Northbound.

Robin Thicke is singing to me. He claims to be lost without me. No matter how convincing he sounds, considering the fact that his beautiful wife Paula Patton is pregnant with his baby, I don’t quite believe him but that’s another story.

It’s late. Not too many people on the train.

A bit further away, opposite to me, there’s a guy, sitting next to a woman that appears to be his mother. Dude (let’s call him Martin, because he looked like someone that could go by that name) is staring at a woman I can’t see, because she has turned her back to me. The three of them are in an exciting conversation. I don’t know what they’re talking about, I still have Mr. Thicke all up in my ear, I can just see Martin (and Marty’s mom, of course, but she really doesn’t matter here).

I think I stared at Martin the entire train ride. Not because he was particularly good looking, handsome or anything of that matter. I stared at Martin because he was madly in love. In love with the girl I couldn’t see because she never did me the favor to turn around. I don’t know if she was particularly good looking, pretty or anything of that matter, but Martin was crazy about her. You could see it written all over his entire being.  The kind of crazy where he probably felt he couldn’t survive a single day without her. I imagined how he’d wait until she was asleep before he allowed himself to close his eyes just because he probably liked a funny thing she did with her nose or a weird ass sound she made right before she crossed to lala-land or something like that. He was probably the kind of guy that would secretly wait for the day she’d leave him while being terrified of this thought at the same time, asking himself, why oh why she had chosen him (and not the disco) and wondering how he’d manage to keep her by his side. He seemed to be so proud of her, basically inhaling everything she said. I swear, he looked like he could feed on her words and her smell alone.

I liked Martin. And I must admit that I was jealous of him. He was obviously in fucking love and I was trying to figure out if I could treat myself to those lovely Filippa K. boat shoes I had seen the other day.

And I was worried about him.

Before getting off the train I made a wish: I hoped she’d never break his heart. He looked like he’d never recover from it.

PS: I bought the boat shoes.

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My phone rings and it’s a friend of mine. One of those situations, where you hesitate before you pick up the phone – not because you don’t want to talk to the person, but because you know you were supposed to call him or her weeks ago and for whatever reason you haven’t gotten to it and with each day that passes your guilty conscience only gets bigger and bigger. But I’m in this ridiculously good mood so I pick up and before K. can say anything I start apologizing a trillion times, talking about how I am this terribly unreliable friend and that I’ve been thinking about calling but that my life has been so stressful BLA BLA BLA…. He let’s me talk and then just laughs out loud giving me wonderful news that made me tear up instantly. He got engaged to his girlfriend of 12 years and they’re gonna get married 2011. This tiny little piece of information, along with the story behind the engagement and the song I had just been listening to moved something inside me that I had to scream with joy! They FINALLY got engaged!

Remeber how we were talking about showing emotions in public and stuff? In that second I didn’t care! At all. I was just filled with love and pride for a friend who had the guts to propose to the love of his life. K. bought the ring about six months ago. There were several occasions when he had it on him but he never dared to pop the question. Him and his girl had been to fancy dinners in fancy restaurants, they had been away for romantic weekends, even proper vacation, but the moment never felt right. He finally asked her, when they were both laying in bed on a Sunday night after spending a relaxed wellness day.

I loved it! Everything about it. I love how they have been together for such a long time. How he was still nervous to ask. How he just did it on one of the most random nights you could possibly think of just because it felt right. But what I love most about it was the fact that one day, when they both have three or four kids, they will be able to say something like “When your dad was young…” or “When your mom and me were in our early 20s…”. They have history together. Like our parents have history with each other. They grew together. They were there when both of them slowly turned to be the kind of characters they are now. I think that’s a wonderful thought. And with that on my mind I hung up and was a happy kid, smiling at this anonymous declaration of love hanging randomly at a bus stop.

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I Like the Kissing Game

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As a matter of fact no trains all weekend. I had a rental car for the last three days because my big bro and me went on a road trip to visit our sister. I realized how much I miss my car. Or let’s say any car. It was sooo hard to return the rental. But oh well, right now I have other problems: I’m sick at home. And with only three more days until Echo you might figure it’s not so funny.

But there’s a good side to everything: I finally get to watch “8 Mile”. Yes, it’s true. I have never seen that movie, and yes, I can still call myself a hip hop fan. Yes. I’ll tell you how I liked it tomorrow.

I actually wanted to post an Eminem song as tune of the day today, but then decided it should be something from Guru. In case you haven’t heard: Check here!

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It’s around 14.00h.

Stop: Schwartzkopffstrasse.

A really, I mean REEEAAAALLY drunk couple enters the train. He is f*cked. She is beyond being f*cked. I’m amazed about the fact that people can actually be that drunk at that time of the day! As a matter of fact everybody stares at them in bewilderment. They take a seat (of course) next to me. She can barely sit straight, they both smell not so nice! and what follows is the dialogue of the year!

Woman: I’m not feeling good.

Man: You think you can hold it?

Woman: I don’t know.

Man: Well, just throw up here then!

Slow-motion. The entire compartment takes a deep breath. No one says a word, nervous looks are exchanged, everybody thinks the exact same thing: please, please, PLEEEAAAASE hold it! A Portuguese Fado band enters, obviously irritated by the peculiar atmosphere. They start to sing (and as far as I remember they weren’t even that bad) but nobody cares. It’s only two more stops until the two get off (Friedrichstrasse – we just want to make it to Friedrichstrasse).

One.

Friedrichstrasse.

We made it.

The two get off. Everybody goes ahead doing his or her own thing.

Business as usual in Berlin.

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U1 around Kottbuser Tor, I’m on my way to work. My cell rings. It’s my agent Sarah. And she gives me the craziest news of the week. What you don’t know yet is that I’ll be hosting the red carpet show for the Echo (which is like the German Grammy for those that don’t know). So Sarah calls me and I can already hear her excitement. She’s like: “It’s about the Echo”. I go: “What about it?” She says: “They don’t only want you to host the red carpet show, you’ve been also asked TO PRESENT AN AWARD!!!!!”" And here comes my dilemma: Usually, in my car I could go bananas upon news like this. I would start screaming, dancing in my seat and all. But here I am on the train somewhere in Kreuzberg, it’s around 17.00h, the compartment is jam packed due to rush hour and I am beaming with excitement but no place to really vent. I started making all sorts of funny sounds because I didn’t know what to do with myself. People around me gave me weird looks so I had to wait all the way to Warschauer Strasse where the train ended and I had to get off to show my happiness because presenting the award for “Best Live Act” with Adel Tawil from Ich + Ich is a big f*cking deal to me!!!!!

So how do we deal with emotions in public? Can we show them? Can we show people how happy we are because we just got great news? Can we show sadness because we just got bad news? It’s difficult because I’d say that sadness is something I’d rather keep to myself whereas happiness can be shared with the world. But is that hypocritical because you could argue that I’m only willing to show myself when I’m on top of things? Thinking about it I still haven’t figured out how I should’ve reacted. But give me time, I’ve just started riding the train.

Song of the day: Wayna “New Scenery”

“…these days I’m a little bit lighter on my feet/Trying to keep it to myself and be discrete….”

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Alright. That said, I’m happy to announce that muse has hit me again. And I’ll explain to you why: I crashed my car about two weeks ago. One of those really stupid accidents where it’s my fault while it’s not even my fault. Well, I’m totally fine, but I can basically write off my car. I drove a 14 year old VW Polo – investing 950,- in a ride I’ve been thinking to sell for over a year now didn’t make any sense. So I guess the universe made that decision for me: HADNET, IT’S TIME FOR A NEW CAR!!! NOW! Well, I’m getting a new car now. BUT: the process of hooking it up and actually having it delivered will take a while. Until then I’m a “Double-T-Girl” – a “taxi and train girl”. If you knew me, you’d know how difficult that is for me. Not because I don’t like to use public transportation but because I love to drive. Not only is it hard for me to let my old ride go (after all it’s been with me for almost 6 years) but I also used to live in my Polo, bunkering everything in there: food, clothes, shoes – everything. So the new situation will be kinda hard for me. But I decided to make the best out of it by writing about everything that happens to me on the train. I proudly present to you: my “Train Tales”. More to come. I’ll keep you posted!

Reppin’ Wedding. This is where every journey begins!

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Maybe it is because I have a few pregnant women in my life rightnow or maybe it’s because I’ve been having thoughts about settling down, questions about family, marriage etc. in my head lately. And maybe it’s just because it’s a beautiful film, but the new Sam Mendes movie touched me to a dgree it actually hurt.

Imagine this: Two women go to the movies late on Wednesday night. They chose one of those indie movies. It’s playing in a big theater, which is pretty weird to them because it really isn’t a blockbuster or anything and they wonder even more why it is actually shown on the biggest screen. We enter the theater and are not really surprised to find it totally empty. EMPTY. There was nobody but us watching that movie. And then “Away We Go” started.

This film, written by Dave Eggers (who just worked on “Where the Wild Things Are” with Spike Jonze) and his wife Vendela Vida, is one of the most beautiful pieces of cinematography I’ve seen in a long time. It’s not loud but it’s funny. It’s sweet and it’ll hurt you a bit. It’s about two people, their fears about bringing new life into this world and their love for each other. “Away We Go” is painfully wonderful. John Krasinski is hilariously cute. Maya Rudolph is adorably sweet.

So that was the perfect movie night: two girls, a theater all to ourselves and an amazing, amazing movie.

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It was supposed to be a great afternoon! The weather was nice and Hertha had never lost when I was in the stadium. NEVER. And even this Sunday it wasn’t the other team we lost against – it was ourselves.

What happened? Check it out here!

After the shock of watching your own team beat itself you start to see the comedic beauty of the situation. Slapstick at its best. There’s nothing else you could do but laugh about it – as sad as it maybe!

The look of losers.

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It was a great, yet exhausting day! And impressive. Mad impressive!

Two gigantic puppets on a string had been making they’re way through the entire city in the days before October 3rd. They were telling a story about finding and losing people.The smaller puppet was the lost niece of the bigger puppet.

She approached the Brandeburg gate from the East:

And he approached it from the West:

After a long search they met in middle: right at the Brandenburg Gate!

It was touching. Especially for the kids that couldn’t stop staring! After that it was time to work.

I was rocking the “Just Dada It” shirt for the show and found some more Artschool love: Benny rocking the “Wrestle Eins” shirt!

Best preconditions to let the games begin:

The crew

Barbie moment (the pink was REALLY pink!):

Touch up:

Ma favorite colleague (who has a serious cellphone addiction!):

But he is the best in the world!

Secuuuuurity Andreas and production manager Pierre (he’s a lot taller than most people so they are prone to listen to whatever he says) as well as production manager Nathalie that cheated her way onto to picture

Bumped into my lovely colleague Palina backstage who was visiting us and had to laugh because we obviously favor the same Nike windrunner channeling some “Scarface photo wallpaper” appeal. You gotta love it!

And the most IMPRESSIVE shot of the evening: The stage shot looking down at over half a million people!

Memorable day!

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