The Village

Berlin is small. Mitte is smaller.

It is really nice to live in such a cosmopolitan city where you see so many familiar faces everyday; the regulars at the (dog) park, the guy who makes my coffee, my neighbors. I love how Mitte feels like a little village, and I especially love my part of Mitte.

I wonder when/if it will ever feel too small?

Already people tell me 'oh I saw you at x' once. I think I will always have to be on my best behavior when I am out and about.

This is not LA, NYC or SF. This is a little big city. Are there any others?

Branding, what not to do

Berlinita or Berlinette? I'll have to fix that someday.

Home suss home

I am happy to be home in Berlin.

Ikea delivered the wrong shranks, my apartment is a mess, I can't access my clothes or cooking things, but I am thrilled to be home.

I think LA and I might have broken up during this last trip.

We can still be friends, right?

A Little Brilliance

After the excitement of a celebrity sighting, and the crush of mobile shopping at Saturn after work hours, I had a brilliant idea and bought Diego a blinking glow in the dark arm band from the bike shop. I strapped it around his neck and now he blinks and blinks as he runs around Mon Bijou in the darkness at 7:45pm.

Celebrity Citing

Is it stalking when you are too nervous to even acknowledge a celebrity?

Today I was riding my bike down Torstrasse with Diegito running beside me during working hours. Usually I ride my bike down the street once business hours are over, since I tend to work later. So this was a unique experience in itself.

I was daydreaming and staring in the shops when who should I see in the window of that repurposed kimono shop-- Suri!

Flabbergasted, I looked around-- no paparazzi-- and went in the shop. I always wanted to go inside, but it was always closed when I rode by before.

Upon entering, a gentle-ish German man spoke to me in German and pointed at Diego. What? I said. Was my dog friendly? he asked. Yes, why? I nervously responded as a handsome black man approached me (did this place have guards??) For the baby to grab, and pointed at Suri who was approaching Diego with Katie's kind-looking midwestern parents.

I was so surprised that the guards had directed my attention so suddenly to the child. She had a cookie in her hand, and I said yes Diego is very friendly and he likes cookies. Katie quickly came by and smiled and picked up the child. The parents smiled too. Smiles everyone, smiles!

I looked around and admired the dresses and didn't look at Katie and family much. She smiled a hello and I snuck out.

Is it stalking if you are too nervous to talk to a celebrity (even though you are in a foreign country and you usually blab to any/all foreigners you meet)?

Were those 'handlers' in the store S-gists?

Berlin- Los Angeles

Work has gotten very busy so I have not been able to update this blog as much as I had hoped. And now it has sent me back to LA so I will not be writing about Berlin.

I feel like I never left Los Angeles. But I am feeling kind of ambivalent about being here. I have been enjoying settling into Berlin and I really wanted to continue setting up my apartment, discovering new bars/restos, making new friends, and learning German.

I do love LA, a controversial sentiment I know, but I really love where I am living now. That feels great.

Good boy

Here is a picture of Diego on the S-Bahn.

(it is several days after his coif at the Hundesalon so you can see that his hair de-froed a bit).

Before and After

Several weeks ago, my friend Catrin kindly accompanied me to the Hundesalon. Diego needed some grooming. My vet in Mitte gave me the name of a groomer who I thought was nearby. It turned out that this groomer was not as close as I had thought; as the tram passed more and more Stalin-style block apartments, Catrin and I theorized about what the groomer would look like.
'Her name is Missy' Catrin said, drawing on her knowledge of a trend in East Germany to give girls names ending with double consonants and a 'y' sound: Connie, Shelly, Crissie. (Guys had names like Rico-- too cool!).

I guessed that she had true-red hair cut short with a streak of black through it. Catrin added in long laquered nails (I thought that was a stretch because how do you trim a dog with huge shiny acrylic nails.

Who was right? Both of us. She couldn't have been more perfect. The red streak, the acrylic nails. I didn't catch her name, but her dog-- I mean her doppelganger-- was called 'Sissy.'

And how did Diego turn out? He's thrilled with the results. (really, he is so much more himself. He was just too hot in all of that fur this summer. He's back to his playful cuddly self.)

And yes, I am to blame for the big head. It's just that he looks so different when he gets groomed; I think if his face was shaved he would look so different. I like to keep his face as fluffy as possible so that I still recognize him.

Vast East Berlin

This is the only major city I know that has massive open spaces, overgrown and neglected.

This is a huge block near Nordbahnhof which has been adopted by some dog owners as a makeshift dog park. Prime real estate, smack dab in the middle of Mitte. The 'park' has a chain link fence around it to keep people out; conveniently, it also keeps dogs in.

Diego stares at his favorite thing: a squeaky rubber ball with legs.