HANZKY

HAPPY NEW YEAR yah semuanya.....may you have a prosperous life in 2003 and have a better life than before. Pada kemana nih new years eve??? Gue di rumah aja dong karena emang males banget kemana dan bingung mo kemana juga, tonight is really just another night for me, especially since i'm gonna have what it seems to be the biggest event of my life in a matter of days, jadi new year bener2 biasa banget karena beberapa hari setelah itu bakalan ada event yang jauh lebih penting dari taun baruan. Gila yaa i'm getting married soon, pernikahan itu bener bener transaksi yang paling besar in one's life, lebih besar daripada elo beli rumah seharga 10 milyar kali yaa.


I'm sure everybody has the so called new year resolution, i haven't thought of that myself, entar malem deh gue merenung dulu, hehe..biar tau what are my new year resolutions, so i'll tell ya about that later. On the meantime, Have a wonderful new years eve aja dulu kali yaaaa...go ahead party your ass out but make sure when you wake up tomorrow, promise to yourself that you're gonna try to be a better person each and everyday...=)

tapi gue nggak kemana mana soalnya cape..dan mumpung lagi nggak ada yang harus di kerjain, ya nyantai2 aja lah di rumah, lagian i'll be out all day tomorrow jadinya simpen energi dulu aja kali ya. Besok siang tuh ada kawinan di Balai Sudirman, sebenernya sih gue nggak tau siapa yang kawin tapi gue mo dateng aja...LHO?..gimana sih, hehehe..eh kan suka gitu ya, temen2 cowo gue suka gitu lho dulu waktu sma, kalo misalnya lewat balai kartini misalnya...dan liat banyak mobil parkir, pasti deh ikutan parkir dan masuk aja gitu numpang makan, gila yaaa, anything for a free meal!!. Anyway jadi ceritanya nih photographer yang mau ngeliput acara gue nanti, ngeliput juga besok disana, dan dia juga yang fotoin buat foto foto pranikahnya, jadi gue sekalian mo liat, apalagi dia juga yang bikin video untuk di monitor nya. Kan gue pingin naro foto2 dari waktu kecil, jadi ceritanya perjalanan hidup gue in a nutshell lah, secara garis besarnya aja, yang trusnya di bikin film berdurasi 15 menit, makanya gue pingin dateng, pingin liat kaya apa sih jadinya kalo udah di dalam gedung. Gue udah liat sih portfolio nya, tapi kan di monitor kecil aja biasa, kurang puas lah liatnya. Makanya trus sama dia di suruh dateng aja besok. Ternyata emang gitu sih, kaya waktu catering aja...nyokap gue di suruh dateng ke salah satu kawinan yang cateringnya make dia, biar bisa icip2 makanannya dan liat dekorasi nya secara langsung.


Trus besok malem di rumahnya dendre ada acara halal bihalal temen2 sma nya, jadi gue disana deh dari siang bantu bantuin, kemaren kita udah beli obor obor gitu beberapa biji buat di pasang, lucu kali ya. Anywaaayy, trus apalagi dong? I didn't have lots to do today, cuma pagi2 ke dentist aja, dan sejak gue nyampe sini udah 4 kali gue ke dentist, senen besok juga harus kesana, gile yeee, untung aja gue om gue yang jadi dokter gigi kalo enggak bangkrut aja gue. Trus tadi juga ke salon BLUE, yang di depan RSPP, totally recommend it, ngeblownya canggih bener deh mas mas nya, i also got my nails french manicured..hehehe..i love doing girl things like that, i think that's what makes being a girl is so much fun...iya gak kawan2???


Ya udah deh gitu dulu...more stories coming up, the confession of an upcoming bride...=)

Gila deh, barusan gue udah ngetik panjang beneeerrr, recap of my days since i arrived here, ehh dengan indahnya ilang gitu aja dong....!!!!! SebeL.........anyway, makasih yah buat yang udah ngimel ngasih tau nomer telfonnya, ntar gue sms2 deeh, tapi harap sabar ya soalnya gue ngetiknya masih lama bener, hihihi..gue bingung temen2 gue baru gue pencet SEND aja yang trus gue langsung dapet balesannya within seconds...ck ck ..what is it with orang2 jakarta and sms, semua orang ber sms ria, sambil nyetir, sambil poop, sambil makan, dan yang udah nggak liat keypadnya lagi. Temen gue bayar telfon sebulannya 200 ribu dan 150 nya itu buat sms an, ck ck..kayanya fungsi cellphone disini udah di ganti buat sms, bukan buat telfon telfonan. Ya udah laaaaah, BT nih udah ngetik panjang2 ilang...buat yang blom ngasih nomer telfon nya ke gue ayo doong imel gue, OK?.........deeeeeeeeeH

.gile udah lama banget gue nggak nge blog, kirain udah di delete blog gue sama blogger, tapi ternyata masih ada tooohh….tapi kayanya udah ga ada yang baca kali ya. Anyway, first and foremost…I just want to say Minal Aidzin Wal faidzin, mohon maaf lahir dan batin buat semuanya yah, kali aja gue ada salah2 nulis selama ini.


Sebenernya gue nyampe jakarta baru seminggu lebih dikit siih tapi rasanya udah lamaaa banget, soalnya udah wara wiri kesana kemari, udah ngumpulin stamp coffee bean banyak juga, huehe…! Anyway, jakarta ternyata masih kurang lebih sama aja after 2 years, skarang banyak bangunan baru yang warna warni, miami style kali ya ceritanya, tambah banyak salon salon lucu, dan cewe cewenya pada pake pashmina kemana mana, kebayang nggak siiyy panasnya kaya apa, ada yang pake pashmina beneran ada yang pake pashmina2 an, ..pokonya lagi pada pake syal2 gitu deh kalo ke mall. Ngomong2 panas, jakarta tuh kemaren panas benerr…menurut pengaturan temperature mobil gue siih…cuaca di luar tuh 42 derajat celcius, nah kebayang nggak sih panas nya kaya gimana.


Skarang ini lagi sempet online..soalnya lagi agak2 sakit dan nggak bisa kemana mana. Asli semenjak sampe jakarta langsung yang PPPM gitu alias pergi pagi pulang maleem, I barely stay at home, padahal udah beli trilogy nya Fira Basuki, udah ngebayangin asik2 nyantai baca, eh malah lebih sibuk disini daripada disana. Maklum lah I’m a soon to be bride, banyak bener appointmentnya dari mulai appointment with the caterers, with the photographer, make up artist, belom lagi harus bolak balik fitting setiap hari..blom ngurusin surat surat KUA, mesen cincin kawin, blom lagi hal hal kaya luluran, ceilee..hehehehe, iyah dong harus luluran, mandi susu juga dan segala macem perawatan2 laennya..aduuh pokonya sibuk bener deh, my phone is ringing off the hook, tapi nih telfon gue bunyinya kenceng bener, abis gue nggak sempet ngutak2 settingnya dan gue suka nggak denger kalo pelan…dan temen gue sampe malu gitu jalan ama gue, hahaha..abisnya di liatin orang. Pernah pas bunyi ada temen gue yang baru denger gitu dan bilang” Han, telfon rumah lo bawa ya?”..hahaha..malu maluin emang. Anyway, iya pokonya gitu, sibuk bener dan kalo satu appointment telat then I have to reschedule every appointment I have made for that day, erghh..stress abis deh, but I enjoy it, soalnya gue emang suka nge-organize event dan gue suka banget sama yang namanya process, gimana caranya dari satu point bisa sampe ke point yang laennya dan knowing the ‘behind the scene’ activity of an event.


Anyway, cuma mo ngasih tau ati2 buat cewe2 jakarta. Soalnya nii, gue udah beberapa kali di samperin gitu dan di tawarin untuk jadi model, tapi I assume pasti lah model2 nggak jelas gitu..gila ya emangnya muka gue mesum apa. Waktu itu gue lagi liat2 majalah dan liat yang namanya majalah EKSEKUTIF, mo beli tapi nggak jadi. Trus pas lagi di food court di samperin orang dan di ajak untuk jadi cover majalah gitu, nama majalahnya EKSKLUSIF, tapi entah kenapa yang di pikiran gue itu EKSEKUTIF…..ngerti kan maksud gue? Mungkin karena beberapa menit yang lalu gue baru liat majalah itu, dan namanya rada2 mirip jadi mikirnya ya kesitu aja gue. And since itu majalah bisnis, ya gue sih nanggepin aja omongannya..omongannya lho bukan ajakannya, hihi..kali aja gue mo di jadiin cover untuk topic wanita eksekutif muda masa kini..huhauahah..Anyway, tapi since gue orangnya cukup kritis, gue tanya lah macem2, gue tanya..”kenapa gue?”..emangnya gue kenapa kok bisa2 nya di tawarin itu, trus katanya cocok banget lah dari segi fisiknya, mukanya lah, senyumnya, ini itu. Trus gue tanya lagi itu buat kapan, katanya buat January and I was like, sekarang kan udah pertengahan december, masa iya buat january belom ada covernya, paling enggak kan 2 or 3 bulan sebelumnya gitu. Pokonya gue tanya2 banyak lah dan dia yang jadi risih di tanya2, trus cuma ngasih kartu nama dan nyuruh dateng besoknya between 10 to 3, suruh ngajak orang banyak2 katanya biar nggak di kira macem2. Setelah dia cabut gue buru2 ke newstand lagi buat nyari majalahnya, nah disitu lah gue baru sadar kalo nama majalahnya beda. Dan setelah gue liat lagi kartu nama nya, ada tulisannya kalo majalahnya tuh nggak di distribusikan kemana mana, di kirim langsung ke customernya, dll dll. Dan nggak ada nomer kantor gitu lhoo…nomer hp nya aja. Gila yaa..udah pasti deh tuh niatnya macem2.


Trus ada lagi pas di Plaza Senayan, di samperin dua orang, satu orang malaysia, doesn’t speak any indonesian. Trus ceritanya mereka itu dari market research dan lagi nyari cewe2 untuk di tanya2 tentang beauty product gitu deh, and since I was waiting for my friend dan karena gue suka menolong, apalagi kalo berhubungan sama market research, I know how hard it is to find respondents..makanya gue dengan suka rela mau mau aja deh. Dan mereka bilang bakalan di rekam gitu, yang di pikiran gue kan cuma di rekam suaranya so I said OK, kita ke nanini…..eh tau2 di rekam pake handycam gitu sampe di tanya2. Pertamanya gue pikir cuek aja kali ya, tapi trus setelah satu menit baru mikir2 gitu trus gue bilang aja kalo nggak jadi deeehhh abisnya gue takut di salah gunakan!!!. Trus mereka ngomong2 lagi, ngeluarin segala macem identitas diri dan business card, katanya sih headquarter company-nya di malaysia dan baru aja buka yang di jakarta, dan gue tanya banyak banget deh segala macem. Trus ya udah sih…kayanya cukup terpercaya juga. Ya udah akhirnya di interview lagi kan, ga lama sih 10 menit. Tapi setelah di pikir2 abis itu, mereka kok nggak focus ke beauty products yah, they didn’t even ask me make up nya pake make up apa, keluaran mana, etc, cuma nanya ritualnya tuh ngapain aja, dan gue juga nggak ngasih tau detil lah..paling cuma “ya gitu gitu aja kok biasa, cuci muka biasa”, malah yang di tanya kebanyakan tentang gue nya, ngapain, skolah dimana, ngambil apa, berapa bersodara, malah di tanya pacar dll. Erghhhhh nyesel deh jadinya, coba waktu itu suruh delete aja yah. Kalo tau tau nanti ada gue bugil di extrajos.com, udah di edit2 kan nggak lucu. Tapi setelah di pikir2 ya udah lah kalo ternyata emang itu di salah gunakan, toh I know it’s not my body, dan orang2 yang tau gue juga bakalan langsung tau cause they know me better than that.


Ah udah ah, udah panjang juga……daaah semuanyaaaa………..I’ll blog again soon. OH iyaa, buat yang di jakarta, yang tau gue dan gue tau, hihi..pokonya yang sering mampir and komen2 disini, imel me your phone number dong di hanifa@azalia.org ..okeh? Siapa tau bisa ketemuan dan gue juga mo ngundang2 nih, jadi di tunggu yah, bye bye…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone *i know..telat sehari*..but it still not too late to be thankful for your loved ones and for every single thing you have. Anywayss....thanksgiving reminds me of the first time I went to the US embassy in Jakarta to apply for a visa a couple of years back, 4 years ago to be exact. It was on november 28 and i went to the embassy bright and early in the morning, i remember my dad dropped me off there on his way to the office. Seperti biasa, banyak satpam satpamnya di depan embassy dan pas baru turun mobil tuh satpamnya nanya..."mau bikin visa ya mbak?", then i said yes, trus katanya "wah kedutaannya tutup mbak"...of course i was like.."heh? kok tutup? Dalam rangka apa?'....trus satpamnya bilang.."ini..katanya di Amerika hari ini hari terima kasih"...bingung lah gue...hari terima kasih??..apaan tuuh...and I kept thinking about it on the way home then it sudently hit me that what he meant was Thanksgiving Day, huehehehe..ya emang sih kalo di Indonesiain bisa juga di bilang hari terima kasih kali yaa...tapi aneh aja dengernya and it confused me a little there...haha...


Ergghh..i am still struggling with my assignment and i'm 4 days behind, i mean i have set up what i have to do and what i have to accomplish each day tapi yang ada mundur terus and it's near the deadline now.....huhu..


Ya sudah lah, i'm going out for shopping now..hehehe...abis mumpung lagi ada Thanksgiving Sale kan..toko2 udah pada buka dari jam 7 pagi..malah ada yang jam 5 pagi. I usually don't really care about thanksgiving sale, but since i need to do some shopping anyway, i might as well take advantages of the special ocassion...and check to see if there are some good deals i can't live without...teehee.......

Finally Shaq made his return to the court last night, just in the right time cause Kobe needs a major help, the rest of the guys couldn't even make an open shoot. So (hopefully) Lakers will get back on track pretty soon, before last night game, the Lakers was the last in the pacific division, but now they the 5th (out of 8), not good but at least there’s progress there.


What else is new now??..I am now officially unemployed, yesterday was my last day as an Old Navy employee..*sigh* there goes my discount card. I’ll have to find a new job as soon as I get back here…….ooh how I wish I could go back to my previous employer. So much thoughts swimming around my mind about jobs related things lately, I feel like jotting them down here but if I do that it’s gonna take a while and I can’t waste my time just like that cause my assignments are waiting for me…..boohooooo…!


I have 2 final exams next Monday, well not this coming Monday but the following Monday, I have two 7 pages research papers and I have two presentations as well, and one assignment, and ooh I have to watch the 12 monkeys DVD for my class assignment. Ergh, mana lagi puasa lagi…well don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that it’s Ramadhan month but it seems that studying and fasting don’t go along together, hehe..especially when I couldn’t get my daily dose of coffee. Anyway, yea there’s just so many assignments that need to be done and sadly at the same time I have to take care of a lot of other things too since I’m going home in a matter of 10 days. I basically spent the whole day on Thursday confirming every single thing that I need to bring. I went to school to get my I-20 signed and picked up my spring class registration print out, I called my previous schools for transcript request, made a reservation for hotel in Singapore, called the airline to just re-confirm everything, etc, etc. I also called the US embassy in Jakarta just to make sure that no appointment is needed for returning students, and this stupid operator said that I do need to make an appointment and the earliest appointment I could get is end of February 2003……..wtf?????..Oh my god I hate the Indonesian stuff in US embassy in Jakarta….semuanya udah pada berasa di atas angin banget like we need them so bad we would kiss their asses if we have to…heh, rese banget kan? Udah ngasih informasi nya salah lagi cause after that I emailed the embassy and asked the same question, and turned out that it’s walk-in only for all returning students…*sigh* lega bener deh…cause believe it or not, I almost throw in garage sale to sell all of my house ware..he he..

I had been dreaming about snakes these past two days...and that scares the hell out of me cause I'm petrified of snakes I can't even stand to look at it even in the pictures or on television. Dream usually don't bother me at all but for some reason, I just felt the urge to check what's the meaning of this particular dream, so I looked it up on the net and here's the result:


To see a snake or be bitten by one in your dream, signifies hidden fears and worries that are threatening you. Your dream may be alerting you to something in your waking life that you are not aware of or that has not yet surfaced. The snake may also be seen as phallic and thus symbolize dangerous and forbidden sexuality. The snake may also refer to a person around you who is callous, ruthless, and can't be trusted. As a positive symbol, snakes represent knowledge and wisdom. To dream that you escape from or kill a snake, denotes that you will overcome your struggles and come out a blazing winner. This is a great opportunity for renewal and to make changes.


The bolded sentence is VERY TRUE and it's exactly what I feel lately....it's the same fears and worries that I've been experiencing for the last 3 years and it's always arise whenever I'm going home for holiday.....argghhh I'm all depressed!!!

enggak terasa kalo December tuh sebentar lagi, sekarang udah mid-november aja ternyata yaa and in a matter of three weeks, I’ll be winding down at coffee bean in PS chatting over a cup of coffee with my girls…woohoo..how bout that??. I have started packing my things since last week cause I will have a very hectic schedule on the week that I am leaving so therefore I better not procrastinate or else I’m gonna go insane by then.


I haven’t put all my things that I want to bring home but already my suitcase is overloeaded to the point where I can’t squeeze anymore items and mind you, it’s a big suitcase…..and I just remember that my mom used my other suitcase the last time she visited me and took it home with her..meaning I have no choice but to get a new one..cause I am planning to bring lotsa stuff, mau nyicil buku buku gue juga yang ternyata udah lumayan banyak. But most of the items that in the suitcase are not even mine, tapi titipan orang orang disini untuk keluarga nya di Jakarta, that’s perfectly okay with me, providing there’s still space to hold their stuff in.


Yang gue sebel, justru orang orang Jakarta yang pada nitip macem macem. It happened to me quite a few times, bilangnya sih nanti di ganti pas di Jakarta but you know what, once they received the items, the first thing that came out of their mouth was “eh ini jadinya oleh oleh apa harus di ganti nih?”..or “Eh gue harus bayar nggak? Anggep aja hadiah graduation gue aja yaa??” atau yang lain lainnya yang bikin gue jadi nggak enak karena kalo di bilang tetep harus di ganti kok kayanya gue PELIT banget, jadi akhirnya dengan nggak rela gue ngikhlasin juga tu barang nggak di ganti. Kesel?? Iya laah..kok bisa bisa nya gitu lho, kok udah bilang bilang kalo bakalan ganti tapi terakhirnya malah ngarepin supaya gratis sih..lagian jelas jelas udah gue kasih receipt nya disitu "D'oh..don't you get the hint??". Padahal kan mereka bisa aja langsung ngasih uangnya dan kalo akhirnya gue emang nggak mau di ganti kan pasti gue bakalan bilang “enggak usah di ganti lah, nggak pa pa anggep aja itu oleh oleh dari gue”…Makanya, dari kemaren ini gue udah bilang sama yang mau nitip, nitip is nitip ya..nggak ada deh nanti tau tau pas sampe Jakarta ceritanya lain lagi.


Yes, nitip menitip is a problem but that’s not it…..there’s another problem, yaitu oleh oleh. Oleh2 itu apa sih sebenernya? Kalo menurut gue sih oleh2 ya barang yang pingin elo beliin buat nyokap bokap, ade or temen kan? Kebanyakan sih oleh2 itu sesuatu yang nggak ada di Jakarta or souvenir lucu2 khas dari kota/negaranya, atau ya banyak juga sih barang barang kaya t-shirt or or maybe tas or perfume ato apa lah, pokonya basically ya namanya juga oleh2 kan jadi terserah kita dong mau beliin apaan...iya nggak? Udah bagus juga di kasih, jadi jangan ngerasa kalo kita itu berkewajiban untuk bawain mereka sesuatu…..heh..ade ape..


Contohnya nih yah…ada lho orang yang maksa untuk di bawain oleh2, udah gitu milih lagi minta di bawainnya apaan. Jadi gini, ceritanya nih dia pake product Clinique's 3-Step skin system, persediaannya dia udah mau abis dan karena pas kebetulan gue mau pulang…dia mau gue ngoleh ngolehin dia itu. Yeeeee…..itu sih namanya bukan oleh oleh, tapi dia minta gue untuk men-supply kebutuhannya dia!!. Orang itu sesuatu yang dia pake sehari hari kok dan memang dengan pulang/enggaknya gue dia tetep bakalan beli sendiri di Jakarta ehh kok sekarang malah aji mumpung gitu jadinya..*nyolot*


Tapi jangan salah dulu sih, masih ada juga kok orang orang yang walopun udah gue tanya mau di bawain apa dari sini, mereka tetep nggak mau apa apa, malah cuma bilang..”aduh udah deh, nggak penting tau nggak sih oleh2..disini juga barang banyak, mendingan lo cepetan balik aja deh cause that’s all that matters to me..”..awww….tso tweeeeeet..


Yah begitu lah kira kira dilemma nya orang yang mau mudik, people think you are living large since you get paid in $$, well..that’s true you get paid in dollar but don't forget the fact that everything is priced in dollar too in here, not in rupiah and certainly not in argentina’s pesos, and there are a gazillion expenses that you have to take care here, you have to pay the rent, the phone bills, the electricity, water and sewer, insurance, you have to buy grocery and all those things that at the end of the month, when you look at your bank statement, you realized that your paycheck goes there for transit purposes only…..*sigh*..

Just like in any other busy downtown, downtown Chicago has its own street performers that can be found up and down Michigan Avenue, you’ll see one in every few steps. The performers provide a variety of form of entertainment, some play brass instrument, saxophone, some paints, some sing gospel songs or dance like the guy in Dirty Vegas Video. There’s also the street magician and the silver statue man. Pokonya banyak lah, basically they are there of course for the money, judging from the piles of dollar bills in their buckets, I guess they make pretty good money. But some of them are also art students who go there solely for practice or for school assignments.


Anyway, there is this group of street performers that caught my attention (click the image above). I saw them a couple of months ago when I went there, they are three black kids who play instrument with the use of buckets and sticks as if they are striking drums or something, but they play really good, pedestrians love it, they form a circle to see the kids perform and give them a loud of applause, take pictures of them and throw some money into their money box with such enthusiasm


I walked pass them again after a few hours of tearing up the downtown, and then I saw one of the kids was crying..sambil cerita ke polisi. Turned out that somebody stole their money box… Man, that is the nastiest thing you could do, if you wanna be a thief, steal it from people who are loaded with money, not from innocent kids who are just trying to earn money from their own sweat..


Waktu gue ke Chicago lagi 2 weekends ago dan baru aja hit downtown and there they were again, ternyata mereka masih ada dan malah member nya nambah jadi 6 orang. Still in the same spot, in front of Ann Taylor shop in North Michigan Avenue. Tapi nggak tau kenapa pas mereka lagi main tau tau mereka langsung kabur, ngibrit sekenceng kencengnya……I looked around..thinking kenapa niih, kok langsung kabur aja, ternyata ada mobil polisi yang baru parkir di pinggir jalan and I was like..sooo? It’s legal to be street performers kan..? But then I found out that street performers have to ask for license from the city council, dan mungkin karena mereka masih kecil kecil banget jadi nggak di kasih ijin kali ya.


Karena mereka kabur, ya udah gue juga cabut and went to Marshalls which just located behind the Ann Taylor shop (haha..jauh jauh ke Chicago mampirnya ke marshall juga). Trus ternyata those lil kids ada disana in the shoe department, lagi nyoba nyobain sepatu sambil ngitung uangnya. Ealah, ternyata uangnya langsung di belanjain..kirain buat bantuin bokap nyokapnya or something, but that’s alright though, at least mereka usaha untuk cari uang sendiri. I wanted to talk to them actually, pingin nanya nanya tentang mereka, tapi gue nya malu malu siih… Trus ya udah, pas gue mau balik dan lewat situ lagi…..mereka udah main lagi disitu, tapi salah satu dari mereka nggak main dan cuma berdiri aja ngeliatin sekeliling, just in case ada polisi yang lewat lagi.


Anyway, setelah itu, sometimes they just appear in my mind, and I was watching the Chicago Bulls and the New Jersey Nets game last Saturday night. Pas half time kan selalu ada atraksi atraksi kayak modern dance or something, and you know what, I saw those kids in the middle of the floors, doing their usual things, working their sticks and buckets, only this time, it takes place in the United Center, they are invited to watch the NBA live and perform in front of over twenty thousands audiences. Wow..I was speechless, surprised and impressed...and of course..I'm happy for them...=) I guess they are going somewhere heh??…keep doing your thang lil boyz!

I adore this city so much and no matter how many times I’ve been there, the city never fails to struck me in amazement whenever I spot the stunning skyline. I think It’s a cosmopolitan, elegant and sophisticated city that has a lot of things to offer from sports *Home of Chicago Bulls..go Jay William..home of Chicago bears, Chicago white sox, Chicago Cubs and Chicago Blackhawks*, it’s also the Mecca of arts and home of over hundreds festivals held each year. Too bad I have never been to the Taste of Chicago. For the Jazz lovers, you need to stop by at the Jazz Record Mart for the world’s largest selections of vintage and modern jazz and blues music on vinyl and CD! . Trus kotanya juga banyak museumnya, If i'm not mistaken it has over 200 museums, dan juga ada the world’s largest library, ada three of the world’s tallest building (Sears tower, John Hancock and Amoco building).


The thing I like the most about Chicago is its cultural mix that makes it even more exciting to explore. Ada Greektown, Ukrainian Village, Andersonville (Swedish neighborhood and home to a large gay community), Chinatown, Mexican barrio and so many others. Makanya banyak bener stylish gorgeous girls here and there… running around with their dressy Gucci boots and Prada bags..makes me feel so unstylish. Anyways, for all of you who claim yourself as a shopaholic, you can’t miss Chicago as it’s the place to be, lots of upscale fashion store from Water Tower Place, Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus to fancy boutiques featuring the latest fashions from Paris, London and Milan at the Oak Street. Michigan Avenue, State St, Ohio St and so many other streets are lines up with loft stores buildings.


Huhu, I can go on and on praising Chicago, nggak ada abisnya deh..! Anyway, so I went there last weekend, nothing extraordinary, just strolling down the avenue feeling like Chicagoans and cursing at pedestrian and the careless cab drivers..ahaha already I felt like I belonged there. Stopped by to eat at portillos , nggak pernah ketinggalan buat mampir ke portillos kalo kesana. Chicago banyak juga yah indonesianya..I saw a group of Indonesians in like every few blocks, lucu aja denger ada yang ngomong indonesia gitu, I usually just looking around tracing where it comes from whenever I hear it, hihi..mungkin buat yang laen udah biasa yah, but hey I went to college and spend the last 3.5 years *well up until last summerr* of my life in a remote lil town where the Indonesian population can be counted with my fingers, itu pun jarang ketemu. Kalo sekarang disini lumayan banyak, but still everybody is busy with their own things and plus this area is very dispersed jadi jarang ketemu, kecuali anak anak yang pada kerja di mall dan kalo nawarin sample dengan seenaknya tereak..”Ayam ayaaaaaam, siapa mo nyobain ayam kecap”..hihi….katanya sih biar ketemu orang Indonesia, ada ada aja deh.


Went to Ikea also, planning to buy lots of things but it’s so fucking crowded, jadi yang ada baru jalan beberapa langkah udah opps sorry, oppss excuse me….oppss bla bla bla, ribet and beside I think I have everything I need in my apt anyways and almost all of the stuff are Ikeas, so..no need to buy lots of unnecessary thing. Kenapa ya, orang orang Indonesia disini kalo beli2 home furniture pasti di IKEA?..every time I go to an Indonesian's house, pasti deh..barangnya familiar semua dan malah sering punya barang samaan, ck ck


Well, that’s it about my Chicago report, I don’t feel really well today, been sneezing the whole time and shiiiitt it’s only 11.20 now and I am thirsty and I need my daily dose of ice coffee -sobs- There are construction workers working at the top of my roof since this morning and the constant bang-bang is giving me a pounding headache.

Happy Ramadhan ya semuanya, this is the holliest month of the year, hope we can get the sins out of our system and start all over again with a clean slate, amin. Mohon maaf lahir batin...buat yang nggak puasa.....jangan nyetanin yeee...huehe..

Unlike the previous weeks that had been quite hectic, this week is menyenangkan sekali...=). First of all, i'm happy to see all of my old friends from high school since I created the mailing list, yah belom banyak sih baru ada 16 orang..but it feels so fucking awesome to hear from the people who once a big part of your daily life..i mean, i got to see them everyday for 3 fucking years back in high school kan....banyak lah pasti kenangan2 nya, dan karena udah lama banget nggak pernah ketemu..jadi ya lagi semangat semangatnya nih, we have a lot of catching up to do. Trus, selaen itu.....I'm also happy because i get quite a lot of new things. I went to Rag-O-rama a couple of days ago, it's a used clothing store.....ceritanya mo jual baju2 gue. I usually just donated them to goodwill tapi nggak tau kenapa kepikiran aja untung nyoba jual kesana. They bought most of the clothes and they gave me a choice to either take the cash for $35 or get a store credit for $50.....setelah liat liat ternyata banyak juga yang lucu lucu so i decided to take the store credit, so i got me some cool vintage stuff. So there..i got to shop without spending any money. The next day, Dina got back from phoenix and she brought me a cute denim clutch from there...uhuyy another free stuff. Of course i was happy..And it didn't end there, cause the next day after that, I got a package from my uncle and untie, turned out it's the stuff for me to bring back home...oleh2 dari mereka buat yang di jakarta..dan ternyata ada juga yang buat gue doong, woohoo..a gift certificate from banana republic and victoria secret. I also just got another gift certificate from sephora, clinique and nordstrom..ahaha..isn't that so cool?? To be able to go shopping without even spending a penny of your money..gosh i can live like this forever. I'm planning to use all of the gift certificates this weekend, and to top it off..i'm going to Chicago first thing in the morning tomorrow. so, bye peeps..i'm on my way to a HAPPY WEEKEND, hope you have a good one too......

These last couple of weeks had been all about watching cnn (sniper, bali blast, the Russian hostage drama, bombs in Philippine, etc). Now it’s that time of the year again, time where I’ll be tuning on to espn whenever I’m home!!.. Watched the Lakers and Sacramento Queens (as Shaq so eloquently put it) last friday, it was their very first game, and the season had barely begun but their blood were boiling, tempers flaring up from the unsettled business in the west conference finals. Fox and Christie are in trouble now, Fox is suspended for 6 games, not sure about Christie though but probably fewer. The rest of the king’s players who left the bench will be suspended as well!!.. My man Kobe appeared with another 15 pounds of new muscles.. readier than ever to go crazy on everyone this year, and after seeing him in that game…man he was impressive..watchout lakers haters..teehee. The Lakers didn’t win the game in the end, i guess they just didn’t care cause it was only a preseason game after all, they just wanted to send the message to everyone that Lakers is not merely relying upon Shaq, they could come back from 20 points down and lead the game without him and of course they could win it if they wanted to, but they just didn't. Anyway, both teams are going to meet again this Christmas day..i’m so looking forward to it...

I'm at the computer lab right now..yea I don’t have class today (only Monday night and Tuesday night) but I was in the neighbourhood so I thought of stopping by to purchase my textbooks and go to the computer lab to print out some articles cause I couldn’t afford to print at Kinkos *they’re bloody expensive*, couldn’t afford to get Lexmark inkjet for my printer either, hehe..what’s wrong with me, I have two printers at home but none of them has inks, oh well. Barusan, abis dari airport…it’s a long story, Dina slept over my house last night, she was going to Phoenix and had a morning flight to catch, and there is no way she could make it on time through the morning traffic jam, so she decided to sleep over so she could take the metro since the station is just near my house. So I dropped her off there this morning…and 1.5 hours later, she called me, I thought she just wanted to tell me that she was about to board the plane, turned out she missed the plane, huehehe....!! Girl, next time, don’t ever take morning flights cause you’re doomed to miss it anyway, orang tadi di bangunin aja malah marah2. Untung ada flight lagi 3 jam kemudian dan karena gue nggak tega ngebayangin dia di airport sendirian kaya anak ilang, jadi gue samperin aja…and we were off to the mall across the airport. Liat tuh sempet sempetnya lagi…cuma mo ke bath and body works aja sih yang lagi ada sale that can be combined with my $10 off coupons, so I paid $18 for the items that would cost me $68 at regular prices, tee hee….I honestly can’t recall when was the last time I bought something at its regular price. Anyway, abis itu balik lagi ke airport nge drop dia and here I am now.


So I took the gmat last friday..how’s the result, you wondered. Well, it turned out that my score was slightly lower than what I thought was the safe ranges. Not a surprise heh, but still I wasn’t happy about it and I was worried about what’s the school gonna do since Katie, the mba director stated to me that there was no way I could continue with my classes if I still haven’t taken the test by last Monday. So I talked to her about it last Monday, and then she pulled out my files, checked my undergrad transcript, logged on to the computer, checked by business ethic grades and calculating my overall admission score which should equal to at least 1000 (undergrad GPA times 200 plus the GMAT). After that she looked up to me and said that I didn’t have to worry about it since my overall grade was above that…WOOHOOO…that made me the happiest girl in the world, I was practically smiling ear to ear..hihi. Man.. I’m so glad I got that damn thing out of the way and I can just move on with my life..so..yay to me..=)

I went to the store, ready for work and everything only to be sent home straight away by my manager, huh! Well I was happy actually, I sure could use a day off but it also pisses me off at the same time..why didn’t he call me earlier so I didn’t have to go from the first place. They always do that, I’ve been hearing a gazillion complaints about them messing up the schedule. I know it’s hard to schedule 65 people with various availabilities….but they have the so called intelligent labor scheduler software to handle individual schedule so this kind of thing shouldn’t happen.


We had 95 employees when the first time the store open, but now..we’re down to 65 employees. Why? Because the management sucks!! And the thing that bothers me a lot is the scheduling. We get the print out of our schedule once a week, so we know a week ahead on what day and what time we have to go to work. But, even so..it’s not a surprise to get a call from the manager a few hours before saying that they are not gonna need us at work. Sometimes I can understand that…it’s retail, the sales fluctuates a lot, so when it’s not busy in the store, of course they don’t need much help. But that’s suck, cause that’s affect our life. I mean had we know we didn’t have to come ahead of time we could have planned something else to spend the day, right? Isn’t it pisses you off when all of your friends are having a weekend getaway but you can’t go because you have to go to work but guess what, when it’s time for you to clock in suddenly you’re told to take a day off, then you are left at home all alone when your friends are having fun when you could have actually joined them. Fortunately I haven’t yet experienced this but this happens to a lot of people I know at work.


Also, if they cut the schedule so much that means less money in the paycheck, which is a bummer for a lot of people. That’s why they are leaving the company gradually, I know people come and go in retail but not 30 people in 4-5 months period. We actually don’t need that many people if the management are willing to hire fulltimers, it’s easier to hire fulltimers since they have far more flexible hours, but they don’t wanna do that..why?? cause that means they have to spend more money for the benefits, the insurance, 401K and if extra works needed they have to pay overtime, surely they don’t wanna spend that much money, that’s why they prefer parttimers. And oh..you know what, to be considered full time and have the privilege to receive the benefits, you have to work at least 40 hours per week for 8 consecutive weeks, but you know what they do..they give 35 or 38 hours per week to those who can work full time, close to be considered fulltimers but still can’t receive all of the benefits. Smart tactics, heh?


So I practically have been a slave for these past few days since we’re so understaffed at a not so better time. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmast are approaching, we got a lot of shipment so I have to help the shipment crew unloading the boxes from the truck. Well, I actually don’t mind working on the shipment because I get things done and see progress, unlike being on the floor dealing with the customers to no end. Man, last time I had a customer who was looking for a short, he swears god that he bought it there 3 months ago and insisting me to check upstock incase we have one left squeezed somewhere and I was like..helloooooo sir this is October, we don’t sell no shorts in October!!..geez some customers are just so irritating. So, anyway, yea I like being with the shipment crew cause there are only us in the backroom and we could just talking non sense, time flies by. I was amazed with how fast they do they work, well I’m not moving like a snail but what do you expect from me at freaking 6 in the morning??


Anyway..I’m going to resign from old navy pretty soon. I can’t stand the working hours anymore, I want to have a normal 9 to 5 job just like everybody else, not 6 in the morning or 11 at night like it has always been for me..plus..I don’t see it going anywhere..so I might as well quit and I’ve only been there for a few months, I don’t think they are gonna give me the luxury to take a vacation especially when I’m going home for more than a month. I haven’t told my manager about this, I feel kinda bad though, leaving the store at its peakest month, but hey what am I to do. Things would be really hectic also for myself by then, there are a lot of projects that are due plus the test and the presentation and the fact that I’m going home one week early before the classes are over is only giving me more headaches.


I like retail actually, I even have this dream of having my own retail store, not know though and not in the near future, that’s why I work in retail now..just to give me some insight on how to manage and operate a store. I am planning to go for internship in the corporate office sometimes next year, I could start as an executive trainee and move on as a buyer; working with vendors, sales pitching, negotiating, analyzing buying patterns and every single critical elements to generating increased sales. Sounds like fun. I think retail industry is pretty promising, almost all industries are downsizing right now but guess what retail is still gloriously exist (well except Kmart and fruit of the loom). Dendre’s sista works at Deutsche Bank back home, she got a call from a headhunter 2 months ago, asking her to come for an interview for a sales manager position at Louis Vuitton Indonesia. The offer was 15 millions a month..hmm…not to mention the perks that come with it, she’d get to fly to paris frequently, an abundant supply of LV items, haha, a ticket to network with jakarta’s high society and extensive media exposures. Sounds like a dream job to me, haha..but too bad she decided to reject the offer. But at least it shows me that there’s a good future in retail cause fashion never dies.


Blah…this is a long ass entry..I’m blabbering too much..*bales dendam ya han?*..hihi...

I finally have the time to get this blog up again and even create a new layout..hmm how bout that??!!..tapi setelah di liat2..it looks more like a news portal rather than a personal blog to me, tapi nggak pa pa lah, at least this one looks more festive than the old layout. I'm not done with this yet, i still haven't changed the archives and other pages layout. Anyway, a quick shout out for my baby sista who just turned 14 two days ago *lagi abg2 nyah*, i was being a bad older sister for not giving her a call on her birthday. But I got a legitimate reason for that cause I haven't been in the house for these last few days, my manager has been torturing me and giving me more hours at work. I had to work from 6 in the morning on monday and tuesday all the way to later in the afternoon then i went straight to my classes and got home around 10.30..and just practically passed out to bed as soon as i stepped in the house. Besides, my mom just called last night and told me that my sista cell phone is under her teacher custody anyway, huehe..so there was no way i could contact her then since she goes to a boarding school outside of Jakarta. So..Happy B'day sista, i'll see you in a lil while. Arggh i got a lot of stories to tell but time prohibits me to do all that, gotta go to work..so..MORE STORIES COMING UP!!!..

what happened to Bali?? I just got home a few minutes ago and clicked on cnn.com and the headline was BALI BLAST, and i was like "huh?..what?"..and it all sank in when I read through the articles...oh noo..not that Bali..nooo...

Now the series of sniper attacks that’s been terrorizing DC area have killed 7 people and wounded 2 people. This is so scary..it’s so fuckin random that could strike anywhere at anytime, you don’t know whose gonna be the next victim.I hope there is one thing that American can learn from this…their country is in complete chaos right now so let’s forget about attacking other country for a minute here.


Worked till the store closed last night. Man, our business hours is from 10 AM to 9.30 PM and right at 9.30 we closed the front doors, no more customers allowed to come in to the store after that, but we let those who are inside to take their time. We can’t hush them nor let them know that we’re ready to kick their asses out, so we just turn the music off to give them the hint. And if your common sense is working, of course you get the hint and proceed to check out right away..right?. But some people are just soooooo ignorant, it was 9.50 PM and there were two ladies who still browse around the store, destroying the pile of clothes that have been nicely folded and just trying everything out like they own the world!!! If we were allowed to say something to them I would have attacked them in no delay.. or better yet, smacked them with the wooden clothes hanger.


Anyway, I was supposed to call my manager this morning to find out whether I had to go to work or not, but I was more than sure that he was going to ask me to come and join the FUN cause we are scheduled to have shipment coming in today. I don’t feel like working, not because I am a total slacker, but because I am so darn tired and I’ve been sneezing the whole time *blame it on the weather* so the last thing I want to do is to deal with those psychotic customers. So I didn’t call…tee hee, I actually could’ve just called and let them know that I wasn't gonna make it, but I didn’t want to deal with my manager either, so they’re gonna put me on the no call no show list..ohh what do I care..! Besides, I really need to stay home and study right now, I mean there were times where I had to abandon my study because of work but with the gmat next week I guess I can’t do that no more cause my time is running out and the reason why I’m here in the first place is to get my education so..first thing first!!

My presentation was OK last night, we didn't recheck the overall power point before class so there were a few mistakes here and there. My executive summary was totally wrong, I thought my professor wanted me to summarize the points of what we're gonna talk about, just like what I usually did in my undergraduate classes whenever I had to create Business plan. Ternyata she wanted me to summarize each articles that I cited as sources, so I had to re-do the whole thing. Oh well..I'm just glad it's over and I'm done with this Business Ethics class. Next term starts in 2 weeks, and i'll be taking MGMT 647 (Organizational Behavior) and ISYS 652 which is Information Technology and Operations......it's gonna be a lot of hard work. Oh I have to go to work in a little while..bye bye..

Okay, just want to drop a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY note to my lovely friend Cherie…=)..you’re 23 now..(oppss, did I just mention your age???…my bad…hehehehe. I think we’ve gotten to the point where age is best to be left unmentioned)..oh well, everybody is getting old anyway. Get ready for a lot of wonderful things coming your way girl…..=)


So what else is new really??..*yawn*, I’ve been spending my time with nothing else but studying for the GMAT lately, plus doing my presentation that I mentioned earlier. I was about to study at the St Louis Bread Company that just opened a new branch near my apt this afternoon, but the rain was pouring hard, so staying home was the only option and believe me…it’s never been a good option cause not much work can be done when there’s an internet around. So much for having this technology.


Another group meeting early in the morning tomorrow…oh that reminds me that I have to go to office depot to buy some stuff. We’re gonna be doing family feud (Family 100 kalo di Jakarta) for the activity part, just trying to throw some creative elements to get all of the students involved. But of course it’s not gonna be that fun cause we can only ask question that applied to the case. I handed out the survey last Tuesday and now I need to rank all of the answers. Anyway, my teammates and I were thinking about something that we’re gonna give as a prize for whoever wins the game. You know, just something small and of course CHEAP, something that I could get from one-dollar store, tee hee. So I just blurted out “Chocolate” without even thinking cause that’s what most people give right? it’s cheap and it’s not something useless that you’re gonna throw away. I mean I’d be happy if I get a bar of chocolate and I’m sure most people will do too. But oh my gawd was I so wrong to mention that cause one of my teammates was kinda intimated by my idea. She was like..”No..you don’t wanna give chocolate to everybody, not everybody eats chocolate bla bla bla bla yadda yadda yadda..” ..ooppss.. I forgot the fact that she is kinda way overweight….*sigh* ..


Hmm, I’m thinking of going back to bath and body works either tonite or tomorrow. They are discontinuing their make up lines until god knows when, enggak jelas what’s the reason behind it, maybe they are trying to come up with some rockin new cosmetics to compete with the body shop who just launched their new cosmetic lines. Yang jelas, almost all of its cosmetics are on sale for 50%..hmmm that's yuM!!…so I stocked up a few items, hey I called it an investment cause who knows if they’re not planning to launch the same product later on right? So I stepped out with a sparkling melon lip balm, two eye shadows, a creamy coconut fragrance candle *smell so darn good* and a set of 5 different colors lip palette..tee hee..I'll stock up some more this weekend.....

Pheww, it’s almost done. I’ve been tied up with my assignment for these last couple of hours. I really want to get rid of it as soon as possible cause right after I finish with this on Tuesday, I’m done for this class baby, there’s one more session the week after that, but it’s gonna be used for the other teams who haven’t presented their case. Good thing my team is volunteering to present on the first day.


The case that we’re gonna be talking about is the silkwood case. You guys prolly haven’t heard of it, I didn’t know it also until one of my team members suggested us to check it out since it’s related with business ethics a lot. So I said sure, why not. I’m sure other teams are gonna be talking about the case that happened nowadays, such as the Martha Stewart or the Enron case, we're taking a few steps back instead. Anyway, this saga happened in the 1970s. Karen Silkwood was a chemical technician at Kerr McGee nuclear company in Oklahoma who discovered numerous violations of health regulations in Kerr McGee’s worksite. The workers had experienced a number of unexplained exposures to plutonium and she wasn’t an exception. Not only that, the company had also falsified some inspection records and manufactured faulty fuel rods. So alarmed of the health risk that she and other workers faced, she decided to become an anti-nuclear activist. She realized that the dangerous situation was actually could be resolved if only the management wanted to heighten the company’s health and safety standards. But they just didn’t care about it.


So Karen decided to report it to the media, she then collected all of the evidences and gathered all the information to support her claim. Poor thing she didn’t know that her phone was bugged and her movement was monitored. One night, she had an appointment with a New York Times journalist to hand in the evidences so the journalist could print the story. But you know what happened??…she never arrived at the appointment’s place, because she died in a car accident on the way there. She was only 28 years old. Her accident arises many speculations since she was an experienced rally driver, and the accident was a one-car crash. And in addition to that, the document that she wanted to give to the journalist was found missing. I believe she was murdered.


Such a tragic story heh?..oh btw, there’s also a movie based on this story starred by Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, Kurt Russel and Cher. I watched it a few weeks ago. I'm glad Lolita mentioned about this story to me, cause it relates a lot with the class concept. It really is another proof of how cruel, greedy and corrupt America’s corporate world can be.

Wohooo…ade ape nih ber cheesy ria pagi pagi begini?..heheh..tenang aja..i’m not turning myself into a helpless poet kok, I found this poem in the first page of Supernova, the book I am currently reading. I haven’t read much of it though, I’m in page 60 out of 200 something pages, so far I really like the story, I like it’s urbanize setting and the yuppies characters. I know the first couple pages suck, I mean there are just too many jargons that I don’t even know they exist, the kind of words that’s only understood by the Newtonians. But hopefully no more of those jargons in the following pages.


Arrgh... I can't wait to finish the book, to uncover what they are trying to say..I know there are different pairs of characters that they portray so far, the characters that are not related at all.. ada Ruben & Dimas the gay couples who went to college in DC, ada Ferre the all around superb guy and Rana the magazine editor yang di karang Ruben and Dimas for their story, ada Diva sang peragawati and Dahlan juga…hmm..this is interesting. I wish I could finish this book in one go…but I can't..I have other things to do... In fact I’m going to starbucks to study right now…*sigh*

I was barely at home on Saturday and Sunday. So the weekend flew just like that, in a blink of an eye. Let’s start from Friday..hmm, what did I do on Friday? I knew I went to sylvan learning center to schedule my GMAT but turned out they didn’t offer that test in this branch near my house, the nearest is in Ballwin which is jauh ajeeee, so I have to go find that place this Wednesday. Went to the gym and almost passed out, my knee hurts like crazy but I have no choice..need to keep hitting the treadmill. I wanted to watch Meteor Garden after that, I have so many VCDs that I haven’t watched (ca bau kan, jalangkung, pasir berbisik and all the 19 episodes of Meteor Garden). But the VCD player is broken by the lighting that happened a while ago, so I went to buy another one so I could just switch it with my old one and return the old one to the store. But when it was hooked, the damn thing wouldn’t read the disc, it said NO DISC even jelas2 ada disc nya di dalem, but it played dvd just fine. The manual says it’s compatible. Oh well..not my lucky day.


Saturday: Woke up early cause I had to call my manager to find out whether he’d need me at work or not, but he said he’ll be okay. Then I was thinking of calling my group member to have the meeting this morning. But one of them lives like 1 and half hours from school, so it would be in the afternoon by the time she gets there, so i just canceled it. Went to Lemon Grass and had some Pho Dac Biet and went to Jay to buy grocery but they don’t have that many Indonesians stuff. After that. went back to the store to exchange the VCD player, thinking it was the defect one that I got yesterday that’s why it couldn’t read the cd. So I got another one but when I tried it out..it still wouldn’t read the cd, that’s weird, the broken one was the same model and brand and it played the VCD so how come this one couldn’t??… Went to Owen’s (dendre’s co worker) house for house warming party at night, it was a very nice house..it’s small but it’s very neat and clean and it smells good. Candles were everywhere,..his wife is really the queen of candles, I felt like I was in a white barn candle store or something, I mean when I looked around the house, it’s nothing but burning candles, smells so good though. There were a lot of people there; some people from the office including the manager and some were owen's friends from college, some frat boys and sorority girls. Had a few rounds of good food..hmm, I need to ask for that yummy spinach schotel recipes.


Sunday: Woke up at 8 and off to school for the group meeting until 1.30, and then dendre and I went to Galleria to meet Dina and Ading and guess who called me when we were sitting around in starbucks??..AAN, huehe..i was soooo happy to hear her voice again, she just arrived in NY with her friend (Festi). It feels like she’s so close but yet so far. I miss you sweetie. She’ll be leaving for DC tonight, she asked me whether I could play host for Festi who wants to go around Midwest area, hmm..that’d be fun, but I gotta check the schedule first. I wish she could come along..tapi harus balik lagi ke Jakarta in 10 days. Oh well..i’ll see her in December anyway and we still could talk on the phone for the rest of her 10 days trips…! Dari Galleria went to Yahya’s house for the so called Permias meeting, hiahia..lumayan lah makan gratis, there were a variety of foods but I just ate the grilled chickens, hmm..that’s yuM!. Man..I didn’t know there are so many Indonesians here, I mean A LOT, I even had a hard time remembering the names and the faces, hehe..i still have no idea who’s who. Dari anak bayi sampe nenek2 juga ada kemaren, banyak yang masih undergrad, ada yang lagi master, some PHD students, ada yang udah kerja and even high schoolers. Kemaren tuh udah banyak banget yang dateng and ternyata yang nggak dateng juga masih banyak lagi…ealaah…! Abis itu went to Global food to get my supply of Teh botoL dan terusnya ke The Grind nyusul dince, ading and eppi yang pada belajar disana..huaah basi..pada berkutat dengan buku2 gitu soo dendre and I just decided to call it a day and went home. Read Ca Bau kan for the rest of the night, belom selesai juga nih..*sigh*, but I’m getting there, sekarang yang lagi bagian Tan Peng Lian balik ke Bangkok ketemu sama si jeng tut untuk minta supply senjata.


So that’s iittttt……now we’re back to a whole new week. And oh, I just got back from mailbox center to send some documents to my mom and it costs me $38…whatta ripped off!!! You better get them in my mom's hands safely brown boy!

feel like time is rolling by even faster now…the faster the better.. cause I can’t wait any longer for the college basketball and the NBA season to start….I’ve read all of the sports magazines who are speculating about this coming season…sounds like it’s gonna be another hell of season….yuhuu bring it on!!!


Got so much to do for today, hmm..lemme check. Okay, first thing first……I have to go to union planters to open a bank account *bye bye bank of America, I’ve had enough of your crap*. Then I have to go to Sylvan Learning center to schedule my GMAT *there goes my $200*. I need to go to the post office too to send the stuff for my lil cousin in Tampa. I bought him some cute stuff from Old Navy. Their kids clothes especially girls are mad cute and they are affordable too…no need to go to OsKosh B'Gosh!! *did I spell that right?* I also need to go to the alteration house. Tonight..we’re gonna go to this Indonesian family’s house *tante Dien*, her dad just passed away a few days ago and she’s stuck in here, can’t go home for her dad funeral. I can’t even picture how she feels right now.

Happy Birthday Mina, wishing you a wonderful life through today and the years to come.

On a not so cheerful note…turut berduka cita buat denok yang baru keilangan eyangnya this morning, may he rest in peace.


I have never experienced how wonderful it feels to have a grandpa, mine *from both side * have passed away before I was born. Now that I think of it, I’d prefer it to be this way *not knowing them at all* than having to go through the suffers when they finally have to leave. The idea of losing someone I love and seeing the whole family in grieves horrifies me.

So the car is sold..*sobs*, there is an empty space in my parking lot now. Anyway, yang beli mobilnya itu orang Thailand who had an Indonesian girlfriend a few years back when he went to college in Columbia, Mizzou. I think they dated for quite a while, judging from how fluent his Indonesian is. Beneran deh..ngomong sama dia jadi kaya ngomong sama orang Malaysia, asli lancar gitu bahasa Indonesianya but with a funny accent. He said he went to Jakarta for holiday a couple times, katanya rumah cewenya di daerah simpruk. Anyway, he works as an Engineer at Chrysler, makanya dia ngerti banget soal mesin mobil sampe sedetil detilnya…dan banyak nanya nya gitu..dooohh yang punya aja malah nggak ngerti apa apa, hihi. Then I asked him of he knew Olga, my neighbor, a Russian girl who happens to be an engineer at Chrysler also…and turned out they know each other very well. What a small world huh??


One presentation down, and I have another one to go in the next two weeks, meaning group meeting this saturday cause this is gonna be a group presentation..arggh don’t you just hate group meeting? I didn’t think I aced my presentation last nite though; things just didn’t go my way since Monday. I was about to work on it when suddenly a migraine hit me like crazy in the morning. It was so severe, Advil didn’t help at all..the migraine ice cooling pads didn’t help either *instant soothing, cooling relief my ass..i want my money back!!*. So I literally spend the whole day curling up under my blanket and went to bed around 9. But I wasn’t too worry about my presentation cause I thought I still can work on it the next morning since my class won’t start until 6. I know I am on-call at work yesterday but I was so sure that they weren’t going to take my on calls. So I called my manager in the morning and turned out they needed me at work. Oh greaattt, they have never used my on call whenever I was in my free time and now that I need all the time I could get they asked me to go to work!! So I worked until it was time for me to go to class and present the case.


Went to west county mall last weekend, it was the grand opening of the mall and I felt like it was my duty to check it out..tee hee. Ada Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, dan ada banyak celebriti2 st louis termasuk diriku ini..hihi. Pokonya banyak playernya Rams, Cardinals and Blues yang gue juga nggak tau who’s who, paling cuma tau Kurt Warner aja. By the way, I knew I was gonna love that mall when I just first got there, first thing I noticed was the overall interior design of the mall, it has this clean contemporary looks, it’s definitely a hip looking place. For me, this mall is what I call a one stop shopping cause it stored all of my favorite clothing lines. Ada Forever 21 *a huge one*, Papaya, Arden B, bebe, Wet Seal, Rampage and Charlotte-Russe, hohoho….I have finally reached my Mecca.

I managed to study GMAT last night at borders..now I have things-to-do list for the rest of the weekends:


- Unpacked my winter clothes. I still have them in the boxes that I put in the storage. Tee hee..you can tell how lazy I am by now. Hey it was hot like hell when I moved in (last may) so I figured I didn’t need it at that time…but it’s getting colder now…must unpacked!!


-Stop by at Old Navy to pick up my next week schedule (hope I don’t get any weird hours for next week).


-Finished up the power point for my presentation, it’s basically done, it just need a little touch here and there.


-Here’s the good part…….cash-in my pay check!!


-Order some of the pictures to be developed at photofun.com. I’ve never done this before but hopefully it’ll turn out good.


-Clean up the whole apt, do some laundry.


-Go to the mall to exchange the item I bought last week. This is another result of my laziness, most of the time I don't feel like trying the clothes or whatever it is i wanted to buy in the fitting room (especially if i buy it at the mall near my house). So I end up going there back and forth to exchange it. It's fine with me though cause that means I have a good excuse to once again go to the malls..tee hee!


Now what's your plan for the weekends..?

Have a faboulous weekend everybody!

Pasti dong semuanya udah sering denger kata kata di atas? Dan malah mungkin emang sering ngomong jayus. Gue sendiri sih nggak pernah ngomong jayus, hahaha…abis kayanya jayus banget sih kalo ngomong gitu..*lho ini gimana siih?*…hehehe!. But anyway, that’s not the point. Gue waktu itu baru di kasih tau nih asal muasalnya kata jayus dan sekarang baru inget lagi, nggak tau deh emang semuanya udah pada tau dan gue nya aja yang nggak up to date apa ternyata banyak yang belum tau juga asal muasalnya. Tapi cuek aja deh di ceritain disini…I've been messing around with my power point all day this afternoon to prepare my presentation and thus i need a little break from it..So here we go…


Jayus itu kan artinya sama aja kaya norak gitu kan yaa...Jadi “jayus deh lo” is the same with “norak deh lo or garing deh lo". Nah, waktu itu nih konon katanya ada seorang cowo yang namanya Jayus sekolah di Gonzaga *ini sumbernya dari anak gonz sendiri*. Nggak tau deh nama panjangnya siapa yang jelas first name nya Jayus aja. Dulu belom ada tuh kata2 jayus dan ni cowo katanya sih kelakuannya asli noraaaak dan malu maluin banget, jadi sering di ceng cengin gitu lah sama temen temennya, di bilang norak/kampungan segala macem sampe seisi gonzaga juga tau semuanya.


Nah, jadi katanya tuh sejak itu kalo ada orang yang suka malu maluin jadi di bilang gini sama anak anak gonzaga “ih norak banget sih lo kaya si jayus” yang lama lama jadi “ih ketularan si jayus lo yaa” dan akhirnya di singkat jadi “iihh…..jayus banget sih loooo..”…hehehe.....


Ada ada aja yaaa....nggak kebayang deh tuh yang namanya si Jayus itu gimana reaksi nya pas denger namanya di sebut dimana mana...

I Watched Larry King Live 2 days ago when the guests were the three middle eastern descents who were detained by authorities in Florida for 17 hours. I’m sure you guys know the story already, but in case you haven’t heard about it…here’s a little summary about what happened. Jadi ceritanya these 3 men were driving down from Chicago to Florida and stopped by at a restaurant somewhere in Atlanta to get something to eat. So they were sitting around, talking and everything. Apparently, there was a woman in the next booth they were sitting who were eavesdropping on their conversation. Of course, they didn’t realize that…at least not until their car was pulled off by the police when they just continued driving. Usut punya usut, ternyata that woman had reported them to the police because according to her, she heard them making jokes about 9/11 and talking about how America will mourn over 9/13 which will be even worse than 9/11 and about them talking of bringing something down. Well, bringing it down could be interpreted in so many ways, and this woman thought that they were gonna blow something up, or bringing a building or an airplane down or something like that. So, thinking this is gonna be another act of terrorism, she reported it to the police right away and that’s why their car got stopped and they were detained for 17 hours.


Now the authorities have released them and according to them..they didn’t talk anything about 9/11 at all, they didn’t mention 9 or 11 or 13 nor September. They admitted that they were saying about bringing something down, which it in here refers to the car they were planning to bring (drive) down from Kansas City to Miami!!


So, I don’t know..do you think the woman is exaggerating or you think these 3 men really did what the woman said but just don’t want to admit it? For some reason though, I’m pretty sure that they didn’t make a joke about 9/11. I mean, they are all medical students, which presumably are you know..nice and educated people, preserve humanity, helpful and all that. And I don’t think anyone would joke around about 9/11 in public, in front of Americans, I mean..only a jackass would do such thing..or better yet, a drunken jackass. And you know what, she also said that she heard them talking in another language *presumably Arabic*...and there's a problem in there cause apparently they don’t speak the same native language, one guy is Arab, the other one is Pakistani * I’m not sure what the other one is*. So now, because of a comment made by one woman, their whole life is being affected. For the start, the hospital has declined the internship offer for them right away. And there was also a rumor going on about them jumping the tollbooth and didn’t pay the fee which then authorities had sorted it out and said they did pay the money.


But at the same time though, I also didn’t think that the woman invented all that, cause why would she wanted to fabricate all that?..what for? I guess she’s just being overly suspicious and thus, misunderstood about the whole situation and as soon as these men walked in the restaurant, they were suspects! If I were her, I would just confronted them right away as soon as I hear their comments, I’d prolly just say something like..”what did you say?..i’m sorry I overheard you talking about 9/11 and I’m just curious about it bla bla bla” or something like that.


Anyway, there’s another story that I find very interesting. I just read it in time magazine, Confession of an al-Qaeda terrorist. Apparently, one of the Al Qaeda representatives lived in Indonesia, in Cijeruk to be exact. And according to CIA, he’s the man behind almost all of the bombing attacks back home, including the Atrium bombing and the Istiqlal mosque bombing and he’s after Megawati. Do you buy that? I don't. Anyway, he has an Indonesian wife who said she knows nothing about her husband being a terrorist. She only remember what he did when they were getting married.. he made her promise that if he disappeared one day, she would not go looking for him. Hmm..*merinding*...

I finally found some articles about deceptive advertising, which would be the topic for my presentation next week. I just need to tie it in with the course concepts some times this week, create the power point presentation then I’m good to go *at least that’s what I think*. Actually thinking about the presentation makes me kind of nervous, I have no problem of presenting something in front of the class all by myself since I have done that so many times, but this one is different because not only we have to explain the case, but we also we have to lead and stimulate all class members into the discussion for at least 30 minutes. I’m doomed.


Anyway, I’m gonna go study at borders after this, I just can’t study at home where there is a computer near me. Last weekend was OK, nothing extraordinary, I just went to the mall as usual, yea this is what happen if you live half minutes away from the mall, hehe..Kacau deh..tetanggaan sih sama mall. I did some shopping, went to the loop, had some bubble teas, and went to rag-o-rama. Oh and I also went to marshalls and bumped into my manager there, the first thing he said was..”What are you doing here??..Why don’t you shop at old navy??”..and I was like..”Well..look who’s talking here”..tee hee.. later on he confessed that old navy is not his taste at all. Gimana sih ini employee nya old navy kok nggak ada yang represents?? Yah abis gimana..baju nya juga biasa2 sih, sometimes emang suka ada yang lucu but that’s very rare. I mean I can find much better outfits with much cheaper prices than they offer at old navy. That’s why I’m still confused with the customer’s adoration towards the brand. I mean, you should see the customers’ response on the opening of the store, in fact up until now, I still hear the customers talking about how happy they are that we finally open and this and that..i mean it’s not like we live in a remote village where we don’t have any choice to go shopping, believe me you can find almost everything in here. Sayang banget deh kayanya to see yet another customers spending hundred of dollars there where I could get so much nicer clothes to fill my entire wardrobe somewhere else..but then again it’s not money. So for those old navy’s fans…I’m sorry…but you ain’t got no taste!!..tee hee…

it's getting windy nowadays, especially in the morning and at night..i'm not ready for winter yet, i'm more of a summer person, i love skirts, t-shirts, capris, flip flops..and the like. Anywaaaayy, baru abis cuci mobil nih cause some people have called and said they were gonna come and take a look at it. In fact, there is one who is test driving it right now. Boohoo..ternyata bukan cuma company aja yang lagi downsizing, individuals pun pada sibuk downsizin..*diriku ini contohnya*...hihi. Mudah2 an aja mobilnya cepet laku deh, there was actually a really serious buyer last week, he already got an insurance for it and everything but when he went to the bank to apply for a loan, he got rejected cause he still carries a huge amount of student loans. Too bad.....! Well......have a FUN weekend everybody........oh BTW, i got my ticket in my hand now..ahuhuyy, i can smell it getting closer..and since there's a stop over in Singapore for 2 hours, i decided to just spend the whole day and night there and go home the next day..i guess 24 hours would be just enough to stroll around orchard road and have dinner in clark quay port...woohooo!!!

Just finished reading the starbucks article in business week. Ternyata, di buka nya 3 starbucks di jakarta itu termasuk one of starbucks’ ambition to colonize the globe. Mereka emang lagi gencar gencarnya expanding overseas and this is just a start, still in the very early stage of their plan, so wait till you see starbucks everywhere wherever you go..hehe! Starbucks is one of the fastest growing businesses in the world, 15 years ago, they only have 17 coffee shops in Seattle but now it’s growing to 5,689 outlets in 28 countries. Thinking of buying stocks? Consider starbucks, cause its stocks have gone thru 4 splits and when most companies are in downsizing era, starbucks is expanding!!


Padahal, starbucks itu sering banget di protest orang orang dimana mana lho, every time you see a new starbucks built, there is most likely a crowd of protesters in front of it, but they still going strong. Trus juga, ternyata management starbucks sucks big time, most of its employee are not satisfied with its policy, a lot of complaints about them being overworked and under appreciated. Malah ratusan store manager nya starbucks pernah nge-sue starbucks karena mereka nggak di bayar to work overtime.


But everybody’s still going to starbucks anyway and it’s still the most growing brand even though they are not relying on marketing and advertising. In fact, when most retail like Mc-Donald’s spend more than $300 million annualy towards advertising, starbucks only spend $30 million. Well setelah di pikir ya emang they don’t need a lot of advertising cause they don’t really have competitors and most of the time we are left with no choice but to get a cup of coffee at starbucks cause they are the closest thing we can reach.


That’s one thing about starbucks, they are really a winner when it comes to location, and they would do anything to get the location they want. Mereka bakalan datengin landlordnya and tell the landlord that they are gonna pay double rate as long as the owner is willing to kick the current tenant. Dan misalnya nih ada one local coffee shop, dan sebenernya starbucks is not planning to open another coffee shop in that same area, they will still go to the landlord and offers them double rate only to keep the competitors out of the location, padahal setelah local coffee shop itu keluar, tokonya pun di kosongin gitu aja.


Sekarang, ada yang namanya prepaid starbucks card..priced all the way to $500. So the customer can just give the cashier their card and the cashier will swipe it and it will deduct the total automatically and then the customer is ready to go, no hassle, no need to rummage thru your purse for coins, no need to sign for the receipt and they have sold around $70 million of the cards. It’s scary….Starbucks is caffeinating the world.

It’s the anniversary of 9/11 *Did you realize that yahoo goes gray??* I’ve been watching CNN since I woke up this morning, no commercial interrupting the programs, just like one year ago. They are mentioning the names of the victims right now, The US national anthem is playing in the background. It gives me this chill and got me all teary-eyed. Yupe, that’s what happen whenever I hear the Star Spangled Banner song even though I have heard it for like a thousand times, even if I hear it in the basketball hall before the NCAA games. I guess it’s the lyrics, or the tune, or the spectacular voice of the singer, or maybe just the ambience it creates whenever the anthem is playing. It makes me turn quiet somehow, my mind goes blank, my body stop doing whatever it is I’m doing and just listen to it carefully. It’s a beautiful song…


Say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,

o’er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

AND THE ROCKETS’ RED GLARE, THE BOMBS BURSTING IN AIR

Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave

o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?


Anyway, 9/11 does change the world and people’s live, not only to those whose family/friends were one of the victims but pretty much to each and everyone of us, including me..although indirectly. We all know that US is heightening its security since 9/11, one of the steps that they are taking is to limit the numbers of people who could enter the country, meaning it’s not easy to get a visa to come here. And that’s what has happened lately. More people got rejected than ever and actually there are more who got rejected than accepted. Not only that, it is also take them forever to screen and process the visa applications, especially to male applicants. So it takes at least 4 weeks to get it done and even longer than 8 weeks for some cases. Kasian kan yang visa nya di tolak tolakin, the embassy officer turn their life all around. Some people got fired from their company because they have been away too long from work cause they are still waiting for the visa. Some have to be separated from their family cause they don’t get the access to come back here, some have to postpone their study cause by the time they got the visa it’s too late for them to come back since school starts already. Some have to say goodbye to the stuff they have in their apt, their car, their house, their TV, their couch, computer and basically every single thing that they left without having the chance to at least get their money back from selling away those stuff.


So this is what has been occupying my mind these past weeks. To go home or not to go home is the big question. If I decide to go home that means I’m going home with the risk of not being able to come back here, to finish my study, to continue the life that I have built little by little here and start all over again in the city where I was born. And If I decide to stay here that means I have to give up or at least postpone indefinitely the moment I’ve been dreaming ever since I was a little girl, cause I’m going home not merely for vacation purpose, I have other mission to complete…=). Oh well.. I’ve purchased the ticket so obviously I have made up my mind and positively sure about that. Not much I can do except PRAY. Ikutan doain yaah semuanyaa, hehe. OK, enough ranting..now I have to get my hands on my cracking-the-GMAT book.


I just want to send my deepest condolences to those who lost their lives or were affected by the loss of loved ones , may strength always be with you and may the US government learn from its mistakes.

I’m going home this December *woohooo* I’ve already paid for the ticket yesterday and the ticket should be on its way to my mailbox now. I know it’s still 2.5 months away till December but most of the flights have already booked. In fact I was in the waiting list before I finally got the seat. So yeah..i’m happy and relieved!


But you know what, I’m gonna leave on Dec 5 and got home on Dec 8! You know what that means?? That means I have to celebrate Idul fitri far away above the sky. Nggak berasa banget lebarannya kan? But at least it’s still in Idul fitri’s atmosphere when I arrived at home so I’m sure there will be some leftover ketupats and opor ayam somewhere in the kitchen. And you know what, according to this article…if we’re flying with their business class we can actually request any kind of meals we want, be it gudeg yogya, Bakmi GM, ketoprak or anything..just name what you want and it’ll be delivered right to your seat. Nice heh? Maybe I could request some ketupats for my meal…hihi…too bad I’m holding the economy seat ticket..:þ .But it’s all good..i just wanna go home safe and sound. Woohoo..can’t you see I’m excited *norak*..hey the last time I went home was January 2001 so this has been waaayyy too long!!

The USA basketball team, the so called dream team got schooled by the yugos last night, I’m glad they are out though, cause I think they are so full of complacently that they didn’t take their opponent seriously. But that doesn’t mean I like the Yugos now. Don’t worry...i still hate DIVAC with all my heart!!!


So what else is new? It’s Friday … the beginning of another weekend, hopefully I’m gonna have fun while still be able to spend time to study. I went to borders yesterday and tried to do the practice questions from the GMAT book and all I did was just staring at it and trying to figure a way on how in the world I could still go to school without having to take the test..which was of course..useless cause there’s no other way and that means I just have to stop crying about it. I just don’t want to blow $200 to pay for the test you know, especially since I know I have a big chance of failing it. Arggh I think I really need a new set of brain. I did some of the verbal questions yesterday, but I skipped the reading part since it’s a long boring articles, hehe..and I haven’t tried the quantitative part, arggh why do I have to deal with math again??..I thought I’m done with it since Math 140 *calculus* that I took 3 years ago. I guess no matter how much you hate math and how far you have run away to avoid it, you’d never be able to really get away from it heh?


I just don’t understand why they feel the need for the students to pass the GMAT first before going to graduate school. I mean, I might get a low score on it but that doesn’t mean that I have a learning disabilities, and that doesn’t mean that I won’t be able to keep up with the materials that will be given in the class and that doesn’t mean that I can’t score an A in the class…na’ah, that is not how it works!!!. I strongly don’t believe the saying that if somebody is good at math that means he/she has the strong foundation to succeed in other subjects. That’s bullshit man. That’s also very wrong if they only measure the analytical skill of a person based on how good he/she is in solving math problems. I mean, I know I’m no good when it comes to solving math problems but I believe I have quite a strong analytical skill when it comes to analyzing cases which is the daily activity in the MBA’s classes. And why do we have to pass the GMAT which consist of quantitative part where there’s not even one math class we have to take in the MBA’s curriculum anyway?? So what does it have to do with math? I mean, what’s the calculators for then?…argghh..