Bring On Mt. Fuji

I had a nice weekend. It had just enough activity and lots of downtime, which is what the doctor ordered. Well, my inner doctor. This is the same doctor who suggests I take off the next 5 weeks and vacation in the Bahamas instead of doing the work thing. Anyway, Friday evening was the goodbye party for our local bar, which entailed plenty of silliness and fun. And let's hear it for free food - I shouldn't have eaten dinner beforehand. I even found myself eating sushi. Who knew? I almost got a bit choked up near the end when they did a final toast. But that's because the owners were getting emotional. It was their baby, after all, and clearly not easy for Eliane and Sabine to resort to this, but they had no other choice. I'm glad someone spoke up and said a few words on behalf of the clientele, too. It was appropriate. The local scene has chosen a new gathering point on Fridays, so I believe I'll make an attempt to pop up there every now and then as well.

On Saturday, I just did some things around the apartment. Around 5:30pm, something came over me and I got the sudden urge to do something I've wanted to do for awhile now - Hike to the top of the mountain near my apartment. Yes, it was finally time to conquer Georgenberg! There would surely be a trail to the top. This is Germany, after all. So I grabbed my camera and set out on my journey. Along the way, I encountered many of nature's wild beasts. I managed to snap pictures in the brief seconds before their ferocious attempt to devour me whole. Luckily, I escaped unharmed (Yes, that's them on the right). Sure enough, there was a trail off of one of the streets to get to the top. Lots of stairs in the beginning. What do they think this is - Paris? But, it really didn't take very long to reach the summit. The view from above was very pretty. I didn't stay long though, as the winds were picking up and it looked like a storm was slowly moving in. Overall, it was a two hour outing, which isn't bad for something I decided to do spur of the moment. I'm sure I'll do it more often now, as I found a few peaceful parts along the way. I really do love living amidst mountains. Scenery and landscape do it for me.

Sunday was very low-key, with some household errands such as laundry thrown in. It was also my week to mop the stairwell, so I finished that off. As always, the day got away from me. No hours during a week fly by quicker than Sundays from 5 to 9pm. I always aim to get things done early so that I can just sit back, relax, and get to bed early on Sunday evenings. But for some reason, it's always an uphill battle trying to get it to work out that way.

Hitting the Nail on the Head

Your Life Path Number is 11

Your purpose in life is to inspire others Your amazing energy draws people to you, and you give them great insight in return. You hold a great amount of power over others, without even trying. You have the makings of an inventor, artist, religious leader, or prophet. In love, you are sensitive and passionate. You connect with your partner on a very deep level. You have great abilities, but you are often way too critical of yourself. You don't fit in - and instead of celebrating your differences, you dwell on them. You have high expectations of yourself. But sometimes you set them too high and don't achieve anything.

I'll Drink To That

More champagne at work today - Weeeeeee! To follow up last week's celebration for a maternity leave - complete with champagne and goodies, someone in the department celebrated her 25 year anniversary with the company today, so she brought in lunch for us all… as well as champagne for a toast, of course! Germans really know how to party at work. We're a pretty large department so there always seems to be some occasion that someone is celebrating, be it a birthday, joining or leaving the group, marriages, divorces, removed molars, matching socks, a little tyke's first sip of beer, the dog's successful teeth cleaning, a soccer match taking place anywhere in the world between any two teams, or any other random event.

The only thing today was, they served the champagne about a good half hour before we started eating lunch, as they were toasting this and that and strolling down memory lane. Needless to say, with my empty stomach, I was well on my way to loopy lane... I sure was a happy camper for awhile there.

Ya gotta love Germany.

The End of a Very Short Era

I just found out yesterday that our only gay bar in Reutlingen will be closing down. It's a shame, really. I was never a permanent fixture there, but I always had a good time when I went. This is especially true considering the fact that I always went alone - which can be a bit unnerving. But I was able to meet some very nice people there and share some good laughs, even though I wish my generation were represented in greater proportion. Oh well. I guess there's a final sendoff this Friday evening, so I'm planning to attend. One last hurrah… I sure am gonna miss Woody, Sam, George, Diane, and Frasier. As for Carla - I think I'll miss her most of all.

It's a bit sad though that there will be no more Friday evenings at L'Adresse.

Things change quickly.

T'ai Chi for Me

I think I'm gonna dig out my T'ai Chi DVD and start in as I need another outlet for mental and physical relaxation. I've undoubtedly entered another stretch where my mind seems to have taken on a mind of its own… if that's even possible. It's just in a period of spasticity. This is especially evident in the kinds of dreams I've been having lately - or more appropriately described as nightmares. Last night's fun-filled episode found me being shot several times. And not just 1, 2, 3 - BANG. It was a long, drawn-out process of hiding, running, devising unsuccessful escape plans, terrorizing fear, and getting shot a few times at various points. I was with other people whom I didn't recognize, and were being shot dead. We were trying to hide in some school or something, but to no avail. Maybe it all means something, but I think I'll hold off on contacting Miss Cleo at the moment.

Paris, Stairs, and Pride - Oh My

Paris was great. I arrived on Wednesday evening and it quickly became evident what little amount of planning I had done beforehand. Who knew the best way to get from the airport to the city?!? Not me. But as always, I managed just fine (You take the OrlyBus, of course. Everyone knows that!). I met up with my cousins on Thursday morning and we were on the go all of Thursday and Friday. After meeting up, we realized that together we had never really decided on a plan of action. So we headed toward the Eiffel Tower. After climbing the stairs to the first platform, we were all a bit out of breath and the legs were feeling the burn. The sight of steps soon became something we loathed - up and down through all the Metro stations, the Eiffel Tower, the 400-step spiral staircase to the top of Notre Dame, the gazillion and one stairs to get to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur.... Who needs the Thighmaster when you can visit Paris instead?

The view from Notre Dame was my favorite by far. I had never been to the top and was excited to finally get pics of the gargoyles overlooking the city. Gargoyles are the best. We also got to Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomph, the Louvre museum, and one of my personal favorites - St. Chapelle. I was looking forward to seeing it again, and we were all in awe. It really is one of the prettiest things I've seen in all my travels. After saying our goodbyes on Friday evening, I headed back to the Eiffel Tower to try to snap some photos of it at night. I'm definitely glad I did because I managed to get some really nice ones. The pressure was on, too, because I only had room for a couple pictures on my memory card, and to top it off, my camera's battery was dying. So I was snapping pics, checking them for quality, deleting them, retaking more, and repeating the whole process as quickly as I could. It was a race against time... A race against a dying battery. And I won :-)

I departed Saturday morning at 9:30am, and after arriving in Stuttgart, decided on a whim to meet up with others in the city for the Pride festivities. So without going home, I headed downtown, locked up my bag at the train station, and killed some time before meeting up with the Freiburg gang. The parade started around 4pm. It was everything one could expect - loud, crazy floats with half naked people dancing. Pointless to a certain degree. Somewhat entertaining at any rate. I spotted the float from the local Reutlingen "bois", and after making eye contact with some of them, was able to get some extra goodies thrown my way. Afterwards, there was a gathering on the palace grounds with some rambling about this and that. Who knows. After hanging out in the area a bit longer, we grabbed some food and headed back to the one couple's apartment to chill. It was a nice evening. The others all headed out later to party, but there was no way I could last until 5am, as I was exhausted from being on the go since Wednesday. So I hopped on one of the last trains of the night and got in just before 1am.

Whew. It's nice to be back home in Germany where I at least understand what people are saying. It had been awhile since I last traveled outside of the country. I think I fell in love with like eight different people in Paris. Maybe it was only seven. I forget. Perhaps France isn't so bad after all. And so ends another escapade in Europe...

<Pics are posted on my website>

Mother Nature Shows Her Pride

Who says there are no rainbows in Germany? There will certainly be a few in Stuttgart this weekend... We'll see if I make it there. Most of Germany's Pride celebrations were postponed this year because of that little soccer...event...thing.

Life after LiveJournal

...continuing where I left off at http://newjay77.livejournal.com ...

Today, my friends, was a new day. No, I didn't complete my goal of performing at a strip club (Just once, I tell you. Just once. I'm still waiting for the right "Amateur Night."). But what I did do signifies my remarkable ascent up the corporate ladder. That's right, people. Today, I had the privilege of passing along work to our new intern. What a rush. An out-of-body experience. Little old me got to tell someone what to do at work (well, without getting reprimanded for it this time). I wanted to have pictures taken in the act of handing over the work - you know, just to document the occasion. But alas, there are no cameras allowed beyond the gates. Regardless, this completes a true rags-to-riches story. I had to pop a couple Skelaxin just to calm myself down afterwards (Just kidding).

In other fun news of the day, one of the other new interns had mistaken me for a German, even after carrying out a conversation with him during lunch. Ok, he was Ukrainian, and there's no way a German would take me for one, but I find it a compliment nonetheless to my language skills. He said it sounded like I came from Bavaria. Zoiks! End of compliment hehe. So my new theory is that he just had a few swigs of vodka while nobody was looking. After all, it was his first day. I'm just upset he didn't share.

Why do I all of a sudden keep seeing people refer to the internet as "the internets"? My only hunch is that Mr. Bush once again showcased his vast comprehension of the English language by calling it that, and now everyone is saying it in fun. Or it was said that way in some stupid episode of "South Park" or "My Name is Earl" or something, and now it's aiming for status along the ranks of "Is that your final answer?" I think I'll just stay in Europe until the fun dies down and it's once again "the internet."

Michigan is out. Paris is in! I leave Wednesday evening, meet up with my cousins who arrive on Thursday morning from the US, we tear up the city on Thursday and Friday, and head our respective ways Saturday morning. Hopefully all our flights go off without a hitch. Who knows what kind of chaos is to be encountered at the airports these days. All I know is that if I'm not allowed to take my hair gel with me, there will be no pictures of me taken while in Paris :-)