Purchase

Marcel shouts at his laptop after learning his iPhone Duo will not arrive on launch day.

I haven't been this excited about an iPhone launch since the days when I'd actually get up at 4 AM to line up outside the Apple Store and get my hands on an iPhone 5 or whatever on launch day.

Since then, I've preordered most of my iPhones and always received them on day one. So the fact that, of all iPhones, it's the iPhone Duo I won't be getting on launch day has genuinely put a dent in my mood today.

Marcel goes for a run, works at a laptop, and celebrates as Anna books their vacation.

Will this be the year I buy myself a second or even third pair of workout clothes? Will it finally put an end to the constant juggling of my laundry schedule and workout plans? Stay tuned to find out!

I’m still practicing being a good traveler, and while actually being on vacation has gotten easier for me, booking one is still a nightmare. I’m in the very privileged position of being with someone who somehow enjoys planning trips, but a balanced relationship probably requires me to take the lead on that at some point.

But first I have to be anxious about this particular trip, because it’ll be our first vacation that requires a rental car, and I hate driving cars. Still, one must do what helps one grow, so I can’t just not do it because I’m afraid. I’ll persevere. Probably while gripping the steering wheel with both hands and staring straight ahead.

Marcel and Ines dine with a waiter at Klinker and discuss whether they enjoyed the meal.

Before I had the Year of Art, I had the Year of Friendship. It was actually two years, but who’s counting.

These yearly themes aren’t really supposed to end when the year does. Something always sticks. One of the things that stuck from the Year of Friendship is that I now tend to say yes when someone asks me to do something. Relationships are the most important thing in life, and I don’t want to look back one day and think I should have done more, tried more, or spent more time with the people I care about.

That being said, I don’t think this philosophy will extend to eating at fancy restaurants much more often. The food is delicious, sure, but I’m mostly there for the company, and by the next day I’ll probably have forgotten almost everything I ate. I have friends who can still tell me about that incredible mushroom steak they had in Copenhagen ten years ago or whatever. That’s just not me.

Food is very much an in-the-moment kind of thing for me. I enjoy it while it’s there, but it doesn’t have a huge impact on how I remember an experience overall, as long as it’s good and healthy enough.

Marcel orders vegan dürüm kebabs from a clerk who keeps whispering, making Marcel struggle to understand him.

When he actually spoke up, I could understand him perfectly, but he insisted on whispering even though the place was pretty noisy and I obviously couldn’t make out what he was saying. The interaction was somehow even more absurd in real life than it is in this comic.

Marcel asks a store worker where the gouache is, and the worker points to a display rack.

I bought a tube of white gouache to use for occasional highlights in my watercolor paintings and haven't touched it once since. Anyway! I'm very happy with this little hand gesture. It's dorky, funny, and reads well.

Marcel and Anna carry IKEA purchases while Marcel remarks that he unexpectedly needed a huge orange wall clock.

The huge orange wall clock now hangs in my office and I love it. It's quiet, it shows the time, it's orange. It's everything I ever wished a huge orange wall clock would be.

Marcel tries on oversized shoes beside Millimeter, whose startled reaction is exaggerated.

Millimeter didn’t actually react like that. That was just my attempt to make the cartoon a bit less boring.

Marcel and a crowd end up at Hamburg’s harbor festival during a photo walk; he later tries on new running shoes and a raincoat.

The harbor’s birthday is a huge party, and people from all over Germany visit Hamburg to behave badly. It’s usually something people from Hamburg try to stay away from.

Marcel seasons a bowl of salad with his new salt and pepper mills, and some seasoning falls on Gigabyte the cat.

You can tell how often I cook by how long it took me to get these.