Oh Sistas, Where Art Thou?

Most of my blog posts are about me and myself and the world related to me. Once in a while, I remember my dear friends, with whom I share these laugh and tears. I want to share their stories.

Mimay

I always hate Monday. It’s classic, or even cliché, but I do hate Monday. Monday brings me back the routines, the schedule, the weekly meeting, the phone rings, the e-mails, the letters, after two days of peace being myself.

This Monday, instead of being drowned into the hatred for Monday, I’m pleased to surf Mimay’s blog.

She’s still the most photogenic girl I’ve ever known (I’m not gonna compare her to Agnes Monica, or even Paris Hilton. She’s the most common-not-from-celebrity-world photogenic person I know), though I would never forget one Saturday when I went out with Mba Penny, Kak Jamur and Kak Ira, we met her somewhere and hang around Jakarta and when we finally dropped her in front of her boarding house she confessed that she hadn’t take any shower that day!

One thing that I like from her blog is, it’s so girly. It’s so feminine. I’m not talking about a blink-blink page with pink hearts and purple butterflies spread all over. It’s about the writings.

I think the world needs a straight, honest blog, with which you don’t have to pretend you’re tough, or bother too much of being a Fun Fearless Female. A blog that wouldn’t encourage you to pretend you don’t care about things called the BIG ‘L’, or that you have to smile while writing ‘3’ in front of another number in the ‘age’ box in a filling form, or dreaming of a diamond ring or a white knight in a shining armor trying to save you from the questions from your family and friends. You don’t have to pretend you won’t turn to someone like Matt Damon (?), or in my version, Wentworth Miller.

You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.

I like that idea, Mbak Mimay. But in some cases, it’s not us who don’t know what we’ve got. Some cases involve stupid guys (sowy, my male friends…) who don’t know what they’ve got till it’s really gone. Some guys don’t realize that they’ve hold one of the best things in life, instead, they just abandon it. Even in that case, we, the women (praise the Lord to have created such a character) still wondering, have we not preserved it well.

Popin

Popin is the petit girl that has never rejected my invitation to go anywhere or to do anything for weekend, except when she was catching a cold. Recently, she’s the most “invitable” person around.

We went to Chinatown last weekend, having a Chinatown dinner. I had Singaporean noodles and she had her dish consisted of roasted pig’s ear and pig’s intestine (it didn’t look as bad as it’s heard).

Popin issued two announcements. First, she’s just had a new boyfriend (congratulations!). Second, she’d be unemployed as per February 1, 2008.

Popin has spent 5 years with the company she’s been working for. Lately she thought she’s been exhausted and I think she has. I could see how the company had occupied her so much even on holiday season, when she had to organize things and contribute much of her energy, on December 26 and 31 (!).

It might seem unwise to leave a job before you got another. But there are some things in life that you can’t compromise and you can’t take anymore. In Popin’s case, where she’s been loyal and dedicating most of her time and skill for the company, and when the company is unable to see that, keeping it is not wiser than leaving it.

Well…I can’t say how long she’ll be unemployed, neither can her, neither can anybody alive and dead. All I can say is, I wish her the best. I know she’s considered what’s best for her. I just believe that there must be something good for her, an architect who has experienced in designing houses.

Clara

January 29 was Clara’s birthday. Happy birthday, my dear Clara!

Back to my old days in Bali, Clara used to be the girl with bob hair, mocked by the guys (not in a bad way though, just in a sense of friendship), either it had something to do with Mas Yudi or just called ‘ndut’ (usually Fei did this, though Clara wasn’t fat).

Clara loved so much to be in Bahiana. She was pleased to have her first salsa lesson with Ben. She mamboed, she twisted, and she was bent. And like I did, she loved to have a dinner at Warung Italia! A dish of spaghetti carbonara (too bad Antonio didn’t serve fettuccini), a scoop of salad, a piece of cuzione bread for dessert. Just like Mas Yudi, Clara loved to have “Soto Ceker” close to our office building complex for lunch. And yet, sometimes she liked the unhealthy lunch of “nasi jinggo” sold by a vendor passed by our building complex (dear, I really missed those unhealthy things a lot now!). But nothing can beat her love for Siobak Singaraja in Denpasar!

Many times she called herself “coward”, because she said she had no courage to tell her boss what was in her mind (hey, Clara, I think you have a companion here).

Moments with Clara that I’d never forget was the “Clara dan Ketek” (Clara and the armpit), a series of incidents she experienced with our dearest Shigetada Suzuki. Dear…how could I retell those incidents? It has taken all of our pities, laughs, and tears (tears of laughing).

So, Clara is now safe in her hometown, Bandung euy, never forget the pin she sent to me when I went home. I love that pink flower, I love to pin it on my green blazer or my black denim jacket.

Miss Ya Sistas

Life sometimes can be so hard and so harsh and so confusing, but if you have someone to talk to, at least some questions are answered or ideas pop out. And I was lucky I had not only one, I had these good guys to give plenty ideas I needed.

Thanks Mba Mimay for the girly, feminine encouragement. You’re still the most stylish person I know. Yeah, so you’re 57 now? Wow, I must have fallen asleep for 22 years!

Bunch of thanks Clara sista for being there for me in the foodcourt benches, spending hours eating, drinking, talking, browsing and chatting on the internet, and building this circle of friends—these dearest guys of the Foodcourt Club, 8 regular members, 14 or more extended—waiting for me to come on Sunday morning to go to church together, never forget that, and looking forward to another night at Bahiana. 26 are you now, dear? What has your Abang sent for your present? Well, I wish you all the best and lotsa love.

And Tante Po, though you're just 2 blocks away from my house, I wish you good luck for a brave new step you're gonna make in life. Thanks a heap for always available for any jalan-jalan on the weekend. And for any Saturday afternoon messing up my bed for hours sipping cups of coffee, talking about Christian Bale and Stereophonics and Ugly Betty and Won Bin and whether Cesc Fabregas never would come home to Spain and whatever topic girls may talk.