bankrupted, cheap, babbling me...

I remember being able to go out and have a hell lot of fun with a rp20k bill in hand. The same time when I could get myself the latest-state-of-the-art mobile phones or gadgets. Gone are the days when I could still go abroad and pay my meals in dollars, buy the tube tickets in pounds, or tip in francs.

Ever since I had a job of my own, and supported myself for that matter, all those luxuries degraded consistently. I began to think, calculate and finally reconsider before letting the cashier take away my plastic and swipe it in his/her beeping credit-burning device. Musical concerts like those of cranberries’, suede’ and twilite’ which I went to need weeks of planning before I could spare my money to purchase the tickets. Exquisite cuisines are no longer a routine for my digestion system, as opposed to pecel lele, ketoprak, tahu + tempe which are mundane to my lunch plates. Being the pride-snob-jerk in the house, I insisted of living in my own place, away from the house’s ring of comfort, overlooking the fact that I couldn’t afford anything fancy considering my salary. Bad idea. The aforementioned tahu+tempe now unite with daily monosodium glutamate in the stomach acid as I have no other cooking abilities other than making instant noodles and fried rice. Yes, fried rice. The geniuses in PT GarudaFood’s lab managed to invent this innovative formula which enables salt-like seed turns into rice once acquainted with water. A brilliant solution for the likes of myself.

To think of it, now I earn around 5 times of what my parents had been giving me when I was in school years. But in addition to what had been mentioned above, I now solemnly plan my routes to make the best out of my gas. “Nebeng” is considered another brilliant solution, just like the instant fried rice. Hair cutting is done by my mom. No more “jambangnya cukur, mas?” and mediocre massage from mas Bambang in Fix-up barbershop, santa.

Don’t get me wrong. This is no provocative journal. I’m absolutely grateful for still being able to whine like this. I know lots of other people are not as fortunate as I am, being confused of how to wet their kids’ beaks. That they earn like 5k a day and have to feed over 3 children and a spouse. That some people eat once every 2 or 3 days. That a friend of yours drop out of school due to financial matters. Yadda yadda yadda. So save the criticism and blasphemy telling me that I don’t empathy. You’ll need energy to do that. They don’t come cheap nowadays…