Christmas Gifts

I got great stuff for christmas and I wanna tell you about it, so you can try to borrow them from me or, else, get them for yourself.
First of all I got a new cell phone, which I didn't really want, but my life is crowded by some people, who believe, a new cell phone is a MUST. Especially if your old one is mostly good for texting and using it as a little mirror to correct your make up. Which mine was. Even the texting thing wasn't exactly going too well anymore. I mean, I could send text messages o.k., but when I received them, and it was too bright out there (bright meaning basically everything but pitch black), I had to go into a very dark entrance hall, which we have plenty here in Berlin, or I read them at home (which was a hassle whenever I knew, something important, for example considering the kids, was coming my way) Then I had to stick my head inside my purse, along with the cell phone, and read in there. Which frankly, was still totally o.k. for me. I much rather wanted books. And I told Martin over and over, that I much rather want books, or that body lotion by Dr. Hauschka, lemon or quince or almond, all three of which I adore!!! "But really, I mean, if you get me a new cell phone, which I already know you will, because you think I own enough unread books as it is and also, because you wanna be able to have a normal conversation with me again, and you want me to have normal conversations with other people too, without me yelling into the thing "WHAT WHAT?? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!! CALL ME AGAIN WHEN I AM AT HOME!!" because yeah, the speaker did not work so well anymore. But since nobody ever calls me (that's my mother talking through my mouth), I didn't mind any of it. It was a great little mirror, and I could write text messages with it and read the answers in my dark apartment, outside at night or in my purse, and I got used to it and I am conservative, so if you have to get me a new cell phone, please do not give me one with a touch screen. I do not want to look like an idiot stroking my cell phone in public or ending every other conversation accidentally with my ear, because the f*****g screen is so high sensitive, that looking at it makes it dial a number."
So I got one which is a mixture, a so called beginning touch screen user model (meaning: one for senior citizens, which, lets be realistic, I will pretty pretty soon be). After a while of calculating, how many books that would have been (6, if bought with consideration and also 2nd hand, maybe even 10), I am now already in love with it. Especially since I got a special cover for it, that looks like Martin bought it at an Asia Shop (which he did not, he swears!). My girlfriend said: "This cover would be totally embarrassing, if a normal person would have it. But since it is you, it's just soooo cool." Whatever that means. I take it as a compliment. (Wait! Why am I not a normal person??)
What I love about the new cell phone: I called my colleague Elisabeth today, I was outside, cars were passing me, and I could have a very normal, relaxed conversation with her. I mean I actually HEARD her. That was such a freakin' novum for me, I had to tell her about a million times: "Aren't you surprised, you hear me? Isn't my voice clear and loud!? And hey: I HEAR YOU TOO!" It was a very good conversation!
Another thing I simply LOVE: I have now about 55 albums of my favourite music on it (not that I ever have time to listen to music /that's my mother talking through my mouth again). Hey, I will make time to listen to it, like in my office, while writing, right now, while riding the underground, while walking, while being on Facebook.....
So I am happy and I will not borrow my new cell phone to anybody. I did not even want to mention it. This is not a blog about technical stuff or so. It is a blog mostly about writing and books, also about my life, that is where the cell phone comes in and to mention it was almost o.k.. Get one for yourself if you desperately MUST (actually, just sayin' again, I could have gotten about 5-6 books for it, maybe even 10 and that is, where I go deeper into right NOW):

I got books for christmas too. Three books! And they are all by favourite writers of mine and I really really am happy about them and suggest, you borrow them from me, after I've finished them.

• A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver is a book of poems

This is the first one and I have to quote it here, because reading it this morning made me happy:

I GO DOWN TO THE SHORE

I go down to the shore in the morning

and depending on the hour the waves

are rolling in or moving out,

and I say, oh, I am miserable,

what shall -

what should I do? And the sea says

in its lovely voice:

Excuse me, I have work to do.

• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright is a novel about an affair and its inevitability.

"If it hadn't been for the child then none of this might have happened, but the fact that a child was involved made everything much harder to forgive."

• Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

A book of stories by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. I wrote about it here.

She writes about normal people under fairly normal circumstances with so much love and understanding and depth. Reading her stories to me is, understanding, what life is about.




And then I got another thing by Mary Oliver, a CD where she is reading 42 of her poems and it is just beautiful to listen to her! The cover is beautiful too. Unwrapping it and holding it in my hands this morning, I felt like I had a treasure in my home.
Yes, At Blackwater Pond is a real treat!








And I just got the best idea ever: I will put Mary Oliver on my new cell phone and then I can listen to her in the office, in the underground, while taking my daily walks, ...this is a brilliant idea, a grand idea! I love christmas, did I say that before? I love giving gifts but I also love receiving gifts. I really do. Maybe I am a selfish and greedy person. But I could celebrate my birthday every month, just so I ' d get beautiful little gifts like this.
I wish you all a peaceful time and have fun until 2014!!!


© Susanne Becker