Childhood Conspiracy

Childhood is like, something I can’t get over with.

Especially mine. The 90s and early 2000s.

So I was on this discussions with one of my seniors. We were talking about cartoons and characters and stuff, and we ended up mentioning the Sailor Moon.

Okay first of all, before you judge me things, I didn’t watch the whole series. I just happened to know that Sailor Moon has lots of female characters with personalities and superpowers based on planets in the Milky Way. See, those are two things I actually like. Planets, and stories with dozens of characters. That’s why I briefly knew Sailor Moon. Not that deep, okay, just, briefly. And I happened to have a minor crush too. For Sailor Neptune –whose name I didn’t know up till last week.

Now back to the discussion with my senior. Just right when I mentioned Sailor Neptune, a very big secret I never thought I'd heard from my childhood revealed right before my very ears.

My senior told me that Sailor Neptune, along with her so-called mate Sailor Uranus, were lesbians.

Pft, stupid trivia thingy trying to ruin my childhood. I didn’t believe it right away as I categorized that news with other stupid facts my friends and I used to share during our pre-elementary school like “casts of Teletubbies died of losing breath inside the costume” or “the true ending of Doraemon says that Nobita is actually an idiotic child and all his adventures with the cat robot were all just his imaginations”. Just, what an unreliable news.

But still. When I got home, I browsed Google. Just to make myself sure, as I, again, knew so limited about the serial so who knows that it was all just pure rumor but… Well what can I say, the senior was true.

I mean, what the hell!?

How could sensitive issues like that appeared so early in the childhood stage? And in the cartoon which almost all the audiences were girls? Okay most countries cencored their relationship and made it like both Sailors were cousins and stuff, but back in Japan, it was that obvious!

Crazy yes?

I just remembered a little that Haruka Tenoh -ya now I know the name of Sailor Uranus as I kept browsing about her since last week- was a shorthaired blond, paired almost all the time with Michiru Kaioh -and of course I know Sailor Neptune’s name too. But I just didn’t notice that on the regular life, when she’s not a Sailor, Haruka was an extreme tomboy dressing like a macho guy. Well, ya, because I just simply thought that that character was actually a boy and not an alter-ego of Sailor Uranus!

Oh, sorry if I make a big deal out of this.

Really, it’s not that I’m against lesbians no.

In fact, so just you know, I'm excited instead!

I’m more like, you know, curious of what else I did miss during my childhood. Or what else I did see everyday, on a daily basis, but I just took it for granted because I didn’t notice there was anything wrong with it! Now that this came up to the serial I barely watched, I'm dying to know what kinds of tricky scheme those cartoonists did to my favorite shows.

Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, crap I was tricked all these years...

Shit now I’m more obsessed about my childhood.

More than ever

¿Listo Para...?

These past two weeks, to me,

Had been so, how do I say it, oh!

Artsy.

Why I don't know. Maybe because last week I went to see Stomp. For free -sorry I can't stop bragging about this miracle. Then yesterday, I got to see some other dancing performance. This time it was even bigger. Even more elegant, swag-less and felt more artistic. To make it more dramatic, it was held in Gedung Kesenian Jakarta.

A flamenco from Spain.

If it wasn't that, I might not be interested to come.

Apparently I've been a fan of this dance even before I knew that the performance is called "flamenco". Well I must thank Tom and Jerry's episode "Mucho Mouse" for that. The very first time I was exposed to the adorable clapping hands dance. I can't recall how old I was back then, but I'm pretty sure I was young enough as I used to dance along as a dancing matador with my brother being the bull. Many times.

Then four years ago. World Cup 2010. I bet you won't ever forget how phenomenal song "Wavin Flag" was. Crazy remarkable and I must say, along with "Waka Waka", World Cup 2010's theme songs were all better than -it's so hard to say this- 2014 Pitbull's "We Are One". It was adapted into many other languages including Arabian, French, Indonesian -pft, Grecian, many many more and of course, Spanish. Sung by David Bisbal, he did a very little flamenco claps for the clip. Very little, but really inspirational. I still even see the clip until today.

So would I miss the show?

Of course not!

Just me trying to imitate what I just watched

I enjoyed every single bit of the dancer's movement. Every single bit. I enjoyed the tunes, the drum beats, the oh-so Espanol guitar plays, man! Who would've thought I could actually see the real flamenco performed by the professional dancer!

And it was, that, damn, inspirational. Not that I want to start practicing flamenco lol no -although yea, I really find the clapping part of the dance extremely fancy and arrogant in a good way damn I want to try doing that everyday. It was inspirational because, it makes me wanna know more about Spain. I adore the language. In fact, I'm learning it right now. And I wanna adore more about it.

Well it's not only that.

It was also inspirational because,

It makes me wanna do something off my habit.

Watching shows like that, is really not my thing. This also became the major reason why I missed the real Broadway shows along my stay in New York. Well yea, because I didn't have that much interest. Yet.

But after Stomp, and especially after Flamenco, I just realized that I actually have a thing in this. Well I'm pretty sure I won't fall for every single kind of shows but, at least now I know I can stand sitting in front of a stage, shutting up for one or two hours and enjoying a show.

"One of my friends, a New Zealander, went along to GKJ. Once she got into the inside building she was practically amazed by the interior. Then she said something that lingered really good in me. This is so un-Jakarta.

What she meant was the building. But what I interpreted,

Was the habit of me watching a live show like that."

It's so not me, really.

Yet I enjoyed both shows.

Maybe I'm ready.

USA: Complete

Remember last year?

No? Ah, c’mon, it’s October, and I bet you won’t ever forget what happened October last year. Okay at this exact date, I was vacuum for a while. But two weeks after, I was like all mellow, couldn’t move on and stuff. Get it now? Yea.

America.

Shit man. Forget last year when I was just arrived. Even today, I still can’t get over it. Well I’m not going to talk about how I miss US. Yet. Because today last year, I was still there. Starting the MUN conference -oh my God I even remembered the details. Not yet whining about going home. So I’m not gonna start bragging about how I can’t move on, before October 13th, the day I arrived home last year. Save the date, you might not wanna visit this blog on that day.

So why am I bringing this up now?

There’s something from my visit to the US last year, that I felt so much regret about. It was The Broadway show. I was there on the street like, many times, but not even once I planned to see at least one of the famous shows. Well I can’t all blame myself for that, because I was pretty strict on my budget anyway so... Yea.

A year went by, but

Regret still lingers on me.

However, faith finds its way.

Stomp came to Jakarta. One of the Broadway's best deal came to my hometown. I've been exposed to the publications for so long but seeing the price, I felt like maybe I need to wait until I could fly back to NY and just see it there. If that ever happens again. But just before I returned home from the office last night, a friend told me that he's got a free ticket to see the show. Was I happy? No, I was hysterical.

I left the office, rushed to the bus, cursed the universe for that big unnecessary traffic occurred along the way -seriously, usually it wasn't that heavy, ran to catch the bus which apparently moved so fvckin slow. But after all I could manage to catch the show, although I was just seconds away from missing the opening doors.

Then I sat on the best spot for two hours, extremely entertained by the show. Eight crazy performers using cans, buckets, trolleys, it wasn't just their magnificent skills that I adored, it was also the comedy! I couldn't believe my eyes on some level of their performance, but giving the thought that they came from the Broadway, okay, no wonder they could do that.

It was restricted to use camera and recorders inside. So I got the pic from here.

Crazy show.

Crazy timing.

Crazy coincidence.

I mean, what are the odds?!

One of the Broadway’s best deal came to my hometown, performing on the dates I was visiting the US last year, I got the free ticket and it was… The Platinum Class!? It was worth 1.3 milion rupiah, so just you know. Not to mention the fact that I came late but still on time, the gate was still open, it closed right after I stepped in, and the show started just a minute after I sat my ass on the perfect seat I was like only 10 meters from the stage!?

It was the best gift I could ever ask

To cure my longing for America.

And it came just right on time,

Right when I needed it.

God loved me.

Oh and Uncle Sam did too

Meow

Have I told you that I, am a cat person?

Well, I'm forced to be a cat person. Long ago, and as I told you guys in a post too, my brother got us a cat, then got us another one. They're called Ebol and Ebul. We never actually had good experience in handling cats. But with these two, we learned.

Then one thing led to another. They formed a family on their own. Four adorable kittens, let's just call them "Batch One". Today, they're a year and a week old. Yea they had their birthday last week. One year raising these kittens from the very beginning up til now, we admit that we can't let even one of these cats go.

On May this year, Ebul gave birth to five more kittens we'll call it "Batch Two". One died -it crushed my heart really bad because he was so ugly but I was always by his side along his sickness days- and the other four grew healthy. Just when we thought we had enough, Ebul's daughter gave birth to three relatively-ugly kittens we'll call this "Batch Three".

So we had thirteen cats under one roof. Those crazy times, thank God I was still unemployed back then. Can't imagine if mom should do everything herself. So yea we began to deliberate about how to deal with this. Subconsciously we would've let Batch Three go because, umm ya you know, they're not good breeds. But really? Letting go of one month old kittens? I wouldn't forgive myself if that ever happened.

Then we had to face the truth.

Batch Two, consisting of four crazy cute cats,

Yea they should go. We really had no other choice.

It was really stressing. They were like, I took care of them my whole unemployment days. Unlike Batch One which I was still busy with campus stuff, with Batch Two, I saw these kittens grew before my very own eyes. 

They were inside the cage for one full month, sleeping with me, and with my American-Vietnamese friend who visited me, began exploring the out-cage areas during World Cup, then they grew and became very demanding kittens, screaming for milk when my family and I had our sahoor, we spent Eid together, I let them crash my bedroom like everyday, playing with my stuff and I'll be like, "oh shit, don't play there!", keeping them inside during their meal time because if they eat outside with the others, their food would be stolen by their bigger relatives...

Oh God...

Then all of the sudden Friday two weeks ago my brother's friends came to take two of them. I was screaming inside, grouching to myself "what the hell are these people thinking!? I raised them with so many pain in my asses and they're here now to take them away from me!?" but I had to. So two gone, two to go.

Until Sunday last week.

Yea, a week ago. Another friend of my brother's came to take one. My favorite one. The one who was dying and I was there to see him getting stronger and stronger. The one who was the weakest of all three, always becoming the object of bullying, got wrestled and choked, and all he could do was gasping. The one whose belly was weirdly warm, whose snore was the most adorable sound I ever heard from another God's creature. The one who always stopped while he was playing, walked into my room and just stood there with his big goofy eyes, kinda wishing to be grabbed and hugged. The one who... Shit, I'm literally crying now.

I don't wanna talk about how he finally left my house. It was the hardest thing to go through. I slept early that night just because I can't stand the heartbreaking moment. And it's still breaking me until now. Because remembering that he's alone in his new house, after all these months surrounded by twelve other cats, Lord, I hope at least he's living a good life so he doesn't even have to feel lonely.

Batch Two. And that who's staring at you, he's the one I felt so hard to let go

Fortunately, the last kitten of Batch Two remained here until today. We lost Ebul somehow, she never came back it's been more than a week. So we decided that she'll be Ebul's replacement. And the one that will remind us about her three leaving brothers.

Wow.

Never thought that having cats could cause such emotional troubles.

I learned a lot from this tho, that I am actually an animal person.

But in the future if I want to have pets, I have to make sure

That I only have one and no more

First Week, Versed Week

Okay, so...

I got a job now.

A freelance job, tho.

Something my dad really doesn't want me to do, because, you know, "freelance". But this is not a freelance I can do from home. This is a temporary-being-an-employee-for-a-company-go-to-work-Mon-to-Fri-10-to-6-kind-of-freelance to replace their actual employee who's taking her maternity leave. So it's like being a true worker, only in a limited contract. And since the position is something I'd kill for, my dad had no choice but to let me.

Yes, I'm a copywriter.

Crazy eh? It's like the position I've always been longing for, I've always been bragging to my friends in campus that I'd apply soon after graduating. And now I'm living it.

For real. Not as an intern.

It's a local agency called Celsius. In the history of doing interviews, there were two local agencies who were interested to try me. The other local agency was actually too local. Their clients are mostly local brands, although their projects tend to be bigger. Celsius, on the other hand, has more variations of clients. And I still get to write copies in English!

This is why I like it a lot.

So that's why I kinda feel like I nailed my first week. Still pretty idle, to be honest, with so many time wasted for just browsing the internet. But my jobs for the whole week were all in English so I was more than just excited.

And I think I got my job more than right.

Even the boss shocked when I overdid what he asked. And kinda felt overwhelmed because I've finished something I shouldn't have finished yet. I'm too fired, too much driven. But that's good tho, at least I'm showing my boss that I'm actually interested and have that passion to work. Newbie. Typical. But so what, the boss liked it!

Well, guys, lol.

Pardon me for being somewhat too over-confident.

This is my method to keep my zest boosted.

After all this is my very first experience

Entering the real world