I'm so stuffy give me a scone ^.^

Yay for Tuesdays! One of these Tuesdays I'm gonna sleep in so late that the noon fire alarm test wakes me up. On that day I will likely be grouchy. Today was not that day.

Today I woke up and finished my essay! I am 100 words above the minimum. Yay me! And I know a lot more about Irish faerie folk than I did before, which I guess is always good. So I skipped lunch to finish this paper since I was on a roll. Then I decided that since it's Fat Tuesday, I deserve a pastry. So I went out to campus to get one. It was surprisingly warm outside, despite the gusting wind, so I didn't have to wear my hat. In fact... warm day, strong wind... oh yes, billowing about campus like a specter of the darkness in men's hearts, I descended upon the cafe.

But first... remember me saying how the Ents wall was sort of depressing with nothing on it?....

I guess all I had to do was mention it : P

So anyway, I went to Cafe Vert, and they have this afternoon special where you can get a pot of tea and a scone with jam and clotted cream for 1.75, which I thought was a good deal, so I did. The tea was really good - English style with milk. The scone was also tasty, and clotted cream, though it sounds disgusting, is actually really good. Altogether, a most satisfactory snack.

I went to sign up for a London trip this Sunday after that. For 16 pounds I got transport into London as well as a day pass for the tube and the busses. Excellent. The trip is to go celebrate Chinese New Year, and I think I will be meeting Lisa there so that I won't be wandering around alone : P

Next was a stop at the Computer desk to find out how to change my comp to play region two dvds... Star Wars, here I come. I was gonna print off my syllabi while I was at it, but the lab was too full and I didn't feel like finding another.

Then I headed across the square to ask the Post Office about box sizes, and the lady there had no clue, so she told me to come back in an hour. So then I had to kill an hour. I went over to the bank to see if I could get cash without using the ATM, and therefore without a charge. I cannot. I am going to have to get some more cash before London though. Then I puttered about the bookstore for a bit, then wandered over to the lit lounge to do some reading. After an hour I went back to the post office and asked about the size of packages and found out that it does not matter, as long as I can carry it down there. Cool.

I went back to the dorm to do some more reading and some chatting, and went out again later to get a good dinner in preparation for fasting tomorrow. I can't believe tomorrow's the first day of Lent already. I plan to exercise daily, and wear my retainers every night, and give up cracking my knuckles. This is ambitious, but is definitely for the good.

Tomorrow there's an Ash Wednesday Mass at 6. Other than that, just one class. I plan to spend the rest of the day writing... we'll see if that actually happens : P

In which two of the mysteries of Essex are revealed.

I meant to post this a few hours ago. Seriously. I keep forgetting what I'm doing.

Today was my two-lectures-in-a-row day. Myth class was entertaining as usual. At the end of class we watched scenes from an Italian opera, Le Orfeo I believe, or possibly La. It was interesting because the producers found the stage directions and machinery from the original production, way back in the 1500s or something, and they reproduced it exactly. Even the orchestra was wearing period dress (if you just thought "Even the orchestra... is beautiful", props to you. Hee. Props. And I'm talking about theatre. Ok, sorry, back to your regularly scheduled blog.). Anyway, they really do pick the actors based on voice. My goodness. Orpheus was... pudgy. Not overweight, just... soft. Ah well. It was pretty neat anyway. And in the first scene, they are celebrating the marriage of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the two actors walk on stage, and they're holding hands, but they just look... wooden. And miserable. Yeah, good voices though.

Anyway, the next lecture was the one for which I had stayed up reading Mrs. Dalloway last night. The lecturer though, simply gave us a biography of Virginia Woolf and did not talk about Mrs. Dalloway at all. At the end of lecture we watched the beginning of the movie Mrs Dalloway, which I felt utterly failed to capture the essence of the book, but then, it was only the first ten minutes.

After lecture, I was very tired, so I grabbed a stuffed croissant on the way back to the room and ate it on the way so that I could nap immediately upon returning. I also didn't want to face the kitchen just yet. After a rather ambiguous nap, I got up, did some reading, some writing, and then remembered that I probably had actual school work to do. I picked up Life: A User's Manual and began wading through it. It's quite an entertaining book, in fact, but very very long and the rest of the class read it last semester. I am just trying to catch up.

After, and meanwhile, I had a rather amusing chat with Emily about D&D, among other things, and this is where I stand now.

Oh, also, I have discovered, I believe, why everyone calls Chris "Manbeast". His last name is Manby. That explains so much. I don't think there was ever a guy who the word "manbeast" described less. Chris is a very polite, softspoken, stuttering politics major who writes fantasy on the side... manbeast indeed.

Also cleared up is the mysterious "Ents" sign, reproduced here for those of you who do not recall:


It is apparantly short for "Entertainment". A little anticlimactic, I thought, and certainly depressing for there are no advertisements for entertainment adorning this wall, though the sign itself certainly entertained me for a while...

Anyway, I shall now continue reading my user's manual. Tomorrow is fat Tuesday! eat a donut for me : )

Today I also took Pictures!

This is the view from one of my windows. Those are the North Houses.


This is the view from my other window.


This is what I see when I walk in my door. Only usually the curtains are closed.


This is a view from standing in front of my desk: The wardrobe and my insane-asylum bed.


Yes.