Stuck in the Library

I’m holding myself captive in the library until I make it through this stack of books and see if I can find something to write about for the next 11 months.  Choosing a topic is proving to be harder than I thought, but it is early and I have another 4 or so weeks to think about it until something is due.

Any ways, life is thrilling as ever here in P-town.  Making some friends here and there.  Learning some things.  Doing a lot of walking and biking.  Lots of time to think about everything.  No complaints.

That’s all for now.  Will write again soon my friends.  Peace and love.

Alive and well

I’m in Preston!  And I survived last night!  I’m not sure how I survived it but I did and felt fine this morning.  Woot.  Apologies to those of you who I may have called or texted.  I’m sure it wasn’t pretty.  The jager bombs were forced on me and I there was nothing I could do about it.  It’s really amazing what I accomplished under those circumstances too.  I managed to hang up all of my wash on the drying racks, order a burrito, hung up all my wet clothes, reheat the burrito and remembered to lock the front door.  I mean I may have fallen off my bike and been unable to put a coherent sentence together  but I still did work.  Yeah.

In other news, I found my new drinking hole!  Black Horse Inn.  The bar staff was really nice (too nice) and they’ve got some good stuff on tap.  If any of you ever come to visit, I’ll be sure to take you there and we’ll avoid the jager bombs.  The building IS beautiful.  The bar has some amazing craftsmanship to it.  And the tile floor has hop flowers on it.  I really like that bit the best.

Preston is not too bad.  I think I’ll be quite happy here for the next year.  I’ll put some pictures up as soon as I remember where I put my cord for my camera.  It was fairly nice weather the first two days here, but last evening the rain arrived.  It’s been pouring ever since.  I was completely soaked last night (I think) and my pants are completely soaked today.  So I’ll be buying rain pants today.  Sitting in wet pants all day is not really what I want to be doing for the next couple years.

I also wanted to thank everyone for all the kind words and encouragement over the last few weeks.  It’s been nice and I like knowing I’ve got a great network of support around me.  Things are all going to work out just fine.  And if anyone needs to get in touch with me, please do it via internet.  My phone is about to die and I have no way to charge it.  It’s also for the best as it’s probably going to cost a billion dollars for all the texting and calling I’ve been doing.

Alright friends, I’m going to head out, get some rain pants and maybe catch a bit of the Chelsea v. Blackpool match.  TTYL.

Visa: yes!

Patricking the UK. You'll take it and you'll like it.

Yeah, I’m sure most of you have heard from me today that after 4 weeks of waiting my student visa has finally been approved and I’ll be on my way to the UK on Wednesday.  Six and a half years after finishing up at Richmond University in London I get to return to the UK as a student once again.  Originally I would have loved to go to school university in London (and I tried), but I am looking forward to exploring another corner of the country before (hopefully) moving down to London next year.  I’ve been packing up my things today and flipping through some of my own journals.  Pretty amazing how long I’ve been trying to do this and that is now all coming true.  It was a long road to get to this place.  Lots of different attempts to make it happen and now finally one stuck.  And really it came at just the right time in my life.  I couldn’t have written a better script.  I’m so blessed and grateful for all that I have received.

So after a long lay over in London, a flight to Manchester, a train ride to Preston, a taxi to pick up Dilly and a ride from my new roommate flatmate I’ll get into my new place sometime Thursday evening.  Let’s hope I survive the journey with all the shit I’ll be lugging around. I packed one suitcase this evening and before I knew it, it was 45 lbs.  It wasn’t even full!  Look forward to seeing some pictures of me with all my crap.  Oh and it’s supposed to rain in Preston on Thursday.  Me, being the total genius I am, doesn’t own a raincoat any more.   It’s going to be a shit show for sure.  As soon as I get there I will be sending out contact info.  I should have a UK phone mobile by the weekend so you all can call me.  And if you don’t want to pay to talk to me, you can IM or skype me. If you don’t have that contact info, just email me and I’ll give you it.

Ok, must get to bed.  Have a long 72 hours to get through!

#31 Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I had a few slow weeks on getting this book read.  But I think I managed to read about 400 pages of it in the last 24 hours, so I more than made up for it.  Once I got into the plot I was completely hooked and needed to finish it to be able to do anything else.  Girl with the Dragon Tattoo isn’t necessarily a book I’d normally pick up, but I’m glad my cousin John sent it to me.  And I think Tera is also happy about it as she just finished reading the 3rd book in the series after borrowing this one from me.  It was really engaging and I enjoyed the characters very much.  It’s fun to try and figure the mystery out to some extent before it is revealed.  I feel like I’m getting better at reading (“reading”) murder mysteries.  I mean everything seems so easy after reading Harry Potter, which is the toughest mystery type series I’ve ever read.

Anyways, I liked it and once you get into the book, it’s a quick read.  Now I’m stuck for the night without a book to read.  Guess I’ll thumb through a magazine.  Or just pass out.  Yeah, just pass out.

In Sunnywoodside.

There’s some confusion on where I actually am right now.  Postal code says Woodside.  The park across the street begs to differ.  It proudly says Sunnyside Gardens Park.  Either way, it’s QNS.  I guess if you keep having to bump your flight to the UK, Queens New York is the next logical place to be.

I showed up here late on Tuesday. I spent the first two days at the US Open just a few stops away from where I am staying with my brother and his family.   Wow.  So amazing to walk around in an area and see so many talented tennis players.  I went to one women’s tennis tournament in Phoenix while I was in college and that was awesome.  This took it to a whole new level.  I feel so lucky to have been able to see tennis for 2 days in a row.   Some of the big names I watched play were Venus Williams, James Blake, Robin Soderling (one of my faves), Andy Murray, Caroline Wozniaki (another fav), Taylor Dent and John Isner.  Oh and some guy named Roger.  I can’t remember his last name.  It was so incredible.  I will say that none of the matches were super duper thrilling.  They were all rather predictable and there were no upsets that I saw.  It didn’t matter though.  I still saw the best tennis the world has to offer.  All for only $50 each day.  A total bargain in my opinion considering I spent at least 8 hours on the ground each day.

I’m not sure what’s going to be shakin in QNS the next few days.  Guess just hanging with the family.  My brother Rob is supposed to be back on Monday afternoon, so I hope to see him then.  He’s fun.

Yeah, don’t ask me about the status of my visa.  It’s a sore spot.  Let’s just go on pretending like this is how it has been planned the whole time.  I HOPE (hope hope hope hope) to be leaving next Saturday.  That’s when I am now scheduled to be pushing off.  Gah.  It’s really frustrating and wakes me in the middle of the night.  It’s not that it won’t happen, because it will (lots of money has already been processed by me and the school).  I just don’t know when.   That is life I guess.

So yeah.  I should be posting pictures sometime soon on here and maybe on facebook too.  Look forward to that.  Alright.  Time to finish my beer, pull out the couch and hit the sack.  It’s a bit of a windy night here in Queens.  I like the rustling of the leaves out front on the huge London Plane trees.  I didn’t have that sound in Bend.  Quite calming.  Good night.