Promises are hard to keep.

As I'd predicted, Day Two never happened here :|

Let me try to recap then, it is now Day-Off-Almost-Over already. Boo.

Day Two, which was on Friday, I went to the office to get this thing with my friends and bosses sorted out. I can't tell it in public place I guess, but it was about work agreement.

Afterwards, I met Runi and Sindro in Pacific Place, the first time I ate at Pancious. And I think they are overrated. But anyway, I got my Coldplay T-shirt, thanks to Ms. SF, and well, it was always fun to go to a mall. Runi stayed over that night, and we did.....surprise, surprise, nothing.

Day Three, Saturday. It was my sister's birthday-slash-graduation party at my house. Bangun, Runi, and my father were there, along with my sister's boyfriend and some friends. We ate like there was no tomorrow, and leyeh-leyeh like time did not move at all.

Day Four, Sunday. You see, it was a day before Aug. 17, and my neighborhood decided to have a merry little celebration of the independence day. By little I mean rows of tables selling from foods to mobile provider, and by merry I mean people singing their asses out on stage.

I had slept at 3 a.m. the night before, and at exactly 6.30 a.m., they kicked off the celebration by playing this Indonesian song through the gigantic speakers.

My bedroom window is only a stone's throw away from the park.

So there I was, thinking of the best way to destroy the stage. But then the day went by nicely, as I helped mom selling foods at the bazaar. At night, I went shopping for some groceries with Bangun and looked around for a netbook.

Day Five, Monday. Nothing happened in the morning, but I went to see Leo Kristi at night. Yes, the singer from our parents' era. Bangun's uncle is a big fan of him, and he asked us all to go see him perform in Taman Ismail Marzuki.

That man Leo Kristi is one looney singer.

He yelled, he told us nonsense stories, he wore a pair of goggles on stage, along with bright pink trousers and sneakers, and in between, he played good music.

For three hours.

Plus, he played songs the audience requested, and just stopped in the middle when he forgot the lyrics and the chords. I couldn't help thinking how it would be if I interviewed him for the paper. I think he would give me the answers of my life.

Anyway, today's Day Six. I'm about to go to Bandung, there's an akekahan of Kinanti, Bangun's super cute niece. We'll see how it goes, and deep down, I've started wailing silently because tomorrow will be the last of my oh-so-beautiful holiday..

Diary of a freed slave

I'm having a one week leave from the office, so for no reason, I'm gonna try to recap every single day here. And well, who am I kidding, I can't live a day without writing, so..

Day One.

Woke up at 11 a.m.-ish, had breakfast, went online to chat with some people. Lunch was at around 2 p.m., and after that, more chat in YM with some people, made appointments to meet tomorrow. Had my shower at 5 p.m., watched some TV craps -- I'm starting to lean towards Criminal Minds in Star World -- and then went to Sari Bintaro to meet Hanum.

I missed that girl. Catching up with her is always fun. Did you know we go way back to kindergarten? Yes, we've been friends for about 21 years.

That's it. That was my day. No pressers, no interviews, no phone calls, no digging my brain to find a lead paragraph, no hassling editors, no nothing.

This. Is. Life.

See you in Day Two!

"Here we are, foreign to their world."

It was only for about 30, 45 minutes. We didn't even sit down properly. There were hundreds of people talking and mingling around us, a master of ceremony was hushing people not to take too many pictures with the bride and groom.

Some of them complained about the lack of foods - 90 minutes into a wedding party and they ran out of everything including mineral water. I heard a man asking where the other guys were. A woman telling us to go congratulate the happy couple on stage.

Flashes from a camera went off, to see a group of girls in pink kebaya approaching us. Cheek peck here, cheek peck there, and they were gone.

But to me, all those people were a buzz, a colorful shadow spinning around behind me in a circle.

Was it more than a year that we had met for the last time? I don't even remember. We met again, and that is that.

Did we catch up? No.

Did we ask each other how we've been with our work, our love life, our family? No.

Did we demand answers of some inexplicable disappearances? No.

We were just there. I was just there, trying to soak myself with the moment. "Hold your breath, don't blink," a friend said. And I did just that. Call me dramatic. Call me emotional, sensitive. I don't care. I saw them.

The three of them. At the same time.

We just laughed. We took pictures. Seriously, nothing new happened. We grinned ear to ear all the time, we talked without having to use our brains, without any awkward pause. Even the silence felt euphoric.

It was only 30, 45 minutes. A click there, a click here. And the moment was gone. That whole time, I kept wishing silently for time to stop, but it of course did not. Oh well, I didn't ask for a lot anyway. Despite everything, it strangely felt familiar when we met.

It's like we were never separated at all.