Hallo semuanya!!!

Effective today, blog site saya pindah ke:


SEE YA THERE!

lg lunchtime. barusan blogwalking baca punyanya neng Wenni. secara lg liburan update-nya banyak bangedd.

si eneng cerita dapet sms lebaran berjumlah 274. hmm. saya jd minder. barusan nengok hp, cuma dapet sms lebaran 6 biji. waduh. apakah berarti kurang temen?

aside from the # of text messages received, I'd like to share my experiences so far ber-Lebaran diluar Indonesia for the past 12 yrs.

PUASA in principle

in principle, keluarga saya memang sejak dulu kurang begitu mempraktekkan puasa dirumah. Islam sih Islam, cuma emang kita ngga saklek. yg guaranteed ga pernah bolong ya paling Papa. Mama jarang banget puasa, rationalisasinya karna puasa = laper = marah-marah = puasa batal. mending ga usah sekalian. Lika ngakunya puasa, tp realitanya wajib diragukan (hahahaha). dulu inget wkt kecil dia paling sering mandi kalo bulan puasa, biar ga haus.

moi? saya dulu rajin puasa kalo kbetulan lg pacaran sama cowok yg Islamnya kuat (pernah sampe puasa Senin-Kamis segala lho). yg amazing akhir-akhir ini ya adek paling kecil si Dimas, masih 11-yr old and yet puasanya ga pernah bolong. rajin sholat tahajud segala. kalah deh kakak2 ceweknya.

PUASA di Boston

sebenernya saya sih ngga jelek-jelek amat record puasanya. bolong pasti, tp dibandingin temen2 kantor yg agamanya Islam, so far saya yg puasanya paling kenceng. apalagi tahun2 terakhir ini di Boston jadwal puasanya masih fall-winter season, jd jam 5 baru Imsak dan jam stengah 6 biasanya udah buka. jadi ngga kerasa puasanya karna seharian dihabiskan ngendon di kantor, yg biasanya lunch jg ga sempet dikarenakan kesibukan kerjaan.

tp jujur aja, suasananya lain. first of all, berasa lonely aja puasa sendiri. ngga ada temennya. dulu wkt di Jkt kan berasanya semua org puasa. even in high school, walopun SMA Katolik, Indah si sahabat setia & temen sebangku saya rela nemenin ga makan. biar dia sekalian diet, katanya.

di Boston, temen2 cewek saya biasanya pada pengertian, makan bareng baru stlh waktunya buka puasa, biar saya ngga tergoda. padahal sebenernya ngga pa-pa sih mau nemenin mreka lunch juga.

yg saya paling rindu sebenernya acara buka puasa bareng. kumpul2 sama temen2 SMA, temen2 SMP, temen2 les ILP. pengajian Iqra-Boston sih selalu rutin ngadain acara buka bersama, tp saya males banget dateng. too much politics there going on. panjang euy ceritanya.

SAHUR

nah, ini paling lucu. saya ceritain ya, kalo udah mau deket bulan puasa, biasanya saya jadi brantem sama pacar. karna dia tau saya ini penyakitan maag berat. it doesn't make sense to him that I don't eat or drink, secara biasanya kalo telat makan lsg terkapar. given that he's not open to the principle of religion, he doesn't see the justification of risking an ulcer for the sake of "tradition".

karna tiap tahun saya ngotot tetep pengen puasa, ya dia akhirnya pasrah. one thing that he makes sure to do adalah masakin sahur buat saya. saya ngga suka (baca: ngga bisa) masak. jd menu sahur ngga pernah jauh-jauh dr Indomie ato telor ceplok. berhubung si mas khawatir saya jd kurang gizi, skrg dia tiap hari ikutan bangun sahur demi masakin fresh food. if it's not love, I don't know what else it is .

yang masih saya kangenin ya acara maen basket abis sahur. dulu waktu msh tinggal di Cipulir, abis sahur pagi-pagi subuh lsg main basket sama anak2 se-kompleks.

I also miss makan sahur bareng2 sama keluarga dirumah. balapan ngabisin Pocky sama Lika sbelum keburu Imsak. skrg walopun si mas ikutan bangun demi masak, biasanya dia lsg balik tidur abis selese masak. giliran saya yg bengong sendirian, sahur sambil nonton Sex & the City re-runs.

LEBARAN

wahh ... banyak deh yg dikangenin kalo soal Lebaran.

kangen Lebaran bareng2 keluarga Mama (keluarga Papa sih enggak ya, secara mreka Islamnya terlalu fanatik, jd ngga fun ngrayainnya). kangen nyetir konvoi sama sodara2 sepupu dr Jakarta ke Semarang. sayangnya skrg kita semua kalo ke Semarang pada milih naik pesawat for the sake of convenience & lack of traffic jams. gone are the days for driving & stopping by di jalan, makan rawon di warteg deket Tegal, serem-serem-an nyetir di tengah2 kegelapan Alas Roban. eh apa mungkin skrg udah terang ada lampunya? oh well, maybe someday we'll do it again.

kangen juga malam takbiran. di mesjid sini ngga ada loh takbiran kayak di Indo gitu. kangen nyalain kembang api ... hihihi, nostalgia masa kecil banged yah.

kangen sholat Ied bareng tante-tante adeknya Mama. kangen makan opor ayam & salam-salaman sama sodara yg dateng kerumah Eyang.

Lebaran tahun ini ngga terlalu special. It was a really good thing that temen2 pada nginep kerumah. Grace, Yuli (+her mom+pacar), and Pram. it felt a little bit like home, rame ketawa-ketiwi. they all wondered why I'd rather spend the day with them than with the folks in pengajian Iqra-Boston. but you know what, guys? Lebaran is about spending time with the people that you actually care about . xoxoxo. just missing Betsy.

**********

kayaknya sih mungkin baru tahun 2009 bisa Lebaran di Indonesia lagi. not sure that suasananya bakalan sama kayak jaman masa kecil dulu. things have changed since I've left home.

one last thing worth mentioning: tahun ini hampir semua teman2 saya yg merayakan Lebaran sudah berkeluarga. alhasil semua sms & email ucapan minal aidin-nya bertanda tangan "X & keluarga". dan nama "X"-nya selalu nama suami mereka. makanya kadang2 gw suka bingung itu sms/email dr siapa, kalo ngga inget nama suaminya.

well, this year is the 2nd year for my lil' sis to celebrate Lebaran as a married woman. I was expecting her sms to say "Kevin & keluarga". I was happily surprised that she chose to sign her sms as "Lika & keluarga". Hahahahahahaha. Go Lika! Love ya, sis.

last but not least: walaupun sedikit terlambat:


btw: kemarin bikin kaastengels - kayaknya Lebaran ngga lengkap kalo ngga makan kaastengels - hurrah!

haduh ... br nyadar udah lama ga update for about 2 months now.

ini gara-garanya karna saya baru-baru ini dapet promotion di kantor, naik pangkat ceritanya. eittt ... buat yg pada minta traktir, tolong ya, di kantor saya: getting a promotion = more responsibilities with same pay.

bener deh, sudah nyoba nego naik gaji, tp dibilangin secara ada salary range overlap between my old position (senior manufacturing engineer) & the new position (operations program manager), utk sementara tahun ini saya ngga dapet extra raise.

sebenernya sih saya ngga gitu keberatan soal ngga naik gaji. tapi ya, company saya itu ngga pernah ngasih THR, bo'. walopun di Amrik Lebaran ngga dirayain, tp tetep temen-temen saya disini yg lain pada dapet Christmas bonus. cash pula, biasanya. we do get stock options at the end of year, but they have to be vested for 1 year before we can cash in, yadda yadda yadda. and after all the bs rules, it pretty much means that it's worthless - apalagi karna biasanya tahun depannya stock price kita turun! HUH.

satu halnya lagi, saya jadi tambah sibuk banget karna masih menjalankan pekerjaan 2 posisi. sampe skrg belum ada orang from the internal company yg mau menggantikan pekerjaan saya yg lama. we are going to start recruiting external candidates this week, tapi pasti lama aja deh prosesnya. I don't think I can fully assume my new position until after Thanksgiving .

kok susah banged ya mencari pengganti saya?
udah ditawar-tawarin ke beberapa orang, and they all declined. alasannya?
"I don't think I'm qualified"
"Nah .. your job is too hard for me"
"No, thanks - I've seen how you work and I want to have a life"
"I think it's too demanding for me. You know I just got married & bought a house"

helloooooo .... ???
whatever happened to moving out of your comfort zone? looks like a lot of people are still hesitant to move out of their cushion-like jobs. kok jadi spt pegawai negeri di Indonesia.
apalagi di jamannya skrg yg American jobs pada di-outsource ke low-cost region semua, it amazed me that masih banyak orang yg menolak-nolak tawaran pekerjaan. padahal a senior manufacturing engineer job has a low probability of being off-shored loh. heran yah. and I do get paid quite well.
I wonder if Poppies is interested in working in the US? hehehe (hallo Jeng, apa kabar?)

jangan tanya soal wedding prep lah. having second thoughts again. thus the dilemma of a commitment-phobic-gal .

saya bener2 ngga punya disiplin deh. udah tau kerjaan di kantor banyak bener, plus wedding planning yg terbengkalai, tp msh aja rajin blogwalking.

barusan baca blog-blog 2 orang temen. tentang upaya mereka dlm rangka mengejar gebetan2 tercinta. I couldn't help but noticed that both girls seem to be completely unaware that their targets are sooo ... not interested.

it's obvious to me (the reader) that these 2 lovely girls are pretty much "throwing themselves" on these bastardy gebetans. but why couldn't they see it?

gatel sih pengen ngomentarin, tp masih menahan-nahan. after all, I'm not the one in their "relationships". aside from what they write in their blogs, saya ndak gitu ngerti detail2nya. should really shut my trap.

heck, the girls could prolly think the same about me: "what is she thinking marrying this guy???"

need to mind my own business. and go back to revising "Buku Panduan Rangkaian Acara Pernikahan Anne & Jim". before Saturday. or face the wratch of my lovely parents. nope, I'm not kidding, that is the book title - 16 pages.

apparently I've been causing a commotion with my last blog entry, the *planning a wedding* part ...

so yes, please save the date, my dearest lovely friends & families, the Indonesian ceremony date is now set for 8/8/08.

no .. it's not because it's a "cool" date, rather it was the date that was recommended by my mom after consulting Primbon Jawa, huahahaha - taking into consideration my birthdate & Jim's. ada tambahannya lagi: akad nikahnya harus diatas jam 4 sore .

there will be a Chinese banquet in Boston, too, tapi blom ditentuin tanggalnya. masih nyari2 resto yg ga mahal. plus ditambah komplikasi bokap-nyokap-Lika&Kevin-Dimas kira2 dapet visanya brapa lama. oh, and I want to make sure that Betsy is back in Boston b/c I need her to be one of my bridesmaids.

what's the story?

well .. I guess we're finally making it "legal". After being together (on-and-off) for ~11 years, living "in sin" for ~10 yrs & engaged for ~3 years, I finally succumbed to the idea of committing myself to another person in a legal sense.

so no .. there was really no special occasion when I recently got engaged, no getting-down-on-1-knee-type of excitement. timeline-wise, Jim's been on my case to get engaged & married sejak thn 1999 . tapi karna sayanya yg masih commitment-phobic due to the lack-of-trust issue, I finally agreed to buy the ring in July 2004 (milih sendiri loh!). oh, and plus the fact that until April 2006, saya masih terbayang-bayang oleh "what if" situationnya dg seseorang lelaki yg kebetulan temennya neng Wenni + neng Wita .

need to blog more about the "commitment-phobic" concept, but really, I'm not that into marriage and all that crap. maybe because I've been watching too many of my friends of the same age who have gotten married & divorced in a short period of time. ngga worth it spending the money to have wedding parties only to have the union crumble later on.

** update on the green card: it was false alarm on the TBC front, I'm cleared of any diseases. medical exam report is finally complete - application package has now been sent to the Immigration dept. cross your fingers, everyone!

no ... I haven't stopped blogging. but after you read this one entry, you prolly will understand why I've been absent .

this past month, I've been having multiple anxiety attacks ... thanks to my U.S green card application process. and if you think US government bureaucracy is any better than the Indonesian one, well, that's where you're wrong.

skitar awal Juni, my immigration lawyer notified me that my labor certification has been approved. the next step was now to formally apply for permanent residency. biasanya, saya tuh bukan tipe org yg suka menunda2, apalagi kalo urusan imigrasi kayak gini. but I did procrastinate, trying to file my greencard application at the last minute.

knapa? well, gara-gara it requires a medical exam!

I'm gonna let you on a secret now: I'm absolutely terrified of needles. the last time I was vaccinated was God knows when. I'd rather donate a million bux than donate blood (since they hafta stick a needle in me).  so when I saw that the medical exam requirement lists 11 (yes, eleven!) vaccinations, you can bet your ass I'm pushing it out till the last minute.

yup, I know it doesn't make sense. it's just a tiny prick, right? you won't feel it after 30 seconds. my friends are completely flabbergasted, since they know that I can calmly get monthly Brazillian wax, and yet I cower in fear in face of vaccinations. maybe I do have a serious phobia.

skitar akhir bulan Juni, tiba2 the US Immigration dept (USCIS)  ngluarin memo bhw all greencard applications have to be submitted by early July, or they may run out of visa numbers.

the scramble has begun.

kepanikan sosial ensued, setiap org di Amrik yg mau apply langsung pada sibuk nyari appointment sama civil surgeon (dokter khusus yg boleh ngluarin med report). Grace, Yuli & I were constantly on the phone everyday calling all the nearby surgeons to see if they have a cancellation. and when one of us succeded in securing an appt, we tried to squeeze the 2 other ones - girl power!

all of a sudden I had to race to get my vaccinations done. I had to brace myself and pscyhe myself up to get vaccinated. thanks to everyone who try to comfort me by saying that the needle won't hurt, including si mas yg iseng nyubit2 gw by surprise: "it doesn't hurt, right? it's just gonna feel like that!". huh.

yea, right.

my 1st shot was for tetanus. before the doc started the injection, she gave me a pamphlet to read about the possible side effects. I timidly asked if it was gonna hurt. She said no, it may feel "sore" a little (also confirmed by Yuli: "pegel dikit kok 'Nne, tp ga sakit"). hah! lies ......! I pretty much couldn't move my arm for 3 days. not only that: IT HURT .....! apa mungkin karna gw manja bangedd kali ya, sampe mau sholat aja males, telling God: well, if You hadn't made it hurt, I would've done my prayer!

yg lucunya pas mau bobok. si mas was being so nice: "I'll hug you the entire night, ok? the pain will go away". well, tapi skrg pertanyaannya: which side should I face on??? I always sleep on my side, ga bisa tengkurep, ga bisa terlentang. obviously I couldn't sleep on the vaccinated arm. tp resikonya gede jg if I sleep on the other arm, since I may shift sides during the night. halahhhhh ... mau tidur susah benerrr!

the good thing is that my regular doctor made me get some bloodwork, utk di-tes udah ada immunization for all the 11 required vacs. it turned out in the end that I only had to take 2 shots instead of 11. phewww. I still had to have blood drawn, so yes, still 1 more needle exposure. I feel like a pin cushion!

now for the actual civil surgeon's medical exam.

Yuli managed to secure appt for all 3 of us with a surgeon in Dorchester. for non-Bostonians, Dorchester is an area in Boston that you should really stay away from when possible - in short: the ultimate ghetto. tp karna ga ada pilihan lain, ya sudahlah.

I got to the place first, Yuli was driving from 2 hrs away & Grace was still trying to retrieve some of her vaccinations record. as soon as I parked my car, I looked around the area and ealahh .... ga cuma ghetto doang, it's an Asian ghetto! (Betsy: itu di daerah Fields Corner, Bets, serem ga sih???). kebayang deh, 3 gorgeous chicks in the middle of Southeast Asian ghetto - sepanjang jalan banyak cowok2 nongkrong ga jelas gitu, siap nyuit-nyuitin (no, ga ge-er, sumpah!). males ajahhh! serasa jalan di terminal Pasar Rumput!

once I got to the clinic, another blow: tempatnya tuh bener2 kayak puskesmas. am I being a snob? probably. but you have to think that after all, this is Boston, and I'm expecting a (much) higher standard. instead papers were strewn everywhere, there was no AC (it was 33 deg C!), lantai kliniknya jorok, and ewwww ... I think I saw bugs crawling on the delapidated waiting room chairs! cepet2 gw laporan pandangan mata ke Yuli & Grace.

I waited for ~20 mins when all of a sudden my phone rang, it was Yuli. I picked up and all I could hear that she was laughing hysterically on the other line, saying "ABORT, ABORT". wtf??? tnyata lawyernya Yuli telpon, USCIS issued another bulletin, saying don't bother submitting applications, since they have run out of visa numbers & will reject all applications therewith until October when the new set of visa numbers are available.

HALAHHHHHH!!!!!!

buang2 waktu, duit, bensin, all in order to finish this crazy goose chase.
but at least I thought we could finally take a break.

again, I was wrong.

skitar 2 minggu yg lalu, another USCIS bulletin was issued. this time, they decided to accept applications, altho visa numbers have run out.

back to the scramble, here we go doing the round robins trying to secure civil surgeon appt.

so today I just got back from my civil surgeon exam, and guess what: they did a Tuberculosis test and my test came out positive (=bad)! #$@$#@$#@ I had to get xray done, and I don't even know what's gonna happen if I do have TBC.

it's even annoying that my mother thinks it's hilariously funny that I've been diagnosed with possible TBC: "Mbak, hmmmwakakakak, hhmmm, bukannya TBC itu penyakitnya orang kampung?" DASARRRRRRR! not funny, Mother!

so after $200 for the med exam, ~$150 spent on gas for driving back & forth from work to doctor's office, ~$600 in lost productivity @ work (secara dikantor bukannya kerja tp malah nelpon2 dokter minta appointment), 20 hours worth of vacation time sacrificed to go to the docs, my paperwork is still not done yet.

I'm exhausted. was supposed to catch up on some work tonight, but heck, I'm too tired, better be blogging . not to mention that I just reviewed the immigration paperwork sent by my lawyers and noticed that they wanted me to write a cheque worth of ~$900 for processing fees? what the hell? I thought my company is paying for this (since they're sponsoring my green card)!

auugghhhh! on top of everything, now I gotta deal with the HR dept on the lawyers' charges.

that's my story so far. for those of you wondering about the progress of my wedding plans: what wedding? SO not a priority at the moment - blah!

I'm telling you, as soon as Grace, Yuli & I obtain the receipt of our greencard application filing: WE ARE GOING TO GET WASTED!

cheers from Boston - xoxo.

The Ultimate Kaastengels

Bahan:

• Tepung terigu            300 gr
• Mentega                     175 gr
• Keju edam                 200 gr (+ 100 gr untuk hiasan)
• Kuning telur                2-3 butir (+ 1 butir untuk hiasan) 

Cara Memasak:

• Kocok mentega
• Tambahkan kuning telur
• Tambahkan ½ tepung terigu
• Tambahkan ½ tepung terigu & ½ keju
• Tambahkan ½ keju
• Shape adonan sesuai selera
• Panggang di oven 325°F selama 40 menit

pengen bikin kaastengels!!!

ini gara2 dikasih a few kaastengels sama Grace, kok blum cukup yah kayaknya. benar2 serakah. anyhoo, will be stuck in proto lab till tomorrow at least to do customer shipment - so don't expect any posting till Thursday.

I've been vindicated - wooooohoooo!!!

so this is a continuation story to my previous blog entry. about how my technical argument kept getting shot down by the little skinny blonde bitch. I forgot to mention that she quoted industry standard as well as one of the industry expertise to support her side of the argument. that was what made me feel so low - I had thought that having been in this business for ~8 yrs, I should know more than she does.

but guess what? I contacted this industry expert & had lengthy conversation w/ him last night & this morning. it turned out that:

1. he never agreed with the bitch's argument
2. he thinks the quoted industry standard is out-of-date (apparently it was a 15-yr old calculation)
3. he is now completely pissed that the little skinny biatch took his words out of context for her "advantage"

aha aha aha! so it turned out that I WAS RIGHT AFTER ALL!!!!!

seriously need to have more self-confidence on my own technical skills, for crying out loud. never again will I let a stupid miss "know-it-all" drive me to pieces.

ok, time to draft the damage control email.
back to work.

sebenernya ... banyak topik2 blog yg seru utk ditulis & di-diskusi ...
sebenernya ... the recent 14-hr days in front of the computer are not enough to shy me away from updating my blog ...
sebenernya ... doing yardwork every weekend does not really make me too tired to update my blog ....

tp apa daya, tetep aja malesss ... no, I ran out of excuses. kali ini bener2 karena lagi super be-te sama keadaaan dunia kantor.

so let me tell you a story (skalian curhat). career-wise, terus terang I've been quite successful. no, ini bukan dlm rangka narsis, bukan karna ge-er & besar kepala, bukan karna pamer. di kantor, people have applauded me to become where I am in the time span of <10 years. secara biasanya (termasuk bos-bos gw) it takes them at least 20 yrs from being a college new hire to where I am now.

initially, I was happy. I actually love what I do, and the people that I work with were not bad. or so I thought.

howerver, recently I have this 1 co-worker that's been waging war against me. the sad thing is that I used to regard her as my protege. when asked by my boss to identify my possible replacement (since I'm moving up the career ladder), I actually told him that I wanted her to replace me.

ternyata ... it ended up biting me in the ass. first of all, this bitch complaint to her boss' boss' boss that I've been going over her head in making technical decisions. and then in several meetings now she keeps cutting off my technical judgements and presenting her own.

it's hard ... it's hard for me to keep my cool, to bite my tongue and hold myself back from smacking her little pretty head. I keep reminding myself not to appear defensive, as it will present myself as being "overly emotional", or worse, as having a catfight. a classic No-No for working in an environment dominated by men.

yet I'm starting to be gripped by fear. would people actually prefer her technical opinions when compared to mine? and if they do, is it because she's blonde? and thin? and pretty?

I've tried talking to her, asking if there's a reason behind her evil actions against me. only to be answered by an innocently prettified answer of "oh no, Arianne, why would I do that? you're my hero!". fucking crap. hero my ass. heck, I'm starting to write with swear words like Yodee.

how should I keep my cool? I know better not to fall apart emotionally just because of this one single bitch. but I can't help wanting to cry everytime she rips me apart in meetings. how is it possible that one person can make me feel as if I'm hated by the entire workplace? how do politicians live their life? I don't see Hillary Clinton falling apart after being criticized by her enemies, even after finding out in public that her husband cheated on her. how does she do it?

right now all I wanna do is to crawl into a shell, hide there and never comes out. what is it that keeps politicians going in the face of heavy criticism? if I ask myself the question of why I work (at this very moment), my answer would be: just for the money. but I'm sure it won't be enough in the future ... I know I want to have a good career.

hmmm ... maybe Grace should establish her architecture office, and I can go back to school to get my MBA in Finance and be her CFO. hmmm? hmmm?

sorry for the bad mood, my beloved blog readers. soon, soon, I promise to write topik yg seru-seru.