I slept at 2 a.m. and woke up at 8, not because my body was ready, but because my best friend Detha was already in the apartment lobby. She had told me several days before that she might come by. Might, in best-friend language, usually means definitely.
The plan was wholesome and optimistic. A morning walk around the botanical garden, chasing sweat and pretending we’re disciplined adults. Reality had other plans. Rain. Endless rain. The kind of rain that makes your bed whisper, come back, don’t be a hero. Honestly, rainy mornings like that are made for sleeping in, not cardio. So since the entire household was still asleep, I went down alone and we talked in the lobby instead.
Life updates flowed easily. Surgery stories, health check-ins, holiday plans, and then heavier things, like the bullying her teenager has been facing at school. The kind of conversation that reminds you how friendship isn’t about constant laughter, but about being able to say hard things without rehearsing. At 10 a.m. I had to go back upstairs, and she had to continue her day. After I walked her to the restroom, we hugged, said goodbye, and she slipped a Cadbury Nut chocolate into my hand. Thank you, Deth. Chocolate is love, in its most practical form.
Back upstairs, straight to the bathroom, while my youngest started cooking again for the whole family. I collapsed onto the sofa by the window and promptly fell asleep. Rain has that effect on me. Sleep came easily, deeply, generously.
I woke up to the sound of my eldest coming home, picked up by her dad, and just like that, the four of us were together again at the table. Lunch was fully handled by the youngest. She cooked all the marinated food I bought from my sibling the day before. Tofu, perkedel, sautéed spinach, and kangkung soup, which was technically backwards because spinach should be soupy and kangkung sautéed, but who cares. Creativity was the theme. Even the rice was mixed with fish otak-otak made by my mom. Unexpected, but surprisingly good.
At 5 p.m., I went live on Instagram with Bank Nobu for #kepoinyuk!, talking about managing finances according to MBTI personality types. It was fun, actually. The short version of what I shared was this: humans are not rational calculators. Money decisions are emotional, biased, and deeply shaped by personality. Behavioral finance makes more sense when you accept that fear, hope, and habit often sit at the same table as logic. When personality meets money, clarity becomes possible.
In the evening, from 7:30 to 9pm, it was my husband’s turn. He went live on Zoom discussing Crossing the Chasm with the ReneBook team, breaking down how innovative products survive, attract customers, and win markets. Same house, different screens, different battles.
After that, my husband rested while watching High Potential with our youngest. I wrote this blog. My eldest continued working on her personal statement because the campus admin had started chasing her, which is always a very effective motivator. Before bed, though, she cooked me birthday noodles. Simple, warm, unexpectedly good. One of those small gestures that quietly lands in the heart.
It’s 1:34 a.m. now. The day has already changed, but no one in this house seems ready to sleep yet. We’ll probably wake up late again tomorrow, even though there’s a meeting at 9:30am. Hopefully we won’t oversleep. Hopefully we won’t be too sleepy. If we are, well, we’ll deal with it then.
For now, I’m grateful. For rain that slowed the day down. For friendships that show up early. For children who cook, study, and care in their own ways. For a house that stays awake together, even when the clock says we shouldn’t.
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