A Party to Remember

Well the West Dean Halloween party took place this weekend and it did not disappoint. Here are some pictures of the costumes.

Catherine as a witch and Sarah as a gargoyle

Alex

Removing my brain freeze

Zack in his sweet mask

Matt, Catherine and Julie

The costume contest

You can't milk an oat

Catherine and I were in this really cute tea room this weekend drinking yummy hot beverages and enjoying the lovely atmosphere when I started perusing the menu. One of the beverages had the option of coming with "oat milk" what is oat milk? You can't milk an oat....can you?

I miss you Michael Scott

A dyer situation has come upon me. As many of you most likely know The Office is no longer sold on iTunes....wtf?! And the completely illegal highly questionable web site that I was watching copy-write questionable versions on has been shut down....AND all the episodes that were posted in segments on YouTube have been removed. NBC you are killing me. What are poor Americans living abroad supposed to do in this situation?! I think you should stream the episodes so that people in foreign countries can still view the show online....PLEASE!

A decision has been made

Well I figured out what I'm going to be for this Halloween party that is taking place on Saturday night. After much thought and consideration I have decided to be the guy from the game Operation. This will involve sticking various pieces to myself such as the "breadbasket" and the "Charlie Horse" and somehow attaching one of those cyclists flashing red lights to my nose. Needless to say it's going to be a pretty kick-a/jankity costume. I will be sure to post pictures and share the entertainment with you all.

Another Herd of Dog Deer

This weekend Catherine and I took a little day trip to a place called Knole, another run of the mill stonking British home filled with history and antiques. The house was fantastic and had loads of conservation going on which is interesting to the two of us. The house contains some of the oldest original textiles in the country (which I must say are really worn and a bit ugly but textiles are quite fragile). The most exciting thing about the visit was that the house has a deer park much like Petworth House had. You may remember a previous post about "dog deer", well this time I was able to feed one of them. We had some dried berries in the car for a snack and lucky for us dog deer happen to love dried berries, so one of them ate them from our hands!

Dear Readership,

How cute are they?!

Love, Kristi

Help!

A couple people are hosting a Halloween party in a week or so and everyone is dressing up as something. Other than the obvious choice of Georgia O'Keefe, what could I go as? I would like to go as something funny, but several people have insisted I go as something scary....I'm not too sure I can pull off scary, but I would be willing to give it a try should I be unable to generate anything funny. Any suggestions?

Mandolin Extraordinare

Well as usual West Dean has started providing me with interesting situations. The other night I was watching this show about "wild food" or in other words a show about people scavenging for things in the wild that you can find and eat should you desire a break from the grocery store. Anyway, I was watching this show when several people came into the common room with an assortment of instruments, everything from a french horn to an elecrtic guitar.

So someone hands me a mandolin in order to include me in on the band practice. Needless to say I have no idea how to play the mandolin and after several heinus F minor cords I opted out of the job. Instead I sang along to a song called Down with Bonaparte while the following instruments played along: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboard, french horn, bass, and to top it all off a dulcimer. It's times like these that make me love this place, where else would that happen?

Bobble Head

A very exciting purchase was made this weekend. There have been a few cold days here in jolly old England the past couple weeks and my head and ears have been feeling the burn. SO, I decided to make it my goal to find a new winter hat and was lucky enough to find this little baby in the streets of Brighton this weekend.

The really amazing thing about this hat is that I tried it on one year ago in the same shop with Jackie and took a picture of us in the mirror to document the event. Well, less than a year later I was back there trying to make a serious decision about which color scheme looked best and was in need of being purchased. So after many many trials I ended up with the dark pinkie red one with the big blue bobble. Of course it's not nearly cold enough to wear it now, but soon enough I'm sure I will be bobbling around West Dean in my new cozy hat.

I'm an Aunt...AGAIN!

Say hello to little Alex! He was born on Friday and weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces. What a cutie!

The Threatdown

Well a threat has been made and a response is necessary. Someone…. I won’t name names, made a comment that if I did not blog lickity-split they would begin a very serious fast. One similar in seriousness to a somewhat famous person called Gandhi or a young man who goes by the name Jesus (sorry so sacrilegious). A fast so serious it would no doubt require removing this link from their blog and perhaps even clearing her browser cache in order to remove the temptation.

Well I would hate to lose this particular member of my readership and I must admit I have some doubts as to the actual strength of this person coming through with the threat, but just in case she was truly determined I felt I must blog to appease her.

In keeping with my love of list making I decided to make a little list of some of my favorite moments from week one (these are in on particular order):

1. Sonia falling asleep during the fire talk…these people are obsessed with fire.
2. Figuring out the limits of Sonia’s label maker…my favorite label was in a waving banner, with shadowed and outlined text…nice.
3. Singing about a “salty dog” in the bar with the jug band
4. Gold tooling sentences like “Sonia is a riot” and “ititt isti sit rato”
5. Joining a queue on the streets of Brighton without actually knowing what it was for…just saw a queue and joined, no questions. Then when Catherine and I got to the front we just sat there bumbling like idiots to the person who was apparently handing out parking permits
6. Learning the ins and outs of the new icemaker in the bar. Who knew someone could be so excited about a little frozen water, but he has even managed to name the parts, one of them being “Scoop”.

All in all it was a good first week and I’m hoping the next 12 only get better.

Something I saw recently

A Visit to the Bennetts

Sorry it's been so long and let me begin this post by saying that there will be no pictures for a little while, but yesterday Catherine and I visited the house she is working on, Groombridge Place...the Bennett's house in Pride & Prejudice.

It was a fun trip, and although the house is currently covered in scaffolding because it is being worked on it was still fun to see. The house is surrounded by an "Enchanted Forest" which was filled with things like a dragon's nest, a serpent's lair, a mystic pool and even a little village called Mossy Bottom. Whoever came up with all of the little spots along the way must have had a real hoot coming up with not only the places but the very entertaining sign posts. After walking around a standing stone backwards three times were were able to make a wish, then we walked a double spiral in order to find ourselves and we also had the opportunity to see into the future through the mystic pool...all in all a pretty good day superstition-wise.

Leaving on a jet plane

Well I leave today to return to England. I had a fantastic summer filled with lots of visits and even more shenanigans. Just wanted to let the readership know that I will be out of the blogging commission for a little bit, but have no fear I will return as soon as I can sit myself down and get my computer up and running.

A hotdog....really?

We all have moments in life that we would like to forget. After seeing pictures of Katy and her sisters growing up I decided to look through some of my old pictures and boy did I find some real gems. Take for example this little beauty.Yes, that is me. Not only am I sporting a red and white striped belly shirt, but I was somehow convinced to pose triumphantly with a hotdog in my hand. Part of me is incredibly embarrassed that this was caught on film, and yet another much larger part is a little proud that this picture is in existence.
Next comes the phase of my life where I was obsessed with dance. This Polaroid (can I just say that I love that this was caught on instant film) is of me and some girl (no idea who that is) at dress rehearsal. Notice the extensive use of blush and red lipstick, nice. I am also fond of the sequined pillbox hat.Now this one is a phase in my life that I REALLY wish never happened. Jackie and I were discussing how when we’ve met new people in new places we conveniently leave out minor details of our lives. Let me tell you my membership on the 98’ Jasper Jazz drill team is one of those things that may be left out of my past from time to time. Again, more sequins not to mention fringe.This final one is by FAR the most amazing family picture in existence. Where to begin?! Lets start with the fro my mom is sporting, love it. Now move on to Jenna’s awesome shirt complete with an embroidered medal that I can only assume she won for wearing such awesome shorts. Moving further to the right is Jill wearing a festive belt made of curly ribbon and what I believe are Z. Cavaricci jean shorts. Once again I am in a red and white striped ensemble luckily this one is a little less revealing than the previous. And to top it all off my dad is dressed as the spitting image of Uncle Sam if he was beardless, bald and preparing to lead the Plano 4th Ward 4th of July Bike Parade. I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

Hope you enjoyed the memories, I know I did.

Yo, I'm in the booth

Well you saw all of Jenny's photo booth pictures and I just wanted to add one of my own.

An amazing conversation:

Jackie: (listing her movies) The Kid
Me: I love that movie!
Jackie: Really!?
Me: The one with Bruce Willlis?
Jackie: No, the one with Charlie Chaplin...
Me: Clearly we have different tastes in movies.

Something I gotta know

I've been catching up on my Colbert and he is wearing a cast-type wrap around his wrist, what happened to him?

Junktiques

My mom and I stopped at a "junktique" yard on the way home from Kentucky and boy was I amazed at all the crap this place had. I mean look at it! Have you ever seen so much crap piled outside like this with such pride?! It was truly amazing. I took some pictures of a couple things I found interesting:
I never realized just how huge a stop light was until I was standing looking down at this baby. I mean it's HUGE!As I walked through the endless piles of stuff I came across this table filled with old fans and I couldn't stop thinking of Pottery Barn, people pay good money for crap like this and here it was baking in the Kentucky sun just waiting to be sold.

Another Sweatshop

Well this weekend I visited my sister Jill in Louisville, Kentucky. The real reason for the visit was her baby shower which took place on Saturday and turned out just fantastic. She got lots of stuff for little Alex and is well on her way to being prepared for his grand arrival. Jill also decided to take up quilting what with her extra time and recruited me to help her with the job. After many many "jammers" situations and sewing machine troubles we managed to knock up this little baby in a day and a half, not too shabby. Anyway, it was a great weekend and I'm really happy I got to see her.

A Little Trespassing

Well last night I fulfilled a little goal of mine. There is this really amazing property near my parents house and on that property there is a dead tree. The owners must have decided it would be a grand idea to decorate their loss with a bunch of brightly painted chairs hung from the branches, because that’s exactly what they did. So with a little bravery I hopped the fence and took some pictures of this VERY interesting sight. It was fun, and a little exciting.

Life Changing

Well this weekend I took a little trip to Utah...again. I was exposed to many many new and interesting things, the choicest of which was a little game called Guitar Hero. The above picture shows me doing some serious shredding and raising my goblet to the gods of rock.....right.

Anyway, I had an amazing weekend filled with lots of movies (Hot Fuzz, Super Bad, Knocked Up, The Simpsons Movie and The Prestige). When all of those are listed together it seems as though I have quite poor taste in movies, wow. Rio was eaten a couple times as well as some really good sushi, poker was played and some]video games. All of those things aside it was fantastic to see some people I have missed very much, Annalise, Kristin, Jackie, Adam, Kaleb, and Kelly. Good times guys, I had a blast.

Quick Question

If you had one hand in your pocket what would the other one be doing?

Strange things in Texas

I was driving through Pilot Point today and noticed a huge billboard that said: "quality stud seaman" it's not everyday you see something like that advertised quite so boldly. Sometimes I love the country.

I Heart Ireland

Well I posted several days ago claiming to tell stories about my trip to Ireland. After sending out pictures my momentum seems to have struggled, however I will now make an effort so share some of my travel stories. I feel like I’ve told most of you these stories so bare with me if you already know this stuff. There were many highlights and plenty of craic (pronounced crack…and means fun) as they say in Ireland. Because we drove there I had plenty of time and opportunity to take in all the Emerald Island as it’s called. The scenery was beautiful and filled with lots of rolling green hills and mountains broken up by many many stones. It was amazing to see how many castle ruins we passed along the way, there were far too many to count.

The road from Rosslare to Galway brought lots of stops. My favorite was probably the cliffs of Mohr. I’ve seen ocean cliffs before, but these were unlike any I have ever seen, steep, with lots of inlets and very green. Catherine’s family lives in Galway, a city directly West of Dublin on the opposite coast. We spent most of our time in Galway in search of the craic and were able to find it in many forms:

One night we met a street performer called Todd who proclaimed several times that he was from Detroit. He managed to put himself in a straight jacket and wrap himself in chains, then climb to the top of a ladder and get out of his little predicament.

We went and listened to traditional Irish music (diddly-aye) in a pub and I got to watch as an Irish man decided he fancied Catherine…very entertaining.

We went on a little walk along the coast and I got to take part in a Galway tradition of kicking the wall at the end.

I was also able to impart my love of basketball and air hockey on Catherine at the local game center where I earned the high score on the basketball shoot-out game…not too shabby.

Next we headed to Dublin for a couple days and stayed in the home of two of Catherine’s friends Maggie and Roisin (pronounced Rosheen). They have been slowly redecorating the place and it is really cute. In Dublin we tried to visit the Natural History Museum but found that it was closed for remodeling so we went to the National Gallery instead. We ran into Sonia and Stephen on the street and had a fun meal at The Hard Rock Café (Sonia’s favorite), which was fun. Most of our time was spent walking around the city which I really enjoyed. Our last day there we decided since I’m doing book conservation I should see the Book of Kells at Kings College. We managed to get in for free because we arrived just before they were closing so the man working the till where you pay told us to go on and go in without paying. The books were beautifully illuminated with gold and other natural pigments. I would have to say the more impressive sight was The Long Room where hundreds of volumes are stored.

On our way out of the city we stopped in the equivalent of New York’s Central Park (but in Dublin). A herd of deer lives in the park and we (by we I mean Catherine) were able to find them and get very close to them. I had never heard a deer make a sound before and am here to tell you that their voices are not pretty. The young ones sounded a little like cats crying and the older mothers made a sound that I cannot even begin to describe.

After that we headed back to Galway and the following day I flew back to England for a night and then back home. It was an excellent trip and if you ever have the opportunity to visit Ireland I would strongly recommend it.

You find out something new everyday.

Yesterday I found out several things about my eyes. For example, my cornea is very thin…I always new there was a part of me that could be described as thin, however I never thought it would be the light refracting portion of my eye. I was also informed that I have very large pupils, which I feel cancels out the newfound thin body part (if a cornea qualifies as a body part). They give me thin cornea and immediately take it away by telling me my pupils are large. And man did they prove the whole large pupil thing by dilating my eyes as you can see in the picture above. Those babies are huge!

The End of an Era (maybe a little shorter than an era)

Well as you all know I have left West Dean and headed back home for the summer. Leaving was not easy and I will miss all of the people I met there. So far my time has been filled with many activities I decided to give myself, first of which was cleaning out my closet. It is amazing how much crap one person can acquire in life....even when you don't even live in your room. What is even more amazing to me is the thought process that I can only assume went through my head when I packed up my place in Provo and headed back to Texas. Why I decided to keep a magnetic stage that holds various sea life yet throw away a perfectly good step stool is beyond me. By the time I went through half of the closet I had moved all the crap from the confined closet and spread it out across my entire room, if only I had taken a picture. This morning I filled the entire hatch of my car with what I now consider to be crap, if only I had my head on straight when I was packing I could have brought along that stool.

Say hello to my new little friend

Well my trip to Ireland was fantastic, and I have plenty of stories to tell, but just wanted to post this quick picture in the mean time. I'm back at West Dean tonight and flying home tomorrow so it should be a tiring day, but I figured after not posting for a good two weeks or so I should throw something out there. I guess a couple students at the Galway art college came up with these little fairies and they have been selling them ever since. All of them are different and have very fitting names, mine is the one with green hair and she is called Myrtle and Catherine's is called Wendy.

Dear Readership,

So sorry I'm a slacker. Needless to say things are a little busy around here, graduation is tomorrow and I'm driving to Ireland with Catherine on Tuesday. I'll be sure to take lots of pictuers and generate lots of Irish stories.

Love,
Kristi

Skype

How long did I just spend on hold listening to the Pachelbel Canon on a loop?

44 minutes!

My first interaction with Skype was NOT good!

Goings on

Well, several of these events happened a while ago, but I wanted to blog about them if for no other reason than posterity's sake.

Several nights of boredom have led to amazing fruition of ideas. For example, a couple weeks ago we were having a good time at the Dower House, but needed an activity to fill the time. We had a croquet set in the house (mallets and balls) but no wickets. So rather than take the set down to the croquet lawn or go get the wickets and bring them to us we decided to play on a series of slopes with things like chairs and ironing boards being used as the wickets. Needless to say it was MUCH more entertaining than your run of the mill croquet game and it managed to take a lot longer than the usual. I for one think it enhanced my playing skills as it takes far more skill to hit a ball up a hill and around a chair leg than to go straight on through a boring old wicket.

Example two: A bunch of us played a rousing game of Bull Shit or "cheat" as they call it in this country. Well Drew didn't seem to be able to catch on to the way the game is played and as a result I would put down two fours and he would follow my turn by saying things like "I'll see your four and raise you another four" which would obviously generate a bull shit and cause him to collect the played cards. Either that or I would remind him what number he was supposed to be playing. Nedless to say it produced a lot of laughter.

Example three: Jenny had some extra energy to work off the other night and made an offer to run around the lawn while Emma and I played a card game. We naturally declined as that would have just been silly, so instead I taught her how to do a cartwheel. She caught on quite quickly and was even able to cartwheel her way through a patch of wild flowers towards Stephens room for a pleasant hello.

Electricity!

Well this weekend was fantastic! Harm, Catherine and I took a little trip to London to see Billy Elliot and the Tate Britain. We arrived around 11am and went right to the Tate where Catherine was researching frames for an internship she has applied for with the Tate. As for Harm and I we enjoyed the paintings and the fact that it was much less crowded than the last time we visited. From there we had lunch at Bella Italia and then headed to the Victoria Palace Theatre. The show was hilarious and filled with lots of talented kids singing and dancing. My favorite number was probably when Billy and his friend were dressing up in women's clothing. After they danced around for a while 6 giant frocks came out and danced along with them in true chorus line style. Needless to say it was amazing.

Two happy pixies

Sonia and I are working on a set of books together which means we now work together everyday. Yesterday we spent the majority of the day paring a piece of leather to put a new spine on the books. As you can see we had a good time.

Important Skills

Well since coming to West Dean I have aquired two valuable skills:

1. Cigarette rolling

2. Opening a bottle of beer with a lighter

At your service.

3 Dreams I've had Recently

1. Catherine and I decided to repel off the castle and half way down stopped for a glass of wine, it was nice.
2. Jenny and I went to a store where she forced me to steal two items because we were not going to go all the way back through the store in order to pay.
3. Catherine came to visit me in Texas but wouldn't leave the airport.

A herd of dog deer

This weekend Emma, Harm, Jenny, Catherine and I took a little day trip to Petworth House. It's one of your regular run of the mill giant English houses filled with antiques, paintings, vases, clocks, and various other objects. The inside of the house was really beautiful, however I think the highlight was what lives in the garden behind the house.

I was talking to someone before leaving about Petworth and she told me that on her way to the house she could see a herd of what appeared to be dogs in the distance. As it turns out it was a herd of small deer. This story caused us to refer to the herd as "dog deer" for the majority of the trip. We were able to get quite close to them and even got to see a little scuffle between two of them. I have to say I expected more action from a herd of dog deer, but I guess you can't ask too much from a group of antler clad canine.

Dear Jackie,

Have I ever told you how much I love the fact that you have a link to the CDC on your blog? You are hilarious.

Love,
Kristi

"Right here beside me"

Catherine and I had a conversation once about her need to have people right beside her at all times, when she mentioned this concept to me my initial response was one of repulsion. However after nearly three terms of being with the same people nearly every moment of everyday I find myself quite worried when I think of being without them. I have become a person who exsists in a state of coexsistence at all times, I usually have one of the following people by my side: Catherine, Sonia, or Jenny and the idea of having that empty space next to me when I leave is truly worrying.

Bringin' a little Texas to West Dean

Sunday night I brought a little Texas to West Dean, in particular the Dower House. We played a game of Texas Hold'em, something I haven't done since last summer. I didn't remember how fun it is to play or the entertaining banter that the game tends to bring about. I taught several people the game and we played many rounds filled with ridiculous bluffing, blind hands and impossible wins. Needless to say it was a pretty fun evening and one that reminded me of some really good past times.

A childish dream has been fulfilled

In general people tend to carry their money neatly stowed in the safety of a wallet or money clip. People that don't want to carry a wallet will often fold their money in half or quarters before placing it in their pockets. Now think about how kids carry a couple bucks. Even if it's handed to them clean and crisp fresh from the mint within a couple minutes it seems to become a crumpled up ball inside their pockets. I for one love this, and find it highly entertaining for some reason. So, to celebrate this I decided to crumple up my tenner and stuff it in my pocket, ready to be used as payment for my next purchase. I entered HMV and took advantage of their two for 10 CD sale and picked up Blondie and Pink (I'm partial to people with one name these days for some reason), headed to the counter and waited for my total to come up. It went a little something like this.

HMV Dude: That will be 10 pounds please
Me: (Removes wad of money from pocket and gently places it in the palm of his hand)
HMV Dude: (Looks at me, looks at the dough and then proceeds to flatten out the money before placing it in the till.)

I nearly peed my pants.....yes I'm ten years old.

Fake Birthday Recap in Pictures

Western themed menus

Sara finishing off the ice cream sundae

How to eat a burger the American way....not with a knife and fork like the Brits

Stephen enjoying his ribs

Jenny and Harm

Birthday girl with Harm

Drewsopher

Emma and Alan

A bashful Harm

The last couple weeks when anyone says pretty much anything I can think of a corresponding song. Well, apparently I've been saying "I know a song about that" too much since people have started asking me if I know songs about various topics. of conversation.

Me: "I have something in my eye."
Catherine: "Blow your nose."
Me: "What?"
Catherine: "It's all connected." (making a circular motion around her face)

So there you have it, the next time you get something in your eye, be sure to blow your nose and poof it will be gone. Man she's funny.

A Lovely Day

Yesterday Harm, Catherine and I visited a nearby castle in Arundel. We arrived at a descent time and set off to view the fortress, dungeon, keep, and state rooms. The visit ended up being very nice and also served as a moderate level butt workout thanks to the many sets of stairs throughout the castle complex. All of the areas of study at West Dean were represented inside with various tapestries, clocks, metal work, ceramics, furniture, instruments, paintings and even a couple books. Arundel is also filled with many antique shops and after careful consideration I have decided that my house will be filled with antiques I will slowly collect over the course of my life, now I just need to figure out a way to make enough money to make this dream possible.

Thank You Credit Dauphine

Well this weekend is a long one for those of us living in England. It's a Bank Holiday weekend, a day when banks used to be shut, causing all other businesses to close as well. Lucky for me this tradition has continued on giving me Monday off. I'm not sure what I am going to do with that extra day, but I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Dear Maroon 5,

Thank you for finally releasing your second album.....and thank you for not producing a sucky record.

Love,
Kristi

Boredom at West Dean

Well last night for the first time in a long time I was bored. It was a strange feeling due to the fact that things have been quite lively since I returned. At one point Catherine and I were discussing our opinions on text message smiley faces (something she apparently does not tolerate). The next best moment was when we started watching a show in the telly about romantic fiction, sometimes I think I'm deluded by the idea of what love should be, I no longer feel that way.

I've said before that the students at West Dean will use any excuse to have a party, and this weekend was no exception. First of all we had a fake birthday party for Catherine where we visited Smith & Western which was pretty much amazing. Next we headed off to another party commemorating the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's.

That's right, a party celebrating a volcano, complete with a bonfire surrounded by painted sheet metal to depict an actual volcano. It was an interesting evening and I must say the best Mt. St. Helen's party I've ever been to.

I'm Back!

Well we arrived back from Amsterdam last night after having a fantastic time. We had several visits that obviously revolved around books which turned out to be ok, aside from the boring bits from a couple scientists (sorry Jackie). Anyway, we arrived a day early and had some time to have a nice meal out and then the next day the book stuff began. We took a train to the Haag and saw the National Archives, then we went to the Museum of the Book which I would say was the highlight of the trip. The man in charge of the collection knew every detail about every book he showed us which is a rare thing. The second full day we visited the Amsterdam Conservation Institute and were able to see another conservation lab with working students which was interesting. Finally we went to a windmill built in the 1600's that still makes paper.

The final morning we had some free time to shop and enjoy the city and then we were off to West Dean again. All in all it was an excellent trip filled with fun and lots of laughter.

Pinwheel I bought at the paper mill made from their paper.A crazy book exhibition that reminded me of something out of a science fiction movie.Jenny...haha.

Off to Amsterdam!....again

Well today I leave for Amsterdam with the rest of the bookies. We are leaving around noon and will be returning on Thursday afternoon. The trip should be interesting and hopefully pretty fun...although probably not as fun as Amsterdam with Jackie. Anyway, no posts for the next couple days, sorry Jenny. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Eurovision

Last night was the final heat for the famous Eurovision Song Contest what can roughly be translated into the Europe Battle of the Bands. It was a very entertaining mix of music including a French man running around the stage with a stuffed cat attached to his suit jacket and a very dramatic Spanish man using some special effects to let us know his heart was bleeding. Needless to say it was an amazing show. I was rooting for either Ukraine or Russia, but sadly neither of them won. Instead the contest was won by a woman from Serbia who frankly was a little scary and very serious.

If you are really bored I highly recommend watching or at the very least listening to a couple of the songs.

I recommend these three:
Ukraine
UK
Russia

Fat Face

Many of you may not remember the episode of Sex and the City where Samantha has fat transplanted from her ass into her face and I can't blame you for that. However, last night I was reading an article in April's Vogue about aging and people having injections in their faces in order to look younger. Just in case you were wondering as you get older the apples of your cheeks get smaller, your eyes sink into your head and everything from your forehead to your chin starts workin' it's way down. Needless to say this was possibly the scariest article I have read in quite some time. And the real kicker is that if you go in to have some of these things pumped back up things could go horribly wrong and you could be walking around with a fat crazy face for the rest of your life. So now that I've thrust this horror on all of you all I have to say is I can never get old. Period.

Catherine was talking about how amazing it is that we walk into the dining room and food is magically there, and it's true. Sometimes what you need is a little perspective. I live not in, but very near a castle. Someone cleans my room and brings me new clean sheets and towels weekly. Everyday I am given three cooked meals plus tea and biscuits. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is an amazing point in my life and sometimes I worry I'll never be able to top it. I mean the words "the castle is closing" are actually in my vocabulary, and when I say them it doesn't sound weird. It makes me worry that I'm going to max out at the age of 25 and end up living in Dallas commuting to work for an hour for the rest of my life.

An Excellent Day!

Well I am happy to say that yesterday was an awesome day. First of all I slept in until around 11:45....something I haven't been able to do in a while. I fell out of bed headed to the shower and was able to get ready in time for lunch, which I didn't completely hate. Then I went to Chichester with Catherine and Jenny for a usual run of the mill trip into town. However I was plesently surprised with lots of funny banter, good music, my first delicious java chip frapaccino since last summer, and I even managed to find a summery dress which I purchased!

There has been a surrealist convention type thing going on here the last couple days and we were invited to the disco they were having. I ended the night wearing said new dress and dancing the night away to ABBA, Whitney Houston and even a little Shakira. And to top things off I was led out onto the dance floor by a really old surrealist guy who insisted I dance with him. Due to the fact that I never do that I had no idea what to do with my feet so I spent the majority of the time being spun around by this dude until the song ended and he danced me back to my friends. Needless to say it was all very surreal.

Remember two days ago when I said this:

"I think a huge piece of me would have dropped dead if I had opened up NBA.com and found out that my boys were out of the playoffs thanks to Golden State and their nasty throw back uniforms."

That piece of me is now officially dead.

No Longer "On Notice"

I am very happy to announce that Maroon 5 is no longer on notice. They have been on the rocks for a couple years now, but thanks to their new single "Makes Me Wonder" I have decided to let them off the hook. It's about time boys! I expect big things from this album since you've been riding the coat tails of your previous album for the last 5 years!

So who or what will be replacing them on the list, that's a tough one, but I expect to suss that out in the next day or so, so it would be wise to stay on my good side until the final decision is made. Golden State Warriors, that means you, although I think you would bypass being "On Notice" and head straight for "Dead to Me".

Round 1

Kristin made a comment to me while I was home that thanks to the NBA playoffs starting up again she now has a reason to live, I couldn't be more agreeable on this subject, even if I don't get to watch ANY of the playoff games. (although I am looking into what iTunes has to offer in the way of Mavericks entertainment) Frankly the NBA highlights loop just isn't cutting it, I need more.

Well, the time difference is taking its toll on and last night I was so nervous about the game and even more upset that I wouldn't be able to check on the Mavs fate until the following morning...unless I was willing to wake up around 3am to find out (not gonna happen). But to my relief they won, thank goodness! I think a huge piece of me would have dropped dead if I had opened up NBA.com and found out that my boys were out of the playoffs thanks to Golden State and their nasty throw back uniforms. I'm a fan of the throw backs, I mean the Mavs have some sweet uniforms, but Golden States looks like it was printed by the PSA uniform center.

Anyway, I just wanted to say I miss the days of watching every game with K&J, yelling at the refs and the players, those were good times. Think of me tomorrow while you watch the game and make sure to do some extra yelling on my behalf.

Sooo Sorry

You may have noticed that my previous post was entitled "So Sorry" and this post is very aptly called "Sooo Sorry", while this may not make up for my lack of posting for the last three weeks, it's the best I got. Well I'm finally back at West Dean safe and sound and ready to start the bloggin' again. A lot has happened in the last month aside from the convienence of endless choices when it comes to hot beverages.

I've already told most of you about my little trip with Jackie, but let me give you a little run down in case you didn't hear about it. Jackie arrived in Chichester and got to spend several days with me at West Dean. She got to see the castle, gardens, our workshops and have a meal with everyone. We took a day trip to Brighton and had lots of fun shopping, eating by the sea and riding several carnival rides. Next we headed for London where we saw three shows in three days! First was Spamalot (hilarious) then Lion King (good, but a little weird) and finally Wicked (AMAZING!!!!!). I would have to say that seeing all of the shows with the major highlight of the whole trip. I also took her to all my favorite London places, Tate Modern, National Gallery, Cafe Diana, Tragalgar Square, Parliament, High Street Kenn., Thames boat tour, the list goes on and on. Needless to say we packed those three days full and saw lots of good stuff.
Next we winged our way to Amsterdam for some good old fashioned Dutch fun. We took another boat tour down the canals, visited the van Gogh Museum, Ann Frank House, Rijk Museum, lots of shops, a traditional Dutch village, a windmill, a wooden shoe workshop and a cheese store....plus many other things. I would have to say the highlight of this part of the trip was a day trip we took to an incredible garden called the Keukenhof. Lucky for us it was the perfect time of year to go and we were able to see fields of tulips and acres and acres filled with amazing flowers. I've never seen so many different kinds of tulips it was incredable.

Needless to say the whole trip was fantastic!