techie should be well versed in design patterns as well. So I tortured myself for a few hours learning that . And some UML too. And managed to force myself to attend a couple of interviews at some reputed places. Personally, I felt I did the interviews rather well. But my salary demands have probably not gone down too well because of which I havent really got any decent offers yet. Why would anyone pay me so much when they can get people from smaller companies to do it for much less? It's a lifestyle question, and therefore I cannot compromise on my demands. And so my quest continues.
And then there was wifey's illness that kept me occupied for a week. I think after seeing the kind of service I am capable of, my wife decided to prolong her bed rest by a few more days just to enjoy the privilege of my 5 star service. Anyways, now that she's up (touch wood), I can go back to leading my life.
On the friendship scene, this month has been rather cold. My best buddy has been hopelessly busy even for his own fiancee to get any time from him. So even on those rare weekends when I actually had time to go out for a drink, I couldnt because of lack of company. Last weekend was better though. Managed to guzzle a little with an old friend.
Work wise this new year has been hectic. A new release followed by production support activities is hectic by itself. Add to that some more development tasks for the next release. And since there are separate managers for the two activities, I have easily added a few more inches to my height due to being pulled between the two managers.
On the homefront, bro came back to Bangalore, and stayed with us for 3 weeks. Now that SIL has also moved back to Bangalore, and they have found an apartment, they have shifted out of 1256 . Bro seems to have gotten a really big break this time around. Not that he hadnt already. But this one's even better. Good for him. Looking at his career, it makes me want to pursue higher studies even more. If only I can take a month off work to prepare for my GMAT. And the only way I can get a month off is if i switch jobs, so that I can join the new job a month after i quit this one. But to get a new job, I have to sit and work on my technical funda for about a month. So it all comes back where it started. How do I get that one elusive month of my own life to myself?
Perplexed. Unsure. Confused. But focussed. Yeah. That's me.