The Coil

Ini resep dari Tina Chute (Austin). Kalo masak eke  biasanya pake naluri untuk nentuin berapa banyak bumbu Maklum amatiran

Hey, this is the day after my last blog about A crazy day..huh..Well, the next morning even more exciting. After I woke up, the first I grabbed is my digital camera..:). I wanted to capture how high the pile of snows outside..Whoaaa…. a lot…huge and tall pile of snow!! It is about 12-15 inches tall or about 25-30 cm.  Eeeuuuwww!! Never seen snow stacks this high!! Temperature is about 0oF which is "only" (only????) about -17oC……MINUS!!! Eke bisa bangkrut nih kalo jadi agen es krim.dimari..hehehe!! (Indonesia translation)
Yeaahhhh…that is why  I didn’t hear bus school came around this morning to pick up some kids in neighbourhood. I don’t know if I have to go to work or not, I hope no one  call for a massage at the spa untill the snow melts because I hate driving in the mountains of snows in front of our house. Phill removed some of it because he had to go to work but still is high pile of snows out there. I think my friend Janty who lives in St. Louis experienced the same thing but some of my friends like Tesa (Florida), Mbak Angie (LA), Tina (Texas) or Ezelda (San Diego) will never have this situation back there and they always lives under the warm of the sun..!!Jealous…jealous…..:0.

Oh well, but the life will still go on, people still have to drive to work, by the way the highway or big streets must be cleared up by now because the snow truck (seperti Bulldozer di Jakarta) scoup and throw the snow from the road.Everything will go on like other normal day! Happy Big Snow Day Lucya!!

We had a big snow day today! The spa had to close early and had to cancel some appointments including my massage for today
Everyone who came and stop by the spa were telling about how bad the road was and people were driving badly in this kind of weather. I was glad that Phil dropped me in the morning so he had to pick me up. It took him about 45 minutes to reach the spa when is normally takes only 15-20 minutes (well, at least that is me who like to drive up to 75 mph at speed limit 65mph)!! While we drove back I saw so many cars stopped on the street some minor accidents but road was full of cars since everyone drove slowy…we only could drove for about 40 mph on highway….(everyone will get piss when you drive that slow on normal day…). I heard that the snow will still running until the next day that we expect to have 6-8 inch (16-20cm) of snow in the morning…Oouuuchh! This bring me back of the warm and humidity back home in Jakarta…..I miss you Jakarta….!!

This was about two years ago, my girl went bald.
Well, the story started when I thought Kaela’s hair  wasn’t thick enough. I always have problem with my hair since..mm..forever..:) (they falls a lot, didn’t thick enough, dry end..and so on) So, to make sure that Kaela won’t have the same problem like her mama, one day I  told Phil that I want to shave her head! At first, Phil looked at me like I was an idiot but I told him that is the tradition back home in Indonesia at least when I grew up. Parents shave the head of their little girl, hope that the new hair will become thicker and nicer. Finally Phil agreed, and at one nice day we took her to bathroom and put her in front of the mirror so she could see the whole process. Of course, Kaela was too small to care about being bald at the time that was why I wanted to do it before she was too big. Phil did the shave, I was standing beside Kaela, but after half of her head went bald I couldn’t take it anymore! It was horrible to watch the whole process….But it was a quick process, after couple minutes it was done. Kaela looked shock when she saw herself on the mirror after she lost her hair, but she was fine after that. The next couple weeks, whenever we took her out to shop or something else, people looked at her with sorry eyes thinking maybe she went through chemotherapy…huh!! About her hair getting thicker or not, I think I didn’t see any big changes, but I must say that I didn’t do the whole procedure because I supposed to put some Indonesian traditional hair oil after we shaved her hair. The summary is  no matter how looks her hair is, Kaela still My Cutie Pie!!!

I went through old pictures on the computer and saw some of pictures when I was studying at massage school. Many of my friends maybe wondering why do I became a massage therapist since this job is not sound as  normal job especially back home in Indonesia..Whhhaaaatt..you are a massage therapist?? Why??
Well, My biggest goal is that I want to have my own spa business and I think by working from the bottom is a good way to learn how to manage a spa business (I still haven’t learn a lot yet..huh..!).
Anyway, the school that I went for my massage skills is Massage Therapy Training Institute in Missouri. Before I came to US, I never expected that I have to get special education to become a massage therapist. The school fee not even as cheap as I wished but somehow I could get myself into the school. For someone at my age, went back to class and learn about Anatomy and Physiology, Business, Ethics, and so many other stuff was quite hard because I started it on the first year I’m living in the States. The language and the driving back and forth between school and house was hard. I remember the first time I had to drive by myself was the day that I had my first test in Anatomy class. I was lost driving in the rain….and got to the school one hour later with wet pants because I had to stop and asked people the way since I didn’t know how to read the map…Aaaaa!! The teacher was nice to give a chance to do the test.
I also made good friends and learn a lot about human’s body and how much power we have in our spirit .There were fun classess ( I love class on Energy and Aromatherapy) and there was boring class that made me want to sleep during the teaching :). After on and off for almost two years, I finally graduate from MTTI. It was my first school in USA and I hope I will have a chance to go to Esthetician school soon.

Idul Fitri or Ied Fitr or Hari Raya this year was quite a happy moment eventhough I couldn’t celebrate with my family in Indonesia. It’s been probably about 8 Idul Fitri that I missed to celebrate it in Indonesia.
Idul Fitri and Ramadhan is very different when I have it with or without  family and the place also make it different. I always miss sahur (eat before the dawn), iftar (break the fast) and tarawih prayer back home because Indonesian have their own way doing it. I don’t mean about the religious ways and rules but I am talking about the food, the prayer call (that is very serene) and most of all is the family company that make it perfect. Anyway, this year we celebrate Ied Fitr by visiting our close friend house who had Open House for Ied, Ghita and Mark King. I had a big fun at their house because I met a lot of my Malaysian friends and of course…the food. There were Rendang (Indonesian Beef Curry), Roti Jala, Chicken Curry ala Malaysia, Rice cube, tons of desserts….Yippie!!
I also had one night of Iftar and Tarawih prayer at our house, I cooked Ayam Kecap (Chicken with Sweet Soy sauce), Beef and Quail Egg soup, Gepuk (Fried Beef), Shrimp Curry (not very succesfull with this one), and Vegetable. Emmy and Maddie brought their special Sambel Terasi which is super double spicy (as I requested ), Mbak Anie and Mas Agus made Bika Ambon (special delicously Indonesia cake), Mbak Novi and Paul ( I just found out that Paul is a vegetarian lately) brought a Cilantro Roll) and Mark and Ghita brought cake as well. The sholat Tarawih was the best part of the night since we did it together for the first time at our house. I hope the next Ramadhan and Idul Fitri, my family can celebrate it in Indonesia..Insya Allah (with God’s permission).

Well, the end of the year is coming. Here in the States, the holiday season (Thanks Giving, X-Mass and New Year) starts on the Thanks Giving day but seems like already started since The Halloween.
Thanks Giving is a big holiday which is fall on the third of Thursday in November. This year we went to Phillip’s parents house for a big dinner. I always fond of Thanks Giving because the kind of the food is only serve once a year. This year Phillip’s mom cooked Turkey, stuffing, green bean caserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallow on top, home baked bread, pecan and pumpkin pie…everything are yummy…..I stuffed my self and I only had small cut of pecan pie because my stomach was almost blowed up!!
Then, the interesting fact about the day after Thanks Giving day is that America had the biggest sale day on the year. For the first time after almost three years living in the State, I never aware of Thanks Giving Sale day untill I noticed that some of my friends talked about the sale and there were many commercial on the tv about it. For this event, the store open their gate at 5 AM…Heloo…5 o’clock in the morning….in the winter season…!! There is store that even set the wake up call on the internet for their shopper on that day!! Huh……!!
Ok, then I was anxious to go because the sale marked for 60% and up on every store and for a big discount fans like me is just too much of attemption. So, on the next day, I woke up at 6 o’clock in the morning and without took a shower I went to the shopping area close to the house. I was taking my time because eventhough it was 7 o’clock morning it was still dark outside and the temperature was about 40 F (7oC). I decided to stop at Target and my first reaction was Oh My GOD…the parking lot was full and there were people already done their shopping with cart full of stuff…..and is olny 7 AM….I went in and it was even crazier…Women pushing the cart, the husband with puppy eyes following behind, sometimes I could hear the cell phone conversation " I got most of the stuff dear…What else should I buy, there are still great prices here..bla..bla…" Most of the shopper were adults because they tried to buy Christmas gift for the family on that day and also..who wants to bring their kids in middle of the sale chaos anyway :)). I  got dizzy after walked around for couple minutes because there were people on every corner…!! Hectic and crazy…There were also reporters taking a scene with their camera. Finally, I decided to head home, and I bought some eggs for breakfast. At the cashier I looked kind of funny because I was the only one who didn’t have full load cart…Huh!! The next day, I went to the same store just to see how much normal price would be, hey….I think that chaos was worth it for most of the people, I saw the slipper price was only $10 yesterday and the next day changed into $18….Also, I heard some horror story about people fight over a computer board at Walmart on that day…uh huh..:))

Well, I guess After Thanks Giving sale is a good sale day!!