Getting settled in
I had the weirdest sense of deja vu on the tube this morning - it felt just like a freezing November day in Chicago during my senior year of college, as I was bundled up and riding the el ("a Brown Line train, to downtown") downtown to go to class. I could almost pinpoint the exact day, but not quite - it was after the White Sox won the World Series but before Thanksgiving break. It reminded me of hot apple cider and crunchy leaves and thick sweaters and baked pumpkin seeds and guessing my birthday presents and football and preparing for Thanksgiving and Black Friday and shopping in busy malls and snow and cars that won't start and winter and sledding and Christmas and family and home. It was nice to have those memories as I sat on the crowded and delayed Jubilee line this morning. I am glad that I am going home for Christmas. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't.
It'll be weird enough to have Thanksgiving on my own. I probably won't do much. I have a grand idea of making myself a T-day dinner (weird to be working on that day, too, btw), but I'll probably get too lazy and just have a turkey sandwich or something. We'll see. I might even buy a £10 pre-lit Christmas tree from ASDA (now that I've finally found ASDA (UK's Wal-Mart)).
Normally, I wouldn't be thinking about Christmas this early, but capitalism is succeeding in its relentless attempts to push the holiday earlier and earlier. Today they're lighting the Christmas lights on Oxford Street here in London. So, 7th November is now the official start of the season? I guess they're a little lost when they don't have Thanksgiving as a convenient month-before-Christmas holiday jumping off point.
Although the new place is far from perfect, it's nice to have a place to hang my hat. My room is nice and big, and I feel pretty settled in. I don't see my housemates much and, when I do, we get along well. My biggest problems with the place are: 1) the machine that I thought was a washer/dryer is actually just a washer, which means I have to hang my clothes around my room since it's now too cold to use the clothes line in the back garden, 2)the kitchen is small, which wasn't a problem at first and still really isn't since we're all making food at different times, but the small fridge is tough. I have the bottom shelf, and one space in the door for upright containers (i.e. milk). It fills up quickly, 3)the water heater thingy is in my room and, while most of the time it doesn't make noise, it does bang loudly occasionally. Also, 4) the housemates have to knock and fiddle with it before they shower (although I don't know why because I always seem to have hot water when I shower). That's pretty much it at the moment. My housemates are nice. The landlord is nice. And it's nice not to have to look for a new place. That said, if Megan gets her visa, I have no problem moving again to our own 2 bedroom flat. But until then, I'm making my new house my new home.
I know I just spent a long paragraph complaining about my place, but things are going well. I thought it'd be weird being alone, that I'd be lonely and sad and everyhing. But, and I think this is helped by being busy at work, I get home, eat dinner, watch TV or talk to my family, and go to sleep. And that's pretty much what I did before, except Megan was there, too.
I do miss American TV, though. I just watched the first season of Psych on DVD, and although I could buy season 2 (the current US season) on iTunes, I'd rather wait and buy the DVDs. But but but! The most exciting part is that I now feel... writerly. Maybe it's the weather or the writer's strike or maybe it's because I watched an entire season this weekend, but I think I'm going to try my hand at a Psych spec script. I want to do it right, so I'm going to get a notebook and take dilligent notes on character, story, etc. Then the brainstorming for ideas. Then an outline, followed by the actual writing. And, to inspire myself, I bought a pack of gold fasteners (because I found the right size at Morrison's) for the script. Yay!
Okay, well, back to work.
It'll be weird enough to have Thanksgiving on my own. I probably won't do much. I have a grand idea of making myself a T-day dinner (weird to be working on that day, too, btw), but I'll probably get too lazy and just have a turkey sandwich or something. We'll see. I might even buy a £10 pre-lit Christmas tree from ASDA (now that I've finally found ASDA (UK's Wal-Mart)).
Normally, I wouldn't be thinking about Christmas this early, but capitalism is succeeding in its relentless attempts to push the holiday earlier and earlier. Today they're lighting the Christmas lights on Oxford Street here in London. So, 7th November is now the official start of the season? I guess they're a little lost when they don't have Thanksgiving as a convenient month-before-Christmas holiday jumping off point.
Although the new place is far from perfect, it's nice to have a place to hang my hat. My room is nice and big, and I feel pretty settled in. I don't see my housemates much and, when I do, we get along well. My biggest problems with the place are: 1) the machine that I thought was a washer/dryer is actually just a washer, which means I have to hang my clothes around my room since it's now too cold to use the clothes line in the back garden, 2)the kitchen is small, which wasn't a problem at first and still really isn't since we're all making food at different times, but the small fridge is tough. I have the bottom shelf, and one space in the door for upright containers (i.e. milk). It fills up quickly, 3)the water heater thingy is in my room and, while most of the time it doesn't make noise, it does bang loudly occasionally. Also, 4) the housemates have to knock and fiddle with it before they shower (although I don't know why because I always seem to have hot water when I shower). That's pretty much it at the moment. My housemates are nice. The landlord is nice. And it's nice not to have to look for a new place. That said, if Megan gets her visa, I have no problem moving again to our own 2 bedroom flat. But until then, I'm making my new house my new home.
I know I just spent a long paragraph complaining about my place, but things are going well. I thought it'd be weird being alone, that I'd be lonely and sad and everyhing. But, and I think this is helped by being busy at work, I get home, eat dinner, watch TV or talk to my family, and go to sleep. And that's pretty much what I did before, except Megan was there, too.
I do miss American TV, though. I just watched the first season of Psych on DVD, and although I could buy season 2 (the current US season) on iTunes, I'd rather wait and buy the DVDs. But but but! The most exciting part is that I now feel... writerly. Maybe it's the weather or the writer's strike or maybe it's because I watched an entire season this weekend, but I think I'm going to try my hand at a Psych spec script. I want to do it right, so I'm going to get a notebook and take dilligent notes on character, story, etc. Then the brainstorming for ideas. Then an outline, followed by the actual writing. And, to inspire myself, I bought a pack of gold fasteners (because I found the right size at Morrison's) for the script. Yay!
Okay, well, back to work.