hari merdekaaa (was: suara misteri)

Awwwww betapa senangnya hatiku. Beberapa hari belakangan ini tiap kali nyetir mobil di jalan gue ngerasa awkward plus agak2 iritated gitu. Soalnya mobil berkah gue,... iya... si putih itu loww... dia ada2 bermasalah lanjutan.... (what? again? car problem???)... Jadi begini, ketika gua dapet itu mobil warisan dr temen gua Philip, itu dalam keadaan okay2 aja, cuma timing belt-nya udah harus diganti (ps. di Amrik urusan maintenance mobil, palagi mobil bekas tuh paling2 sensitif, kalo gak tau sejarah tu mobil wkt kita beli, ntar bisa berabe). Soo... bbrp minggu lalu gue spt biasa menitipkan mobil kpd tmn gw Martin, the Taiwanese mechanic (definitely not movie star :p). Dia uda biasa menangani mobil2 anak int'l di kampus, dan sesama penghuni benua Asia nih..cieekkh.... ada solidarity kecil2an gitu lhoo, so kita kalo benerin mobil sama dia gak dicharge gede2an. Plus dia pernah jadi mechanic di Mercedez-Benz, so levelnya uda lumayan gitu.
Gue bersyukur banget, dia bilang, mobil gue tuh kondisinya jauh lebih prima daripada mobil gue si Subaru yg sdh 'sulama' alias almarhum itu. Wow. Amazing to see how God works and gave me something I feel I don't deserve. Oh well. So lalu mobil itu menginap di bengkelnya dia selama 3-4 hari, amazing pula, dulu mobil gue sempet dibenerin dia gak kira2 ada 2 minggu kalee, sampe moment2 terakhir pas gue mau cabut utk pergi sebelum balik ke Indo, last moment, euh pedihh deh nunggunya....
Nah, udah dibenerin, beres lah ternyata. Hati gue plong! Yes bebas, kaga perlu kuatir tau2 di jalan brenti n ada aneh2. Tapi, tunggu dulu, ternyata nih... masi ada kekonyolan yang terjadi. Kira2 minggu lalu, ini mobil tiap distart pasti bersuara aneh. Cekikikan terus, bukan ketawa liat Tukul Arwana, tapi si fan beltnya itu.
Fan belt tuh karet yang ada di roda depan yang muter2 kalo mesin mobil nyala. Somehow ada bunyi keras squeaky sound gitu. Sampe ngeri dengernya, ya ngeri, ya keganggu, ya watir, ya takut juga. Persis kayak gerobak Wal-mart yang rodanya mo copot sebelah bunyinya ngikngikngik. Brisik bangeeeet. Gue sempet panik, but I know sebetulnya gak apa2 sih, cuma ya... GOOD GRIEF! Gile aje saban kali nyetir di jalan orang2 tuh pada melongin gue, disangkanya gue alien dari mana bersuara aneh....
So hari ini akhirnya tibalah hari kemerdekaan yang ditunggu2. Gue telepon Martin dan baru hari ini dia bisa stel/adjust itu fan belt nya. Dia udah bilang nothing wrong, justru karena dia berbaik hati sekalian gantiin itu fan belt jadi brand new, krn karetnya baru dia blm stretched alias masi agak kaku, jadi hrs disetel lebih kencang dikit. Bunyi itu karena karet dan roda penopangnya gak beradu erat, jadi ada bunyi gesekan karet dan metal.
(Doohhh, mana aku tahu mas...)
Tapi tadi sore pokonya seneng deh, hore mari bung rebut kembali, itu mobil normal lagi akhirnya. Dengan tangan2 maut-nya yang sebelah belepotan oli sebelahnya lagi item semua, dia stel lagi tuh apanya gua kaga tau dah, cuma 5 menit. Langsung diem tu mobil begitu distarter dan sepanjang dibawa tadi balik ke rumah, tiada lagi tuh yg namanye suara2 misteri....

Hey mobil, akhirnya kamu balik nyadar lagi setelah mabuk sekian lama.... hehehe....

Eh, btw, si Martin bilang ada beberapa cewe sempet nanyain lohh ke dia, sriusss, "ini mobil siapa, kok mulus amat???"
"Yuhuuuu....."

paradoxical

A day is like a thousand year ---------> artinya lagi nganggur (kali lagi nunggu pacar, nunggu wiken, nunggu2 gajian, nunggu angin lewat.....

A thousand year is like a day ---------> artinya sibuk banget (dikejar paper, dikejar project, dikejar orang, dikejar anjing, sweat and no chance to take a breath)

Savor each time, savor every moment, thank God always. That's why time is so precious as well as mysterious. Hehehe.....

watch your accent

You may believe it or not, but up until yesterday I forgot that Valentine's day is February 14th. I thought it was February 12th, well a bit slipped but that's ok. I don't even know why in the world I can forget that. Back in 2002 if I'm not mistaken, my grandpa passed away on Chinese New Year's Day, which was February 12th, and he was cremated on February 14th. That was one memorable V-day's, which was obviously a very-very busy day.
Now I don't really put this day in mind probably because it has been three years in my life that I passed V-day without somebody, and of course that is not the thing.
Anyway, this morning we had a blast at the office.
Let me tell you now. One of our co-worker, Debbie, shared a small package contained with V-day card and a Hershey's chocolatte to everyone in the office. She said that was from her granddaughter. Then, another co-worker, Joan, gave a simple comment. She said, "Well, a woman's best friend is a husband and a chocolate."
The funny thing is, her strong southern accent made it as if it was, "WELL, A WOMAN'S BEST FRIEND IS A HUSBAND IN A CHOCOLATE"
And everybody goes ..... HUAHUAHUAHAUHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUAHUA...
I was like.... "huh...what???" oh.... huahuahuahuahauhaua.... (late receiving system.....called it "lemotttt")
While all of us laughing in hard beat, Joan defends herself saying, "Well, we're married... nothing wrong with that..." (a husband in a chocolate? yeah rite...) And everybody keeps laughing. It was hilarious but I have no idea what's on each one's mind, we just laughed.

I think they enjoyed that.
(if you come to our office, you would notice that even a laugh is so precious at this time.)

lousy

Hey.... guess what????? I've just found out a new cool effect on my camera. I didn't realize about this until that short trip to DC last two weeks. Yeach..yeach..yeach.. I know what you're going to say, I'm being lousy with my camera. Apart from that, it's pretty cool though.. don't you think??

Jalapeno chips? Yaiks.........

New York Ave.

Tadaaaa.... guess where was I????

sepotong lirik

.............

and even though I'm walking through the valley of the shadow
I will hold tight to the hand of Him whose love will comfort me
and when all hope is gone and I've been wounded in the battle
He is all the strength that I will ever need
He will carry me

and even though I feel so lonely
like I've never been before
You never said it would be easy
but You said You'd see me through
the storm

...............

-mark schultz-

short trip

This past few days I've been away from home.
Last Saturday, I drove up to DC to pick up my friend from Bandung. He was our youth leader in my home church when I was in junior HS. Last Summer, I met him and his wife, together with their newborn baby, Aaron. That time, we had already set up a plan to go together to Chicago since he should have been able to go for a training there, sent by his company. But the plan was failed. So this time, they rescheduled the training and after he finished up in Chicago, he then flew to Washington (all paid by the company btw..... yaiks...)
We then drove to Lynchburg because he wanted to see my school. The fun part was, we had a GREAT lunch at ILMEE Korean Buffet at Annandale, near DC. A great place to eat, good for the value of money! They have everything there, including chinese buffet, beef/pork ready marinated bbq of course, and also the sushi buffet. They also have black (or should I call red) rice, and other strange stuffs! I think that was one of those 'fullest' meals I've ever had, much better than Bandung's Hanamasa or Miyazaki or watever....
In Thomas Road Church last Sunday nite, there was a piano concert by DINO Kartsonakis, the Greek 'geek' pianist. Fantastic concert, and he's sharing the Good News also while playing. So my friend came just right on time. After the concert, we headed up back to DC and spent two nights at our friend's place. He wanted to see DC's spotsy places, but too bad, the weather was more than freezing..... Anyway, we kept on going to downtown, especially 'Uncle Bush's house' hahaha... that one we surely can't miss. After taking some pictures, we just ride the train back to Gaithersburg, where we stayed. Now, he really has seen true "America"! (don't mention the weather also... brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..)
It's been great to meet friends, old and new... We remember our funny experience in Solo (Tawangmangu) when we had a national youth camp (100% real camping) up in the hills of Gunung Lawu. There was a huge flood (oopss) struck the whole camping area and three of us didn't get even an inch of the evacuation hall, so we slept just with sleeping bags, in the (concrete) ground near the swimming pool, with 10' C temp. Early the next morning, we found out two snakes in the pool.......... haiyaaah... so they probably crawled on our sleeping bags while we were sleeping... (Oh, did I mention that we also took shower in the river because that 500 participant-camp had only ONE bathroom for men, and it was those bathroom used for construction worker.)
Overall, it was just a short visit. He flew back to Indo from DC airport today.
Hopefully when he got back to Jakarta Airport, things will get better.

culturaleidoscope & new boss

Minggu ini mungkin gue udah masuk masa-masa 'pahibut' (baca: hectic)-nya semester baru, so udah gak baru lagi kali yah. Dimulai dari paperwork yg udah ada due date-nya. Kedua, di kampus ada international night untuk seminary students: "Culturaleidoscope." Semua int'l students (perkecualian KOREA, krn mereka disini jadi mayoritas, instead of minoritas) diminta bikin makanan khas negara masing2. Acaranya Kamis mlm ini jam 7. Kita dikasih budget $50 buat beli bahan2 n masak sendiri. Nah, gue udah rencana bikin mie goreng ala Pak Moes - soalnya jadi keinget jaman edan, itu loh Pak Moes yg di Bukit Jarian-UNPAR, tempat dulu ngerumpi abis kuliah pagi dengan menu tetap, indomie + es (batu) teh manis...
Eniweii... rencana gue udah dipersiapin cukup matang. Ducks in a row... Yah tiba2 kemaren mlm ada severe weather alert. Alamak... Pagi2 tadi salju dah turun... Di satu pihak, gue rada males, so bagus lah, dicancel acaranya..... (Dan gak jadi tuh freezing rain-nya hehehe... panitia kecele deh).
Hal lain yg bikin gue kaget adl.. di kantor ada "bos" baru. Gue kan di kampus kerja di Admissions Processing. Kantor Admissions Processing itu masih bagian dari Undergraduate Admissions, dan UA itu masi bagian dari Residential Recruitment... yg intinya bagian penerimaan mahasiswa2 undergrad.... hehe njelimet emang... yg pada kerja pasti ngarti begini2an.... Nah, khusus unit processing itu emang sih paling katro sendiri... kalo unit2 laen tempatnya di satu ruangan kantor yg guede, dibagi2 cubicles gitu deh biasa..... nah..khusus unit processing itu dikasi satu ruangan tersendiri, soale kita yg mengolah data2 tiap calon student, mulai dari transkrip high school-nya, SAT/ACT scorenya, dll. Di dlm ruangan kita masi ada 1 ruangan kecil yg namanya file room. Di ruangan itulah ada puluhan ribu file2 penting milik calon2 mhs baru. So itu semua tergolong informasi confidential (ciekkkhhhh), so gue punya access ke database info/data2 mhs, mulai dari no.telp/hp, alamat, sampe ke social security-nya ....hieh..hieh..hieh... *senyum bangga*
Tambahan info lain, dept gua ini udah terkenal yg paling sering party-party... makluuuum co-worker gue banyak ibu2.... (yang pade oversize pula .... *ooppsss*), so mereka doyan makan. Pasti adaaa adja yg ke kantor bawa coklat lah, chips lah, krispy kreme juga sering, sampe ke makanan2 berat, pas gue dateng siang2 tau2 suka ada pizza HUT 1 dus tergeletak persis di meja gua gitu... pokonya perut terjamin.... Dept gue punya Supervisor, kita panggil dia Mr. "P.
Btw, gua ga tau udah berapa kali dipecat sama dia... hehehe... Kebayang khannn orgnya kaya gimana... *RECOKKKK* hehehe... begitu pula ada 1 ibu2 laen yg suka kita jailin... ah pokoknya mah ni kantor selalu ada keriaan, riang gembira.... kayak kelas TK...hehehe.... tapi kita semua kompak! Well, mesti riang donk! Soale kalo gak, kepala kita bisa pecah, bgimane ga pecah kantor gue tiap hari dicecer sama dept A, B, C, ... ah pokonya semua nyari kita deh.
Nah, ceritanya Mr P ini sejak new year's kemaren dah absen soale dia dioperasi dan pemulihannya bakal makan waktu lama banget. Tapi biarpun dia gak ada, kerjaan jalan terus... Yg jadi masalah adl, orang2 penggede atas pada bikin target pencapaian yg gak kira2... DAN.. ada 2 staf di kantor kita yg keluar/pindah. Ya otomatis kita lumpuh kekurangan tangan.

Hari ini gue kaget dikasi tau co-worker katanya kita bakal dapet bos baru yg levelnya diatas supervisor gw. Dan gue tau persis orang ini tuh streng banget, gak asyik.... Huh? Waaaat? Apaa?
Gak salah tuhhh? Iye, gue dikasi tau ini keputusan dari atas....... gile aja itu bos2 atas nongol juga kagak pernah, so mrk putusin sendiri gitu tanpa tau kondisi lapangan. Padahal kita kerjaan tetep beres.... Anehhh...bener2 anehhh...
Dan bener aja, tadi si bos baru ini langsung pindah ke ruangan kita, terus ya langsung deh hari ini suasana kantor jadi kelaboooo...... Kasian gue ngeliatnya.... spt aneh.... bener2... gue kayak baru kerja disitu.. Semua kayanya pada tegang gitu.... Dan semangat kerja kayak berkurang, soale spt keusik gitu... Gak tau deh, gue ga bisa bilang apa2..... siapa sih gue.... cuman student worker doank..... cuma ya kasian gue ngeliat co-workers......... mrk seolah spt ga dianggep, Well, gue tadi pulang duluan. Kita cuma bisa berharap things will get better with this new decision.