every day is like Sunday
I occasionally think that Morrissey's "Every Day Is Like Sunday" was written for the town I grew up in. It wasn't, it was written for Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire, but, still. This is the seaside town / they forgot to close down rings especially true. I may be being somewhat uncharitable. I am being somewhat uncharitable. I grew up in a seaside village, and was spared the candy-floss and rock of a few miles down the coast, and it is very, very beautiful.
It's just... yes. I left Oxford today. I will not pass comment on this fact right now. I will say that my being here is certainly not the end of the world. It's just that, sitting here at 12.46am, in this kitchen, with this specific mess on the table, this familiar home-smell of incense and chilli, I feel almost as if I had gone away for a time - a long trip away, three years, in fact - and am home again unchanged. And yes, of course that's not true. It's just. Yes.
Anyway! I am back. Home is nice, it is very nice to see my parents again - they, too, are unchanged; they brought me home and fed me coffee and told me terrible jokes - and tomorrow I am not allowed to sit at home and feel sorry for myself, I have to work, by which I mean, I have to roll out of bed before lunchtime and go and (not) sell books to people and not mope. In fact, life is perfectly fine and there are joyful things and I am having a re-awaking of my insomnia (ahahaha, see what I did there?) which is making me a bit droopy. I will return and talk about pleasant things later. First, Ye Olde Meme about me, which might come in handy for telling me about myself:
1. First Name: I'd rather not say. I dislike my first name rather a lot, and so everyone I know calls me Iona.
2. Age: Twenty-one. And a half.
3. Location: Well, Oxford. Ish. I've spent the last two years living in a college-owned flat near the city centre. Right now I'm spending a couple of months living with my parents, who live near Liverpool on the sea coast, and in August I hope to move in with chiasmata in East Oxford.
4. Occupation: Student, but I've pretty much decided I'm going to be a lawyer of some type - probably not a corporate lawyer, and I'm thinking vaguely about family law and criminal law, but law in general. Recently, I've been considering making my qualifications academic as well as professional, so I can pack it in in later life and be a legal philosopher instead. I'm still thinking. Bear with me.
5. Partner?: shimgray. Geek, likes books and birds and bad puns.
6. Kids: Heh. No. I am less militantly childfree than I once was, but I still really, really don't like children.
7. Brothers/Sisters: I don't have any, and am very happy about that.
8. Pets: Not at the moment. Technically I'm a dog person - I love dogs, used to have a giant German Shepherd - but at the moment, chiasmata and I are thinking of getting a cat. (And are not being crazy cat ladies together, not at all.)
9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:
i. I just finished my degree. Well, I think I did; until results come out in early July, I don't know whether I'm entitled to "BA Hons. (Oxon)", and if so what class. Finding out is, naturally, pretty important to me.
ii. See above momentarily: I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm not sure of the hows and whys of it yet, and figuring those out is also pretty important right now.
iii. It's summer. I'm travelling and working and hopefully writing, in a way I haven't been able to in months and months. I'm looking forward to it.
10. Education: Primary, secondary, and my degree is a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford, providing I actually passed. In practice, I am a philosopher more than anything else; my interests specifically are philosophy of mind and language.
11. Parents: My dad is a consultant gynaecologist who's slowly turning into an academic; my mum is a GP. Mum and I bicker about stupid things, but have a basically solid relationship; my dad and I are very similar and very close.
12. Who are some of your closest friends?: My Official Best FriendTM is hathy_col - we've been friends for years, for all she now lives 500 miles from me. For the last almost-two years, jacinthsong and I have been glued together; apotropaios and I lived in each other's heads for a year; luminometrice and chiasmata quietly keep me sane; from across the Atlantic, likethesun2 does the same. Oh, and slasheuse and magic_doors and absinthe_shadow. There are others. There are lots. I am absurdly and undeservedly blessed when it comes to friends.
And now, bedtime. My kingdom for a wink of sleep.
It's just... yes. I left Oxford today. I will not pass comment on this fact right now. I will say that my being here is certainly not the end of the world. It's just that, sitting here at 12.46am, in this kitchen, with this specific mess on the table, this familiar home-smell of incense and chilli, I feel almost as if I had gone away for a time - a long trip away, three years, in fact - and am home again unchanged. And yes, of course that's not true. It's just. Yes.
Anyway! I am back. Home is nice, it is very nice to see my parents again - they, too, are unchanged; they brought me home and fed me coffee and told me terrible jokes - and tomorrow I am not allowed to sit at home and feel sorry for myself, I have to work, by which I mean, I have to roll out of bed before lunchtime and go and (not) sell books to people and not mope. In fact, life is perfectly fine and there are joyful things and I am having a re-awaking of my insomnia (ahahaha, see what I did there?) which is making me a bit droopy. I will return and talk about pleasant things later. First, Ye Olde Meme about me, which might come in handy for telling me about myself:
1. First Name: I'd rather not say. I dislike my first name rather a lot, and so everyone I know calls me Iona.
2. Age: Twenty-one. And a half.
3. Location: Well, Oxford. Ish. I've spent the last two years living in a college-owned flat near the city centre. Right now I'm spending a couple of months living with my parents, who live near Liverpool on the sea coast, and in August I hope to move in with chiasmata in East Oxford.
4. Occupation: Student, but I've pretty much decided I'm going to be a lawyer of some type - probably not a corporate lawyer, and I'm thinking vaguely about family law and criminal law, but law in general. Recently, I've been considering making my qualifications academic as well as professional, so I can pack it in in later life and be a legal philosopher instead. I'm still thinking. Bear with me.
5. Partner?: shimgray. Geek, likes books and birds and bad puns.
6. Kids: Heh. No. I am less militantly childfree than I once was, but I still really, really don't like children.
7. Brothers/Sisters: I don't have any, and am very happy about that.
8. Pets: Not at the moment. Technically I'm a dog person - I love dogs, used to have a giant German Shepherd - but at the moment, chiasmata and I are thinking of getting a cat. (And are not being crazy cat ladies together, not at all.)
9. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life:
i. I just finished my degree. Well, I think I did; until results come out in early July, I don't know whether I'm entitled to "BA Hons. (Oxon)", and if so what class. Finding out is, naturally, pretty important to me.
ii. See above momentarily: I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm not sure of the hows and whys of it yet, and figuring those out is also pretty important right now.
iii. It's summer. I'm travelling and working and hopefully writing, in a way I haven't been able to in months and months. I'm looking forward to it.
10. Education: Primary, secondary, and my degree is a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford, providing I actually passed. In practice, I am a philosopher more than anything else; my interests specifically are philosophy of mind and language.
11. Parents: My dad is a consultant gynaecologist who's slowly turning into an academic; my mum is a GP. Mum and I bicker about stupid things, but have a basically solid relationship; my dad and I are very similar and very close.
12. Who are some of your closest friends?: My Official Best FriendTM is hathy_col - we've been friends for years, for all she now lives 500 miles from me. For the last almost-two years, jacinthsong and I have been glued together; apotropaios and I lived in each other's heads for a year; luminometrice and chiasmata quietly keep me sane; from across the Atlantic, likethesun2 does the same. Oh, and slasheuse and magic_doors and absinthe_shadow. There are others. There are lots. I am absurdly and undeservedly blessed when it comes to friends.
And now, bedtime. My kingdom for a wink of sleep.