Dulu ada masanya saya suka lagu-lagu berirama keras. dulu sekali, waktu saya masih muda belia saya menyukai Guns N Roses, Sepultura, Metallica, Green Day dan Nirvana. Saya sampai hafal lagu-lagu mereka termasuk satu album green day yang berjudul insomniac – meh, sampai hari inipun  masih terngiang-ngiang lagu Brat itu. selain grup luar, salah satu grup yang saya suka adalah powerslaves. siapa yang tidak ingat dengan vokalisnya yang suaranya seperti hidungnya selalu dijepit

Dan lagu powerslaves yang paling saya sukai adalah sisa. walaupun sebenarnya isinya curahan hati, tetapi mereka tetap menyanyikannya dengan gaya keras. simaklah liriknya.

secangkir kopi di pagi ini
sambut hari yang indah
kuingat kata teriknya mentari
saat kita bicara
ditengah sibuknya hari hari
akankah kau hadir di sini
oh yeah..waktu yang tersisa
dalam kehidupanmu
adakah kata cinta di hati
kata cinta untukku
kau habiskan waktu bersama ambisimu
tanpa hiraukan diriku
bila ingat saat pertama
berjanji tuk hidup bersama…oh yeah
semua angan yang kau ungkapkan
semua ini hanya mimpi…saja
hilang ditelan masa

curahan hati kan? tapi tidak dinyanyikan dengan menye-menye. hell yeah, curahan hati saya jugakah?

well sepertinya begitu

lirik diambil dari sini.

Dear beloved one,

berada di hari seperti ini mengingatkanku pada hari-hari di saat kita pertama kali jatuh cinta.

hari-hari yang dingin di mana aku bisa mencium bau rumput basah dan merasakan tetesan air hujan

berada di hari seperti ini mengingatkanku akan alasan kenapa aku mencintaimu

aku mencintaimu karena semua yang ada di dirimu

aku mencintaimu karena semua yang tidak ada di dirimu

aku mencintaimu karena kaulah alasan itu sendiri

Well, I haven’t blogged in a while, and I’ve certainly had a few No-Spend days.. all thanks to the flu I’ve been sick for an entire week now. Last Sunday I did nothing other than sleep and drink fluids. I didn’t go to work on Monday and it was a repeat of Sunday. I worked from home for the rest of the week because I was still dealing with fever/chills up until Thursday, and so much coughing! I can’t stop coughing! I woke up several times last night, mid-coughing fit, and then had to be up at 7:30 for a dance rehearsal. Needless to say, I was like a zombie today. This has certainly been one of the worst cases of the flu I’ve had.

I am planning to go into the office on Monday (especially since it’s payday), so I am hoping I feel a lot better by then. Our office is always freezing – the building management claims that the offices on the south and east always complain it’s too hot, and the rest complain it’s too cold.. so we all just have to deal with it, or something. Our office is on the north west corner of the building – we don’t get sun in the windows till late afternoon (and that won’t be happening much longer, damn winter.) I don’t want to have to sit in a freezing cold office when I’m sick. I refuse to. And, we’re not allowed space heaters because it’s a fire risk.

I’m finding myself really lonely lately, though I suppose it’s compounded by being housebound Sunday to Thursday this week (I snuck out to pick up some Halloween supplies for my dance class of 4-5 year olds on Thursday evening ) Although T and I didn’t dress up for the last two Halloweens (they don’t really celebrate it in England..), I find myself a little jealous of the people here I see planning costumes and parties. I’m not doing anything – I am probably going to dress up in some sort of thrown-together costume for my 4-5 year olds’ dance class on Monday.. but that’s it. In fact, I will probably end up being the one who hands out candy here at my parents’.

I’m missing having T around, and having our group of friends in the UK. I severed ties with a lot of friends from high school and elementary, because we’ve grown in different directions. So I don’t really have anyone around here anymore, which can get really boring. I just can’t be friends with people who do drugs, or people who have multiple children with multiple fathers and haven’t had a job in six years. Then there’s the one who cheats on her boyfriend.. ugh.. I just don’t know what to say to her! The one best friend I had who I really cared about, I’ve given up on. I made plans with her twice when I came back to Canada on a visit, and she ditched me both times. She didn’t even have the decency to text me to say she couldn’t come, and it was costly for me to have to call multiple times leaving messages for her asking where she was, from my UK cellphone She later told me she was in the hospital really ill both times, which is amusing because I didn’t realise she could update her facebook status from the hospital bed.

I’m getting so frustrated with my current living situation. People keep asking me when T is moving here, and it’s just such a big story of what we’re trying to do that I feel like an idiot trying to explain. There’s a little voice in my head (it’s the same one that tells me my ass is huge in those jeans), that keeps telling me whoever I’m talking to is probably thinking “oh, I doubt he’ll end up moving here.” It’s even moreso difficult to explain because I just feel like the whole situation is not a plan, and more of a jumble of ideas that no one is executing.

I was more positive about everything when I first made the decision to move home, even though I was bawling my eyes out at the time. My visa was up early August, I had to come back to Canada no matter what. If I was applying for a visa to go back to the UK, I had to come back here and apply. But did I want to stay in England? No. Not really. The only reason I had gone back to England in June was because I wanted to be with T. In the few weeks before I left, he started speaking to his work about transferring to their Boston office – an idea that we both liked. They would pay for him to move, he would keep his job stability. We’d be able to see each other (yay, JetBlue flights!) MUCH more often. If he really hated North America, he would just be able to transfer back. He’d be much closer to Toronto (and in the same time zone), to eventually start looking for work there. We were both excited about the prospect of a new city to explore. Multiple higher-ups okayed the idea. It seemed everything was in motion for him to go. His co-workers were telling me that it was definitely going to happen.We visited Boston, we both really enjoyed it. I looked forward to the idea of working from his apartment in Boston for a week, and spending the weekend in Maine.. or something like that!

Fast forward a month, and everything was flipped upside down when one of the higher-ups got fired. A new person, with different ideas took over the role. So, as it is now, there is no plan for him to go to Boston. And every week, I hear another plan of his about how he’s going to convince them they need a certain position in Boston that he can fill. For the first month of this, I always met his ideas with a positive reaction, and would get hopeful. But I’m seemingly less pumped when he tells me nowadays, because it seems like the idea is going NOWHERE. And, he’s seriously put himself out on a limb – emailing multiple people in multiple positions at his office and at the Boston office. He’s SO unbelievably unhappy at the office in England as well, which makes me feel really upset about the whole situation.

So, I took it upon myself to fill out all my sponsorship stuff for the PR card for him, and he’s supposed to be filling out his part of the application. He told me two weeks ago that he’d have it in the mail the next day. I don’t think he did because I haven’t received it and he hasn’t mentioned it. He didn’t even want to apply for it in the first place because he didn’t want to move here without a job, and possibly be jobless for a few months. A co-worker of T’s that he holds in high regard had tried to get a job here and wasn’t able to. He took it upon himself to tell T that the Canadian job market is hard to break in to, and that it would be near impossible for him to get a job here. I don’t know what to say or do to counteract that, because I don’t have experience as an immigrant trying to get work here. But how hard can it be – there are tons of immigrants here! And although we are in a recession, my friends are having no problems getting new jobs in Toronto right now.

Ahh, it’s nice to have a blog to vent to.

It’s time for my October goals

1. Reduce my debt by clearing credit card debt completely and getting line of credit debt down to below $4000.
2. Take the dog for a walk every evening that I am not out of the house for dance classes or some other reason (socializing, etc.) I was doing really well at this and for some reason have stopped.
3. Learn to cook my own Chicken Tikka Masala and Pad Thai. God, how I miss Sainsbury’s ready meal CTM
4. Cook  my yummy vegetable soup, and also bake my ginger cookies that are amazing.
5. Sell more stuff on ebay!
6. 15 No Spend days
7. Finally make it to that damn Hot Yoga class.
8. Work my full hours every pay period.

I never officially made a September goals list, though I did do quite a few things that I had intended to.

1. I filled out and sent T the Permanent Resident application documents. I still have to call Revenue Canada to get my Option C, and get a letter from my employer.. but I don’t think either of those will be a problem. The Option C takes 7-10 days to receive, and is free!
2. I sent two money orders to T to get our joint account paid off (hooray!)
3. I sent away for my free credit report. I haven’t gotten anything back yet.. hopefully soon.
4. I made $52.05 on ebay selling some stuff! AND I have two auctions ending tomorrow. I also made about $5 selling MAC postcards.
5. I did a lot of stuff that I had been putting off, like sewing a button back on my duvet cover, and fixing a broken bracelet.
6. Bought a hard drive and got my pictures backed up! Phew

I went to the mall tonight, and ended up buying SHOES. They’re completely different than what I was originally looking for in a shoe to wear to work, but I realised that I need a heel because my dress pants are longish. I really like these and can hopefully sneakily wear thin black socks with them because I HATE NYLONS.

I also went to Le Chateau to take my sweater back. Both pockets were coming off, and the collar was coming off. This isn’t the first time I’ve had quality issues with their clothing, so I sent a scathing email to their head office yesterday, about how I will not shop there anymore, and I will tell everyone I know not to. Well.. they don’t do returns. Seriously, they only do exchanges or store credit. This even further cements why I will never shop there again. We ended up exchanging the sweater, and hopefully this one doesn’t rip. Because if it does.. there will be hell to pay. I do not want a store credit. I told the cashier that $100 is too expensive for an acrylic sweater that’s falling apart. Yes, $100!!! Freaking acrylic! It does not help matters that we went into R.W. & Co. afterwards, and found a yummy soft sweater that’s nicer than this one… for $70

I don’t think I will have a hard time with doing 15 No Spend Days, because I am down to $50 spending money until the 12th, and I haven’t paid my cell phone bill yet. I’m not allowing myself to spend money, except to ship the stuff I’ve sold on ebay.

So finally, here’s my birthday gifts!

I have to say, it all looks much nicer ON than it does hanging on a hanger.. That’s the evil sweater.. well.. that’s the new one. Send it some good karma so it doesn’t fall apart! It’s nice.. but it’s acrylic and the stuff on the front is faux leather.. all for $100 :|Totally not worth it, my poor Mom :/ The shirt and pants are from R.W. & Co. You can kinda see in the picture that the pants have the same wine colour running through them.. they’re gorgeous. The top is way less shiny looking in normal lighting – the flash totally threw it off.

I also took a picture of my new frame, filled with a bunch of pictures (10 of the 18 spots are filled), but I feel too weird to post it.. even with the faces blurred.

My weekend should be pretty lackluster – laundry, boxing up my ebay sales, posting new auctions.. and then dance classes on Sunday.

Today has been a day dedicated to getting stuff done. Laundry, cleaning, and vacuuming were all top on the list. Then I started listing stuff on ebay, which is always such a pain. It seems like it was worth it though, because out of the five auctions, three have bids already! So hopefully I can make some extra money to pay off the debt! I also still have more stuff to auction, but I have decided to stop for today, and see how these five go.

I also replaced the plastic in my new picture frame with glass because I accidentally broke the plastic. I was cleaning it, and it cracked.. it was just cheap plastic crap. Replacing it with the glass spurred me to finally go through my pictures from the last three years. I had lost them, and I didn’t have backups, but thankfully I got almost all of them back using a disk recovery program. They’ve been sitting in a directory on my laptop for a few months – I was putting off going through them because I was worried I had lost a lot. I think I lost four pictures out of six gigabytes worth of pictures, so I’m quite happy with that result! I may be able to recover those four pictures from another drive.. *fingers crossed* I found 10 nice pictures of T and I to print out for the frame. There’s room for 18 pictures in it, and I currently have 1 in there.. so it looks kinda sad!

That also spurred me to buy a Western Digital passport drive for backups. I have been meaning to buy one for a long time, and finally I found a good deal online, so I went ahead and got it even though I wasn’t supposed to spend anymore this pay period. Once I get it, I am going to put some time aside to scan in important documents – like my passport – so I have a copy of them if ever needed. I definitely need to start backing up – I bawled my eyes out when I thought I had lost all the pictures. At work, I am constantly stressing to my boss about the importance of backups in case of a server failure, and I don’t even have my own stuff backed up!

I sent off a request for a free credit report today, to Equifax. I sent them a photocopy of my passport, and both the front and back of my driver’s licence. I hope that is good enough for them! I’ve never had any kind of credit report done before, so I’m interested to see what it’s like. I’m mostly doing it to make sure that there is no identity fraud going on. If I am going to eliminate my debt (and get my credit back on track), then I don’t want someone else screwing it up for me :/

I haven’t done pictures of my new clothes yet because I haven’t worn them! I’d rather take the pictures in daylight so that the colours are more true to life. I also have a bunch of emails to send to friends back in England, and for some reason I haven’t felt like it today. It’s almost like my social anxiety comes over into my ability to reply to emails – I’m so worried about saying the wrong thing or sounding like a total dweeb!

I still have a little bit of money left over in my spending budget, because I didn’t end up paying for the movie last night. I remembered that  had quite a lot of Scene points, so I redeemed 1000 for my ticket!  The movie was okay.. but with 20 minutes left to go, the bulb in the projector went out and they couldn’t get it fixed! So they gave everyone in the theatre two free passes! There’s no expiry date on them, so I was cool with that. I might use one to go see This Is It.

Hopefully I won’t have a lot on my October Goals list, since I am trying to get so much of it done this weekend. I have three hours of dance classes tomorrow though, so I won’t be incredibly productive.

This week has been pretty busy.. and it’s not over yet! So I haven’t managed to take pictures of the things I got for my birthday, but that post will be coming soon (weekend probably.) Tomorrow I’m going to see Fame with some of the girls from the dance studio, so that’s where most of the $20 that’s left in my spending budget will go. Then it will have to be a No Spend weekend!

Today was technically a No Spend day, although I ended up getting some socks that my Mom paid for (because we were shopping at her place of work, where she gets a discount.) I needed new socks because all I had was white athletic socks and those do NOT look good under dress pants! So I got some thinner socks, in a few different colours – nothing crazy though. This is weird for me because I have only worn white socks for the last.. oh.. 15 years?

Now I just need to find work suitable shoes! I dislike pretty much everything I’ve seen My office is super casual, so I don’t want to wear heels. And I don’t want ballet flats, because I need shoes I can wear in winter. So I need something that covers the whole foot, with no heel. This is incredibly difficult to find right now, apparently. Hopefully, once winter gets closer, there will be tons to choose from. If not, I may end up with these.

I’m a little bummed because I didn’t work my full hours this pay period. I’m like the only IT professional in the world who gets paid hourly. I’ve been getting into work a little late. It’s no wonder, it’s 1 :30am and I’m still up. I was doing so well when I moved home from England, I kinda stayed on BST (British Summer Time) and was asleep before 10, up at 5 or 6 am. But then, when T was in Boston for work and I visited him, we both got on bad habits.. like staying up till 2 am. It didn’t help that the one night in the hotel, we got woken up by a fire alarm at 2:30 am! Pay day is Monday,  so I will get to see how much less my cheque is because of my laziness. That needs to stop!

T finally got the first package I sent him, which has one of the money orders for £250 in it. I didn’t send it registered because it was too big (it would have cost $50!), so it wasn’t trackable, and I was freaking out about that. The second one I sent registered in a smaller envelope for $15, because along with the second £250 money order, it has all the stuff for his application for permanent residence in it. It has some forms that are already filled out by me, with some of our details on them.. I do not want those getting into the wrong hands. I probably owe another £75ish to our joint account, but I will find that out next month when the bills come through.

I’m really hopeful about the PR application. T is very demotivated at work with a lot of stuff that’s been going on lately, so hopefully when he is finally here and has a job, he will look back and see what a good change it was. My only worry is how long it will take him to get a job. We are hoping to be in or around Toronto, and the IT industry there doesn’t seem to be too bad right now – I have an engineer friend who just got a new job this week. Of course, I’m not sure T wants a job in engineering.. right now he’s in a web team doing programming. He wants to take on more of a project manager role while keeping a technical aspect.. hopefully we can find something that is the perfect fit for him pretty quickly.

I added some stuff to ebay tonight, so hopefully I will make some money off of that. If I don’t make much, at least I’m getting rid of stuff. I sold a MAC postcard for $5, so I have to mail that out. Hopefully it won’t cost more than $5 to ship – I didn’t charge shipping. I was going to just throw them in the recycling, so I’m not worried if I get nothing for them.

So I had my birthday on the weekend, and am now officially 29. Eep!

It was enjoyable, and I tried not to do anything I didn’t want to. I am too much of a YES-person (“Yes, I’ll do this for you.. Yes, I’ll go with you to this event.. ” etc. etc.) so I NEEDED a weekend for me. I spent Friday night after work playing video games I am loving the game Fable 2 and I have 58 of the 66 achievements I also played Zuma, which is so very addicting. Still haven’t beaten the Popo Poyolli temple though.

Saturday I SLEPT IN! Then I went shopping with my Mom at my favourite store (where I can afford the clothes at, that is), R.W. & Co. We sneakily worked the system.. she offered to buy me some new clothes for my birthday, and I had a ‘25% off on your birthday’ coupon which is only supposed to be for items bought by me, for me. So she snuck me her debit card and pin number, and “I paid for my new clothes” ;D but really, Mom paid for them I ended up getting a new fall jacket, a wine-coloured dress shirt, and dark grey dress pants that are kinda plaid (but very subtle.. all dark colours.) The 25% ended up being a nice discount, and she also bought a sweater for T for Christmas (and got the 25% discount on it.) She couldn’t stop looking at the sweater and saying how nice it would look on my boyfriend. Ok, whatever Mom I think she’s trying to fill the void of being able to buy nice clothes for a man, because my brother wears skate clothes and my Dad is retired so it’s strictly jeans and sweatshirts for him!

We came home and made spaghetti, and I made baked Eggplant Parmigiana. It’s so freaking GOOD. We also had my favourite – Angel Food cake with whipped cream and strawberries Then I got more presents – a long cozy dark grey sweater from Le Chateau (amazing, I didn’t know they sold anything but club wear), a big picture frame that I am going to fill with the pictures of T and I from all our holidays we’ve been on, and a cupcake carrier!! AHH My brother is buying me a Soap Wall from Lush, but I told him to wait to order it because I have a coupon coming for Lush. I’m trying to get him in the habit of using coupons and spending less!

T sent me flowers, which was really nice They’re pink and quite pretty. I’m a bit bummed about not spending my birthday with him, and not spending his upcoming birthday with him. But then again, the last two years I was a bit bummed that I didn’t get to see any family on my birthday. I can’t have it both ways, at least not yet. Speaking of which, I went to Canada Post on Saturday and I sent T paperwork for his PR application. Hopefully we will have it mailed off to Immigration Canada by mid-November. I’ve been reading on some forums that some people applying for the PR as  common law partners (like T and I) got it approved in three months! The website says six, but I think our application is pretty straightforward. There is no reason I can see why they would deny me as a sponsor. That, and we have SO MUCH proof that our relationship is legitimate, and well, we lived together for two years.

Sunday I relaxed, and then had three hours of dance classes. I was up on pointe for the first time in AGES. We only did about 20 minutes of pointe, but my feet were hurting. I think I need to find some toe tape before my feet turn into big gross blisters :/

I will take some pictures of my new clothes tomorrow, tonight I am just too tired. I taught dance class for three hours tonight.. first class is the 4-5 year olds, and I’m super tired just after that one! Then I had a tap class and a jazz class to teach. The jazz class is teenagers who have only been dancing for a few years, so I like to kick their butts with superhard stuff. Which tires me out even more…

I’m down to just over $20 spending money until next Monday, but I think I will be okay. If I end up going to Hot Yoga on Wednesday, I will have to pull $40 from my credit card to pay for it, but I am going to let myself because I really need to start losing weight. Either Friday or Sunday night I am going to see Fame with the rest of the staff from the dance studio, so the $20 will go towards that. So if I do anything else on the weekend, I have to find FREE things to do. This also means I don’t have the money to get Quiznos/Tim Hortons/junk food for the rest of the week. Surprisingly, I am enjoying this ‘trying to stick to a budget’ stuff

Woo, I just redeemed 200 airmiles for another HBC gift card! In the past month, I have redeemed enough HBC rewards points for a $40 gift card, and now the airmiles for another $25! $10 of that was due to a really awesome coupon Yay, free stuff! Part of me wants to spend it on some new MAC eyeshadows or something.. (that I don’t need – have you SEEN my traincase?!), but instead I will save it for when I really need stuff. In fact, I *need* razors so I may use it to get a pack.. unless I can find them cheaper on ebay. I also got roughly $30 of coupons from save.ca – can’t wait for those to come in the mail.

Payday comes soon, and that means: my $200 per paycheck allowance! I’ve done well this pay period – $23.95 left with three days to go. I have had tons of no-spend days – I wish I had been counting them! My pay should be over $1100, so $800 will go on the credit card, and $100 on the LOC. I’m thinking of taking $100 from the $800 to open a TFSA.. should I start one now ($100 a paycheck maybe), or wait till the debt is mostly paid off? I’m not sure.

We’re celebrating my Dad’s birthday tonight, so it definitely won’t be a healthy one. Fish & chips (lots of tartar sauce of course!), and coleslaw. Oh, and.. chocolate cake. YUM! I think I’m going to start Hot Yoga next Wednesday.. and awesomely, I got an email from the yoga studio about a new deal – unlimited classes for a month for $40.95 (tax inc.)! So worth it, when they charge $17/class, and $135/10 class pass. I could go to at least four classes, but hopefully I will go to more. I think I can convince my new yoga partner to sign up for the deal as well, and the two of us can try all the different classes they offer.. they offer pilates too!

And in the mail the other day was a free week pass for the local gym for me and a friend, so I’m going to drag my Mom there and see if they will give us a good deal at the end of the week. I miss going to that gym!

I’m nostalgic for England due to some random things.. like I miss going to the leisure centre with the boyfriend and swimming.. and then going to the sauna and steam room together.. sigh.

birthday boy

Happy birthday, nyet……

When life gives you lemons… you put them away in the fridge and go out running to relieve your stress.

The harder grad school gets, the more I run. The thing is that grad school has been extremely difficult for the past year. Thankfully I’ll be out on my three internships soon, and I’ll remember why I wanted to be a physical therapist to begin with. But for now, I’ll keep running.

It’s a vicious cycle. School gets hard -> I run. School gets harder -> I get less sleep -> I still run -> Get more tired from the long runs -> Get less sleep.

I ran 10 miles this morning and it felt amazingly challenging. Now my body aches, but it feels sooo good.

Oh! I’ve been trying to be really diligent with doing core workouts. So twice a week I do P90x Core Synergistics workout. It’s pretty good. I feel more balanced. My right leg doesn’t externally rotate as much, so that’s good.

My husband and I will be celebrating 2 years of marriage this Wednesday. It’s so exciting. We’re not going to celebrate until next week because I have 2 papers, 2 presentations, 2 tests next week. But it will give me something to look forward to.

Ada suatu kejadian yang membuat dunia saya jungkir balik belakangan ini. dan ya, saya tidak malu mengakui kalau pada saat itu saya pulang sambil menangis
*jadi berasa anak SD lagi*
Saya tidak bisa menuliskan detilnya. tapi buat saya itu sangat menyakitkan dan sampai berhari-hari saya masih menangis.
Well, banyak pelajaran yang bisa saya dapat dari peristiwa itu. tapi ada satu hal yang penting.
maybe I don’t have a perfect boyfriend, but now I know for sure that when my world falls apart, he will be there for me.
Sweetheart, terima kasih sudah mau meninggalkan pekerjaanmu yang seabrek-abrek hanya untuk memelukku dan memastikan bahwa kalaupun duniaku jungkir balik dan kacau berantakan, semuanya akan baik-baik saja karena kamu akan selalu ada di sampingku.

I don’t want to go into pediatric physical therapy anymore.

Before I started the DPT program, I was all gung-ho about peds. Kids are great – and I love kids. It made sense. I’m a small tiny person. I should treat small tiny people. Right?

I got the vibe awhile ago, actually. It started when I began my orthopedic sequence. Now, I really, really like ortho. And I like aspects of neuro rehab, too. I worked with three Parkinson’s patients last year. Loved it. I had such a blast. I enjoyed it because many of the exercises and techniques were ortho-ish but I got to treat the whole body, implimenting a lot of neuro.

And now that I’m in the pediatric track of the program. Ehhh. We have several of really good pediatric physical therapists coming to teach us evalutation and treatment. And peds fosters a different breed of PTs. A breed that I am not apart of. My personality isn’t very bubbly. I have to stick to a plan. I don’t adapt very well.

All I know is…no peds for me.

The more I learn in my pediatrics class, the more I am realizing that peds is not for me. But, the more I want to be a mother.

Gerald and I have been married for almost two years, so the maternal itch is coming on.  And while working on balance training doesn’t seem appealing to be in a clinical setting, I can imagine setting up our little baby on the couch and working on stability outside of its base of support for vestibular stimulation…5 minutes a day. Because I’m in a doctorate program, statistically our child should have a high IQ. That and all the motor and sensory integration techniques I will implement, our child could be very advanced. =P

It’s crazy. I have one more year left of DPT school. And I would like to do a fellowship program after so I can specialize in something. So that’s at least two and a half more years left before I can start thinking about babies. Right? Right. Besides, my dad would murder Gerald if I didn’t get to finish school.

Semalam secara tidak sengaja saya membuka catatan lama si pacar yang bertanggal sekian tahun yang lalu….

yang membuat saya jadi senyum-senyum sampai sekarang di akhir note itu ada tulisan :

Kamu memang hebat Ira… *berikut tanggal dan tanda tangan*… *tersipu dan tersenyum najis*

ahem… saya memang hebat nyet… *dibakar massa*

Saya mau jadi anggota PIKP saja……

Suatu sore, di parkiran motor. si pacar hendak mengambil motor astrea ‘83 nya. Secara tidak sengaja saya melihat motor suzuki thunder yang diparkir bersebelahan dengan motornya.

Saya : Menurutmu motor suzuki thunder ini keren gak sih?

Dia : Keren, kenapa? pengen naik thunder?

Saya : Cih, kalau sekadar naik mah sudah pernah *lirik seseorang yang pernah berbaik hati mengantarkan saya pulang dengan suzuki thundernya*

Dia : Enak mana, naik motor ini atau naik suzuki thunder?

Saya : gak ngaruh tuh mau naik apa, yang paling penting adalah dirimu ada di dekatku.

Sunday, me and my better half went to Kemaro island in the delta of the Musi River. Before that time I had never gone to the island. When Chika visited Palembang last year, we had a plan to go to the island but since the boat stucked, we canceled our plan. And when we came to the island, the Buddhists were celebrating the cap go meh. There were a lot of people. Not only the Chinese but also the local people visited the island. Unlike the Chinese, the local people came to the island only for recreation. And in my case, only to capture the moment with my camera

gate of the Kemaro island

there were two ways to come to the island. You can go via 16 Ilir market and go to the island with the boat. Or you can go by ground transportation such as car or motorcycle and go to the island by temporary bridge in the Intirub factory.

the temporary bridge

We chose to go by motorcycle and when we arrived in the island, I was fascinated with the atmosphere of the island. It was crowded there and the smoke was in the air, but somehow i felt like I was in other side of the world. On the corner, Chinese puppet was performed by and even if i didn’t understand the language but i still could enjoyed the show.

chinese puppet

I also didn’t miss the opportunity to enter the only vihara in the island. But, the thing that makes my better half was happy is the statue of the “Journey to the west” characters such as Sun Go Kong. And he didn’t miss the opportunity to pose with his idol, Patkai

in the vihara

my better half with his idol

While I was walking around the island, i saw a lot of bird sellers. And I found out that the people bought the birds from the seller and set the birds free. They did that to throw their bad luck away.
Some people told me that the scene of the island was more beautiful in the night, but somehow I’m glad that I had an opportunity to see the Cap Go Meh celebration.

the buddhists were praying to the ancestors

the pagoda

Beberapa jam sebelum tahun baru

si nyet : Kalau mau kirim sms ucapan selamat tahun baru bagusnya apa ya?

saya : Kalau aku sih biasanya standar aja, males nulis macam-macam apalagi copy paste punya orang. Palingan, selamat tahun baru, semoga kita menjadi orang yang lebih baik di tahun yang akan datang

si nyet : standar banget, males ah…

saya : kalo gitu terserah…

Beberapa saat sebelum tahun baru

si nyet : Aku dapet ide buat ucapan selamat tahun barunya…

saya : apa?

si nyet : Selamat tahun baru, marilah kita membuang sampah pada tempatnya

saya :ya kirim aja kalau gitu…

beberapa saat kemudian

saya sedang memegang kaleng minuman saya yang sudah habis isinya

si nyet : sini kalengnya…

i could read his mind, so i knew what he will do next

saya : Jangan, paling nanti akan kamu buang di kolam itu

si nyet : kan cuma nambah satu sampah….

saya : gimana sih, tadi baru kirim ucapan marilah membuang sampah pada tempatnya. Sekarang malah buang sampah sembarangan.

si nyet : kan belum tahun baru…..

saya : ……

Yes, I have found the new love

I love blogging

I love photography

but still, i love you too….

So Gerald and I are back from Christmas in Vegas. We spent a week with my family. I can’t spend more than a week with my family. Don’t worry. It’s mutual, especially between my mom and I. Vegas was awfully cold. Too cold for the middle of the desert. But here we are, back in So Cal back in the sun and I can enjoy my outside morning runs without returning as an ice cube.

Gerald and I have been married for a year and a half now. Marriage has sunk in, I feel the weight of it more when we are surrounded with other married couples, because you start starting about how the wife nags and the husband gets quiet…and you all laugh about it because it’s true for everyone. Okay, I had a moment at my cousin’s house. There I was sitting at the table with my mom, my cousin and her mom, all happily married women. And we were talking about a set of really cute mugs that come with their own rack. These mugs were big for coffee rages, soups, and cereals. And the four of us women spent a good…oh…20 minutes discussing these mugs. How they were perfectly sized and the deep various colors, and that if you wait until the right time you can get the whole set for $10. Now, all in all, the conversation doesn’t seem very appealing; but, I have to say, I was genuinely very interested. And that’s when I felt that I officially joined the Wives Club.

Come on. Admit it. They’re cute.

These two kids were strolling along some of the tourist traps. Even if she ever swore that she would never ever came to such places, but that day she had to accompany her better half whom really want to come to some of the tourist traps.

What could she said? In the name of love, she got rid off her reluctantly and went by busway to monas. But look at the good side, the sky was so blue and she could take tons of beautiful photos.

my better half

Not only satisfied with monas, her better half want to go to KotaTua . And again, in the name of love, she went to Kota Tua by busway. As you see in the photos, both of them ignored the rules in the Museum.

Museum

And after that…….. Yes, her better half really wanted to go to Glodok. Thanks God, he did not buy anything and not even asked about Miyabi like the T-shirt he wore on this special occasion.
If you wonder whether they went either to Taman Mini or Ragunan Zoo, the answer is no and she really thanked God for that. They only went to Dufan, but that is another story.

*menanti para grammar nazi gentayangan di sini*