The Coil

Sejak mulai hamil (ya betul sodara-sodara, sekarang saya sedang hamil anak kedua), suka terbayang makan bakso. Hari Jum’at kemarin, Lulu kirim email tentang blog nya yang penuh dengan hasil jepretan foto-fotonya yang cantik dengan objek bunga dan makanan Indonesia!
Langsung saja protes kirim email balik, "Aduh Lulu, dikau keterlaluan banget sih ngirimin foto  masakan Indonesia buatan dikau dikala aku lagi ngidam makan begini" Hehehe…Eh nggak tahunya, dia anggap serius dan aku ditantangin untuk makan makan ke rumahnya…Idih siapa yang takut.

Akhirnya, besoknya Mbak Ani, Mas Agus dan keluarga Mas Rachman dari Leavenworth datang ke rumahnya Lulu dan John. Waduh, rumahnya asri,  dibelakangnya halamannya luas dan ada lake pribadi. Aduh…senangnya.
Kita sempat berperahu ria mengelilingi danaunya….Seru!! Dan yang lebih seru lagi, eh ada ayam-ayam berkeliaran dihalaman…wah..jadi inget masa kecil dulu….Kaela dan Ricky dengan senang hati berlarian mengejar ayam-ayam kesana kemari, sementara ibu-ibu saling ngerumpi di dermaga tempat perahu berhenti.

Kembali ke makanan, saya jadi terharu biru ketika melihat ada bakso di panci mengepul-ngepul. Belum lagi ada nasi goreng, ayam panggang, macaroni schotel, lalapan, kue bolu pandan, kerupuk…Tapi baksonya itu loh yang paling mantap. Mirip sama bakso lapangan tembak, terutama bumbunya yang lengkap sekali, ada bawang goreng, seledri potong, saos sambel, kecap manis, cuka, sambel pedasnya dan ada bihun atau mie kuning. Aku makan kira-kira ada 6-7 mangkok selama bertamu. Hahahha….pokoknya dipuas-puasin deh…Maklum orang ngidam!!

Sebelum kita pulang, John membagi-bagi hasil kebun mereka. Ada tomat, zuchini, yellow squash, canteloupe, cabe merah, dan tak lupa dibekalin makanan juga. Aih, ini namu apa ngerampok sih…Tapi keramahan Lulu dan John  menghapus semua rasa kemaluan gue yang memang sudah hilang sejak makan 6 mangkok bakso…..hahhahhaa. Dalam perjalanan pulang, tiga biji bolu pandan habis dimakan sendiri, Phillip sampai geleng-geleng kepala, "Kamu nih hamil apa cacingan sih? Ngak disimpan buat besok apa?" Hahahha……

Terima kasih Lulu and John, sering-sering aja deh mengundang. Insya Allah, lain waktu kita balik mengundang kalian ke rumah kami yang aduh sungguh imutnya…hehehhe!! (Beneran, setelah melihat rumah teman-teman yang besar dengan halaman yang mega luas, kok jadi suka minder ya? Bawaan hamil kali..hehehhe!)

I am love  this song "Crazy" Gnarls Barkley (what a name). Is fun to listen, love the bass sound.

But maybeI’m crazy?
Maybe you’re crazy?
Maybe we’re crazy?
Probably……..

Well, Spring and Summer this year is so much fun. That is because I got a chance to know more people and got well informed about what is going on in the city.

My favorite picnic day of the year is Memorial day holiday. In Kansas City, each Memorial day is celebrated at Union Station with free symphony music from Kansas City Orchestra…..The celebration usually start quite late, maybe around 6 PM but since we want to get clear view to the stage and to have big  space to sit around, people usually comes early to reserve the spot. We went there early and got nice spot for us, mom, dad and of course another Memorial picnic member of the Coil family, Sally Gratwick…..Sally is fun, and she always brings yummy dips and snack for the picnic and also her lovely jokes. Mom also always pretty much packed with cheese, cracker, fruits, and their favorite wine of course. Jennifer and her friend were there too. It was fun, I love classical music, and to see and to hear it live is always better. The orchestra played heroic pieces from America national songs, they also played Tchaikovsky "1812" overture at the end of the show followed by loud bangs from the real cannons up on the hill. Yippiieee….just like in the war…!! The night ended with 15-20 minutes of Fire works displayed on the clear dark sky..beautiful…….!! There were about 26.000 people gathered for that day.It grows every year!!

We were also got invitation from Mark and Ghita King (the duo party host) for Julia’s surprise baby shower party. It was fun especially when there lots Malaysian food served at the party….The next week on 4th of July weekend, we invited Mark, Ghita and their daughter Malaysia to go camping with us. Ghita was well prepared, she brought lots of stuff for one night camping..hehehe..But, too bad, the weather was unfriendly…..It was storm splashed the rain all over for most of the day. Aaaa…Mark and Phil blamed on them self, that they always bring bad luck whenever they going out for camping. It was seriously crazy rain. Both our tent were leaking and we couldn’t sleep at all, except maybe for Kaela and Malaysia. Finally, at 5 AM, I woke up ,moved and slept in the car….Mark told me that I cheated by sleeping in the car…Huh uh…
But, aside of the storm, everything was fun. We cooked outside, the man and the girls went swimming in the lake, me and Ghita had a chance to share our dried smelly fish eaten with rice and rujak (Malay fruit salad)…..Yum..yum..

We also had a chance to  say farewell to Pak Asnawa and Bu Putu on their last show with Gamelan Kentasuri in City Market. Pak Asnawa is a gamelan teacher at UMKC (Univeristy of Kansas City Missouri), his wife and three pretty daughters also  performed  Balinese dance often. I met them on several occasions, and I love  Bu Putu for her humbleness, they are such a genuine people.
Pak Asnawa got another offer to teach gamelan class in other state, so the family left Kansas City, but I am glad that the students will continue to perform Bali music and dance. Pak Asnawa once offered me to practice dance with them, and he said it again when I chatted with him at City Market, " You should join the group and learn Bali dance, you have typical dancer body…." I smiled…Mmmm I think there is no, I mean 0 chance that I would be able to perform Bali dance because for me is very complicated…Heck..to learn Malaysian dance which is away more simple, I still couldn’t do it right  (Ghita asked me to join her to perform Malaysia dance at The Cultural Festival that will happen in August…..). I met Mbak Ani, Mas Agus, Mbak Novi, Paul and Dylan also Ghita at the spot.
On that day, we also shopped some fruits and vegetable at City Market. Every Saturday especially in Spring and Summer, farmers and  bakers sells their stuff in an open area at City Market down town Kansas City.
There are also several original store and restaurant from some countries at City Market, like Italy, Turkey, Vietnam and China. The Amish people also sell their stuff in that market, their baked bread and cookies looks yummy!

I also enrolled Kaela for Taekwondo class. It was hard decision between dance class or martial arts, but we finally chosed taekwondo because we thought that it will bring more advantage for Kaela in the future. She likes it, and she learns about disipline a lot from the class. It is kind of cute when she try to kick or punch with her cute yell…"Aaa..yaaaaa"
At her class that she attending now, she definetely the smallest kid in the group, but the good thing is the teacher treats her equal as other students. No more "baby Kaela" in the class, although she sometimes try to work her charm when she is kind of lazy to follow the instruction.

Although there are many happy and fun occasion, recently we lost one of our Indonesian community member. Mbak Dini passed away after months battle of cancer. I met her once on our Independence’s day celebration. We had a quick Hi, but I haven’t hear about her except some emails from friends about her critical condition caused by cancer recently. The day she died, me and Ghita went to her funeral process. It was held on the funeral home but everything has done in Islam way since it was written in her last will. We met lots of Indonesian friends and got involved in the whole process. We read Yassin (a verse from Al Qur’an), prayed together, some of the women got involved in body washing process, there was speech from Brother Ahmed and her family, and finally the burial. It was hot and humid (about 100oF or around 35oC) but we all gathered to say our farewell. Couple days then, Mbak Marti invited us to her house to read Yassin and to listen speech from Brother Ahmed. It was a nice gathering, the speech was kind of a wake up call for us to remind us to improve our faith in God. And also the food were fantastic: Gado-gado, tahu goreng, kerupuk udang, rendang, pangsit goreng, samosa, rujak Malaysia, es campur, chocolate, macaroni schotel….my appetite got spoiled that night. One thing that amazed me about Mbak Marti’s house is that her back yard…..HUUUGEEE…as big as football field. I am not kidding, it is huge……I hope that someday I would have a house and the yard as wide as hers…..Beautiful!!! and Hugeeeee!!