"Welcome to the Club and Give Me Some Blood"

I am sitting on a field of victory, enjoying a few well-earned comforts. There is no salted pork, but the macaroni and cheese casserole is particularly good.

When I say "sitting a field of victory," I mean that I'm currently laying on my bed, listening to Green Day, eating macaroni and cheese casserole from the dinner I missed today, and typing on my own laptop. Finally.

This has been a ridiculously busy week in terms of workload, but at the same time, it's been a great week. I'm not quite sure how that one works out, but I'm cool with it.

Today in particular has been mad busy. To give you an idea: I've been gone from 3 to 11 tonight. And that wasn't even my first trip out. But here's how today started. I got up at 7:45 and went to breakfast and colloquy. After colloquy, I came back to the room and just sort of chilled for a bit. Then I went back downstairs and saw that I had a package! From Houghton! Which meant that my new hard drive came! I ran upstairs, swapped them out, aaannnndddd...got as far as the log in screen because they had to set me up with a new account and didn't give me the password. Fantastic. I tried a few things, my old password, my student ID, my social security number, and the name of the guy who'd been helping me through the process. Nothing. I sent him an email on Adam's laptop asking what the password was.

At noon, the profs' kids did a soloquy and vignette about Doctor Faustus. Both were really good. After that, I was in the library having lunch, when Eri told me I had another package. So I go upstairs, and there's this long, thin package from Grammy and Grandpa! I was floored. It turned out to be a letter that they tag-teamed (Grammy wrote a paragraph, then Grandpa, then Grammy, etc. It was really cute.) as well as a Reminiscence magazine that had an article on Tommy Dorsey. It was really nice, and it made me miss them a lot. It reminded me of this past April when my family flew down to Texas to visit them in their "second home". That was one of my favorite vacations of all time.

Anyways, at 2:00, Adam, Tabitha, and I took the tube to a travel agency to get some more info/ideas about our post-program plans. That was pretty helpful. So far, it looks like the three of us, plus Mary Beth, are going to Scotland and Ireland, then Mary Beth and I are coming back to London, and then America, while Tab and Adam go to Belgium. That's going to be fun. And we're not going to see The Fray as planned, due to money, but if I have the chance to see U2, which probably won't happen, I swear I'd pay almost anything for it.

After the travel agency, the three of us came back to the HC. Adam and Tab played chess and I used Adam's laptop. Still no word from Houghton. At 3:00, we left again, along with Eri, Steve, and Zeke. First we went to a theatre to get tickets to see an opera tonight. Then Zeke, Tab, and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral to check out the architecture for our MAG. It was crazy. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was huge and ornate and gold and glittery and regal and I hated it. But that's another rant for another time. We stayed for Evensong at 5:00, which was alright, if you're into that kind of service. Me, I'm not really sure what kind of service I'm into and why, so it was interesting.

Dude, I just found out that Robin Williams needs heart surgery and had to cancel the rest of his stand-up comedy show. I am not cool with Robin Williams needing heart surgery. Not in the least.

Anyways, after Evensong, the three of us went to Subway and Tesco for food, then made it back to the theatre at 6:30 to see the opera, which started at 7.

This was the first time I'd ever been to an opera, and I'm proud to say that I was in a blue t-shirt, blue jeans, sneakers, and a 2-month-old beard at the time. Why? Because I had been out for 4 hours prior to the opera, and I wanted to be comfortable, that's why.

The opera itself was wacky. It was in English, and it was called "Dr. Atomic". It was set during World War II, and was all about Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who invented the atomic bomb. If you think it sounds bizarre, don't worry, it was.

I left as soon as it was over, because I was hungry and wanted to check my email for that password. Across the street from the theatre, there were two people in sleeping bags on top of a sheet of cardboard. I didn't have any food on me, so I kept going. Man do I hate cities.

On the tube there was a blind old man reading braille. It was the first time I'd ever seen someone doing that. His guide dog was a beautiful golden retriever. He got off at my stop. When the train stopped at our station, the dog stood up and started going, without having to be told that it was their stop. She just knew. It was crazy. After we got off the train, I asked if he needed any help. He said, "Lucy will point the way, thanks", and kept walking. I followed them because I had to leave the station as well. I took a couple pictures of them. I didn't think he'd mind.

I came back to the Highbury Centre and checked my email. They had sent me the password. It was "password". Go figure. But my laptop is working now! Yay! I just gotta get my files off Lindsey's laptop, and I should be fine.

After making sure my laptop was good, I went to the library and heated up the dinner that I missed (I asked my friend Natalie to save it for me). It was a macaroni and cheese casserole, and it was good. Then I came up here, threw on "American Idiot", and wrote this.

That's it for now. I'm going to message some people and watch a Looney Tune on my laptop. Then I'm going to bed. Good night.