Setahun Pandemi

Yup, setahun sudah umur pandemi Covid-19 ini dengan segala dampaknya. Maret ini setahun sudah saya kerja di rumah dengan hanya satu kali (1x!) saja pernah balik menginjakkan kaki di kantor pada suatu hari Minggu untuk mengambil peralatan kerja. Setahun pula anak-anak sekolah dari rumah. Setahun! Will this ever end?

Setahun pandemi ini juga berarti saya kehilangan satu tahun umur saya di pandemi. Benar-benar satu tahun! Setahun lalu karantina pandemi dimulai sesaat setelah saya merayakan ulang tahun bersama keluarga di daerah pegunungan. Pulang dari situ, dunia berubah. Hari ini umur saya berubah satu angka, dan ini pertama kali saya bisa pergi ke luar bersama keluarga, merayakan bertambahnya lilin di kue ulang tahun, di pantai. Isn’t this something, though small, that we should be grateful for? Walaupun jalan-jalan ke pantai harus cari spot terjauh dari pengunjung lain. Walaupun barang yang dibawa ke penginapan menjadi lebih banyak karena ditambah dengan sanitiser, disinfektan, dsb. Walaupun tiap foto lupa kalau mukanya tertutup masker. Walaupun kalau mau makan, hanya bisa take away dan menghindari restoran penuh dan/atau tertutup. Semua walaupun ini dilakukan demi bisa mengecap sedikit kenormalan masa lalu.

Setahun ini setidaknya mengajarkan untuk menyukuri apa yang masih kita punya atau masih kita bisa dan bukan menyesali apa yang tidak kita punya atau tidak bisa kita lakukan.

Hang in there, people.

Age is Like a Fine Wine

I often hear that aging should be like fine wine -that you should get better with age. Unfortunately I can’t say anything about the wine. I’ve never had one in my life. But…do I get better with age?

I doubt it… 😀

So, the thing is, exactly last month was my birthday.
I used to feel birthday blues whenever my birthday approaching. The cycle is quite similar every year. I would anticipate the coming of March. And then I would feel nervous when the day was approaching. When the Day finally came, I was like really really confused of what to feel. Should I feel happy? Should I feel grateful? Should I feel sad (because…you know…getting older?)? When I didn’t feel any of those things -because come on birthday is just another Monday or Tuesday or Friday- I would feel soooo bad. Then came the birthday blues.
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22 Going on Forever Young

I just celebrated my birthday Friday last week. It was great to be 22…twice 😀 . Better than being 17 forever. People say that age is just a number. They must be severely delusional…because you can’t cheat near-sighted, silver hairs, arthritis, and belly fat that can’t be removed even with 100 days of eating flora. Okay, I should stop talking about age here.

This birthday I have the most dramatic birthday ev-fah but I’m not going to write about it here because then I have to admit my saying fuckoff a lot of times haahahaha… I did, though, feel blessed on that day because I felt whatever happened/will happen I would be okay and I had people who truly care about me. This is apaseh moment for you, ya? 😀 .


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Ketika Angka Bertambah

20140426-233751.jpgSisa umur saya berkurang satu hari ini. Saya bersyukur karena saya masih diberi umur tahun ini untuk menerima cium Hikari, mendengar nyanyian Happy Birthday Aiko, melihat wajah salah tingkah Papap yang hampir lupa, makan kue ulang tahun bersama orang tua saya, membalas ucapan selamat teman-teman saya yang baik,  membaca posting blog hadiah ultah saya dari Fitri Mohan sambil terharu berat…  Saya bersyukur.

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Your February

February.

Things turn pink when February comes. The world suddenly becomes more romantic. People suddenly become more hopeful. Of certain kinds of affection they think they deserve on this pinky month.

When everything turns pink and heart-shaped, I feel like a bell is ringing. The month always reminds me of a wish I once said but have never been able to realize. A promise to meet her in Central Park and say Happy Birthday, my darling!

I don’t know when and how or how long it will take, but I intend to keep my wish. As for now, I have to be grateful for the technology. For she is just a click away.

Happy birthday, darling Fitri Mohan!
There is nothing truer about you than this:

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21 February

Hari ini saya turun gunung. After weeks of lazying around, postponing writing my blog, today I made it my mission to write a piece. And that’s all because of one girl, Fitri Mohan.

Today is her birthday. I have started to write her a special birthday blog post for her since 4-5 years ago. Why? Tons of reasons.
– She is far. I cannot send her a birthday gift. (and yes, the postal fee is expensive)
– She is special. I cannot find any appropriate gift that can show how special she is. (and yes, the postal fee is expensive)
– She is… Well, I have a thousand reasons why I always write a blog post for her birthday gift every year. And one of the reasons is because I love her.

Until this part, people usually think…
– We are related. We belong to the same family tree. We kinda look similar, eh?
– We are old friends. Elementary, Junior high, Senior high, university friend, perhaps?
– We are twins. Who knows?
– We have somehow met somewhere, probably in a hospital when we got sick at the same time?

The answers to those questions are no, no, nope.

We are not related, although we both are pretty by nature.
We are not friends from school. What school?
We are not twins… ehem…
We haven’t -let me repeat- have not ever met before in our life!

TRUST.
It was trust that brought me closer to her.
When we stayed till late at nights.
When we discussed things only friends shared.
When we wrote a story together in a blog we called ‘We can do more than drafts”.

But how can we have trust while we haven’t even met?
Yeah, right. Like you haven’t heard of virtual shop, virtual dating, virtual network before…

So, today, I’m going to say again what I’ve been saying for the past 5 years.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Nek!
Thank you for your friendship.
My best wishes always for you.

ps: I’m so sorry this year I couldn’t keep my promise to take you to every Pesta Blogger I attend.