3:54:00 AM
For those of you in Los Angeles & San Francisco area: try The Stinking Rose! It's a garlic restaurant that has Californian-Italian cuisine. In other words: YUMMY =9

Anne, you really should stop rotating your layouts too often like that =P You change layouts too often, totally the contrary of myself *hides self*

3:19:00 AM
music: Blümchen - Nur Getraumt

You know where to reach me if I happened to disappear for a while like this ^_~
I am loving Blümchen. I love her music. Laurent introduced me to Verliebt, Blumchen's second album, and I love the songs almost instantly. But I guess I'm a bit late, since she will not sing anymore. Or so I heard.

The weather has been really nice lately, I've been into sports mood since two days ago. Golfing, swimming, billiard, shopping =P
<defense>Shopping is a sport for me!</defense> Must find partner(s) for tennis and bowling.
I, Laurent, and Aaron have been roaming around everyday, from lunch till dinner... doing random things. Life's pretty nice *nods* ^^v

Just thought I'd update a little bit. Until next time *waves* ~~

9:53:00 PM
Isabela! XD XD That story about the philosophy exam is SO hilarious, I still can't stop laughing! XD XD XD
Oh my, who would have thought that answering "why not?" was a feasible option. What was the highest score, do you know?

Selene, thank you for the sympathy. I have an incredibly high metabolism, that's why I have to eat properly. And it's so annoying -_- But I'm doing fine today ^^v I've eaten various stuff and it's not acting anymore.

Anne, kok bandel? XD

1:48:00 AM
I forgot to mention here... Yesterday was Laurent's 24th birthday. Yes, September 18th.
I surprised him with a 7-inch whole tiramisu cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory at past midnight. And he wasn't surprised at the slightest bit *lol* He read me all too well ^^;

There was not much complication for him inside the terminal upon arriving at LAX. However, the complication was annoying enough for me and Aaron, a friend of mine, who picked him up at the airport. It took us 45 minutes driving to LAX, which is normal, and another 45 minutes (actually more than that) queuing to park and taking the shuttle to the central terminal area... for a total of almost 2 hours before I finally met Laurent. Sheesh O_O The Central Terminal Area (CTA) was closed, that's why. Private vihacles are still prohibited on the CTA, due to the heightened security measures. Thus we all had to park at Lot B or C, which is faaaar away from the CTA, and take the shuttle to the CTA. Good thing Laurent only brought 1 suitcase. It would've been too bothersome had he brought more. But most importantly, he did arrive safe and sound =)

On a not-so-cheerful note, I was attacked by the ever fearful gastro intestinal reflux yesterday evening. That was due to my having had late dinner... and while it had already been late, the meal I had was -very- sour and spicy (a major mistake, yes -_-). My stomach just couldn't take it. I haven't felt that much of pain in years... maybe 8 years or so. It was horrible. I felt like going berserk, but of course I couldn't. My endurance to pain has been very good so far, but I almost couldn't stand that particular one yesterday. Too acute for my body resistance. It took me more than 24 hours to recover. The stomach still hasn't gone back to normal now, it's still very sensitive to meals. Thus I can't eat just about anything.

That complication, along with my dearest monthly suffering, has nicely added up to the club. How wonderful O_O Two great sources of pain at the most perfect time. Yes, yes. How truly convenient. And how I just loooove sarcasm XD Or is it cynical? *shrugs*

Dican, good luck with the exams!
Anne and Garion, I'm recovering ^^v Thank you for the concern.

Sakura, do come back. I missed your writing. Yours is one of my favorites.
Astri, happy belated birthday. It's still the 19th here, but it's already the 20th over there ^^;

5:37:00 PM
My monthly suffering has commenced -_-

Contrary to my original plan, I may not be able to send this long-awaited OPT application today. I just want to lie down, I don't feel like driving with this stomach cramps & backache. Mwahh O_O

4:15:00 PM
I've coincidentally glanced at the time when it shows 1:11 for too many times lately. Both AM and PM. Scary O_O
And also 11:11. Or I'm just easily amused by those things.

2:57:00 PM
Laurent is finally coming home tonight.. hope he'll arrive safe & sound. I expect delays & complications when picking him up, due to the heightened security measures at LAX airport. Hope things will go well, as I don't have car insurance and I still use international driver's license issued at Indonesia.

Dican, sorry to hear about the accident. I read that people were apologizing on the mailing list. The volley game must have stopped right after you got hit, no? But you seriously didn't apply blue eyeshadow on the other eye afterall, yes? ^^;

Found a nice site about Narumi Kakinouchi. If you haven't already known, I adore her artwork. A lot.

Omocha Box is opening a physical store in LA. That simply means I have easy access to anime & manga XD But won't be able to satisfy much of my hunger anyway... because Laurent holds the pedal brake to my obsession. Nya >_<

Polska kielbasa with red crushed pepper, anyone? =9 *munch munch*

4:56:00 AM
The president has designated Friday, September 14, a day of "National Prayer and Remembrance" and will call on Americans to use their lunch breaks to go to places of worship to pray for victims and their families.

Please step aside from your daily activity for a while and join the nation in prayers today. That's the least one can do.... and it means a lot. For them.

3:58:00 AM
Oh hey, I didn't realize that my blog has been listed at IndoBlogs, a list of Indonesian webloggers. Cool! Plenty of blogs to browse around *nods*

Nya, I really need to change this layout... but my mind hasn't been working normally lately. I also need to add more links. And change this and that. So many things to do O_O Forgive me for having been in the worst design block ever -_-;

I finally went out with a friend today (er, I meant yesterday -- Thursday evening)... after having spent 10 days pretty much by myself. Had dinner, went to Tower Records, and roamed around Irvine in a failed effort to search for a billiard place or a bowling alley. The bad thing about Irvine: everything closes at 9-10 PM! That's really wonderful for a vampire-chan like myself ¬_¬ No midnight entertainment at all. I will have to go 15 minutes away from Irvine for nightlife entertainment. Which is pretty inconvenient, because I'm still scared to go on freeways. I prefer not to go if deemed unnecessary.

12:48:00 PM
I just heard from Kara, who is now in Boston, that Eric Hartono (an Indonesian who was killed on the WTC tragedy; he was one of the passengers onboard United Airlines 175 from Boston to LA that crashed into WTC) was the boyfriend of an acquintance of mine. Eric was an Indonesian student in Boston, and so does his girlfriend. I know the girl, although not too personally. I hadn't met Eric yet, but Kara had. I just can't imagine how the girlfriend would feel... *shakes head* Some of Kara's friends went to the girl's apartment yesterday to offer their condolences. My heartfelt condolences to the girl, Eric's family, and his friends who mourn for this tragedy.

11:24:00 AM
For a split second I thought my heart had stopped. My friend's dad (names undisclosed for privacy matters) was thought to be one of the passengers onboard UA 175 from Boston to LA that crashed into WTC. A Penn State friend called me earlier telling me that the father's name was on an Indonesian newspaper, although the reliability of the source telling the newspaper has yet to be confirmed. So my Penn State friend called them to check whether this name was of my friend's dad's.... and thankfully the father along with my friend are safe and sound at their residence. Thank God..... Apparently it was someone else, with the same name. And the info is not quite true, since there isn't any further info about that person. However, it was a pretty heart-throbbing coincidence, seeing that name on the newspaper.

I have also confirmed that my New York friends are safe and sound, including one who works at Wall Street. However, my heart is still very heavy... thinking about thousands of people who were killed in New York and Washington, DC. Not to mention hundreds of firefighters and police officers who bravely came forward to the rescue. I cannot do anything... except to pray solemnly for the innocent victims.

2:44:00 PM
I just remembered that Kara and her sister live very close to Ballston, less than 5 miles away from Pentagon. I hope she's okay *is very worried*

I've confirmed that one of my New York friends is okay. She's at home right now in NoHo. I'm still worried about two more friends who work at Wall Street near WTC.

CNN just reported, "There will be no commercial aircrafts coming in & out of -every- airports in the country at least until noon tomorrow."

1:49:00 PM
Thank God I didn't move to New York, DC nor Boston! It's pretty scary to think of what would have happened if I moved to NY or DC. Instead, I was sent away to Irvine, although Los Angeles might be the next target of the terrorism (or so I heard). However, I'm pretty safe here. I'm just worried about some friends who reside in New York city. One of them works near the World Trade Center, no less. I sincerely hope they're okay.

Now, there are some things that I'm quite worried about. The most important thing at the moment: Laurent is in great danger of not being able to come back here. At least not this week, since all US airports are closed and I believe the US Embassy in Jakarta is also closed. Oh well, I'll survive. I just hope the whole things will be taken care of soon. And no more of this tragedy. Please.

9:28:00 PM
I'd like to share a short story that's really wonderful. Please take your time to read and reflect the story to yourself.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. In a specific point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped
the other one in the face. The one, who got slapped, was hurt, but without anything to say, he wrote in the sand: "TODAY, MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE". They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who got slapped and hurt started drowning, and the other friend saved him. When he recovered from the fright, he wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE". The friend who saved and slapped his best friend, asked him, "Why, after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now you write on a stone?"

The other friend, smiling, replied: "When a friend hurts us, we should write it down in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness get in charge of erasing it away, and when something great happens, we should engrave it in the stone of the memory of the heart, where no wind can erase it"

Learn to write in the sand.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yes. Learn to forgive. No matter how hard it is. Just say, "I forgive". Or if you can't do it, then say, "I want to forgive". Forgiving frees you from any chains, from any grudges, from any pain. Maybe you can take the time to reflect on your life until today, from way back to ever since you can remember. Because childhood is crucial. If something happened when you were very young, and you couldn't forgive for any reason, then you'll be stuck on that spot forever without you even acknowledging it. It will effect your personality, way of thinking, perspective, etc. Reflect back. See if remembering something unhappy still makes you sad, angry, disappointed, betrayed, ... or even cold. No feeling doesn't mean you've forgiven. It simply means that you might have suppressed the feeling, as to be like, "Oh, I'm feeling fine about that problem. I'm fine now, see? I'm pretty cool about it. I'm not even feeling sad anymore. So there's no need to talk about it anymore." Wrong. Like a wound, if you just forget about the pain and don't do anything to it, the wound will not heal. You have to apply a medication and put a band-aid over it. Slowly but surely, it will heal. Same goes to your soul. If by reflecting back you remember something, bring back the unpleasant feeling to the current situation. Be sad, be angry, be disappointed. And then you, as an adult you are now, try to accept and forgive the people involved, the situation, the problem.... anything that made you feel what you feel. You won't be feeling fine right away after that, no. Forgiving is a process. Keep doing that everytime you remember, then one day you'll realize... that by remembering a certain unhappy thing doesn't make you feel bad anymore. You can smile upon it and say, "I'm thankful that it happened in my life. Because it's truly a great experience to make me more mature, as I am now."

Forgiving has done a lot of miracles in my life. And so I'd like to share it with everyone.

9:40:00 AM
*cough cough* Apparently the bactery that caused the chronic pharyngitis (that *supposedly* ended 10 days ago) hasn't been completely destroyed. It has come back, slowly but sure *cough cough* Feh. And I hate taking medicines. I've been taking too many medicines since 3 weeks ago. My mom (who is a medical doctor) said that the disease is back because I changed medicines (the first antibiotic didn't have much effect, perhaps because it was a different kind of bactery. So she told me to take a different antibiotic and it worked after two days), but I didn't take enough doses of the second antibiotic (I only took it for 2 days, as opposed to 4-day regular doses). But perhaps that's also due to my having been a vampire-chan for more than a week >_< I really cannot continue this unhealthy sleeping cycle anymore.

Just an update: I have moved to a friend's house in Tustin (next to Irvine -- 8 minutes driving from Laurent's apartment) since yesterday. I rent a room at her house, which is pretty nice & big. It's a new house, above all. The one that I stayed at for a month before is an old house, about 21 years old or so. I don't like very old houses. They can be pretty creepy. Most importantly, the owners of my new home are two siblings about my age. No more host parents. YAY! XD See, I'm so used to living alone. I don't like being controlled, watched, checked, and worried at anymore. It's simply annoying. My parents aren't even like that, they give me total responsibility to take care of myself. And so I don't want to have other people feeling responsible for me at all, for any reasons. I'm 22 already. Get a clue.

6:47:00 AM
Fel, no rush kok. Take your time and don't worry about it ^^v Eh mau donk previewnya.. kirim ke kuya@kuya.net yah. Thankies!

11:15:00 PM
Do you know just how hard it is to find a job today? o_O The Orange County Register dated today reported, "The nation's unemployment rate surged to 4.9 percent in August, the highest level in four years, while companies trimmed 113,000 workers from their payrolls." And I once heard that the unemployment rate in Irvine (or Orange County, I don't remember which) was zero percent. Shall I still keep my hopes up? -_-

I've been spending hours and hours in front of the internet, browsing over countless websites to search for a perfect job. Yet I didn't find any, not even next-to-perfect. Maybe I'm too picky. Maybe I strive too much on excellence. But above all, I don't want to send my resume to just any available jobs out there without the job description and requirement perfectly fitting my background skills and interest. That's just a waste of time and energy. I want to concentrate on finding the most valuable job for myself, although it takes longer. That's fine. Because in the end, I know I'll gain the most from my hard efforts: I'll love the job & will be satisfied with it. No need to put another time & energy constraints into searching for a better one. Or so I'd like to believe. But still..... I believe =)

By the way. I just took some webcam shots: one, two, three, four, five. It wasn't until I took these shots that I realized how much I changed within the past month. Funny how your soul reflects deeply on your body (face, in this case). When you're sad inside, your face looks gloomy. When you're happy inside, your face looks bright. My cousin Margareta commented on how glowing my face is now and asked whether it's because of a new boyfriend. Laurent is one of the many reasons, yes, but other than that, I've been in a happy phase a lot lately. Extremely happy due to many happenings in my life. Perhaps that's why ^^v

4:13:00 PM
I wrote the following entry at 6 AM today. Blogger's server was too busy at that time, so I couldn't publish it right away.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
First of all: Polish sausage with cajun seasoning & crushed red pepper tastes great =9 Virginia ham also tastes great with the same spices. I'm in ecstasy now, after having late supper of Polish sausages & Virginia hams XD

Fel, I loveeee your new layout! It's simply astonishing, very fresh and stylistic. Speaking about stylistic, how is the layout going? ^^v

Joey, I actually can relate very much to your unhappy experience, but I shall not elaborate on that. Put it simply, I understand how you feel. Perhaps the best way to accommodate to your situation is to be patient and stay faithful. I believe there'll soon be a way.. a definite path for you to go on. Don't worry about some complicateness in your life. It's a good lesson to make you more mature. As those kinds of experience have also happened to me many times, in slightly different situations. And I sure got a lot of lessons from them.
Oh, how I wish my blog was more hidden as well, so that I could vent out my feelings more freely. Perhaps I need a private blog.
Above all, good luck in everything, Joey. You'll be fine ^^ And should you need to vent out, I'm here. I may not be the most caring and understanding friend on earth, but at least I make myself available *hugs*

I shall crash to bed now, it's not healthy to stay being a vampire-chan for more than 3 nights o_O;; Most importantly, I need to take care of a lot of things today *shoo herself away from her dear beloved laptop*

7:33:00 PM
I just realized last night that I missed Laurent so much.

The afternoon started with a long phone call to my cousin Margareta in Canada, followed by late lunch of 4 Polish sausages covered with cajun seasoning & crushed chili pepper. Then I talked to my dad for half an hour, while still eating. Internet was the next target: ICQ-ing people (lots of them) on "online" mode (yes, I was actually -online-, for a long time! ^^;), chatting on IRC for 1-2 hours *hears people gasping* (and I never touched IRC since 3 years ago, except for downloading anime), and browsing aimlessly. Bored with the internet, I then made a pretty short phone call to Aldo, an Indonesian friend in Penn State, followed by a few minutes of IRC chat. I was totally fed up with IRC by then, so I made another long phone call to my bestfriend in Indonesia, whom I haven't contacted since 6 months ago. It was already midnight by then. I contributed the last long phone call to my mom, as if I wasn't satisfied speaking to her yet, considering that I had spoken with her for 3.5 hours the night before (after Laurent left).

Finally I realized why I kept playing with the phone, calling everyone, and making myself busy with the internet: I missed Laurent dearly........ And I still miss him so.

7:45:00 PM
Labor Day doesn't feel like a holiday for me, because everyday has been a holiday since I moved to CA XD Or you can call it vacation. Or even honeymoon *lol* We've been eating outside for the past 2 weeks as well, because Laurent's apartment is still empty and I can't cook when there's not enough spices, etc. I'll probably move my food stuff (yes I brought them from Pennsylvania) to the apt from the storage tomorrow. I don't have any money to eat out anymore.

Be careful with what you're wishing for. I just asked for more hours on the road and I got it right away O_O! I had to drive Laurent to the LAX airport (which is about 45 minutes away if there's no traffic) and drove back alone, because the guy who was supposed to drive him got the flight departure time incorrect. He was 30 minutes late and we were already on the road when he called. Mwahhh... Suddenly my driving hours jumped up, which is actually good... although I was scared ^^;; After all, I had to drive on the freeway all the way through (99% of the driving time) and the cars were speeding. So I kept my car on 75-80 mph (I didn't want to be the only car that was slow. It's not good for the whole freeway traffic). And Laurent called me from Taiwan (on the transit) and questioned me why I did that, because he told me to drive on 65-70 mph =P

Hm... what to do today? The apartment feels really empty ;_;

10:37:00 PM
Dican's wonderful journal entry today pretty much sums up what I feel about Penn State *nods gracefully* Yes, no matter what people think about Penn State and all those cliches, I am proud to be a Penn Stater. After all, when I say I went to Penn State, Californians always reply, "Penn State? Wow! That's a good school!" =D

Anyhow. Life has been great here in California. I've been driving around since Thursday with Laurent on the passenger seat as the teacher. I'm practising intensively to improve my driving technique before he leaves me alone for the next 2 weeks. However, I'm still scared to go on freeways, because basically everyone is speeding there (speed limit is 65 mph, and that literally translates to minimum speed limit, especially at night) O_O! But I really have to get used to it. Driving in California means miles and miles of freeways. I need more hours on the road.

4:21:00 PM
Laurent is going back to Indonesia tonight and will be there for 2 weeks. Mwahh I'm going to be alone ;_;
However, I have tons of things to do & deal with while he's gone: sending my OPT application, job hunting, taking care of bank problems, sorting my stuff in the storage, burning not-so-necessary things from my laptop, etc. Oh and let's not forget that it's wayyy past the time to change the layouts on both this blog & ikkoku.net ^^;; So I shall get my lazy butt off to work on my site, although I don't think I'll be able to do much with the contents, since I don't have a scanner (it was broken) and all of my stuff are still packed nicely away in the storage.

Thalia has launched her newest site, Yobotica. It's looking wonderful, Thal! Congrats to you and Ari for the grand opening ^^

Oh ya, I couldn't go to YaoiCon after all. I wanted to go so much, but there's no way we were gonna drive to SF in such a short time. And plus, Laurent is flying home tonight. Melisa, don't buy too many merchandise, kay? =P I bet you had fun there! *envy envy envy* Oh well... at least I don't spend any money for not-so-necessary stuff ^^v Because I'm broke.... ~_~

Luno, I hope you're doing fine now...? Take good care of yourself and best of luck with whatever you plan to do next. But please make an appearance every once in a while, ne? I'm going to miss you (and your sites) a lot if you don't...

Isabela, I love your layout! *_* It's nice, simple, and organized. And most importantly, it's blue! *Elyse loves blue too much*
Welcome back, Hikaru! Tell me about your vacation ^^
Selene, come here and we shall roam around :D
Trinity, thank you for the cute little button ^^v

I have to go now.. a lot of things to finish off before dinner. Ciao!