Thanks

Posted May 22, 2008 by
Categories: Uncategorized

Last Tuesday when I was driving home from Badminton club around 10.30 in the night, as usual I take highway I-75 North and exit in Pembroke Pines west. I enjoy a lot driving in the night as there are not so many cars like during the day and usually I turn on some easy listening music in my car and I like every moment of it.

Usually my mind would flying either to back home, to the people that I love, to the things that I wanna do in my life and many other things. And that night, my mind was flying like this “mmhh.. I had very nice game today and I played 5 times!!”, yes from 7.30 pm to 10.30 pm, I partner with my Malaysian friend, and some friends from China and Jamaica. Sometimes I can’t believe that I found this really nice thing which is my hobby. I love sport so much and in Indonesia I swim, I run, I dance, even participated in the competition all over the place and we won and badminton is the best from all of that. If you read my diary when I was little girl, you will see in the question of “What do you want to be ?” and my answer is “I wanna be like Susi Susanti” hehehe *crazy me… but I do love it.

But thats not the point about this post as there was another thing that impressed me as when I was driving I was thinking mmhh when I got home, I would make veggie juice because today I haven’t drink it as I went straight to the badminton club from the office. And I was just like ‘wow’ its almost 11 in the night and I am still thinking to make veggie juice???!!!… Do you know how hard it was before for me to have this habit but now suddenly I have it. I just don’t care what time it is I have to drink veggie juice every day. And at that point for the first time I thank to the God for my allergy because look the good side that I got.

Ok this is the narcis part :-D , as the next day my friend in the office commented to my hair, she said “OMG Lis your hair is very shining” hehehe *narcis..narcis… but how come its not shining if every day at least I take 2 oranges, one grapefruit, one apple, 2 carrots, celery, watermelon, broccoli, cabagge… :-D hehehe thanks to the veggie juice then because I don’t use anything expect the $12 shampoo for one year :-D

Rekreasi murah meriah

Posted May 18, 2008 by
Categories: My Diary, ringan

Beberapa weekend ini aku perhatikan semakin banyak orang-orang yang datang ke Starbuck dan membaca buku berjam2. Dua weekend terakhir ini ada pasangan dengan satu anjing membawa satu koper kabin yang isinya buku semua dan mereka seharian di Starbuck membaca sambil menikmati kopi atau teh. Kenapa aku bisa tahu?? karena seharian aku juga di starbuck hehehe kadang sambil mengerjakan tugas, kadang hanya baca buku atau nonton DVD. Tapi Starbuck di Fountain of Miramar ini udah seperti rumah kedua karena hampir setiap weekend aku menghabiskan waktu disini, aku bahkan sudah punya tempat duduk favorite yaitu dibagian pojok yang bisa sambil melihat orang lalu lalang dari 2 arah (*foto menyusul).

Dengan keadaan ekonomi global yang sedang krisis dan harga bahan bakar yang terus naik (cukup serius dampaknya karena teman2 di kantor yang tempat tinggal nya jauh mulai membicarakan untuk janjian bareng disuatu tempat dan setelah itu menggunakan satu mobil aja untuk ke kantor agar menghemat bahan bakar). Aku masih gak terlalu berpengaruh karena memang hanya 10 menit nyetir dari rumah ke kantor, hanya kebiasaan nyetir jauh saat weekend dulu (sampai ke Key west yg memakan waktu 4 jam, mungkin kalau dari Jakarta udah sampai Cirebon karena jaraknya sekitar 230 KM) udah gak pernah dilakukan karena memang ternyata capek nyetir lama2 dan gak worth it kalau cuma buat iseng atau bosan hehehe….

Jadilah Starbuck tempat rekreasi yang cukup nyaman untuk bersantai dan menghilangkan bosan, sebenarnya ada satu tempat lagi yang ku suka yaitu di FIU Bay Vista campus. Itu nyaman tempatnya dan mereka punya ayunan yang untuk 3 orang duduk berhadap2an dengan meja di tengah, jadi bisa baca buku sambil main ayunan hehehe atau kalau sendiri bisa buat tidur2an sambil baca buku :-D.. Kalau di pantai, aku gak terlalu suka karena terlalu ramai banyak orang dan panas, malah gak bisa relax dan parkiran nya juga mahal kalau di dekat pantai bisa $20. Jadi sekali2 ajah ke pantai nya kalau memang lagi pengen banget.

Untuk saat ini kayaknya Starbuck Fountain Miramar dan FIU Bay Vista campus cukuplah jadi tempat rekreasi ku dan untuk beberapa orang tampaknya, yang murah meriah hehehe

Suze Orman’s Show

Posted May 18, 2008 by
Categories: Motivation

Loveeee so much this show, its on CNBC every Saturday night at 9 pm or 12 pm. If you want to be smart with your money, watch her show. I meant by smart is really smart and alert with your money, how to take care and manage your money very well and not only that, you can learn from people’s problem with their money also in her show like problem with Credit card debt, student loan, retirement program, FICO score, etc.

Suze Orman is a personal finance expert. I met her before when she was one of the keynote speakers in Oprah’s event and I like her, I never forget her joke one time about money, she said “You know why men die first???…… because we (women) ‘kill’ them” :-D (she meant because women ask more and more money from their husband, thats why the husband got stress and heart attack and then die).

I was not surprised if she is named as one of the world’s most influential people in Time Magazine because I experience by my self after every time watching her show, I get the feeling more aware and alert with my expenses especially if I see people’s problem with their money. Simple and efficient life is what she was trying to put in every one’s mind as the problem of most people is not having less money but having expenses more than their income because of too consumptive.

Sometimes she gives good point also about family finance management, how the honesty about finance between wife and husband is very important to keep the balance and harmony in family. So that it wont happen that one is struggling a lot to saving and the other is spending too much. And another thing is that its important to involve the kids when they are teenager to know about how the finance is working in the family. I see there are some American family that they sit together with their kids, and the parent started to explain about the expenses that they have and the income. The goal is to introduce to the kids what money is and the value so that they can start to be wise their money as young as possible because just telling the kids to save is not working instead let them to decide what to do with their money but give them some lessons first before that. Suze also mention that allowance shouldn’t give to the kids instead of reward and “working” system because its good for them to start learn about hard work to get something that they want.

Well I don’t know because I don’t have kids yet but reward system is not a new thing for me as that is what my parent did to me. They are not going to give me anything unless I got minimal rank of 3 in the class. The higher rank I got the bigger gift I got also and as I love to get something, reward system worked perfect for me :-D

Ngiri lagi??

Posted May 16, 2008 by
Categories: ringan

Beberapa hari yang lalu aku baca blog seorang Ibu muda yang baru saja mempunyai anak pertamanya. Dari yang ku baca waaahhh bikin ngiri sampai rasanya gak mau ah lihat lagi blog nya karena cuma bikin ngiri aja hehehe. Trus aku mikir kok ngirian ya jadi orang mmhh kayaknya ada yang mesti di benerin nih. Akhirnya melihat2 lagi kehidupan orang lain ada yang dunianya memang dunia Ibu, mengurusi bayi sepanjang hari, bermain dan mengagumi sang bayi yang baru lahir ke dunia, ada juga yang dunianya sibuk terus dengan perkuliahan, lalu ada yang dunianya sibuk merintis usaha… macam-macam.. dan duniaku sendiri saat ini sedang berjuang di negeri orang, mempunyai banyak rencana yang menunggu untuk diwujudkan dan tujuan yang ingin dicapai. Untuk saat ini, inilah “my baby” proyek hidupku yang sedang ku garap dengan hati-hati…. Jadi gak perlu ngiri karena kita sama-sama punya sesuatu yang ingin dicapai dan diurusi dengan sebaik mungkin…  :-D

*gak jelas mode = on

Warkop DKI????????

Posted May 16, 2008 by
Categories: my people

Yah ampun nich kayaknya gue jd korban keisengan suami dech… gue udah mulai curiga saat suami kirim sms kalau habis dari toko dan lihat2 di rak bagian music dan beride untuk mengirim lagu2 karena udah lama gak mengirim lagu2…. hmm ok kita liat lagu apa… biasanya dia pakai Megaupload trus nanti tinggal gue download..

Dulu banget sempet kirimin lagu2nya alm. Benyamin, mmhh oke lah. Kalau gue yang request ke dia, gue biasanya request lagu2 Chrisye, Iwan Fals, Tohpati, Peterpan yg dulu bgt yang sempet nge-boom, sejenis2 itulah tapi kalau dia yang berinisiatif, wallahualam :-D…

Akhirnya selesai download gue putar lagunya ..jreng..jreng… ada lagu “si Kodir cekere dekil endase kanggo bla bla”… trus ada lagu “Gengsi donk” yang lengkap dengan serulingnya…Hmmm mau gak gue dengerin tapi kiriman suami ya udah akhirnya sambil garuk2 kepala gw sms ngadu ke temen, baru dapet kiriman lagu2 Warkop DKI jaman bahola dari suamiku nan jauh di Indonesia sana… dan dengan tertawa puas temen gw sms balik “Hahaha Loe salah besar kalau ngarepin lagu2 romantis dari dia”…. terjebaklah malam2 gw dengerin lagu2 warkop dki dikamar …. Hmmmm….

visiting the doctor this morning

Posted May 14, 2008 by
Categories: My Diary

My condition is kind of so so… but it was good when I visited the doctor this morning.. even though in the morning I hardly could open my eyes. As I don’t want to abuse the flexible time that my boss gives to me so I tried to make doctor appointment as early in the morning as possible but it was hard to wake up early as I felt so sleepy, even I was thinking to cancel it but then no I woke up and took a shower.

Usually I drive only 10 minutes everyday without highway to the office but to go to the doctor I would need 45 minutes or 1 hour and I have to take highway I-75 North and Sawgrass Expressway where we have to pay toll $1 if not using Sunpass. I don’t know whether we have it or not in Indonesia but this system is very good for those who use highway every day. Its a prepaid toll program where you have to buy and register first so you have an account with them and every time you use highway you don’t have to stop and to pay to the cashier instead you just keep driving and the system will automatically detect the Sunpass that you have to put in your car. With this system you pay less also every time you use highway (.75 cents). I am thinking to have it and put it in my car because its still good even though I don’t use highway every day but If i want to drive some where then I don’t have to worry have to bring cash to pay toll.

So I drove to the University Drive Hospital in Tamarac where the doctor office is there. It is my roommate who suggested me about this doctor and thanks to her, he is very good. I like him and feel comfortable with him. I came to his office and we talked a lot about my condition. I am glad that I prepared all the questions that I wanted to ask him as I read a lot also about eczema. He confirmed that there is no cure for this and all we can do is prevention and controlling. I also asked him about my worry if i have to take antihistamine every night and he said its harmful so I can take it as long as needed and he did prescribed me 3 refill antihistamine @30 pills. The only thing that he warned me is the steroid cream that I have to be careful and wise when use it. Because the dilemma of steroid is it will heal you fast but if it is coming back it would be worst and not only that it will also weaken your immune system. So finally the doctor suggested me another cream that is non steroid, I know about this cream before, its very safe but it didn’t work that well especially if the condition already worst. So what he was suggesting me is I have to use both cream and decide when to use the strong one and the mild one. As much as I can not using the strong one but if have to then not more than a week. Hmmm I like that idea, it makes sense for me. And he encourages me to keep my diet also as it would help. He gave me also hand and body moisturizer that contains ceramide because thats what my dermatologist in Indonesia gave me also.

Well I think everything is ok and I do hope my uncle would right that this allergy would disappeared as I finish my master degree :-D hehehe but I did learn a lot though from this experience.

Cerita perjalanan pulangku

Posted May 9, 2008 by
Categories: my people, my world

Berita tentang Bandara Soekarno Hatta yang kembali di tutup mengingatkanku saat kepulanganku ke Indonesia February 2008 yg lalu.

Kejutan yang sangat mahal untuk seseorang karena ingin menghadiri wisuda nya. Dimulai dari mengganti jadwal keberangkatan dari Miami ke Jakarta yang tentu saja membutuhkan biaya tambahan sampai kehebohan keluarga yang ingin menjemput. Apakah hanya soal uang untuk mengganti jadwal keberangkatan?? Tidak, urusan cuti di kantor pun harus kembali dibicarakan dengan si Bos, beruntung memiliki Bos yang pengertian sehingga diijinkan dan memang menggunakan jatah cuti yang masih ada untuk tahun ini.

Berangkatlah dari Miami Airport Rabu sore 30 Januari 2008 yang seharusnya 1 Februari 2008. Semua keluarga dan teman dekat sepakat gak memberitau si yang akan diberi kejutan. Berdasarkan jadwal seharusnya aku  sampai di Jakarta 1 Febuari sekitar jam 1 siang tapi yang terjadi benar-benar di luar bayangan.

10 menit mau mendarat di Bandara Soekarno-Hatta dari Hongkong, tempat transit ke 2 setelah Los Angeles, tiba2 pesawat memutar arah “Lho kenapa” dalam hatiku saat melihat layar tv di depan menunjukkan gambar pesawat yang memutar balik menuju ke utara. Dan kemudian ada pengumuman dari kru pesawat kalau bandara Soekarno-Hatta di tutup jadi diputuskan untuk mendarat di bandara Changi, Singapore. Ya ampun rasanya badan udah pegal sakit semua 2 hari di pesawat dan udah gak sabar mau pulang tapi harus ke Singapore dulu. Ya sudahlah sabaarrr, sampai di Changi penumpang harus tetap dalam pesawat karena akan mencoba mendarat lagi di Soekarno-Hatta setelah beberapa jam. Akhirnya aku mengabari keluarga yang mau menjemput karena khawatir kalau sampai menunggu gak tau kabar di Bandara, ternyata dari pihak keluarga yang mau menjemput, belum ada yang bisa sampai bandara karena macettt.

Jadi teringat sms tante sebelumnya “Semoga nanti Indonesia menyambutmu dengan ramah ya karena sedang banyak bencana alam dan cuaca sangat tidak pasti”. Dalam hati ku “Amieen”. Dan Indonesia memang menyambutku dengan ramah, koper 2 besar ku hilang gak ketemu setelah akhirnya kita berhasil mendarat di Bandara Soekarno-Hatta sekitar jam 7 malam. Semua kelelahan hilang saat keluar dari pintu bandara terminal 2 dan menghirup udara jakarta…. kesan pertama… bau rokok…hehehe I smile and said to my self “Welcome to Jakarta” :-D

Perjuangan belum berhenti sampai di situ, melihat ke sekeliling gak ada taksi, gak ada bus, gak ada apapun hanya banyak sekali orang2 yang terlantar dengan koper2nya :-p, sedangkan yang ku bawa hanya satu koper kecil kabin yang isinya dokumen2 dan satu ransel gendong yang isinya laptop. Sekarang baru mikir kenapa dulu gak minta jemput kakak pakai motor ya. Tapi ya sudahlah gak kepikiran saking senengnya udah sampai di Jakarta.

Tiba2 ada bus yang dioperasikan oleh orang dalam bandara yang memungut Rp 50.000 per orang untuk di antar sampai Slipi. Wah lumayan nih akhirnya ku putuskan naik bus tersebut. Oh ya sebelum itu sempat ngobrol dengan orang asing yang gak begitu lancar berbahasa Indonesia, saat aku bilang aku baru kembali dari Amerika setelah 1.5 tahun, dengan wajah terkejut dia bilang “And no body pick you up?”, Aku ketawa pas dia nanya begitu karena mungkin dipikirannya kasian amat gak ada yang jemput pergi jauh2 udah lama hehehe dan aku jawab “They were trying but they couldnt make it due to the road was closed”, akhirnya dia ngerti dan bilang “Oh okey”.

Akhirnya naik bis tersebut setelah bayar Rp 50.000, dalam hati bersyukur koper 2 besar gak ketemu di tempat pengambilan bagasi karena kalau ketemu malah gak bisa bawanya dan dengan kondisi di bus yang cukup penuh akan menyulitkan penumpang2 yang lain. Jadi Indonesia tetap menyambutku dengan ramah kan, biar sulit tetap ada jalannya hehehe. Akhirnya bus meninggalkan bandara menuju slipi melalui jalan alternatif yang ternyata sama macetnya! bukan macet lagi tapi memang gak bisa bergerak. Ada yang sudah mulai gelisah di Bus dan mulai marah2 memaki infrastruktur Indonesia. Yah ampun kondisi begini marah2 males banget. Tapi untungnya sebagian orang di bus mencoba tetap santai dengan ngobrol dan cerita2 perjalanannya dari mana aja, ada yang baru dari Jepang, Australia, Medan, dll tapi tetap yang paling jauh adalah dari Miami, USA hehehe. Macetnya benar2 parah, gak bisa bergerak sampai lama, orang yang marah2 tadi udah capek sendiri juga dan beberapa orang masih mengobrol bertukar cerita sedangkan aku sudah tertidur pulas dengan memeluk tas ransel dan kaki mengapit koper kecil. Sebelumnya sempat meminjam ponsel orang lain untuk menelpon rumah dan memberi kabar lokasi (saat itu jam 9 malam). Ingin membatalkan kejutan dan ngasih tau yg mau diberi kejutan sebenarnya kalau sudah di Jakarta, tapi mmhh nggak deh malah nanti bikin panik lagi, jadi ya sudah tidur aja di bus, keluarga sudah diberi tau posisi aman jadi biar bisa tidur juga.

Dan akhirnya bus tiba di Slipi jam 1 pagi, lalu lintas sudah mendingan, para penumpang termasuk aku sendiri memilih diturunkan di Hotel The Sultan dan dari situ menyambung dengan taksi Blue Bird. Benar2 perjalanan panjang, taksi sampai di gang rumah jam 2 pagi, berjalan menyusuri gang rumah sambil menarik koper kecil, gak ada rasa lelah karena I am homeeee… :-D

Dan sampailah di depan rumah dan tenyata orang tuaku tertidur di depan pintu masuk. Begitu aku masuk  mereka terbangun dan wuaahh habis deh dipelukin dan gak beberapa lama kemudian semuanya jadi terbangun kakak2 dan saudara, akhirnya ngobrolah kita semua di ruang tamu sampai pagi!, busyet dalam hatiku padahal paginya mau ke wisuda, tapi ya udah akunya juga semangat bercerita ini itu jadi gak terasa capek dan kantuknya.

Setelah itu jam 7 pagi berangkat ke kampus UI untuk melihat wisuda.. ingin berada di sana dan bisa bilang “akhirnya”…. dan setelah 1,5 thn tidak ketemu wajahnya lucu karena semakin menggembil hehehe.. Gak sia2 perjalanan panjang tsb karena walaupun tertunda sampai jakarta tetap bisa menghadiri wisuda juga…

Harusnya wisuda nya dulu2 napa jadi gak nyusahin :-p

The Juice and me and the co-workers

Posted May 6, 2008 by
Categories: ringan

I’ve been laughing these couple days with my co-workers behavior. Ok If you read my blog often, you would know about allergy and allergy that I mentioned I just have in here (USA) which I didn’t have before in back home (Indonesia). In very bad time I usually think if I could chose I would rather go home and live easy there but I still have responsibility here so whatever lets just face it. So I changed a lot my diet to help me controlling my allergy. Raw fruits and vegetables become 90% my food everyday, it was hard in the beginning but then I got used to.

So every morning in the office pantry, people would see me making fresh juice either from oranges or grapefruit. Both are very high in Vitamin C and it boosts your energy level in the morning. Thats all my breakfast and I don’t eat anything but fruit and water until noon because from what I read, in the morning your body detoxify so its very good that you help your body to process it by only eating fruit. In the noon I would have my lunch as usual but no meat instead I got protein from tofu or beans. My snack in afternoon is carrot and celery which make my friends called me “Healthy Kid”…:-p

And for dinner, this is a bit more work. I cant believe I did it for all these weeks because I remember how I did the same in Indonesia but only for couple days and after that I didn’t want to do it again because I became lazy but now I try to develop this good habit by thinking yeah yeah you are going to feed your husband and your future children later with good food so you better start with your self :-p . So after I got home from work, I took all vegetable from fridge and make veggie juice. The vegetables that I use are carrot, celery, broccoli, spinach, beets, cabbage, cucumber, radish, and apple also so the taste wouldn’t be that bad but still, especially if i put a lot of broccoli, the smell just reminds me with Annapurna (the dining hall in my school that only serves vegetarian foods).

And now after like weeks doing this, one time in the morning I heard juicing sound from the pantry in the office when I walked pass it,, “mmhh somebody is juicing also as I know its only me who like to juice every morning” I thought, so I walked to the pantry and saw it was my co-worker who was juicing. She usually teased me in the morning when I make a juice with “cmon be a woman, drink coffee” and usually I replied “I don’t want to drink coffee in the morning” :-p (actually I don’t drink coffee unless going to and spent time in Starbucks) so when I saw her juicing I was just laughing huahaha… and she laughed also…

Not so long after that I happen had conversation with my boss in pantry about my allergy and I told him about all this diet that I am doing and he looked interested. He asked me “what time do you usually make the juice” I was thinking why he asked me that and I said “soon after I got home like 6 or 7 pm maybe” and with smile he asked me “Can you bring the machine to the office so we can make it in lunch time”.. I was just laughing “what???”.. he was so funny.. he said yeah its healthy I want it also… Ok alright I would bring the machine to the office…:-p

The story is not ended yet.. :-p, last Friday the DBA (Database Administrator) saw me when I was juicing oranges and he helped me. I gave him a try of the juice and he liked it. And today (Monday) he told me that he just bought the juicer because he want to juice also at home… hehehe yeah people lets be healthy hihihihi

Comfy food

Posted May 6, 2008 by
Categories: ringan

Comfy food is food that comforts you meaning that food which makes you feel ‘happy’, it can be anything depend on what you really like. Due to my allergy its been longgggg time I didn’t eat my comfy food and today I happen got home from the office with ‘that food’. Grandma who knows I am struggling a lot with my allergy welcome me with surprise face and said “You are going to eat that???” and I said “Yeah I knowww… but its been crazy for me so I need to ‘treat’ my self, I am not going to eat it all, do u want to share?” hehehe and I said again “I am going to take my antihistamine right away after eating this” … So today my dinner was so delicious after months my dinner is just veggie juice.

Yeah after battle within my self while driving home “Should I stop in this place to get this food.. , no no no its not good for your health…, oh cmon its been long time… no no just go home and you will forget about this food” and finally my car turned right which it supposed to turn left to go home… :-D

Within minutes I ended up queuing in drive through and started to look the big board where they shows all of their menus… mmhh yummy yummy… :-p , and when my turn came I ordered “legs and thighs chicken only please” and the guy asked me “crispy or original?” .. I said “Original” ..:-D, can you guess what that is??

yeap its KFC.. :-p

hehehe with happy face I drove home smelling the chicken next to me…:-p and I found grandma already cooked rice so nyam nyam nyam.. I hope my allergy wouldn’t be worse after this… be good to me ok? :-)

Jealous kah? …:-p

Posted May 5, 2008 by
Categories: My Diary

Its silly actually… But this weekend my husband happen to get together with his friends in Bandung, west Java due to the charity event that they are going to have. They went to this city to survey the location and to find the place where they are going to give some money. Charity event or things like that, no I dont mind at all but look I was stuck in my weekend because the school lab that I still have to submit this week and I got message that he was walking around with bunch of his friends in Dago (it’s nice place in Bandung) or the girls were cooking in the morning and all that message that make me just feel “bad”… and I happen miss my friends alot.. forget it… if I was in Indonesia, with one call I can make everybody meet in one place…

Well dont get me wrong like I said in the beginning that its silly actually because I know I couldn’t asked him not to hang out with his friends, its kind of unfair for him and shouldn’t we feel happy if our spouse happy? so I was just trying to deal with my own feeling “Its ok, just face it that your life is pathetic… :-p, had to do school work in weekend when you just survived from crazy patch in the office”

May be If enjoyed my weekend, its not going to be that bad also like for example If I could use this weekend to read the book that I really want to read or watch the movie that I really want to watch I am sure I wouldn’t feel that bad but I couldn’t do that because the school. Hmmm its ok you are student.. thats what they are supposed to do… no matter weekend or not…