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3/31/02
I was supposed to go see the Elaine Stritch show with Steve this afternoon, but I woke up feeling so crappy, that I stayed in bed all day (literally, until 3pm). I called and had to cancel. I just feel so worn out that I don't want to move. It's one of those days where I'm staying in my pajamas all day.

Mom called and said that the title for my Dart came in the mail - yay! I'm going to go home to NJ tomorrow night (after I meet Biff et al at Marie's for a quick post-Easter drink). Then I can go to the DMV to retake the written and visual tests, and get my driver's license. I'm going to go to Home Depot, too, to get the stuff I'll need for spackling and painting Peter's room - have to decide on a color, too. I'm thinking of doing it in dark rose with a lighter color sponged over that.

I wrote my "Why I Want to be an RN" essay for that paid-tuition scholarship. It's lovely. I'm having Mom proofread it for me.

3/30/02
It is positively spring-like outside. It's wonderful. When I walked out of Marie's last night (OK, this morning), it felt so crisp and fresh and the air just had that spring feeling in it, it's hard to describe. Spring and autumn are my two favorite seasons in NY, I guess because they have that sense of change about them. So I'm thrilled that the weather is turning nice (not that it was ever bad, with this mild winter we had).

I have to stop watching CNN. I turned on the TV today to see a diagram of the WTC collapsing, interspersed with actual footage of the same thing, on some news blurb about why the towers fell. I don't need that.

Oh, and the Queen Mum died today, at 101. Michelle's still over in London, I hope things don't get too crazy for her trip home tomorrow.

So I was supposed to go home on Tuesday to take the NJ College Placement Whatever test, the one that determines if you need 'remediation" in English or Math. But I got a letter from the nursing school that said they were arranging to have the entire class take the test on either the 10th or the 12th. So I called to let them know that I could do either, and I'm waiting to hear back. I know it's a test that all incoming freshmen have to take, but really, I'm 27, I've been working since 1993 in a math-oriented industry, and have aced every English test I've ever taken (as well as having taken several Honors English courses when I was at Montclair, and having written numerous proposals and work documents at several jobs). You'd think I could just be exempted from the test, but no. It'll be fun. Really.

Maybe I'll go home and do the driver's license thing, or get painting supplies.

I have such a horrible toothache. I have this weirdly shaped tooth on the lower left side of my jaw. Sometimes it really aches, but the pain usually goes away. But it's been really hurting for the past few days. I've taken painkillers and put Anbesol on it - I think I'm going to drop in at my dentist's on Monday.

later on 3/29/02
Well, I thought Panic Room would be more of a thriller than it was. I mean, it was a well-made movie, but it wasn't edge of your seat scary, which is what I was expecting. Still, it was entertaining, and fairly funny, and I've decided to cut my hair two inches shorter like Jodie Foster has. If she can pull off chin-length, so can I.

After the movie, I met up with Biff et al at Marie's, and did the usual singing-until-4am thing... so now it's nearly 5am and I really need to sleep. Not like I have plans for tomorrow, but sleep would be welcome.

3/29/02
It would be really great if Palestinians stopped blowing themselves up in Israel. It's like watching a bad soap opera called "Blowing Shit Up In The Mideast".

Speaking of blowing things up, CNN said yesterday that 150,000 New Yorkers have had mental stress or depression following the events of 9/11. And then they showed a clip of the towers falling and people running down Fulton Street. You know, I would be considerably less depressed if CNN would stop showing those clips!

I got up at 10am this morning, and then immediately fell back asleep until 2pm.

And tonight I'm meeting Trisha and the girls to see Panic Room - the previews looked excellent and it's from the guy who directed Fight Club - can't wait. I could use a good thriller.

3/28/02
Dona got me hooked on this game from Yahoo that's kind of like Scrabble. It's fun. And addictive.

I think I've picked up some of Missy's cold, I'm all congested and achy today, but luckily I'm not throwing up all over the place. When I talked to Mom, she was feeling cold-ish, too, so we cancelled our plans to go do theatre tonight.

3/27/02
The good news is that the hospital is going to pay my tuition, in exchange for a three-year work commitment after I graduate. I can also work as a Unit Assistant or Patient Care Assistant at the hospital during the summers and/or on weekends during the school years - not sure if I'll want to spend all of my weekends working during the year, but the summers, probably.

The bad news is that in order to get my driver's license switched back to NJ, I have to re-take the vision and written tests. Time to brush up on my driving knowledge - they gave me the review booklet.

I missed the kitties terribly (except for Sam, the terror-cat), and I slept with Mimi curled up under the quilt next to me. I have to go back home on next Tuesday to take the NJ Basic Skills Tests for school (to see if I need remediation in English or Math - hrm), and also to try and sort out the driver's license stuff. I'm hoping that the Dart guy will send the title soon, too, so I can take car of the insurance and registration, too. And maybe I'll start spackling the walls in my room (formerly Peter's room) at the house, too, in preparation for painting.

I love when it's so foggy out that I can't see the glaring towers of the WTC memorial thing.

I had the worst waiting-for-the-bus day today. Since Missy's home sick and sleeping, I went out to do all of my errands. Took the subway up to 4th Street to get tickets for a show that James and I are seeing next week. Then I planned to go crosstown and pick up my leather jacket from the tailor. So I waited at Houston and West Broadway for a good half-hour before the M21 bus chugged along to get me crosstown to 1st Ave. Picked up my jacket - they repaired the torn sleeve very nicely - and except for a single straight seam about two inches below the shoulder, imperceptably, all for $15. Since I was in the area, I stopped by Economy Candy, too, to stock up on fruit slices and pre-Easter chocolates, they're the cheapest place to buy candy by weight in the city. Love them. Then I waited for the M15 bus down Allen Street, and all of the buses that came by were only going as far as City Hall, and I need the South Ferry bus. After about 15 minutes (which I passed by reading this weeks The Onion), the bus finally came and I made it home.

3/25/02
Well, while I thought A Beautiful Mind was well-made, it wasn't my favorite movie of the year (even tho it had Russell Crowe in it). But still, it deserved the Oscars.

And they really ought to cut some of the montages etc - the ceremony is too long as it is. If the Tony's can come in on time... I mean really, did we need a montage of "movies set in NYC" as a post-9/11 thing? No.

We watched the Oscars at Jay's - it was good to see him, and meet some of his other friends, but he had one guy there that would just not shut up - loud and annoying to the point of... well, just overly annoying - I couldn't deal. I much prefer watching awards shows at home where I can actually hear what people are saying, instead of 20 people yammering at the top of their lungs. Anyway, Jay made this great turkey chili, and everyone brought snacks, so we came home stuffed and tired. Since Jay is out in Queens somewhere, we had to hike from his apartment back to the subway at 1am, didn't get home until 2am.

So my plan for today is to catch up on yesterday's Six Feet Under episode, call my orthopedist about rescheduling that appointment they cancelled from last week (I woke up this morning and my heel was slightly swollen again, not as badly as before, but a little painful), and have belated birthday dinner with Keith at 6.30.

Tomorrow I have a meeting at the nursing school about their paid-tuition scholarships. I'm not sure if I'm going to go home tonight (I have to meet Biff at Marie's Crisis at 10 for a few songs) or tomorrow morning. I'm staying in NJ tomorrow night anyway, since I have to go to the DMV to get my driver's license switched back to NJ. And once I get the title for the Dart (Eric, who I bought it from, is mailing it to me), I'll have to get the car insured and registered there as well, so I can get plates for it and go pick it up.

And I lost my Palm Pilot stylus (again) - have to see if I can buy a new one at J&R.

3/24/02
So my high school reunion wasn't as bad as I feared. Only one or two "Hi! How ARE you?!" moments from people I hadn't really talked to in high school, which was bearable. And it was fun to see who had gained weight, who had lost it, who looked the same etc. The coolest thing was running into Mike Wolfman, who I kind of hung out with in high school - we were both aces in the computer classes. It was good to see that he's also down-to-earth and a computer guy now, we had a lot to talk about. He's working in the city, and he and his girlfriend Katie come down to Matawan on weekends, so he invited me to come hang out with them (and introduce me to the places around Matawan to go and hang out at, since I don't know any of them!) either in the city or in NJ.

After the reunion, Mike, Katie, James and I went to a very cool bar in Matawan (in the strip mall, how central-NJ is that?) that has book-lined shelves. Mike said it's a big MRHS hangout, and what do you know, we saw a lot of alumni there. I'll have to remember that for when I move home. Anyway, we left at 2am when they closed, and James and I drove back to the city (via Staten Island and Brooklyn, since the Holland Tunnel is closed due to some warehouse fire in Jersey City), and I passed out asleep.

Today is Oscar's Night, so Jen and I are going out to Jay's apartment in Queens to watch them there - should be fun.

Being in Scotland made me want to reread the Outlander series, so I started on the first one again today.

And speaking of Scotland, Jen posted her trip journal - so you can see how different it is from mine ;-)

3/22/02
I was so tired yesterday - I think because I didn't have any caffeine, and I fell asleep at 4pm. I meant to wake up at 6.30 to go and meet Jen for The Producers, but I ended up turning the alarm off instead of hitting the snooze, and waking up at 7.10pm. I ran out of the apartment and up to the theatre, arriving just as she did. The show was alright - the new leads (Henry Goodman and Steven Weber) aren't as good as Nathan and Matthew, and the timing of the show was a little off. Ah well.

In theatre news, tonight I'm seeing Encores' Golden Boy with Steve.

The weather is so weird this week - yesterday it was 55 degrees out, and I wore my clamdiggers with a sweater and my strappy sandals (heel was feeling OK). Then when we got out of the show, it was snowing. And today it's sunny and 30 degrees out. I think we're going to get one crazy snowstorm sometime in April and that'll be it for winter.

Went grocery shopping today - one of my neighbors was ahead of me in line, buying 14 packages of carrots and a thing of orange juice. Crazy neighbor.

I was going to send in my RSVP to Peter and Corrie's wedding today, but I can't find the invitation. I put it in a "safe place" before vacation, and as is wont to happen with "safe places," I have no idea where I put it. So I RSVP'd through email, and Corrie said a lot of people have misplaced the invites! James is going to come with me (between this and my HS reunion tomorrow, people are really going to get the wrong idea).

And in car news, the Tank Jr. is safe at the O'Brien's in Oakland - I have to make plans to go out and pick it up - Dan said it drives well, which makes me happy. I'm thinking about going the first or second week in May - when I have two weeks free to drive it back.

3/21/02
Last night James and I saw The Last Five Years again, and then I met up with my friend Biff for a quick catch-up drink at Marie's Crisis. I was so tired tho, the jet-lag and all. And then I spent the night at Dave's, it was really great to see him again. Slept until 10 or so, and then did errands - dropped off my film to get developed, and took my leather jacket to three different tailors downtown before finding one who could repair the tears (so they said). Have to pick up the film tomorrow and the jacket next week.

3/20/02
OK, the big trip update. We had a really terrific time, with not too much stress. Jen did all of the driving, since she's the insured driver and I didn't feel like driving with my (left) foot in a cast, just for comfort.

We arrived in London early on 3/7/02, and at Heathrow, as we were about to call Tim, my Palm Pilot crashed. I'm glad I had beamed his and Marie's numbers to Jen, since I didn't have his written down anywhere. We called Tim, and took the tube up to near his apartment (which is two blocks from the station). We dropped off our bags, freshened up, and then went to the RAF museum, where Tim works. Looked at all the planes, and then walked down to the Oriental City shopping center for lunch. Mmm, sushi. After lunch, we stopped at the grocery store to get breakfast cereal etc - they had an entire cider aisle! With two-liter bottles of all different kinds of cider! It was pretty amazing. We took the bus back to Tim's, since my foot was really starting to bother me. After unpacking our things into Tim's crowded living room, we called my friend Lisa (who I've been exchanging emails with for a few years now, she moved to London on September 10th), and made plans to meet up with her at a bar near her office. After we found it, we waited outside for her, only to discover that she was inside already - whoops. We had drinks with her and her friend Grant, and Lisa showed off her collection of Canadian goodies for a Commonwealth Day presentation she was going to do at work. On the tube back to Tim's, some drunk guy in a suit and tie (complete with bottle of Jack Daniel's in his briefcase) started harraguing me and Jen, asking if we were Jewish and Canadian. Very amusing. My ankle felt a little better (was it the cider?) but it was still swollen. Fell asleep by midnight.

Friday morning, 3/8/02. Woke up at 9am or so. Tim's apartment has a bathtub, not a shower, so that was interesting. I had flashbacks of being 9 or 10 and washing my hair at Dad's apartment in the tub (dunk, shampoo, dunk, condition, dunk, rinse). My foot is less swollen, which is much more comfortable! Still hurts tho. Took painkillers and the Vioxx, and I'm wearing the boot, which I'll keep wearing as long as I need to. Today is Westminster Abbey and the British Museum.

We did the audio-headset tour at Westminster, which I love as much as ever. I lit candles for Nanny and Aunt Judi near the entrance.

The British Museum was fun because I got to wheel myself around in a wheelchair - I loved it. Probably wouldn't love it if I had to be in one every day, but the museum is happily very wheelchair accessible. We went to the Agatha Christie/Archaeology exhibit.

Met Jen's friend Ric at Covent Garden, and went to dinner at Wagamama's (mmm, noodles). Then, Jen, Ric, Tim and I went to see Jude Law in Doctor Faustus at the Young Vic theatre. It was a very good production, staged in the round. I was expecting a lengthy running time, but they edited it down to 2 hours and 20 minutes, no intermission. We met up with Ric's friend Kenal after the show, and had time for a quick pint in Leicester Square before heading home. On the walk from the tube to Tim's, I brushed my shoulder against a chain link fence and ripped the sleeve of my leather jacket - rather annoying, I'll have to get that fixed when I'm home. Safety-pinned it together.

Saturday, 3/9/00. I was going to meet up with Lisa again, but we both ended up running late. I did some shopping, and then met up with Jen at Lush - bought more goodies there. We met Tim for dinner at Porter's, and then saw This is our Youth. I wasn't too impressed by Hayden Christensen - what a bad Brooklyn accent, but I really liked Jake Glyllenhaal (I probably just mangled that). The play itself was very well done, and the set actually looked like a studio apartment in NY. The rumbling noises from the tube going underneath the theatre only added to the atmosphere. Tomorrow we're up early to fly to Glasgow.

The Vioxx is really helping me - it's Sunday, 3/10/02, and we're taking the tube to Liverpool Street station and then to Stansted airport. Jen and I consolidated all of the clothes etc that we'll need for the Scotland/Ireland part of the trip into my one big suitcase, and we left her's at Tim's. Much easier to deal with one bag and our backpacks this way. I'm wearing the walking cast because my foot still hurts and because I couldn't pack it into the suitcase ;-)

As soon as anyone hears that we're from NYC, they ask about 9/11. We've told our WTC story about a dozen times already.

Jen met a woman named Georgia on the plane to Glasgow, she's a reporter from London, and she'd living here in Glasgow for a year. She offered us a ride into the center of town, which was very nice of her - about an hour's drive. (note for later on: this is the karma bus giving us a ride, it comes back to smack us on Thursday). Georgia dropped us off at the U (Underground) station, and we took the train to our stop, about ten minutes away. On the dumpy side of Glasgow. Our B&B is very nice tho. We unpacked and took the U to Buchanan Street, the "downtown" of Glasgow, and a much nicer area. We walked down to the end of town, to the cathedral, and discovered this huge necropolis (cemetary) behind it. All of these huge tombs and monuments up the hills. We walked around for about an hour, I could spend all day there. At the risk of getting locked in and therefore stuck for the night, we walked back down the hill and back to the center of town. We stopped at the train station to check fares and schedules for the train to Edinburgh (tomorrow's journey) and then had dinner at a local pizza place on Bath St. Two pints at a local pub (where they were playing Britney Spears of all things), and then back to the B&B for sleep.

Monday, 3/11/02. What's up with this! There's a ScotRail strike on - so when we got to the train station, they told us there were no trains and we'd have to go to the other station and take the GNER train (the ones not on strike). We told the guy that just yesterday, they said there would be trains, and the guy just shrugged. Ah well. Took the 50p shuttle bus to Central Station, and we are taking the Virgin/GNER train to Edinburgh. We're a little behind schedule, but no big deal as we have no set plans.

We picked up a brochure and map of Historic Scotland properties and are going to buy a three-day pass so we can drive to some of the sites and save money on admissions - great deal. Edinburgh Castle admission is included as well.

We definitely like Edinburgh more than Glasgow. I could come back here for a few days and just spend it here. We went to Edinburgh Castle (up a steep, steep hill - "Duh, of course it's on a hilltop," says Jen), which is gorgeous. It was drizzling a little when we came outside on the top of the castle, and there was a beautiful rainbow over the city. We walked down the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace and Abbey, we knew it would be closed, but we just wanted to see it. By then, we were really tired, and we had an hour or so before we had to meet my friend Gregor for dinner, so we went to Starbucks (where we were going to meet him, also the only place open past 5pm) and had hot chocolate and filled out our postcards to mail home. Gregor came in and we really hit it off - he's a sweetheart, and loves theatre as much as we do. He treated us to dinner at a pasta place across the street, and then we grabbed a pint at a pub on Rose Street. Nice and quiet evening. Gregor took the bus back to our B&B with us, as I had brought him a gift and forgotten it there, and on the way he pointed out the c. 1500 building where he works (he's a teacher) and some of the other sights along the way.

Tuesday, 3/12/02. Morning now. The plan is to eat, go buy lunch to take with us in the car, and go to the airport to pick up the rental car. Then drive south to the Border Abbeys. Tonight we'll find a place to spend the night, probably near Stirling. I had taken off the air cast last night because my foot was feeling better, but after all the walking around yesterday, it's sore again, so I'm back in it, took some painkillers, too.

Later on... Our rental car is a huge Landrover! With what feels like a four-cylinder engine! It doesn't like hills, and Scotland is full of hills. We drove south to Melrose Abbey and Dryburgh Abbey, which are as big and old as you can get. It was a really nice day, so we spent a lot of time outside walking around them. We backtracked north to Linlithgow Palace, which is this HUGE palace where Mary Queen of Scots was born, and all of the Stewart monarchs lived. It reminded me of Blarney Castle in Ireland, since you can walk all over the rooms inside the palace. We went all the way up to the roof of the building up these very steep, twisty stairs. Since we're doing Stirling Castle tomorrow, we bypassed it on the highway and drive on the spur of the moment to Crieff - birthplace of Ewan MacGregor. I told Jen that I half-expected to see a huge billboard announcing that he was from here as we drove through town. We kept on driving and ended up in Perth, which was a really cute city. Found a B&B by knocking on doors. So we're at this B&B like ten minutes from downtown by walking. The woman who runs it is great - she gave us all these tips on places to go in town and around Perth, and told us how to get to an excellent all-you-can-eat-for-six-pounds carvery across the river. So good. After dinner we walked through downtown and found the movie theatre, just in time to see Oceans Eleven - keeping in our theme of seeing Brad Pitt movies in the UK (last Sept, we saw Snatch before it came out in the States).

Back at the B&B, we turned on the television and saw Alan Cumming on some public access interview show. Added him to the list of Scottish celebrities that we could think of, bringing the total to six: Alan, Sean Connery, Ewan, Rod Stewart, John Hannah and Billy Connelly. We can take tomorrow leisurely, breakfast at 8am, and then shower, pack, and drive to Stirling via Culross.

Wed, 3/13/02. Boy could our Perth landlady talk! She talked all through breakfast, telling us about driving trips that we could take. She was so sweet and well-intentioned that we didn't have the heart to tell her we had already mapped out the rest of our trip. We drove to Culross, this well-preserved 16-17th century town on the coast of the Firth of Forth. We were going to just drive through it, but when we saw how beautiful and tiny it was, we parked the car and spent an hour wandering the cobblestone streets (not much fun in the cast!). After that, we made it back to the highway via the cow-roads (as we call them, they are two cows wide) and went to Stirling. The castle was fun - would have been better if it hadn't been full of screaming Scottish schoolchildren. Went to Argyll's Lodging, a 17th century house next to the castle, which is realy well-preserved. Drove five miles to Doune Castle, half of which is run down and in ruins, and the other half is renovated to show how it looked when people lived there. As I said to Jen, I always wanted to live in a castle until I actually went inside one. They're cold! At Doune, we walked up ALL of the stairs to the roof.

From there, it was 4.30pm, and we drove to Callander and then to find our castle B&B (Culcreuch). We ended up on more and more cow roads, really hilly and twisty all over, and finally got to Kippen, the town the B&B is near. It took us 20 minutes to drive the next 7 miles down the cow roads. But it was beautiful and not like we had anywhere to really be, so we enjoyed the drive.

The castle, built in 1296, is a lot of fun. We're staying in a "courtyard" room in what used to be the stables - it's a family room, so there are two real-size beds, and then bunk beds. We had dinner at the pub in the former dungeon. We really are in the middle of nowhere, but it's fun. We walked down through some of the castle's property, looked at lots of sheep. Before crashing to sleep, we watched a TV show about Hampton Court Palace, and some strange Scottish sitcom.

Thursday, 3/14/02. I've been sleeping so well here - whether it's the fresh air or all the walking or that I'm 3000 miles away from NYC, I don't know. We're been getting up each morning between 7 and 8 (which for me, as you know, is a hardship) so we can eat our big Scottish breakfast before heading out, so that might have something to do with it.

Drove from Fintry back to Edinburgh to return the car. We didn't think we were going to get it back in time - it had to be there at 11.15am or we'd have to pay for an extra day. We made it with ten minutes to spare, but we didn't have time to top off the gas tank, so they're going to charge us for it. Cheaper than paying for an extra day tho!

Took the AirTrain back into Edinburgh, and checked our big bag at the Left Luggage office so we could do some more exploring before we had to get back to the airport in Glasgow. We walked down the Royal Mile again, and found a cafe offering free internet access, so of course we stopped for a cup of tea and a quick email check - we hadn't looked at a computer since leaving London.

Then on to Holyrood again, since we wanted to see the inside. We did the guided tour of the palace and then wandered around outside a bit. Now we're back on the train to Glasgow, and then we have to figure out how to get the train/bus back to the airport so we can fly to Dublin. Can't wait to see Marie and Jimmy, who are putting us up. We also can't wait to get rid of the gallon of maple syrup we bought for them, and that we've been carrying around all week!

Dublin! Friday the 15th!

OK, remember that bit about the karma bus when we got into Glasgow? It came back and bit us on the ass. Who knew, that Glasgow, cosmopolitan city that it is, has TWO airports? Well, we certainly didn't, not until we found out we were at the wrong one. We were at Glasgow Airport instead of Prestwick, 45 minutes away. So we could either take a bus into Paisley and then a train to Prestwick, or take an expensive cab right there. Since we only had 90 minutes before our flight ("Why haven't they posted the gate yet?"), we decided to suck it up and take the cab - at a cost of... well, more than we wanted to spend. We made our flight, picked up our Nissan rental car, and drove to Marie and Jimmy's in Ballinteer (a suburb of Dublin) with no problem at all. It's so good to see them again. Marie cooked this super pasta bolongese and we drank a bottle of wine, and fell right asleep around midnight. It's cold in the house (they're doing all these renovations, Jimmy gave us a tour of what he's done and what's next), but we can deal.

Today - Friday - we're up and showered (slept til 10.30, a real luxury, I tell you) and now we're off to Waterford to buy crystal and get out of that city ASAP afterwards.

Saturday, 3/16/02. We found our B&B near Ardmore with a slight bit of trauma - they didn't have their sign hanging out front as "you're our first booking before the season starts," so we drove past and into the next town before stopping for directions. We drove into Ardmore - a town of 400 that we love - for a pint, and were asleep by 10pm. All that crystal shopping wore us out. Jen says I'm snoring at night - it must be the hydroxozine I've been taking because I'm congested.

Today we enjoyed the gorgeous weather and took the cow roads to Cahir, and found our B&B - the Carrigeen Castle - in the daylight. It's a real castle, with a turret and everything ;-) Then we drove into Cashel and went to the Rock of Cashel (huge abbey), which was nice, but not so impressive after some of the other places we've been on this trip. I wonder if you live here, do you get tired of seeing the big old stuff all the time, like we're immune to seeing skyscrapers all over...

Lunch now, then back to Cahir. We woke up to beautiful weather, and then it rained all the way to Cashel, clearing up just as we got out of the car - perfect timing. I have no desire to tromp around in the mud. I took off my air cast again today, in sneakers now since we're really just driving and not walking too much.

Later on 3/16/02... (my notes are kind of hard to read here) Dude, we are so drunk. We love our castle B&B. Jen and I went into town to some pub which had really loud techno-y music and many cute boys to admire. We said just one pint, but after one the music wasn't really so bad after all and we stayed for like 4 or 5 more. Ended up dancing with cute boys who were drunk and drank like 7 pints of cider. We counted the number of broken glasses and ashtrays that were dropped on the ground from people dropping them. 8. Loved it. Did not love it when the very drunk boy bounded into our table and covered me in several pints of beer and cider. I am all wet. My pants and new sweater now smell like beer so I rinsed them in the shower. Jen sang "My Way" very loudly on the walk back to the B&B and then she kept shushing herself. No aircast tonight, a little sore from the walking but we'll see how I feel tomorrow. Tomorrow we go back to Dublin.

Whew. Monday, 3/18/02. The trip back to Dublin was uneventful. We slept off our night-before binge and took a stroll around Cahir Castle. Then we drove back to Marie's, in the rain, and waited for her and Jimmy to get back from the dog show they went to - luckily she had given us the spare key. We repacked our bags. Marie and Jimmy came home, and then we loaded up the car and they drove with us to return it. First tho, they drove us to see Bono's house, which is on the Irish Sea and we walked down the beach to see it. There were lights on inside, so I really should have gone up to the gate and knocked ;-) Then we dropped off our rental car at the airport and took the bus back into the city center. Had dinner at Wagamama's (which we could not find the last time we were there). Then we tried to meet up with friends of Marie's at a pub, but they were all so packed that we never did find them. The streets were wildly crowded (after all, St. Patrick's Day), so we ended up not-drinking very much at all, and eventually took the bus back to Ballinteer. Well, most of the way back - the bus broke down about fifteen minutes away from their stop, so we got out and walked the rest of the way. Marie and Jimmy kept apologizing for the trouble, but we just told them, "Hey, it could be a lot worse."

This morning, we got up, showered, had breakfast with Marie, and then she and Jimmy drove us to the airport, which was super nice of them and saved us the worry of lugging our bags on buses and trains. Now we're heading back to London, and to Tim's, then to the London Eye and for drinks with Ric and Kate (his girlfriend). Must repack tonight, too, putting stuff back into the two big suitcases instead of just the one.

And that's all the notes I took - to finish up, the London Eye wasn't as scary as we thought it would be! Super views, even tho it was drizzling, and I bet it's even better on a nice clear day. I stopped at Muji to pick up some notebooks for my friend Jerry, and then left the bag in the pub that we had drinks at, which sucked. We didn't stay out too late on Monday night, because we had to pack and get up early yesterday morning to get back to Heathrow and fly home.

Our flight home was a little bumpy but otherwise uneventful. We landed early and took a cab from Newark home, didn't want to lug the bags home on the subway at rush hour. Got all unpacked, and I was asleep by 9pm last night - whew. Got up early this morning and did all of my food shopping, laundry etc, and Jen and I caught up on the past two episodes of Six Feet Under that Missy taped for us. I still have to go over to Dad's and get the new ER tape, but maybe I'll do that a bit later or even tomorrow.

It's good to be home.

3/19/02
And we're home! I'll type up my trip notes tomorrow when I'm not so tired, but needless to say, we had a really super time in England, Ireland and Scotland. The good news: my heel was swollen for a few days, and I wore the aircast for most of the trip, to be on the safe side, tho I didn't need the anti-inflammatory pills after the first 6 days; I came home to a notice in the mail that NY State is extending unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks, and I still qualify, so I started collecting again; Mom emailed me that I scored a 99 on my Pre-Nursing assessment test, and I have a meeting at the college on Tuesday about the tuition-payment-working thing; and I have four new pint glasses for my collection. The bad news: my orthopedist appointment is cancelled for tomorrow, as the doctor will be in a conference thing, so I have to reschedule; we also came home to a stack of bills; and the WTC temporary memorial thing, which is two huge towers of light, is right outside our window.

Anyway, yes, tired, tomorrow I'll type up the notes, as well as go grocery shopping, drop off my film, put the camcorder tapes from vacation onto VHS, catch up on ER and Six Feet Under, do laundry, and get back into the theatre habit by meeting James for The Last Five Years.

Right now, it's 2am London time, and I'm beat, so I'm off to bed.

3/6/02
Well, today isn't going well so far. When I had my heel surgery last year, it left me with the ability to detect humidty at 100 yards. My joints go crazy in the damp. So last night, when my heel was aching, I thought it was just the weather. Well, no. I woke up in the middle of the night with my foot in pain, and I wasn't able to stretch it out. So I took some Aleve, elevated it, and wrapped it in an ACE bandage. When I woke up again at 8.30am, right after Missy left for work, I couldn't walk. Pain. I had to hop up the stairs and into the shower. The hot water didn't help it tho. So I woke Jen up and told her I was in mucho pain and needed to get to my orthopedist. I called them at 9am, and they told me I could make an appointment for next week. I explained that I was leaving today on vacation and that wouldn't be possible. So they checked with Dr. Sands and called back, telling me to come right in.

I had our doorman get me a cab, asked Jen to get my cane from my room (not doing those stairs again!) and went up to Beth Israel. They were pretty speedy about seeing me, too. Took three X-rays, which showed nothing. Dr. Sands palpated the heck out of my heel, ankle and calf, causing me loads of pain. I was crying all over the place because he couldn't tell me what was wrong, and I said to him that I don't want to have any more foot surgery. He told me that I should cancel my trip and immobilize my foot for a week. I asked what the other options were. He said I could get another CAM boot - the air/walking cast like I had last year, or they could put a fiberglass cast on it. I opted for the boot, since I can walk in it, and with a fiberglass cast I'd need crutches and boy wouldn't that be fun.

They called the boot folks, and after a half hour of waiting to hear if my insurance would cover it, they said "yes" and I went to their office to get fitted.

By this time, it was 12.45, and I called Jen to ask her to meet my Mom with the Proof tickets, and to tell her what had happened. I got out of the doctor's office at 1pm and made it down to Times Square to meet Mom and Jen - we decided not to see the show, we'll exchange the tickets for another night.

So I'm going to be doing London in a walking cast again - joy of joys. Dr. Sands wasn't sure what happened, he wants me back in his office as soon as I'm back from vacation, so I made an appointment for the 20th. He wrote "tendonitis" on the form, and gave me some Vioxx (an anti-inflammatory pill) to take during my trip. He said he could just be inflamed, but it could also be an infection somewhere in my heel. I asked for the symptoms to look out for and he said that if it stays swollen badly, or I start to feel ill all over, then to go to a hospital in the UK. Hopefully it's just passing tendonitis.

But man does it hurt - I can't flex my left foot past neutral (so getting into the boot was really fun) and it hurts to put any kind of pressure on my heel or ankle bone, or my Achilles tendon (so no sneaker on my left foot this morning). Ow.

Anyway, on that note, I am going to have lunch, and pack my other sneaker and my cane, and then we are off to the airport. I hope this isn't a warning sign for the trip!

3/5/02
All packed! I even fit the sleeping bag that we're bringing to London into my suitcase and packed everything else around it. We need the sleeping bag for Tim's, because he only has a single couch - luckily we can leave it in London while we're off galavanting around.

Jen and I roadtripped to NJ to pick up concert tickets, and we also went to IKEA - love IKEA.

And tonight Mom and I saw The Full Monty. Will said it wasn't his fault we missed each other for lunch last weekend - he waited for us but since we were running a little late (like five minutes!) he took off. We'll get together when we're back from London. Tomorrow, Mom and I are seeing the matinee of Proof, and then I'm coming home, eating, grabbing my bags and we are off to the airport! Jen and I are taking the new train right to Newark, we bought our tickets today as well, so we don't have to deal with lines when we have all our bags.

And I talked to Corrie's Dad, who's going to pick up the Dart for me! How cool!

3/4/02
Yeah baby. The Tank, part deux.

I just have to figure out getting it here now! I talked to Corrie, as her parents are in Oakland, near the car (oh yeah, it's in CA), and she thinks her dad may be able to pick it up and leave it at their house until I can fly over to get it, probably in May. I'm going to confirm that with him before I go to London, so I can square things up with the seller.

I also talked to Ryan Clancy, somewhat-brother of Eve, who's a mechanic. He said that early 70's Darts are so easy to work on, and he'd be happy to do any needed repairs (and it does need a handful) for free, as long as I buy the parts - that's so super!

But yes, must get the car here and insured and registered first!

later on 3/3/02
Love the dead people show, love.

Update on pre-trip to-do list:

Tax forms signed and mailed: done
Accountant paid: done
COBRA payment made: done
Hair dyed redder: done
ER bill paid: done
Brows waxed: tomorrow (with pre-trip manicure, too)
Packing: talk to me on Wednesday

And oh my lord, I want this car. It's got a few things broken, but they can all be fixed. Must have it!

3/3/02
Long time no update!

2am last night - low-flying planes outside the building.

After falling back asleep, I had the weirdest dreams about London. I dreamed that Jen and I were on the tube, heading to Tim's, and we couldn't find the station on the map at all. Then, once we met Tim at the station, we got on another train, where we had to check our bags. I got off at one station because I saw someone I knew (someone I used to work with), and he asked me to come help him move equipment. So I got off the train and told Jen and Tim I would catch up with them. I helped Bill move some sound gear, and took the next train. When I got to the station, Jen and Tim were waiting, but the train people couldn't find our luggage. So we had to come back to the station and fill out these forms and they still couldn't find our things. We had to go to the pharmacy to replace things. And then I realized that not only did I have no luggage, but I hadn't even packed everything on my to-pack list (which, in the non-dream world, I wrote up yesterday). No sleeping bag, no camcorder, no cd player. It was horrible.

And then I woke up.

Yesterday afternoon, Steve and I went to see Porgy and Bess at NYCO. Well, we saw the first half - I was so tired by intermission, even tho the production was excellent, that we left then. So if anyone can tell me how it ends, that would rule.

I went to meet Jen downtown, we were going to have dinner with Will after the matinee of The Full Monty, but we were a few minutes late thanks to the subway and he had already left - he can flake out sometimes. So I picked up tickets for Proof for me and Mom for Wednesday's matinee, and then Jen and I went to Dallas for cheap dinner.

Last night, James and I went to see The Last Five Years again - their last preview. Our friend Susan was there, too, and after the show we went to Marie's for a quick drink (it was an early night, I left at 1am). I saw the cute guy I had given my number to, he came over to say hi. And then I saw him hitting on another girl there, who later told me that he was wasting his time, as she was a lesbian.

Three days til London. To do before we go: pay my ER bill from when I broke my coccyx, sign and send in my taxes, pay my accountant. Get brows done. And pack.

Missy, Jen and I spent the afternoon in Brooklyn Heights, helping Jason pack up these theatre books from his neighbor's apartment. Missy worked there yesterday, too. We finished a lot earlier than expected, and stopped by Cosi for lunch. Mmm.

And yay - the new season of Six Feet Under starts tonight!

-catherine