Oscar, don´t let her notice that you see black dots on her face

I think this has been the longest pause between two blog entries since I started publishing. On my defense I can say that I restored, built, painted and opened a restaurant.

Before narrating the story, I have to tell one thing about my restaurant: there is no sign with the words “restaurant” on the sidewalk.

Innsbruck is a very sporty city, when the sun shines you can see people walking, skateboarding, running, riding bikes, Rollerblades or wearing mountain shoes and sticks. In Winter it is usual to see people with their ski or snowboard gear waiting on the bust stop.

Some weeks ago, I was serving lunch to a couple when a woman entered the restaurant hyperventilating and holding walking sticks on her hands. She asked me what this place was. I smiled politely and was explaining her my restaurant´s concept and I started to observe her better: she was all sweaty...and then...my eyes noticed she had tiny black spots on her face. In some way I managed to continue explaining her while saying to myself “Oscar, don´t let her notice that you see black dots on her face...what can these dots be? Was she maybe recently operated and those are stitches?”, it was soooo hard not to let her notice I was fixated on her black dots!

At some point she told me she does jogging and she runs in front of the restaurant and she noticed it was a new place. While saying that, sweat drops felt from her face and dripped onto my floor! I thought...can you picture me trying to be calm and polite while that all was happening?

The lady -  who was on her early 60´s - continued the conversation, and as expected, my eyes focused again on the tiny black spots. It was so hard for me, I wanted to know what were those black things on her face! Then, suddenly, I identified them! And hold on to your seats: The running-woman was a human windshield, yes, she had dead mosquitoes all over her forehead and cheeks.

I did not know you can run so fast that you can actually hit bugs so fast with your forehead just as a car on the motorway in summer...I am happy I am a lazy dog who rides his bike so slow that until now, I only have killed two mosquitoes by swallowing them alive.

By the way, I really hate the fact that I cycle with my mouth open

last time I wrote an entry was so long ago that the browser "forgot" the www-adress

Last September I hosted a party to celebrate my 17 years in Innsbruck – my half-life. One of the guests, Maurizio, brought me an incredible present: A bottle of Motörhead Rosé. I promised him to drink it together...but right now, I have an emergency, I need to write this blog.

Yesterday, I went to the doctor to make a general check-up. My last one was done two years ago, right after coming back from Georgia. Back then, the doctor told me my cholesterol was a little above the normal level and that my body-mass index was also slightly above, but they were still on the safe side. Back then, I was working, doing pilates daily and eating almost a kilo of fruit every day, the only negative aspect: I had only two friends in Tbilisi, Eka and Keti, with whom I met some times.

Currently, my life is a little bit different as it used to be in 2012 in Georgia: the summer here in Innsbruck is non-existing (compared to the daily 35°C of Tbilisi). I am unemployed since months, I no longer do pilates; only similar thing to Georgia: I haven´t been really socially active lately, but the alcohol consumption of the last two Saturdays clearly got my average back on track. Ah! and my fruit consumption has been stable this "summer"

But now, to the health check-up results:

Lungs – perfect, like those of the militant non-smoker I am

Kidneys – I urinate like a vegan baby

Liver – and this was surprisingly cool: perfectly normal levels!

Body-mass index: lower than 2012, hell yeah!

but there are bad news: both good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol are higher than normal, but still on the safe side.

The doctor wanted to know more about causes of my cholesterol level and asked me about my sport activities, to which I answer „I ride my bike about 60 minutes per week“ right after saying this, I realised how lazy I am, so I added „that is actually only 10 minutes a day...doctor, forget it, I don´t do any sport“. It was like at AA, first thing is accepting you have a problem, and yes, I am lazy

She then asked me about food, to which I responded I eat meat around two or three times a month. She asked me „what about chocolate?“

Only then I realised I am a 35-year unemployed who makes no sport and eats too much chocolate...and right now I am starting to feel the effects of the Motörhead Rosé on my head while I proof-read this blog entry and listen to Motörhead.

Thank you Maurizio!
(and yes, I have pink blankets)

I think "Girls" is the sitcom version of “Reality bites” for the people born after the Seoul Olympic Games

Yesterday, I went out for a drink with Sarah and Eric (for the foodies among you: Sarah had an apple juice, Eric and I had a magnificent Mojito). We chatted about the series we are currently watching. Sarah and I are watching HBO´s Girls. I told Sarah I always have liked TV series in which I find parallels with my life, like with Seinfeld. I like “Girls” because it reminds me of the problems my friends and I used to have ten years ago, when after finishing university, we all faced our quarter life crisis. I think Girls is the sitcom version of “Realitybites” for people born after the Seoul Olympic Games.

I had my quarter life crisis around 2005. Back then my friends and I thought becoming an adult was mainly linked to having a decent job. The rest would happen automatically with the paychecks: wearing adult clothes, drinking adult wine, visiting adult restaurants and having adult conversation topics. After my first paycheck I wanted to become an adult: I wanted to stop using sneakers and old t-shirts, start drinking €5 wine bottles, having enough money to order a second drink and dessert each time I went to have dinner...and talk about how business was going in the offices with my friends.

Today I saw Girls´ most recent episode. Hanna, the main character, got her first decent job as an advertisement writer and she loved it; however, during her second day of work she realises, if she stays on that company, she will slowly give up on her dream to become a writer and become a simple office worker. She decides to quit her job and pursue her true desire, but after some seconds, she makes up her mind and decides not to quit. I then started to look for the parallels between Hanna and me...

I worked eight years, that means I received 96 paychecks. However, I still use old t-shirts, drink €4 wine bottles, I sometimes order water while having dinner ans check my wallet before ordering dessert and the last conversation I had today was with Hannes about our plans to get wasted this weekend.

I may not have a job, I may not be an adult (based on social behavior), but I am pursuing my dream. Hanna´s dream is to be a respected writer, mine is to cook.

I don´t care if you bite reality, here I come!

I may be called Oscar Germes Procrastination

It was not until some three or four years ago that I looked into a dictionary searching for the meaning of the word „procrastination“. I was very happy to see that there was a word defining an entire lifestyle. For example, my last blog entry was over a month ago, and ever since I wanted to write two things, but this procrastinating stuff I have been doing kept me away from writing those two blog entries.

My thesis has turned to be one of the latest victims of my procrastination...I think it is amazing how small things as getting a glass of water can keep you from writing. Today´s episode started like this:

After six weeks of failures in continue writing on my thesis (there were days in which I opened the file, stared at it for some minutes, closed it without doing any modifications and started to watch videos on youtube) I finally sat today on my desktop. Played goldfrapp with the volume at its lowest level, closed all firefox pages and opened my file. I read it, found some things that needed to be better formulated and voilà! there I was finally writing on my thesis. This went on for three Goldfrapp albums (Felt mountain, Head First adn Seventh trees)...then I got thirsty. On my way to the kitchen I saw the vacuum. And realised I haven´t vacuumed in days, but before I also got some chocolate from the kitchen.

I vacuumed my room, ate some chocolate, drank some water and then decided to take a break...and the big error was to watch two fantastic music video on youtube:

The video for the song “journey” from Polo to the masses and “Spanish sahara” by Foals...then I started to read the news online, check my e-mails and all of a sudden I realised I was procrastinating again...and there was no coming back. Because I have discovered, that once you lose yourself to the forces of procrastination, there is no coming back - the only way back is when the chances of doing whatever you needed to do completely disappear.

I hope tomorrow I can defeat the powers of procrastination and hear all five Goldfrapp albums while working on my thesis (for the music freaks: Today I missed Supernature and Black Cherry).