This Friday felt ordinary on the surface yet carried a string of small stories that lingered long after the day ended. I started the afternoon with my husband, slipping away for a simple lunch at Subway. We paid with a BCA credit card and caught the 50 percent promo for all items except the sets. Two sandwiches for around eighty thousand felt like a tiny victory, the kind that makes you smile because life still surprises you with little pockets of savings.
After lunch we moved to Starbucks, where I had promised to meet Mbak Natalia Lukita. She had first reached out through my Instagram DMs, curious about my experience with hysterectomy because she might need the same procedure. I could sense the mix of fear and hope in her questions. I told her what I always tell women who ask. I feel relieved, truly relieved. The risk of uterine cancer, gone completely. The pre-menopause symptoms that once hovered around my days, gone too. And of course, the freedom from monthly periods. That one still feels like a gift.
She wondered whether hysterectomy caused mood swings. For me, it did the opposite. My moods leveled out after the surgery. I became calmer, softer, less easily shaken. Sometimes I marvel at the contrast between who I was before and who I am now.
My daughter arrived at Starbucks not long after, and I walked with her to Honu so she could have a meal. Their buy one get one free promo was still on, no student card required anymore, which felt like another tiny blessing of the day. My husband stayed outside, doing business call while waiting for us. We walked home together afterward, the three of us, under the bright afternoon sun. It was hot and humid.
The evening brought a different kind of story. I found out someone claiming to be from Mabes Polri tried to scam me. Their tactic was to reach out through my personal assistant, pretending to invite me as a speaker. The red flags were too many to mention here. I don’t want to give scammers free insights on how to refine their techniques. Let’s just say I’m not that easy to fool. I also checked with a real general's wife I know, and she confirmed what I suspected. It was a scammer, through and through.
It amazes me sometimes how far people will go to make money by preying on others. But that’s the world we live in. A mix of kindness and deceit, sincerity and desperation, small joys and strange surprises.
And so the day closed. A simple Friday, stitched together by food, conversations, sunlight, and a reminder to stay sharp in a world where not everyone has good intentions.
Friday, November 21, 2025
Nuniek Tirta Sari

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