I Want to Ride My Biceecle I Want to Riiide My Bike!

I just realized I had yet to officially update you on a new addition to my life. About three weeks ago I acquired a new bike. It's fire truck red and black. It's just a cruising bike, having only 3 gears. But for me it's perfect!! It's capable of doing everything I would ever think to do with a bike and it's just the right size for midget me. Which actually was the entire motivation behind getting a new bike in the first place. The bike that the Brueckmeier's had planned on me using beforehand, and that every one of the previous au pairs had used, was just too big for wee little me. I even tried my best to make it work, which entailed me hoisting myself onto it then attempting to pedal - I say "attempting" because my feet failed to reach the pedals at the lowest point of the wheels' rotation - and then hurling myself off the bike once I managed to stop it. Oh yeah I somewhere in that process I managed to take a gouge at my thumb, and was subsequently left bleeding profusely for the next half hour or so. So needlesstosay this new bike is a good change.

A Frei-Tag Indeed

I have about 5 or 10 minutes of waiting time until my yeast is activated so I’ve decided to finally put this rare moment of peace and quiet to use. Oh I guess I should explain why exactly I have been granted this rare moment of peace and quiet. You see a good friend (and ex-boyfriend) of Lilo’s and his family are visiting form Schifferstadt (the name of Lilo’s hometown in southwest Germany). They got in last night after a hell of a journey – “a hell of” because their car broke down halfway through and they had to search out a rental somewhere two hours along the drive here. Which in and of itself is enough of a hassle, but they had to do it with a baby and 6-year old boy in tow. Luckily from the brief time I have since spent with them they seem to quite calm and collected individuals who are capable of taking such bumps in the road in stride (unlike some other Germans I know…hint hint). What I think also helps in such a situation is the fact that according to Lilo they are not punctual people – people after my own heart – which of course means they are most likely less focused on and stressed about time and can probably handle such set backs with ease. (Well I believe I must break here and begin my challah-making process. Challah by the way for all who do not know is a traditional Jewish bread, eaten on the Sabbath, but for which I have a HUGE affinity, thanks entirely to my ex-roomy Jaclyn Dagger. )

(So a half hour or so later…) I am back here to chat with y’all!! And the first round of rising is well under way…woohoo!! So to explain a bit, the reason I am making challah today is, well rather the reasonS for making challah today are 1) I’ve missed our Friday night tradition for a while now –the tradition to which I am referring is the one that yours truly and my two roomies last year used to have about once a month of having freshly-baked challah, and wine, and when we were feeling really crazy some fabulous European cheese to boot, usually before going out – 2) my friend Shane is culturally Jewish so that inspired me and 3) him and I made an attempt at it last week but due lack of appropriate American measurement tools and my own mental exhaustion we failed, or rather produced a bread that looked and tasted as if it were a distant relative, if anything, of challah. So now we’re on round 2, and already I have higher hopes for this one. And if successful I will have baked two loaves of challah by 6pm tonight. We’ll see!!

If successful I will then give one loaf to the Brueckmeiers for them and their visitors to enjoy, and then take the other over to Shane’s before heading out for a night at one of Jo’s and my favorite places in Muenchen, Substanz. Substanz is a bar south of the Theresienwiese, near the Poccistrasse S-bahn stop that designates Friday night as Brit pop and indie music night. As such the crowd it attracts on Fridays matches. By that I mean they are a bit off-beat and quirky, and best of all it’s just a really chill atmosphere where basically anything goes. Everyone just kind of does their own thing, from breaking it down on the dance floor, to chilling with a beer at the bar or at the picnic-style tables, or playing some foosball. But the one draw back (slight though it is) is that it is a “raucher club”, aka a smoking club. So every single time I come home from a night at substanz my clothes, never mind my lungs, are left permanently reeking of it. A stench, the only remedy to which is to hang one’s clothes outside over a night or two to air out. But despite that, it’s all in all a good time and definitely worth the stink J And tonight the whole gang is going: Me, Jo, Shane and Glen. YAY!!

Tiii-iii-iiiime is on my side...

I just had an epiphany on my stroll home from the S-bahn. After our night of AD, I had to make a quick 20 minute scurry from Shane's to the nearest S-bahn station. Luckily I made it with time to spare before my train. But by the time I got to my stop, which mind you is only two stops northwest of his, it had begun to rain. At first I was a little miffed, but then I remembered just how much I love the rain, especially late at night, in the middle of a quiet, or rather deserted, neighborhood with no one else around. It was magnificiently gorgeous and peaceful, and the perfect setting for one of my mini-revelations. So I just sat back and relaxed and enjoyed a leisurely stroll home. This relaxed pace, on top of the loud hush of the streaming rain, conjured up many a contemplative thought. Foremost of which was the concept of time. I was reminded of just how much I HATE being rushed. Why must we rush? Why must we do things in a hurry? In fact what's the point of doing things in a hurry, because in my opinion things done in a hurry might as well not be done at all. For one thing you have no time to appreciate what you are doing or where you are or who you're with fully, to the extent that in the end it's like it never even happened. For another thing, it causes undue stress and anxiety before and after the fact, preventing the enjoyment and presence in those moments as well. PLUS in my opinion time is relative, and, for the most part, insignificant. Why does society require us to be aware of time? Why must certain things be accomplished by a specific time? What's the race? Who are we trying to beat? My feeling is that we waste so much of the little time we do have on this earth, obsessing about time that we forget to actually ever fully experience a moment, or a person, or a place. Then we wake up 40,50,60 years later wondering where the time went, and our memories seeming something akin to a 5-minute blur.

Just a thought!

A Little Piece of Home

Just back from a night of AD (aka "Arrestede Development") at my friend Shane's place. These nights have become somewhat of a regular passtime, though recently we have been slacking. You see Shane is obsessed with the show, and was a loyal fan throughout the three seasons it erred. He blames its early demise on the fact that the show's humor is somewhat dependent on consistent viewers, that is people watching the show from start to finish without missing any episodes. The reason for this he argues is that the humor in one episode is often linked, if not directly referring, to specific jokes or instances in previous episodes. So skipping around or inconsistent viewing can really cause a lull in the humor, or so his theory goes. After viewing 23+ episode - tonight we achieved our first milestone in our AD-viewing careers, we finished season 1 - I can attest to the validity of his theory. Not only is the humor sharp and quick-witted (not the typical american slapstick) throughout the series but the humor in one episode is heavily linked to that of all previous epsiodes. That said it's a hilarious show, and very unlike anything I have seen before. The basic plot is the daily happenings within a completely dysfunctional and spoiled rotten OC family, the father of which has recently been arrested for fraud he comitted in the business dealings of his real estate development company. The eldest son, who is the only semi-normal and responsible individual of the family, takes over the company for his imprisoned father and has to then deal not only with the challenge of salvaging the company and clearing his father's name, but also all the bullshit that comes along with having a completely selfish, irresponsible and basically crazy family. Anywho the point is that if any of you somehow get the opportunity to view AD from the beginning, know it comes highly recommended from me, as well as my good friends Shane, Glen and Jo.