It's ALIVE.

Hello again.

I'm horrible at keeping this blog, but I think I get props for not abandoning it completely with the million other things I've decided to take on in addition to school. Let me list them, so that you can feel appropriately sympathetic and abolish any complaints about the lack of posts.

Shit I am doing:

1.  School - This is kind of necessary because it's the reason I'm over here. This semester is 'do your publishing project along with class along with researching for your dissertation'. This semester makes last semester look like kindergarten. 
2.  Publishing project - This follows from school I have to create a publishing dummy (16 page example of a book), and I'm writing the content. For some reason, I thought that would be a good idea.
3. Blogging - Yes, I'm counting this blog as part of the list because I will be doing it. I realize that's sort of cheating, but it's my list. Make your own list
4. Writing collective - A project we've started this year where we're working with the brand spanking new, born-this-year creative writing MFA program to publish a compilation of their (and other people's) work. It's new and shiny and we're completely in charge of it, which means all the work is ours to create or destroy.
5. Internships - I've already got one creating web content for an author. Looking for another possibility for after this one. Some overlap may be necessary.

That may not be all, but 5 is a nice and round number. It's got that circular bottom half and everything.

To catch you up on my life during the absence, I managed to survive the first semester of this degree with minimal psychological damage. Sometimes the voices are a little loud, but a little music drowns them right out. My cousin came over to visit, and we did an assortment of exploring/frolicking-type things before we got on the flight home (which was blessedly uneventful). My break was entirely what it should have been - relief work at the bookstore, hanging out with family and friends, and a crap-ton of sitting around in my pajamas watching my dad play Zelda: Twilight Princess.

The return flight was also uneventful, although Newark airport is really freaking bleak. The place has this air of misery, like the little island before people cross the River Styx. I'm not sure if the florescent bulbs were dusty or if the whole town has this gray appearance. It made me wonder even more than usual at where everyone else was going that they were so downtrodden. Maybe they were already home.

This first week has been a couple of major deadlines. Ironically, not actual marked assignments. These were the type of assignments that were based in preparation. As in 'if you don't get this done, you can't do the rest and you fail horribly and must commit harakiri because of the shame you've brought upon your household' assignments. Needless to say, I completed them, although the pressure to perform for something that wasn't even marked stirred a little rebellion in me. I vowed not to do anything productive this weekend except sit around in my pajamas, read, and play Ocarina of Time on my 3DS.

But I lied. I've already started organizing stuff for the collective and am writing this blog and thinking about writing another one for the class website about the collective.

It's a different kind of failure altogether.

And that's why they call me MacGyver.

Fair warning, this post will pretty much be about random stuff that's been on my mind for a while. And by a while I mean the last couple of minutes. You've been warned.

While back I started writing a post with the title "Shit I miss about Texas", but then I got sidetracked by something and forgot to post it. So here's the list:*

1. Dr. Pepper - To answer the question I know is coming, yes they have DP here. Does it taste the same? No. I'm ashamed of you for asking.

2. Not talking about the weather - I remember going an entire day without talking it, but now every conversation I have starts with something about the different weather. Oh, and it's cold. Sometimes it rains.  Other days I can actually see the sun. It sets at around 4:30. Assume that will not change for the next 4 months.

3. Warmth - While we're on the subject of weather...it's freaking COLD.

4. Not walking everywhere - I'm the laziest person I know. It's unjust.

5. Animals - For some reason people walking their dogs will cross to the other side of the street  before they pass me. Do I look like a dog thief? Honestly, I'm really not. Although I realize that my 'smiling at a stranger' face is weird. I sort of look like I'm in pain, but it's better than walking by and ignoring them completely. Or is it? I never know what the proper etiquette is for these things.

6. People who understand my need for zombie preparedness - I'm lookin' at you, family. This whole country is UNPREPARED.

7.  Working at nights - Two reasons. I had a kick-ass coworker and boss, and it gave me a reason to be awake at 4AM other than insomnia.

8. Proper cookware - I have a tiny oven/microwave that I'm pretty sure is giving me cancer as we speak and probably 3 pots, 2 skillets, no pans, and bunch of what I can only assume are casserole dishes. I don't really even like casserole, so those are pointless. I managed to find a 10inch skillet (which I had to convert to centimeters to buy, even though I think it's messed up they don't use inches here because those measurements came first), but I was being cheap and didn't get the top. Then I had to cook something that required me to cover it, and I realized I made a huge tactical error because the majority of things I'm going to cook in that skillet nee a top. So I thought I could use a plate, but those weren't big enough either. The casserole dish tops were useless, and I have no baking sheets so I used this giant glass cutting board. That totally worked. I'm like the MacGyver of cookware.

9. Netflix and Hulu - Seriously, those two companies suck for not being available over here. I feel like my mother's Netflix subscription is currently going to waste because I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who used the instant streaming and my mother finally watched ALL of the Criminal Minds seasons on DVD. Not that I blame her because I'm mostly in love with Spencer Reid AND the actor who plays him.

10. People who understand my need to finish lists in increments of 5 or 10. Also, did I just use the word increments incorrectly?

*Disclaimer: I still love Scotland and the people in it. I'll put that list up later.

*****

I haven't had much sleep lately between the insomnia, week of migraines, and a crazy project I had to do involving international and US copyright policy. If someone asks me about copyright in the next two years, I might accidentally punch them in the face. I also managed to rack up 11 GBP (I have no idea how to make the British pound symbol on my keyboard) in library fines. I've learned that if it's not written on a post-it I won't remember it. I currently have 5 post-its stuck in various places of my apartment reminding me to do daily stuff, so maybe I should have written a post-it reminding me to write a post-it about the library books. The funny part is I didn't even read them. I think I must have checked them out too look smart since I broke my librarian-hipster glasses. Black plastic frames? Yeah, I bought those in high school before they were cool, I swear. Back when they were only associated with 'librarians', or 'sexy librarians' depending on how much cleavage you were showing that day. It was just 'librarian' for me. I was in band.

And that was the whole point of this post. The best part of today was the two cupcakes and two cookies I had. I don't feel guilty for eating them. I was hungry, and there are starving kids in Africa.

On cake and light shows.

So, I realize it has been over a month since my last post. The reason for this...well, there are many reasons for this spanning from numerous assignments due to sheer laziness. It is true, over my supposed 'break' from the 24th to the 28th, I had to write and edit 2 essays and prepare a presentation, but for the past week or so I haven't done much. I thought that I should probably post a blog before I get into the heavy assignments of the next couple of weeks. So, here it is. My very tardy, very full blog post.

Now, I have to think a bit hard for this. I have a tendency to focus on the day-to-day when doing many things at once, so I've forgotten a bit of the past. I'm thinking for the sake of time we'll focus on the best part - the 'break'.

University of Stirling, and most schools over here I guess, have this lovely little 'break' in the middle of the fall. It's been pointed out to me that 'break' is actually a misnomer - it's a reading week. It's a week in which our professors, tutors, and the like tell us to enjoy our lack of classes but get on with the major assignments we have due. Naturally, I rebelled and forced my friend Laura to rebel with me, so we decided to take a little 3 day trip up to Pitlochry and Blair Atholl for the Enchanted Forest and other sight-seeing adventures.

Cake of joy.

On Friday, the 21st, we boarded a train from Bridge of Allan to Pitlochry, where we had to kill about 5 hours before our check in with the youth hostel. My natural inclination at any point when I need to kill time is to eat something, so we took a cue from the back of our Enchanted Forest tickets and popped into Hettie's Tea Room to eat some lunch...and some cake! Some delicious...delicious cake.

See, looks safe, right?

We took a bit of time to explore the main street of Pitlochry with all of its nifty little shops, and we ended up walking towards the dam and fish ladder, across a nice suspension bridge. I'm a fan of suspension bridges. They seem to mix stability and instability in a way that makes you feel safe and nervous at the same time.  Laura isn't comfortable with heights, so I had to resist the urge to bounce around.

That night, Laura and I had a couple of tickets to see Enchanted Forest and enjoy a spectacular light show. I'm not exaggerating on the spectacular. I'm still waiting for a response about a possible CD of the music they use. The show was entitled "Transitions" and made liberal use of color changes in time with certain instruments and changes to emphasize the switch in music. They also have what the call a 'light harp'. The light harp is a circle of posts with lights that are motion activated to change color and play a harp tone when you wave your hand over them. You can imagine how interesting this phenomena is when there are several children furiously waving their hands over the lights all at once. Unfortunately, photos don't do much justice to the show, but I definitely suggest a visit to the website linked ^up there^. If you're ever in Pitlochry around the mid to end of October, I would highly recommend a visit. Here's a few of my attempts to catch the show on camera. Pardon the grainy quality. Never trust the 'AUTO' selection on your camera.

One of my better shots

The building was a lookout point where you could view the whole show. 

Widescreen, but not HD.

From the lookout, with the gazebo in the corner.

The duck, upon realization of Laura's lack of food,
turns to me for offerings.

The next day brought more exploration with a trip to Blair Castle in Blair Atholl. Touring the castle and grounds took the entire day, and we weren't allowed to take photos of anything but the great hall in the castle. Which, I kid you not, was probably 20 yards long. I don't know how to convert that to metric, sorry. The castle sits on a very large bit of land, with the 9-acres of Hercules gardens, St. Bride's Kirk, and a wooded area named after Diana (the goddess) with very, very tall trees. Hercules Garden was lined with inset statues (not labeled) and has inter-locking ponds in the middle. With little huts for the water fowl. While exploring the gardens, one duck thought we might have some food and proceeded to follow us. He refused to listen to our protestations and was soon joined in pursuit by the rest of his duck friends. We were stalked for quite a distance before the duck gave up. I admire his persistence. There are too many pictures to put up here, but I promise to attach a link to my Picasa web album at some point and upload them to Facebook.

The mill from the outside

After Blair Castle, we waited out the train in a nearby coffee house attached to a working watermill. Blair Atholl Watermill & Tea Rooms accepted our voucher for a buy one get one free hot chocolate and provided us with a free exploration of a working watermill. The lower levels (and upper levels, to a lesser extent) were cold enough to show me my own breath, but the mill machinery was fascinating to look at. The mill is still in use, and they sell the products whole or in bread. I was impressed. When we returned to Pitlochry for the night, we once again visited the cafe/restaurant treasure we found (which I can't remember the name of, now) for dinner, then went on a small ghost tour around Pitlochry. Pitlochry is a small place, but the tour guides did a great job of telling good stories and passing us off to each other with funny exchanges between their characters. There were only four of us, but the tour was worth the time.

We headed back home the next day and went to see Arriety, a Miyazaki film about borrowers, before going home to work on essays the rest of the week. Since then, my time has been split between class and assignments, talking to people back home, revisiting Jane Austen novels, and considering a new blog about books. It's a little over a month until I am home for Christmas, and I am pretty anxious to board the plane. The semester hasn't been easy, they definitely make you work for your masters, so a little bit of a vacation is extremely welcome. Classes and assignments are, thankfully, all finished by December 7th, and my cousin Misty is making her way back from her travels in Europe to come stay with me until we depart on the 20th. There may be a little bit of traveling for a couple of weeks. We'll see. For now, it's back to the books.

Until next time.

A whole mess of...mess.

It's been a while since I last updated, but I've had a couple of time-consumptive projects due and a real lack of motivation to do anything resembling work outside of those.

Let me 'splain. No, too long. Let me sum up. (if you don't know the reference, shame on you)

We've been working on a couple of projects in class that have consumed a good majority of my time, along with the reading for class. I feel like I'm reading everything there is to learn about publishing. I should be a genius or an idiot when I finally apply for a job. An idiot because I will have forgotten everything I've ever read. So I've been focused on school and outside group meetings. By the time I get home my brain has switched off. I also attended a cocktail party on the 6th with the Society of Young Publishers (for people with less than 10 years in publishing) at Dragonfly Cocktail Bar in Edinburgh. The event was fun and a pretty nice opportunity to hang with the rest of the publishing crew outside of working on projects and class. My weekend passed without too much excitement. I put off my birthday celebrations until the following Tuesday (the 11th) because we all had a bit of project work to do, so my weekend was free.

While planning an upcoming trip to Pitlochry on my break (read: partial break because I have three assignments due around that time), I stumbled across a relatively easy hike from Bridge of Allan to Dunblane, roughly 2.5 miles. The walk, Darn Walk, is said to date back to the Romans, and I'm not sure what its importance is or if it even has any. With a little encouragement and coaching from Dad (I'm blaming him for everything from now on), I took myself off on the walk on Monday.

Mud. Everywhere.

The walk started pleasant enough with a paved lane...that quickly turned into an unpaved lane...that quickly turned into a regular dirt path. As a result of being relatively small in size, I'm generally pretty quick on my feet and move around quite a bit so as to escape perceived threats. Unfortunately, I fought and the mud won.

Altogether, the walk wasn't a bad experience. I took many, many pictures, got a little dirty, and managed to enjoy some fresh air - sans rain! I also finally learned how to fully operate my camera, grew an appreciation for rocks, and passed three people who commented on the state of the mud. See - I wasn't the only one.

A few shots from the beginning of the trip:

The beginning of the journey - no mud yet.

A little off the beaten path view of Allan waters. Still no mud, yet.

Beginning of the mud. 

Bridge referenced in walk guide. I knew I was going the right way.

There was really no getting around that mud. Unless I hugged a barbed wire fence.

The beginning portion of the trek was pretty simple and offered several views of Allan waters, which runs through and lends its name to Bridge of Allan. I started the walk a little ahead of two very serious looking hiker-types, but they pretty quickly passed me up when I stopped to take pictures. By the bottom picture you see here, I had completely lost them. I hope they made it. I passed a horse farm, where a horse was wearing booties or some sort of foot apparel. Not quite sure what those were. I also passed a field of sheep,   a random bridge to another unnamed trail, an inappropriately name landmark, and another landmark of significance to literature lovers.

The other side of the trip:

What the hell are those blue things on its feet?

Yes, those are steps. Covered in mud.

Cock's Burn - No lie, that's what it's called. Runs into Allan water.

The other half of Cock's Burn. I was standing on a bridge over it.

A cave Robert Louis Stevenson used to sit and stare at. - said to have inspired Ben Gunn's cave.

No significance - just a really funny looking sign.

FOREST.  And the trees were all in a line.

I'm really proud of this picture. 

So there you have it. A visual tour. There are tons more pictures, which I will make available on my Picasa site - to be linked soon. This week was pretty daunting, but more on that later. Maybe tomorrow. When I can breathe again.

Until next time.

When your thing gets wild, chilly down.

Or one of them, at least.

I have to tell you that yesterday was awesome. Mostly last night, but I figure class wasn't so bad either, and we had a pretty good visiting speaker from a printing press. I'd devote more time to this if I weren't impatient to tell you about my night. Our speaker was from St. Martin's, and he spoke about the actual process of printing and binding books, different paper, digital books, ebooks, and so on. The process is really complex, and I would have no idea in that career field. Seriously, I would probably fall into the press and end up as large red blots in the middle of a self-help novel. Not that they would sell those copies. That would be unprofessional.

On to the best part of my day. I tagged along to a showing of Labyrinth (David Bowie, codpiece, puppets - watch it if you haven't) in the macrobert theater, with a Q&A session with one of the many, many puppeteers after. The film, as always, was wonderful, with the possible exception of the quality. 'Bout 15 minutes in, the sound cuts off, then the theater goes dark. I'm pretty sure they were using an original copy. After the film all of the children left (thank God), and we sit waiting for a couple of minutes before this 60s guy gets up and says, "Well, I'm just going to jump in because I'm not sure anyone's going to introduce me."

Aside: By 60s guy, I mean that he was in his 60s, and his hair was influenced by the 60s. Double whammy.

Our speaker's name was Toby Philpott, and he controlled, in addition to various smaller parts on other puppets, the legs and body of the lead singer of the fire gang. Remember those red fiery guys in the forest who try to remove Jennifer Connolly's head? Yeah, he was dancing with those guys. He worked more extensively on Dark Crystal, where he was shoved up near someone's armpit in one puppet and worked on Jim Henson's team. Pretty legendary, yeah? Stick with me, my story gets better. Toby also operated the head, tongue, and left arm of Jabba the Hut.

Yeah. Take it in. Jabba. The. Hut.

Thinking back on it, I guess it's somewhat strange that I would probably be more excited by meeting the person who worked on R2D2 than I would Carrie Fisher, but that's just the way I am. The technical aspects of film are exciting to me. Don't get me wrong, I could probably work up a good fangirl gush if I ever met Samuel L. Jackson (are you listening, Universe?), but meeting this guy was pretty great. He explained a bunch about how they worked the puppets (with a lot of funny little demonstrations - sans puppets) and about all the little process they went through on the film to make the goblins and other creatures believable. who would have thought blinking was so important?

Mr. Philpott had a pretty interesting back story. Hi father was a puppeteer and his mother was an actress, but he decided to run away from home and school to tour the U.S. and Mexico and be a street performer. He learned how to juggle, walk on his hands, etc. making a little bit of money. He got wind of a juggling class and joined up, where his teacher/instructor/whatever-call-master-jugglers told him about an add in the paper for a puppet workshop audition for this movie. Wham. In the business. He did 6 films total, then moved on to teaching and working in the circus again. Now he's moved up to Cardiff where he works at a library doing semi-techy things. He says he'll probably go back to doing stuff for the circus when they retire him from the library.

After the Q&A, someone approached him about signing a card for a friend because they couldn't make it, and the floodgates opened. He sat signing things and talking about his life and answering questions for a good hour after the show. He's a wonderful person, and I probably have a slight high from this experience.

So there you go.  After all the information slammed at me this week and the future pressures of next week, it was a pretty pleasant way to spend 4 hours of my time. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Until next time,
A

Dammit, I should have concurred.

Today was a bit of a whirlwind of date being shoved into an admittedly already confused brain.

For our 'general knowledge' portion of this general graduate studies module (aka class for my American readers) we are required to take, our course leaders have handpicked several visiting speakers and seminars for us to attend. I'm not sure if this module is specific to the University of Stirling, UK universities, or all postgrad programs, but I'm not sure why they would start trying to make us well-rounded students now. Maybe someone will explain it to me one day. Anyway, our visiting speaker slot was filled today with Andrew O'Hagan speaking about civic memory and Scottish culture, put on at the Macrobert cinema/theater thing on campus.

When I tell them about coming to school here, so many people ask me "Why Scotland?" Generally, I'm torn between two reactions to this question. The first is an uninformative, sarcastic answer of "Because I wanted to."
 and the other is a full monologue extolling the history and culture of Scotland. Both of those answers are accurate, but not completely true. And Andrew O'Hagan pretty much nailed my reason int he presentation today in a rather eloquent, author-ly way. I came back to Scotland for one simple reason - the people.

Scotland has this somewhat unique relationship with their country. Each person here identifies with their particular region. As O'Hagan put it, they belong to Scotland (only he was talking about his parents' relationship to Glasgow).  In all the places I have traveled, this identity, this ownership of origin has never been rivaled, with the possible exception of my own state. The idea of Scotland is less of a place and more of a sort of state of being, like a living, breathing thing central in the hearts of all of the people here. In that way, the people here have made it a true home, and they never really leave Scotland even if or when they move to another country. This aspect of O'Hagan's talk was the part that struck me the most as something I was able to see upon setting foot in this country, and it's one of the reasons I decided to come back.

O'Hagan described a lot about the atmosphere of Scotland. This country is full of 'characters' and wrapped in a sort of lovely blanket of fiction, which I find absolutely delightful. There was a funny little remark in there about how hell, most of Scottish history is somewhat fictionalized. There's a story to be told everywhere here, whereas other places I have been have a lackluster approach to having any sense of community. I love Scotland for it's ability to enrich any conversation with a quirky, hilarious anecdote or fun fact that oftentimes isn't actually fact. And, more often than not, the people here gather you into their stories and welcome you to take a glimpse at their lives. There are people here have made me feel as if I were a part of their lives after sitting next to them on the train between Stirling and Linlithgow. I've met people who open their very homes to me, like my landlady Susan who offered me a place to stay if I ever traveled down to the Isle of Arran. This is not to say this warmth is primarily a Scottish thing. I have met several people here from all over who have made me feel equally welcome, but it seems as if I have encountered this feeling in every corner of Scotland I have explored.

At the end of the presentation there was a bit of a Q&A session in which I felt completely idiotic. Some of these questions were ridiculously in-depth and intellectual, but one question from a Canadian woman was "Who is a Scot?". What is the thing that makes a Scot, a Scot? Is it simply a matter of location, or something else entirely? O'Hagan's reply was that he identifies a Scot as someone who view Scotland as central in their mind. He said a Scot is a person who, regardless of what it says on your birth certificate, imagines Scotland as the only place they want to call home.

The rest of the day passed with more of a busied, information-jammed flavor. We've been split up, again, into two groups to accommodate for the size of our designated computer lab, so we took shifts on library information presentations and InDesign workshops for class. Seriously, we've probably got 4 different groups going at once, and they will be switched around again for the next set of assignments. I might request a large poster telling us what group goes for what module. It's confusing as hell. Anyway, everyone was talking out about the 'record-breaking heat' today (it's 73 degrees Fahrenheit, by the way), and we had a library information presentation in a stifling hot room right after the O'Hagan event. Then we moved on over to our first class on InDesign, where I fake a tech-savviness I do not actually have and managed to convince myself and my teacher. We'll see how long that lasts.

Today I have absorbed way too much information, eaten way too little, walked around in short-sleeves n Scotland at the end of September (who knew?!), and managed to settle into my idea for my publishing project with a bit of comfort. I actually had a couple of people in my group tell me they would like to read it! So that's a bit exciting. Tomorrow is another busy day full of marketing, visiting speakers, and IT classes, followed by Friday, which is pretty much a catch-all day for various things I have to have settled. Internet comes (hopefully) Friday, so yay for that! I will actually be able to blog from the comfort of my own how and Skype with my parents for the first time in a couple of weeks. Don't be too sad for me on that one. I have been calling and sending them emails pretty regularly. But I will be able to Skype with the rest of you! then Saturday, I will take a nice, relaxing climb up Dumyat, where I vow I will NOT fall in a bog again. We'll see...

Until next time,
A

P.S. - When I finished writing this, I somehow hit the back button and deleted everything. Thank you, Blogger, for autosaving.

Oh, hai!

Dad reminded me 'politely' that I need to update my blog, so I thought I would oblige. Much has happened since I last wrote, including two weeks of class, several mishaps with the bank, fire hazards, and various post-related surprises.

To begin this whole thing, I suppose I should tell you a bit about the thing that is taking the majority of my time - school. My program is from 10-5 Tuesday through Thursday, with an hour (sometimes) break for lunch. I have to admit that I do get restless and want to put my head down on the desk, but I have to refrain because I'm pretty sure that's frowned on by postgraduate profs. We address our profs by their first name, on request, and so far all of them are extremely helpful and very clear with instructions. I have a marketing class, an editorial and content creation class, a publishing dynamics class, and a class specifically for the giant project I will be doing for the next two semesters. The project is to make a publishing 'dummy', which is essentially 16 pages of a book, ebook, children's book, whatever. I've got an idea in mind for a twist on Grimm's fairy tales that I've told to a few people and enlisted the help of 3 artists and my creativity facilitator, Misty. She and I have this great relationship where we can look at each other's stuff/outfits/whatever and tell the other what we need to do to improve in a loving and easily acceptable way. By the end of it all, I will have created a physical product, from formatting to design to editing. We don't have to write it or anything, but I'm an overachiever who doesn't want to deal with copyright issues.

In other news at school, we had a presentation yesterday about the workforce, and our presenter managed to simultaneously adjust our focus on possible careers and scare the shit out of us. Apparently the publishing workforce is aging, shrinking down their hiring, and keeping all their current employees. BUT the main area that needs hiring is marketing, sales and distribution, and technological stuff. I'm somewhat relieved to hear that because marketing is quickly becoming a subject on par with economics for me. I have a natural aptitude for it because I tend to gloss over the technical names for things and focus on the actual theory itself. Economics and marketing have a tendency to try to confuse you with terminology. Get past that, and you're golden.

Moving on to mishaps with the bank, let me just tell you...banks in any country suck. I opened an account so I can pay rent and use a debit card that won't be looked at funny for the next year. Everything was hunky dory until I tried to deposit my financial aid in said account, only to be told I can't do anything because I needed proof I lived here. I get that. It makes sense. Luckily I had received a letter from the Stirling Council about council tax (another absurd way for the gov'ment to make money here), so they told me it would be fixed by the following Wednesday. I continued on my merry way, and was granted Wednesday afternon off from classes in a fortunate twist of fate. I tried to deposit the very large check again...and failed. No, the lady said, we need your visa information again. Bring that in and we'll fix everything.

Let me just pause here to tell you about my morning of panic. I woke up and had the genius idea to set my passport down by my jewelry so I would remember to grab it for the bank before I left. I grabbed my handy dandy lockbox and keyed in the right numbers...and no passport. So, okay, no passport there, but it's probably just in my purse or computer bag. Skip on over and search said bags....and no passport. Okay, let's not panic just yet. I probably put it somewhere dumb and told myself to move it later, then didn't. Look on the table, up on a shelf, inside my luggage...and no passport. Calm time has passed, freak out time has commenced. What followed was a lovely interlude of me alternating between reassuring myself that I took it out of my bag, it couldn't have fallen out, it's here in the apartment and calling myself all kinds of irresponsible and stupid for not knowing EXACTLY where such important documents are, you irritating, ditsy little fool. Things got ugly. A couple minutes of standing in the middle of the room and retracing my footsteps for the last week and a half passed, and I had a sudden thought. Once, I lost my debit card for an hour and then found it in the book I had shoved in my purse. I flipped through all of my books, found my passport, and immediately burst into tears. Not a good way to start your day, but at least I'm not as stupid as I thought. Maybe. Jury's still out ton that one.

Back to the bank - I brought in my newly found passport today, and it will now take until Monday, most definitely by Tuesday to have everything worked out where I can deposit and access the big check I have. Luckily, I don't need to go anywhere, so I'll just spend this weekend getting all organized for class and cleaning my apartment. Which currently houses a sparking microwave. A rather horrifying moment for a girl living by herself for the first time, not entirely sure where the fire extinguisher is. Thankfully, my landlady is on top of things, and I will conference with her husband tonight on the issue. She thinks it may have been the fact that she cleaned the microwave with a metal scourer before I got there. I'm inclined to agree, but we'll wait and see.

So, you're all caught up on my shenanigans and tomfoolery. Both words which, surprisingly, are accepted by my automatic spell-checker. Talk about a varied dictionary. I may actually spend some time, previously promised, walking around Bridge of Allan and taking pictures. In my defense, I've been pretty busy and it has rained nearly every day. But I think waiting for sunshine in Scotland right now is comparable to waiting for rain in Texas this summer. Equally useless and frustrating.

Leaving you with a fun fact. The meaning of the thistle, official emblem for Scotland is "No One Provokes me with Impunity". Appropriate, yes?

Until next time,
A