Operation Smash Everything!

Here is a snapshot of what this month looks like for me:

Nov. 2 - decision made that my boyfriend Guido and his cat move in with me and Roxy. Why so early? Well, let’s just say the same luck that struck me with my apartment issues in Massachusetts, also struck him. We both talked about living together before this anyway, so let’s see how this works out. We are both pretty happy and excited! All of November will be spent bringing his things to my place, “nach und nach”.

Today - America votes. Enough said.

Nov 6 - Slayer in Köln (Cologne) = 1 hour from us

Nov 8-12 - Hamburg/Wendland vacation. Guido and I are going to go on a couple ship tours of Hamburg Hafen, attend Hamburger DOM <-- I went there as a little kid, and the famous Fischmarkt <-- I know, not very vegan, but there will be other things I can buy, it's also like a flea market. There is an option on that website to read everything in English, btw. We also plan on visiting Hin & Veg to eat and will do all of our drinking in St. Pauli (Reeperbahn). After all of that excitement, we will drive to see the rest of my family in Wendland along the Elbe River, which also means visiting my brother/grandmother/grandfather’s grave.

Nov 19-21 - I will be in Brussels, Belgium (work-related)

Nov 24 - Slipknot/Machine Head in Düsseldorf (30 minutes from us). Guido’s favorite bands and he hasn’t seen Slipknot yet. I told him it was the loudest concert ever to have ever lived.

and here is the succulent main course:

Nov 28 - Dec 8 - in Massachusetts!!! My boss wants me to attend this session in our US office on Dec 1-2, to test out an upgraded system because I have extensive experience with this thing, so I am taking the rest of my vacation days around this time to visit friends and family. Marie is planning a vegan post-Thanksgiving dinner (Thanksliving) for the 29th and I am ready to chow!! My mom and Carol will visit MA while I am there, and I am über happy about that, but at the same time am über hurtin’ that Guido can’t make it over with me during this time. He has to work, and will be taking care of our children. But next time, April/May/June/July (sometime during the next baseball season), he will come back with me and will get to see where I spent the last 28 years of my life.

December brings Christmas (which Guido and I do not celebrate, or we do not want to celebrate but are always sucked in by friends and family), the end of 2008, and soon after, my 28th birthday. There will definitely be a 2008 highlights/re-cap post, so stay tuned.

October 10th marked 6 months since I arrived in Germany. The questions I hear the most are, “Are you homesick,” ”What do you miss the most,” and, “What do you want me to stick into the package I am going to send you?”

My answers are, “Not homesick, but people sick. I miss you the most, and Red Sox baseball. Pack some black beans in a box, and then yourself.”

I don’t miss much about America. In fact, America scares me. I miss the few friends and family I have who are stuck over there. I live right near the Düsseldorf airport and I can see the airplanes flying in at night from my bedroom window. I have imagined, on occaision, that some of those planes were carrying the people I miss. No lie, and pretty emo right?

I have been expecting some major homesickness, to the point where I would plan to move back home, but this hasn’t happened, and my expectation of this happening is less and less every day that I am here. I have been people sick recently, especially after talking to Vic and Shawn, but I know I couldn’t move back to the US even if I wanted to, not as long as Roxy is alive. I am never putting her on a plane again. She is 7.5 years old!!! Jesus, a SENIOR! She has a new nickname even, she is my “gray face”.

This committment that I have tied to me comforts Guido. He, understandably, has some nervousness that I might “hau ab” back to America if I end up missing my friends too much. The only thing I can do is visit the US, and hope my friends take the opportunity to visit me here.

I freakin’ love this guy and I also find comfort in him. He understands that I struggle with translating my humor and expressing my self in the way that I want to from English to German. He tries his best to get the real me, and I think he has a grasp, however, he will only know me in whole, when he comes with me to the US to experience the other half of my life.

The point is, I am not going anywhere, except on vacation with Guido soon (Nov 6-14), to see Slayer in Cologne (Köln), visit my family in N. Germany (Hamburg), go on a boat ride along the Rhine River and watch Guido get tattooed. All I am is excited!!

I freakin love this month, and hate that I have only experienced 27.5 Octobers, of which only half I can remember. I want every month to be October. I want to live only in October and not ever move out.

Why is October the best month ever? Here are my reasons:

1) Oktoberfest - lots of dead animal friends, yes, and that’s not fair, so I only consume the beer. Lots of beer. Vegan Oktoberfests are also fun. I know this, because I hosted one. Ask me how, it wasn’t hard at all! (Leave a comment)

2) ”Fall fall fall, fall fall fall, fall fall fall, I’m falling!!” <--a song I made up just now. Nature puts on an absolutely amazing show during this month. I just want to be outside all the time.

3) Halloween. The only holiday in which I care to part-take. Besides the over-consumption of candy, there aren’t any dinner feasts like Thanksgiving/Xmas/Easter for which millions upon millions of extra animals are slaughtered, etc. And, the Halloween in Germany, is really only about dressing up, not the giving out of candy. They save that for Christmas.

4) Last and definitely the most important, baseball!! Playoffs and World Series all in one month!!

So, if you know what is good and important in life, you should dig October as well. If you don’t like this month, or care to share other awesome things about October, please click on “add comment” and start typing.

What am I doing about each this month?

1) Haven’t gone to an Oktoberfest here, since most of them are already over, and well, the people I am around don’t even care about Oktoberfests. Maybe it’s this region of Germany?

2) I am outside as much as possible, with Roxy, going wandering through these woods near my apartment, when it’s not raining. I want to take pictures SO BAD, but, well, read my entry below. I really want to go apple picking. I love that kind of shit.

3) Not sure what is going on for Halloween around here. They just kinda started celebrating this in Germany. Maybe attend some kind of party? I don’t even have a costume idea. I need to talk to the man about this.

4) Marie hooked me up with the codes to use her Slingbox, so I can watch games online that she recorded for me using her DVR at home. In this case, technology (and Marie, yet again) saved my life. I get to watch some games with Guido, and therefore, get to explain baseball a little. “Yea, see, these are the Red Sox, they are the best team ever. That is point 1. Point  2, the Yankees suck.” hehehe

Other mentionables/updates:

My mom (breast cancer and double mastectomy survivor) is finally getting new boobies on Oct 22nd! Please leave a comment on here if you wish to leave her some love and I will make sure she gets your messages. Or e-mail them to me: xina@xinared.com

Roxy had her first dog school, where the trainer brought over some homeopathy stuff to give her, and acupuncture needles. I have many exercises to go over with her in order to break her separation anxiety, but so far everything is working…slowly, but it is working. Remember, Dana, the psychic I visited in January, predicted that Roxy would need some homeopathy treatment to spring back into things after my move here…

Guido and I had veggie burgers at his place one night (because he is now vegetarian, restating this in case some of you are confused), on his dinner table, that has an Obituary flag table cloth.

Guido and I semi-finished planning our November vacation. Nov. 6th is Slayer in Köln (Cologne), then we are leaving on Nov. 8-12th for Hamburg/Hitzacker, and he is getting tattooed on the 13th back home in Essen. We still have a weekend left, and I am wondering what else we can do around here locally.

As I am settling into my new apartment, I like to check out the area by taking Roxy on walks where we haven’t been before.

Last night, on a strange street, Roxy and I ran into a stray dog, a little red-headed guy, probably 8 years old, who fell insanely in love with Roxy at first sight. He immediately started licking her face, her legs (because he couldn’t reach any higher) and of course, her ass-le region. (Ugh, dogs, c’mon, “muss dass sein?”).

So I was like, “awww” at first, but then really “awwwwWWWww” when I found out he had no collar on and no one in the area, including businesses, knew where this dog came from. Lil’ Red followed his heart (Roxy) for a few blocks, which led him into my apartment (he let me pet him, but barely, before showing me his teeth).

My neighbors helped me contact the local no-kill shelter (and if my German resources are correct, the shelters here are all no-kill, or at least the ones in my area are). The shelter advised me to contact, get this, the local police and/or fire department, to come get this little guy from my apartment and they would taxi him over their to safe and caring hands. This happened accordingly - seriously, 1 fireman and 1 police man came, and they were nice and loving as all hell.

I hope Lil’ Red finds his way back to his family (but only if the family was nice to him, since he was fairly un-groomed and seemed shy/afraid). I wanted to take a picture of him SO BAD, but, my camera is broken, and my camera phone fell in the toilet a few weeks ago (don’t ask), so I am using my US phone with German SIM card at the moment and it does take [bad] pictures, but they can only stay in my phone.

Anyway, Roxy is relieved. In the hour that he spent with us at home, all he did was try to lick and mount her. He didn’t even accept any food, as far as Lil’ Red was concerned, the only item on the menu was “Roxy Arsch” with a side of “Brustwartze.”