I have used a similar title before, back in October, when all sorts of school-related things had to be organized, parties had to be attended, birthday gifts had to be wrapped; to make a long story short: CHAOS HAD TO BE DEALT WITH. This title, in case you were wondering, is also stolen from the lyrics of Robbie Williams’ song Love somebody. Just sayin’ - so that at the end of the day you can brag about how you have actually learned something by reading this blog.

So much is going on these days, I rarely find the time to blog about what’s currently happening. Ergo, this bullet point list:

• My friend N has accepted the study/apprenticeship deal that she had applied for and passed with flying colors. As I have mentioned before she’s flying up to Scotland at the end of the month to check out the company that will train her. She is, however, going to be studying here in Germany, flying back and forth all the time, so she’s currently looking for an apartment down in Cologne where the private college is located. I’ll be going to Cologne with her to look at a couple of places next Tuesday. It should be fun!

• My mom’s birthday was on the 11th, and so was my grandma’s. We had a cook-out here at my parents’ house and the usual crowd showed up. We put some brats and some steaks on the grill and had tatersalad with it and, you know, whatever the heck else people brought along. My uncle P and I had built Cornhole boards last summer and we put them out to play last night as well. Obviously, his girlfriend and I beat my brother and him effortlessly; THE GIRLS BEAT THE BOYS, just in case that needed clarification.

Grandma and all four of us will go to brunch at one of my favorite places ever, the Bernstein, tomorrow morning. I’ll go and pick her up from her house and then get my mom, dad and brother from our place and then on we’ll roll!

• My other grandma’s sister Anni died this morning in an old people’s home. She had been physically challenged all her life and over the past couple of months her condition had worsened dramatically. The doctors say, she basically died of starvation. Her body had been too weak to accept any sort of nutrition any longer. Other than my grandma, nobody is particularly upset about this - meaning, that we can go on with our lives because her death was really just a release to herself, above all else.

What bothers me is that I had promised Anni to come see her before going off to Kentucky back in 2005 (!) and I didn’t and also haven’t visited her ever since then. This seems especially cruel, now that she’s no longer with us.

Tonight I went to my grandma’s place to write addresses on the funeral notifications. I did the same for her when her husband - my grandpa - died a couple of years ago. It’s depressing but I’m obviously always glad to be of help. The funeral is next Thursday.

• I’m having trouble figuring out what to do about television at my new apartment. I won’t have cable TV or anything which doesn’t bother me but I need to have my TV and my DVD player with me. The thing is that there is no room to put my almost-vintage only two-year-old CRT-TV but I hate those silly flatscreens because the quality is never as good as on CRT screens no matter how much money you pay. My grandma has a smaller CRT-TV that she doesn’t need anymore so I may just use that one.

The girl that is renting the apartment to me suggested that she just leave her small flatscreen-DVD-recorder-smooth-black-blue-light power station in there for me but I hate these things and I’d rather just have my grandma’s old TV.

My dad is going to find out tomorrow how big or small my grandma’s CRT actually is and then I guess I’ll check with that girl how much room there really is left and I’ll make a decision based on all that.

• In other apartment news, I have been buying a few more things that are not worth photographing (there not as photogenic as, say, a can opener - geez, I mean, did you think I’d take pictures of anything?) - such as a funny bottle opener, a measuring cup and an electric kettle (is that the right word?).

• Also, my dad and I have been checking online to get me a better cellphone deal. I never really use my cellphone to actually call people because I hate talking on the phone and love short, concise text messages but once I will have moved to the apartment in Aachen I won’t have any other phone than my cell. So far we haven’t really found anything satisfying and my dad is somehow excited about the idea that with a new deal they will probably throw in a new phone and I’m all like, NO TOO MUCH IS CHANGING AND I LIKE MY PHONE.

• My parents are debating where we’re going to go on vacation and if we should go. They are determined to squeeze in some sort of quality time at the beach with the whole family between now and my moving-out around July 27th. It’s getting alarmingly close to total madness. The worst thing is that they just won’t decide! In the case that we would actually rent a house on the coast, it would be as of next Friday which is less than a week away. For heaven’s sake, just say yes or no already!

I just got back from my little trip to Ikea to buy my first set of silverware and my first set of dishes and a whole bunch of other firsts. I spend a good 160 euros ($250) which seems like a lot but I also bought a couple of things that are not necessarily for the kitchen.

Everybody shopping at Ikea is always happy and witty and dressed beautifully and wealthy but not showy and just plain perfect. It’s a freaky phenomenon.

More on the stuff I bought and pictures and news about my apartment tomorrow.

Went to Aachen again (4-hour drive there, 4-hour drive back, insane traffic again) to sign the lease for my apartment. I’m thrilled to move there now because Aachen looked prettier than I remembered and I went to check if there is, in fact, a Starbucks 500m (0.3 miles) from my apartment and, YES THERE IS. So, everything’s going well on the apartment front.

I also finally finally finally received the enrolment forms for Maastricht University in the mail today. So I’m gonna go and read through those in a minute.

Didn’t have time to do that yesterday because as soon as I got home my friend J called to confirm our plans for today, then I hit the shower, picked up my friend N, ran to the store to buy peaches, strawberries and grapes, went back to my house to quickly fix some fruity salad, and went to our friend V’s house to watch Casablanca.

Which we didn’t actually end up watching because we had to keep talking since we hadn’t seen each other for so long and, thus, couldn’t keep up with the movie. So then we watched one that didn’t need much attention and then Ocean’s Eleven which we had all seen at least twice. That they acted as though Casablanca was a boring movie and then kept their mouthes shut during the other movies kinda pissed me off.

Side note: my friend V brought to our attention that Brad Pitt either eats or drinks something in every scene of Ocean’s Eleven (except for maybe two or so when he’s in that SWAT team uniform or whatever). Also, he has an annoying way of chewing food. That is something I had once noticed in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Fell into bed at 2am sharp, endlessly tired. More details tomorrow.