random ramblings

I just got a call from my cousin Vivian, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona.  She just came back from Indo and I haven’t talked to her for a long time. My parents reminded her that we should keep in touch. After all, I’m her closest kin she has in this country.  I know that too, but it’s just not that easy. We’re both busy and have our own thing.  Once we exchanged several emails but after a while that stopped too.  Anyway, right now she’s having a tough time. Her soon-to-be 16 year old daughter hates it in Arizona.  Ellyn was born and raised in NYC, and they just moved to AZ recently, I think the end of last year.  The cost of living in NYC is too high.  She could use the rent money to mortgage a nice house in AZ.  She’s lived in NYC for 16 years but now that she’s moved to AZ she’s finally able to afford a house, with a garage, and own a laundry machine.  She gave up everything she had in NYC to relocate and start a new life in AZ.  I thought it was pretty crazy to relocate that far away,  but hey … for a better life, right ? But now Ellyn has been giving her a hard time, asking to move back to NYC.  The last few months must have been really difficult for her, I know she’s really considering moving back to the East. She’s now also considering of letting Ellyn live in NYC by herself.  I belive that’s a better choice.  Ellyn’s old enough to take care of herself. Anyway they can always fly to visit each other. Ellyn’s going to leave for college in less than 2 years too…  I hope she made the right decision for herself.  I think she shouldn’t give up her new and better life in AZ.  Coincidentally,  CNN today has an article about  The Fastest Growing City in US , and guess what’s #1 on the list.  It’s Gilbert, AZ , a suburb of Phoenix. .. that where she is now… So she should definitely stay there !

Maybe I should visit her later this Fall…Summer time is too hot… She told me it was 112°F over there !!! I should bring along Hendrik too… they’ve never met before. .. btw  I haven’t heard from yayank for 3 days now   The last time he called was Monday night (Tuesday in Indo) when he said he’s about to go to Jakarta to fly to China.  I have no idea where he is right now. Beijing ? Shanghai ? Shenzhen ?  :’(  Where are you hon ??

I am so stressed with work the past few days   Deadlines, decisions, pressures, meetings, reviews, I really need to get back on track…  I never felt so helpless in my working life before..  I am afraid that i won’t be able to deliver …     

At this point I even think that maybe I am not ready for this kind of responsibility at work .. 

Aaarrgh !!! I want to scream !!!

When I heard the word Nursery, I think of babies right away. I didn’t know it had a different meaning. 

Last Saturday I watched a Korean movie called Calla.  It’s about a man who receives Calla Lilly flowers everyday and wants to find out who’s sending them.  So just being ME, of course I searched the net and read about this type of flowers. (^O^) Didn’t spend too much time, probably just 5-10 minutes. And I came across several Nursery websites. I didn’t look up the definition of nursery, I just took my own conclusion.

Then, yesterday on the way to Indy for lunch, Arine mentioned that she spent her Saturday in a nursery about 45 mins from Columbus. What a coincidence ! hehehe If I hadn’t watched Calla the night before, I would have thought that she went to a hospital or something to see babies

A nursery is a place where plants are propagated,
usually for sale as a business, though some gardeners and farmers keep
private nurseries. Typical plants grown in a nursery would include
fruit trees or bushes, home landscape shrubbery and trees, and started
plants for gardeners. Plants may be propagated by seeds, but often
desirable cultivars are propagated as clones by budding, grafting,
layering, or other nursery techniques.

The one Arine went to is actually an herb farm. Arine is suggesting that us girls go for an Afternoon Country Tea at this place later in fall.  *Jadi inget last year waktu Lia tergila2 sama High Tea  hehe* 

I just started noticing that friendster sends out an update notice to all of my friends everytime I update this blog … aargh I don’t like that !  it’s like announcing to the world ! well i know that by having a blog like this, i am already inviting the public to read.. but still i don’t like the idea of the update notice.. I want my friends read this blog because they want to, not because I or friendster ask them to.  I’ve checked if there’s an option to turn it off, but unfortunately it looks like only the friends can opt out from this update notice.. so if you don’t like getting those emails in your inbox.. you can disable it in your account settings:

the other thing i hate about this blog is the inability to do HTML editing !! I can’t even post animated GIFs !!!

btw this is my 3rd post for today, so does Friendster sends 3 notices out about me updating this blog?

Last night I went to Columbus Popfest 2005
with Arine and Andy ( Arine’s husband ). Popfest is an annual tradition
here, but this is the first time I went.  The main attraction was the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
which played quite a few numbers, including several OSTs from Star
Wars. They also played quite a variety, from jazz, big bands, to
classicsal music. I saw many familiar faces. I saw some coworkers and
even my orthodontist ! I think I’ve never seen this big a crowd in
Columbus the 3 years I’ve been here :p

there’s Arine (white shirt), Andy (red shirt), and Gordon(black shirt) setting up our spot.

I didn’t get a picture of the Indy Symphony Orchestra, but I did take a snap of the Columbus City Band :p

Yayang i miss u so much …. 3 more weeks to go … masih lamaaaa hix

I just got a big raise today .. the long awaited annual increase  hehehe  it was much much better than what i’d expected..  i’m so happy

now what should I reward myself ?   been thinking about getting a DVD burner.. these days I burn movies/dramas to CD-R’s at an average rate of 4 cd/day.. just last month yayank brought me 100 blank cd-rs.. and I just used the last one just now :p .. maybe i should really convert to DVD-Rs to back up my data now .. hmm or i might as well buy a new desktop ?    

by the way, we’re now thinking about what to do for Independence Day weekend. .. after talking to several people, Atlanta doesn’t seem to worth 9 hours drive :p …. so I’m thinking about somewhere 4-5 hours from here now .. but where???

Hendrik got his US visa stamp approved. His passport with the visa could be picked up this Friday. He went for the appointment on Tuesday morning. So.. processing time is only 3 days!! He said they didn’t ask for any of the extra supporting documents that he brought with him. Just the visa application forms (DS-156, DS-157), the notice of approval of the H-1B petition (I-797), and the passport. I knew all along that he was just being paranoid, he’s prepared his paystub, utility bills, birth certificate, diploma/transcripts, etc. None of those were asked.  I’m very glad to hear this. This means next year he wouldn’t feel afraid to go back again and we can finally go home together!

He’s now in Bandung.. at the moment he’s having dinner with my extended family at The Valley. hehehe.. He said since he arrived in Bandung .. dikerubutin orang2 gitu.. huahahahahhaha… poor yayank.. i wish i could be there with him Anyway I would expect that since this is the first time my whole family get to know him.. after 5 years !!