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 went on a trip to Bremerhaven on the German north coast with my uncle P to take my grandma to the cruise terminals as she is spending some time cruising the Baltic Sea with stops in Kiel, Riga, Tallin, Helsinki, Oulu, and Stockholm. I am so jealous, she always takes amazing cruises like this.

We left here at 10 in the morning and, as is expected when traveling with uncle P, didn’t use the autobahn until we got to Bremen. Although it takes longer to get places, it is also a more relaxed way of driving. We were listening to the country music I brought which included Keith Urban (DUH.) and Jake Owen (which my uncle does now want a burned copy of - again, DUH.) as well as If you are going to San Francisco and It never rains in Southern California. On top of that, my uncle drives a very, very old dark green Mercedes and we had a German flag pinned to the back window on each side for the Euro 2008. So, to sum up: WE FELT VERY RETRO AND WOODSTOCK ‘69 AND NOT COOL AT ALL.

But that was okay because instead of being cool it was just fun.

The Bremerhaven seaport is one of the most important ports of transshipment which basically means that there’s containers from all over the world and humongous containerships several stories high. Also, there were huge parking lots with hundreds of brand spankin’ new John Deere’s and BMW X5’s on them which I found particularly thrilling. After eating lunch and dropping off my grandma, we didn’t have any time to stay so I only took pictures while driving past things but I posted them here anyway.

Since we had such a great time, I’ll go with uncle P again when we pick up grandma and we’re also going to take my brother and my cousin Lisa. Only this time I’m gonna make sure that we won’t miss that night’s important soccer game (which is what happened last Thursday), what with it being the Euro 2008 final and all.

It’s happened. I’m no longer in high school, it’s official now.

I passed and I actually scored high on my final exams with an A in English, a B+ in German and a B- in History. I never would have thought that my History exam went that well, I had already come to peace with the fact that I’d have to go back in for an oral exam to make up for the missing grade points. I have a GPA of 2.6 (1.0 being the best, 4.0 the worst). It’s below average but still very acceptable and, personally, I’m very happy with it.

It all still seems a bit unreal and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now. Once school ended I had to study for the exams and once the exams were over I had to endure that sick feeling in my stomach while waiting for the finals to be graded. Now, when all is over, there’s nothing I have to do. Everything is possible.

Although, of course, I still have the Graduation Ball ahead of me (also referred to as prom in various parts of the world). Which is a bit of a downer.

Still: I emailed my friends and family in Kentucky right away, called my mom at work and my grandma to spread the good news. It’ll be a while until something this major, closing-a-chapter-of-my-life will happen again.

I AM NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL ANYMORE. Wow. Only waited thirteen years to finally be able to say that sentence. Wasn’t quite worth it, to be honest. But C’EST LA VIE, as they say.