Friday Night Lights

.....vodka and diet tonic water (get it...Friday Night "Lights"...DIET tonic water...). I'm finally down to the last serving. It's lasted a really long time though. Seems as though the habit is getting to be staying in on a Friday night with a vodka tonic and some ironing. Tonight's no different.

What do you guys think about me just marrying somebody in order to get UK residency? (and thus am able to work and possibly get student loans from UK banks [my credit isn't jacked up here like it is in the US])

...not really seriously considering it right now, but it is one of my backup plans. And green cards are a valuable commodity here for trading purposes. There are tons of businesspeople who'd love to be able to work in the US as well as already being able to work in the UK/EU.

It's been a rough evening.

I need to go home and recharge my batteries. I miss my family.

I was thinking earlier about how it seems like I can go about three months or so before I need to either go home or have somebody from home visit. Never used to need vacations before. Then I figured it out: this is the first time I've lived and worked in the same place. Every other job has been separate from home. That way, it's my decision whether or not I bring my work home with me. Here I have very little choice. Sucks.

Anyway. Not gonna end it on a bad note. Always end happy! So what am I happy about tonight?

FACESTAT.

Oh my goodness. You post pictures of yourself that are then entered into a judging pool. Other folks then rate/comment/judge your picture. They leave it in the pool for three hours to collect as many judgments, then email you about it. Here's a sample of one of mine: http://facestat.com/faces/105921/Brittany

Genius. It's fun enough waiting to hear what people have to say about you...but you can also comment on others. There are some utter gems out there. Gems, I tell you.

I'm also happy about the gym. Went for my first little personal trainer session thing last Tuesday, but between getting a new range and a new boiler, wasn't able to get back until yesterday morning, and I went again this morning. Hopefully I should be able to start going every morning next week. All the trainer guy has given me so far is a cardio workout, which is fine with me for now. I ride the bike, futz around on an elliptical machine, then go row my little heart out. Took a little bit of time to get used to that silly elliptical contraption, but now that I've found my rhythm I enjoy it. And I already knew I love to row. The lady I tutor for on Saturdays keeps pestering me to join her actually rowing on water, but I'm too afraid I'll biff it and wind up in the freezing cold Thames.

I overdid it rowing today. My neck/shoulders are a bit sore. I'm also already getting callouses on my hands from pulling the "oars". Oh well. I'm totally stoked that if I time it right (and basically go straight there after I drop Conrad off), I can watch an episode of Gilmore Girls while I bike/elliptical-ize. Watched the one today where Lorelai has to break up with Mr. Medina because he's Rory's teacher. And there was something about Paris being a right bitch about things, but that's pretty standard for that character. Oh, and Sukie asked Jackson out for dinner. They wind up getting married. I wanna say Lorelai and Mr. Medina almost got married but then didn't go through with it. Or something. It's been a while.

I tried to slice my thumb off again yesterday whilst chopping something. Wish it would just stay out of the way.

Oh. Yeah. Went on a semi-date Monday night. Weirdness. With an American who's here to work as the executive chef in some American restaurant in Chelsea. Also ten years older than me. Had fun, but in addition to being ten years older, he's also about an inch shorter. Oh well. It was nice to be taken out for once, even if all we did was have a few drinks in a couple different bars. And we climbed a lion in Trafalgar Square. It's getting to be a habit with me.

I dunno. Gotta get back to my ironing/packing Conrad for his school trip to Burgundy. I'm reading a slightly interesting historical fiction about Napoleon and Wellington. I've been on a historical fiction kick lately. Still reading Eco's Baudolino, read another one of Philippa Gregory's crappy novels (this one was about Katherine of Aragon), now this one about Napoleon and Wellington, plus Sonja's got another Eco novel I'll probably get going on once these other two are done. Bah. I read a lot.

I'm also listening to Jack FM. Thank heaven for internet radio. There aren't any classic rock or oldies radio stations here. Enter KRTH and Jack. Well. Jack isn't really classic rock, but it's better than nothing. The only downside is the time difference. It means that I have to switch to Jack in the early afternoon because otherwise I have to put up with KRTH's annoying morning show.

I'm just rambling now. Time to get back to it. Check you later....

New lows, interesting highs

It's just about midnight on a Friday night and I feel well and truly crap. It's been an excessively rough week, and rather than having the weekend and two days off to look forward to, I have about three more hours of ironing and exam studying with Conrad for the next two days, plus, as usual, I'm on the hook for fixing dinner both nights. The cleaner didn't show up this week, so I spent a good four hours today cleaning the house. Best part? Conrad was out playing with the three neighbor kids while I was cleaning this evening, and when it started to rain all four of them quickly ran into my freshly-mopped kitchen. They'd been tromping around in mud. God I love life right now.

I'm really sorry. This is going to be a full-on pity party for a while.

After all the cleaning, made dinner for Conrad, Sonja, myself, and Jayne (who is without a place to live at the moment and has been staying with us...and eats dinner with us every night and is as finicky about food as Sonja is). Sonja didn't actually get home until half past eight, after I'd already put everything away. I had all the ironing laid out on the kitchen table. She walked up to it and made some smartass remark about there being so much, so I kind of snapped at her and commented on my lack of days off this weekend. She'd also told me last weekend that I'm not allowed to go out at all this weekend because I need to be "on top form" to help Conrad study for his exams next week. After I snapped at her she muttered something about "well at least I don't have to do it....better you than me," and walked out of the kitchen. Finally got Mom on the phone, and that helped a lot. Always does.

Side note: apparently working seven days straight is worth an extra twenty pounds. So that means I'm making forty bucks for working my sixth and seventh days. Some weeks my job situation is so incredibly illegal I can't stand it.

Sonja was apparently so stressed tonight she couldn't handle getting dinner out of the fridge and nuking it. She got Jayne and Conrad to do that. Nor could she manage getting herself a glass of wine. I was busy cleaning up the kitchen. At nine o'clock on a Friday night. Even if I'd had anything planned for the evening, I would've had to cancel. While I cleaned, they sat in the living room and watched TV.

After cleaning the kitchen I got started on ironing. Took me about twenty minutes to sort everything in piles according to who it belonged to. Decided to tackle Conrad's pile first because it was bigger. Fixed myself a pint glass of vodka tonic and started ironing. About an hour and fifteen minutes later, after three fills of the water reservoir, two burns on the actual iron and two burns from the steam, I finished Conrad's pile. 52 articles of clothing, not including the dozen or so pair of underpants I had to fold and all his pairs of socks. Now that I type it, it doesn't seem like as much as it actually was. I took pictures. They'll probably wind up on facebook.

I couldn't iron any more after that. I am exhausted.

I get the feeling Sonja is taking her work stress out on me. Sweet. I really hope her and Conrad go to Berlin next weekend so I can just chill out.

Now for the positive stuff...

Conrad is my new hero. After being thoroughly entertaining on Tuesday and Wednesday by giving me priceless dating advice and a marriage/babies timeframe/schedule, he stuck up for me in a big way on Thursday. So despite the fact that a lot of the time he drives me insane and doesn't treat me very well, I now know that deep down he really does appreciate all that I do for him. Word. He really came through on Thursday. I'm still amazed that a ten year old was more intuitive and caring than the person that bummed me out in the first place. Especially a ten year old who routinely goes out of his way to frustrate the hell out of me. I love that kid.

The weather was really nice on Wednesday and Thursday so I hung out in the backyard all day. Surprise surprise...I am once again a BRONZE GODDESS! Of course, the weather went crappy again today, so I'm not sure how long the title will last. It's overcast and muggy and gross.

I joined a gym? No really. I joined a gym. Weird. And I'm supposed to have the first of five free personal trainer sessions sometime soon. I was meant to go today, but I was still so worked over from yesterday's drama I decided a nice nap would be of greater assistance to my plan for rapid recovery. The nap really did help. I didn't want to get up and get moving (especially not to clean). I am resolved to go to the trainer session thingie on Monday. Except I think I need to request a male trainer. Not for any sort of base, tawdry reason...I just know that I won't listen to some tiny little skinny woman. And I won't believe she knows anything about getting back into shape to play on the school's soccer team in the fall. And I won't listen to somebody I think I could beat the crap out of in a fair fight. I know those are silly hangups to have, but I'd feel loads more comfortable (and motivated) with a dude.

Somebody's playing Pink Floyd really loud. "Comfortably Numb", to be exact. Fitting, almost. I'm not quite numb. I'm not quite comfortable. I'm definitely still all jumbled in my head. I could do without that.

Went out on Wednesday night with Bootsie. Went into central London, had a couple of pints at a pub before meeting up with Justine and her boyfriend Oscar. Good times. Bootsie and I climbed one of the lions in Trafalgar Square, then got kicked off because they were filming something. This is the first time in a very long time that I've had more girl friends than guy friends, and the really weird bit is that I don't miss having tons of guy friends. Odd.

Anyway, it's now quarter to one and as I mentioned earlier, I'm exhausted. Time to watch a little bit more of Gladiator and go to sleep. Tomorrow is all day tutoring, one hour of which I actually get paid reasonably for. I need to look into getting a job at a tutoring company here.

Lordy. Apparently they're listening to the entire Pink Floyd Greatest Hits album. AT least it's mellow...