my best night out this year was probably the (week)night in may i spontaneously went out with my brother’s girlfriend. we had such a great time just the two of us and talked a lot. we also drank a lot which made the whole thing even more fun ;)

this is what i wrote about it in may (see, i even made it the “high of the week” then ;))

* high of the week – my brother’s gf / SIL-to-be A and i went out on tuesday night. we were just gonna go out for a cocktail or two at the “capri bar” in “the 1/4? where we usually go. they have a cocktail happy hour every night until 9 pm so we started out with two long island ice tea. to make a long story short: we ended up at the “heartbreak hotel” where we know the owner/bartender and had too many of his delicious rhubarb-vodka long drinks, ran into an old friend of mine, chatted all night and left the building after 4 am. on a tuesday night. i “spontaneously” took wednesday morning off and have to say that the hangover wasn’t as bad as i had expected. i spent way too much money but let me tell you, it was worth it. i haven’t had a night this fun and great conversation like that in a while.

it wasn’t anything fancy or big but the fact that it was spontaneous with great conversations, i didn’t get home until 4 a.m. and still wasn’t too hungover the next day made it my best night out this year.

because i still haven’t given up on this blog (and i hope neither have you) but at the same time seem to have seriously misplaced my blogging-topic-mojo, i was happy to read about gwen bell’s “best of 2009 blog challenge” on san’s site! and the best part about it: “1. Write on one or all thirty-one of the prompts for the month of December” = no stress and actually manageable – even for me ;)

since yesterday my host had problems with the server and my site was down for most of the day, i’m just gonna do a two-in-one post for the december 3rd prompt: What’s an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. and the december 4th one: What book – fiction or non – touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

clearly the best article for me 2009 was this one Brigitte, Germany’s most popular women’s mag, bans professional models.

for me, having struggled with my weight pretty much my whole life, this was and is big and great news. i think it’s an important step towards a more realistic and healthy life for a lot of (men and) women. while i don’t think magazines etc should be held responsible for eating disorders and those problems alone, i think they are one big reason for the distorted view of society on how someone should look in order to be happy, healthy, successful and whatnot. my own “issues” regarding that topic are for another post and time but clearly this has been a big move in the right direction and i hope to read more articles like this in 2010.

now, my best book 2009 i just finished reading last week. it’s been around for a while but somehow i had never heard of it until a few weeks ago. someone in a forum i’m active in posted a BBC list of 100 famous books and the fact that the average person had only read six books out of the 100. anyway. one of the books recommended as a “must read” from that list was “the lovely bones” by alice sebold. i checked it out, it sounded good and i ordered it. it blew me away. it was definitely the best book i’ve read in a while (and i read a LOT) and is one of the few that i will keep because i can imagine wanting to read it again some time in the future (which i rarely ever do). if you haven’t read it yet, go get it and read.

it’s very sad and i did cry several times. which was kind of “inconvenient” because i read most of it on a train to my best friend’s and back… it also made me think about and miss all the people i’ve lost, it’s made me think of all the “weird” and “different” people i’ve known and sad for them and their loneliness. it’s made me wanna tell the people i love just how much i love them and it’s made me try and focus on what’s really important more than get hung up on small details. it’s beautifully written and intense but in the end it lets you go with a smile. :)