stories of some bad ass girl

l blah l theGirl l rants l oldStuff l linkies l

Welcome to my blog.
If you have this url, you're prolly one of the chosen ones.

By reading my blog, you agree to:
Have fun reading it.
Comment only if you must.
Bear with my randomness.
Not be judgemental. Not towards me at least.

• aliens

Boss: "Do you know Aliens live among us? Pay closer attention. They look just like us, but more like.. European looking. How else do you think the invention of microwave, computer chips, and all that come from? It's from them!"
Me: "umm.. ok-aaay.."
Boss: "You think I'm weird, don't you?"
Me: "Yes..?"

---- why do I always have a weird boss to work with? ---

• Making memories: Los Angeles trip

I had a blast. I couldn't thank Allen enough for 'sponsoring' the trip, despite the fact that his original idea was to go to the Caribbean, and of course mbak Endah for letting me stay at her guest house AND not only did she let me invite my friends to her house.. she's also cooking for the party! Kartini was cute too. She made my favorite cooking of hers: Oseng Tempe Pedes! At the party, we ate it like there's tomorrow (while everyone else was enjoying salad, steak, and pasta). Turned out, she freed up Memorial Day weekend to hang out with me. I got to see her on all 3 days and she made sure she did her yoga during the time I was doing something else.

Then there's Bu Soraya who took the bus across town to come see me before I left and gave me two shawls from her previous Hajj in Mecca. Mbak Gari, who's busy prepping for Syeikh's visit tomorrow, made the time to cook dinner for me and Allen. She even packed me pepes ikan to bring back! She's a dearest!

I am blessed. That's for sure.

Allen had just as much fun. I showed him around, took his pictures, drove across town only to get tacos (but it's THE BEST tacos), offered to stop in Hollywood Blvd. so he can take pics with the stars on Walk of Fame -which he declined because it's dirty-, and.. forced him to sit there listening to me speaking Bahasa and Javanese with most of my friends. He got to see his old college friend and reconnected too.

One thing I realize.. as much as I love my friends -who are like family to me- and how much I miss the food there, I don't miss living in LA though. Just like going to Indonesia... I would love to go back and visit... but to live there again? No-thank-you-very-much. I know I have made the right decision to move away from it. Great city, great food, awesome friends, but my time there was over. Time to make more memories here.. :)

• 6 more days to LA trip!

Sunday's BBQ party is on, courtesy of mbak Endah. Gotta love her. Seems like 20 people will show up, not including the kids. Allen's friends will be there too. I know he's excited to see them after 15-20 years. A list of places/restaurants to check out is made already. The excitement is similar to when I'm going to Indonesia. Crazy how I even consider LA 'home'.. well, no, maybe not that crazy.. considering I lived there for the first 11 years of my US life. I pretty much "grew up" there..

Oh, don't I know it.

• 100 grateful days

On May 8 - A dear friend, Cheryl, posted something about looking at the life and its surrounding and if we look closely, we can at least be thankful for one thing each day.

Since then, I've been doing just that, will continue doing so for the next 100 days. Or more.
Life... is beautiful. Always. It's a matter of which angle you look at it from. :)

• my new place!

• Make the time count..

My heart is heavy to hear few dear friends lost their loved ones in the past week. They were either very ill or recently passed away, including a 3 year old son of my new friend Joi. I feel so saddened these terrible news.. As if it's a reminder to make my time count. We always say, "I don’t have enough time." But every moment could be a lifetime. Life happens and forever rushes forward. The present moment is what we have. This is a reminder to love more and love right now, deeply and be present, cherish my loved ones, appreciate them and focus on what matters most... for time never waits for us.

-trias-
-los angeles-

I've always been different growing up. My being the 3rd (middle) child might have added to it too, maybe. You know the old saying about being the middle child often has the sense of not belonging, the feeling of invisibility, which makes them try harder to get the attention from the parents to make them stand out more than the first and last child. They (read: experts and/or old people) even have it called a 'middle child syndrome'. I don't know... But yea, I grew up trying my best to annoy my parents, well, in my defense, I don't think I did it consciously. Compared to my other siblings, I wasn't the most polite child (my oldest sister was), nor the cutest (my youngest sister), and not even the worst (my brother haha!). Well, maybe I'm the second worst, which wasn't anything I should be proud of.

I grew up thinking I could do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. The sky was (and is) my limit. I was a tomboy and a bad kid too (I skipped school a lot during my junior high and finally got caught by my dad and boy did I pay much for it). I always love boys too. I know how to get them just by talking to them. I was (hopefully still is) a Miss Personality. I dated a lot. From one boy to another. I was obnoxiously flirty. My mom had (still has) problems with this "habit" of mine for liking boys so much. I always love English language. I wanted to travel overseas and spoke the universal language to anyone and everyone. I grew up knowing that if I speak English, everyone in this world would understand what I say. Make sense, right? Then I also always wanted to work in an office. I wanted to be a career woman, an independent woman who can afford anything on her own. I wanted to be bigger than the biggest.

Which isn't normal in any Indonesian culture guidebook.

By standards, an Indonesian woman is expected to be a good wife. Period. Oh yes, she can work, she can drive a car, she can play basketball, but at the end of the day, she MUST learn how to and become a good wife. Hey, first off, I'm not saying it's bad, I think it's great that a woman can be a good wife, but COME ON!! We, women, can become much more than that. We can be something bigger than that. Again, it's great to be a good wife, but when it's expected by the society, I think it's ridiculously silly. Human is human, regardless of its gender. We, women, should be allowed to have the same choices and opportunities as men, in any part of the world. Unfortunately, not in my part of the world. So yea, I'm fucked.

Before you punch me in the face for saying so, let me say this.

I tried.
No. Not just tried. I did what was expected of me as an Indonesian woman. Yes yes, I was married and did my best to be a good wife. Actually, I was a great wife. I did my best living my life by Indonesian standards. I was happy, but I turned into a different person who lived under a shadow of the person I was with. Yet, in my head, there's always this big question mark: Now what? Why do I feel lost being in this "happy" marriage? So, when the marriage fell apart, aside from feeling like the biggest failure in the face of the earth, I also felt..... relieved. Not happy, but relieved. For a few who knew me from/before the day I failed my marriage should know how devastated I was . I was broken, pathetic, lost, and pushed to the weakest point of my life. I lived in my own lonely little pathetic world (celibacy was part of it too) for a good one year.

But then I snapped out of it. HUGE thanks to my family and few of my friends who stood by me, helping me going through the worse time of my life. Kar who bought me a TV soon as I moved in to my own studio apartment. Sus who forced me to go get a vibrator to get through the celibacy time. Mel who gave me this silly book, sort of a guide, on how to be a BAD girl. Before I knew it, there I was having a buck fuddy, OK, two. ^-^

I learned my lesson the day I failed my marriage. Following the standard of a society is a good thing, but doesn't necessarily make one happy. Since then, I learned to live my life by whatever makes me happy. Sound selfish? Yes and No. It is a simple way of a person who wants to be happy. It is also my choice to make everyday a good day. To have a great time during miserable time. To be half full instead of half empty. It's my choice to laugh and not cry. To let go of hate and stop worrying so much. I learn to know that nothing, I repeat, NOTHING is a big deal. Because it doesn't matter how big of a problem I have, there's always someone else out there with a bigger problem. That's, my friend, when I know the exact meaning of "count your blessings".

Fast forward: Entering the 4th year of divorce anniversary *grinning*. Here I am. Stronger than ever. Bad ass for life. ^o^
[Monday, April 21, 2008]

Her mom and siblings and niece and nephew, movies, movies, movies, hats, unicorns, to smile and laugh, her friends, a Vinci Code, Mashimaro, manggo, black shirts, Gym, vodka-holic, tom Welling, dark chocolatte cuz its bitter, Korean language, Retro necklaces, Jeong ji-hoon, iPhones, Venice Beach, Nordstrom rack, hot guys with british accents, web design, Ebay, blogging (duh)

Pretentiousness, running (be in on a treadmill or outside), humidity, her left thumb, hypocrites, dangdut, hung-over, white shirts, tight pants, sandwich and salads, cowboy hats, black coffee, slow wifi