A Piece of My Mind

Believe it or not, I was writing this blog not while enjoying chocolate croissant at Starbucks, not while sitting comfortably at the executive lounge in the airport, and surely not while I was taking a break at the driving range, as you might have usually read here.  I was sitting in my bedroom, listening to Opick’s Tombo Ati, for once taking the Five for Fighting and Jamie Cullum off the iTunes playlist.  Call it a rude awakening, but I don’t know why, I just need to listen to something that can actually put an ease into my mind right now, as a million things were racing against each other in it.

I just got home from visiting a friend of mine, he just returned from Singapore, not on holiday, but he was actually undergoing a chemotherapy there for the last three weeks.  It really shocked me when I first heard the news that he was diagnosed to suffer from carcinoma nasopharynx, a tumour that grows in the area between the pharynx and the nose, causing him to have frequent nose bleed and stuffy nose.  But he had already left to Singapore to have further treatment back then, so I hadn’t actually seen how bad it was, and I just thought: well, he’s getting the best treatment that he can get, I’m sure he’ll get better.  But tonight, I had the chance to see him after he underwent the whole treatment, which includes chemotherapy and laser shots.  And I can’t even begin to tell you how much it broke my heart when I saw him opening his house door, as I stepped out of the car.  He has probably lost around ten pounds, he looks darker, and his head was shaved into almost bald.

My friends and I tried not to break into tears, so we had fun laughing and just throwing jokes and sharing smiles, giving him support as he’s returning there next week to have a check up and second phase treatment.  But as I was sitting alone in my room right now, remembering how close he is with his two little sons, how strong his wife is in helping him getting through all of this, and … honestly, I don’t know how he managed to handle all of the high cost of the cancer treatment with a salary of a teacher, while also providing a comfortable life for his two sons and his wife.  Surviving life for himself and his family.  Being strong as a cancer patient, but also being brave as a father and a husband.

While I was usually still thinking about how I can’t afford a new pair of Jimmy Choos.

Sometimes it does take another life to make us realize how precious our life is right now.  Sometimes we never think about how valuable something is until we actually lose it.  And most of the time, we never appreciate what we have right now until we can no longer have it.

Maman, my heart and my prayers are always with you.  Thank you for teaching me a lot about life while you’re still trying to survive your own.

When people find out that I’m originally from Medan, they automatically assume that I’m a Batak, but I’m actually a natural born Melayu, pure-breed Medan girl with a Malay father and a Batak mother.  It’s quite a unique combination really: Melayu people are calm, delicate, very strict when it comes to raising their daughters, holds their tradition of “salam junjung” or “cium tangan” very highly, proud especially with their royal title, religious, and I should say very spoiled therefore most Melayu people are lack of initiatives, while Batak people are straight to the point, harsh, discipline, works hard, very close with fellow Batak, and very independent.  Contradictive, right? 

I was raised in a very strict Melayu way: highly mannered that I almost felt like a debutant, absolutely spoiled, speak only when it means something, “salam junjung” at all time, sit like a princess all the time, absolutely picky when it comes to choosing friends (I know this might sound very arrogant, but my parents did screen my friends when I grew up) and I wasn’t even allowed to leave the house unless it’s for school matters until I was in high school (asli dipingit abiss!!).  But not wanting me to be a spoiled, Melayu girl who’s just waiting to marry rich men when I reach adulthood, my parents also introduced a lot of awesome Batak side to my upbringing: discipline, highly concerned about education, tolerance, and independence.  And when I was finally allowed to study far far away from home, I did learn a lot of self-reliance, independence, and get a grasp of liberal thinking whilst maintaining my thick Melayu traditions (one of the toughest jobs in the world!).

Being a natural born Melayu is not easy: there are rules to follow, and I do have to keep a certain manner that portrays my Malayness, a lot of family to “salam junjung” to, and I also constantly have to stand up to the prejudice that every Melayu girl is spoiled and can’t do anything.  But I can say that I’m very lucky that I continue to have a taste of both traditions, making me the way that I am now.

So tonight, when I was choosing lace for the kebaya with Fenny, Rina, and Rini, and the Batak girls were saying: “Halah Ka, kuning lagi, Melayu kali pun kau,” I could answer with a big smile on my face, “Memang aku orang Melayu!”

Although acquiring its world-wide fame through Jim Carrey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss was already a household name in North America through two of his most read books: Green Eggs and Ham, and of course Oh, The Places You’ll Go.  I was a Tintin-raised kid, so I didn’t actually know about these books until high school, when Brenda, my classmate, delivered her valedictorian speech at our graduation: she actually read us Oh, The Places You’ll Go, reminding us of the journey to be taken and the challenges to be conquered ahead of us.

In making decisions in life, to leave or not to leave, to do one thing or another, to choose one thing above the other, we are often perplexed by the variety of the choices itself.  Yes, I’ve visited many places, done a thousand things, and bumps into a million things in the process, but still the thought of doing something new is haunting me.   There’s just this fear that keeps putting a halt on my steps.  And in the times like these that I usually look for comfort in a friend, the one who’ll give me support and even push me further.  But this time, don’t know why, the wisdom of Dr. Seuss just put a smile across my face, making me believe that no matter where I’ll go, I can do it as long as I believe in it.

Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss:

Congratulations!  Today is your day.  You’re off to Great Places!  You’re off and away!  You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself  any direction you choose.  You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.  And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.  You’ll look up and down streets.  Look ‘em over with care.  About some you will say, "I don’t choose to go there."  With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.  And you may not find any you’ll want to go down.  In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there in the wide open air.  Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.  And when things start to happen, don’t worry.  Don’t stew.  Just go right along.  You’ll start happening too.

OH!  THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!  You’ll be on your way up!  You’ll be seeing great sights!  You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.  You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.  You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.  Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.  Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.  Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true and Hang-ups can happen to you.  You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch.  And your gang will fly on.  You’ll be left in a Lurch.  You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump.  And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.  And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun.  Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.  Some windows are lighted.  But mostly they’re darked.  A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!  Do you dare to stay out?  Do you dare to go in?  How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?  Or go around back and sneak in from behind?  Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.  The Waiting Place …

…for people just waiting.  Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or a No or waiting for their hair to grow.  Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.  Everyone is just waiting.

NO!  That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying.  You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing.  With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high!  Ready for anything under the sky.  Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!  There are points to be scored.  there are games to be won.  And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.  Fame!  You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too.  Games you can’t win ’cause you’ll play against you.  All Alone!  Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.  There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.  But on you will go though the weather be foul On you will go though your enemies prowl On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike and I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.  You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know.  You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go.  So be sure when you step.  Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.  Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.  And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?  Yes! You will, indeed!  (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)  KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So… be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!  Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.  So…get on your way!

My life this whole week was extremely hectic; I’m a bit amazed at myself that I still have the time to breathe in the midst of this whole thing.  Everything is going on at full speed in my life right now, in all senses imaginable.

The social life was drowning my energy: from hangouts to salsas, party to chill outs.  The professional life was eating the life out of me: the meetings, the customers’ problem, the analysis, the new position.  Not to mention my social responsibility: I’m truly juggling my already-limited spare time between training the university students who are going abroad on youth exchange and supervising the selection of high school students for the AFS program.  I’m actually winding down right now, sitting here in the quiet classroom, overseeing the candidates taking their exam.  Probably the only quiet time that I have for myself this whole week, because a million other agenda have been waiting after this.

It’s the quiet time like this that anybody needs sometimes, just to let our mind wonder without any distraction, rethinking and refiguring everything that has been going on in our life, actually reflecting on our past decisions and predicting our future outcomes.  But as I’m doing what I’d call a mind yoga right now, I’m also forced to readdress all the questions that I have avoided answering, all the problems that I have tried to look past without really solving them.

And it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world, you know, having the predicaments shoved into my face instead of having the world handed to me in a sliver platter.  Again, being the egocentric, self-centered woman that I am, I chose to dwell in these problems by myself, refusing to rely onto others, as I have said to one of my friends: “I prefer to share joys and laughter, than problems and sorrow.”

As the clock is ticking and the horizon is turning orange, I still haven’t found the ultimate answers to all of those questions, including the ones coming from all of you.  I have said before in my previous column: the heart wants what the heart wants.  And honestly, I don’t know what my heart wants.

The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experienced it, and that the recurrence itself recurs as infinitum!  - The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

There’s something so hypnotizing about watching cars go by, I don’t know what it is, but it just is.  I can’t even explain the feeling, but you just sit there, looking out of the window, and let your eyes watching one car after another, while a million things running in your mind, just like those cars.  Like one afternoon, my friend Aning and I were working on our final report at the head office, in the meeting room with full glass window on one side, facing the busy Gatot Subroto freeway in Jakarta.  Bored and senseless after discussing about correspondent banks and financial market all day, we just started pulling our chairs closer to the glass window, watching the traffic, car after car driving by.  Doing silly things like counting how many Toyotas and Mercedes were passing by, or guessing which bus went to which route, to what people were probably doing in those cars, you know, just mindless stuff.  And yet, we were talking and talking, giggling and laughing … just laughing freely like we were just kids.

I can recall many moments when those red tail lights were flashing by the streets while anything from problems to memories were also flashing like a slideshow in my empty yet tired mind.  Like the time I was in a taxi on a way from the airport to the hotel, passing the busy Thamrin and Sudirman streets, hypnotized by the traffic around me, while trying to answer so many questions, from “how long this ride was gonna take” to “is this just another futile moments or am I taking the ride of my life.”  Weird, meaningless, ridiculous, I know, but I can’t help but keep playing those questions in my mind, once I became sublimed with the ongoing traffic.

Tonight, I’m sitting in a café at a mall, with three friends of mine, on another hangout-after-office kind of thing.  In between their laughs, don’t ask me why, I just started looking away through the glass window, letting my mind taken away by the cars driving by, letting those red tail lights hypnotized me just like a pendulum would.  Feeling like this world around me was just being sucked out of me, and it’s just quiet, serene, like me being in a bubble separated physically and mentally from those around me.  Just me, the cars, and the traffic.  I haven’t read this Milan Kundra’s book yet, but I think this is what we should call the unbearable lightness of being: this hollow mind, this thirsty soul, and this weak body, making me feel so high and light that my presence and existence could evaporate without any people realizing, taken away by shadows and dusts.  As the music at the café became the bittersweet symphony of my life, and the cars driving by became the slideshow of my subsistence.

Have you ever been among the liveliest crowd but feel like you’re alone? 

Just got home from another hang out with Fence and Ayu, guest starring Gilang and Yudha, and don’t know why, I know it’s already some time past eleven, but I just didn’t feel like sleeping yet.  If it hadn’t been a school night (yeah I know I’m not in school anymore, but I don’t know any other way to describe Monday to Friday, work night just sounds so lame hahaha), I would have already started a DVD marathon and known for sure that I would fall asleep in the middle.  So I decided to pick my “drug of choice” when it comes to “sleeping pills”: Friends.  Not friends as in friends, but Friends as in Joey, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, and Chandler.  I remembered many insomniac nights while I was still living alone in Jakarta, when I just put on a Friends DVD and I would take a trip to dreamland after an episode or two, waking up the next morning with the DVD still running.

Anyway, tonight, I just grabbed a Friends disc randomly from the rack, and put it on.  And it turned out to be one of my favorite episodes: The One with Frank, Jr. (well, call me a fanatic for actually knowing the title of the episode, because I am a self-confessed die-hard fan of the series hahahaha).  It’s the episode where the gang was hanging out at Central Perk and then started talking about their own freebie list.  Started from Rachel mentioning names from George Clooney to Harrison Ford, and then ended up with Ross – being the geeky – laminating his own freebie list, actually printing the list of names from Winona Ryder to Susan Sarandon.

Any non-fan of the series is surely wondering what this freebie list actually is, but I’m telling you, guys and girls, you definitely need to come up with a list of your own.  Freebie is a list of 5 people you’re allowed to sleep with and your spouse – let it be the husband, wife, girlfriend, or boyfriend – can’t get mad at you.  As this is the ultimate list which supersedes any rules about cheating, you really really need to think this through before putting any name on the list; after all, you only got five choices, right?  Ross, for example, dumped Isabella Rosselini from his first draft of list (imagine, this guy has drafts!), thinking that she’s too international anyway so there’s no chance that he’s gonna bump into him, replacing her with a more local celebrity namely Winona Ryder, only to find out later that he actually bumped into Isabella at Central Perk, who would have thought?

I’m not gonna be like Ross who thoroughly examined the probability of meeting his freebie list based on geographical situation, I’m just gonna make my freebie list like these boys are actually my next door neighbor hahaha.  As you can see in the picture above, my freebie list is none other than Eric Bana (totally fell in love with him in Troy), Brad Pitt (always has been my eternal crush), Antonio Sabato, Jr. (look at his picture on the Calvin Klein billboard at Times Square and you’ll know what I mean), Hugh Jackman (I’ve always had a soft spot for Australian hottie), and last but definitely not least Jude Law (need I say more?). 

So, who’s on your freebie?

I first came familiar with the term through a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.  So, there I was, doing my school shopping for the summer at J.C. Penney, you know the whole shorts-t-shirts-tank top fiasco, and as I was walking around, I saw this guy, typical high school All-American quarterback (Confession: it wasn’t the t-shirt that actually got my attention, but it was the fact that he’s a typical All-American quarterback, need I say more?  Hahaha), and he was wearing a white t-shirts with a picture of Calvin nearly puking from being drunk and Hobbes standing next to him, with a cartoon bubble on top saying: “Friends don’t let friends beer goggle.”

I suddenly remembered the t-shirts the other day, so I googled  it to find out if it’s available on e-Bay, and guess what I came across: a website called The Art of Drinking and Being Drunk … I just gotta say it’s hilariously amazing what we people put on the Net these days!  Anyway, one of the sections was called the Lexicon of Drinking, explaining the meaning of many words from bait-and-switch, blow chunks, to whiskey dick (don’t ask me what they mean, just check out that website if you want to find out).  Well, wanting to find out how they would define beer goggle, I scrolled down and found this definition: beer goggling describes a phenomenon that occurs when one consumes enough alcohol to alter one’s perception of beauty, taste, and aesthetics. Complete boors turn into wonders of poetry and grace. Screeching shrews seem elflike and lovely. Otherwise reasonable men begin buying drinks for women that make Ricki Lake look like Marilyn Monroe. The inspiration behind the popular U.S./Budweiser tee shirt, "Friends Don’t Let Friends Beer Goggle."  Wow, I didn’t even know that Budweiser made such a shirt!

Anyway, a beer-goggling type situation hit me last week.  I was at home, packing my suitcase to leave on business the next day, it was probably around 9 in the evening, not really sure, when suddenly my mobile rang and it was Ayu (frequent readers of this blog should know by now that she’s one of genk bitchy), saying:  “Ka, seriously, this is a major fuck up.  You gotta come here and save us.  This is an emergency, I repeat, this is a huge emergency!”  And I was like: “What?!”  And she sounded so panicked: “Poppy is drunk, Ka … she ordered anything from Jack D to illusions to God-knows-what.  And she’s now puking in the toilet … she’s really wasted, Ka, you have to come here.”  Honestly, I was still processing the information in my brain: “Um, Yu, come again, where are you now?”  “At Retro.”  Haa?  She’s got to be kidding me!  “What the hell were you doing at Retro?!”  “You know Alik, right?  So we were hanging out after class, and the three of us decided to come here just to chill, you know, but then Alik gotta go to take care of his business, so he left us here, and I don’t know what got into her, but Poppy just started ordering drinks … and now I don’t know what to do, Ka …”   I thought, what the hell?  “Can’t you like get out and go somewhere?”  Ayu then said: “I can’t!  Alik drove us here and now we’re stranded.”  I was starting to really panicked then.  This was so not right.  Why the hell did this have to happen on the night before I left?

“I can’t drive, Yu!  How am I supposed to get you out of there?”  Damn, this was exactly why I should have learnt how to drive!  And I couldn’t really wake up my brother to drive me to Retro in the middle of the night to save a drunken friend (it’s gonna take a million dollars worth of bribe to keep his mouth shut!).  “Tell you what, you just stop her from drinking now, get her to the toilet and wash her face or something … I’ll figure out how to get you guys out of there … Aku mo ngomong ma dia, mana dia?”  And this really nasty headache started hitting me when I heard her mumbling voice: “Helloo … who’s this?”  “Ika.”  “Who?”  “Ika!”  I was screaming to beat the loud DJ in the background.  “Eh Ka, ngapain lo di rumah?  Sini lo … asek neh … sini lo cepetan …”  Oh my God, she was really drunk!  “Yu, I’m telling you, just stop her from drinking now!”  “I can’t Ka, anak ini degil kali.  She just kept chugging it down!  What am I supposed to do?  Ka, please, please, I’m begging you, come here.  Kayaknya dia lagi ada masalah gawat Ka makanya jadi kayak gini.  So please please come here.” 

Okay, I gotta think and I gotta think quick.  I needed to find someone to drive me there and save them without asking a dozen questions or causing me to be grounded for the rest of my life.  So as I was scrolling the contacts on my mobile phone, a name came to mind.  “Eh Yu, do you mind if I call Arif to drive me there and get you guys?”  FYI, Arif is a fellow banker and friend of us.  “Ha?  Arif?  Ah gile lo!  Ntar orang kantor tau smua, mati kita!”  “Lah, jadi elo maunya gimana?  Gw jamin d, Arif ga bakal crita ma sapa-sapa.  Yang jelas gw ga bisa biarin lo berdua kebodohan di Retro, I need to get you out of there and I need to get you out of there now, before anything happened to you two!  Udah d, gw telpon Arif sekarang, lo tenangin aja si Poppy dulu.” 

I was very much aware that Poppy a.k.a Fence (now there’s a familiar name to this blog, if you’re wondering who I was talking about) is going to kill me (possibly torture me to death) if she finds out that I was telling this drinking madness to anybody outside of genk bitchy, but hey, a friend gotta do what a friend gotta do.  So I called Arif, believing that he’s totally trust-worthy … and about Fence being furiously mad at me later, oh well, I’ll just think about it later when this whole thing was over.  So I called Arif.  “Rif, lagi di mana lo?”  “Di kos Ka, napa?”  “Rif, I have this huge favor to ask you, but promise don’t tell anyone, okay?  Fence is at Retro right now with her friend, and she’s really drunk, I don’t know ya pokoknya dia lagi ada masalah gitu deh, jadi sekarang udah terlanjur mabok di Retro, n temennya itu sekarang ketakutan sendiri karena Fence udah muntah-muntah segala macem.”  “Ah serius lo Ka?”  “Serius gw.  Aduh Rif, gw dah pusing banget nih, pokoknya kita harus kesana nolongin mereka … Rif, gw minta tolong banget nih, lo mau ga bareng gw kesana nyamperin mereka?  Pokoknya mereka harus kita keluarin dari sana d.”  I didn’t even think about packing anymore, and as for explaining to my parents why Arif would pick me up in the middle of a Tuesday night, I was just gonna say that Fence had an accident and Arif and I just gotta go and get her.  “Ya udah, Ka, gw ganti baju dulu ya, ntar gw samperin.  Tapi gw ga hafal nih jalan ke rumah lo, ntar kita telpon-telponan d.”  Okay, one thing solved.

I called Ayu again.  “Eh Yu, udah beres, Arif bentar lagi jemput gw trus kita ke situ nyamperin lo berdua …”  “Ha?  Lo jadi nelpon Arif?” Ayu sounded shocked.  “Ya iya la, ntar terserah d kalo si Poppy mo marah ma gw ato gimana, yang jelas gw harus selamatin lo berdua sekarang.  Tapi tunggu ya, si Arif baru mo brangkat nih.  Dia masih minum ga?”  “Nah itu dia Ka, anak ini ga bisa disuruh brenti … ah pokoknya udah ga sadar d, barusan dia mesen lagi.”  Halah, pusing gw pusing!  Arif did really need to speed up!  “Ah, ga ngerti d gw gimana cara lo, tarik kek tangannya, pokoknya ga usah dikasi minum lagi, ntar makin parah, oke?  Ya udah lo sabar2 aja di situ dulu, I’ll be right there in no time.”

I got up and just sat there, wondering what to do in the mean time.  As for the messy suitcase lying on my bedroom floor … aaagh!!!  So I messaged Fence, terserah dia d mo bacanya kapan, but the most important thing was getting my message across: “Fen, baca ini kalo lo udah sober ya, maafin gw ya karena crita-cirta masalah ini ke Arif, yang gw pikirin cuma minta bantuan dia buat nolongin elo.  Sekarang udah d, stop drinking, pulang ya.  Apapun masalahnya bisa kita omongin besok kalo lo udah tenang.  Jangan gila-gilaan kayak gini.  Minta tolong kawanmu ini ya Fen, gw ga tenang ninggalin lo ke Jakarta kalo lo masih kayak gini.”

And as I was getting up to change – well, Arif could be here any second now – Ayu called me again.  “Ka, udah ga usah minta tolong Arif, temen kita udah di sini kok, ini udah di jalan mo ke Grand Angkasa …”  Wait, wait, said what?!  “Ha, ngapain lagi kelen ke Grand Angkasa?!”  “Ka, ga mungkin la aku bawa si Poppy ke rumahnya kayak gini, jadi mau kutidurkan dulu dia di sini sebentar, ntar kalo udah mendingan baru kuanter ke rumahnya,” Ayu argued.  “Eh udah d, ga usah kmana-mana lagi, sekarang langsung kau bawa dia ke rumahnya, kalo takut keliatan nyokapnya, kau telpon la si Imam, suruh dia yang bukain pintu!  Kau bawa ke kamarnya, kau mandiin kek apa kek, trus tidurin trus kau pulang.  Masalah besok kalo dia jadinya ga masuk kantor gampang la ntar aku ngomong ma Pak Edie bilang dia sakit.”

“Hahahahaahahahaah!!”  I was like, what?  Napa tiba-tiba anak ini ketawa kayak kesetanan?  “Eh Ka, kau tu bodo ato baek sih?”  Haa?  I was even more confused now.  “Maksudnya?”  “Aduh Ika, ini boongan Ika, kita berdua tuh ngerjain kau.”  The logic still haven’t kicked in.  “Ha?  Masih ga ngerti aku.”  “Ini boongan, bodo.  Si Poppy ga mabok, kita ga lagi di Retro, cuma pengen ngerjain kau aja, karena kau kurang ajar ga sopan besok ninggalin kami ke Jakarta.”  Halah, halah, memang dua anak ini kurang kerjaan kali, gw aja udah jantungan!  “Eh ga sopan kelen berdua ya!  GA SOPAN!  KURANG AJAR!! GA SOPAN!!”  “Halllo …,” and it was Fence’s voice, alive and well, no hint of drunkenness whatsoever.  “Ketipu ya? Hahahahahaha!”  “Eh ga sopan kau ya, aku udah ga jadi ngepak gara2 kalian!  Liat la kapan2 lagi aku ga percaya!”  And she’s still laughing her ass off.  “Lulus kau Ka, lulus!”  “Hah?  Lulus apa pula lagi ini?”  “Lulus ujian pertemanan kau!  Hahahaha!  Memang kau setia kawan kali.  Ga salah kami milih kawan!”  God!!!  Like there’s such a thing as friendship test, cembetol aja!   

A few giggles and a lot of maki-makian later, we closed up the phone conversation.  It’s already midnite, I haven’t packed, and shit, yeah right it’s true that friends don’t let friends beer goggle, but friends shouldn’t also let friends not ready to leave because of some stupid prank! Lulus ujian sih lulus ujian, mana sertifikatnya? Hahahaha.

Anyway, I know now what I should have gotten Fench and Ayu from Jakarta: that very damn t-shirt of Calvin and Hobbes, only with their faces in it!

I opened my sleepy eyes as my consciousness started to kick in, and glanced at the mobile phone, the analog clock showed that it’s eight o’clock … wait let me get that again, 8 PM?  I exhaled and reached for the remote, watching Brian Cox and Scarlett Johansson half-heartedly on Match Point as I checked the messages on my mobile.  Some messages from 222, with the same number on the reference, meaning a friend of mine had been trying to reach me but the connection just didn’t work.  Then more messages with basically the same message: “Ka, where are you?”

Didn’t feel the need to respond to the messages quickly, I pulled the blanket away and got up from my comfortable bed, it’s raining really hard outside and it’s really really freezing cold so I needed to change my camisole and boxer into something warmer, and an intro of Belong from Lenny Kravitz was playing softly from the 6600. 

                “Hellooo …,”  a familiar voice greeted me.

                “Hellooo …,” I smiled.

                “Hey, where are you?  I’m around your place right now, my husband is checking out one of his patients and I’m with him.”

                “Um, at home.”

                “Heeh?  Could you please repeat?”

                “At home,” I answered again, chuckling a little bit.

                “Haa?  You?  At home?  On a Saturday night?  Give me a break, that is so not you.  What the hell are you doing at home??”

                I laughed.  “Well, believe it or not, I just got up.”

                “Haa?  Aduh makin aneh ni anak.  Didn’t you have an AFS thing this morning or something like that?”

                I took off the camisole and reached for my signature homey bedroomey t-shirts as I answered, “Yeah, just some campaigns at some schools, and then I went home and took a nap … didn’t get up until just now.”

                She still had this sound of disbelief in her voice.  “And then? God, it’s so not genk bitchy to be at home at this hour!  You’re not planning to go out?”

                “Umm, not really, not in the mood.  Lagi patah hati nih gw Des,” I sat on the bed.

                “Haa?  Halah, males banget gw dengernya!”

                And then I laughed.  “Hahaha, never mind.  I’m just saying things.  What are you up to tonight?”

                “Probably hanging out at Pagaruyung with my family.  Hey, my husband is here, so I call you back later, kay?  Wake up, Ka, wake up!”         

“Hehehe, okay, bye.  Say hi to Bang Riza.”

                I was about to take off the contact lenses when Belong was playing again.  It was another friend of mine.
                “Hello, Ka.  Where at?”

                I was honestly curious at his respond to my answer: “Home, Bud.”

                “Haa?” he was laughing in disbelief.  “Seriously?  At home?”

                “Heheehe, yes, you heard right.”

                “Didn’t feel like going out?”

                “So not me, right?  Where are you?”

                “Baru balik nonton.”

                “Ciee nonton.”

                “Hehehe.  Yeah, and I just thought what you’re doing, so I called.  This is usually your socialite hours, right?  Kalo aku sih malah nonton yang gak biasa, biasanya nongkrong di rumah.”

                “Yes, anyway my Saturday night tonight is very contradictive to the one last week.  Have fun go mad versus go rest hahaha.”

                He laughed.  “Ya udah deh, aku nggak mau ganggu rest-nya.  Bye.”

                “Bye.”

I put the mobile phone on silent mode and just put it down on the bed, grabbed the remote and turned up the volume of the TV.  The British dialogues on the movie were starting to weary me, so I got up and reached the laptop.  Didn’t actually know what to do, when a message popped on the mobile phone … from the senior manager at the head office, asking how far I got on this new customer that I’m supposed to be analyzing.  Oh well, I might as well continue that thing … I know, I know, you’re probably screaming in shock right now if you’re reading this:  “Haa?  Ika?  Working?  On a Saturday night?”  Well, now you know, this is just how pathetic my life got right now.  I remembered laughing to Yan just a couple of months ago, when he sent me a message at 2 AM, get that, 2 fucking AM, and I’m still at the office.”  I guess he’s the one who’s gonna be laughing his ass off when he reads this.

Anyway, I sat on the bed, Match Point was still playing on the DVD, and I turned on the laptop, plugged in the flash disk, and yes, you did read this correctly, I started reading through the new loan proposal, filling in where I had previously left off … then I thought, for the love of God, I can’t be doing this on a damn Saturday night, I really needed to go out, for the sake of my mental health!  If only I could drive … seriously, if only I could drive, I would have grabbed the car keys and drove aimlessly around town right now.  Malu banget ga sih seorang gw ga bisa nyetir? 

So I plugged the headphone and turned on the iTunes, and just started listening to the ever-soothing-yet-soul-grabbing voice of Damien Rice.  And so it is, just like you said it would be, life goes easy on me, most of the time.  Most of the time, but just not tonight.  Because then a million things started playing in my mind: the work, the life, the relationship, the friendship, the whole question about the meaning of my mere existence.  I so hated having a hyperactive mind right now.  Why is it that on the night that I just wanted to relax and kick back did my mind start throwing me all of these unanswered questions?  As if 6 days of constantly thinking things are not enough.  If only our mind and our heart have a switch, that I can flip on and off anytime I want.

Another message popped on my inbox, from one of my best friends, saying: “Iks, I’m gonna talk the problem over with him tonight.  Wish me luck, babe.”  And I replied: “Good night, and good luck.”  Oh well, I should probably say the same thing to myself.

It’s exactly 6.12 in the evening, I’m listening to Alanis Morissette on the PDA, sitting somewhat comfortably on the blue reclining seat, with a glass of water in front of me … and guess where I am: on the plane. Yes, you heard right, I’m on the 6 o’clock flight to J-town on business, but that’s not what’s making me jumping with joy right now.  I’m grinning ear to ear thinking of how fun  this long weekend will be: joining forces together again with my friends!  Literally
sharing laughter, joy, stupidity, aaahh … pokoknya smuanya deh!  Grebbgeegggg … ups, turbulence … gile nih kalo terbang malem-malem emang suka gini kali ya … ya sutrala, gw mo nutup mata aja sambil dengerin some smooth jazz, daripada jantungan mikirin pesawat mo jatooh … Ntar aja kita lanjut nge-blog-nya.

J-town, Jalan Sudirman 09.28 PM on Wednesday                                          Lagi duduk di Silver (bukan sok paten, tapi gw emang agak2 parno kalo naek taksi standar … untung si Rina skluarga berbaek hati nganterin gw ke terminal yang ada tangkringan Silver Bird-nya), dari tadi mobile gw ga mati2, nelpon-nelpon dan trima-trima telpon dan SMS2 ma smua temen2 gw, either yang terpaksa gw tinggalin di Medan (salah sendiri kau ya Fen ya knapa ga mo ikut!), n temen2 yg mo gw catch up slama di Jakarta (mulai dari genk ODP 5, genk ODP Medan, anak2 FFF, sampe genk dugem … ah gila, I don’t think three damn days are enough!).  And as the black sedan was taking me through the main street, passing by Semanggi and Sudirman Place (Nichols Edwards people, Nichols Edwards!), I’m thinking:  Gee, yes I’m gonna miss all my friends … but like I said to Fence: gila gw kangen banget ntar ma lo … but mungkin hanya bertahan sampe gw ktemu Plasa Senayan hahahaha.

Millenium 836  10.15 PM still on Wednesday                                          Nangkring di hotel, sambil nonton American Idol live (gila si Eliott suaranya keren banget) bareng Yan (yang lagi melotot liat gaun si McPhee yang kuning melambai-lambai dengan belahan sampe paha … yah ternyata temen gw yang satu ini emang normal hahahaha) yang berbaek hati dateng bawain McD berhubung gw blon makan malem!  Sambil cuil2an ayam goreng n kentang goreng, kita crita macem-macem, gila banyak banget la yang harus diobrolin dah ga ktemu setaon gini!  Two pieces of crispy chicken and a bag of large french fries later, mulai lah kita curhat2an masalah pernikahan (ih males banget ga sih, tapi ini emang jadi big huge humongous gigantic problem yang mendominasi hidup gw n Yan).  Yah lumayan la buat bikin ngantuk hihihi … sori, gini2 gw agak2 parno juga kalo harus tidur di kamar hotel sendirian, taon lalu sih masih ada Inge yg nemenin nginep, taon ini anak orang dah nikah dan dah hamil pula, ga mungkin gw giring buat nemenin, jadi ya setelah puas ngobrol sampe jam 1 lewat gitu, n gw dah ngantuk banget, kita pun bubar … TV tetep gw nyalain biar ga ketakutan hihihihi.

Plaza Mandiri 12.05 PM on Thursday                                Setelah setengah hari mendalami ilmu tentang kredit otomotif (the main reason of me being on business in Jakarta), email2 dan SMS2 pengumuman bahwa selebnya dah hadir di kantor pusat had been going around since early morning … akhirnya kita ktemuan di tempat kumpul wajib jaman ODP … mana lagi kalo bukan AMPM.  And man, gila crazy banget lah pokoknya … ah rasa kangen gw ma mereka semua itu ga bisa digambarin … rasanya heavenly banget bisa ngobrol2, ketawa2 ga jelas, cela2an, pake bahasa Medan pula, ma smua anak2 itu.  Ada anak2 ODP 5 yang duduknya harus berserakan karena penuhnya B2 siang itu: Indah, Wida, Anton, dan Desy … tapi siang itu gw nangkringnya di meja anak2 ODP Medan … teman senasib dan sepenanggungan mulai dari masih sekadar nongkrong di KFC Sinar Plaza naek becak motor sampe jaman beredar hampir tiap hari di Sun Plaza.  Ada Yan yang siang itu muncungnya mendominasi acara cela-celaan, ada Riki yang cuma bisa tersipu-sipu ngomong: “Kaco lo, kaco lo, kaco lo” dengerin kita crita-crita jorok, ada Mbak Arie dengan ketawanya yang renyah, ada Deva yang sekarang berpenampilan pertobatan, ada Rina yang barengan ma gw dateng dari Medan … ah gila!  Sambil ngetik ini aja tiba2 gw jadi kangen banget gini hikss … Gila kayaknya itu B2 isinya ada ratusan orang, tapi suara dari meja kita dah kayak di Pasar Sambu, dengan celetukan “Muncung kau!”  dan “Eh bagus kau sikit ya, bijong!” saut-sautan.  Kayak kata iklan MasterCard: priceless moment.

AMPM 5.25 PM still on Thursday                                                                 Firman (nih satu lagi orang yg gw kangenin banget … best friend gw abis, temen seperjuangan dulu di Medan yang dalam satu hari bisa gw tereakin “Man!  Man!” 200 kali hahahahha) … nah hari ini dia dateng ke Plaza Mandiri ngejemput gw n anak2, karena agenda malam itu adalah acara  nongkri bareng anak2 ODP Medan.  Awalnya sih dia males turun (“Males gw ka, pake ngasi2 KTP lagi … kan gw bukan orang Mandiri lagi” hihihihi), tapi akhirnya dia mau juga nyamperin kita di AMPM, lengkap dengan seragam Telkom-nya, sampe diledekin anak2: “Eh Man tukang kabel lo sekarang?” Hahahaha … tetep dia cengar cengir aja seperti biasa.  Setelah armada lengkap, ada Rina, gw, Yan, Mbak Arie, dan Deva (Yoes, Korry, dan Eka rencananya nyusul langsung ke Semanggi, si Henry ga bisa, si Riki tepar jadi pulang duluan … tebakan kita sih gara2 tadi pas lunch agak2 overloaded dia dengerin repetan-repetan ala Medan hahahaha … si Rangga pun lagi ga masuk hari itu,  Sabrina lagi ga enak bodi karena kehamilannya), kita bertolak ke Plasa Semanggi buat … just keep on reading guys, this is gonna be the longest blog I’ve ever written!

Platinum, Plangi 5.45 PM still still on that same Thursday                                              Muter-muter ga jelas nyari tempat makan (awalnya gw insist buat antri J.Co, tapi ngeliat antriannya yang ngalah-ngalahin antrian tiket konser AFI hahaha (tontonan favorit Riki, Henry, Firman jaman dulu!  Yang bela-belain ke Carrefour buat liat AFI karena di kos-kosannya mate lampu!), penting ga seeh?!  Kita nyerah dan nyari tempat makan aja), kita akhirnya nangkring di Platinum … n teteeeuuuppp foto-foto dong!  Berhubung kagak bawa kamera digital, andalan gw ya 6600 ini, yang hari itu memorinya sampe full full se-full full nya.  Ah pokoknya dah cuek abis ma keadaan sekeliling, ga peduli lagi dengan logat kita yang emang beneran ancur Medan abeessss … sampe abang-abang waiter-nya dah stress berat kali ngeliat kita, karena ngobrol mulu2 ga bubar2 padahal dah banyak banget orang2 yang ngantri nunggu tempat duduk.

Cup n Cino, Plangi 7.30 PM again on Thursday (I told you this is a looooong day)                     Karena dah mo diusir dari Platinum n si Korry, Yoes, n Eka belon nyampe2 juga (sok sibuk kali pun orang ini, cembetul aja!), kita pindah lokasi … biar foto2 blog nya juga lebih beragam hahahaha.  Dipilihlah Cup n Cino di sayap kanan Plangi, tempatnya lumayan cozy, rencananya sih kita mo ngupi2 aja sambil nunggu kedatangan ketiga orang itu.  N di situlah gw n Yan menemukan menu Shooters-nya yang gila abesssss … ini betolan cakap kotor atau betolan cakap kotor?  Liat aja deh ya, masa menu Shooters-nya: blow job, vibrator, screamin’ orgasm, dan creamy sperm (ewwww, mual gitu gw liatnya!), si Yan pun mulai lah dengan muncung bijungnya berkomentar-komentar.  Ga lama nongkrong di situ, hadirlah trio kwek kwek: Korry, Yoes, dan Eka.  Dan malam itu kita berhasil moklek Yoes buat gesek dulu bayarin tongkrongan kita di Cup n Cino, ih gila Yoes baek banget dah, pasti ntar si Fence jatuh cinta hahahahahaha!

Inul-Vizta, Plangi 8.30 PM and this is a damn long Thursday night!                   Bukan anak ODP Medan namanya kalo ngumpul ga pake karaoke (khususnya Firman yang gw inget banget dulu di CBC pernah minjem VCD karaoke Victor Hutabarat punya nyokap gw buat di kopi ke harddisk, n tiap hari dia  ngapalin liriknya biar kalo nampil di acara CBC bisa gape abis hahaha).  So malam itu kita memutuskan untuk adu tarik pita suara (pas ngetik ini suara gw udah sekarat, makanya blognya dalam bentuk tulisan, bukan rekaman suara … eh emang blog bisa dalam rekaman suara? Hahaha!) di Inul-Vizta, walo pun awalnya agak ragu2 takut digrebek ma Forum Anti Pornografi.  Anyway, malam itu kita joget abis, nyanyi abis, loncat-loncat abis, dan ujung2nya abis suara!  Segala macem lagu dijabanin: mulai dari lagu Let’s Just Kiss and Say Goodbye favorit si Rina, Bang Thoyib-nya si Korry, Sai Anju Ma Au-nya si Maman (ih Man, lo Pak Yasun banget siih?), Naluri Lelaki-nya si Yan, sampe Bintang Kehidupan-nya si Yoes (aduh Yoes, Nike Ardilla gitu loh!), n gw ya lagu andalannya tetep la Cinta Semu, Retro abis goyangnya!  Ga sadar tiba2 dah lewat 3 jam aja, bubar la kita, gw n Rina dianter Firman balik ke hotel, thanks ya Man!  Another day awaits tomorrow …

Coffee Bean, PS 12.15 PM on Friday                    Pagi itu, setelah diskusi lagi dengan bapak-bapak di CBC Otomotif, gw n Rina memutuskan untuk nge-lunch di PS, gile bo gimana juga gw harus reunian ma Chocolate Freeze-nya Coffee Bean!  Di sana kita ktemuan ma Yan dan Mbak Arie, nongkri-nongkri sambil ngobrol, dilanjutkan dengan keliling-keliling Metro n Sogo (walau si bapak n ibu yang sibuk itu harus mengundurkan diri duluan). 

Metro and Sogo, PS 1.30  PM on an eventful Friday    And ga tau gw, si Rina kemasukan setan apa, setan genk bitchy kurasa, tapi siang sampe sore itu dia jadi penggila belanja!!  Buset, gw aja kalah!  Dimulai dari milih ratusan dasi buat lakinya, niat banget vest lakinya sampe dibawa gitu … oh my God, Rina … trus lanjut lagi liat-liat sepatu.  Dan di situ lah gw menemukan the sexiest shoes on the planet: a 7 inches stiletto with black croco … sweeeet!!  N gw coba pake, kirain dah bakal jatoh, ternyata gila tuh sepatu nyaman banget … and God, does my feet look extremely sexy in these?  Pas dibalik n diliat harganya … anjrit, ini Metro atau toko HP sih?  1,4 juta!!  Untung si Rina cepet-cepet pull me into my conscience: “Udah Ika, jangan gila kau Ika, jangan beli itu Ika!”

(x) sml, PS 3.12  PM on a really fun Friday!                Si Rina bijung ini sok-sok nasehatin aku biar ga shopping kayak orang gila, padahal hari itu dia sendiri udah kesetanan … guess what, nyari gaun!!  Hahahaa, betolan salah makan anak itu kayaknya.  Di mulai dari angin sale 50% all-item yang membawa langkah kita ke (x)sml.  Gila, keren keren bangeeettt … n giggle-giggle bitchy lah kita di ruang gantinya sambil komen-komen.  Yang jelas, anak itu abis gw racunin pas nemu gaun yang girly abis (pinky whitey flowy flowery gitu lah hahahaha, ntahapahapa bahasanya!) … dia kemakan bo, dibelinya lah gaun itu sambil tereak-tereak ke gw: “Ikaa!! Kurang ajar kau Ika, muncung mu dah sales kali, jadi kubeli gaun ini!!”  Hihihihi … si Rina cocok nyanyi lagu Naluri Wanita: “Aku adalah wanita, yang tak pernah lelah mempercantik diri ….” Huahahahaha, dah bitchy kali dia wak!

Miss Sixty, PS 03.55 PM on a really bankrupting Friday!                Berhubung malemnya mo lanjut hangout lagi (2 genk sekaligus pula: genk ODP 5 and genk dugem), n nih baju dah gw pake dari siang, kayaknya harus siap2 ganti kostum biar ga mati gaya … so kaki gw dibawa melangkah ke arah French Connection … ah lagi ga ada yang seru, terpaksa gw mengkhianat ke Miss Sixty, lagi ada sale pula!  Gila gila gila!!  Ya akhirnya gw menemukan atasan yang keren abis, sumpah gw banget pokoknya, harga awalnya emang cukup buat beli HP Motorola baru si Fence (hahaha, pasti anak ini dah merepet-merepet kalo baca), tapi setelah diskon ya not so bad lah.  Miss Sixty gitu loh!!  Langsung lah setelah gw beli itu, n si Rina slesai bayar gaun kewanitaannya itu, kami menuju toilet untuk apa lagi: ganti baju n retouch!  Menunggu anak-anak gaul yang laen slesai ngantor, gw n Rina nongkri di foodcourt, anak itu dah sehat kali cuma makan tumis kailan aja, sementara gw tergoda untuk nyoba Cookies n Cream-nya NZ Natural …  Tiba2 Korry dah ngubungin kita untuk cepat meluncur ke EX, karena dia dan Yoes dah mo kesana, biasa apa lagi kalo ga check out Zara. 

Zara, PI 05.37 PM and I wish this Friday I have seven figures salary!                The heaven of female shoppers: not Mango, not Lolita Lempicka, but Zara!  Bang Dean aja, my fashion editor friend, pas ktemu di PS langsung bilang: “Eh jangan J.Co aja yang kau bawa, sana kau liat dulu Zara itu.”  So off we were,  me and Rina, n nyampe sana dah ada Yoes dan Korry.  Thirty minutes of browsing, gw nemuin gaun yang oh-my-God-does-my-assets-look-damn-sexy-in-these-men-can-barely-breathe-when-they-look-at-them!  Barusan si Damar ngemail gw, tentang sebuat toko di Jerman yang namanya Decathlon, dengan iklan: “Get dressed for free, from head to toe.  First come, first served.  Only one condition: come naked!”  N gila beneran tuh orang-orang Jerman beneran dateng naked ke toko itu, rame banget pula.  Nah kalo Zara misalnya bikin promo kayak gitu, kita bakal mau ga ya? Hahahahaha!

Chatterbox, PI 06.12 PM and this is a hungry Friday    Korry kelaperan, kalo gw sih masih nunggu mo ktemuan ma genk ODP 5 di McD Sarinah trus lanjut genk dugem, rencananya sih di Starbucks Sarinah.  So, cuma nyemil-nyemil aja sambil tetep foto-foto n ktawa2 ga jelas … Berhubung Wawan juga dah mo meluncur nyusul gw, n anak2 ODP 5 dah pada nunggu di McD, maka bubar lah kita, ketiga orang itu balik ke hotel sementara gw catch up ma genk2 gw dulu.

McD, Sarinah 07.20 PM and this Friday night is getting more crowded!                               Begitu gw melintas di depan McD yang akuarium abis gitu, dah kliatan rombongan orang-orang berbatik di satu meja … hihihihi, pasti anak2 ODP 5 nih.  Di depan McD gw ktemuan ma Wawan, nyampenya bareng gt, n langsung lah kita menuju the party table.  Wah seru bangeeet, gila gw kangeeeen gilaaa ma smua anak-anak itu, ada Asty, Medan, Babe, Wida, Iwan, Cahyo, Yani n lakinya si Adjie, Desy, Aning dan lakinya Rizal, emang banyak sih yang ga dateng (contohnya si sombong Wiwin dan si sibuk Nenden hihihihi), tapi tetep malam itu seru … n mereka kaget karena gw sekarang telah menjadi wanita hahahaha, seleb bo seleb (jangan muntah yang baca!).  Anyway, ga lama di situ, anggota genk dugem yang laen telah menyusul: ada Inge dan lakinya Ivan, ada temen mereka si Chandra anak BNI juga, dan ada Dinda yang menurut gw pantas banget jadi pembawa acara Jejak Petualang.  Giggle giggle bitchy mewarnai temu kangen (halah, bahasanya!  Dah kubilang brapa kali, kalo nulis dalam bahasa Indonesa tak pintar aku!) anak2 ODP malem itu, tapi cemen la masa jam 9 lewat dah minta bubar, ah ntahapa pun kelen macam masih SMP kutengok!

Millenium 836 09.20 PM and Friday party continues                              Berhubung bu Inge lagi ngidam burger Millenium, berpindah lokasilah genk dugem ke kamar hotel gw, still nongkri-nongkri, n thanks banget buat Dinda sang fotografer sejati yang bertugas malam itu hihihihi, nonton-nonton kabel, n teteeeep nyemil-nyemil gado-gado si Wawan dan bantuin Inge ngabisin beef burger-nya yang cukup buat ngasi makan orang sekampung!  N ntah kemasukan apa aku, akhirnya aku break lah vow untuk tidak makan sapi … huaaaa, kumakan secuil n rasanya ntahapa!!  Ga mau lagi aku makan sapi!!

Menteng 11.44 PM and Friday is quickly turning into Saturday                      Malam itu rasanya ga lengkap kalo kita ga nongkrong-nongkrong ga jelas di pinggir jalan … dipilihlah kawasan Menteng yang malam itu cukup crowded, tapi tetep asik dan nyaman buat ngobrol sambil menyate ato menasgor.  Genk dugem bergabung dengan genk ODP Medan yang malam itu personilnya terdiri dari Killer Queen, Keteng, Rina, dan Yance.  Pas ada pengamen yang kayaknya agak-agak paten gitu, kita pesan lah lagu Besame Mucho (yang kata Wawan harusnya judulnya Besama Ucok!).  Serasa lagi nongkrong di Pagaruyung gitu … walau pengamennya ya patenan yang di sini lah hahaha.  Jam stengah satu, angin malam dah mulai menusuk, kita pun membubarkan diri.  Harus nyimpan energi buat acara perburuan besok, tapi teteeeep nyampe hotel kita ktawa-ktawa dan gosip-gosip dulu + teleconference dengan si Fence yang teronggok di rumah … hihihihi, makanya dah dibilang ikut sini degil kali!

ITC Mangga Dua 02.45 PM on my-feet-are-killing-me Saturday                        Agenda hari ini adalah memenuhi daftar pesanan nyokap, si Fence, adek gw, n si Rini … anjrit dah ada 3 halaman gitu, gw pusing pusiiiiinggggg … untung gw bawa bala bantuan Yan yang hari itu jadi personal shopper gw dan si Yoes yang jadi personal shopper-nya si Korry.  Aduh abis tuh ITC kita obrak abrik dari lantai satu sampe lantai paling atas!!  Mulai dari celana, sandal, sepatu, sampe blazer-blazer kerja kita coba-cobain (si Yan dah stress banget nungguin gw yang hampir sejam nyobain rok-rok dan celana-celana buat ngantor hihihihi), dan ujung2nya gw harus beli tas gonian plastik yang segede gaban itu untuk menampung belanjaan … tampang gw n Korry masih shopper berat abis … tapi Yan dan Yoes dah mulai pucat keabisan tenaga melangkah gontai menggotong belanjaan yang seabreg-abreg itu … jadilah kita ngaso di …

Oh La La Thamrin 04.53 PM on a tiring Saturday afternoon                Agen-agen dunia kini berkumpul di Oh La La, sogokan terima kasih gw atas bantuan mereka shopping cem orang gila di Mangga Dua tadi hihihihi … si Yoes tiba-tiba udah kelelep aja, ah cem abis jalan 200 kilo aja anak itu.  Karena Firman juga ga jelas mo nyusul jam brapa (tadinya Maman mo ngajakin kita nongkri di Citos berhubung seleb satu ini … gw maksudnya … belon pernah menginjakkan kaki kesana … kesian ga sih? Hahahaha), kita pun berpisah, anak-anak pada balik ke kediamannya masing-masing sementara gw dijemput Inge dan Ivan di Millenium untuk malam itu bermalam di rumah mereka.

Inge-Ivan’s place in Mampang 10.45 PM on a laid-back Saturday nite                         Tadinya sih Inge mo ngajakin gw makan di Raffles, arah ke Puncak sono, tapi malam itu hujan deras mengguyur ibukota, dan kita masih males-malesan di sofa sambil nonton Extravaganza …  Acara malam itu ditutup dengan again, gosip-gosip curhat-curhat crita-crita catch up catch up bareng Inge sambil nonton American Idol, Ivan dah nyerah duluan dan migrasi ke kamar, sampai kita menguap terkantuk-kantuk saat jam menunjukkan pukul stengah 2 pagi.  Jadi ingat dulu jaman-jaman nginep bareng dan crita-crita sampe pagi … trus besoknya cabut kuliah karena ngantuk hahahaha.  The last night in J-town …

Izzi Pizza Citos 11.45 AM on a rainy but cheerful Sunday                Dari mulai bangun pagi jam stengah
sembilanan dah mulai telp-telponan ma Firman, yang hari itu mo ngajak gw hang out bareng Inga dan anak mereka Raka ganteng (hihihi, pasti seneng banget lo berdua ma julukan ini).  Keluarga bahagia itu ngejemput gw di rumah Inge menjelang makan siang, dan meluncurlah kita ke Citos … maklum seleb kalian ini belon pernah maen ke mall-mall daerah selatan dalam setaon terakhir hihihihi, kesian ga sih gw?  Wah akhirnya saat itu gw bisa ngeliat langsung Raka, yang sumpah, gw ga bilang ini hanya karena Firman best friend gw, tapi si Raka emang cute n ganteng bangeeet, idungnya mancung, putih banget kayak anak bule … ah gila gw jadi pengen segera nikah n punya anak gini!  Setelah mborong 4 dozen J.Co donuts buat oleh-oleh (akhirnya kita mutusin untuk pake jalur fast track, yang rasanya terserah J.Co n wajib beli minum, ah who cares yang penting dapet!), gw ditraktir Firman skluarga di Izzi Pizza … hihihi, agak lucu juga ngebahas bahwa gw ga makan sapi, n keinget dulu jaman training si Firman pernah ngomong: “Eh Ka, lo knapa ga makan sapi?  Alasan agama ya?”  Hahaha, sialan juga tu anak! Kita nongkri-nongkri, ngobrol-ngobrol, ktawa-ktawa, ngebahas apa aja mulai dari kenangan masa training, gosip-gosip terbaru seputar anak ODP, masa-masa di Medan dulu, sampe rahasia-rahasia genk bitchy yang semoga disimpan erat rapat ma Firman dan Inga hihihihi (jangan dikasi tau sapa sapa ya …).

Well, as we left Citos that afternoon, ga terasa sorenya gw udah melangkah menyusuri terminal F2 dengan handbag Bottega baru gw di tangan kiri dan 4 lusin J.Co donuts di tangan kanan (sok paten kali ya hahahaha), mampir di Periplus untuk beli bacaan (sialan nih Telkomsel ilang sinyal … lagi!  Jadi harus nyari pengisi waktu senggang nunggu Rina dateng, n berhubung PDA juga lagi ngadat ya baca-baca aja lah kayaknya), and akhirnya gw dapet buku yang judulnya “Is It Just Me or Everything Is Shit?”  Wah ga tau deh, kalo disuruh ngomentarin pertanyaan itu, tapi gw yakin kalo there’s nothing shitty about this weekend at all, in fact, I believe it’s eternal sunshine of my spotless mind.