"in the forest we lie hiding, unmarked graves where flowers grow..."

This is going to be one of those posts where I write it and post it at two different times. Right now, I’m sitting under a tree in the back garden, listening to Frank Sinatra. It’s really sunny and there’s a light breeze. My sleeves are rolled up and I’m periodically chilly, but I know that if I roll them down, I’ll be too warm.

Today has been a lot of fun, and as of right now it’s only 1:43. I woke up after a great night’s sleep and had a good breakfast. The rolls were fresh and hot and the butter melted really easily on them. I stole 4 slices of bread so I could have a couple sandwiches later today.

Colloquy was good too. Our reading last night was all Romantic poetry: Blake, Wordsworth, Whitman, Dickens, Shelley, Keats, and Coleridge. I was skeptical of colloquy because I was afraid we’d over-analyze the poems. And at times, people did. When they did, I sat there and wrote down lyrics to a Decemberists song. When we weren’t completely picking the poems apart and were just talking about imagery and inspiration and historical context, I participated. It went well.

I made an important decision after colloquy. The only part of the MAG that my friends and I had left was the National Gallery. And this week happens to be extended because of break being next week: the paper won’t be assigned until Saturday and won’t be due until Tuesday, the first day of break. So once we finish the National Gallery, we’ve got nothing but reading from today until Friday. That’s a lot of free time. And I decided that I didn’t want to do the National Gallery today. I’ve been enjoying the work this week, and I wouldn’t mind doing it tomorrow or Friday. It would be fun to do it by myself, too. Not that doing MAG with my friends isn’t fun, I just want to try it by myself. So after colloquy, I told my friends I was going to do my own thing today, and that I’d do the National Gallery later.

I went shopping today. It was fun. It was the first day I’ve intentionally gone out shopping. My headphones died a couple days ago, so it sort of started with that. Tabitha let me borrow her headphones until I got to the electronics store, which wasn’t going to be my first stop. My first stop was a thrift store nearby the Tube station. I bought a big band CD (hence Old Blue Eyes) for £1.49 as well as the UK version of the first Harry Potter book for a pound. I also bought a gift for Emily.

By now, the Tube is easy for me. It’s almost second nature. I took it to Tottenham Court Road and went to Maplin’s, the same electronics store I got my hard drive cable at a few weeks ago. I got a nice pair of headphones for 8 pounds.

I kept walking down the street, listening to music and taking pictures of the sky. There are so many contrails today. I like it. I bet I’ve seen about 20 of them. I took a lot of pictures of them. I was trying to make my way to a Fopp, the indie music store that I had discovered at Cambridge. On the way, I checked out a bookstore and looked around. They had Mark Twain’s Roughing It, but it was more money than I was willing to spend. They also had Matthew Stover’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, but I’m planning on getting it in August when it comes out in paperback. But I did check out their poetry section, and it was a good thing I did. I found The Collected Poems of William Wordsworth for only £4. This thing was the biggest paperback I’ve ever seen- 1082 pages! I couldn’t eat it if I tried (and I did try, but I couldn’t open my mouth wide enough).

I made it to Fopp easily enough and found a CD of U2’s 2001 concert at Slane Castle. I had the DVD of that concert, but I thought it would be nice to have the music on a CD so I could listen to it on my iPod, so I got it. It was seven pounds. I was content and headed back to the FMC, listening to Jon Foreman, the Decemberists, and “The Door in the Air” from the Prince Caspian soundtrack.

When I got back to the Highbury Centre, I put my U2 CD in my computer to upload it into iTunes. But it turns out that I had bought the DVD. Which sucks, because I already had the DVD. I thought it was a CD because it was in a CD case. Call me crazy, but I always thought that CDs went in CD cases and DVDs went in DVD cases. Maybe they changed it and forgot to tell me. Either way, I’ve got two U2: Go Home DVDs now. Yay?

Luckily, today has been so good that that didn’t come close to spoiling it. I was still in a great mood. I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, grabbed a raspberry yogurt and some crisps, poured some Cherry Coke in my Nalgene, and brought my lunch and laptop in the garden. I had all my food, except for the crisps. I’ll have those after I type this.

Now, it’s only 2:09. After I’m done with this I’m going to do my reading in the garden. Erin Carr is doing the same, and Danny Kim is passed out on the bench next to me. Our reading is from Marx and Engels. Should be interesting. After I’m done, I think I’ll take a nap and read some poetry. Tonight, I have my last service project at All Soul’s.

So. Here are two things I’ve decided I want to invest in. The first a high-quality VHS to DVD burner that allows me to put in chapters. I’ve got a lot of Looney Tunes tapes that I need to convert to preserve the prints for my future kids and grandkids. Digital copies don’t get worn down, but film sure does. So I need to get on that soon. I also want to get a nice big bookshelf. I’ve got so many books that I love, and they all sit in cardboard boxes in the attic. That’s not cool. I need a big shelf I can put in my room so I can display them and get at them easier.

Hey! Guess what?! Today is Eri’s birthday! Wish her a happy birthday so she’ll get mad at me for putting this in my blog.

Hey! Guess what else?! My family is coming to visit in less than a week! I can’t wait to see them. This is the longest I’ve been away from any of them in my life, and I miss them a lot. I’m going to take them to all the fun places and show them London food. I’m pumped.

Alright, that’s enough for now. Goodbye.