Orang Jakartah...

Sebagai orang yang hidup di Jakarta sejak lahir, ada beberapa hal yang gw kurang men-Jakarta:

1. Belum pernah masuk ke Monas. Beneran loh, somehow pas gw ekskursi jaman2 SD-SMP ga pernah kebagian ke Monas. Padahal kakak/adek kelas gw ada jadwal ke Monas. Hasilnya baru sekitar 3-4 taun yg lalu gw memasuki wilayah Monas karena lagi sepedaan pas car-free-day, tapi tetep donk sampai sekarang belom masuk juga ke dalem.

2. Ga suka makan kerak telor dan soto betawi. Entah kenapa, gw punya love-hate relationship sama kelapa. Dibikin es-es-an suka, dibikin santen, ada yang gw suka, ada yang engga. Rendang suka, tapi lodeh engga. Soto pake santen? Engga suka donk. Cemilan pake kelapa parut (kerak telor kan pake kelapa parut ya)? kebanyakan ga sukanya.

3. Tidak pernah kebanjiran (tadinya mau nulis 'belum' tapi dengan iman gw ganti jadi 'tidak' uheuheuheuh. Amin!). Thanks to my parents, gw tinggal di daerah yang tidak kena banjir. Seinget gw sih waktu gw kecil, pernah depan rumah gw banjir sampe selutut, tapi gw ya ga keluar rumah kan. Jadi ga pernah sampe ngobyok di banjir. Nah, kalo kakak gw sekolah di SMU yang langganan kebanjira, sering deh tuh dia ngobyok masuk sekolah. Gw juga (thank God) ga pernah naik mobil ngelewatin banjir yang gimana, kalo yang 10 cm mah ya pernah, tapi kan masih aman yak. Waktu bulan Februari barusan, komplek mertua gw kena banjir, jadi suami gw jemput dia untuk tinggal di apartemen kita, cuman gw ga ikut jemput, jadi ya tetep ga pernah. Sekarang juga kita tinggal di daerah yang termasuk paling tinggi-nya Jakarta. Biarpun jalan rayanya suka 'tergenang' kalau abis hujan deras.

4. Ga sebegitunya sama Mall. Kalo bisa sih sebenernya gw lebih pilih belanja groceries atau makan di luar mall. Cari parkir lebih gampang, ga ribet. Tapi namanya Jakarta yah, ada aja keperluannya ke mall seperti ketemu orang atau mau belanja baju yang pastinya lebih praktis di mall karena tokonya banyak. Ada 1 mall yang gw sukaaaa banget pas gw tinggal di Amrik, namanya Westfield Old Orchard Mall. Lokasinya ga deket2 amat sih, tapi gw suka bela2in nyetir ke sini kalau perlu ke mall karena... ya enak aja gitu, outdoor, rapih, ga terlalu rame, tokonya juga OK. Nih fotonya kaya begini. Itu outdoor beneran loh, bukan pake langit2 awan kaya di Dharmawangsa Square hueuheuheuhuhe. Dan bayangin ajah, kalo winter, salju2 numpuk, gw tetep suka ke sana... berkeliaran sambil makan ColdStone! Hehuheuheuheuh... gendeng yak

PS. Ada cerita tentang Mall di Jakarta. Waktu itu gw belum kenal sama si suami. Tapi gw punya temen deket yang tinggal di Kelapa Gading. Hari itu adalah Earth Day. Gw lagi dengerin HardRo*k FM, dan penyiarnya nanya, apa yang elo mau rubah seandainya bisa sehubungan dengan Earth Day. Ada cewe yang nelp, dia bilang dia tinggal di Kelapa Gading. Dan yang dia mau rubah adalah: hilangkan itu mall2 dari Kelapa Gading (Iya yak, cuman 1 komplek tapi mall nya buanyak bener... ada yang rame bener, ada yang sepi buanget pula). Trus ditanya sama penyiarnya: "jadi kalau mau hangout kemana donk?". Si cewe: "ya ke resto2 ajalah yang di selatan gitu....". Gw langsung ngakak sendirian di mobil dan cerita ke temen baek gw yang orang Gading.

Later on ketemu suami, ya gw cerita juga donk buat ngeledek dia. Yup, suami orang Gading, gw orang Selatan. Hheuuheuheuheuh....

Ketemuan temen?

Bisa dibilang temen gw lumayan lah... banyak banget kaya social butterfly sih engga, tp waktu masa single sih ada aja 2-3 kali per minggu ngumpul sama temen yg berbeda2. Sampe pas awal2 pacaran, gw jarang pergi berduaan, soalnya udah terlanjur janjian sama temen2, jd ya gabung sekalian deh.

Udah agak lama pacaran, kumpul2 sama temen jadi otomatis berkurang sendiri. Kenapa yah? huhuhu... sedih loh, padahal masih suka ngumpul2... Minggu lalu gw mikir, kok sekarang jarang banget ketemuan sama temen yah. Ada sih bbrp yg masih agak rutin tp kebanyakan udah jarang.

Trus inget profile pic salah satu temen yg ada kata2 gini "Why complicate life? Wanna meet up? Invite!". Iseng aja ngomong sama salah satu temen gw buat ketemuan (udah 2 bulanan ga ketemu. Atau baru? ahahhaha), dia langsung OK, dan kita janjian buat ketemuan bbrp hari kemudian. Trus besokannya ada temen gw yg tiba2 ngajakin olahraga bareng (dulu sering sih waktu dia belum pindah kota), kebetulan gw bisa, ya gw iyain. Ini jg udah ga ketemu 2-3 bulan (agak lupa terakhir ketemu kapan). Seneng :D Ada lagi a group of my friends yg lagi atur waktu mau ketemu, tp belom dapet kesepakatan ahahhaha. Terakhir ketemu ada yg baru 2 minggu, ada yg 2 bulanan jg sih.

Dulu pas balik dari Amrik, gw lumayan kenalan sama banyak org baru, tapi end up nya ga banyak yg tetep temenan. Kebanyakan yang gw masih temenan ya yg temen2 lama. Temen baru hanya sekedar jadi 'kenalan'. Gw juga ga mau maksa sih, males juga kalo harus maksain ikut kegiatan mereka atau ngomongin hal2 yang mereka suka padahal kita ga nyambung. Nah ada nih sekelompok temen yg suka ngumpul dan kadang ngajakin gw n hubby, tapi kita suka males. Gayanya aja kali ya yg ga cocok. Kalo clubbing gitu kan gw ga suka.

Nah, planningnya sih pengen ngajakin temen lain ketemuan. Yg 1 terakhir ketemu pas gw merid (dia nyanyi pas pemberkatan). Dulu pas single, lumayan sering nih pegi ama dia. Olahraga bareng lah, nonton bareng lah, brunch bareng lah... Ada 1 lagi juga yang udah lama ga ketemu, terakhir waktu wedding gw juga, nah dia ini nari di wedding gw. (keliatan banget ya gw memanfaatkan teman2 ahahhaha). Nah ada sepasang lagi dulu juga sering ketemuan. Sekarang entah kenapa jadi menjauh gitu. Mungkin mereka sibuk juga sih, let's see deh, terwujud ga.

Generosity... a hard lesson...

So, this month's theme at church is Generosity. It was just great timing!! Since we got married, we haven't got a month where our financial is predictable. Plus, having in-laws that needed support didn't make it easier. I was so used to using my money just for myself (well, I also didn't ask my parents for extra money). I was content with what I could buy and I was good at building my saving.

And the Bible says:
24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. 25 The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.
(Proverbs 11)

Wow. It didn't slap me right away but through the weeks when I was faced with unpredictable expenses and I tried to protect myself with my own power. I kept saying to myself that "is this the lifestyle we deserve to live?", "Whereelse can I cut my expense?", even to a cruel question such as "Why does my hubby only get this amount of income?"

Then, we were challenged to give excellent sacrifice in this week of Easter. I was thinking of the amount of X, which is the same as last year's sacrifice as a single. Then hubby said, "yes it's an easy number, but is it excellent enough? Do we want to put our faith in God's hands?" Wow. And I prepared my heart and said "OK, how about 2X?".

We know the theory that God will give back in multiplication, but whatever, we just want to give our sacrifice, Our blessings is not for us to demand, but it's in God's timing and favor. But the next day I was calling around for one thing that I urgently needed to buy, and peace of God overflowed my heart (it is till now) finding that I can get that one thing at a much lower price than what I would have guessed. And the next day after that, hubby said that suddenly out of nowhere, his boss gave him some shopping vouchers. It was not that big of an amount (not even covered the price for that "thing"), but for me it is the proof that Godly theory of generosity does work.

³⁵ In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ 
(Acts 20)

Like to read, not like to write

Hah! It's been a year since my last post. Even we don't use the nickname I used for the blog name anymore. -sigh-

I was thinking to document my wedding planning, but didn't do it. So now, here we are.. have been married for 3 months already. I won't go back to review all stuffs about wedding, but will go forward with anything I want to write. Might be random, since lately I've been in needs of a place to babble about things.

I like reading even before I can read. My mom said that I loved when somebody read for me and I would memorized the words so I could pretend to read from book. There were many times when my mom scolded/punished me in my school years due to excessive readings while I should've been doing homework or studying. Well mom, I did well at school.

And now, in the midst of internet era, I love blog-walking so much. There are some blogs that I've been silent-reading, and I was reluctant to put comments since I didn't have a proper blog. Hope after I routinely fill my blog, I would start connecting with other bloggers.

That's for now. TGIF!

What have I achieved so far?

Haduh, lotsa things happened. Jadi ceritanya si Gembul dijanjiin promosi sama bosnya sesaat sebelum si bos dipindahkan ke divisi lain. Katanya sih awal tahun ini (biasa kenaikan gaji resmi diumumkan/berlaku di bulan Feb). Mulailah dia menghitung2 dan merencanakan kebutuhan tahun ini yang emang so significant and life-changing itu. Turned out, the reality is not as predicted. Mulai deh kebat-kebit. Gw juga ikutan stress. But he said: "kamu ngapain ikut stress? Biar aku aja yg mikirin...". Dalam hati: 'Ya iyalah, kan nyangkut ke hidup gw juga...". Time goes by, ada beberapa titik terang yang muncul. Sepertinya keadaannya ga seburuk itu. Gw mulai yakin lagi kalo memang Tuhan berkenan, Tuhan yang akan menyediakan (ya sebelumnya juga yakin sih... tapi kan jadi lebih mantep gituh).

Kemarin waktu telponan sama Gembul, dia cerita tentang beberapa hal yg terjadi di komunitas cell groupnya. And I was very very proud of him. Not something formal or grand, but I know God wants to bring him up and be blessings to others around him. So proud of him and I told him: "Promotion from work can be postponed, but God promotes you. It's more precious". In the same time, I was thinking: 'How about me? What have I achieved so far?'.

One thing for sure, I found someone I can look up to. I remember on my first year of college, if I was asked what my criteria of choosing a partner, I would say: "yang bisa membuat kita masing-masing menjadi lebih baik lagi". Dan tahun-tahun berikutnya membuat gw yakin bahwa kalau memang di dalam hubungan, orang menjadi semakin mundur (terutama dalam karakter dan rohani), hampir pasti deh Tuhan tidak berkenan. Dan 1,5 tahun gw bersama Gembul, I've been seeing him improving in many different aspects. And again I was thinking: 'How about me? What have I achieved so far?'.

*terharu*

Last month, there's a good friend of Gembul went back to Jakarta to start a new business/department here supported by one of the multinational company. He offered Gembul a position  which he thought Gembul could manage although didn't have a lotta experience in that. Of course the salary would be bigger than what he got now. But he was concerned about the benefits he would lose if he left the bank he's currently working as well as the security (who knows what's gonna happen with a start-up in several months?). Long story short, Gembul said to his friend "Sorry I can't take it. If you asked me two year ago, I would jump right away. But now, she's my priority" -looking at me-.

*meleleh* *padahal gw masih sibuk pengen travel sana sini* *hayoloh*

Better than nothing

I have been abandoning this blog although I have a lotta stuff in my mind that can be turned into a worthy blogpost. I'm just gonna force myself to write, even if it is brief to keep this blog going.

I was blown away by this verse yesterday during the cell group: For the Scriptures say, "If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies. (1 Peter 3:10, NLT)

I once was reading The book of Proverbs and thinking: Wow, we actually don't need to read self-help or motivational speech. The guidance of living you life is all in the Bible. And that's exactly what appeared in my mind last night when I read this verse.

So, people, let's say to ourself "today will be a great day!".