beautiful life... beautiful TRIP

Well... here I am at work.
Back from France, where we performed the TRIP Experience during the Cannes Film Festival at the Majestic Hotel pier.
But... I get to fly back for another performance of the TRIP project (this time I'll only be there for a few days, though) in ONE WEEK!!! OMG!!!
(I just went to the TRIP page to get that link, and noticed that they have posted our performance in August... and it does say something about "Kinotour".. my god.. I could tour Germany!!! Aaaaah!!!)
I can't wait... when I get home, it will be ... hmm... nearly mid-June. And I can leave my job and return to Europe in mid-July.
Wow.

so... one week... and then one month...
sooooooooo exciting.... wow...

I thought I would include some (edited) entries from my paper journal to re-cap some of the loveliness of my trip.

The flight to France was pretty intense, emotionally as well as physically. But mostly emotionally. Something drained out of me on the way to France. I was leaving everything behind and it became apparent that I could leave everything behind....

So I didn't write in my journal until the morning of May 24th. The night before, I'd had an epiphany about myself and my self-worth. And I woke up feeling so incredibly happy that I was nearly crying with smiling so hard.

~~~~~le 24 Mai 2006
Je suis au piscine (I'm by the pool -- this pool, actually)... It's half overcast today, but still quite nice outside- plenty warm enough to lay around in my pirate-skull bikini.
Today is a beautiful day. Yesterday everyone left except for Bernt, Frank, Gary, Bjorn, Elmar, Juergen, Klaus and a "Stephanie" who works for Juergen, but whom I haven't yet gotten to know.
***hah... the rest of this page is in german, so I'll translate as much as I can!***
Yesterday we all did a whole lot of nothing. Everyone was exhausted from the gala party for German Filmmakers that we all went to the night before. The party was at a villa; a HUGE villa; after giving our invitations to the suited bodyguards at the barricaded front gate, you had to walk nearly a block to get to the courtyard where the party was being hosted. Huge platforms had been built up around the pool specifically to make space for the (nearly 2 blocks worth of) open bars and fancy catering services. Everyone was dressed up, supposedly Wim Wenders was there (best known for Buena Vista Social Club). We drank, Gary and I wandered around and people watched and contemplated our future rockstardom.
We decided that if we were going to be rockstars other than ourselves, I'd be Pink and he'd be Bono. As if to prove this point of rockstardom, there began to be a running joke among my "TRIP Family"
(us after the show)
(in german, calling an artistic collective a 'family' lacks the implication of being a cult like it does in California, but it sure does amuse me everytime they talk about us that way... or say, "we do it 'family style,'" which makes me think of lazy susans and chinese food), that every time I dance, all of the film and tv cameras in the vicinity will run over and film me.
This was true at the TRIP performance,

but that is not surprising, of course; we had our own camerawoman (I love you, Richie!!) starting the trend, and then the german gossip magazine tv cameras came over... but it happenned every time at the Filmmaker party as well, and at the Nikki Beach party in the Carlton (where I half expected Paris Hilton to be, but it was mostly full of porn starlets and random rich folks)....
So, Gary and I decided that when we're rockstars, we'll stage a ridiculous media-wedding and I'll choreograph the dancers in his videos. Tee hee...
Needless to say, I shook my ass off, and Bernt (I wish I had a better picture..eep!) and I had a fabulous turn (of course with tv cameras) to "Doncha"
.... I must admit I have a really deep love of dancing inappropriately at fancy parties. I mean, really... doing the booty dance amongst a huge crowd of people in fancy dress... tee hee!

So, the next morning most of us did nothing... although some brave soldiers got up and gave interviews and met with the media all day long (I have no idea how Frank manages to do as much as he does... jeebus!)
Gary and I spent some time by the pool, writing a song together. He'd got the guitar down for it, and the chorus laid out, so I helped him by writing most of the verses. Very luxuriosly rockstar, I must say; laying by the pool in your bikini, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and writing a song with a german future-rockstar and his guitar... hee hee...
So you can begin to understand, now, why the easiest way for me to explain my trip is to say that I was a rockstar. I apologize that I do not yet have pictures back from the trip...
Well... I think I should at least leave this as one small blurb...
I can't wait for the pictures; OMG; there is a picture of my steak tartare... and Gary promised me an audio clip of him saying "FLLLLEISCH!" so that everyone can understand my obsession with making german men yell "meat!" like they're in a black metal band... tee hee...