Chris Medina: His True Love Story

I recently just watched one of the American Idol's episode and my tears fell down. It was because of the contestant, Chris Medina his name is, had the most beautiful but tragic love story. He has a fiancée and they've been together for 8 years and engaged for the last 2 years. But two months before their big day, something bad happened. His fiancée got an accident which caused her a traumatic brain injury. That made her in a coma for a month or so and after she woke up, she was half paralyzed.

Instead of run away from her, Chris chose to stay and take care of her fiancée along with her mother. He came to the audition and he sang The Script's Break Even beautifully and unique. I was impressed by his story, his braveness, his gentle and responsibility senses. He said at the end, " What kind of man I be if I leave her in the time she need me the most?".

That's my fellas, is a prove of true love.

If you are in a good condition, good health, and you're in good wealth, love is just perfect and sweet. But the best test of love is this: Will you still be there for him/her if the troubles come like Chris Medina did? He could run away from his fiancée if he want to, but he chose to stay. That's make him a hero, that's make his the most beautiful man in the world.

"To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part."

Watch Chris Medina's audition and story here

Impulse of Thought

I don't know why some people, in an absence of knowledge, choose to keep the absence instead of to fill it. Like one of my experience..in September this year, I am planning to go to Malaysia with 3 friends of mine. I've never been to Malaysia before so I'm kinda afraid I will lost there. And it's not funny if I lost there because it's not your home country. So in my absence of knowledge about Malaysia, I've decided to browse on the internet, didn't know what will I get. Amazingly, I found a lot of great websites which can show me the shopping centers, how to travel via coach and fast train, and else. I know what hotel that suits me, what food I should eat there, and else. Now even if I've never been to Malaysia, when one of my friend tell me something about Malaysia like Sungai Weh or Purduraya Station or Sentral KL station....I know what they're talking about! If you ask me about the price of the bus ticket, I can answer you!

This is prove that even if you don't know anything at all about one thing, but if you have a will to seek and learn that one thing, you'll find it.

I don't believe there are some people who were born stupid (well unless they were born with physical and mental disabilities), they are lazy to move their ass or too lazy to, at least, trying to find out about something.

If you are willing to look for an answer, you'll find it somehow.

All you need is a little impulse of thought actually.

Happy 24th Birthday, Me!

Today is my birthday. And as usual, it's still not my favorite day of the year. Well you should be thankful for the day you were born, and I am thankful for everything in my life. It isn't perfect but it's enough to make me appreciate it. And this time of the year, my colleagues make a surprise for me in the way I never expected at all! One thing for sure, I am glad :)

This is the VERY creative crown my colleagues made me. And unexpectedly, there is a picture of me with an ugly pose and my boyfriend yet with an ugly pose in front. Also there are two chopsticks glued to the crown and they glued a Sushi Tei and Suteki logo to it. I don't know why they doing that, but that's very...very unexpected.

This is the whole surprise from them. First there is a very cute birthday cake for me. There is a female patissier surrounded by cakes and donuts and else all made from icing sugar. There is mini lily flowers near my name which is very lovely. If you're happen to spot an apple itouch or iphone near the cake, well it's fake made from cardbox or corrugated box or something. Very funny.

Last but not least, my boyfriend gave me (the real) Apple itouch as my birthday present this year!!!! I am really excited and I can;t wait to play it all day long :D

Anyway, this whole birthday stuffs make me realize one thing. It's not the surprise or the gift that I expect on my birth day. Above all, I want to be near with my beloved ones. My family, my best friends, my boyfriend, my colleagues...those who remember my birthday not because there's a reminder from facebook or you read someone's birthday greeting for me then RT it.

But the surprise and all others makes me know how much I am loved and remembered.

That's more than enough :)

One of Life's Serendipities

Having lots of friends is cool. It maybe because you're famous or maybe you're an easygoing one. And with me spent times with many different people that I didn't hang much before lately, it makes me realize that maybe I am not that easygoing person and I am fine with it.

Don't get me wrong, I can make friends with someone new. I can be nice to them, but I am not certain to be along with them. Like few days ago, I was asked by one of my hang out friend to hang out with her high school friends. I was in the same high school actually with her friends, but I wasn't at the same class; I took social class while they were in science class, so I felt like an outsider at that time. I had dinner with them at the mall, and yes I was tried to be nice and easygoing as possible. They were my friends and I enjoyed it. It's just...different compared with me hang out my friends.

From there, I am taking a conclusion. I don't need to be famous or easygoing or whatever. All I need is having a few true friends who always there to talk to, share something with, gossiping with. Friends whom I know I can count on anytime and the most important, friends who's going to be there in your darkest day.

I rather have them instead of having tons of friends.

And I thank God that my present boyfriend is happen to be one of my bestest friend. I feel safe with him, I can gossip with him (even it is just a one way gossiping due to he is not quite a gossiper like me (and please do not interpret the word 'gossip' with gossip, my way to gossip is by sharing stories about other people. Period.)), most of all I can count on him to be there for me. I really thank God for this precious invaluable gift :)

I thank God also for few persons who happen to be my best friends on earth. It happened because at some point and some way, they choose you and you choose them through a long time process. It happened because it's one of life's serendipities.

Sadly, you have to be carefully pick and appraise someone before you claim them to be your best friend.

I'm just saying, sometimes and at some point, they are not.

Oei Hui Lan

I remembered that one sentence from Oei Hui Lan's biography book "Kisah Tragis Oei Hui Lan Putri Raja Gula Asia Tenggara dari Semarang" or in english it will be "Tragic Story of Oei Hui Lan: Daughter of South East Asia's King of Sugar from Semarang". The Biography is about Oei Hui Lan, who had everything women in this world ask for. His father is the richest man on South East Asia and she was lived as a princess almost her entire life.

But at the end of the story she said as she quoted Chinese old saying that "no feast last forever", and so did her extravagant life. At the ending of her book, there's one sentence that catch my attention. Well, almost all of her story catch my attention by the way. But this is what catch me the most to the very deep. She said, " Now I finally understand why my father (after he married his favorite mistress Lucy Ho, he changed his lifestyle from glamorous as a king into a way more simple. It is because the more we aged, the more we ask for a simple life and what it is. "

As she grew up and became older, she chose to move into an apartment instead of a big house in the time she was 50s. And as she grew up she realized, that money itself can't buy happiness. It can buy anything that make you happy, but it won't last. In fact, she stated that her loyal dogs were the ones that made her happy.

So I'm thinking and I truly understand one thing. Money does important but it won't make you happy at the end. Being with people you love and doing what you truly enjoy are the things that makes you happy. If you die one day, you won't bring your diamonds, golds, deposit accounts to your grave. It will stay here while you're gone to only God knows where.

I saw this one man when I queue-ing at the bank this morning. And suddenly I was comparing myself to this man. He is around 40-50s years old and his shirt is too big for him. He seems like wearing it randomly. He doesn't think about being stylish and modern or maybe being neat. Wearing a shirt just to cover his body is his only purpose. Meanwhile me on his other side, I woke up this morning and think what to wear to work today. I mixed and match my shirt and pants, I have to decide what shoes I want to wear and else. Being stylish and look neat is important to me and still I want buy another stuffs like bags, shoes, gadgets.

I thank God the moment I am contemplating this kind of thoughts. I thank God for being so good to me. I have a home even if it's not like a palace. I have the greatest and bravest mother even there is no father on my side anymore. I have my brother and sister even if they're so annoying sometimes, they're the one you always make up with no matter how often you're fighting with each other. I have a nice job I ever know, even if I'm not a director or manager, but I enjoy my job and my boss and my work environment. I got a nice amount of monthly salary, even it's not in billion rupiahs, but it's enough to support me all this time.

I don't have everything like Oei Hui Lan. But like she said herself, "I wrote this book for the world to learn from my experiences." She married to a man she never loved, her husband left her at the end, she had to watch one by one her son, father, mother, sister dead and she was left all alone with her dogs. His father gave her everything she want, she had uncounted money, diamonds, golds, and properties, she traveled the entire world, but all of that can't buy her happiness at the very end.

What make you think your money can do the opposite?

another source: Oei Tiong Ham: Raja Gula Asia Tenggara dari Semarang

C'est La Vie

Some random thoughts just crossed my mind and I don't like it. Well I think I'm being a temporarily melancholic person. I am going to tell a story about myself and what me and my family have been through all this time and I am going to tell why I'm telling you this stuff. You may not like it, but I believe some people may take this as a life lesson, to be more grateful and learn to not asking more than you already had. Somehow, I think I owe God this.

I am talking about my mother and how brave she is to be a single mother for almost 10 years now. My dad died because of heart attack when I was 13 and my youngest brother was just in the first grade of elementary school. It was a horrible shock time for me and my entire family. My mom especially was the one who shocked the most. I was a pre-teenager who didn't know nothing but the fact that I am no longer have a dad. My mother had to shut down my dad's store at Banyuwangi because she thought it would be imposibble to go Surabaya-Banyuwangi back and forth all the time, it takes 7 hours to go one way. My mother had to find another way to make a life for her family. With a broken heart and full of confusion, she had to figured up what do for living. Thanks God my mother has a great talent at cooking. So she started to offer her fresh frozen dumpling products to some supermarket in my city and she did it herself. She inovated another products but like life which is like a roller coaster, sometimes the supermarkets shut down my mother's products. I must say, I wasn't easy.

On the other side, I grew up and as a teenager at that time, I realized now that I've been such an ass for my mother. Sometimes I made my mother sad, I made her angry. And as a teenager, I was looking and exploring myself and my identity and I didn't realize that I hurt someone who really already sacrificed a lot for me.

I believe that every girl in this world have their own hero and many of them say that their mother is their hero. Nothing's wrong with it, only for me, I have billion reasons to make my mother as my hero.

People said, if you want to see the clearer view, just try to walk in front and the look back. You'll see everything more precise rather than see it at that moment. You won't realize what you did was bad today. But maybe tomorrow you'll flashback to today and realize that you were wrong.

I was bad for years to my mother as a stupid teenager, and I see it right now. I see how hard she fought to get up and to keep on walking even your heart was broken and your mental condition was down. I see how strong she become until today, how all the obstacles she's been through make her today. She did it all..cooking, working money, raising her children, teaching them, loving them, fixing things. She is a real single mother.

Then I wonder, she won't be here by my side forever. One day, God will take her and I will left alone. What would I do if the day come? Am I prepared? Am I strong enough to walk this life alone without her? Whether I realize or not, I always run back to her for almost everything. She is the first person I run to if I need help. But if she isn't here anymore, what would I do?

I try to place myself into her position as a single mother with 3 little children. I don't have a husband to count on anymore, I just have to fight and do everything by myself. Then I tell myself that I am pretty sure I can't do it easily.

These long thought lead me to one thing. It's all because of God's grace upon me and my family. He took my father to make everything better. He took my father to teach us how to be strong and solid as a family time after time. Most of all, He took my father to show me that He's the Almighty..the one and only. He teach me how to fully surrender because everything happened and everything not happened in my life is because of His permission.

He knows me, He knows what happen to me and He let it happen because He himself teach me, train me to be a better and better person everyday.

It may be sound too much for some people but don't worry, one day God will come into someone's life from a different door. He may be straight knock to my door, but He may be go silently through your ceilings. You never know.

Another one thing for sure, if your time come and God want to involved to your life, you can not escape. Just invite Him in, share your problems with Him, and let Him guide you.

Be thankful for everything you have, it was there only because of His grace.

NYE

Greetings everyone, happy new year to you =D

How's your new year's eve? I hope it was AWESOME!

Mine was a little bit simple this time, just had dinner with some of friends at Boncafe and went to Hare and Hatter, sipped a cup of Twinning tea which was very relaxing btw.

Come near New Year, the waitress at Hare and Hatter distributed trumpet for all of us and they invited us to go outside because there will be fireworks. And the fireworks was super pretty! I always seen fireworks from distance and I usually just said, "well okay it's pretty". But that time, the fireworks was lit up right in front of us so the fireworks was actually above us. And it was very pretty, I must say.

I took some pictures! =)

This is the source of the fireworks

Me and my bf :P

one of my friend asked to be pictured with the fireworks LOL

Happy New Year from Hare and Hatter, everyone! :D

I wish that this year 2011 brings you better in everything. Still do your best, be better with yourself and other people, and let God do the rest :)

Shine on!

Mother's Day

Speaking of December, there's this one special day we usually celebrate in Indonesia beside Christmas. We celebrate Mother's day every December 22 and today is December 22! I usually don't know how to celebrate this particular celebration since every human being which is female and ever have children are celebrating this day. So it's a mass-celebration not personal celebration like birthday or anniversary.

So, the ultimate question is what should I do on this day to make her know that I am notice about the day but still not too much. So as a part of my dedication, I would like to share something or several things about my mother. Not because my mom is the best among other moms, I believe that every mom is the best for their children. It's just more like a recall for myself about the sacrifices she made for me and her children. Because sometimes we can easily forget the little but massive things she did for us.

My mother is a talk active person. She likes to share stories about other people, especially life lessons we can take from that other people experiences. She likes it so much until she doesn't realize if she already repeated it for like a thousand times! Sometimes I get bored, and when I was a teenager, I think my mom's kinda boring. But as I grow up, I realize that she was tried to make me understand that I should learn from other people mistakes and experiences. My mom still repeating stories all over again but this time I know that I have to listen and keep that in my head wherever and whenever.

I fight with my mom sometimes. You know, a perfect relationship is bullshit and even you claimed that you have one, it doesn't mean that you're fight-free. In any kind of relationship, you fight sometimes so that's okay for you to fight. But you need to solve the fight with peace and more understanding about each other later. Sometimes I think that she's stubborn, I think she only loves to speak and listen less, and maybe she is! But if that's true, that would be okay. She's not perfect and she is still human. I just want to accept that she's my mom and she already done a lot rather than just thinking that she's stubborn and else. She is my imperfect perfect mother.

She is a very strong women. I lost my father when I was 13 and it was 10+ years ago. And for 10 years, she fights to be a single mother and I have to admit that it's not that easy. She have to work meanwhile she still have to be a mother. Not every women are gifted with that kind of ability. But she did it well until today. She raised well (I hope) and she still have to raise my little baby brother now.

So I figure out what's the best thing I can give for her not only on this very day but for the rest of her and my life. I have to make her happy and proud. I should not make burden for her. I think that it's time for her to enjoy the life to the fullest. Well, not to the fullest, I still have a teenage baby brother to deal with. Haha.

So thank you mother and to all mothers for doing such an amazing the greatest hard working unpaid job in the whole world.

p.s: I know thank you ain't just enough :)

Crossed Path

A thought crossed my mind last night and I had a chance last night to tweet that thought shortly. I said like this, " It's better to wait for the right time rather than push the time to be right. Everything has its own time. If it's your time, it won't happen". I've been thinking about this time topic related and how our path is crossed with other people's.

Have you ever thought how amazing life can be, when in one day we are destined to meet someone we never expect to come before, and the other day we say goodbye to them? I always draw this kind of thing like this with lines. I draw our each life path with a line (usually I colored it black :p) and every time we meet someone, that path will crossed with other people's line. And like a blank white paper, every time someone come into our life, our blank white paper will be filled with things, whether it's pretty or it's a mess. That's what we usually called, memories.

We may don't know when our path will cross someone's we desire to meet (like for example: our soulmate), but I believe one thing: that if you are not keep on walking to make those line, I can bet yours won't be crossed with anyone's line.

If you're now suffer a broken heart, I really know how hurt that can be. the world seems to stop rotating and your heart is empty, your path stop making line. So keep on walking and don't stop. Keep making line of life! Because then you are making a double chance to meet someone again in the future rather than just stop and grieving. It takes time, nothing instant will come to last. So you need to be patient and keep walking and keep praying. God will hear you and He was listening to your prayer all this time, even if you think He didn't. He just wait for the time to cross your path with your soulmate. He makes all things beautiful in its own time.

Well, something you need to have is just a little faith. :)

"Every experiences God gives us, every person He puts into our lives, is the perfect preparation for a future only He can see."

Corrie ten Boom

There's Always Something About December

December is coming and it's my favorite month of the year. Not because it's one of holiday seasons, but it has Christmas, my favorite celebration on earth! I always envy those people in other parts of the world where they can celebrate Christmas with snow and bigger celebration than where I live.

In Indonesia, Christmas isn't the biggest celebration, Idul Fitri is. Meanwhile in America for example, Christmas time perhaps is the biggest celebration there. And I don't know it's only me or not, but Christmas would be not perfect yet if there is no little snowy snowy thing fall down from the sky and makes the land aaaalllll white :D

And since it's Christmas, it's time to make a Xmas Wish List. Well, I'm not writing this down to ask someone to buy me the things I want. I just make this wish for fun, but still I wish a little to my dear God, that one day my wish will be fulfilled :p

1. Apple Itouch 4th gen :))
2. Canon Ixus

Oh dear God, please make this come true :)))))))))))))))