Home Is Where The Heart Is

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends!

Sorry for the delay, I guess getting settled in and relaxing and being busy with leisure takes its toll on the blog. So now I need to fill you in on all the back story of the past 5 days. I wonder, should I give you the short or the long versions of my recent travel (near) disasters? I've probably told this story a lot so I'll give my abbreviated Heathrow story. JP and I catch the Piccadilly Line train from Covent Garden to Heathrow at 4:40. The train is packed and we barely get a sitting after some stnading. At some point past Hammersmith (Turnham Green?) the train stops, forces everyone out, and leaves. So then we need to wait 20 minutes for a replacement and it is so crowded, we barely get on, but we throw ourselves into the train because we have a flight to catch. It's now 5:45 and we are tightly cramped standing up whever we were able to clear out people by throwing our luggage into them as we leaped onto the train. We finally get to Heathrow and get on line for check-in. We got our boarding passes from a Kiosk and only had to give in our luggage. Little did we know... Our line took forever; our check-in attendant was slower than molasses and for every person she processed, the other lines got in 3 or 4. Finally we got to the counter at 7:14 and she promptly announced check-in was closed. So we ran over to emergency check-in, had to wait even more, finally got a competent person, and were on our way--at 7:32. Our flight leaves at 8:10. So we get to security and we essentially run by everyone because the gate is supposed to close any minute now. One person had the audacity to ask us in a haughty pretentious British accent if we knew we were jumping the queue...no fucking shit, lady!!! Then another asked if we were in a rush...no really?!?! Finally by the graces of God we made it to the gate, but our flight was delayed as 3 passengers were no-shows and their bags had to be removed. Then one of the crew had an in-flight medical emergency and I was praying that we wouldn't have to make an emergency landing somewhere. Eventually all things done and said we pulled into JFK around midnight.

Guess I wasn't so short in recounting that story...

More travel saga, in going to DC, my train was delayed for 20 minutes for no apparent reason, and coming back up the locomotive broke in Union Station, again delaying us. Wonderful! As the previous line probably made clear, I went down to DC for...I won't say the reason(s)...I wonder why hehe...(I'll be a tool and leave it at that)

Ah yes, I am back home, so how is that you may ask? It's nice relaxing. I've been getting a good amount of sleep, seeing friends, lounging about like a lazy sloth, listening to music, reading, being a numismatist (a what?), etc. On the downside my desktop refuses to turn on, so I need to figure out why it is doing that. Also, I have no patience for my parents and get easily irritable at them. I feel bad because they are my parents, I'm finally home, and they are doing nothing wrong (besides it's Xmas) Ahh so why am I getting all bent out of shape over them? Do I have no tolerance for their idiosyncrasies? I don't know. Do I miss the independence of not being parented, no matter how laid back and passive and nice my parents are? Maybe my mom is too intense. Who knows... Oddly haven't seen a lot of my dad around. Alas, it seems like our plans for skiing this Sunday have gone to pot as it might rain and the temperature might creep up near the 50s. I hope all the snow doesn't melt for Xmas.

Yes a tangent! I got out of the car at home and what did I find, but snow on the ground! It was a nice change as I highly doubt we will get snow in London. Also the air had this wintry crispness that is so typical of the Northeast and was missing in London. I hope winter doesn't suck over there.

One unpleasant surprise was that I came home and my desktop, my child that I built back in high school won't start up oddly. I haven;t tuched it for 3 months and the other electronics and surge protector still work. This calls for investigating...

Other LSE new: the Uni was ranked 19th in the world, but somehow dropped to 57th. Ouch. However for Social Sciences, it is still ranked 3rd behind Harvard and Berkeley, so maybe the drop was artificial as the LSE administration has been saying.

Also, Against All Odds, my radio show has been renewed for a permanent slot next term, an hour each Monday early afternoon (east coast time). We'll see what music and genres I will wield this time. I have some leftovers that didn't make the cut from my previous three shows: maybe I will make a special show out of the "lost cut" of songs.

Sorry for the long post--can't promise it won't happen again! (would say Merry Xmas though I think I will catch you again before then, I hope)