Fortune

Even the fortune cookie is mocking me! Arrrrrggghhh! All this waiting is killing me.

Today's fortune...

The elements of my new life -

- laptop, tv, maruku, soda (hidden behind shoe), and fleece blanket.


Trying my new shoooz... (Whoo hoo!)

It's been (almost) a week since I got back from my Helsinki - St. Petersburg - Moscow - London trip. I'm finally settling down and getting things in place. I got a new trash can for the kitchen, so no more clanging and banging. Threw out boxes, cleaned the garage, Nils's car, etc. Hah, now I can rest and comfortably plant my butt on the couch (Iddy, I miss the window by your couch!). The house doesn't feel as sunyi as it did when my family first left. Although I'm still reminded of them when I drive by the Marriott and the mall. :( It's ok, I'll see them again soon.

My new life will unfold in the next few weeks, and I hope it turns out ok. New place, new job, new routine. New everything. Got my New Jersey license, and getting new title and registration on Monday. And I keep getting sms from my mom to make drinks for Nils and to take care of him. Hehehe thanks, Mak. It's still a few months before our trip to Malaysia in October, but things will be so hectic, I'm sure it'll be here in a hurry. (I can't wait to eat sambal goreng!)

I still need to finish up our Nikah wedding album, send pictures, and all that good stuff. Will do so as soon as I can. The last few days I've been battling a virus attack on my laptop. I think I finally cleaned it up. Next time must be careful when opening files.......

Hello, St. Petersburg

Am I really in Russia?

Day 1: Newark - SFO - London - Helsinki

I'm sitting at the airport, waiting to board my flight to Helsinki (via London). Thank God for the 6-hour wait, I finally got the time to do address changes, send out emails, etc. Even managed to get my blackberry unlocked for free (thank you, Cingular).

Iddy, I'll see you in 2 weeks!! I might change my flight to a later one so I can fly directly to Newark from London nanti. I wonder if I should stay an extra day. Hmmmmm... What do u think? But then I will need to find another room for the night. Cannot stay at Park Lane for the second night. Haha. :p. Can tido at your house or not? Hehehe

Keep smiling

There are some things you just never forget...

That's what friends are for

And I never thought I'd feel this way
And as far as I'm concerned
I'm glad I got the chance to say
That I do believe I love you

And if I should ever go away
Well, then close your eyes and try to feel
The way we do today
And then if you can remember

Keep smiling, keep shining
Knowing you can always count on me, for sure
That's what friends are for
For good times and bad times
I'll be on your side forever more
That's what friends are for

Well, you came and opened me
And now there's so much more I see
And so by the way I thank you

And then for the times when we're apart
Well, then close your eyes and know
These words are comin' from my heart
And then if you can remember, oh

Keep smiling, keep shining
Knowing you can always count on me, oh, for sure
'Cause I tell you that's what friends are for
For good times and for bad times
I'll be on your side forever more
That's what friends are for

English Set 1 with Cik Narimah... Huhuu..

Nikah day

I guess I'm officially a married woman now :p

Buried

I spent the entire weekend holed up in my apartment, eating lunches and dinners from the one delivery order of Indian food. Once in a while, I peeked at the calendar to see how much more of this I have to endure. Nils is on YM, tirelessly cheering me on as I finish writing my midterm and work on my projects. I figured out what to do for one of the projects, so now it's only a matter of finalizing with the rest of the group and writing up the paper. Shouldn't be too bad. Crappy ass midterm is pretty much done. So that's that. I'm not going to sweat it too much.

Work situation still unsorted, and will stay that way for at least one or two more weeks. Considering the movers will be here in less than 4 weeks, I should probably call them this week and confirm everything. Car needs to get serviced, so I'll call them tomorrow to make an appointment. Hair appointment already taken care of.

I wish I have more interesting things to tell you apart from blabbering about my to-do list. But really, there is nothing interesting going on. Three more weeks and I will be free from the claws of school work. Whoo hooooo hoooooooo ! ! !

Almost...

Thank you my dear friends for your kind wishes :) Of course I will invite all of you for Malaysia reception, insyaallah. But it will be in Johor, ok? And dekat hari raya plak tu. Hari raya ke-lima if I'm not mistaken. I will send invitations once plans are firm and my wedding planner a.k.a. Boy gets the wedding invitations printed.

It's been a hectic week, and I don't think things will let up for a few more weeks. At least I've booked all the flight tickets except for Boy's. No more scouring different websites and harassing travel agents for a million and one quotes. Also booked hotel rooms for Kak K and family, and Nils's mom & aunt. I'm preparing for my cross-country drive with Boy and Cool Aunt. Got myself new wipers (no more streaks, yeay!), GPS, Rain-x & safety stuff. I better tell Boy to learn how to change tires. Just in case.

Nils is busy cleaning up his house for the akad nikah. The basement is nice and clean now. He and Craig finally put up the lights for the pool table. It actually looks pretty nice. Maybe we should get a couple of high stools. Even the garage is completely empty and clean (I've been waiting for this for 2 years)! Nils in charge of getting kadi and lunch venue. I don't think either is quite done yet, but if I ask again he'll get mad and tell me I'm nagging. Hehehee... So I'll just keep quiet.

At work, I'm wrapping things up and transferring everything to the new guy. Two more things on my to-do list, plus two training sessions I have to give, and then I'm pretty much done. Still no word yet on what my new position will be.

School is almost over. Three more weeks of classes and eight more deliverables, and I am all done for the semester. Next stop, Helsinki. Oh, and then after that I get to see Professor Iddy. Whoo hoo! Until then, I am keeping my head down and plowing ahead. Wish me luck!

Round and round and round we go

I'm changing my nikah date to May 31st so that I don't have to take time off after starting my new job (other than for our honeymoon + Malaysia reception). According to my genius plan, in approximately 7 weeks from today, my brother and I will be on our cross-country adventure, and I will start my 6-week time off from work. But right now everything is up in the air, I feel like throwing up just thinking about it. Nothing is confirmed yet on my new job. And worse, nothing is set yet for the relo. My to-do list is so long, I feel like pulling my hair out. So do I wait to get relocation and time-off confirmation before buying tickets for my family? If I wait much longer, flights might get sold out and I'll end up paying through the nose for them. But then, if I buy now and later find out I have to change the dates, I'll end up paying extra too. What to do... what to do...

(help!)

Camera baru ku

I took these pictures from my parking spot this morning. Saje test drive my new camera. Need to make sure it's good enough to zoom on a leopard snoozing on the tree branch nanti. I'm not an avid photographer by any means. But still... the camera takes pretty decent pictures.

This is the view from my apartment parking spot.

Ok, I lied. That was the view from my neighbor's parking spot. Mine is about 10 spots to the left, with some trees getting in the middle of the scenery.

Part of the same view @ 10x zoom

So I think the camera will be good enough for our trip nanti. Whoo hoo!! I'm glad I returned the Sony DSC.

Goodbye my dear friend...

It's amazing how one man can touch so many lives. Your hasty departure made me realize that while I'm trying so hard to be a professional, busy climbing the corporate ladder, and going to school to better myself, sometimes I forget to be a human being. May I remember this lesson forever, and if I'm lucky, learn to be compassionate. Memories of you will be treasured forever, and one day they will be sweet reminders of our friendship, instead of the sorrow that they now bring. Goodbye, my dear friend. I hope you knew how much you are loved and respected.

:(

One down...

Marriage license done. Plenty more to do...

How did Petey manage to snap this picture?

Halloooo...

It's been quite a while. Life is a little crazy and there are so many things going on. Haven't really made plans for August yet. Good thing it'll be a small ceremony.

Have I told you I'm running out of steam and am super glad this is my last semester? Well, I'm telling you again, because I'm really really glad it's my last semester. I'm looking forward to the move - to a new job function (hopefully), and to a new area. Whew...

Oh, and I'm going to Finland and Russia for my last class in the program. Whoo hoo! I can't wait.

Three days...

... of classes in a row, pain in the butt. Not having a Saturday class, priceless.

My latest addiction

Tues 9/8c on Fox

Dr. Chase, kenapalah awak sangat cute?

I need some sleep. Work + Classes + Homework+ House = Tired Kokes

Happy Birthday, Kak CT!

We all met up today for Kak CT's birthday. It was a noisy table of 8 ladies, so noisy that they had to pull out the curtain between us and the table to our left. It was fun sitting there just chatting away. A few times I felt pangs of sadness when I was reminded of the fact that I won't be hanging out with them anymore after this summer (if everything goes well, insyaallah). A few of the ladies, I've just met and am only beginning to feel comfortable with. And soon it'll be time for me to leave.

I've started thinking of the hassle of moving. I'll have to find a new place for haircut, facial, to do eyebrows, get kicap & Lingham, for car wash, and not to mention having to find new people to hang out with. :( I'm sure it will all be fine once I'm adjusted to my new surroundings. I'm quite looking forward to it, actually.

Plans for the wedding are coming along painfully slow. Except for the photographer, I haven't made much progress for the preparation. I better not forget to tell my brother to get the album for duit hantaran. It'll be impossible to get that here. I think. I don't know what else to do for the nikah. Are we going to do it at the house or do I have to look for a place to rent? What about our clothes? Where to get baju nikah here? As far as the honeymoon go, we have some pretty good ideas but are still trying to decide. It's a bit hard to plan, when I don't even know how much time off I can get from work. Good thing Nils and I (miraculously) agreed not to have any registry, so that's one less thing to worry about.

Other random things: I'm painfully looking for a third class to take, waiting for final words on my replacement, and dear God, I hope the girls were just kidding about the bridal shower. I miss going out with Nils. He doesn't know it, but sometimes I watch whether he would put his hand or elbow out for me to grab when we walk to the store. He always does :)

This week's burr

Every so often I get this burning desire to do something, whether it is to buy another doodad on my wishlist, change address on accounts, upgrade plans, or some other crazy and mostly inconsequential things that cross my mind and happen to get stuck there. This week's burr is to look for a financial institution for our common pool accounts.

Nils and I are in the midst of consolidating our finances, and after much debate, we decided to have a common pool for bills and savings, and each have separate accounts for our own money. I started looking around, and Etrade seemed to be the most promising. They offer investing and banking accounts, so you can have all your accounts in one place. But after transferring my money, it took (is taking) sooo looong before it shows up on my account. I did read ahead of time that funds will not be available for withdrawal for 5 days blablabla, but I thought that was only for withdrawing, and I could invest it right away. Ameritrade says the same thing about funds availability but I can buy stocks with the money on the same day or the next day. So what is with this 5-day hold? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the account is new. I don't know. I've been really happy with Ameritrade and would open the common pool account with them, but they don't offer bill pay. That means we will need another common pool account for paying bills.

So here I am, looking for a new place to set up our accounts. After my research, Fidelity seems to be the best option. And now I'm in the process of reading all the fees + fine print, and doing my "Fidelity sucks" research to see how many people out there hates them. Had I done the same thing before opening that account with Etrade, I would've saved myself all this trouble. Next time I will listen more to my instincts. I knew something felt funny when I was opening that account (from the little things I caught in the fine print), but I was too excited at the prospect of being able to see our accounts - savings, checking, investment, IRA - all on one page, so I just plowed ahead.

Etrade 1: Kokes 0

:(

Sunday morning

When will the rain let up?

"Hi, my name is Kokes"

work·a·hol·ic (wûrk-hôlk, -hlk)

n.

One who has a compulsive and unrelenting need to work.

----------------------------------------

This morning I woke up in a fury. Even in my dreams I'm getting pissy at people. It got me to thinking about what is causing this bout of anger and melancholy. I've been struggling to get out of bed in the morning for a few weeks now. Conversations that carry across the cubicle walls annoy me. I haven't been participating in them lately. I rarely do anyway, but at least I used to lend some snickers and what not. Those meaningless chats used to be entertaining and fun.

For better or for worse, I found out what is bothering me. I am a workaholic deprived of work and opportunities to accomplish, even when they mean putting in way more than what I get out of them. What to do, what to do. Bak kata Sang Iddy, "Terima ajelah hakikat." I think she's right. Time to get busy again.

Several things I'm definitely not loving right now:
1. xxxxxxxx is fxxxxxg demotivating
2. The organization processing visa stuff
3. Annual earnings that mystify
4. Saturday classes
5. Supply shortage in the house due to procrastination and forgetfulness
6. Weight
7. Tight clothes (very much related to #6 above)
8. Options that are worth less than cow dung
9. Waiting
10. Being lazy

Some of these I'm taking steps to remedy, others will just stay there because I am not going to put in any effort to stop hating them.

Nils's new look :)

Nils is going for a professorial look with his glasses and beard

"Here, this is my good side"

Both pictures are blurry thanks to my kokak blackberry. Have to push the button so hard to take a picture - and doing that always shakes the phone. When is Nokia coming out with a nice big screen phone nih?