Jumble of Thoughts #006

Maybe some day I’ll get around to blogging on a more regular schedule than I did for the last months or even years. I’m determined, but in a lot of cases my determination to do something gets sidetracked by… determinations to do other things. Or something. It shouldn’t be this difficult to find the time to write about something, right? I guess in my case it’s more often the lack of something interesting to write about. Maybe I just have to change my attitude?

I think I’ve passed the weird mood I wrote about some time ago. Don’t know what exactly happened to change my mood but I’m glad it did. Part might be that – once again – things I expected to go wrong for me (work stuff mostly) didn’t go wrong at all. It worked out fine! And I was freaking out about nothing!

One of the things that helped to improve my mood was a new Jason Mraz song. I admit I haven’t know a lot of his music before, except for the successful “I’m Yours”. About a week ago Mastin Kipp from The Daily Love” mentioned the album on a blog post and on twitter. I haven’t been following “The Daily Love” religiously and I skip some of the the posts that show up in my feed reader every day. But I also find a lot of the stuff on TDL inspiring and affirming and it sometimes helps me get perspective. So when I read the tweet, that “If TDL was an album, it would be the new Jason Mraz album!” I gave it a try and it’s so so true. I like the general mood of the album, I can’t really put into words exactly why. I think it’s inspirational and uplifting, especially for someone like me who is doubting herself and worrying too much on a regular basis. The second song on the album “Living in the moment” has been on a constant loop on my iPod for the last few day, you should really check it out. (here on TDL or directly at iTunes or some place else)

Here are my favourite bits of the lyrics, which I try to take at heart more often in the future…

I will not waste my days
Making up all kinds of ways
To worry about all the things
That will not happen to me

So I just let go of what I know I don’t know
And I know I’ll only do this by
Living in the moment

[…]

I’m letting myself off the hook for things I’ve done
I let my past go past
And now I’m having more fun
I’m letting go of the thoughts
That do not make me strong

Things on the bright sight of life? Well, over the last few days I’ve always managed to avoid the rain when I was outdoors, yesterday I even had to put on my sun glasses for the first time. Also my cell phone carrier introduced an pretty cool new data plan for smartphone usage outside Germany but within Europe. By the way, while searching for the right English terms to use (“data plan” that is) I came across one site that compared data plans for smartphones in the US (AT&T, T-Mobile etc.) I was shocked by how pricey (range from $60 – $120 depending on free minutes, texts, data etc) it seems to be compared to what I’m paying here in Germany.
I know I’ve got a pretty decent deal at O2 to begin with, but still it’s so much less than what I’ve read about US prices. For a long time I paid 20€ for 100 free minutes/100 free texts (addiontial minutes/text cost 19c) and 300 MB data. I’ve changed that to 1GB data recently and will have to pay something between 25€ to 30€, which is between $30 – $40. I don’t need more than 100 free minutes because I make most of my phone calls from home where I pay an additional 25€ – 30€ ( $30 – $40) for internet/phone/cable TV contract. So maybe, all in all I don’t pay much less than the people in the US after all?
Anyway, the old EU data plan was decent enough but the new one is so much better. 2€/day including 25 MB every day. I hardly ever need more than 15 MB when I’m going online (which I do rather frequently) with my phone here in Germany (unless I use a free wi-fi of course). The reason why I even care about the EU data plan, is that I’m leaving for Stockholm on Thursday and over the last few days I’ve spent quite some time trying to figure out how to still be able to use my phone the way I do here (tweeting, reading blogs, fanfics, news sites, checking the weather forecast, looking up an address…) without having to pay a fortune in roaming costs or needing to find a free wi-fi everytime. With 25 MB per day (and with the free wi-fi in supposedly a lot of cafes and restaurants in Stockholm) I should be more than covered. For the first time within the last 3 years I even won’t take my netbook with me on vacation. I probably wouldn’t have written a long blog post or email anyway and all the other stuff I can do much quicker and simpler with my phone. So, yay, definitely something on the bright side.

Did you notice how I got sidetracked once again ;-) Another really nice thing was the cute little guy how was sitting at my table on the Vapiano patio yesterday. He was there with his mom and his mom’s friend. He was 7 months old and sooooo adorable and almost made my ovaries explode. But that also might have been the PMS talking. Anyway, I had such a nice lunch there yesterday. Sitting in the sun, watching this boy discover the world around him (and drooling on his mom’s friend’s shirt LOL)

Also on the bright side: The season finale of The Good Wife, because OMFG! It was epic! If you don’t watch that show yet, you really, really should check it out, it’s amazing! And I can’t wait for September to see how it will all work out between Alicia and Peter and Kalinda and her husband (was that voice on the phone scary or not. Holy crap!)
And of course the brightest of bright side: Stockholm! And lot’s of hockey in Stockholm, because the reason for this trip is the 2012 IIHF World Championship. I’m so looking forward to returning to Stockholm, where I have spent and amazing 6 months at university in 1997 and a few very nice and sentimental days in 2003 and 2010. And now I’m going back. Yay!

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2 Responses to Jumble of Thoughts #006

  1. Nat says:

    Hey, have fun in Stockholm ;). You are getting around this year it seems :D. Btw. I’m sooo jealous about the data plan, it was about time for them to rethink the whole EU deal. I always longed for sth like that commuting between NL and D during my practical master’s year. It’s about time they stop ripping ppl off!

  2. Hope says:

    I’ve been trying to blog more and pretty much been failing miserably. :p

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