maudy's journal

My Name

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:20:02 -0400

It was last Easter Sunday after service. The kids were egg hunting. We would love to stay, but we wanted to come to our friends house for another celebration. We were almost getting into our car when someone called my name. I looked behind me, it was our friend Phillip and his cute baby boy, Lucas. Apparently Lucas found an egg with my name on it. His dad told the boy to give it to me. He was sooo cute, and cuter when he said "happy Easter" with his baby voice. Aww...

Someone dyed an egg for me. I don't know who it was, and I believe that person knew I would not join the kid's egg hunting. Yet she (I believe dying egg is mostly women's business ) knew it would eventually got to me. I felt special.

So, what is it about a name that makes it so special to us? Acknowledgement, care, and love I would say.

There are a lot of things I've been worrying about lately. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. But I found this verse today, “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name..." -Psalm 91:14

Random

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:11:56 -0500

I couldn't go back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night to relieve my bladder. Something bothered me that I had to woke hubby up. He is a light sleeper, so knew he wasn't fully asleep yet.

Me: Hun, who invented radio?
Hubby: What? Why?
Me: My mind keeps telling me that it is Macaroni while I know it's not. The name is similar to that though.
Hubby: (grunt* because I asked random question in the middle of the night) It is Mascarpone.

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy". -Wikipedia

A Gift: Watching My Favorite Radio Show

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:22:50 -0500

The day I officially graduated (not the ceremony date), hubby told me that he had a surprise for me and I had to find it. I looked around the house but didn't find any. I knew what kind of person he was, so I didn't expect a present wrapped in tissue papers put in a nice gift bag beautified with a curly ribbon. Finally, with his clue, I found the gift. Where? In our share folder...in the computer! We store our data in our server and have one share folder. It was electronic tickets for my favorite radio show, Prairie Home Companion. I'd always wanted to watch the show, but the show was mostly in Minnesota and when it's close to us, we couldn't afford the admission ticket. Then about several months ago, we heard that Garrison Keillor, the main star was about to retire in less than two years. Apparently hubby took note of my light wish. I was in early August when I got the surprise, and the show was just less than two weeks ago.

I love listening to Prairie Home Companion, a weekly radio show hosted by the National Public Radio. I found the show accidentally, when we were on the way about five years ago. Since then, I've been listening to it regularly. The show runs on Saturdays from 6 to 8 p.m. our time; and the rerun is on Sunday from 2-4 p.m, so I often miss it. Fortunately, the archive is available on their website a day after the show. So this show always faithfully accompanied me during my school year. I loved to listen to it while doing my design work. I love the joke, the story, the song, and the music. The show is so inspiring for me.

Finally, the day had arrived. I was too excited the days before. Our five hour drive to Murray, Kentucky was so enjoyable. It was the peak of the fall season, so watching the colorful tree was another excitement for me. We tried to come early to the show, but the crowd was much bigger than what we had expected. Knowing that the show is more than 35 years old, it's indeed a very popular show.

It was exciting to watch a live radio show with over a thousand audiences. Fifteen minutes before the show started, Garrison came out and sang some songs. Not only that, he also walked around that big stadium to engage the audiences. He even went to the balcony! His loyal fans swirled up around him, snapped pictures of him while he was doing his things, but he didn't budge since the show had time constraint.

Since our seats were very close to the stage, we could see a digital clock counting down. Garrison got back to the stage few minutes before the show was aired. Then the clock showed 00:00, the "on air" light went on, and we heard the Tishomingo Blues... and "From American Public Media...". Ahh...we were on air! It's amazing to know people all over the country were listening to the show.

The cast members were reading the scripts. It was fun to watch their expressions. The guy on white shirt was the sound effect guy. Wow, he was amazing.

Picture of Garrison Keillor and the local bluegrass band. The show was celebrating 100 years of Bil Monroe, the father of bluegrass.

Since it is a live radio show, it always needs some adjustments on the fly.

The scripts.

The end of the show, but the show continued about 15 minutes after it went off air. Hubby and I really want to watch the show again in the future. The next one hopefully will be in Saint Paul, Minnesota

Contentment

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:53:13 -0400

Hubby's shoes has a hole as big as a short diameter of a duck egg. Yet he still doesn't feel the need of buying new ones. "They are still ok", he said.

Those brown shoes were bought in four years ago, and he has been wearing those everyday for work ever since. Couple years ago, mom spotted cracks on his formal shoes. Being my mom, she felt pity of her son-in-love, so she open her wallet and asked him to buy new ones. Her way of "ordering" him to get a new pair of shoes was funny, and we refer to that moment since then. Since she insisted, I took her offer. Back to the States, I keep pestering him to get new shoes. Knowing that he didn't think those shoes were belong to a trash can, I had to use my magic phrase, "you've promised mom".

Now another pair is proposing their retirement. I've made him promise me to get new one or I may need to buy him flower-patterned socks since the socks can clearly be seen from the rear end of the shoe.

He isn't a scrooge. He gets me whatever I need, as long as it makes sense. However, he feels that what he has is more than enough. His budget for his personal stuffs is from zero to very low, yet he is always happy to give to others.

My life would be much simpler and happier If I could easily feel content as he could.

Do It Ourselves (Part 3)

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:53:00 -0400

No one cleans after our mess, so we try to make as little mess as possible. The result? We don't need to sweep and mop twice a day like what my housekeepers used to do back home. Cleaning the house is scheduled once a week unless there are special circumstances. On Saturday morning, hubby starts cleaning early in the morning. His cleaning schedule is pretty much set on Saturday since it synchronous with the NPR's Saturday medley. He then picks up vegetables from downtown while I chat with my family (that's the only common time my family and I have). After dropping off the veggies at home, he goes to the church, cleans the sanctuary and arranges the chairs while I takes care of the veggies and cook. He gets home and we have lunch, then we clean the house together and be lazy. At around five or six in the evening every two or three weeks in summer, he will go back to the church to mow the lawn. The mowing takes about three hours.

One thing we both don't like is doing laundry. Fortunately both of us do not need to wear any uniform so we can do laundry every two week or more. We didn't have laundry machine until last December. Now we know how blessed we are for having one after years of doing laundry at a public laundromat. Doing laundry is more bearable now, since I can do something else while the machine is doing its thing. Having a dryer is also really helpful, but in hot summer, we like to half dry the clothes then hang them on a rack in our sunroom. It's more sustainable that way. I fold or hang the laundry after they dry. Hubby irons his clothes if he needs to, and I iron mine usually before church.

Who would have thought hubby and I, could do those things ourselves? We both barely entered kitchen nor cleaned house before we moved out from our parents' house. The spirit of doing things ourselves leads us to pay more attention to stuffs we possess and how to handle them. To some extend, it also makes us think what we need or don't need to buy. Now we try not to buy trinkets. They trap dust for sure, hence add more cleaning jobs. Now We try to put things at their proper place to minimize extra work. We've have been building a system since our first days moving in this country. Recycling is one example. Hubby put several boxes for plastic, paper, glass, and aluminum in our laundry room so he can dump those stuffs in the proper container at the recycling center.

We enjoy our do-it-ourselves life. However, our everyday activities are not always without bumps. Sometimes I am lazy to do my part, and hubby is too. Sometimes I let the house be dirty until I gain power to clean. Sometimes hubby get mad at me and vice versa if one of us doesn't do what we are supposed to do. The bottom line is, it is not hard to live enjoyably without housekeeper. From my experience, what makes it hard to live without one is because we often center our activities around our housekeeper's help. I think we are the main doers and they are the helper. Do it ourselves. Why not? as long as we are still young and healthy. But, if you are lucky enough to have one, treat her well like how we want to be treated.

Size Matters

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:13:28 -0400

I always have difficulty in finding clothes my size. I usually picked a pile of prospective shirts and dresses, but commonly found none that suit me well. In this country, I am considered small, but there are many other people as small or smaller than I am. I wonder if they have the same problem as I have, or if there are certain cloth shop that I don't know.

Hubby usually gets impatient when he takes me shopping. It is not unusual that I get nothing after walking for hours in and out of one store to another. Like today, we went to an outlet mall in the morning and got home at almost dinner time. I just had a simple quest, single-color shirts and skirts, ones that everyone have in their closet. I really don't know what is wrong with the clothes sizing, but I just found it weird that the XS for petite is often still too big for me. Come on, I am NOT that small.

I've tried some different stores and brands, and the result is the same, although there are small handful brands that have my size. I've also tried the junior section. Oh, I love that section. The clothes are cute, colorful, and small...my size! Yet, I don't like the fact I may find middle schoolers wear the same clothes as mine. Yeah, I have to bear the fact that I've left my teenage episode more than ten years ago. When I was annoyed for not getting clothes I wanted, hubby gave me a crazy idea: to adjust my body to the clothes. "Eat more!", he said.

Talking about clothes size reminds me of what happened in my college years. I admit that I was kinda bigger that time, but still in at normal range. Just for justification, I blame late night instant noodles and careless eating habit At that time, I always been around my super skinny best friends. Their labeling me as "big" was something unusual that I found unpleasant to my ear, although it didn't affect our friendship. At that time, one size-fit-all shirts were often too small for me, but not for people my size who like tight shirt. One most hurtful thing I remember the most was when my boarding house friend sold t-shirts. I found one that I was interested in and I was going to try it on. At the same time, my other friend told my friend (the seller) that she wanted to try on one she had picked. My seller friend allow my other friend to try on one she was interested in. But to me, she said that I couldn't, because I was big. She told me that she was afraid I would stretch the t-shirt.

Crazy world!

Obsessed Hubby

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:34:14 -0400

Today is Labor Day holiday in the U.S. but we didn't go anywhere. Our area are having a lot of heavy rain because of the Tropical Storm Lee and is predicted to get continuous rain until Thursday morning. Hubby and I enjoyed the rain. We opened the windows and sat on our sunroom to read. The cool weather is such a great gift in the middle of long melting summer.

Eventhough hubby got a day off, he was swamped with a lot of work. I didn't want to bother him so I had my own thing, and sometimes he joined me to do things together.

I didn't know what work he was doing. He explained to me with his mind and soul, but it was just above my head. What I know was he wrote a code, and while waiting on the processing, he could do other thing. Here is what I observed from this Labor Day holiday: he was obsessed with washing dishes and cleaning kitchen! I noticed he had three major washing dishes this single day. He smiled when I told him to stop. I am wondering if this is a response of my new slogan that I recited over and over this morning, "good food comes with dirty kitchen". Hahaaa...

Do It Ourselves (Part 2)

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:26:00 -0400

Running a household without any helper/housekeeper is not as hard I thought. It was kinda hard at first, since I wasn't used to do any "dirty work". But, hiring a housekeeper isn't a choice in the place I live in. Labor is expensive, and I don't know if such job exists in my city. I was amazed of how people are generally more independent in this country compare to mine. I often observed how some church friends handled their two or three kids without their husbands' help (their husbands went to a different church). They had their kids buckled up on their car seat then go to places. Unbuckled, held one or two littler kids and let the other walk. When there were meetings after church, those moms let the kids take a nap laying on some arranged chairs or sometimes on blanketed floor. I shook my head when I saw a mom came to church with her baby that was just born 5 days before! Then I realized the lifestyle here. There is no one could have taken care of the baby if the parents had left him at home. So generally, the baby is where their parents are, except when the parents ask someone to babysit or put to a daycare. Anyway, we don't have baby yet, I am sure it will be more complicated than our schedule now especially since we don't have family and relative in live close to us. I'll share the story when the time comes

I asked hubby what we miss from not having any housekeeper. Without thinking, he said, "nothing!". His family never had a full-time housekeeper, so his answer was kinda expected. From my point of view, there are differences between my life now and before.

Since I have full responsibility of what I decide, much simpler life is the best option. For instance, there were at least three dishes on my parents' dining table. On mom's daily menu, soup, vegetables, and meat are "obligatory". One example of the combination is chicken soup, stir fried bok choy, and fried chicken. Then there would also be other compliments such as krupuk and emping, not to mention mid-afternoon snacks. Sometimes, grandma cooked two or three times a day, so we had different food every meal. Wow! Why did I take it for granted? Now, we are so thankful for our single kind of food on our dining table. Usually, I cook in a large amount so I don't have to cook everyday. When I am busy, hubby takes turn. Buying food isn't cheap here, so we rarely eat out.

The big difference is each of us has household responsibilities. This part seems to be a common sense for people in here, but not so much for people in my country. In my country, wife are more likely to be in charged of household chores, even if both husband and wife has jobs (career job, not housewife job). In here, husband does as much household chores as the wife's. No wonder my parents and praised hubby when they saw him doing "housekeeper's" job. Hehee... So, usually after I finish cooking and we are done eating, he will work some. He waited until there is no more dirty dish for that day, then he will wash the whole thing, scrub the stove, and wiped the kitchen counter. He doesn't like to wash when I am still in the middle of baking although I promise I won't add more dirty dishes -he doesn't believe me after several broken promises. Thus, he sometimes washes after I am asleep. I think it is just his personal satisfaction to see the kitchen clean at the end of the day If he is too tired to wash that night, he will wash early in the morning while listening to NPR (National Public Radio) using his earphone, while I was till zzz-ing.

To be continued...

Little Guys We Met on Our Summer Hiking

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:31:19 -0400

We went hiking with a couple last Saturday. They just moved to TN two months ago, and we wanted to show them the beauty of this state, the mountain! We packed our lunch and were going to eat them when we got to the waterfall -the turning point. Yet we were starving when we got to the welcome center, so we had a little picnic on the ground. This turned out to be perfect, since our friends brought a bag contained lunch containers including fruits and cookies. We forgot to tell them to pack the lunch individually, so it wouldn't be too heavy if we had to carry it in our backpack. As for our lunch, I packed nasi bungkus marked with "M" and "R" letters. The "M" has half portion of the "R"

On the way to the mountain, the wife asked what to do if we saw a bear, and hubby explained as much and as animated as he could (his typical). Please read this if you want to know what to do when you see a bear. Started walking from the visitor center, the wife was exceedingly cautious of her surroundings. We laughed at her. She admitted that she watched and read too many scary news about bear attacks.

We walked... and walked... suddenly a family in front of us stopped. We thought they were tired and needed a break. We were about to pass them before a guy told us that there was a mama bear and her two cubs around the corner were crossing the trail. Smoky Mountain's black bears are herbivore and they are afraid of people unless they thought we violate their boundary. But, mama bears are usually the most dangerous ones since they want to protect their offsprings. More people gather at that point. Some wanted to keep going, some wanted to let the bears get farther. We followed the crowd because the bears have moved to the forest. They were about 6 meters from us when we passed them. People maintained distance and kept their voice down in an effort to not disturb the bears. The forest is the bears' habitat and human are trespassers -something people need to be reminded about.

I saw three of them. The cute cubs with rounded eyes were playing with leaves, while the mom seemed to find the best route to the forest. I walked fast, didn't get any good picture of them. We've hiked the same route several times but never met any bear on that trail. It was the closest distance I've ever been from wild bears. That was the highlight of our summer hiking.

On the way down, we run out of water. I underestimated the summer heat. I never brought more than two bottles of water, but I never hiked in the summer before. Four of us were dehydrated more than half of our way down. Thanks God, we made it. Water tasted wonderfully good afterward.

Transition Period

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:28:20 -0400

Last Wednesday was the last day of my summer job. Now I am on job market. Considering the high unemployment rate and the economic condition in this country, I admit that I am worried. I am supposed to get my OPT letter in two month, and hopefully getting a job soon.

In the mean time, I am enjoying my day learning new things, reading, and doing a lot of things I couldn't do when I was busy with school.

L.A.

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 17:33:57 -0400

A lot people do not know what a landscape architect does. When I told people that I was studying landscape architecture, their responses were (almost always) around:
"Oh, could you help me designing my backyard?"
"You mow a lawn?"
"You must love gardening"

There were also annoying responses from sok tau people... sadly graduated from the same college as mine back home:
"Why did you choose landscape architecture? I just designed so and so acres of land, and I am an architect"
"tukang kebon aja bisa"

Wikipedia defines landscape architecture as the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, and/or aesthetic outcomes. The landscape architecture field is so wide. I didn't exactly know that it was a multidisciplinary field when I chose the major. So I was so excited when it actually was. Planting design is just a small part of landscape architecture. In fact, there are some landscape architects that do not care about planting detail. Electives classes are from various departments such as architecture, biosystem engineering, forestry and wildlife fisheries, soil and water conservation, plant science, geology, geography, biology, environmental engineering, planning, transportation, and public health.

Take examples of thesis projects that my classmates did last semester to give us better idea about what can be done by a landscape architect: coal mining reclamation, greenway, a gateway community, an Indian reservation, wetland, old city preservation, and sustainable development for a mountain area. Mine was about a healthy community. Please clik here if you are interested in knowing what my project was about.

Finished!

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:17:27 -0400

I'd been frantic this past week. Thesis writing was due today at 5 pm, but mine was coming slow. Writing in English is not my strength. I have to admit that there are a lot of things I can not comprehend. Those are subtle things that are not acceptable for a graduate level academic writing. I know this is a problem for many people whose English as their second language. My friend had to pay someone to have her writing checked; and that cost several dollars per page! Fortunately, I had a great adviser. He not only checked the content or my writing, but also edited the grammar. Even before the thesis started, he had started feeding inputs to my project. His enthusiasm kept me excited when I felt overwhelmed and was stuck in some design problems. He is an opposite of a warm guy with wide open arms, but he cares of his students. He did extra work for me, and I am truly blessed.

Another committee member was the Dean of this college. He might be the busiest man in my building. I saw his office light was on as early as 7 am, and I still often saw him around at 8 pm. When I was in thesis committee searching, my adviser mentioned my project to the Dean; and he was interested. I didn't have gut to officially ask him to sit in my committee. He was an important person, and I wasn't sure if he really wanted to be in my committee. Weeks went by, and we met at one lecture. He came to me and told me that he would love to serve in my committee. I was stunned. More impressed when he offered to drive me to the site, since he knew I didn't have a car with me. Knowing him more during my thesis completion is a blessing for me. He is probably the most humble academic person I've ever found in my life.

The other committee member is a nice and calm lady, a Public Health department professor. She was such a great addition to the team. While all of us mostly lean toward architecture and landscape architecture, she offered perspectives from another angle --an angle that was very important for my thesis.

I had my final defense last May, but I asked a permission from my adviser for not finishing the writing on that semester. The writing was due when my parents and sister were here. If I had worked on the writing, I wouldn't have my entire time for them. I was happy with my decision. However, I was such a drag to finish the writing because I didn't have fresh memory of what was included in my thesis. Finishing it while working on other stuffs are really difficult, especially since I had the thought that I'd finished the project. Other problems came this past month. I didn't know where my thesis committee members' were. I sent several emails to one of them, the one that's outside my department and she never replied. Later on, I found out that she was in Africa and had difficult access to the internet. It was such a relieve that she got back on the day I came to her office because several days later she had to go out of town. I thought getting her signature solved my problem. I had met the other committee member and he said he would work on his regular schedule this week. I sent him several emails since three days before and called him, but never heard back from him. I was afraid he was in Haiti, since he had a project in that country. Until this morning, I was still worried about not getting his signature.

Seeking him was the first thing I did in the morning. Thanks God I found him. There was a technical issue that he didn't get my emails. That's a lesson for me for not finishing thing in last minute. It's such a blessing that I could finish the whole thing on time. I thank hubby for playing a significant role in my thesis completion. For my parents, sisters, and in-laws.

Great Moments

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:56:09 -0400

It's been more than a month since my parents and sister went back to Indonesia. Since then, I've been so often virtually flipping pictures we took during their visit. They only stayed in the U.S. for two weeks, but we covered a lot things. Hubby and I try to show them our life. Since the planning stage of their visit, I had told them that I didn't want them to be like tourists on a structured schedule like one organized by travel agents. I didn't say that joining an organized tour is wrong. Conversely, I think guided tour make traveling so easy without worrying about getting lost. Furthermore, it also enable people to visit sooo... many places in a limited time.

However, I think jumping from one place to another in a very finite time is very tiring and often only look good on pictures. Moreover, this kind of arrangement often doesn't give opportunity to have interaction with local people other than the tour guide and souvenir shops' owners. I've experienced this kind of thing several times in the past, and I wasn't satisfied with it. I remember going to Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam couple years ago. We spent one or two hours on the first one and ten minutes on the latter, just enough to take dozens of pictures and be proud that we've been there. Adding picture collections and check marking "place I've visited" are such accomplishments, especially if the purpose of the trip is for sightseeing and having a break from routine activities, and less for learning the culture of that particular place. Sometimes, joining a full-guided tour is the only choice if there is no one can take us around. But, in my case, we know this place well, and we wanted them to take advantage of us.

For my parents and sister, in addition to showing them this country, I also wanted them to get lost, to follow the process and procedure of our routine, to get dirty for doing our house activities, to get tired on walking on our usual path, and to get nervous of being on road when a storm came (ok, that was not our intention). We didn't want to hide the "unpleasant" side, because our life is the mix of two, and I want them to experience our life. By exposing our life to them, we get better cultural understanding that benefit us in communicating. Now I can refer to this and that and vice versa, and we know what we talk about.

Having them is such a blessing for me and hubby. I showed them off to our church friends, my school friends, and my professors. On the first days of their visit, some church friends' invited us for dinner, which introduced a new world for them. Seeing their expression reminded me of my excitement on my first dinner with a nice American family. In summary, during their short visit we went to my graduation; had a campus tour guided by me; picked strawberries; went to my church and showed them where we lived before, had a road trip to East Coast; watched a Broadway show; cooked hisit, corn soup, fishes, and others; baked fishes and bread; picked up Saturday's vegetables; went to various grocery store to get "American" fruits and chocolates; played with my stuffed animals; got mom unsweetened ice cream; went to other grocery stores to get different kind of fruits; went to some restaurants; washed dishes; did laundry; built an Ikea computer table; celebrated my sister's birthday; had lazy times so we could talk and talk more while having fried tempe and pia Kemuning for mid-afternoon snack; and had endless chats and laughs. We had such a great moments. I can't thank God enough for giving such a loving family.

ps: the picture above was taken at Biltmore Estate garden. The foreground flowers are Allium giganteum- Giant Onion. This plant is in the same family as garlic and onion. I was introduced to this plant when I took planting design class last year, so I was excited when I saw them in this garden. So, I have to make that plant as a banner of this blog.

Grant Me Wisdom

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:56:34 -0400

I've been bothered by something this past days. I've been distracted by it and did bring it to my sleep in the form of a bad dream.

It is not a huge deal, actually. It is about my portfolio printing that didn't turn out as good as I had expected. I've spent much time and thought to it, but apparently they were not enough. The whole system needed to work properly, and one that didn't wasn't my part. The mistakes aren't that visible, but I know since I am sensitive for this kind of thing. I've printed at that place several time and never had problem with the quality. Why there is such a problem now?

Truthfully, one that bothers me the most is not the printing, but my difficulty of telling the truth. I told her about the mistakes that she couldn't see it at first. When I insisted, she took out her magnifier (yes, the mistakes were minuscule), then she told me to put a sticky note on pages that she needed to be reprinted. I put the notes on some pages that weren't tolerable for my standard. On the way home, I regretted myself for not telling her that she needed to reprint the whole thing.

Now my portfolio book is on my shelf, and it makes my heart troubled everytime I see it. It reminds me of that nice grey-haired lady that was swamped with her work. A lady that has to work with and maintain a huge printer, a machine that is bigger than my bedroom. Yet fundamentally, it reminds me of always being honest. Honest to myself.

Do It Ourselves (Part I)

nospam@example.com (Maudy Indriani) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:30:05 -0400

Complaining about maids or baby sitters seems to be a big theme for a lot of friends I know. I have read countless FB statuses posted about that issue.

Not want to judge, I just want to share what I've been experiencing. In fact, my family always has to have at least one. Therefore, I used to live like a princess back home. I shouted what I wanted when I was little and my word was my command (although mom and grandma taught me to get up from my throne and get what I wanted myself). My elementary days were started with me sitting on a dinning chair then one maid did my hair (I had various hairstyle at that time) and the other put my socks and shoes on while I was having breakfast. When we grew up, my sisters and I knew what our helpers had been thru. They left their community to an unknown place full of strangers, and we knew it could be terrifying for them. So, I ordered what I wanted nicely and treated them more nicely. Older sister often treated them for a dinner and took them to a mall or a movie theater. I hope we were nice enough for them so they didn't feel like working on a slavery. Nonetheless, I still didn't do everything myself. Furthermore, maids (helpers) do not have working hour. Even at night of during lunch time, they are on call.

Eid (Moslem holiday) was always a big problem for me. Our helpers, as well as other people celebrating Eid went home for at least a week. Some of them didn't go back to the family they work for before, some were matched to guys by their parents, and some found a better job as factory workers or moved to a bigger city. So, besides the joy of having a break, eating great food, and meeting family and friends during that holiday, our helpers going home "paralyzed" our household activities. The good thing was, we sometimes went on a vacation for days. We also went out for dinner so we didn't have to worry about washing dishes and any cleaning related to cooking. Other than that, we still needed to clean the house, washing dishes (food was more expensive during Eid, and some weren't open), wash, hang outside, and iron clothes, and to discharge garbage cans to the central one in our neighborhood. It was pain in the butt! I've tried to ease my burden such as by laying a clear plastic on top of my plate so I didn't need to wash the plate after eating.

Several days after the absence our helpers, dirty clothes were piled up, or at least there would be piles of un-ironed ones. Plates and utensils filled the sink because the one who washed could not keep up with ones who used. The system was broken. Someone needed to move the clean and dry ones from the rack so someone who washed could replaced them with the clean wet one. Grandma and mom were always the victims. They were ones who couldn't stand the mess, hence they cleaned ours. I knew someone needed to help. yes, anyone but me.

Helpers were parts of my integral life. Although I often complained about their inability to do many things and mad about their inappropriate attitude, I couldn't live without one.