here i am, blogging from scotland!!!
scotland has been beautiful so far. Stirling today, Edinburgh yesterday. Glasgow has not really impressed me at all, but this hostel is great. the english countryside on the way up was beautiful, and it was nice to be out of the busy, busy city for a weekend.
we sat in a park yesterday with no shoes or socks on and the sun in our face.
the freckles under my eyes are back.
things are good.
xoxo

eleven to your seven

SO tomorrow I leave for Scotland! Five days off from work! I couldn't be happier. A well deserved break, I do believe.
The only thing that sucks is that right now it is 711 and I really need to go home, and that I might not get to go to Spain, but my wonderful wonderful Dad is trying to figure that out for me. ARGH
Those were unrelated sucky things, by the way, I just worked an hour late tonight.
So I'll be gone till Monday or Tuesday. Write me emails, send me mail, will you? Have a great weekend, HappyEaster!
xoxoxoxooxox

had a good weekend.
Friday night, Jill and Mika came over. We went with Adrienne, Mike, and Bart to see The Royal Tenenbaums which I really really liked. Before hand we stopped at Deux Beers, but it wasn't fun yet, full but the music was quiet, no dancing. It was the early pre-going out crowd, no familiar faces. stayed up till 1 even though we were home by 1130. the girls were up at 630 and out. i slept in.
Saturday, went to the Victoria and Albert museum with Adrienne. It was great. The most random collection of stuff you could imagine. They had a Frank Lloyd Wright room. It was not as exstensive as I'd hoped. But I was filled with joy just the same.
We got take away from Pret and walked to Hyde Park. It was getting chilly but it was a beautiful day. Then off to Covent Garden. I got capris and a tank top (£2!!!) at H&M and fiiinally bought the shoes I've wanted since January, at Nine West. I adore them!
Saturday night A, Mike, Bart and I went to Leicester Square for strawberry margaritas at Chiquito's. The margaritas were wooonderful, but the place was not. Not very fun hanging out atmosphere. Probably great for eating dinner at, though. Then we walked around, walked to the Old Crown (which was not fun, as promised), and started home. Adrienne and I went to Deux Beers and hung out with John and new bartender Devon. That was fun, we were the last ones there, but we got to play Dr. Dre and got free drinks. John attemted to make a cable guy, but thought he'd get crafty and use Ginger Beer, which made it a little bit gross. Oh well. We went to perfect chicken, which was peftect. Mmmmm.
Slept in till like 1130 on Sunday, then started cleaning up my room. Went with Kate and Adrienne to the O2 center (near where Kate works) and saw Monsters Inc. which I absolutely loved. Go see it! Then we ate at Nando's and couldn't grocery shop because Sanisbury's was closed, arrrrgh.
The Net was on TV last night... it was not as good as the other movies I saw this weekend.
Class was typical today, except Robb Spensley was there, which was random. He was visiting Raffi, but it was just so full of Clark in that room, it was strange.
Trying to do my schedule, it's rough.
Need to go home now.
xoxo

Just had a meeting. Exciting stuff, this NHS business. Not feeling too bad today, which is good, but I still think I'm due for a nap.
It's a beautiful day in London.
Have a good weekend!

My boss isn't here. Sam, who I was doing research for earlier this week, isn't here. Well, she might be in the conference room. I saw Mark (the chairman/pres/owner guy) through the window in the door. The blinds are all pulled, which is really unusual. I thought they were having the meeting about the NHS thing today, but maybe Sam and Mark are just going over things. Who knows. But it's almost 1030. It's fine though, I guess. I'm figuring out my courses for the fall. It's going to be so weird to go back to class. I mean, I'm in one class now, but it's 8 of us, and our professor just talking about movies, and then we watch parts of the ones he talks about. I don't know. I guess it's a lot like Clark classes. It's a little less ... intense though. Not that all of my Clark classes are intense, but this one is just even less then they are. Did you get that?
I think I'm not necessarily looking forward to going back, just because of things like my Comm seminar last semester, since I just didn't care about sociolinguistics. Not that it was a bad class or something, it's just a subject I don't care about. And my French class where we weren't taught anything, hardly spoke, and he graded harshly. I dunno.
Next year should be good, except for the fact that I have to take a science course. I should probably just take astronomy like everyone does, butttt I don't care very much about the distance between stars and planets and stuff. If you just learned constellations, I might like that. I kind of want to take biodiversity, even though it has a lab, just because I might find it more interesting. But, it's not being offered in the fall. And then what if it's not offered in the Spring? Plus, my advisor may attack me if I don't get this SP out of the way. :P There is a class called Topics in Contemporary Chemistry, where you talk about all the bad stuff that's in food and the land and about nuclear weapons and stuff. I think that could be really interesting, but I was horrible at Chemistry in high school, and I hated it. And this has a lab 115 - 5 on Fridays. :P Maybe we'll just test dirt for chemicals, though. I could handle that.
I need to go look up some places to stay in Spain! Adrienne is going to be joining us in Malaga on the 28th which should be fun.
Okay, have a good one.

hi!
so i was really late to work today. i had okay'd being an hour late, but i was two hours late. i went to Heathrow with Danielle and Meredith and we got there at 920 instead of 9 like we were planning and there was a giant line for United. I probably should have left when we got there, but I was really afraid they wouldn't be able to take my bag (I don't know why I was). So I waited with them, and soon they called people from their flight to a special counter so they got right through and then we had to say bye, which was really sad, but really, I'll be home in 6 weeks and I go that long without seeing them all the time. I was sososososo glad they visited! It was fun. I feel like out of all my visitors, their trip seemed the quickest, although I think it was the longest (well, tied with the fam). Good times though.
So here I am at work with no work to do. Sam was really happy about everything I did yesterday and said it was really great and helpful, etc etc. Butttt so far she hasn't needed me to do anything today. Lunch is in 45 minutes, do you think it's okay if I go? I need to go home and eat something, because I didn't this morning except for a few spoonfulls of yogurt and granola but then I dumped it out because it was gross because the granola was near the bottom of the box so there was lots and lots of granola dust. YUCK. I hate that. NOT good times. So, yes, I need some food. How else will I get over my cold? Ugh, this cold sucks.

So I've listened to lots of CDs today
David Gray - White Ladder
Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
Piebald - ... Venetian Blinds ...
Hey Mercedes - Every Night Fireworks
New Found Glory - S/T I think
Bruce Springsteen - Best of
now it's my Jawbreaker/JTB mix and next up is the mix from the pikappaphi girls

still putting off phone calls. i've decided that my unfounded fear comes from the Clark Fund. A year of calling and asking strangers for money has made me really fearful of calling strangers at all. Hmm.... but I used to be really good at that job.

oh well.

last night with D&M. I am fighting off a cold. I need a nap.

So Phantom of the Opera was great last night. Although I couldn't sympathize with the Phantom as much as you're intended to (it was the killing!), I still really really liked it. Then we walked to Leicester Square and got more Ben&Jerry's (mmmm!) and then through Covent Garden and down the Strand and Chancery Lane and Gray's Inn Road and then we were home. It was kinda long. It was great though. A tiny bit drizzly but not cold. The second half isn't as great because the buildings aren't as lit or as interesting and nothings open so there really aren't any people, but it was nice.
I can't believe D & M leave tomorrow. Ugh. Then I have no more visitors coming!
I think I'm going to try to hit up some museums this weekend, and maybe buy those Nine West shoes I've been eyeing for two months. Oh, and return those books I bought for work before Adam came. Please please, cross your fingers I can still return them!!!
Things are good . . . I wish I could hang out with the girls today, but no can do. I am working alone though (Sam is working from home today), so I'm going to put off the phone calls I have to make till this afternoon. Partly because I'm just really congested (hack hack sniff sniff).
So, yes. This weekend. I'm going out to all sorts of places. I'm gonna. And I'm not gonna wait for anyone to come with me because then we'll never get anywhere. Plus, it's just kinda nice to do things by yourself sometimes. Maybe I'll see Amelie. Maybe I'll see if anyone wants to go to that ... what is it about movies? I still haven't gone to one alone yet. Someday.
Next weekend is Scotland, which should be good, but the fact that the train tickets were £82 and we're there 3 nights and 4 days, is kind of making me less excited. I'm sure it will be great, I guess it just seems like a lot of money, and what are we going to do? And how will we get around? Maybe I'll look into it. I have Thursday and Friday off, Friday for Easter and Thursday because I was supposed to have class Monday, but class has been cancelled, so I at least have off Thursday - Monday afternoon. I will probably not have work Monday, though, seeing as the entire city pretty much shuts down for Friday - Monday over Easter. Even the pubs!
After Scotland, there are 3 more weekends, the third weekend is our last weekend here. It's amazing, how can there be that little time left? It's okay though. I'm not done with London but I'm getting pretty done with my living situation. Bleck.
Okay, work?

Listening to: David Gray

xoxo

okay i hate my blog. i can't read it, can you read it? argh!
today is over, yeay!
it is 557 and danielle and meredith have not shown up yet, and kurt says they aren't at home. scary. hopefully they just went to a museum or a store or something.
i have to go to budgens for the second time today, because i completely and entirely forgot to buy chicken chargrills for dinner. i suck.
hmm. i'm afraid they'll walk up here, though, and i won't be here... but i guess i've got to get going if we're going to make it to Phantom.
Tomorrow is Hump Day, which always makes me happy.
xoxo

why do i hate using the phone so much? what is my problem? i think half of it is being american. i mean, that the people i'm going to call ... aren't. you know? ack. everyone has been really nice so far. also, i'm afraid of talking really loudly, although there is one woman i couldn't even rival in decible level on the phone.
procrastination . . .

almost lunchtime!

I saw a bootlegged copy of Ocean's Eleven last night. It wasn't a bad copy or anything, Kate's boyfriend got it from the internet so I thought parts might be missing or something but it was just a copy of a screener. I liked it, except for the very end, which I thought was unnecessary.

Work is okay, I got to go buy some papers earlier, scan some stuff, put some stuff in powerpoint ... now I'm calling places about newspaper distribution boxes. Hmmm.

It's lunchtime, and I have errands to run.

So I'm at work. And I have to make phone calls and I hate making phone calls. Ugh.

So I was supposed to go to Paris this weekend, but I didn't. It was very sad. We got up Saturday, all packed, and headed to Waterloo, very early in the morning. Very few trains offer student rates, apparently, and the student rate is half of the adult rate, so we very much wanted it. None of the combos worked out for Saturday - Sunday, or even Sunday - Monday, so Danielle and Meredith went today and are coming back tomorrow afternoon. Last night they were trying to figure out how to get refunds because they realized how short their time in London would be, but they got a Paris book and got excited, and I haven't seen them since 7 a.m. so I'm assuming they're in France!
Tomorrow night is Phantom, which should be fun.
I did nothing with my morning off, I slept till 11. I didn't feel very well when I woke up, just real tired and not great - I think I'm fighting a cold :P
Work is over so I think it's time to hit Budgen's. It feels like a frozen pizza night.
xoxo

so danielle and meredith have arrived safely! i was a little under the weather today and hung around the flat while they went to the tate modern. i was productive, though, i fixed the problem with my credit card, tried calling steph, talked to my mom, called a bunch of theatres about tickets, etc. We are going to see The Phantom Of The Opera on Tuesday night for £11/each. It's restricted view, but as we found out with My Fair Lady, it will probably be fine. Yeay! Then we went to Strada for dinner, mmmmm, Budgen's for Vienetta, then to Deux Beers. Let me express my continued infatuation with John. Argh. I hate it. He's wonderful.
So, tomorrow morning guess where we're going!!!! PARIS it is a dream come true. BFFs from home, and Paris with them. Aaaaah. I love it.
xoxoxo

what is up with my blog? who knows, but it is messed up. maybe i'll try a different template for awhile.

went out for thai for lunch today. i had sweet and sour pork which was really weird for me, since i haven't eaten pork since i was like 14. granted, it was all covered in sweet and sour anyways. it was the best sounding thing on their special lunch menu - which is £3.80. It was fun.

there is something seriously wrong with my blog!!!

andrew just gave me back my evaluation sheet. it looks great, yeay!

so i don't know if my day for design will ever come. i did some work on a vodafone page yesterday, which basically consisted of moving stuff around to a new position, according to a sketch :P

no work tomorrow!

listening to JimmyEatWorld.
Lately I've felt the need to sort of list all kinds of things I like. For example, my top 5 favorie movies. That is a very very very difficult thing to do. There are lots of movies I love, for all different reasons. Plus, I always feel like I'm forgetting something. All I've come up with are my top 3, in no particular order, being: It's a Wonderful Life, American Beauty, Memento.
I'm going to start a running list on the right of songs I looooove.

I worked - yes worked until 7 pm last night, except for a scant 15 minutes when I thought everything was done, and I just talked to Dad on IM. Oh well, hopefully the extra time will pay off in a day off next week? I'm going to try to arrange that. Like, all of Tuesday off in exchange for me staying late, and I'll stay till 4 next Friday or something? We'll see.
I'm waiting for some hi res images to come in, so I have to keep checking Andrew's email. We need them by 12. It's 11:12. Hm. I somehow doubt that this will happen.
I went to Sainsbury's last night, which is good because now I can eat for the next few days. It was also nice just to be out, and be out alone. I think I need to do that more often.

I was here (work) late last night reading cnn.com and talking to my dad and stuff, and I was glad I stayed, Andrew filled me in on what to do today, and then told me about real, live design work from scratch I'll be starting this week. Sweet. One of the jobs is actually a private job, and I could get paid for it. You can't beat that.
John came by last night, for a couple minutes, to say he had just gotten the note about breakfast with all of us Sunday, so he would have come but a. was up all night and b. didn't know about it till yesterday. So. It was very normal, so. Yeah.
Did nothing else last night, really, sat in flat 5 and talked to Kate and Erin for hours.
Buying a ticket to Barcelona today - THAT is exciting.

So I haven't written since last Thursday. I DID end up getting the afternoon off (the warmest, clearest, most beautiful afternoon I have seen in a long time). I took Lori and Christy to the Surprise for a pint, then to Camden Market. We met up with Beth and Vinny and had a FANTASTIC dinner at this little italian place off of Oxford Street. It was cheap and soooo goood. Went back to the flat, then to Deux Beers. At the end of the night, this guy we see there all the time was explaining exactly what "shagging" means. It was amusing. It was home for all us sleepy girls, and I worked Friday morning, and L&C took off to Oxford. Did nothing with my Friday afternoon except laundry and talking to Bart. Friday night was Shane McGowan. Here is my review from an email I wrote to friends:

Then we stopped by Deux Beers to say hi to John and Molly, and came home. Then I went on a walk with Abby and we went to Al's Bar, which apparently was charging a cover, but we got in for free, had a SoCo and lime, walked around more and came home. Al's was weird. There was a DJ, no where to dance (although some guys were trying), and really really really weird people. For example, an 80 year old man with big like blue blockers on dressed in a suave suit chatting up an early 30's guy who seemed very 80's new wave / stereotypically gay. Oh, and this man at the bar was putting beer in his mouth, spitting it back in his cup, then putting his glass to his eye and like, washing it with his beer. It was disgusting and very strange. An amusing end to the evening.
Saturday afternoon I went with Bart, Adrienne, Matt, and Kate to Portobello road market. Definitely some cool stuff there. Came home, and L&C got there about 5. We went to Strada for dinner, and it was great, a bottle of the house white, I had the linguine again, it was soooo good. We went to Budgen's to get a few Archer's and a Viennetta for dessert. It was great. We headed off to Holborn and walked around checking things out. Spent some time at this George's place that was open till 1, wandered around more, but by that time everything was closing. We went to this weird casino place, that was amusing, then it was back to George's then to Dionysus for chips mmmmm. The twenty minute walk home wasn't bad, and it was a really good night. Stayed up talking to Lori, and went to bed.
A very sleepy Sunday morning. Scrambled eggs and juice and toast and then Lor had to leave. It was saaad. Sat around for quite awhile Sunday afternoon. Went to Paperchase, then to Easy to use up the time Adam left me with, but I ended up getting more and staying for 2 hours. Last night Kate and I went to see In the Bedroom which you should really see if you haven't already. It was fantastic. I saw Brad Renfro get killed twice in one week, in two different movies. Tom Wilkinson was reeeally great, as was Sissy Spacek. See it. You'll understand why it's nominated for best picture.
Take care...

okay, steve just left . . . .

booooo-ooooored
i mean, i'm not entirely bored, i'm just playing with stupid internet stuff, but i just keep thinking of the fact that lori is in my flat and that if i'm going to do nothing all afternoon .... maybe i should just not come back. i think i might ask steve about it when i leave for lunch, but i don't want to look like a slacker - but i also don't want to waste the day - - it is SO beautiful out today - - and WARM, it's woooonderful

I am 50% British, just like
Hugh Grant
Thought you drive a British sports car you are most likely to have a blowout in LA.

Take the Brit Quiz at
www.darrenlondon.tripod.com/britquiz1.htm
Quiz written by Daz

See what Care Bear you are.
Soooo there's a quiz for everything... and I'm taking all of them.

Wowie! You are Lumos! You're a lot of fun and pretty damn cool, and you do things your own way. You may often be in a fantasy world, but that's just fine with you! Most likely you're also a big Harry Potter fan (who isn't, right?).
___
Haha, that's the best! I LIKE that font, too!

Good Morning!
I am a very happy girl... Adam came to visit and left yesterday, and then at 9 a.m. today, Lori and her friend Christy arrived. Can you beat that? I don't think so. I'm looking forward to a great night out with them, and Abby, tonight - and a great day AND night Saturday. We will mos def stop at Deux Beers tonight (which Lori got lost and walked by this morning), where I will ask John to hang out. I will. I'll do it. I promise. If I don't, I will kick my own ass everyday.
Last night was low - key, just hung around the flat. I watched this really really good show called "how to be a gardener." I have big plans for the backyard in Lburg... but I don't think mums and dads will be psyched about it, haha. The show was just great because it made everything so simple, and the garden it turned into was beautiful (it's actually shot over several months so you really see the progression.) It wasn't all formal and only for experienced gardeners, which was nice. Gardens are so big here. You don't have a backyard, you have a garden. Mmmmm I want a garden! My begonia is currently full of fresh new blooms, so I guess that will have to satisfy me. I enjoy taking care of it. I think I'm going to buy it some food.
Tomorrow is Friday. A week from tomorrow, I have no work, AND Danielle and Meredith are coming to visit. Could life BE any better? I feel so loved!
I cut my hair last night. No one will notice. I got all kinds of compliments on it yesterday, people at work, Kurt, etc., all thought I got it cut. Nope, it was just clean(!) and I kinda was kicking some bangs.
Okay.... I have no work to do... Andrew is at a photo shoot, and I'm supposed to volunteer myself to Steve, but he's got zilch for me so far.

Strawberry: 30/100 Pear: 0/100 Banana: 30/100 Tomato: 25/100 Lemon: 10/100

Take the What Fruit Are You? test by Ellen and Aaron!

Finally saw Bully at 920 last night (the 7 was sold out). It was good. I mean, it was horrible, but it was a good film. I think it's one of the saddest, most disgusting things I've ever seen. The worst part is it's based entirely on something that really happened, it's even filmed in the same spots.
Good, though. Sorry to you guys at home, you'll never be able to see this version - as far as I've read it's coming out on video in the US - all censored/edited due to pressure from Blockbuster.
I hate that.

work is done for today, aaahhhh
we didn't get to Leicester Square till 945 last night, so we're going back for the 7 o'clock tonight. i think Christy and Amanda are coming with me, which is weird.
I can't believe Adam is already leaving tomorrow, and I reeealllly can't believe Lori is coming in on Thursday. This is crazy.
maybe we can go to DeuxBeers after the movie tonight.... haha
Got the Shane tickets from my mom today (accidentally sent to my house), which rocks, because now we don't have to worry about duplicates or aaaannnything.

new blog layout! AND posts are marked with London - time
listening to "The Story of the Clash, Volume 1"
looking for pictures for visuals/ideas for a photo shoot on thursday. they're using the models i picked! will i get to go? i don't know... but looking at this stuff, i think he probably won't suggest it because he probably thinks i wouldn't want to get up early enough to be in Brighton at 945 a.m. ... which i might not want to be. haha. maybe i'll get the day off? hmmmm
back to work
i'm lost in the supermarket

252 p.m.
I've been here almost an hour ... no work to do yet . . . Andrew is coming over in "5 minutes" to tell me about something to work on. I wonder if it will be okay to ask to take a half day tomorrow and work a full day Friday? I feel like once the tyre thing gets going I'll have lots of work to do, Steve is just retouching it now or something like that so we'll see.
Last Wednesday we had John over for dinner, which was fun. He is really fun, and really interesting. He stayed for Sex and the City, which was amusing. The first episode was a sad one.
I spent Thursday afternoon running around the city for work, trying to find 6 more copies of the "Student Veggie Grub Guide" for NatWest's promotion. I only found one of the right version and 5 of the old version. I speed walked around London for 3 hours. At least is was pretty nice out. When I got back to the office, Andrew was telling me about what I needed to do Friday and ended up saying I didn't need to come in, which was great. I actually went in for a few minutes, since I live two minutes away, and printed stuff out. It should have taken 15 minutes but things got messed up and I was there almost an hour, so I was late too meet Adam at Heathrow, but he was only there for 10 minutes before I got there, which was good.
Friday afternoon we just kinda hung out, Adam went to sleep and I went to Sainsbury's with the flat 5 girls and their visitors. After dinner, we hit Deux Beers, where lots of people were dancing on the bar (of course). I was nervous for them, but they were okay. All the bartenders that saw us fall last week were up there - even Mike was up there with John. People kept half falling off - like when they tried to get down, they'd try to enthusiastically to jump from bar stool to floor and would tumble over - but they were all okay. We stayed till the bitter end - songs like bye bye miss american pie and midnight train to georgia, and the lights came on. We went to Tinseltown after and I had a great shake. Mmmmm.
Saturday Adam and I went with A, K, E, and Helena and Abby to the Tate Modern. It was great, I loooved it. They had a Pollock, lots of other good stuff, and this really cool pharmacy installation. We parted ways after and Adam and I walked over the newly reopened (and now safe) Millenium Bridge, which takes you from Tate to St. Paul's, then it's only about 15 minutes home or so. Got fish and chips at the Golden Fish bar with Bart and Adam. Yum. Met Melissa Shannon herself, and her boyfriend, at the Baker Street tube station and went to Raffi's show. It was pretty good, we got to sit in a private alcove. It was Clark galore and kinda weird. Left after his second set and went to check out the Old Crown - sister pub of Deux Beers, and supposedly more fun (as told to us by John, who we were supposed to go see there). It was closing down by the time we got there (1145?) and so were lots of other things. We walked around a lot, up Charing Cross Rd. and stuff, and home. It was fun. There were tons of people out! I realized I need to go to those areas more often.
Yesterday we got up way early and left at 9 for Victoria. Took the bus to Salisbury, then a connecting bus to Stonehenge. Four hours of bus, yes. Had 30 or 40 minutes at Stonehenge, which was better than I thought. I didn't really care about going, but then Adam mentioned wanting to go, and the other girls were going, and Bart and Mike went to. It was a big group. I got excited when we pulled up to it. You have to like pay to get inside this fenced area, but you got an audio guide and it was only £3 or so, and I think it was worth it. I maybe could have used 20 more minutes, just to listen to more of the guide or whatever, but it was good. Then we took the bus back, including a 1 hour layover in Southhampton. There was a lot of bus. Adam left us at King's Cross to explore, and I did homework, called mom and dad, and Danielle. Looks like we might be going to Paris in two weeks! I can't believe it.
We've got an outing planned with Raffi and Ben Coakley tonight, which should be fun. Dinner and Bully or the iMax.
Have fun...
xoxo