February 09, 2006
nosebleeds
*reviving my one-word blog*
i came down with a cold last night and before i went to bed, i took an aspirin for my brewing headache. when i woke up this morning, my ears ached and my throat was parched and painful. my entire head is stuffed up. i've been sneezing so much and maybe blowing my nose too hard that i've been getting nosebleeds all day. not pretty.
my blood comes out in stringy lumps. yuck. it's a fascinating color, a deep ruby red. when i was a kid, i used to get nosebleeds in the summer when it got real hot. i looked like i'd been punched or something.
*108 words inspired by the word 'nosebleed'
Posted by Yasmina at 12:40 AM | Comments (2)
June 23, 2005
wriggle
wriggling in the heat. indonesians would say this as "seperti cacing kepanasan". literally, like worms in the heat. wriggling uncomfortably and drying out.
summer is here. at last.
Posted by Yasmina at 02:47 PM
April 24, 2005
bread
i love freshly baked bread. since i started living with robert, i've been eating more bread than usual. brown bread, baguettes, german rolls, roggebrood, tortillas, turkish bread. i even baked my very first loaf of bread this week. yummm... bread, i love you...
Posted by Yasmina at 03:00 PM
November 28, 2004
cobblestone
the sidewalk surfaces of portugal are often made of cobblestones, white and black, and often they would form a pattern of some sort. the most popular being ocean waves or rays of light/sun.
most portuguese women, i notice, love wearing high-heeled shoes. not the ones with clunky heels, no, no, they simply would not do, certainly not elegant enough. these heels are more of the kitten heel, stiletto variety.
and i wonder how these portuguese women can walk with so much ease on the sidewalk without gettting their heels caught in between the cobblestones. perhaps if one had an entire lifetime of practicing walking in such conditions, you'd be a pro like they are.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:56 PM
November 20, 2004
packing
i don't know why i always leave packing till the last minute. i toss everything into my rucksack in random order. often i've ended up at my destination with 20 knickers and 1 bra, or 4 skirts, 4 trousers and 2 tops.
i would also be horrible and not do my laundry before i go, so when my mom unpacks my stuff after i get to her house, she would often get mad at me when she discovers that she has to do my laundry.
such is the case tonight. :(
Posted by Yasmina at 01:21 AM
November 17, 2004
eid al'fitri
a time to celebrate and enjoy togetherness. yay! we're cleansed! now we can pig out on glorious delicious food and see friends and family and have a laugh.
oh, i sooooo miss ketupat, lontong sayur, opor ayam, sambel goreng hati, krecek, es cendol, and gathering with family and doing "sungkeman" with my parents and grandfather.
this is my fourth eid al'fitri away from home. when i was in uk, i would come home for xmas holidays, and eid al'fitri was around xmas time anyway, so i would always manage to spend it with family there.
Posted by Yasmina at 09:59 AM
sore
sore ass. my sore ass came from our sunday snowboarding trip. i tripped getting out of the ski lift and now i have a sore ass. :(
Posted by Yasmina at 09:38 AM
November 07, 2004
month
the month of october. a month where i abandoned you. i'm sorry for that. i promise that with november and the months to come, i will spend more time writing you. xx, yasmina
Posted by Yasmina at 06:02 PM
October 04, 2004
second
split second. second best. i don't know if i ever met anyone who would put me first in their life. maybe my parents did put me first in their life for a while, before my sister was born. i don't know. for once, i want to be first in someone's life, not second, and i want to mean something.
maybe i should get a pet?
Posted by Yasmina at 04:00 PM
September 15, 2004
faint
often, in the evenings when i am in the living room or the balcony working on my powerbook and listening to music and enjoying a glass of wine, a faint sound will distract me from whatever i am doing, and i have to close my eyes and try to recognise the notes and it's robert somewhere in the apartment playing a jazz tune on his trumpet, and when he plays a song particularly well, i fell like i fall on love all over again.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:54 PM
September 07, 2004
frontier
it's like an optical illusion, isn't it? like, you think you're heading to new frontiers, and that you're getting closer and closer to it, but what does it do? it just recedes, further and further away from you, it's like magnets repelling each other.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:16 PM
September 06, 2004
reach
my dad is a man with several emails, 2 home phone numbers, 2 mobile numbers, a man who has live-in servants to answer his phone at home, and a driver who also has a mobile phone with him, and yet, sometimes, i cannot <b>reach</b> him. he just, completely disappears.
Posted by Yasmina at 06:17 PM
September 05, 2004
blanket
robert and i have a blanket ritual. i can't sleep without a blanket, and often robert tugs at the blanket unconsciously during the night and i just gravitate closer and closer towards his side of the bed to get under the blanket. in the morning, we wake up snuggled up under the blanket together and it's the best thing ever.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:05 PM
August 15, 2004
found
i found something that i didn't know i needed. i found robert and i hope i get to keep him (forever and ever). :)
Posted by Yasmina at 09:57 PM
August 12, 2004
pillow
pillow willow shallow wallow swallow, i like my pillows to be medium soft, not too hard otherwise i get a crick in my neck, and not too soft, enough so that i can punch it into a comfortable shape.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:27 AM
July 05, 2004
giraffe
giraffes are tall and are almost always featured in documentaries about africa. the french word for giraffe is giroffle.
sometimes in these documentaries where they show the giraffes running across the savannah, i wonder if any of them has ever lost their balance due to the weight of their long necks and toppled forwards. and whether any giraffes have ever seriously injured themselves that way, and whether they'd get eaten by lions while they are lying on the ground waiting for help.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:55 PM
July 04, 2004
logic
i can start solving logic problems through a logical process but then my imagination and emotions get in the way and my mind starts to wander and i jump to conclusions, so maybe i am not so logical after all. :(
Posted by Yasmina at 10:28 PM
June 15, 2004
gray ...
... is a sophisticated color. gray is the color of my father's eyes, the dark nearly black pupil fading into a gray edge. gray is the color of his hair, when seen from a distance. when close, you see the pepper streaks of white in his black hair. gray is the color of my father's winter wool suit, the one he likes to wear with his pink and green tie. gray is color of the sky with streaks of lightning when my father is angry with me for one reason or another.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:48 AM
June 13, 2004
moose
a moose is not a dessert made from eggs, chocolate and served with whipped cream. it's the animal that can be seen in the opening sequence of the 90s series "Northern Exposure."
Posted by Yasmina at 11:56 PM
June 09, 2004
goo
i know that there's all kinds of goo but the type i imagine to one day stick on the bottom of my shoes would be a translucent green, with air bubble inside, bubbling up the surface, and when i try to scrape it off with a stick, a pen, whatever, it will swallow it up with a hiss.
*58 words inspired by the word goo.
Posted by Yasmina at 07:45 PM
June 08, 2004
ink
my uncle knows a way to cook squid in its own ink. it is a very yummy dish. he cooks it in butter and you have to eat it quickly, before the flesh cools and i love to eat the squid, buttery ink and rice with my hand, wrapping it into a ball and popping it into my mouth. yumm!
*60 words inspired by the word ink.
Posted by Yasmina at 08:26 PM
June 07, 2004
doctor
i have three doctors in my family and once upon a time, they all went to medical school together. my dad's sister fell ill when she was about 20, and had to have her appendix removed. the doctor was a handsome young man who she later married. how's that for a story?
and from my mom's side of the family, my mom's sister went to medical school, and fell in love with her husband-to-be. he eventually didn't become a doctor doctor, but a pathologist and his home office had jars of body parts pickled in formaldehyde. i loved how the sunlight would stream through the glass window and light up the jars.
anyway, they are all good friends and my mom's sister was the family pediatrician to most of my cousins from both sides of the family. :)
*137 words inspired by the word <b>doctor</b>.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:52 PM
June 03, 2004
exchange
exchange. giving something to receive something in return, usually of equal value, although when we were younger, the older kids would get sneaky on the younger ones. exchanging a bag of candy for some rocks or something.
*37 words inspired by the word exchange.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:28 PM
June 02, 2004
solve
there are always problems to be solved.
am i good at problem-solving? depends what kind of problems they are? deisgn problems? yes, i like to think so.
i'm less decisive about life problems, though, like whether to look for a new job or move to another country. :(
Posted by Yasmina at 08:45 AM
May 30, 2004
depth
the depth of my father's gray gaze. my heartstrings goes TWING! i think when i started dating sheldon, part of the initial attraction was his depth of thinking. and then, i realised he was so deep, he was lost in the vastness of his mind. and anyway, what's wrong with being shallow? sometimes that's what i am and i like myself even when i am shallow.
*66 words inspired by the word depth.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:07 PM
May 28, 2004
fiction
often squeezed between crime/thriller and poetry/classics. pulp. extraordinary people living extraordinary lives. depressives eeking out a marginal living. boy meets girl, boy shags girl, girl shags another boy, boo hoo hoo.
*33 words inspired by the word fiction.
Posted by Yasmina at 02:26 PM
May 27, 2004
sensitive
i'm going out with a sensitive boy. smooth skin cream, light kisses in the morning, hot-water bottle when i have a bad belly, a belly rub, a tickle, a giggle, he is the tickliest boy ever, fluffy pillows, clean crisp sheets, a bubble bath. a sensitive boy with soft crinkly eyes.
*51 words inspired by the word sensitive.
Posted by Yasmina at 04:16 PM
May 24, 2004
sour
i don't want to be sour. i want to stay sweet and sometimes spicy. when work is not going well and i feel like i'm stuck in a rut, and i imagine myself in this position for the next 10 years, i sometimes feel like i will be bitter and sour eventually. this thought scares me to no end, and i just want to bolt, pack everything up and leave.
because if you are a lemon, it's ok to be sour. when you're a person, it's not.
*88 words inspired by the word sour.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:38 AM
May 21, 2004
after
after. afternoon. after school. after dinner mints. aftershave. after. aprés ski. if i look at the order of grandchildren births in the haryono family, i came after sanny, santo, ine and tjippie. but maybe we all met each other in the waiting room, where all the kids who were going to be born are waiting, and we all said, 'hey, let's all be in the same family.' does my 'jiwa' come from the same place as my cousins' 'jiwas' did?
*81 words inspired by the word after.
Posted by Yasmina at 08:48 AM
May 20, 2004
beam
beam me up, scottie. i am a beam of light searching for direction. i like to think that my road is twisting and turning and full of emotion, adventure, friendship and love. but i do not know if it is so.
*41 words inspired by the word beam.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:51 PM
May 19, 2004
half
i once dated a guy whose father was caucasian and whose mother was chinese, which he said made him half english, half chinese. oh, i said, and examined him up and down. which half is english and which half is chinese?
sometimes, in the height of my identity crisis, i would feel as if i was half indonesian, half english, half european and half my own melting pot of culture. which adds up to two whole beings. wow!
*78 words inspired by the word half.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:29 AM
May 15, 2004
measure
i measure 158 cm in height. robert measures 196 cm in height. see what a difference that is? even our friends used to laugh at us in the street, whilst looking at our dimensions.
*34 words inspired by the word <b>measure</b>.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:45 AM
May 13, 2004
trade
i traded my book for friendship. i was the new kid; i just wanted her to like me and be my friend.
i traded my chocolate bar for a glance, and maybe a conversation. he was cute and loved chocolate, so i thought if i let him have my chocolate bar from my lunchbox he'd talk to me more, and maybe sit to me in the cafetaria.
i tried to trade candy, chocolate and dolls for ownership of my sister's toes. she has lovely toes and as a kid i would try to buy them off her. she very nearly gave in. she was probably thinking of a life where she'd have to follow me around all the time; early on, we'd established the toes would always be attached to her, we were never going to detach them if you were thinking that we were a bit sick.
*146 words inspired by the word trade.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:53 AM
May 11, 2004
drowning
the shore is not where i thought it would be. this is the sea. this is the color of my father's eyes. it's vast and it's bottomless. the space expands beyond me. panic sets in and i am
*36 words inspired by the word drowning
Posted by Yasmina at 08:10 PM
