Pacar Impian

Gw punya pacar baru. Pesan Rayu dalam SMS untuk Tian.
Kok tiba2? Adi dikemanain? Apa gara2 nyokap ga suka? Tian memborong pertanyaan.
Rebound, Jeng. Hari genee, mana mungkin putus tanpa ada cowok baru. Gw cape backstreet.
Pacar baru Rayu memang tipe ideal para orang tua. Walaupun tidak memiliki wajah yang terlalu menarik, ia mahasiswa tingkat akhir perguruan tinggi paling top di negara ini. Keluarganya ningrat dan terpandang. Cocok benar dengan Rayu, yang ngakunya cewek gaul berprestasi. Dan keberhasilan menggaet Roni menjadi suatu "prestasi" yang Rayu banggakan.

Sore itu di depan laptop di sebuah cafe di Bandung Supermall, Rayu memperbaharui shoutbox di friendster. I love u but what's the heck. He's more perfect! . Huuufhhhh..Rayu mendesah. Hati kecilnya tidak yakin bahwa kesempurnaan dapat dengan mudah menghapus cinta dan rindunya pada Adi.

Dua minggu kemudian...
"Ayo cabut,Ron". Rayu mengambil tas dan jaket jeans.
Roni berdiri di depan kaca jendela, mempermainkan rambut gondrongnya...setengah menyibak...menyentuh jambang dan jenggot tipisnya...
"Heh, narsis lu ye?"
"Buruan. Gw aja belum nyisir. Kok lu lama amat ngacanya".
Roni melirik dan tersenyum, "Nyantai aja, Yu..."
Roni memperbaiki letak kemejanya.
Duh...lama....

Sebulan Kemudian...
Ron, kemana aja sih? Kok udah tiga hari gak ada kabarnya? Gue telpon ke rumah juga gak ada mulu. Bosen nih nongkrong ama Si Tian mulu. Telpon gue balik ya..., gw on the way ke Ciwalk. Rayu meninggalkan pesan di mailbox.
Mobil Avanza yang dikendarainya menyusuri Jalan Cihampelas dan menikung ke Ciwalk. Di Cafe Pizza, Tian, Mela, Yuri, dan Wina sudah duluan menikmati es krim. Yuri dan Wina mempertontonkan tatapan mesra dan belaian di rambut. Mereka tidak lagi menutupi hubungan mereka. Toh kedua orang tua masing-masing akhirnya pasrah melihat anaknya mencintai sesama jenis. Lesbiola, itu sebutan untuk mereka.

"Deuuu....meni mesra..." Rayu menggoda Yuri dan Wina.
"Mau join??" Yuri menjawab setengah tertawa.
"Halah....Roni aja belum habis. Adi aja masih ngejer-ngejer...", jawab Rayu sambil mengerdipkan mata.
"Eh, Yu..." Mela tiba-tiba angkat bicara.
"Ntar-ntar....gue dulu deh yang cerita. Penting banget niiih." Rayu memotong.
Rayu lantas berbicara panjang lebar mengenai Adi. Adi yang masih terus mengejarnya, menghujaninya dengan bunga dan setumpuk surat cinta.
"Tau ga lu? Surat-surat itu kalo ditumpuk bisa nyaingin kumpulan koran bekas langganan si Papah?"
"Mana kadang-kadang dianter ke radio lagi. Untungnya pas gue udah selesai siaran. Jadi ga dibaca anak-anak". Rayu melanjutkan ceritanya. Semangat '45nya terus berkobar-kobar.
"Helloooo..." Tian memotong.
"Kita bukannya ga seneng kalau Adi memang masih ngejer-ngejer lu, Jeng."
"Tapi denger dulu... Ada yang Yuri dan Wina mau ceritain ke lu."
"Ini tentang Roni."
"Roni yang lu sanjung-sanjung memukau dengan suaranya yang indah saat menyanyi sambil bermain gitar...Roni yang suaranya gak kalah ama Bebi Romeo....Roni yang rambut gondrongnya wangi, hitam, dan lebat...." Tian nyinyir.
"Roni???" Rayu terdiam. Buku menu di hadapannya ia tutup. Kenapa dengan Roni? Apakah ada hubungannya dengan "hilangnya" Roni selama tiga hari ini? Dan bukankah minggu sebelumnya Roni juga sempat tidak bisa dihubungi selama dua hari tanpa ada alasan yang jelas."
"C..c..cewek lain??" Rayu bertanya. Pelan, sedikit tergagap, dan hati-hati.

Bersambung...

The Desire for Independence

My precious Sha has been showing her desire for independence lately. She always says "Mamau" (Read : Gak Mau (Bahasa) or No Way (English)) for almost everything offered. I find changing a diaper is a struggle now. Another example is her wish to eat on her own.

These are photos taken when she was having a thick juice of avocado...slurrrrp ;D



I don't aim high but try to give her freedom and chance to learn (of course it is ALWAYS messier ;p).




Sha choosed the big spoon than the small one for toddler. Yes, it scoops much more---and faster, my dear...but you'd better be a little patient..unless you want an avocado mustache ;(




She just knew that I took these photos and stroke for poses *winked*

The Pursuit of Happyness

I love Will Smith's acting from the first time I saw him at "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air". Through this film he really shows his quality. He's the one that brings this long film into a well-meaning struggle of life of a father and an individual. If I only can give one sentence to give comment about this film, I would say: I envy Chris Gardner for his dream and persistence.

Below is the resume taken from NY POST:
In 1981 San Francysco, Will Smyth is Chris Gardner, a hard-working salesman who can't believe that his son's Chinatown day-care center sports a sign promising "Fun and Happyness." Above it, a graffito of a word ending in -uck is spelled perfectly. So goes the frustrating life of a struggling father.

For dad, things get worse: Chris' wife (Thandie Newton) is so disgusted by his business failures that she leaves him to raise the boy by himself. That's a burden he doesn't need as he lugs his product - portable bone-density scanners - between doctors' offices. He carries these things himself, but he can't move them: They merely offer a "slightly denser picture than an X-ray for twice the money." That one line of detail lifts the whole movie out of the realm of holiday fantasy entertainment and into reality, where people have specific, non-fun jobs that consume most of their time. Every time Chris lifts one of those scanners, your arm will ache.

Dazed by a stockbroker's Ferrari, Chris tries to land an internship at the brokerage Dean Witter, but he isn't selling enough scanners to pay the rent, much less his parking tickets and back taxes. Dean Witter likes his good-natured confidence and obvious intelligence (sharing a cab with an executive, he solves the guy's Rubik's Cube, 1981's leading frustrator), even when he shows up dissheveled and underdressed in a scene in which he casually demonstrates how to convert a useless commodity - bad luck - into a valuable anecdote.

Semoga...

Belakangan, dengan semakin berkurangnya load pekerjaan kantor, saya semakin lama menghabiskan waktu di rumah. Baru saya sadari, Ayah dan Ibu saya, yang beberapa bulan terakhir ini lebih sering menghabiskan waktunya di rumah saya di Jakarta daripada di Bandung, terlihat sangat damai. Ayah saya kelihatan semakin "dalam" dengan ibadahnya. Letak rumah saya yang dekat sekali dengan mesjid, membuatnya rileks dan kerap shalat berjamaah di mesjid. Tidak jarang pula mendengarkan ceramah-ceramah di Mesjid hingga tuntas. Mesjid ini memang terbilang sangat aktif di daerah saya.
Ibu saya lain lagi kasusnya. Walaupun masih mudah stress dan teuteup ada aja bahan gosipannya ;), beliow terlihat enjoy dengan lingkungan sekitar yang "ngampung". Beliow bilang, "Ah kalau di Bandung sekarang aku malah kesepian. Ternyata rumah di kompleks ga enak ya... Enak di kampung gini...". Oalah... dunia sudah berputar...padahal dulu keluarga kami paling benci tinggal di daerah yang ramai. Letak pasar yang berdekatan dengan rumah dan (ternyata) menyediakan bahan-bahan masakan (sayur mayur, tepung, bumbu2,dll) dengan harga yang terjangkau menjadi isu lain untuk beliow. "Waduhhh, Han. Disini kok sembarang-sembarang murah to??? Di Bandung aja, mana boleh dapet sop 2 ribu sebanyak itu?". Nah...., "turunan" dari kegembiraannya ini, Ibu saya jadi semakin doyan masak dan explore resep. Jadilah...hampir tiap hari ada kue di rumah. Kalau saya terbengong-bengong...(maksudnya bertanya2 dalam hati apakah uang belanja akan cukup sebulan kalo bikin kue begini terus he3)....nanti Ibu saya akan bilang, "Kebetulan Mamah inget ada sisa tepung di lemarimu..." atau, "Ga full resep kok. Telurnya cuma dua." atau "Sayang kan rotinya nanti keburu kadaluarsa...". Ok deh, Mom!

Di atas semua itu, saya hanya bisa berdoa semoga orang tua saya diberi kesehatan dan umur yang panjang. Dan semoga saya menjadi anak yang berbakti dan mampu membahagiakan mereka selagi masih ada. Hiks...Amin.

Saturday Afternoon at Saung Mang Udjo

I used to live for 25 years in Bandung but, to be honest, I did not often visit Saung Mang Udjo. Despite all my claims and interest to art, this is my 2nd visit to Saung Mang Udjo ;(.
That afternoon, I and hubby went to Saung Mang Udjo to get Cici, my cousin, a set of Angklung. This place has an art shop that offers many gifts and souvenirs from West Java such as mask, wayang golek, batik, Sundanese Blangkon, and, of course, Angklung.

Briefly about The Saung, it is now a famous center of Sundanese traditional culture in addition to also being the chief angklung school in West Java. The Saung was established in January 1967 by Mang Udjo and his late wife Uum Sumiati. Situated on Jalan Padasuka 118, this place is quite far away from the downtown but with the nice greenery area and many comfortable saungs, it is also one of the most well known wedding site in Bandung.

Well, this day I proved how much planning is important in our life. I gathered some informations from internet prior to our visit that day so we didn't miss out the performances and took this opportunity not to just buy Angklung but to enjoy a series of art performance (which is quite rare today!).
The performances began with the Sundanese gamelan. Later, the host of musical performances introduced a short wayang golek demonstration which only introduced how wayang dances, speaks, fights, and goes to war.
Following it was helaran, a ritual procession when a boy is going to be circumcised. Apparently, we enjoyed this performance a lot, especially when we found a 5 year-old boy performed pencak silat (Sundanese martial art?)very well. "This boy is the music it self. Look how he blends into the music while he's moving", I said to hubby.
An arumba (another form of angklung band) orchestra and the tari topeng (mask dance) were the next performances.
At the end of the series, we had a chance to experience how to play the angklung together with children in songs. They let each of us held the Angklung, taught how to play it and followed the conductor commands... For my hubby who born and grew in Sumatra, this was such an amazing experience. "It is easy to play and fun. Can I take this Angklung home?", hubby said (with a criminal thought of stealing it *OMG*).

I am happy I can buy Angklung for Cici. More over, am also happy that from a good will to help other, I and hubby could enjoy an extraordinary afternoon.

Ketika Bunda Turun Gunung

Sudah lama nih Bunda "tertidur" dengan kesibukan kantor. Traveling, di depan komputer, baca beberapa buku (yang ga tamat2 pula...)....:p

Akhir pekan lalu, akhirnya Bunda turun gunung juga sekaligus ngasih wawasan baru Mbak Yati supaya ga masak yang itu2 juga. Lagian Mbak Yati kan ga tau doyannya Babeh apa hehehe

Thanks banget buat Mbak Astri dengan resep Tumis Terong Telur Asin Lado Hijau dan Mbak Riama dengan resep Cumi Bumbu Kemangi. Sea food dan telur asin memang favorit suami saya. Untuk Sha, saya hanya berikan cumi goreng dan telor asin matang saja, karena masakan yang saya buat ditambah extra cabe...

I Love you
You love me
We are happy family
With a great big hug and kiss from me to you
Won't you say you love me, too?

(Barney's song)

A proud Bunda and little biker

This little biker of mine tapped her hand to her head after seeing her Babeh (read:dad) took his old bike. "Ama..ama..", she said. She was trying to tell us that she wanted to wear helmet just like him. Lately she has been able to strongly express her preference. She shows what she likes and dislikes. One of them is to ride a bike than car. Today she is soo into motorbike that she can sit down nicely watching her babeh washing it.

You bring a surprise everyday, my dear... You're a magic.

A Letter from McAllen

I just arrived in Bandung last weekend when I found a letter with my name written on the envelope. I recognized the hand writing and was rush opening it. As soon as I saw the teddy bear in front of the card, I knew it's you: The Indiana Family. I screamed.

They tried to call to my parents' following the tsunami but it didn't get through. Apparently the post man worked well, he forwarded the letter to my parents' new address. "Thanks heaps, You don't know what you simply did means so much for us". What can be greater than finding your family back?

Today Jane and Jeff Welch have moved to Texas while Jer and Jenna still live in Indiana. Hope to meet u again someday *cross my fingers*...