Jason's Daily Notes

The sun rises really late now. It's 8:20 and its barely coming up. I decided to come to work earlier today, because there's so much to do on Monday mornings.

So it's been a couple months since I stopped my daily blogging. I have just been focusing on my work, and my social life. My life is still fully trivago, which is awesome.

I just returned from the trivago on tour trip. Wow, what an amazing experience! I cannot believe that I was lucky enough to join. I really wonder what I did in a past life to deserve this.

Today was "back to work." But a lot of people were still tired and hungover from the last few days of the trip.

I played pool "pika" with Mike in the morning. I had lunch with Antonis, to discuss Oktoberfest since he was there over the weekend. It was expensive.

Went home around 6pm. Just too tired and unmotivated to get much work done today.

I just got a phone call from Mike. HE GOT THE APARTMENT that he viewed on Thursday. It's just what he wanted - a big place all to himself, and in a very central location! I'm happy for him, but it's also bittersweet for me, since there's no more chance of us living together anymore.

Going now to the flat to watch the Breaking Bad finale!

The weather has been warm and sunny. :)

Friday, 19 July 2013
End of the day, there was a mini-crisis with one of my campaigns.
Had a couple beers, then went home with Adonis and had dinner together. We then walked together to the altstadt to Sigrid's, where she and Anna were drinking wine and enjoying the terrace. There were fireworks, so we all walked to the river and checked it out. I tried to contact Tobi and Mike but to no luck.
Ran into Francesco, who was celebrating Jureg's birthday. Adonis and I joined them, including Pavlina and Dante, and Petr and Mira, for a night out. We had cocktails (cum shots and white russians) at Mirrors, then stayed for a round of tequila shots. Then we went to Mauer, which wasn't that great but oh well.
I was happy drunk, not the angry drunk that I was before. I guess deciding to act better and care about others really changes the way I act when drunk. Nice.
Nevertheless, I was drunk. I walked back with Adonis and decided I was too drunk to bike, so I just slept on his couch.

Saturday, 22 July 2013
I woke up around 9:30am. I heard someone showering - must have been Mike. Then someone else - Adonis? But I looked up and saw standing in the doorway: Tobi! "You don't live here," I drunkenly said. Haha, he had apparently stayed with Mike the whole night, coming back here to smoke some shisha.
It was a slow day as you can imagine, but I wasn't too hungover. I went home to recharge for an hour (and to charge my phone) then joined Mike and Tobi at Real for the usual shopping. We then went to the Arcaden, where Mike bought shoes, Tobi posters, and me a charger for my phone and earphones. I also got a new pair of good flip flops for only €10.
We then were hungry and I convinced the guys to go for burgers, so Space Burger it is. Along the way, we biked right behind the Bayern Munich team bus, which stopped in front of a hotel. We stayed for about an hour waiting for the team to come out. And yes, we saw them. Maria C and Mira happened to bike by too. Funny.
Space burger was nice, we sat outside and were just making "that's what she said" jokes the whole time and checking out chicks. After 2 beers, we left and then went to the rhine steps to chill and bask in the sun. There were some drunk bums that were entertaining everyone.
Then, we each biked home to rest (bumping into David along the way).

Around 8:30pm, Mike came over with his shisha and we went to Nordpark. We found a place to just chill in the park

Sunday, 21 July 2013
Woke up early (9am) but well-rested. I guess it must have been all the tobacco from last night. Was it that strong? Anyway, I'm surprized that I enjoyed shisha so much.

I was supposed to go on a bike tour with Sigrid, but she was just back home at 11am (from a late night celebrating Tiffany's birthday) and needed to sleep. Ok, then I joined everyone else for a day at the swimming center.

It was the last day of the Kirmes but I didn't even go.


Monday, 22 July 2013
Got up a little earlier and to work. It was warm, so of course I was wearing shorts and my new flip flops. It was the last day of the big fashion/Maserati show in the building, so there were delays getting up the elevators.
Had my 1-to-1 with Thomas. His bikes were stolen.
Lunch: kebab truck with Francesco, Mike, and Tobi. A lot of coworkers were also in the park. It was really warm in the sun, so we sat in the shade. Then, had a meeting explaining product and content to us, which was useful. And then, I had a brainstorming meet
After work, I joined Mike for a really fast dinner. We rushed on our bikes (Mike sweaty and shirtless) to Cinestar and watched World War Z. Tobi and Francesco arrived just at the same time. I tried to minimize my complaining about (having to pay for) going to the movies and tried to just enjoy it. It was not bad, but cost €12.50 (including 3D glasses, ugh!).
Biked home.

Friday, 12 July 2013
Drinks after work. We got excited by the idea of booking a spontaneous trip somewhere. Mike, Francesco, Tobi, and I were all "in" to go Blind Booking, but we realized we'd just end up in Prague or Hamburg, which wasn't worth it. What about Amsterdam? No, too close. I just wanted to go somewhere with a beach. Anyway, whatever - tomorrow we'd be going to Cologne, like it or not. But we stayed drinking at the office, and people as usual headed out into the Altstadt.

Saturday, 13 July 2013
Happy birthday mom! I changed my profile pic in her honor.
Day in Cologne. Museum with Katie and Mike and Tobi. Met the rest, Katie stayed in the museum then went back to Ddorf for the French picnic. We then climbed the top of the Cathedral. Good view. And we signed our names with my permanent marker :)
We spent the day walking around, stopped by a brewery for lunch which was expensive but I had 3 meals so I was full. Took plenty of cool pictures while walking around. Walked along the river, layed in the grass. Bought a bunch of drinks, went to the other side of the city, drank in the park while waiting for fireworks. Played "who am I?" Saw the fireworks, was tipsy. Walked back into the city - a long and exhausting walk. It was 1am and we couldn't figure out the address where Daniel's friends were. I was pissed off and destructive.

Sunday 14 July 2013
Slept at 6:30 am. Was asleep until 1pm. Badi had returned from his vacation in Morocco. He had his kids over, as usual.

Monday, 15 July 2013
Back to work. 1 on 1 with Thomas. I have to follow up and set up a lot of things.
Team event after work. Casita Mexicana (replacement because What's Beef burgers was closed for some bureaucratic reason). Shots of Mescal. Oh yeah.
I wanted to go to the fair (Kirmes) but it was too late, and I would be too tired (which is the story of the week). Mike was at the fair with the French team for the team event.

Tuesday, 16 July
Work work work. Lunch with Francesco and Tobi (döner). We're all stressed and busy. Afterwards, I went to play badminton. Again, the bike group turned the other way than me. I stopped by McDonald's on the way and brought burgers. Nom. The plan was to go to the fair afterwards; Mike and I showered there (I saw Mike naked hehe), went to McD's for food, then to Mike's place to drop off his stuff. But something was wrong with his bike chain, so we stayed to fix it first. But this took some time (because of the cover on the chain. So an hour later, we were covered with bike grease and tired (from walking up and down to his flat). The fair would be closed, we thought, so instead we just went to my place, shared one Belgian beer, and watched Olympus Has Fallen, which I thought had a very thin plot but had a popular cast.

Wednesday, 17 July
Work is busy, and there aren't enough hours in the day to finish it all.
At least it's warm.
After work, I finally went to the fair! I walked there with Antonis. Mike had gotten his new phone, and he called me to let me know that he would meet us there. We also met Thomas (from LSE), and we walked around for some time. I was tired (from the walking and the long day at work). Mike was really excited to go on rides. I ate churros with ice cream (yum!) and then we rode a big spinning swing. And we had some beers (but I was knackered). They were making fun of me. Antonis couldn't handle all the pretty girls, and Mike was just like, "GO TALK TO THEM!" Thomas and I went home but Mike stayed to take more pictures.

Thursday, 18 July
I came into work late, because I was so tired. This got me into a little trouble with Thomas. Katie pulled me and said "we need you" - it was a meeting to think of a new slogan for the career website. I just said the first thing that came into my mind - "redefine work" - and it was by far the best idea of the whole session. BOOM. I'm known as a "creative" mind now. :)
I brought eggs with me for lunch. Walked with Franco a bit in the park afterwards. I have a "secret admirer" who invited me for a bike ride on Sunday. How sweet!
After work, I was planning to stay late, but instead I got pulled into beach volleyball. I biked there with Mike, Tobi, Jennifer, and Jeff (who had broken the lock to his bike). It was warm and people had no sense of coordination with themselves for it. Half of the guys were shirtless (me, Daniel, Tobi, Mike, and Eoghain). Afterwards, Mike showered naked again, heheh and we all biked back. I went straight home and cooked stir fry. I got a message from Mike saying that they were going karaoke! What, without me?! I felt bad that people would do something without me. Fuck, what happened to Friday! This was supposed to be my thing. I felt left out. But I had to stay home - I needed to rest (and not wake up so late) and hang up my laundry. So I did the right thing, but I just wanted to be out. Maybe I'm just jealous of Mike for doing so much. Oh well.

Now to work, again!

I can only talk about how many sausages I have. I had so many leftover sausages from the 4th of July party and my housewarming.

Work has been busy. Mostly because of the daily maintenance/monitoring that I now have to do. I guess it is the main part of my job, after all!

I had lunch on the terrace along with like 40 people :P At first it was just Maria C, Sigrid, and I but soon everyone came out to join. Mike and Tobias went to the park by the river. I saw them coming in as I went out to bike to Nordstrasse to buy a birthday card for my mom.

The Canadians (Alexa and Steph) complimented me repeatedly on my scruff. (that is, my partially grown-in beard).

At the end of the day, my team was planning our team event. Oktoberfest is likely out. But Thomas sent everyone a video link to a penis piano player. WTF.

I picked up some food (sausages and tomatoes) from my flat and then went to Mike's for dinner (I invited myself over). Mike, Natalie, and Tobi were just walking out to the stores. I reluctantly joined them :P The one beer I had at the office was getting to my head. They had salad; I had sausages in lettuce. Adonis returned. We watched a Playboy documentary then headed out to Ratinger str. Natalie rode on Mike's backseat again. I don't know why I feel so jealous when she does that. Actually I'm jealous of Mike for having so much balance and skill... on his bike.

Oh yes, and the whole evening's conversation was just sexual innuendos.

After stopping by Tobi's to get a jacket, Mike's seat was loose. But we continued on to Ratinger, where we entered the crowd, which was really crowded. Coincidentally we ran into a big group of work people (several of which arrived at the same time). Francesco arrived just after us. Victor and David were there, as well as Mihai, Sydney, Maren, Abhi, and several others.

Adonis arrived, and it was him and Mihai and I. The rest of them disappeared, and we kept looking for them.

Drinks in the street. This is our Wednesday routine. We went home just around midnight. I biked straight home, parting ways with Mike and Tobi just at the park.

Saturday, 6 July 2013
I was pretty tired and slightly hungover after Friday night (at the company flat). Pavlina's friends, especially Ben (or Dan? Either way, we called him Borat because of his accent) from Prague were pretty drunk and hilarious. When I left, Francesco was really worried that the cops would come again so he was desperately trying to get everyone out of the house.

I woke up around 12. On my phone was a text (in German): "Jason, did you get my email? Does 11am still work for you today?" Oh shit, I had scheduled a flat viewing. Dammit. I rescheduled to the afternoon. I tidied up a little bit, but was just tired. The plan was to have a mini-housewarming at my place tonight. I went to Rewe to buy some food for myself and supplies for the evening, and then it was already time to go to the viewing. The flat was really nice but it was only for one person, not something I would be interested in.

I biked back to the flat and just waited until the evening. I called home. I rushed out to get some last-minute beer and bread, etc., and when I walked out the door, I realized that my pocket was empty. I had my wallet, but I didn't have my keys.

Fuck.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Work. Was pretty productive. Mike stayed after work to the Academy (in which Malte was talking about the history of the company - apparently it gave Mike several business ideas which are good). I was at work until 19:30.
I got a call from Selcuk, saying that he was in Düsseldorf!We tried to meet up, but it was too far for him to get across the city (he was by the Medienhafen) to me. So I biked to Nordstrasse, expecting to meet him, but instead I just bought toothpaste and biked home.
For the first night, I wasn't with Mike. I just stayed home, relaxing. Mike was sending me screenshots of his chat with Tiffany, which was getting out of hand. I couldn't believe how crazy it was getting, and all because of her (not him). I did my best to console him but I realized that he needed me there, but it was already 1am and I was asleep in bed.

Wednesday, 3 July 2013.
I was getting excited for the 4th of July. It was a rainy day. I made lunch - boiled pasta with pesto sauce. Had a meeting with Thomas and Andi in which I proposed a revamp of our internal knowledge pages. Felt good to take some initiative!

After work, Mike and I biked to Netto, then Aldi, to buy (1) my pb&j for tomorrow and (2) dinner for tonight. We were hungry. We made burgers! They were delicious (with the crunchy fried onions). Mike was hot and took off his shirt. I gave him a massage. We sat, very gezelig on the couch. The two of us are not gay! But wow, we are closer than most married couples! Stayed up looking for flats. So it looks like we'll be living together soon.


Thursday, 4 July 2013.
The FOURTH OF JULY. I dressed up in my best red, white, and blue. Apparently most of the other guys in the office were wearing the same red/blue plaid button down with a white undershirt. Lame!

People were very impressed by my jacket. I was called Evel Kenievel (we need to shoot you out of a cannon!), Michael Jackson (learn that moonwalk, and start a band called Jason's Jacket), a power ranger, and Captain America. Awesome!!!

I got the tumblr account. I started posting on it.

I only had time to have a pb&j sandwich for lunch. The afternoon was useless. At 5, the girls went to receive the tables which were delivered. That left me and Patrick to coordinate the last-minute shopping and everything else. It was a mess. Stephen and I walked to Netto and bought what we could. But burgers were still missing. So, I biked ahead to Aldi and to a kiosk to buy newspaper, then rushed in the warm afternoon sun to the riverfront. There was the team. I unloaded my stuff and tried to start the fire asap. The wind blowing made it hard to for the charcoal to catch; and it was soggy, which slowed it down further.

Soon, Francesco (the birthday boy) also arrived and groups of people from the office. Still no bbq. But people were drinking. Oh well. I was also a little stressed about the playlist - it was started 2/3 of the way through, skipping over so many classic and good songs that I had coordinated. Mike was there, with his luggage. We were singing "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Don't Stop Believin'" loudly. It was awesome. The grill finally started around 7:30 and we could make some burgers, which were hard to flip with just a spatula (they fell off the grill). Oh well. I made several batches of pb&j for people. The chili was good, and Syd and Katie's mac and cheese was amazing but cold.

Mike left for his train. For some reason my phone wasn't getting any signal at all! Drinking continued, people playing flunkyball and ultimate frisbee. Beer pong and flip cup. Somehow people made shots of whiskey and maple syrup, which were surprisingly good.

That was it. We started taking turns bringing back cases of empty beer bottles to the office. It was a messy process to clean it all up. Peter and I. Tobi and Syd and Alexa were really drunk, after doing jello shots. Tobi and Syd fell down and both bruised their ankles and were in so much pain, but it was hilarious too! I live-texted the events to Mike (who was just arriving home) as they unfolded. I made it home around 12:30 (with a bag full of food) and took a bath.

Friday, 5 July 2013
Work = slow. I helped Katie and Steph clean up the beer bottles in the morning. I returned Katie's socks.
Tobi was really hungover. We had a meeting to discuss KPI reporting and brainstorm new ideas. I went to lunch with the team to a Goulash place (Dauser) that was affordable and good. We got ice cream (noggers) from Netto on the way back to the office.
Did not get much work done.

BBQ at the company flat afterwards for Celine's last day.

Friday, 28 June 2013
Work. Had a lot to finish up. I skipped Janko's birthday celebration, and Denis' leaving drinks, where apparently Malte gave a speech. Stayed late, joined everyone around 6:30 for beers. It was loud and crowded on the 10th floor. I chatted with Liziane the Brazilian who is nice. Some people went to the Altstadt. Everyone else (led by Mike) went for pizza just around the corner, but I wanted to do my own thing so I just went home (and I think I resent Mike being such a natural leader).

Saturday, 29 June 2013
Got up and cleaned a bit. Sigrid arranged for us to meet at the flea market. Hyemee and Kevin were already there. I biked to Mike's place; Adoni took the tram there, while Mike and I rode our bikes. There, Mike easily got distracted by all of the bike accessories, and the Dutch fish stand. I found Sigrid and Tiffany sitting at a table. I had a flammkuchen.

We then biked to the Arcaden. I bought two watched. Adoni and Tiffany walked. My goal was to get a red/white outfit for Canada Day and the 4th of July. And a pink shirt for Friday. Sigrid was my personal shopper.

Sigrid invited everyone over to Tiffany's for dinner. The plan was for Tiff to make sushi. We split up; Sigrid and Tiff S-Bahned home, while Adoni took Sigrid's bike with us to the Asian store as we bought supplies. I stopped by Karstadt to return my bike tire. Adonis discovered that Sigrid's rear tire was flat, so he walked the rest of the way, while Mike and I biked, stopping by Aldi.