Another Victoria's Secrets

I never regretting the quick holiday I took though it meant truancy. I went to Jakarta with my classmates, it was an instant plan, and suddenly I was in Delia's blue Innova car, sat beside Kebo who was driving and talking with Laura, Shirly, Tessa, Jeremy and Erwin. We arrived Jakarta by midday and had lunch soto at Kelapa Gading before took a quick trip at Mal Artha Gading.

After shopped and met Laura's boyfriend, we moved to the next stop, EX Plaza. There, we again had quick trip to the whole building and interiors. After that we came to Senayan City for another quick trip. We had dinner at food court with Mario too before split. The group went back to Bandung that night while I went to Iwan's home to stay over the night.

Mario fetched me again the day after and we killed time at his place Around midnight, Mario dropped me off at Lita's. We girls stayed awake till 5a.m, talked bout stuff happened lately. We discovered some truth and message of those cases. We studied the purpose that lies beneath those, this is our favorite, to discuss things and examine it to the very root.

It was Sunday when Mario met Lita's parents and he took me to MTA to see movie but the ticket was sold out and we ended up combing the mall store to store, window shopped in the whole mall building until Ian came and joined us for some time. After dark, Mario took me back to Lita's and again we discussed things till it was 3a.m – paused with sleep and continued it before and during breakfast.

Lita took me to MTA again and we had some mall-girl time. Ian fetched me in the afternoon and we drove fast to the airport to fetch Livia back from Swiss. I was so excited to see her again. I dunno how many times I did this, I've been to the airport to see her departed for so many times and finally now to see her arrived home.

We reached Bandung near 11p.m because the traffic jam was hard. But I'm glad I did the trip, the whole trip the last 4 days. Cuz I got the lessons and messages from my and my friends' problems and I feel refreshed. Maybe you don't understand this but for me, going to Jakarta for once in a while is really a refreshing thing.

It’s like a curse. Or a gift, I’m not sure.
The thing is I’m always in between. I’m a product of mixed English-Chinese-Bantenese which each has different culture, taste, habit, priority and way of thinking.

And I’m just traveling between Jakarta and Bandung, living in both cities like a wanderer. While I’m in Bandung my soul, heart and focus is in Jakarta and vice versa.

Now I took a test about masculine-feminine brain, and the result is I’m just in the border between two brains. That means I’m good enough to think like a man and do things like a woman. This is a benefit, but it’s confusing though.

I am so COMPLICATED, I knew this since forever. I have girl friends but I like to hang a lot with boys. I have friends in Bandung but Jakarta can always make me wanna come back in every chance I got. I have Chinese offspring friends, native taste and Western thinking.

Gosh it would be a lot easier if you are a true Chinese offspring or pure blonde or very native cuz being in between like me always emerged confuses, hesitations and dilemma. You’d know where your place is while I’m still wandering finding the right place for myself.

Not that I don’t have home or true friends or even lover. I have all those. But I always find difficulties on knowing who I AM, where I have to be, how I am supposed to do, which group I have to inhabit in.

Like now I found this Capoeira kids from Unpar are fun to be with, I fall in love with the acrobats/sport/martial art and all those Brazilian folklore songs. I even learned how to hit the atabaque, the drum special for Capoeira music. It’s like finding the part of you you’d never know you lose but you just love it like it had always been in your blood. But it’s just opposite the world I am in all these times. All the friends I had.

This influence the way I act but my guy just has his own ideals and I’m struck by them. Well maybe I dramatized this a bit but hey if you are me, you’d understand. I have a free soul inside here, wanting to fly happily in the blue sky, try any possibility I could have. But again, the golden cage just caught me here, limiting my moves.

I love my guy, he’s the best. But the things between us are just TOTALLY different. I can adapt, of course I can. But can he? Can he understand all my friends, my habits, my nature character and let me be just the way I am? He says he can, but in fact I’d just struck by the rules again. And those rules are tying me, caged me, though they are made of golden or diamond. It just doesn’t work here, in my head.

Another dilemma, I think God put that little word to go on with me on the day of my creation. Maybe this is the way I’m living my life. Others live in fight, struggling for what they want. Some live in hesitation, hatred, hate, in need of admission, but I live with DIFFICULT CHOICES and DILEMMA.

How about you???

Finally the modeling sessions are over. I am now busy with other stuff: completing projects and take care of my relationship. This isn't easy pals. My boyfriend just told me there's a good book called Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps by Allan and Barbara Pease. Well, if you are in a relationship then you have to read this stuff.

The book tells us all we need to know about our opposite sex. About their nature characters to their sex habits and needs. By knowing these, you can help yourselves in the relationship you are now in. I am still working on the book and the practicing my self but also have so many things to do and much thinking inside of my head.

My best friend is breaking up from her 14-months-relationship and my other best friend is still dunno what she's up to in life. It's actually not my problems but when it comes to a girlfriend, it became her problems too (just read the book I recommended).

While now I am working on a project given by Licky, it's kinda motivate me to keep being in this interior designing world. He's making a new concept of clothes store, talking about candy all over the shop. This is something new and refreshing beside all those distribution store (distro) all over the country and factory outlets in Bandung. I hope I can help Licky and his friends to make this dream come true.

This is fun. I gotta new activity now being a model. Wow!

Don’t think of professional model or something, no. I am just being a model for drawing model classes. Not bad I earn lots of money here though I have to stay still waiting for the students to draw me. This is funny how 20-25 students draw my figure, my face, my gesture. The results were various. Some drew me really good I’m surprised how imaginative these young people are. They are about 3 years younger than me. But some drew me so bad I wanted to mad and laugh but that’s okay cuz the good ones are quite pleasing.

The bad part is that I had to sit in some pose in more than 1 hour. In the first meetings they made it 2x1 hour per class but now it’s the second week, they made it 1x1.5 hours per class so I had to find the most relax pose I had to be in for the next 1.5 hours. If not, I’d get numb in legs or hands and butt.

The funny thing is I can see various persons. There is a girl who always wears orange. She’s like the Orange Girl but not like one in Jostein Gaarder’s novel. She wears orange shirt and orange shoes and orange framed spectacles with orange bag and orange wallet and orange cell phones. The only thing that isn’t orange in her is only blue jeans. But her drawings are good.

The other funny student I notice is a boy with curly hair and odd body figure he looks like a joker in kingdom if he wears joker’s costume. He’s good in drawing but he always put his tongue out while he’s drawing he looks so funny to look at once in a while.

The other students are just ordinary. I can see their characters by their drawings and outfits. This is fun but also boring and made me sleepy. The money is worth it so it’s just okay with me. Haha…

So Bandung has another newcomer in entertainment business. The place called Paris van Java at Jl. Sukajadi. It's an open space with luxury bistros and boutiques which mostly are branches from Jakarta.

The huge stores like Carrefour and Sogo stay in the left side while the new theater with 9 huge studios, Blitz Megaplex, balances the right side. Restaurants and cafes like Javana Bistro, BMC, Oh La La, Zenbu, Red Bean, Hot Shot, Gelato Bar stand in line fencing the area, connecting the Carrefour and Blitz Megaplex buildings. My most favorite resto is Zenbu that serves great Japanese food with elegant minimalist interior but in reasonable price. It's nice to sit outside enjoying the cool night breeze of Bandung, the hanging parking lights and fashionable people who walk along the way.

Basically, the place is awesome though it's not totally open yet. People are coming already and feel satisfied though it's still half made. The concept is new and promising, it's like combining Cilandak Town Square, Dharmawangsa Square and Bandung location, contour and climate. So I guess I have new place to go beside Ciwalk on weekends.

To Jakarta people, this place is highly recommended, especially when it's completely finished. You gotta experience this yourselves!

We all woke up by 6 a.m. the morning after, Oct 26th. We took bath, had breakfast and left Iwan, Lita and Steve at home by 7.30. We had to fit the 6 of us in the Jazz car so we folded the backseats that the baggage became bigger and we put mattresses on it and the 4 of us (Ben, Clemy, me and Mario) sat on it the whole 5 hours trip to Pelabuhan Ratu.

We arrived by 12.30 p.m. and checked in for room 308. The room was family size, 1 king size and 2 single beds with beautiful view to the ocean over the bay. It was really nice. The other families were Uncle Hari’s plus his friends Pak Hari’s and Pak Frans’, so we were all 30 people total.

We had lunch at Uncle Hari’s land half an hour from Bayu Amrta Hotel where we stayed. The guardian prepared us fresh fishes and squids for lunch and it tasted great. After lunch the kids (that means me, Mario, Ben, Clemy, Hizkia, Loren and Angel) went up to the hill and took some pictures there. The view was even greater than the view from the hotel.

The weather was getting hotter so we went a bit higher and found a coffee stall and had some liquid to freshen us. Then the guardian took us even higher up to the hill through rocky and burnt field. It was 4.30 p.m. and it felt like being on top of the world. I swear it felt great being among nature.

When we got back to the hotel it was almost 6 p.m. The kids are playing PS2 and billiard and we killed time at the lobby. The lobby was like big balcony facing the harbor opposite the bay. The wind was fresh and not fishy or sticky. I like the cool night breeze there.

We had dinner at the restaurant and a local girl singer companied us during the feast. I made duet with Aunt Magda then with Clemy singing some songs but I didn’t found any of my fave songs in the list so I didn’t perform solo. Then Mario took me to the bay and we shared some moments together. It was simple yet wonderful. There were also fireworks at the harbor so it completed the romantic nite.

My best friend Lita, her boyfriend Steve and my cousin Iwan came to stay over last Wednesday, Oct 25th. They arrived in Bandung in the morning and came to fetch me at home. We stayed for some minutes before we went to fetch Mario at his home then went for shopping.

We visited all distros in Jl. Sultan Agung. From Soul Artist, Omuniuum, d’loops, Vocuz, Evil and the last one was BlackJack. Each of us but Iwan bought 1 item. I had a grey long shirt with picture of a skull and roses in the front that I wanted from quite a long time. Mario liked an exact the same baby-blue-and-navy-blue-hue jacket with the one I got from Close-Up Planet quiz but we all recommended the other one similar to Heineken label. He finally bought it.

Ester and Boyank couldn’t go anywhere cuz they were working at Paskal Hypersquare so we had lunch there and Iwan finally got a shirt. Now everyone had shopped that day so we could all go home and took bath.

Mario was staying over too so he took his stuff while we were preparing ourselves. He also picked Irma and Yanto up on the way back to my house so it made us 3 couples plus Iwan. Too bad Luppi is still in Hong Kong, Ester was working and Livia is in Swiss. If not, we could make 6 couples of my dear friends.

We headed for Ciwalk and had dinner at Platinum, wore our new clothes and took a tour trip around Ciwalk for Lita. It was getting late and we moved to Congo Café. We had some hot chocolate until 12 a.m. enjoying the beautiful view of Bandung city and playing cards.

It was quite a long time since I stayed over at Lita’s place and it was the second time Lita stayed over at mine. We had chat but not for a very long time, we fell asleep by 2 a.m. (we usually up till 4 a.m. talking about everything needed to discuss)

I really love my friends and I thank God for giving us chance to meet like this. The plan was screwed at first cuz my family was staying over on the time Lita planned to come but in the end it was okay to delay it for 2 days. And it was always been pleasure for me to have friends staying over and gather like that. I’m so grateful that I have such wonderful friends whose all in couples now. So happy for all of us I hope God always bless our relationships all.

My best friend’s 23rd birthday was unexpected. We didn’t make any plan we were just happened to meet in Ciwalk that night on Oct 21st. I was with my man Mario and we met Ian and his gang: Miming, Robby, Mika, Babi, Oky, Tikus and some girls. Then Ester and Boyank came, also Irma and Yanto. We had late dinner at Food Court but it was not really good.

I and Mario met a LOT of our high school friends there, included Dewi and Irma, the girls from Mario’s past. I was a bit jealous but hey he’s with me now so it wasn’t necessary. The girls have their own partners too so why should I be jealous?

My brother and his friends joined us so it made us a big party to sit and relax in Embargo Café. I asked for 20 seats to Abang, the Embargo owner cuz t was kind of difficult at that time, the place was full and we were overloading.

So we were chatting, played cards, meeting old friends. For me, I got pleasure of meeting old pals like Jejenk, Cumin, Audry (whom Ian’s cousin actually), Gama and Helmi. Later Mario said Helmi is still in love with me but I don’t really recall that. They were teacher and student of break dance but in the end the student won the girl’s heart so the situation was a bit absurd. Helmi is a good guy, my former crush before I met Mario, but it was never love between us, it was just a crush.

We took some pictures and suddenly it occurred to me to give Irma a birthday surprise. So I asked Abang whether he had any cake and candle. He promised the cake but instead of cake he borrowed us a bottle of whipped cream. So when the clock hands got close to number 12, I and Mario went inside and Abang gave us the ‘tools’. He opened the backdoor exactly behind Irma’s seat.

I held the tiramisu cake and sang a Happy Birthday while Mario sprayed the whipped cream on Irma’s hair. So it became some chasing game of spraying whipped cream for some minutes before we finally eat the cake. It was delicious and was compliment from Abang.

Well, it wasn’t a perfect birthday party but for a sudden plan it was okay. Actually, it was unforgettable for her. This was her first birthday with boyfriend and whipped cream. We gave Irma her present and hoped it completed her day.

I just joined this Brazilian martial art just today. Luppi wanted to join and she asked me too. So I said yes and we came to the campus by 6 p.m. There we saw people in whites moving like dancing with the rhythm of the drum. It’s just like in Tekken video game, the martial art Eddie using. Or like in other movies I watched, it was beautiful and looked difficult.

I and Luppi then changed clothes and the practice began. They have a unique greeting and always start everything with prayer. They taught us the basic style of caddera and ginga and hole and others. It looked difficult at first but they taught us step by step so it was much easier to follow up.

I start to fall in love with this stuff. You know I joined Tae Kwon Do more than 15 years ago when I was only 7-8. I had to quit becuz we moved to Bandung. And you know that I love dancing. Any form of dancing, from waltz to salsa, from jive to break dance. And I watch any dance movie Hollywood ever produced. It’s just the chance I don’t have all this time to do one.

I hope I can do this for a long term, since this is the only martial art I join and the only active sport I have. I don’t think jogging, aerobic and yoga included to active sports. I mean, the three sports I said was to defeat ourselves. But in capoeira, we do this in solo, duet and in group.

This is fun. Here I get new activity, new knowledge and experience, new people to know and new spirit for life. Btw, “Capoeira” is a lively Brazilian martial art that combines dance, acrobatics and music with fighting techniques. Capoeira is a fun and exciting sport. It is a mixture of body and soul, fighting and dancing, of music instruments and voice requiring the use of mental physical and emotional agility. The emphasis is not on how well you sing or perform but on how much energy you commit to trying.

I told you I have new friend. I can say she’s now one of my closest friends, and to be shortened, she’s my new best friend.

I haven’t known her for too long. I met her at school and suddenly she became my family member (remember the quote that says friends are family we choose?). She blends in well with my blood-family and my best friends too. She has almost the same interests with mine. And now she’s the only live object I look for every time I reach the campus building.

The problem came when I start hear people talking about her. Now that I am close to her I care to hear every word about her. Not that I am looking for rumors but they just seem to find its way onto my ears so I can hear them.

People’s subjection toward her isn’t a good one. Even people around me had warned me becuz our friendship is too sudden and instant. But I tried (and still) to look in the depths. Face and appearance could lie but soul can not. I try to keep cool and not judging anything too soon. I want to know people to their deepest soul so I should not hear the dogs’ bark out there. Not that I am so crazy in love with this new girl and stop listening to the world but the world don’t know her well and so do I. I keep and save all the opinions about her but I try to be not objective about this.

I know now part of her past, not a good or perfect one. I was once like her when I lost my direction in life. All people experience this too, aren’t they? So why judge others when you know nothing about them? I don’t think it’s a wise act to do. And we all deserve to have the same chance to live life, to have friends, to have fun, to express ourselves, to do something wild once in a while, to seek true happiness and meaning of life, to bring out the best in us, to be happy and peace in life.

And remember that there is no such coincidence in life. People come in our way to teach us something. They are whether here to help us or to give us chance to help them. I still have to be careful in steps that I make. I shouldn’t trust anyone too early. I learned this from experiences, especially toward new people I don’t really know (yet). But giving our love thru real actions are way better than standing behind the back talking and give pity to others.

So I’m gonna stand still and keep my friendship with this new girl. I don’t care what people think about her. I’m gonna give her a chance to find her own happiness and for this I think I can offer her my friendship. I did this too before, to one of my best friend, and see what? She isn’t as bad as what people think of her. She can be a good girl when her surroundings support her and I think my new girl now deserves the same chance.

How difficult it is to be a human? How many rules we have to obey in life? I found this kind of difficult to live in my neighborhood. I have some friends who have some issues. Actually everybody have issue, including me. But this time is the peak of all the entire 3.5 years of friendship we have.

My classmates are kind of troubled persons. We have some ridiculous periodical ritual. We tend to inclusive one of us for some time due no reason. This is funny and so childish, but this is us. I’ve had my own time being the inclusive member but I never took it too personal or too much to think about.

Now they are at their peak. I try to be in neutral position because they are all my friends after all. Now I have to think and act maturely. The class has turned into 2 groups. The one don’t like to be talked behind and the other one is the one who always find trouble for herself (of course in every war there’s always 1 person with special intention in each side and people who are in their party are influenced by their thoughts)

So I take one lesson here. That to live in small town like this we have to keep our mouth and not to speak about other people. But it’s kind of hard to hold our passion to gossip or comment. Well, hard doesn’t mean it can not be done. And we have to not putting our nose to neighbor’s cook. It’s like getting involved to people’s problem and it’s so not to be done here.

People are sometimes too busy commenting about others they forget about their own appearance in other’s eyes. They forget to look into themselves in the mirror and this is the bait to another commenting. Well it just looks so hard to live in my neighborhood.

I tried to investigate to the very root of all this weirdness. I bet there are no other classes like ours in any side of the world. When I figured this out, it all came with the ‘wrong’ perception from one of us. She tends to get all things as competition, she has fights uselessly for unimportant things she calls battle field. I mean, it is normal to do our projects the best. But I made my own projects in my best and not to be the best in class. When there’s ambition, anything can rule and evil comes. But she does all the projects with spirit to win the competitions. The result, she disappointed for not becoming number one.

This triggers her ego and this little disappointment has turned over to jealousy and this isn’t healthy, I’ve felt this awkwardness from years ago but I kept it for myself and my best friend. We never confronted her because it’s gonna be useless to tell a wall about its niche in one side. She is a bit stubborn, FYI.

But now she has made some problem with another girl who is frank to tell people and not gonna think twice to confront anyone who messes with her. So then the war begins, the water in the kettle is boiling.

Why being so childish about all this? To smile every time the other is wounded or to talk about other’s without knowing the truth is a very contemptible thing one can do, especially to friends they have known and be together in the same class the last whole 2.5 years.

At first all I did was just smiling when one side complaining about the other. But this can’t take too long, something hotter is coming however. Now we all have to make move and the first side had invited us all to a gathering next week. The other side had told their (I mean, she and her party) grudges to the other side.

I told them that this class is not a battle field or beauty pageant competition. We aren’t rivals, we are all friends. So why not to care more about other’s goodness and care less about their faults. Everyone makes mistakes in their lives, at least once. No people are as holy as God and even saints did sins in their old lives. People have their own issues and they all fight to beat them to be a better person.

So stop exploiting other’s flaws. Check ourselves before try check your neighbor. And put hatred and jealousy and hurt feelings away from us. We wanna make this world a better place to live, not to be more difficult. I think they just have to learn to be mature. And to take note that people are varied from races, religions, characters so with interaction we are all learn to face various kind of people. I hope this class is getting better I’m kind of tired to hear all the grudges every time I meet one of them.

Got too much information in a long day could be quite a burden and tiring. Like a computer that hangs becuz it receives too many orders and tasks (I took this analogy from Mark Haddon’s novel about an autistic boy ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time’. Perhaps we should really learn to study details from autistic, sometimes they can describe about something with excellent precise details).

I passed one such day today (this blog was made on Sept 21, 2006). I followed one yogi-pilates class this morning with Mum and Luppi. Then I came to campus by 10 a.m. for team discussion and my lecturer gave me and Tessa some job.

I got the first nag from Tessa during lunch. This was an issue about a troubled girl in our class. That quite made me upset by what she had said but well it wasn’t my problem anyway. So we continued killing time by checking out photos of ours at Singapore. I ran down for some fresh liquid and met Terry with his problem. I tried to help but the fact was sort of bothering me—though it wasn’t my problem at all.

Time for Tessa to leave and I was alone. But not for too long, cuz I met Luppi and the boys outside. We talked—which were more of listening to repeated Anang-KD’s song ‘Tak Pernah Menyesal’. Then it was 3 p.m. already and I went for my class.

We were dismissed before 5 p.m. and I went online for hot spot at Food Federation in GWM campus building. When it got late I moved to SGS building and finished my Jostein Gaarder’s ‘The Ringmaster’s Daughter’ book. And I waited there till after 6 p.m. when finally Ben came.

But before that I had to figure out another friend’s issue. Not that I buy it but it was kind of overwhelming to know people’s bad stuff all in one day. It was kind of proving that no one in this world worth trusting. Especially new people we met. Best friends and family are different subjects. Yeah I think I got too much information today—though you would say ‘what should you care about it? That’s their problems, not yours!’ But somehow they got passed my ears and delivered to my brain and got processed and kept in a memory file somewhere in this head. Somehow these are new information to be sorted about.

At home Clemy asked me to tell stories, gossips, news, like any hot topic to hear. The freshest story I got today was about the issues. So I went there burst out anything I got today and I just felt so sick after that so I turned on my DVD player and watched some movies to help me feeling better. The result was kind of helping—along with 4 bars of Beng-Beng chocolate of course. But I still had to throw these up to somewhere else. And it’s nowhere but to Mario’s ear. So I called him and blabbing and then I got all this just better. Cuz I finally share ‘the burden’ with someone I trust.

And I dunno why this came today but I guess some good news also coming my way. My dean just messaged me and offered me another referenced job. Well perhaps we call it as a ‘promotion’ in working world. And I said yes and this is good though I dunno yet what should I do for it.

But today I had such day by listening to people’s issues and taking 2 jobs from lecturers which were all new tasks for me to hold. Just enough for today I hope tomorrow everything just gonna be better…

I am overjoyed for the last few days. Not becuz I got new crush but I got new best friend. Well it’s still too early to call her a best friend. We just hang out 2-3 times. But I feel strong connection with her. We have sort of same style, same taste, same hobby but not all.

Perhaps I match with girls in initial L. I have already 3 best friends in initial L. Lely, Livia and Lita, or even my mum Linda. And now it’s Luppi. Perhaps L and V are good together, nice combination like LV of Louis Vuitton? Well I am just blabbing but hey, this is good cuz I’ve never thought I could add new best friend on my list, at least before I leave Bandung town.

Luppi is exactly my twin side, we love Jakarta lifestyle to death but we like living in Bandung for its weather. We don’t really like too-Chinese guys or anyone with blonde-dyed hair and we love Donny ‘Ada Band’ very much. We have a similar body type and we interested in yoga and art and shop and hanging out a lot. And these can lead us to have good friendship in the future.

I am so glad for all the blessings I get everyday, for the friends that are “family that we choose”. Though I am not flooded by wealth or a glamorous lifestyle but everything that happen everyday is such blessings to me. And it’s much better to have friends who love me than stacks of gold in bank. Especially with friends who share the same interest with me. I am so glad I found Luppi at campus. Now I have a company to do yoga and shop and have some cream bath or just talking about girls’ stuff, which is good cuz my other girls are now busy with their own paths.

I am very excited. The latest weekend was extraordinary. First, I joined my class to Muara Angke Wetland Center, Jakarta on Friday morning. We arrived around 10.30 a.m. and took pictures and notes about the site condition. There were swamp and dirty river and very unmanaged buildings.

After some photo sessions of narcisstic people, we got bored and hot, but then a surprise came—in form of a Nicolas Saputra—in flesh! The girls went excited and made a little queue for another photo session. Then the group went to Mangga Dua Square and shopped there before leaving the capital city.

And I separate myself from the gang and took taxi to Mario’s place. We waited till work time ended then went to my cousin Iwan’s place. I continued the night with Iwan played billiard at Golden Green while Mario went to work. I played billiard for 3 hours, that was great, and also Reza joined us after 10 p.m.

Saturday noon, I and Iwan found my schoolmate Luppi’s cousin’s house and took her out to Senayan City. We chat at Starbucks and Mario joined us before it was getting dark and we must go home. By 6.30 p.m. we had already at home preparing Uncle Mike’s birthday celebration. The whole big family was gathered, included Anna’s boyfriend Rio, ka Olin’s boyfriend Reza, my boyfriend Mario and my friend Luppi. This was great. Cuz this was the first time ever we brought up young newcomers. I mean, the next generation had grown up.

Then it was 9 p.m. I, Mario, Ben, mas Benny, ka Iwan and Luppi went to EX Plaza and chilled out at Hard Rock Café. The band was great, they played top 40 songs especially the reggae and hip-hop beats. Then Balawan ‘The Magic Fingers’ performed featuring some DJs. But we didn’t really enjoy it cuz the genre wasn’t really ours.

Time came for us to go home then. We traveled around Jakarta from Kebon Kacang to Cipinang, from Senopati to Kedoya. Well that was tiring but that worth it.

Today I and Ben was fetched by Dad by 8.30 a.m. and we spent some hours at Aunt Magda’s home before had lunch at Blenger Burger. I got another pleasant surprise by meeting Nina and Donny by accident. And then we went back home to Bandung by 3 p.m. and got some rest before 5 p.m. mass at The Cathedral. And so it is, the pleasant weekend of mine after being awfully uncertain and hesitated and confused. Hope tomorrow will go more smoothly than yesterday…

Olga, the little dog pet of ours had gone. She went on September 9, 2006, 3 p.m. by fell down the stairs and died on my dad’s lap. She went when all of the family members are at home and she died peacefully.

This is good, cuz she had suffered such great pains since being attacked by neighbor’s herder then she was dying once about a year ago but she survived and kept alive but now, this is just her time to go. She had made us panicked for some times before she finally went away. She had been shaking and stiffed once in a while and also did last Wednesday midnight. That was the worst she had ever suffered.

But then again she had survived I thought she was actually a cat with nine lives. But I was kidding. Well we guessed she was waiting for my dad to come home (he is working in Jakarta) to go. But it was great cuz we were all in home when she died. So we were all there attended her burial.

The thing is that I can’t stand it when I saw her suffering all the pains. When she was lying helpless holding her pain without any sound she was just taking her breathe deeply and closed her eyes. God how could I stand to see an animal dying helplessly without any ability to tell us what she feels or wants or anything.

That’s why I don’t want to have a pet. I can’t take care of them cuz I’m not a very caring person. And I don’t like to communicate with something that doesn’t speak to me. And dogs don’t speak. We can understand but I don’t think I can. So that’s why I don’t really seem too keen of caring of dogs. Not that I don’t like them, I just don’t like to take care of them and to see them suffer.

So I just wanna say these last words to my late doggie. So long Olga! It was been a great 6 years with you here. And now that you’re gone, we’re all gonna miss you. And I am sorry if ever I did something bad to you. I do hope you doing great in there. (don’t think I’m crazy to talk to a dead animal, I just wanna give her some last words)

We reunited last Friday, for the first time since 4-5 years ago… It began when I met Lely at MSN one day then we promised to meet then the meeting was arranged with Ester and Irma too…

And there were we, the 4 of us, together again at The Atmosphere. We shared stories, latest updates about us. How it was different since the last time we were together. Now we are talking about marriage and future plans when it used to talk about guys and school and dreams.

But not much changing because we are still the same person we were back then. I don’t see the change in me-Ester-Irma, because we meet at least once in 2-3 weeks. But Lely stays the same. She’s still this active woman who doesn’t want to grow up. She’s the eldest among us but she acts the youngest. She was still with her unique language and shouted it out loud, she was still the brownies (browndong-manies) lover and now she’s as unoccupied as me and Ester. Irma is the one who works full-time now.

The meeting was great it officially erased the ‘ex-link’ between me and her. We talked as if the F guy never existed between us but at the same time we discussed about him. Well, I never think this was a problem with me—or with her. He’s just the ‘ex’ word, the past guy. So the group was back into 4.  Plus 1 more L which stand for Lita, in Jakarta. I hope the friendship-sisterhood can last forever, no matter how far or long we are separated.

Ada apa dengan diriku? Rangkaian kata-kata dapat merobek selaput yang melindungi hatiku dan membuatnya hancur berlinangan air mata. Hanya dengan kata-kata. Belum mengalaminya. Seakan dapat kurasakan kepedihan yang dialami seisi dunia dalam satu momentum.

Baru beberapa menit yang lalu aku selesai membaca novel Andrei Aksana, Lelaki Terindah. Dengan kedua tokoh utama pria, kisah cinta terlarang itu menyentuh hatiku dan mempertanyakan keberadaanku. Mengapa menjadi galau hati ini, dan segenap rasa takut menyergap?

Teramat dalam rangkaian kalimat yang dirangkai indah namun kejam itu merasuk ke dalam pikiranku, membuat otakku bekerja dalam kepanikan. Entah mengapa hatiku merintih, kisah itu telah menggores sedikit sampul kotak kecil yang telah kubungkus rapi dan kusimpan jauh di ruang terdalam hatiku agar tak terusik.

Namun yang kubaca hari ini sungguh mengganggu benakku, seolah tiada lagi dunia yang berputar di luar sana. Yang terjadi hanyalah aku di dalam sepi ruangan berdinding 4 itu dan helaian-helaian kertas putih bertinta hitam yang membuatku betah berjam-jam menekuni baris demi baris, halaman demi halamannya.

Kotak kecil bersampul itu kini naik ke permukaan. Dan jutaan pertanyaan yang seharusnya disimpan itu mulai keluar dari penjaranya. Hatiku sakit. Menahannya dalam kegelapan saja sudah melukai jiwa ini. Mengapa pertanyaan-pertanyaan itu harus timbul sekarang? Di mana tak ada makhluk yang dapat menjawabnya, karena aku tak sanggup mempertanyakannya dengan suara?

Dan apa yang terjadi dengan pertanyaan-pertanyaan tanpa jawaban? Mereka terkungkung namun ingin lepas. Tapi ada apa di luar jeruji sana? Kebebasan tidak selalu berarti kebahagiaan. Dan jawaban selalu ada di dalam diri, di dalam inti. Tanpa perlu pergi jauh untuk mencari.

Namun aku belum menemukan, walau sudah berulang kali memaksakan jawaban yang kukarang sendiri. Dapatkah kutemukan jawabannya suatu saat nanti? Ingin kutumpahkan segalanya di sini, agar kau memahamiku. Agar kau dapat meredakan kegelisahan ini, menghalau kegalauan ini, menyembuhkan luka ini. Namun aku tak bisa. Dan kini aku mengundang tanya yang lain. Yang seharusnya tak perlu dibahas agar tak perlu kujawab. Anggap saja ini hanya racauan sejenak akibat menelusuri kisah yang sangat menarik dan menggoda naluri seorang penulis.

Hati ini sakit dan terlukai. Antara keinginan dan kepatuhan. Antara realita, idealisme dan utopia. Antara hak dan kebutuhan. Hak untuk memilih. Kebutuhan untuk bebas. Dan takkan ada yang akan pernah mengerti, karena kita semua terlahir sendirian. Pada akhirnya nanti kita juga mati sendirian. Karena itulah manusia menyimpan bebannya sendirian. Pembagian tidak selalu berarti keringanan. Dan aku sedang belajar untuk menyendiri.

Talk about working, I’ve internship all this summer holiday in Jakarta, in a architecture company named DCM (Denton Corker Marshall) and I’ve seen working life and I’ve been there and I know how boring it is but we all have to do it eventually and I think I’d be so glad to be back to school this week.

I like the working life, I always think of being a career woman but damn how I love to just chat and hang out and do silly things students always do and there are no routines in school life and that’s what made working life so boring. But I’ll get there again next year after graduate. Geez how fast time has passed. One day it was your first day school then the other day it’s your first day working.

But I got a lot this summer. Not only experience and knowledge at work but also holiday and be close to my boyfriend which is a plus becuz we were doing LDR and we lived in a town for a month and it was good and he picked me up after work almost everyday and that what I was always dream of for a relationship, not LDR all the time cuz imagining about something or someone can be boring at some point. And I hate LDR.

So I think I’m so glad the summer is over and the internship is over and the study tour is done and the school is waiting and another chapter begins. I miss my friends but it is okay now I’ve handled my addiction on them. Friends were my ecstasy and it could kill me cuz I have dreams and I have to be able to be on my own cuz my friends stay in their own tracks and I have my own path and I will reach my dreams. So welcome new term, I will let go of the past and live my life to the fullest from now on and not regretting anything anymore.

Things are changing so fast in life sometimes. When you want them to slow down a bit, you are far left behind already and you just have to flow with the beat and then life will lead you into another level in your life and suddenly you are not who you were. You became a different, brand new person and past are dead and friends just come and go and life is about yourself and you are alone in the end.

I dunno how the LIFE works. I’ve had dreams. I’ve given up long time before and I moved on. And suddenly all the things I’ve dreamt of just appear in my life and it’s like some kind of puzzle with a red line connecting between everything that happened in your life. It made sense about a theory of ‘everything happen for a reason’.

Example, I moved to Bandung which I hated most because all of my cool friends were in Jakarta and my whole family is in Jakarta and Bandung is a small town and I was new and they speak Sundanese which I didn’t understand and the Chinese-breed people were so annoying and the natives were keeping distance and I was lost in the middle of nowhere cuz I wasn’t in Chinese nor natives nor blondes side. I’ve no real place where I’d belong to. But when I realized, I met my first love and real friends in Bandung and suddenly the small town became beautiful to me.

And I knew a boy in my elementary school and I liked him so much but he didn’t even notice me and I’ve given up on him long time ago and I moved on and now he suddenly came into my life and became a part of my life and this is weird. God had made this story like Cinderella whom the prince she’d never thought could ever be in love with her.

I dunno how about Cinderella but for me, this is kinda impossible, a dream comes true and I just so afraid that this is only for temporary cuz logical people know that things aren’t come our way that easily and dreams are sometimes just too high to reach and when we finally have it, it would go away and fly like beautiful butterfly or sands in our palm.

They just go cuz nothing is eternal and it’s kind of hard for me to chew it all and swallow it cuz I am a thinker (or a dreamer or an imaginer) and it’s just beyond my logic.

And many other things happened these days so quick and my old dreams are coming true one by one. And I am paced and I just have to race and in race we run with time and decide to lose something to get something bigger or better. And it’s hard to let go of something that you possess and you just have to be brave and get some nerve to do that cuz life goes on and they don’t stop to wait for you and you just have to be realistic that life is short.

Gosh how I’d love to be Peter Pan who never gets old. But so many things in this world I wanna see, try, touch, experience. I wanna travel all around the world. And things aren’t free and you just have to work to earn money.

I went to Singapore 5-12 Aug 2006. It was study tour with 19 people total, included 2 lecturers. I visited many cool places, such as Red Dot Museum, Singapore Art Museum, CHIJMES, China Town, Little India, Orchard Road, Park Mall, NUS campus, Church St. Mary of the Angels, IKEA, The Esplanade and Sentosa Island.

And I went to Ministry of Sound (MOS) in Clarke Quay and also Zouk. The clubs were so cool. The interior, the people (of course, cuz there were so many blondes and also beautiful Asian faces). I like especially the cool breeze they sprayed on us at the dance floor at the Zouk

And I’ve seen great stores and I’ve actually rode on MRT and hey—been abroad by myself! This was my first time going abroad. And I met people, speaking in many languages I don’t understand as Chinese (or Mandarin or Hokkien or anything) and Korean and Japanese and Thai and Malaysian and I dunno what else. Too many languages in my ears but that was okay cuz I was in group so I can communicate well with my surroundings since I got my friends around me. And apparently I was the only fluent-English speaker so they leant on me to communicate with locals or other foreigner.

I like Singapore. Because of the language they use (the English one, not the Chinese or Sing-lish) and because of the safety on going anywhere on your own and because you are free to wear anything and they don’t say you’re a freak and because of the cleanliness (especially the toilet) and because of the road, they are all well-ruled and cars can speed and people are crossing on zebra crosses and because of the great things we can window shop at the stores and because of the technology and its individuality and I dunno what else I should admire from that tiny country.

But I love living in Indonesia. I got all my friends here, my family and my boyfriend. But how about going to a higher level? How about living abroad I’ve always been dreaming of? I don’t live within my friends anymore. Mario taught me to get myself off them. They have got their own ways now. We just need to be in touch sometime and we’ll be okay. I am not actually looking for crowd anymore. I am more into myself, my dreams and my ambition (if there’s any).