e_clare

It's delightful to be home. Delightful, and a bit dull already. It's clear I'm not going to get the sort of hours I wanted at the movie theatre, which means I'll have lots of time to spend mooching free movies off of my employer. (There's that holiday spirit!)

I've been going through my 150-some digital photos from the past four months -- and damn, some of them are bad. It's amazing how you can't really tell how bad a picture will turn out when you see it on a 1" x 2" LED screen. Things look so much cooler when they're that small -- and a lot sharper, too. Oh well. This is why all the important pictures -- Oslo, people dressed up at events, some of the house -- are on the trusty 35mm. Here's hoping those, at least, turn out nicely.

Regressed a few years last night to hang out with people from high school: met them at Stauf's, moved from the coffee shop to Meijer at 11:30 (I can't get over how big stuff is here, nor how late it's open), then from the superstore to Waffle House, and after Waffle House, two hours of Simpsons Jeopardy. There's something about surreptitiously passing around a bottle of peppermint schnapps in the car, and running around Meijer late at night, that makes me feel much younger -- and not necessarily in a good way. At any rate, it was worth it to get to see people -- even if it was an inescapable reminder of how little things change in Grandview.

Looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. [To-do list] Have to decide if I want to go back East with Dad on the 31st, or work the extra two days and leave on the 2nd or 3rd; have to do laundry tonight. What a thrilling life I do lead.

Hooray! Exams are over! For all I've been insanely stressed out all semester, this exam week was the most relaxed exam week I've ever had -- including high school. It just didn't seem to matter that much: I know what I know, and based on my last papers, my professors are prepared to reward me well for very little of what I know. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but whatever. Stick a fork in it, etc.

Best of luck to everybody still slogging through finals hell at home (and even more luck to those who haven't yet entered the hell). I'm off to do laundry and possibly (finally?) go to the Baths.

The official ASE Thanksgiving extravaganza was tonight, lovingly catered by local company Strawberry Field. The turkey was disappointing, the stuffing was bland, the potatoes weren't mashed == but it was all good, because BR brought wine. BR is my hero. I had far too much wine, and went home early-ish to help Roommate with her Shakespeare paper (creating a 'prompt copy' of a script for a scene in a Shakespeare play -- complete w/ stage directions and tech cues -- whee!). now we're at Nelson House so she can finish, and I can ostensibly finish my reading before going to the Huntsman for belated natal celebrations for Jeff and Edwin A. Yay!

Although plus de l'alcool ce soir is probably not a good plan. 9:30 class, plus unread copy of The Tempest for said class = a rather bad thing. Oh well.

PS. Am going to Norway for the weekend. Happy Thanksgiving to me. :)

PPS. Am rejected from Junior Show writers' board. Dammit. you'd think that after Dembowski went to the trouble of interviewing me over AIM (albeit after some re-negotiations of the time), they'd be more inclined to include me. Am I hurt? Maybe a little. *pout* I can be funny, dammit. And I don't have time to stage manage; otherwise, I totally would. I'll have to find something else to do over J-term -- but I think I missed registration for classes. Whoops.

(you knew it was coming, eventually.)

I'll try to keep this short but eloquent. And maybe even go for funny, although I might be too mad about it.

After many, many seasons (what are they up to now -- 12?) of The Real World, we're all highly aware of what happens when you stick seven (or nine) people between the ages of 18 and 22 in a house for a semester: people get pissed off.

People also get pissed, which leads to their housemates becoming pissed off.

( in which people are loud, and dishes are dirty )

The last straw was this morning: I came downstairs to discover that someone decided it would be reeeeally funny to turn all of the furniture in the dining room upside-down. And there were still dishes in the sink. The good news is that Murph was already awake, and had set some of the chairs upright before I came in. I had some warning, which was a bonus -- otherwise, I would have needed to storm up the stairs and punch somebody in the face. As it was, I got out some of my anger by moving the comfy chairs back, and aggressively wiping down the table. And now, post-rant, I feel even better.

We will be having a small family meeting about this, however. Considering that we're getting into paper-writing mode again, this will emphatically not happen next weekend.

PS. Look! I found a political Python icon that I stashed months ago in my Photobucket account. I like.

In other news, I'm wearing my tan sneakers with black trousers, and feel very English today.

Subject heading of the e-mail from Mom, yesterday afternoon: the end of the world.

My internal optimist (who does come out from time to time, fleetingly) is inclined to disagree. She wants to believe that everything will turn out all right, in the end.

Then there's my housemate who voted for Bush. (I know!) My jaw hit the floor when he revealed -- while watching BBC election coverage -- that he voted for Bush. This is a smart kid, raised by Democrats, lifelong resident of New York City -- and he voted for Bush.

Never mind that he disagrees with the president on every other major issue (pro-choice, favors gay marriage, supports stem cell research). He voted for Bush because of one thing: fear.

Okay. I'll be nice. "Security." He's justifiably worried about the safety of his family in the City. In his opinion, Bush is the only one to keep the country safe. Is this why he won, ultimately? Because Kerry doesn't seem "safe" enough?

So there. I know someone who voted for Bush, and we're still friends. A regular model for tolerance and cross-political bliss, here. I'll admit, it made me question the strength and conviction behind my own vote. Raised Democrat; vote Democrat. Don't worry about who it is, as long as it's not Bush. I feel good about my Kerry choice now, but I have to respect JM for following his gut on this one and developing his own opinion -- often I feel like I'm blindly following my parents and other people, politically. Resolution: become more informed and politically active. (But I'm still counting on banannagoats to help get me started there.)

Fun facts about Kerry in Ohio, courtesy of the Columbus Dispatch.

• He took giant Cuyahoga County [main city: Cleveland] by nearly 220,000 votes.

• He won second-biggest Franklin County [That's my county!] by 8 percentage points.

• He kept Bush’s winning margin in GOP Hamilton County [main city: Cincinnati] to 24,683 votes, well below the 60,000-vote standard.

• 5.6 million, or 70 percent, of Ohio’s record 8 million registered voters cast ballots

Oh. Crap. "[a] proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution to ban gay marriage, approved by voters Tuesday, helped turn out Bush’s base."

Yeah, optimism? Gone again.

London was excellent. We got the bad part out of the way early -- wandering around a 1-block radius at Victoria Station for 90 minutes, trying to find kmmatero and kakloss -- and it was all up-hill from there. Spent lots of time wandering around the West End, over both days. Saturday night's activity was the musical Blood Brothers -- one of those that sounds good in theory, but sounds super-cheesy on-stage. So cheesy, y'all: synthesizer, gratuitous saxophone, and the most heavy-handed symbolism and acting style that I've ever seen on a professiona stage. (Seriously.) Still, it managed to be entertaining. Plus we had rush tickets, so our good, orchestra-level seats were fairly cheap.

Afterwards, we were distressed to find a lack of available pubs (in the theatre district, no less!). Although we knew that pubs in our respective towns generally close at 11 pm, we foolishly hoped that London pubs might be open later. Alas, no luck; we ended up getting fruit juice and HobNobs (yay, McVitie's!) from a convenience store and going back to the hotel.

Sunday was a lovely day for wandering around, some more. We started off on the south bank, passing the London Eye and the National Theatres complex (including the National Film Theatre and the Royal National Theatre). We spent about 2 hours in the Tate Modern (enough to do just one floor, or two galleries) before hunger set in. I'm definitely going back to the Tate Modern (and should probably check out the other Tate, too), possibly when Mom comes to visit in November.

After the Tate, we grabbed a leisurely lunch at Pizza Express (classier than it sounds, I promise), and rushed past Shakespeare's Globe, some cathedral, and the London Dungeon in order to make our way across town to Latchmere, where one of Kristy's UMass friends is interning at a wee theatre company. The play of the evening was Fishbowl, an Argentinian play that tells the story of two prep school boys and their fucked-up relationship. It was a really intense show (very much an actor's show; three elderly audience members walked out 3/4 of the way through), and we spent the rest of the evening breaking things down over dinner and drinks.

Only one paper stands between me and my mid-semester break. Whoopee! Too bad I still need to write it.

And by write, I mean research. The next 48 hours are going to be fun.

From a reply to a comment I left in neuilly's journal:
"Hey, I heard you got just a wee bit drunk last night. And that you felt the need to tell everyone that that's the most drunk you've ever been...excellent!"

Not only did I feel the need to share...but this moment is captured on film, and guaranteed to make it onto the final, edited tape. Brilliant.

*facepalm*

Best part of the night? Editing JM's paper while still intoxicated. Hee!

And my mother wonders why I'd rather she didn't read my blog...lovely how it's turned into a chronicle of my slightly drunken escapades. Going back to MHC is going to be very interesting.

Quite a nice weekend overall, despite the massive amount of work that I (should) have been doing. A brief Complaint, and then the Happy Stuff, in Easy to Read Daily Highlight format:

Complaint: I /hate/ dishes. I've spent at least 90 minutes today washing and putting away various dishes--as I seem to do every day. I know, I know: 9 people, lots of food, lots of dishes. But it feels like there are very few of us who actually take the time to put the clean dishes (and more importantly, silverware) back. The dish rack ain't that big, folks--and while we're on the subject, it'd be great if people could make sure that a dish is completely free of crustiness before they set it to dry in said rack. *sigh*

Happy!Friday: Blenheim Palace is way cool, and the gardens are way huge. Three hours is way too much time to spend there. Letters from alcavana, ejberman, kmmatero and a wedding announcement from lkmaxwell--eeeeee! Housemate Jeff is v. jealous.

Happy!Saturday: phone call from kmmatero--warm fuzzies! Jeff demands a pie at dinner; roommate Sian starts looking at recipes to see what we could conceivably make. 10 minutes later, she's atop the garden wall out back, picking apples off our neighbour's tree. In the dark. I collect what she's picked, have a brief case of hysterics and drop them all when startled by a camera flash, but recover enough to help bake 2 enormous apple crisps. Mmmm. We then spend an hour going through cookbooks, marking recipes and making a list for shopping tomorrow. (Nerds. I love it!)

Sunday (meh): Strategically planned a visit to the Nelson House computers during the dinner hour. Had place all to myself, and could mess about on internet to heart's content. Only real sadness: nobody online at home to talk to. :( (I'm not really addicted. I could stop at any time, I swear.)

Our fabulous, but far too short, week in Oxford is drawing to a close. The last big event is a 'formal dinner' with the tutors and ASE staff tonight, and then we're back on a bus to Bath tomorrow morning by 9:30, when only a brief stop at Blenheim Castle and a two-hour bus ride will stand between me and my clean clothes.

I wish there was more time to explore; there are so many cool little side streets that I just noticed today while out wandering. I want to shop, and go to pubs, and just wander around the different colleges. However, my wallet will be very happy to be back in Bath, and just spending money on groceries instead of dinner out every night.

But oh, the dinners...from the authentic Italian (best pizza EVER, and homemade tiramisu for dessert) on Friday to last night's Indian extravaganza (they just kept bringing out plates and plates of food)...it's all been fabulous. Even Pizza Hut was good on Tuesday (free soda refills are not so easily had in this country). And our sack lunches? Some quality baguettes, yo. Brie w/ mango chutney is my new favourite combination.

Wow. How obvious is it that we've still got two hours until dinner? Time to hit up the Cadbury's vending machine again...