glee.tv

I’ve been writing a review of the past year ever since this blog came into existence, so naturally I will keep this tradition this year, for the year 2009. And every time I write these, I marvel at how much has happened within a year (or sometimes, how little)… In 2009, change has not only come to America, but also to my life.

January

• With dailyfratze and twitter around, my blog kept turning into a essayesque place for my thoughts (e.g., my long pondered upon essay about Gary Oldman. That’s probably also why I decided to move it from the old domain ‘skogarna.org’ to ‘glee.tv.’
• I made a small photographic journey though my room. Who would have thought that I would move out just 4 months later?!
• I went to Amsterdam twice, which was nice, but in the end not so successful. (Could this be any more cryptic?)
• After successfully turning into a Doctor Who junkie, a friend, who I also turned into a Doctor Who junkie, and who I kept spending more and more time with, convinced me to book a vacation to Cardiff…

February

• I had an allergy test and almost fainted from the blood withdrawal.
• And ex-coworker sent me her leftover Christmas chocolate. AWESOME!
• I relaunched my Against Dubbing project with a new layout and lots of new content.
• My own blog got a new layout too – goodbye dear old Aztec Calendar…
• I met a whole lot of new people through the Düsseldorf Twitter Meetup, which was organized by parasight.
• That friend I kept spending more and more time with… well, the tension increased a multitude, sparks were flying all over the place, and after two telltale phone calls, we talked. And finally fell into each others arms. And as it turns out, love had been present for quite a while but of course, shy as we were, neither of us wanted to admit it…

March

• After an emotion-laden week of getting used to this new situation in my life, the rest of the world dailyfratze was ready to know.
• The year before I had planned and booked a vacation in Austria, so I had to leave my newly found boyfriend at home and board the plane to Vienna on my own. Despite the bad weather, I had a good time in Vienna, marveling at the museums and tracing my grandfather’s steps.
• One Austrian town is not enough, that’s why I took a train to the cozy town of Graz, in Austria’s deep south, also home to Cybernetic Killing Machines from the future. There I visited an old friend, and since that old friend is also an old friend of my boyfriend, my boyfriend decided to join me in visiting that old friend, because we’re all mutual friends. We had a very good time and tons of luck with the weather in Graz.
• But then I had to send my newly found boyfriend home and boarded a train to Salzburg, on my own again. Salzburg is an interesting city if you’re a fan of Sound of Music and Stockinger, but other than that not really as enjoyable as Vienna or Graz…
• Is there anything more awesome than someone waiting for you with flowers to pick you up at the airport? ;) (I know: travelling together).
• After my vacation, the boyfriend and I started our life together for real… There were hardly any days we didn’t see each other, and it was so great getting used to having someone to cook, eat, watch movies or just spend time with. Especially for me, who hasn’t been in a relationship for a looooong time and never had a real non-weekend relationship.
• I was severely disappointed by Battlestar Galactica, but I should also mention that I wasn’t convinced by the show from the beginning.

April

• My mother went to the US for a month and left me her car. Yay! Somehow, this opportunity was used to bring more and more stuff from my own small apartment over to the boyfriend’s apartment (or in some cases, to my parents house). And before I knew it, my apartment was empty and I had moved in! That may sound a little rushed, but trust me, it’s not. We’ve known each other since 2002, hung out regularly since 2007, and the atmosphere had been sparkly for a loooong time.
• Since my mother was gone, I drove to my father 2-3 times to help him with the house and the cats (a great opportunity to stash my now unused kitchen- and other stuff, as my old apartment was about to be emptied completely). We also had our not-really-annual Easter Fire and took an excursion to a Trucker Show and the place where the Weser and the Fulda meet.
• I started learning Serbo-Croatian, so that I can eavesdrop when the boyfriend talks to his parents.
• Still having the car, the boyfriend and I went to IKEA a lot to make more room for my stuff.

May

• With my mother returning, I had to let go of the car. Sigh.
• Some of my plans for the future failed. But since I now had someone to support me, I didn’t mind so much.
• I watched X-Men Origins and wondered why the hell these Hollywood people have to change actors and roles beyond recognition.
• The boyfriend acquired the garden of the house we live in. Lots of work to come!
• I took the final steps in getting rid of my musty old apartment!

June

• After the boyfriend went off to a festival on his own, he came back with those two friends we visited in Graz in March and we had an awesome Swedish video night.
• I went swimming again for the first time in at least like 7 years!
• After a bit of fun with Lufthansa and then rebooking to KLM, we finally boarded the plane to our Geeky Adventure in Cardiff!

July

• I summarized my opinion about hostels in a reviewy blog entry.
• With our Cardiff experience still present, we delightedly watched the new Torchwood season. Nice but not as brilliant as some S2 episodes…
• We had our something-more-than-annual dailyfratze meetup, this time at prego’s place at the North Sea!
• Despite having been fed up with festivals after the Dong 2008, the boyfriend convinced me to join him at the Dong Open Air 2009 – and I didn’t regret it. The weather was not as moody as the year before, thus it was an enjoyable festival. Great meeting lots of old friends again.

August

• I visited my parents, and was disgusted that our neighbor village was invaded by jesus freaks.
• I celebrated my 1000th face on dailyfratze with a video.
• We finally started working on the garden. Gosh what a lot of work, but very rewarding.
• I wrote a huge three part essay about opening sequences in TV shows. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

September

• After years of boringly verbose books, I finally went on a reading spree again which even inspired me to join goodreads.com. What would the world be without a social network for every imaginable hobby?!
• I voted in the German Elections for the Pirate Party. Yay me!
• I had a lot of fun on dailyfratze’s Michael 30th Birthday Party!

October

• After two months of hard work, the garden sort of looked like a real garden again (instead of the trash heap it was before)! Still lots of work to do next year though…
• My father celebrated his 65. birthday and the food was absolutely freaking awesome!
• We finally got new windows in our apartment – and paid a dusty price, but it was absolutely worth it.
• Lea, who I met in 2008 in Köln and who shortly after joined dailyfratze, visited us and brought me lots of DVDs from Sweden. Yay!
• I went to a reading of German author Markus Heitz. Which reminds me to read faster through my to read list, so I can finally read his other books!

November

• Most of November (and October) was spent with rewatching Doctor Who (2005). <3
• I visited my old friend and former roomie / classmate Izy, who now lives in Aachen.
• I had two weeks of stay-at-home vacation. Very relaxing, but somehow never as productive as intended.
• Celebrated my 25th birthday with the boyfriend and good food.

December

• We started planning our future trip to New York. Can’t wait!
• Dailyfratze’s Michael and Tina finally had their little one, and I was finally able to send them the little surprise package me and a lot of other folks from dailyfratze had planned behinds their backs ;)
• I went into the Altstadt four days in a row, not something I would ever want to do again. Especially not in freaking cold-and-crowded December.
• Düsseldorf disappeared under a snow storm and it was ridiculous how nothing worked anymore. They even shut down the airport!
• We spent Christmas at my parents house and it was as usual. Though we were all a bit worried about one of my brothers not showing up. (As it turns out, the text he send my other brother didn’t arrive, so we didn’t know anything).
• On the morning of the 31st, we will travel to Hamburg to celebrate the new year with a lot of old friends… ;)

So that’s what happened in my year… cheers to 2010. Happy New Year!