scorpio Ciptanti,
Strive to get your finances in order, as now is the best time of the year to organize your wallet. A chance to communicate with someone who was once in your shoes arises. Take the opportunity for a deep personal self-examination.

We began the journey to chew sate ayam in front of RSPP. God gracious, we weren’t only had the juicy barbeque but also the rich, barbeque style smokey smoke. I paid Rp 34,000 for 20 skewers of chicken barbeque and 4 lontongs, and 2 bottles of cold Teh Sosro. Affordably tasty. Btw, there was this silly incident taken place after we loaded up our tummies. It’s one of my lousy, worn-out memory trouble-some of keeping the extra car’s key. I thought I put it inside my pocket whereas I was cross-checking couple of times and almost wrecked it in panic. Cuz Atiek was suspicious it fell down into my anyaman bag. I insisted I might have left it (again) in my main car-key’s dompet which I snugged inside the cabin self. O dear, I did it again! Sounds like Britney Spears (*duh*). We were both shaky and I felt stupid. “Try dig out your bag, sis!” she suggested. So I did. And there was this shinny, metal car key stuck amids my pink pasmina, happy house stuff keeper and my purse. What a relief! Then without any further ado, we moved on to Gramedia Bookstore Blok M, I parked my Starleto in Pasaraya. I was a bit seducted with these racks full of lovely Kebayas. No, no! You jes spent lots yesterday, remember? And how about that trip you plan to do with Dani? It’ll surely cost you big.

We reached the ground floor, had a zig-zag walk through this cramped-size, supposed to be pedestrian-path next to Pasaraya building which lately turned into pasar kaget. It’s kinda a new haven of the hippiest, cheapest accessories, made-in China. But it’s no longer my cup of tea. Not that I’m into genuine, branded labels. Positively can’t afford ‘em. Jes that I think I give up spending around and allowing my impulsive drives form me into an accute shopaholic. No more. Yet, we both laughed gayly when we traced these lines of unique stalls. Cuz Atiek gave her short comments or jes made strange voices (noises) in respond of the things she saw, until we realized we almost missed the bookstore. We turned right, there was the gate of the bookstore.

We went to the same racks every time we finished or jes got bored with one rack. Cuz Atiek has a big attention to social and humanity topics besides local literatures. Her long experience and struggle in the world she loves–social works–have embodied such divine and rather idealistic ideas on how this life’s supposed to be. Jes like me, we’re truly devoted no matter what to a better world, in words we understand. Gosh, I think I begin to admire her. She forms herself completely as she is; she’s humble, old fashion, into smoking and black coffee, and definitely financial conscious. I mean, I fail to keep myself as I am sometime, and honestly at the end I feel bad about it. Cuz Atiek is strictly confident about herself and her decision on anything. That’s rare in a person. At least for me it’s a special quality that requires hard-work and persistancy.

We landed in Starbuck’s after those hippy, tiring rack-to-rack blast. Caffeine for her, I prefered this creamy hot chocolate with caramel syrup. I knew we’re gonna have a long conversation, and she’s very deep into it. She got me amazed with her heart-thumping stories, I wish we could have all the time in this world that night. I’m glad we’re sister, cuz!