my moral standing is lying down

Had an amazing time in London. Did touristy things with Liz and Juliet, and then Judy when she arrived after several days in Paris. Tower of London was by far my favorite. Also, standing in the middle of traffic on Tower Bridge. In no particular order:London Eye, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Kensington Park, Hyde Park, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, The Strand, Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Camden Markets, Portobello Market, Tate Modern, British Library, Metallica concert at the O2 arena, warehouse club in Shoreditch!

WE SAW A FOX IN SHOREDITCH AT 2AM! =D It came out, paused, then darted across the street into another alley. IT WAS AWESOME -- I grabbed Liz's arm and screamed, "WHY ISN'T MARYANN HERE?!?!"

Went to Glasgow for a day with Liz and Juliet. Lots of fun, lots of walking, lots of rain. Though it wasn't a hard rain, so it didn't muck things up. Lots of orgasm-inducing accents. <333! And haggis! Which is perfectly fine -- tastes like sausage, people! =D The night we stayed there happened to apparently coincide with the night that Metallica played in Glasgow, so we ran into many groups of guys wearing Metallica tour shirts. It was great! Our hostel was attached to a bar that ended up staying open til 3am, so that was great too. ...until we were woken up at 9:30am by the fire alarm! (But then I got to see cute Scottish firemen, so maybe it wasn't so bad.)

I had gotten very little sleep just before London, and after stepping off the plane, I basically jumped right into walking around for several hours, then later that day flying again to Scotland, so after the first couple days I was beat. Bypassed jet lag completely as I usually do (as I don't have a regular sleep schedule normally anyway), but slept a good 10 hours the night after we got back from Scotland. Then I was good to go for the rest of the trip, as I don't think I went to sleep earlier than between 3-5am on any night thereafter.

So the day I flew back to NYC was a Thursday -- arrived at JFK at 10:30pm, picked up Jim's car at my parents' house, went home, repacked a smaller bag for Tekkoshocon, and then drove over to Canarsie at around 1am to pick up Anna, Sean and Rymel, then to Pittsburgh. We were on the road by 2am, and arrived in Pittsburgh around 9am. WHEW! Even though I got about 4 hours of sleep on the plane, I'm still kind of amazed that I was able to do that.

I HAD AN AWESOME TIME IN PITTSBURGH. Yes, chances are, if you're reading this, you've already heard me rave about it. I think it's beautiful -- I've never seen such a cool combination of mountainous region and urban cityscape. AND THE BRIDGES! So many of them! And several of them are YELLOW! OMG, they're cute. And the inclines! SO MUCH FUN! And the roaming around empty school buildings at 2am! Long hallways with repeating sconces and huge spiral staircases! And the basement at Bartko's house is AWESOMELY CREEPY! I had an awesome time being creeped out. His whole house is actually kind of creepy. SO GREAT! =D

Also, can I just say, I love tequila?

[edit: I just realized, there were way too many exclamation points in that last paragraph. I apologize.]

Just booked (pre-paid in full) a hostel for the trip to London at the end of March.

I was a fucking idiot and put it on my debit card instead of on the credit card I intended to use. Luckily, I have some extra funds which I can move around a bit.

Still, jeez, I'm out of it. Even after sleeping for 12 hours last night. I skipped class and got home at 6pm, was asleep by 6:30pm, and other than waking up every few hours for a couple of seconds each, I slept all the way through til 7am this morning.

Which brings me to... my stupidity of the last several days.

Monday was mostly a relaxing day, but I must have already started coming down with a cold because I barely ate all day. 4.5 hours after waking up, I decided I'd have half a bag of chips & guac from Chipotle. And then half a baked potato and some chicken nuggets a little later. That's it. All day. Not my usual fare.

Stayed up til 4am on Monday night. Somewhat stressful conversation and only 3 hours of sleep later, and feeling like crap from all of the above. Plus a continued lack of appetite and headache. Rushed home to return the car to NJ. Discovered, when I tried to take out some money from the ATM, that NONE OF MY CARDS WORKED. So I drove over to borrow some money from parents, and realized I didn't need the money I had come to borrow -- because YOU CAN TAKE FDR NORTH TO THE GW BRIDGE INSTEAD OF THE TRIBORO. Therefore, NO TOLLS. Yeah, you can see exactly how on-top of things I was.

Finally made it to NJ, later than anticipated, and pretty hungry, with a headache. We went out for dinner, and despite the fact that I felt like I was starving, I didn't really eat that much, and that headache did not go away until I took some painkiller for it.

Left NJ -- not under the best of circumstances, but again, I maintain that I was not in my right mind -- at midnight and got to Port Authority 30 minutes later. Waited for the E to take me straight home. But since the E didn't come, and a D came instead, I figured, what the hell, I'll take this to 7th Avenue and wait for the E there.

Does the D even go to 7th avenue?

Ask me if I even cared.

So it stopped at 50th street and then at Columbus Circle. I got out there and walked west. Realized my mistake, turned around and walked east. Finally, gave up and said "Screw it; I'm taking a cab." Cab from Columbus Circle to home was only $16. NOT BAD. Got home at 1am, asleep by 2am.

However, yesterday at work I was even more out of it. Continued lack of appetite and general malaise. I realize I should not have lunch with coworkers in this state. I sound like an idiot. Hopefully they recognize that I was super exhausted (after all, I did tell them about my super exhausting weekend), and won't hold it against me.

So that brings me full circle, with 12 hours of sleep last night, but still feeling out of it today. Better than yesterday, but still. I should take a day off and get my shit together, but I feel guilty because I just had a 4-day weekend.

...

In a small bit of good news, I got the new Buck-Tick album this morning, which I am really looking forward to listening to on the way home tonight. Please to not be disappointed!