Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo courtesy of John Brassner, posted on Engrish.com

Kare

Bos anda-anda sekalian orang apa? Bos saya orang negeri Acha-Acha!

Pagi ini saya mendapat titipan CD darinya. Isinya seputar pekerjaan tentunya. Ketika siang menjelang sore, saya berniat melihat isi CD tersebut. Ketika saya keluarkan CD dari tempatnya, tercium bau bumbu masak.

Rupanya bos saya nge-burn CD sambil masak kare!

Stuck!

Yesterday, I got my heels stuck in a gap on a driveway when a car was coming towards me!! Luckily it was a driveway in front of a hospital lobby so the car wasn't driving very fast. But it honked at me!! Can't you see a girl panicking??!

But unlike The Wedding Planner, no one came to my rescue. It wasn't that dramatic anyway. :P

Relationship

I'm so bad at maintaining relationships... No, I'm not talking about romantic relationship. I'm talking about friendships.

Yesterday, I called one of my long time best friend. We haven't spoken for a while. I like to email, but she likes to text. So when I email, she didn't reply, when she texts, I rarely reply. After a while, I have no desire to write her emails. Same goes for her, she has no desire to text me.

Phone calls are rare. If we do talk on the phone we talk more about another person, who is also our best friend. We were like a group of friends that used to do three-way emails.

So about the phone conversation I mentioned earlier. After a few small talks, we were both at lost for words... I was feeling very awkward, I don't know if she did too but she ended the phone call by saying that she didn't want to interrupt my dinner. (I was in a restaurant for a family gathering, but I was still waiting for other people to come.)

I was reflecting on this little happening in my life this morning and I realize, how I have lost contact with many of my friends, just because we aren't walking in the same path anymore. The separation was mostly a sentimental one. We were saying we'll miss each other and that we'll keep in touch. Then for a while we did keep in touch. Made a few visits. Then reduced to phone calls. Then reduced to just emails. Then... like the story above. Nggak nyambung... (lit: not connected, bad chemistry, etc.)

So, how can people still connect with so many acquaintaces? Do you have a how-to-keep-a-friendship-going kind of article?

Life is Wonderful

by Jason Mraz

It takes a crane to build a crane
It takes two floors to make a story
It takes an egg to make a hen
It takes a hen to make an egg
There is no end to what I'm saying

It takes a thought to make a word
And it takes some words to make an action
It takes some work to make it work
It takes some good to make it hurt
It takes some bad for satisfaction

La la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Al la la la la

It takes a night to make it dawn
And it takes a day to make you yawn brother
And it takes some old to make you young
It takes some cold to know the sun
It takes the one to have the other

And it takes no time to fall in love
But it takes you years to know what love is
It takes some fears to make you trust
It takes those tears to make it rust
It takes the dust to have it polished

Ha la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is so full of
Ah la la la la la la life is so rough
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is our love
Ah la la la la la

It takes some silence to make sound
It takes a loss before you found it
And it takes a road to go nowhere
It takes a toll to make you care
It takes a hole to make a mountain

Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ha la la la la la life is wonderful
Ha la la la la la life is meaningful
Ha la la la la la life is wonderful
Ha la la la la la life it is...so... wonderful
It is so meaningful
It is so wonderful
It is meaningful
It is wonderful
It is meaningful
It goes full circle
Wonderful
Meaningful
Full circle
Wonderful

I have no regrets! (Or may I say, I should have no regrets...)

Hello friends in the US,

so, what does change feel like? Everyone must be full of anticipation over there. Heh... what am I talking about, everyone IS full of anticipation all aroudn the world!

Our local newspaper here put huge Obama picture on the front page. His profile was broadcasted on TV. People talked and still talks about him. I even heard a rumour about a house that he lived in when he was a child in Menteng, Jakarta, that someone offered to buy the house for 150 million rupiah (a really big sum of money in our country) but was rejected.

Okay, enough about the new US president-elect. I was going to talk about change. Deciding to have change for me means going towards the unknown. A really frightening journey. Good change, or we-think-it-is-good change holds great expectation. We start thinking what awesome things we're going to get with the change.

But what if the outcome isn't as good as we'd like it to be? Dissapointment, frustration, and all things that sometimes can make us dwell in the past. We'll start thinking, 'I wish I can go back through time.' Making us unable to enjoy the moment, be it good or bad. And when we've realized that we've drowned in self pity for too long, we have missed so much.

So from now on, the phrase 'I have no regrets' should be our slogan. People make mistakes. From those mistakes, we learn something, unfortunately the hard way. But still, we learn something. The way I see it, change is a good thing. When the change gives positive outcome, good for us. On the contrary, when it gives negative outcomes, be strong to take responsibility for the decisions we've made.

A post written when a nostalgic feeling came up while flipping through pictures of the US.

Mom

On Monday, I had to get to a course I'm taking in my church right after work. That day I didn't drive because mom took the car. The other one was in repair. It was raining hard and so the traffic wasn't smooth at all.

I called mom to make sure she got home already. If that was the case, I was going to head back home first and clean up. Turned out she was also at church, having arisan. Since my route back from the office passed the road close to church, I usually walk to church if time doesn't permit me to go home first. But that day was raining. Wetness wasn't an encouragement to walk even a short distance. So mom said to get off the bus and wait for her under the bus shelter and she would pick me up.

So I wait. A few minutes passed... In my opinion, I have waited too long and I started to get into a bad mood. Finally mom showed up and I got into the car where a box of nasi campur, or rice mixed with meat, was waiting for me. That get my mood into a slightly better turn but not much since the box doesn't contain a spoon or anything for me to start eating!

After a long fight to get through the chaotic traffic, I got off the car with my box of rice with 15 minutes to spare before my course started. I borrowed spoon from the church worker and found a table to eat my dinner. When I sat down, a friend of my mom who was the course committee said to me, "Your mom loves you so much!"

And THAT made me realize how I often took lots of thing for granted. Including having a loving and caring mother....

Mami, thank you ya buat nasi campurnya. I love you!

And also, thank you God for the reminder that You have given me a wonderful mother.

Wake Up!

Get an alarm clock and turn off your cellphone at night! Turns out having a cell phone next to your bed can downgrade our sleeping quality!!

A study conducted at MIT showed that:

exposure to electromagnetic radiation resulted in disturbed sleep patterns, potentially affecting your body's ability to recover from a day of stress. This news is an eye-opening finding for gadget fans who have trouble nodding off at night, especially those who use the alarm clock function on their phones.

I was planning to get a real alarm clock anyway. But this will definitely remind me to get one SOON.