Minggu pagi mendung penuh awan kelabu. Sampai hari ini saya masih ingat hebohnya pertama kali lomba lari. Jakarta Marathon 2012. 5K. Menikmati sensasi melewati garis finish untuk pertama kali. Cape tapi senang, senang tapi pegal, pegal tapi puas serasa terbang ke langit ke tujuh. Walaupun waktu itu tidak ada medali finisher untuk 5K. Fast forward tiga tahun kemudian. Lomba 5K yang ke dua. Tidak seheboh dulu rasanya, baik di garis start ataupun finish. Yang lebih bikin gugup gembira dan gegap gempita adalah dapat PB 5K walau itupun menurut hitungan jam Garmin bukan official time race. Heja!
Bahagia itu mendapat kiriman enam botol Cold Press. Just because. No reason. Six bottles full of goodness & kindness. I feel healthy and clean already. Thank you Ninit!
One hot Wednesday late morning at a dentist office. A young lady and her mom. Her mom tried every possible reason to talk her teenage daughter into letting the doctor pull out her aching tooth. She wouldn't budge. Pouting face, teary eyes and whiny complaints continued. The mother ran out of patience finally said, "Look, the problem is not your tooth, the problem is your jaw. You have a a small jaw and your new tooth has no space to grow. Would you rather have a jaw operation?" She stopped complaining. Pulling out one tooth didn't seem too scary now. Way to go Mom!
What two days you should not worry in order for you to live happily ever after? You can only answer one time. The first one to give the correct answer will get Sky Blue, an A5 journal that I made. Brown paper, 208 pages, print of my doodles on cardboard for its front and back cover, side stitch binding, and an elastic band with a blue button. Send to you wherever you are. Free of charge.
One unbearably hot Sunday afternoon in Kota Tua. Maureen, my little bottomless-talking-box-niece, stopped talking for fifteen minutes while a street artist did a quick sketch of her. Not only did she stop talking, she froze the same pose and smile for the same length of time. I was most impressed!
One lovely Saturday night after a bed time story. "Tante Tina you should get a henchman for a husband," said Maureen my little niece, a second grader. What on earth is a henchman? Dictionary says a faithful follower or a political supporter, especially one prepared to engage in crime or dishonest practices by way of service. Thesaurus says supporter, assistant, aide, helper, adjutant, right-hand man, subordinate, underling, minion, lackey, flunkey, toady, stooge, acolyte, shadow, bodyguard. Sounds good Maureen! ;-)
One lovely rainy Thursday evening. Filling out registration form for Vancouver Marathon on a terrace. My only daughter has been living there since 2012 so automatically I put her as my emergency contact person. Phone number? To my horror I just realised that I don't know hers! We communicate through Skype and Line. What kind of a mother doesn't have her daughter's mobile number? Oh no, my reputation as an awesome mom is at stake! But I have plan. If anyone throw that question my way with a put down look on his or her face, I have an answer: The kind that raise a very independent, self-sustain, problem-solver daughter, thank you very much! :-)
One lovely Tuesday morning. "Kak Tina! Kak Tina! Di rumah aku punya ikan ibu-ibu. Anaknya banyak!" Iqbal, five years old. I never laughed so hard in my life. I love my job. Do what you love. Love what you do.
Senin pagi yang cerah. Bahagia itu habis latihan interval minum segelas kunyit dengan sedikit perasan jeruk sambil ngobrol dengan mbak Sri penjual jamu di GBK. Topik pembicaraan hari ini parkir. Kata seorang bapak yang ikut ngobrol, "Saya sih parkir di sebelah mesjid. Memang agak jauh dari sini tapi kalau parkir di sana saya tidak bayar karcis. Saya sudah kenal dengan petugasnya. Tinggal kasih dia uang tujuh ribu." Kata mbak Sri, "Tapi kan uangnya masuk ke kantong dia sendiri ya pak? Bukan ke pengurus GBK?" Si bapak tidak menjawab, tiba-tiba sibuk dengan telfonnya. Mbak Sri idolaku.
One lovely afternoon in Auckland War Memorial Museum. I took pictures and sent three messages to my little nephew & niece thru my sister's chat apps. They sent me sixty five messages in return. Marvin, the game boy, went banana over a Minecraft exhibition. All those capitals! And Maureen, the chatterbox, not to be outdone by his brother, wanted to spend her long holiday in my place. No poopticon this time. Yay!
Kata orang hanya keledai yang membuat kesalahan dua kali. From my last marathon I already learned that having only a 21K run as my longest run for a marathon training is not enough. Yet here I was doing the same thing again. Auckland Marathon 2015. I was feeling rather smug after I reached half way right on target when my body and my mind just gave up on me. Just like that. No warning. Within seconds everything turned from awesome into awful and awry. I struggled all the way to the finish line. New rules to abide or else! Never underestimate 42.195K (no matter how many marathons I have under my belt) Do my training thoroughly. NO shortcuts. Hee haw!
One lovely Sunday. 22K mark. My body was killing me. My calf stabbed me in the back, my thigh strangled me, my ankle kicked me in the stomach and my knee used my shin bone to beat me up. When I reached water station #8 at 26K a young volunteer handed me a cup of water and said, "Hang in there Rina! Keep going!" Huh?! I thought that was it, I had lost my mind. WAIT! He must've had seen my pin on my hat. This was nothing compare to what she had to endure. Without warning tears just rolled down my face. There I was running jogging and sobbing. And somehow my calf, my thigh, my ankle and my knee had a change of heart. Instead of killing me they just inflicted a little pain here and there all the way to finish line. This one for you Rina!
