SHINING SHANTI

"PENTING"

Kemarin sore ada sms masuk dari temen bilang minta ditelpon karena ada kabar penting. Jujur…tiap kali aku denger ada yang bilang kata "penting", hati selalu deg-deg karena sering berakhir dengan kabar buruk. Waktu mau telpon temenku itu pun seperti dibarengi suara detak jantung sendiri. Bip…bip…bip. Oh, sori…ternyata ada sms lain masuk. Fiuuh.

Ternyata dugaanku kali ini bener, ada temen lain yang kecelakaan di jalan tol ke daerah Balongan, tempat dia kerja. Aku enggak inget lagi temenku diseberang ngabarin apa, tapi hanya suaraku yang kedengeran gede "HAAAHH???." Setelah melalui proses tanya-jawab, akhirnya hati bisa sedikit tenang, temenku selamat, walaupun mengalami beberapa luka.

Tapi enggak selalu semua berakhir buruk. Terkadang kalau temen-temen dari seberang partisi di kantor meng-intercom bilang "Shan, sini deh…penting!", itu bisa buat aku jalan secepet Flash ke area pergosipan yang cuma makan waktu beberapa detik, tapi serasa bermenit-menit! Enggak tahunya mereka kadang cuma mau konfirmasi tanya bos-ku kemana hari itu. Mau ngamuk tapi mereka keburu kompak ketawa ngikik. Dasar….

TGIF 13th

Why Friday 13th is considered as unlucky day? I didn’t quite notice that today is Friday 13th until I made the avatar mood on my msn messenger as TGIF and a friend in my contact list commented that I was thankful for a Friday 13th. Why not?

Urban Legends

The reason why this particular time is regarded as bad luck day is obscure. Many believe that 13 is a number bringing no good luck, even the elevators in the building I work at have no 13th Floors. It is some sort of a superstitious element. As to the Friday, I assume that this day is when all the spooky and superstitious events occured back then in the old days of western culture or history. I guess western culture started this legend of the day. Hollywood even made a horror movie with the same name, with a character of Jason Voorhees, a hockey-masked killer slaughtering highschool kids with his chainsaw. It got so popular that I almost believed as a kid that this Jason legend did live and would show up every Friday 13th…in my bedroom!

Thank God It’s Friday 13th

Despite of all the legends of Friday 13th as an unlucky day, I surprisingly experienced otherwise today, this one-of-a-kind day. My boss whom I always consider as a person of no mercy, unexpectedly made a very fine gestures. He didn’t bother me with those silly instructions as he often does. No "I do the talking, you do the work, Shan" for me today. That’s rare! And in the morning, an old friend, whom I haven’t met for a year or so phoned me to ask to meet. We did. It turned out I had a great and fun conversation during lunch that we planned to make it a regular agenda and planned to have a vacation together soon. I came back to the office with a full stomach and two boxes of brownies that my friend gave me. Thanks vi…

As I just stepped into my loving little cubicle, I was surprised by a news from the Accounting Department that our three-week suspended transportation and meal allowances were issued and ready to be withdrawn. For me, during this mid month with less money in my pocket, receiving an extra ‘wealth’ was a truly bless. My friends at work even got so excited that they actually jumped around, as if winning a million dollar lottery. Poor babies….

As highlight of the day, I had a wonderful and boisterous dinner with a bunch of friends, and followed by going to the cinema on treat of one of them. We almost didn’t want to end the night, but I decided that was enough. I had so much to get - good things - in a day that I can say, Thank God It’s Friday…13th. It is not always a bad luck day after all, you think?

Full House Addicts

For a couple of weeks, I have been brainwashed by people discussing this high-rated Korean TV series, Full House, which I have already seen last mid year. Already too old, I thought. In spite of this, I cannot say I got weary of the flick; I still put an effort to include it in my collection. I admit I am a big fan or addict of Full House as well.

Based on the Korean comic book of the same name, Full House or in Korean pronunciation Pul Hawooseu, tells a cheerful and gloomy sides of a romance between an ordinary naive girl and a famous egocentric pop star, which both of them attempted to win over the house first belong to the girl by having a marriage deal.

Victims or Addicts?

The series was aired and hit big time last year in South Korea and has attracted more than 50% of all viewers in the Ginseng country. It has here now for sure! Even one of my anti-Korean-TV-drama series guy friends has fallen for its charm, or maybe he got karma by making mockery of my liking of oriental cinema, I don’t know. Using his wife as his excuse for watching this drama, he said that the story was humorous and comical, and a must for him is it has a happy ending. "…and the girl was cute," he said. To my surprise, he finished watching within 3 days! Quicker than I did! I finally discovered that he got so addicted - never admitted though - the next day he re-watched some episodes that he claimed he missed seeing, and spare special time in the office browsing the net to find out about the female leading role. Alrighty mister!

Another friend of mine gave testimony that she rarely cries in real life, yet she easily burst into tears over the series. She got so affected - addicted, I may say - that mellowness developed into a theme for her in the following days after watching the series. My orang rumah even asked me, or I should say urge me to borrow or buy the VCD/DVDs for them. They smiled, but gave me such look saying don’t you come home till you get the VCDs. No wonder during the "one precious on-air hour" from 17.00 o’clock onward, I had difficulties phoning home. My guess was they were glued to their seat to watch the precious show. Probably literally using Power Glue. Mon Dieu….