Age Denial?

This hottie tagged me on Facebook to share stories about ‘age’. She hilariously wrote (in Bahasa Indonesia) how she always feels like a 21 year old, and always tell people that she is twenty-one. If a close friend was nearby and gave her the dirty look about claiming twenty-one, she would correct it to 24. Still not her real age, I don’t think. Nobody knows how old she really is, but it doesn’t matter. I know her only from her blog, but I truly think she’s awesome. Not only she has the good look, but also very talented. That’s why I think she can get away with this.

While jokingly she admitted that she’s living in denial, she did ask if there’s any ‘mature’ person who’d feel the same. If by that, she meant to ask: is there any 30++ year old people who feel young at heart and act like one, my answer would be ‘a lot’. But I don’t know how many of those ‘a lot’ who would ‘lie’ (jokingly or not) about their age. 

Mine is totally the opposite. I’ve always told people my real age, never once hesitated. I enjoyed seeing their eyes gotten bigger exclaimed, “BUT YOU DON’T LOOK 35!” Liking the next comment even more, “Are you sure you’re not 25?” I am not exactly sure what makes people say that. But since appearance is the first thing you’d see, I’m guessing it’s my look? I don’t wear heavy make ups or ’pimp’ my hair. No lipsticks, just lip balm during the winter season. No eye shadows, only eyeliner. My hair is long sand straight, I don’t make it ‘poofy’; only occasionally when I feel like doing something ‘different’, I’d curl the tip of my hair a little bit.

One of my coworkers said one day that the reason why I look young(er) was because I’m Asian. I asked her if she was serious, and cluelessly she said that she was, but not anymore after that question. “I just think if you start wearing [heavy] make ups since middle school, whether you’re white, black or Asian, you’d look older than your actual age.”

My other guess why people would not believe me when I tell them that I’m in my mid 30s, probably because I’m a goofball. ‘Dork’ is my nickname -lovingly given by hubby and now the nurses and doctors at work are also calling me that, great- and I don’t hesitate being silly around my kids’ and their friends.

I do feel young at heart. I really think that people who are able to laugh a lot, who takes life not too seriously and not afraid to look silly; are the coolest people on Earth. Not necessarily going around telling people that your age is ten years younger than the actual one. But since nobody gets hurt, I don’t think it’s a crime. 

“It’s not denial. I’m just very selective about the reality I accept.” -Calvin (6), from Calvin and Hobbes.

Pic’s from here.

Congrats on Your Achievement. Now Let Us Embarass You.

When somebody is being recognized for her or his achievement, wouldn’t you think this person is going to be quite proud of it? Especially when an event was held in honor of this person so everybody could witness or share their proud moment; wouldn’t you think they would appreciate it if everybody’s in the ‘game’ and be nice about it?

To my surprise (or lack of cultural awareness?), people here like to ’smash’ the proud moment by ‘grilling’ the person. At first I thought it was a coincidence, because the people in our department are like that. A nurse -let’s call her Jill- was awarded with a special recognizition (a pin with a gemstone) for her 30 years of dedication working for the clinic. During the department’s meeting, my supervisor gave a nice long speech about her. After the pin was given (along with a formal letter), somebody said, “Alright, it’s now time to grill her.”

Three different person took turns in telling embarassing stories that happenned to Jill or she did unknowingly. Jill is a sweet person who, sometimes, say something that’s written out loud without thinking or censoring it. And she’s always on a fast mode. So one day, after zooming in and out rooming patients, she called out a patient by the reason why the patient was seen, instead of their names. Good thing it was for a sore throat. Couldn’t imagine what’d happen if it was for  STD check.

Still about Jill, the other nurse told a story where Jill had to return a phone call from a nursing home. I remembered that I was the one who talked to them originally, the nurse from the nursing home was so nasty and demanding. So on my note, I wrote ‘Pissy RN’ as the caller. Not knowing that Jill would be the one who’s going to call them back. Certainly not knowing that Jill would say, “Hi, my name is Jill with Dr Smith’s office returning Pissy RN’s call.” I was told that the rest of nurses at the back hall station were wowed by that and Jill had to frantically come up with an excuse when the ‘Pissy RN’ replied, “Excuse me?”

By the third story, I could see that Jill’s face was as red as a chilli pepper. She was covering her face while saying, “Oh my god…” so many times while the rest of us were laughing so hard. I felt guilty laughing at her, so I stopped; but no body else in the room felt like I did. It’s almost like a euphoria.

A month later, in a different occassion. Hubby’s department was throwing a semi-retirement party for one of his employees who’s been working for hubby longer than I’ve been married to him. Semi-retirement was emphasized because this neat lady, let’s say Eileen, retired from a full time job working under hubby’s department and got a part time job at a different department. Eileen loves to travel and was almost like a mother to hubby. She was a very loyal employee.

In this semi-official party that was set up in a nice restaurant setting, again the word ‘grilling’ was mentioned. Some employees at first asked hubby, as the head of the department, to give toast and speech. Hubby hated the idea because he hates being in the spotlight. But he told them he’d be willing to partake in the ‘grilling’. Hubby delegated the toast and speech part to somebody else later on. The ‘grilling’ part was never heard of for the rest of the night.

So what’s the purpose of the ‘grilling’ tradition? Is it just to make the event more fun and less official? Or could it be to ‘remind’ the celebrated person not to get too snotty with their achievement and to stay humble by reminding them about some embarassing moments in the past? What would you do if you’re the celebrated person? Would you keep your cool and not overreacted or get too embarassed? I probably would, but again, it depends on how much alcohol I’d consumed by the time they’re starting to grill me.

Drama of the Year 2008 (Vacation Gone Wild) – Part 4 b (Final)

There’s a force from underneath the dam that’s pulling me. I felt like jumping.

That’s what the Hoover Dam did to me. Was it acrophobia, the fear of height? Not quite. According to a physician I work for, I was dealing with angst; a German word for fear or anxiety, used in English to describe an intense feeling of strive. Angst normally means a nondirectional emotion. While acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear of heights.

Done with Hoover Dam, we continued driving on the US Route 93. After about an hour, my ‘bottomless-stomach’ 6 years old son started to complain of being hungry. We saw a jerky store on the side of the road, it’s called freshjerky[dot]com. I thought, if they dare selling online, they must be pretty good, right? We went in and sampled some of their dried meat and fruit. Some of them sounded pretty nasty -ever heard of tuna jerky?- but after we tried it, it was actually edible and quite tasty. My favorite was the teriyaki beef and the dried mango.

Then the road trip continued to reach Williams, AZ. This town was picked as our base camp because it will only take us about half an hour to drive to the entrance of the Grand Canyon. We were debating whether or not to just drive to the South Rim area of the Canyon, which has accommodations too, so we don’t have to drive too far. But they were too pricey for our budget which was already depleted after losing thousand something dollars after the failed SE Asia trip plan (read the previous parts of this post). This small town lies on Route 66, and I haven’t been to any before. I watched the movie ‘Cars’ with the kids and since then always wanted to visit small towns on Route 66.

We booked a room at The Downtowner Motel. Everytime I heard the word ‘motel’, I can’t help but thinking of squeaky beds, smelly carpet, and loud heater/air-con. To my surprise, this one is completely presentable. We got the two bedrooms, one of each with very comfortable queen beds and flat screen TV on the wall. I thought it was going to have either a ‘mountain cabin’ decoration or tacky Route 66 memorabilia. It was not. Instead, the tastefully decorated cabin reminded me of a hip, urban-taste apartment of a big city. Normal motel would have one big undivided area of bedroom, living room, and a small kitchen/eating area altogether; this one was, again, has a big city apartment feeling to it; without a kitchen.

Done checking in, we went out to explore the town on foot in a 40-something degrees temperature. I was freezing my ass off. Hubby and the kids were fine, because they’re Iowans. Decided to go in a bar to warm up, met a very nice fellow who taught my 7 year old daughter, Davi, how to smooth her shuffleboard skill. This guy is everything you’d picture of a prospector. Very very nice. Drunk as heck, but nice. While Davi and I were in a shuffleboard match, Dante took Daddy up for a very intense game of cards: Go Fish.

Where to go for dinner, we wondered. The common American dine-in or hello… is that a Thai restaurant I see? We thought, in the spirit of Thailand, we should try the Thai restaurant, Dara Thai’s Cafe. When we entered the place, we found out that we’re the only customers. An alarm went off at the back of my brain, saying, “Bad choice. Don’t go here.” Of course, I ignored it. Made a small talk to the owner about how surprised I was to find a Thai restaurant in a place like this -small town, on Route 66, out of nowhere. Then she said that they were new, just a couple of months, and that they’re a chainThai restaurant. That alarm on my brain buzzed off again. All chain restaurants are mostly so-so, if not bad. Some people are fond of chain -international- restaurants, like Carlos O’ Kelly’s or Panda Express, or PF Chang. We are not. Our family prefers to go to a smaller but more authentic ones, even though it’s considered as a ‘dive restaurants’ to most Westerners. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I was right. The food was not very good, it was blah. After paying, we went for more walk, stopped at a gift/souvenir store with a scary robotic Santa by the front door.

The next morning, we woke up early and had a hearty American breakfast at the diner. Packed all the necessities to stay warm (hats, mittens, etc), filled up the gas tank, fully charged batteries for camera and video camera were ready to go, full tummy… we’re off to see one of World Heritage Sites! Being the ‘Gateway to the Grand Canyon’, Williams is conveniently located, it only took us 30 min to reach the Grand Canyon entrance.

We visited Grand Canyon’s South Rim instead of North, because it’s ‘friendlier’ to us. The North Rim, which I’m pretty sure has more stunning views, is more remote and only open in mid-May through mid-October. For a first timer like us, experiencing the Grand Canyon from the South Rim (also known as Grand Canyon Village) is not bad at all. It ismore touristy, because they have more lodgings (El Tovar Hotel is amazing!), shops, and easier accessibilities. Planning a visit? Do some research here first. Interested in doing the mule ride? Better be in shape since the shortest one takes about 7 hours!

There’s no words to describe how amazing this place is. The way nature just ‘carved’ this georgous place. How the force of water cut deeply through the rock, forming numerous steep-walled canyons. And to think how difficult that time was for the pioneers to explore this wilderness, and survived. I was glad to be able to see this place, and for my kids to experience it too.

With this spirit, we drove back to Vegas feeling better that this family vacation was not a big disappointment after all. So what if we couldn’t go to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and visit the Elephant Nature Park. To be able to go to Los Angeles, roaming the Hollywood Boulevard, watching shows in Las Vegas, and to see one of the world’s wonders Grand Canyon, was not a bad experience at all. So what if we couldn’t be in a 80 degrees weather while sunning at the beach wearing shorts and sandals. To be in a 30 degrees weather, bundled from head to toe with chattering teeth, I guess it’s okay too. All I wanted to do was to be home again.

So there we were, in Vegas again. Last minute reservation to the Desert Rose Resort (I highly recommend this place. Very very nice and close to the Strip) was made via cell phone on our way from Williams, AZ. They had one 2-bedroom suite available, thankfully. I went to bed hoping that tomorrow we’d be able to fly back home with no problems.

Unfortunately, the goddess of drama was not going to let go of us easily. Started with the ‘fine’ of $150 from the rental car place because we didn’t fill the tank up (it was 3/4 full). Then when we checked in at the airline’s desk at McCarran International airport, they told us that hubby was not listed to fly with us! What?! Evidenty, due to shuffling things around, the online booking rep did not book hubby with us. She booked him on a different flight! I couldn’t emphasize more clearly how frustrating that situation was for us. I was about to loose it, because the departure time for the three of us was approaching, but we dind’t have an answer for hubby yet. After a while, somebody with a higher rank stepped in and took care of us. Not only he was able to get hubby in the same flight with us with the same price, we were also able to seat close together. Phew!

This whole ‘drama’ does affect our decission-making capability when it comes to travel internationally. Because it seemed that no matter how we try to make alternative options, they ended up being a bite on the butt. I understand that the military coup in Bangkok was out of our hands, as well as hubby’s sickness. I just can’t help but feeling that we probably should stay put in the US for a while. But we all did have fun, because it’s not the destination or where you are, but who you’re with; and I’m still glad that I share this adventure with hubby and the kids.

Chain Questionnaire

This is a post about an old tag that I just realized I have not done it after a long time. Shame on me, I know. I’m sorry, Ecky. I don’t know who to tag anymore since everybody ’s already been tagged! But like a debt, you must pay it. Better be late than nothing.

001. Real name: Dinyfitha
002. Like it: Yes
003. Nickname(s): Diny, Dinsky, Dintje, D, or Dork
004. Status: Married
005. Zodiac sign: Gemini
006. Male or female: Female
007. Elementary school: SDN 08 Jati Pulo, Jakarta
008. Middle school: SMPN 88 Slipi, Jakarta
009. High school: SMAN 1 Budi Utomo, Jakarta
010. Hair color: Black
011. Long or short: Long
012. Eye color: Dark brown
013. Weight: 124 lbs
014. Height: 5′ 5″
015. Righty or Lefty: Righty
016. Sweats or Jeans: [Old] Jeans
017. Phone or camera: Daily basis? Phone. Traveling? Camera.
018. Health freak: No *as I’m snacking on Cheetos*
019. Piercings: Ears
020. Do you have a crush on someone: No
021. Eat or drink: Eat
022. Purse or Backpack: Purse (daily), backpack (travel)
023. Tattoes: No (too whimpy)
024. Do you like yourself? Yes
025. Current worry: Daughter’s slumber party tonight

THIS OR THAT
026. Orange or apple juice: OJ
027. Night or day: Both
028. Sun or moon: Both
029. TV or Internet: Both
030. Playstation or Xbox: Neither. I’d prefer Wii.
031. Kiss or hugs: Hugs
032.  Iguana or turtle: Turtle
033. Spider or bee: Spider
034. Fall or Spring? Both
035. Limewire or iTunes: iTunes
036. Soccer or baseball: Neither

FIRSTS
037. First surgery: Tonsilectomy, a loooong time ago (late 70s)
038. First piercing: When I was an infant, ear piercing *thanks Mom*
039. First best friend: Gank of 5 fifth graders back home in Jakarta
040. First sport: Swimming
041. First award: high school choir (1988)
042. First crush: eighth grade
043. First pet: strayed cat, named her ‘Nala’
044. First big vacation: Jakarta, Bali, Ubud, Yogyakarta (Indonesia) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) in 2001.
045. First big birthday: Never had a ‘big’ birthday.

CURRENTLY
046. Eating: A bag of Cheetos
047. Drinking: V8 juice on ice
048. I’m about to: Go home from work
049. Listening to: phones ringing, patients’ complain and request
050. Singing: Amy Winehouse’s Rehab
051. Typing: Patient’s information, appointment details, etc
052. Waiting for: Lunch time

YOUR FUTURE
053. Want kids: Yes
054. When: Already have 2 beautiful kids, a girl (2001) and a boy (2002)*what more could I ask for?*
055. Want to get married: Why of course.
056. When: 06/10/00
057. Where do you want to live: Ideally? Somewhere with 70 degrees weather all year long
058. Careers in mind: Never set in stone, will go with the flow
059. What did you want to be when you were little: a rich person
060. Mellow future or wild: OMG, no drama, please…
061. Something you would never try: Bungee jumping, sky diving, everything related to jumping off a very high place

WHICH IS BETTER FOR A MAN
062. Lips or eyes: eyes
063. Shorter or taller: both
064. Romantic or spontaneous: if a guy does something spontaneous for a woman, I think it’s kind of romantic
065. Nice stomach or nice arms: both
066. Sensitive or loud: sensitive
067. Hook up or relationship: relationship
068. Trouble maker or hesitant: well this question sucks… should ask for a ‘confident’ one instead
069. Hugging or kissing: both
070. Tan skinned or light: both
071. Dark or light hair: both
072. Muscular or normal: normal

HAVE YOU EVER
073. Lost glasses/contacts: Yes
074. Ran away from home: Yes
075. Held a gun/knife for self defense: No
076. Killed somebody: No. Felt strongly about doing it? Sometimes.
077. Broken someone’s heart: Yes
078. Been arrested: No
079. Cried when someone died: Yes. Even if it’s not a friend or family. I cried when patients whom I knew passed away.
080. Kissed a stranger: Yes
081. Climbed up a tree: Yes
082. Liked a friend more than a friend: No

DO YOU BELIEVE IN
083. Yourself: Yes
084. Miracles: No
085. Love at first sight: No
086. Heaven: No
087. Santa Claus: No
088. Kiss on the first date: Sure

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY
089. Is there one person you want to be with right now: Already is
090. Do you like someone: I like nice people
091. Are you seriously happy with what you are in life: Yes

LASTS
092. Received/sent text message: Hallie, a coworker
093. Received call: Patients (at work today), hubby (cell phone last night)
094. Call made: To hubby’s cell phone last night
095. Person(s) you hang out with: My 8 year old daughter, Davi, and a friend of hers last Saturday at Kil’n Time Studio