The Hair Chronicle Part 3: Buns, or in Indonesian: Konde

See that pic?

That's me in the middle with my friends at the graduation party on February 9th.

See the make up?

That's a work of one full hour at the salon earlier in the morning. The day before was even more hectic.

Inside those oven-hot-robe-called-'toga' were a green kebaya encim matched with the green 'sarung':

There's a funny story behind this all hectic preparation.

The day before grad day, I spend almost all day searching through 4 malls for Make Up Forever counter. I drove through SMS, Mall Alam Sutera, and Lippo Karawaci before finally found the lipstick (with that particular brand -__-) that I was looking for at PIM.

So while the clerk was putting on the lipstick on my lips, she start suggesting for another color and another type.

Clerk: "Coba yang ini deh, Mbak. Ini warnanya bagus dan waterproof."

Me: "Oh...okay."

*the clerk put the waterproof lipstick with a burning red color on my lips*

Clerk: "Oiya, ini juga kiss-proof loh, Mbak...."

Me: "..........ha-ha-ha."

Clerk: "Ih, malah ketawa mbaknya..."

Well mbak, first you might need to find someone I could kiss before suggesting me that lipstick. Pfff.... #bukancurhat

Anyway, the graduation party was....HOT! Literally HOT. Not sexy-hot but HOT as in hell!

So the ceremony began with the MC calling out each faculty while the graduates entered balairung.

After each faculty were inside balairung, it's time for the deans and the officials of the university to enter into balairung while the colaboration of UI's choir 'Paragita' and UI's orchestra 'Mahawaditra' played the famous song: Gaudeamus Igitur.

Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus

Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus

Post iucundam iuventutem

Post molestam senectutem

Nos habebit humus, nos habebit humus.

Vivat academia, vivant professores

Vivat academia, vivant professores

Vivat membrum quodlibet

Vivant membra quaelibet

Semper sint in flore, semper sint in flore.

Personally those were the most emotional moments for me. I remember singing Gaudeamus Igitur as a first year student while watching my seniors wearing their toga.

And now I was the seniors graduating while my juniors singing me the very same song. I must say I teared up a bit.

The process continued with another agenda like prayers, etc., then it's time for each faculty's best GPA to came forth and received a certificate from the Rector.

.......wait. We don't have a rector yet. Ah yes, it was the Temporary Rector.

We were the fifth faculty to be called to received the certificate, and the seniors were already informed us through a message that we shall sing our faculty's song and jargon while our representatives came forth. And so it was...

MC: "FAKULTAS HUKUM!"

One of my senior STOOD ON HIS CHAIR, turned back to us, put his fist up in the air, then scream: 

"MERAAAAH!!!"

So we answered the call with our song:

FHUI nan jaya fakultas kami tercinta,

FHUI jaya!

Merah darah warnanya tanda satria jiwanya,

Dalam membela bangsa!

The he screamed again:

"KUNIIIING!!!"

Our answer:

We gotta go, go, Hukum go!

We gotta fight, fight, Hukum fight!

We gotta win, win, Hukum win!

Go go, fight fight, win win, YES!!

Apparently we were quite an inspiration so afterward the rest of the faculties start to sing their songs and jargons when their representatives come forth.

So that was my graduation party. There's still another agenda afterward but I don't really remember how it was. Me and parent drove back home immediately since I had a choir rehearsal and my mom's gotta see my grandpa who was checked back to the hospital.

Saturday, 9th February 2013.

A date I shall never forget.

The Hair Chronicle Part 2: The (Hopefully) Meg Ryan Hair

Gw akan memberi sub-judul buat post ini, yaitu:
Blood and Bucket.

Uyeah.

Jadi ini adalah peristiwa-peristiwa yang terjadi ketika gw masih duduk di bangku TK. Seperti TK-TK lain pada dasarnya, di taman bermainnya pasti ada jungkat-jungkit. Prinsip jungkat jungkit juga jelas: harus dinaiki oleh dua orang, di mana ketika yang satu mengayun ke atas, yang satu mengayun ke bawah.

Intinya, gw dan teman gw memutuskan untuk main jungkat-jungkit itu. Setelah bermain agak lama, gw mendapati dia mulai tidak menikmati permainan ini dan bengong sambil melihat kanan kiri. Posis jungkat-jungkit sedang berada imbang di tengah karena kami berdua menahannya dengan kaki kami.

Terbersitlah sebuah pikiran iseng. Tanpa ba-bi-bu, gw memijak sekuat tenaga ke tanah sehingga teman gw jatuh terduduk.

Gw tertawa.
Teman gw terdiam.

Kemudian setetes darah mengalir dari hidungnya.
Gw masih tertawa.

Darah yang mengalir dari hidungnya makin banyak.
Dia mulai menangis.
Tawa gw berkurang sedikit, tapi intinya gw masih tertawa.

Dia menangis makin kencang.
Guru mulai berdatangan.
Gw mulai terdiam.

Dia dilarikan ke dalam kelas. Gw ditinggal semua orang yang terlalu khawatir dengan teman gw yang tiba-tiba mimisan itu.
Gw cuma terdiam. Gw mencoba mencerna di mana korelasi antara jatuh terduduk dengan mimisan. Gw mencoba meyakinkan diri gw kalo teman gw akan baik-baik saja dan gw tidak akan disalahkan.

Pada kenyataannya memang tidak. Atau mungkin gw lupa.


Kejadian berikutnya terjadi tidak lama setelah itu. Gw lupa persisnya kenapa, tapi gw dan teman gw lagi berdiri di depan toilet TK dan antri untuk masuk ke dalam.
TK gw sendiri adalah bangunan lama, jadi toiletnya masih toilet jongkok dengan ember di sebelahnya untuk menampung air.

Entah karena kurang sabar atau tenaga gw memang terlalu besar, gw mendorong teman yang berdiri di sebelah gw sampai dia oleng dan jatuh ke ember.

Literally jatuh ke ember. Pantatnya masuk ke ember penuh air itu. Bajunya basah kuyup. Tidak sampai satu detik, dia langsung menangis.
Reaksi gw?
Seperti biasa: tertawa.
Gw tertawa sekencang-kencangnya karena pemandangan itu sangat konyol.

Alhasil, gw dihukum. Selama sisa pelajaran gw disuruh berdiri di depan toilet dan tidak diijinkan mengikuti proses belajar.
Gw sih cuek. Gw terus mengulang kejadian itu di kepala gw dan tertawa-tawa kecil di depan toilet.

Orang bilang masa anak-anak itu masa yang paling membahagiakan.Setelah membaca cerita ini apakah orang masih akan beranggapan sama?
Hahahaha, menurut gw masa anak-anak termasuk masa yang keras. Kalau sudah dewasa, pukul-pukulan pasti dilerai karena takut melukai sesama atau takut dilapor ke polisi.
Masa anak-anak? Kalo berkelahi malah disoraki. Yang badannya besar bisa dengan semena-mena menindas yang badannya kecil dan kurus.
Gw sendiri berhasil membuat teman gw mimisan. Gw pernah mendorong teman gw sampai jatuh dan berdarah. Gw sendiri pernah dilempari batu oleh anak tetangga. Untung kena di punggung bukan di kepala.
Gw pernah menginjak bunga puteri malu dengan kaki telanjang (ada durinya, bro). Gw pernah mengejar teman gw, kehilangan keseimbangan, dan jatuh terseret di aspal. Hasilnya: sepanjang lengan bawah gw ada luka gores mengerikan.

Pesan moral:
Masa kanak-kanak itu keras, bung.

The Hair Chronicle Part 1: The Longest Ever

These days you may see a lot of girls walking around the mall with their long, beautiful straight hair waving behind them. As to me, I've just cut my hair after I've grown it to the longest length I've ever had. Ever.

People may call it "buang sial" and this time I have to agree with those people. Many things had happened while I was with my longest-hair-ever, and I'd like to share one of those moment.


I lost my grandpa last February. On 21st to be precise.
As an only child in a small family, I've known him closely for my entire life. My memories are filled with him. For the last two years he's been living with me and my parents. We've been with him through his days in the hospital when his PPOK (Penyakit Paru Obstruktif Kronis) gone bad, and we've been laughing with him on his good days.

Even to this day, I must fight hard to hold my tears when talking about him.
One thing I hate the most from loss is that you will always have this feeling of emptiness in your daily habit.
Those things that you used to do with their presence yet now you do it alone. The feeling of incompleteness.

My grandpa was there to welcome me home after my bachelor thesis defense. He took a picture of my Letter of Accomplishment with his Blackberry and used it as his profile picture.
At the end of January, he got into hospital since he's suffering from a heavy breathing problem caused by the PPOK. After a few days in the hospital, the doctors allowed him to went home, only to be checked in again on February 9th.
My graduation day.

He only saw me wearing my 'toga' through pictures. But I'm glad he had a chance to see it. Two or three days later, the doctors said he must be put into the ICU because they need to monitor his PPOK 24/7.
During those week in the ICU, his condition was decreasing even worsened each day. The doctors took any action needed to save him, and finally on the 20th of February, he was conscious enough to speak.

The next day he died of heart attack.
They said that we've been care too much for his lungs, we forgot that his heart was tired.
I think he's tired of fighting. He simply wanted to meet the love of his life who passed 3 years earlier.

A priest who was my mother's high school friend told us that during a visit, my grandpa had said this:

"Sudah terlalu lama menunggu untuk ketemu dengan mami (my grandma). Selama ini saya tunggu karena saya mau lihat Gebi lulus. Sekarang dia sudah lulus, berapa lama lagi saya harus tunggu? Saya sudah capek."

My grandpa was a very kind and loving man. I was touched to see the amount of people who came at his funeral and actually felt the loss of his death. One thing that people keep telling me was how proud he was to me. Even to my small accomplishment, even to the simplest thing I've done, he never stopped feeling proud.

Well I take it as a personal reminder and encouragement, that no matter how bad I feel about myself, there's always one person who never stop feeling proud of me.
And that I need to keep making him proud.

So long, grandpa. Until we meet again.