#adios ciao adieu au revoir farewell auf wiedersehn

[a-spell-a-rebel-yell]

December

wow, i'm sooo good at procrastinating. hehe hi pals, hope you're all doing great! i swear i promised myself i'll write the Dec post on Dec 31st, 2022, but i managed to post this one on Jan 1st, 2023 :-) oh well.

don't blame me for spending quality time with my family and cousins for the new year's eve! i got distracted (again, for the 28648236th time) it was so fun, with my mum's guidance we cooked our favourite spicy Tom Yum, penne bolognese, and kimchi fried rice!!! yes, it was a Thai-Italian-Korean meals day kind of thing.

then as we count down the last hours of 2022 we did the family tradition: horror films marathon! this time we're exploring/rewatching Indonesian horror films. we got KKN Desa Penari, Pintu Terlarang, Modus Anomali, and then Pengabdi Setan 2. yes, in this house we love Joko Anwar's works.

in the last five minutes of 2022 we got up, stretched, went outside, and played with some firecrackers! purposely turned off the garden lights so it'd shone brighter. took photos and videos, then we went back inside. being in the middle of the city, on midnight the noise of fireworks shooting up to the sky was loud. it didn't stop for a whole fifteen minutes, but we enjoyed it: free entertainment!

sleep time yet? nope. it's indomie time!!! we watched a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother and Raven's Home for good ol' times' sake. had more talks, then at 3 AM we all went to bed. went without saying, we woke up pretty late today hehe.

i'm going backwards here because after that Dec 31st review, now let's talk about December in general. as usual, as predicted, it was a-ok month, just like any other month. i think the highlight that is the Labuan Bajo trip is already covered in the November post. on second week of December i had a scientific forum meeting and i got to see some of my Weekend Ceria besties! it was a bit of a funny coincidence that our little reunion was just a little bit over one year anniversary of our national dentist board exam day... though now each of us is so busy with our own work, it's getting super hard to find time for us to meet u___u

on last week of December my favorite Brisbane-based cousin came home to Indonesia for a three-weeks vacay! so happy to see her again and this time i get to meet her boyfriend (which after a lengthy session of interrogation i found is so nice and so in tune with me, so he passed my test haha) and we're planning a cousins sleepover this first week of January (will do write the story on the next post!) still kinda sad though because another favorite cousin of mine just moved to Frankfurt a few months back and he said he won't be coming back to Indonesia for approximately five years. the cherry on top is getting another cousin i haven't met in so long to join us in this little gathering!

overall this month i get to spend a lot of time with my family and cousins, which energized me to the fullest. 2022 has been nice to me and i'm so excited with what 2023 has to offer. i have no room in my life other than for these people, my loved ones, my immediate family. again and again i'm so grateful for my mum and dad, the solid rock and pillar and foundation of my life, that are always there for me, no matter what and when, in the most literal sense. late night talks with my mum and alone dates with my dad are my talisman, i carry their light, i have them with me wherever i go.

this year i'm so glad to finally know and learned which ones to keep, when to walk away, put healthy and respectable boundaries, to fight and try again, and to keep on going despite all. to finally know what i want and look for, and to never be sorry to save myself first. to do good and be good. to believe and trust time and Allah's plans, whatever is mine will find its way to me, sooner or later.

so, happy new year to you lot! wishing 2023 to bring us all only good things and happy days all year round. especially for you, the one and only you, over there across the world, just like how i've told you so many times over eighteen long years we've been best friends: i hope you're always happy, healthy, and loved.