• Recap | May •

• Recap | May •

May – a month of many changes and many great happenings! Let’s recap them all chronologically…

First, there was an event in Munich, the “About You Awards” – they were pretty interesting, as well as disappointing for the plus-size community, because we were only 3 official plus-size bloggers at the event and none of us was nominated in their social media categories. Two fellow bloggers, → Tanja and → Jules, decided to do a movement against this obvious ignorance called #WhatAboutUs? and so many people joined us. I also posted two pictures on Instagram, talking about how sad this is. You can find them → here and → here. I’m not expecting to be invited again next year, since I’m pretty sure that the promoters of this event are not happy with a guest talking about this while being there, but I’m fine with that, as long as there’ll be a change! It just can’t be that there’s an award show for “all things social media” (actually, there were a lot of categories missing, if you ask me), but there’s not one single plus-sized person at least nominated beforehand. We’re not asking for an extra category (cause that’d be kinda wrong as well), but there should be an acknowledgement of what “we” are doing, too!

Then, I’ve checked off yet another point from my → #SingleBucketList2018, yay! I went to the cinema alone and watched one of the most beautiful movies I’ve ever seen – “Call me by your name” (watch the trailer → here). I even loved it that much that I saw it a second time while in Hamburg, because I wanted to see the original version in English. And I’m currently reading the book. :) As you know, I love Sufjan Stevens – my latest tattoo is a quote from one of his songs – and I really loved → “Mystery of Love”, that’s why I wanted to see the movie! And now I’m super thankful for the experience of doing this on my own. Another thing I can do alone! BOOM!
I also kind of started to do more of my bucket list point “embrace adventures & be spontaneous” and a little bit of “go out for a club night with friends”. We’re getting there! ;)

And lastly, there’s a full week of Hamburg in my recap! One week of Northern goodness! ♥ And guess what? The week was perfect – a whole week of the most beautiful weather, summer-like and just amazing. And so many great things happened! I can’t write about all of them yet (didn’t visit Hamburg just for pleasure, but also for business), but here’s a list of what happened mostly:

  • Friends. I didn’t spend one day alone and enjoyed it so much. I met old friends and new friends, made a great new friendship and enjoyed absolute quality time with all of them!
  • The Harbor. If there’s a happy place for me in Hamburg, it’s the harbor. I love spending time at or on the river Elbe, especially when there’s such a great weather. I love feeling the wind on my skin, in my hair, in my face. It just makes me genuinely happy. And a Krabbenbrötchen at Brücke 10. Even though it costs a fortune.
  • Food & Drinks. Well, I didn’t eat that much, cause the warm temperatures make me a little nauseous, but the food I had was AMAZING. And of course, I went out for drinks with my besties and really enjoyed life to the fullest.
  • Walking. Like, a lot of walking. But I love it! It’s so easy to go for a walk in Hamburg, especially through the city or all those beautiful parks!
  • New places and new things. After all those years (drama!), I finally visited the Elbphilharmonie! And did something, no Hamburger really would recommend: Reeperbahn on Friday night. But it was so much fun! Even though it’s horribly packed, haha!

Books I read in May: “150 Days to Date” by Katharina Lang, “Dein perfektes Jahr” by Charlotte Lucas, “Vorwärts küssen – rückwärts lieben” by Sybille Hein. A short review collection is coming, I think it’s a good idea to do that in one post instead of reviewing them all one by one. :)

And one thing I stopped doing on May 30: using nasal spray. That’s kind of a confession, I’ve been using it for so many years and it’s terrible how addictive that stuff is and how hard it is to stop using it but I had a good day on May 30 and decided that today’s the day I’ll stop. And I’m standing it! So if you’re also addicted to nasal spray: it’s possible. You can stop. I believe in you! ♥

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• Recap | April •

• Recap | April •

Who thought that → March has already been super crazy, will be surprised that April was even more intense. I’m so glad I’m making such a great progress and that so many amazing things are happening in my life right now and that I’m the one responsible for it – not others. :) I’m pretty sure I was the most dependent person ever and I’m finally coming out of my cocoon of fears and anxiety and now I’m just living. ♥

I did a few crazy but funny things like → petting a fish in our local Botanical Garden (it’s fun, he really seems to like it!), gave a homeless person some money and a donut and spent about half an hour talking to her about life (and received a picture of her dogs which is now in my calendar forever), ate cupcakes alone (nobody judging me, haha!), sold a few clothes at the “Curvy Bloggerflohmarkt” in Fürth (and met some amazing new people!), went on a few → strolls through Hamburg and also here around the lake (finally moving my lazy ass again!) and – probably the craziest but best thing: went alone to Bad Homburg to → watch a concert and got rewarded with the → best day ever in my life. 

I went to Hamburg for a few days, originally to visit the launch event of the new “Happy Size x Michalsky” collection (such a cool party with lovely people!) and added a few more days for business and some quality time with my friends. This included a very important meeting with my new management (yay, finally found someone to help me!), my → first time in Blankenese (can you believe that I never went there in my three years living in Hamburg? #shameonme) and an important understanding: last time, I realized that I’m ready to go back to Hamburg – this time, I realized that I’m ready to do whatever it takes to get there. What I’m trying to say: I’m ready to change everything in my life. I bawled a lot when I realized that. And this is overwhelmingly great. ♥

Some thoughts about all that: I already said it in my post about my game-changing day – it’s great to live the experience that you don’t need someone else to be happy. It’s kind of brave to make that first step and do something alone. It’s not that easy if you’ve always been someone asking others to join you or if you simply don’t like being alone, but oh, it’s so worth it to just not think to much about it and JUST DO. It’s incredible how free and strong you feel afterwards, how amazing it is to see and understand that being alone is not that bad, that being alone does not mean that you’re lonely. You got the best company by your side: yourself. And if you’re not able to have fun with yourself – nobody will make you sufficiently happy in life, I guess. Of course it’s always cool to have someone around, someone you love or someone you like to spend time with, but it’s so important to understand that you don’t need that someone. And I’m so glad I made this experience a lot this month. ♥

Books I read in April: Tina Brömme – “Wie programmiert man Liebe?”, Helena Steegmann – “Tage wie Chili & Honig”, Petra Hülsmann – “Hummeln im Herzen”, Laura Kneidl – “Verliere mich. Nicht.”, Mark Lowery – “Die ganze nackte Wahrheit”.
I’m writing this down because I’m wondering if you’d like to read a single recap to all of them or if you’d like me to do one post with a collection of short reviews? I’ve still got a lot of books on my crazy stack and I also decided to do a wish list on Amazon, just in case someone wants to surprise me, haha!

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• Recap | March •

• Recap | March •

March was full of surprises and new experiences. New people, new places, new feelings (nah, no romance!). I’ve officially checked off something from my → Single Bucket List! I went out for dinner alone! Well, I kind of cheated a little bit on that one because I chose my favorite sushi place which is kind of like visiting my second family, haha! But I made it and went out on my own. And ate alone. I did it and I’m proud of that. It’s probably not super crazy but somehow a big step for me. I took a bus to the city and went there like it’s absolutely normal. I ordered, I ate and afterwards met a friend for cocktails (ha, celebration time!). Done! ;) I also went out on an afternoon alone to a lake nearby. This is something I would’ve never done before – but it was a sunny day, the first one that was actually warm enough to leave your house only with a denim jacket, and I just felt like doing it. So that’s what I did. Just like that.

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• Recap | February •

• Recap | February •

I’m finally trying a new layout for my monthly recaps – and with that, I want to start with what’s usually at the end of my recaps: my personal review of the month. This time, it’s my birthday month and I turned 28 on February 23! :) I went to my favorite bar in Erlangen with two friends and we had a great cocktail night (still never been completely drunk, even though I had five super delicious cocktails, yay!) and so much fun! I’ve never been that much of a party girl and especially not someone who drinks a lot, but I’m kind of enjoying my adult life with a few nice drinks and great conversations with amazing people around me. And I’m starting to like the night life! I only had a very short party phase in my youth, from around 17 to 19, when I went out every now and then with a friend for clubbing (mostly dancing, not drinking, haha!) but it ended when I got into my last relationship. It turned into a “musician’s girlfriend” phase, where I visited every concert of my ex’s band, instead of having my own life and going out with my few girl friends. So there’s a lot to catch up on now and I’m extremely glad I don’t only have my oldest friend back with me but also at least two new amazing ladies in my life to celebrate the new me. :)

Amongst all those cocktails, I also went to Hamburg for a special video shoot with bento – you can find the clip → here. I would only like to correct that I’ve never said that losing weight is bullshit – it’s the diets. Diets are bullshit and will never lead to successfully losing weight in a healthy way. The diet industry wants to manipulate us by collaborating with the media and telling us that we’re never good enough, that we need to change and that without a skinny body, we will never be an accepted person. I believe that we shouldn’t listen to them but, of course, listen to ourselves and our bodies. And if we’re not alright, if we’re unwell because of our bodies, we need to do something. Health is the most important thing we have and it should always be a priority. So if you feel like you need to lose weight because of your health, please don’t hesitate to ask for help at your doctors or nutritionists cause they will work out the best way for you to stay healthy – not diets promoted by the media. In order to still stay funny while saying this: below, you can see my dorky face of being extremely happy that I found “Lucky Charms” in our local supermarket. Totally overpriced but worth every penny, haha!

What else? I’ve been writing a lot on my book – I told you in → this blog post that I’m writing a book since 2007. I’ve decided that it’s finally about time to finish it after 11 years (and many years of not writing on it). So I’m currently revisiting a lot and making the story more 2018-ish, plus I need to continue writing. :) It’s going to be a novel, hopefully easy and fun to read, with a few autobiographical passages (they’re not going to be easy to find, though, you’ll have to guess which are stories of my life!) and my daily sarcasm. It’s very exciting to work on this project and I’m super motivated to finally do this again with an actual goal in front of me: seeing my book in stores someday soon. ;)

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