Saturday

Well, Costume Ball was fun. Danced for hours until my feet hurt so badly that I am still feeling it today, but it was fun.

Costumes were outstanding. I don't know who had the best one-the guy in the grape outfit was pretty good, although his balloon "grapes" kept coming off...then there were the three guys who went as Blue Man Group and spent the whole night staring at people just to freak them out.

I'm still not totally sure about the African-American guy in the Klu Klux Klan outfit, but he must have been feeling brave the day he thought it up. Risky outfit, that one...

There was a strange overabundance of Romans, pirates, and women in medieval costume, and I really can't explain why that was, either.

Several people got drunk (yeah. That's new) and one guy sort of tried to feel me up, but I, completely and terribly sober the entire night thanks to the fact that I'm on steroids and alcohol isn't a good mix with them, just simply pushed away from him and moved to the other side of the room.

Anyway, good time was had by all. I couldn't move my arms above my head this morning and my voice is hoarse from shouting all night, so it MUST have been good.

I have a lot of things to finish, even though it's late, so I must be going now.

Costume Ball

We have class today. Booooo....

But we also have the Costume Ball tonight, and since most have seen my costume but nobody but me knows what I look like in it, this is going to be interesting...

I'm going as a "1940's-ish traveler-looking person." Hard to explain; hopefully I can do photos tomorrow if I'm still coherent.

My laundry is finally in the dryer (only took me three extra days)

My painkillers haven't kicked in yet, so this is all you're getting. I wish I could type more. This is getting frustrating.

Ta,
Bec

Getting Back To Normal-ish Again

So, I've rested a lot. Taken my pills. Stuck faithfully to a schedule that more or less should keep me on an even keel so that I can screw up my arm again this weekend with all the work I have to make up or do.

Today I went to Grantham again; I found the "Christian Bale goes completely whacko movie" American Psycho in a charity shop for a pound (not bad considering the original price on the back was 15) and I bought a new pair of headphones to replace the ones I, well, killed. Hopefully these will last longer.

I am very tired since Megan, Rachel, and I watched Ark of Truth tonight. Pretty darn cool, if I do say so myself, although the bad guy could have had a few redeeming qualities. It wraps the storyline pretty nicely. No more bad guys...for a while anyway.

So I'm going to bed. Talk to you all again soon,

Ta,
Bec

Puffy Fingers

My skinny little fingers have become rather fat and puffy thanks to my recent problems. I've never seen this much meat on my fingers-it's downright weird.

But on a good note, I have turned in my two-week overdue assignment, leaving room for me to gain two more that will shortly be overdue.

Ah, I'll get them typed when everything cools down. I just did too much too fast.

I see the doctor again tomorrow; ain't she going to be happy to see me!

I should probably get to sleep; I'm tired. I was back in the sling again today, if only to keep me from typing or using the hand that's giving me trouble (and what am I doing right now? That did a lot of good, eh?) Of course I defeat the purpose of the sling when I keep shucking it off to type something.

Hopefully by tomorrow I will be behaving myself enough and not misusing it again, but it's hard to stop doing homework...

I should stop now; pain's creeping up again.

Ta,
Bec

Everyone Back

Everyone's back and talking loudly through the walls.

I typed too much today and now my hands hurt because the painkillers wore off (ooh, that nurse is going to throttle me when she finds out how much time I've spent typing the last few days)

Tomorrow we start all over again with this school thing. I want more vacation, but I guess I'll get that when I get home.

Very tired; so much to do and so little time to do it in. Three of my papers are down, three still to finish in the next two weeks (and two of them due this week). Got one book to finish by tomorrow afternoon.

Guess the nurse will have to kill me after I finish typing everything for my profs...

I wouldn't have typed so much today if Megan and I, the two genius Stargaters, had had a video for Rachelle, our Gate-Fan-In-Training, so that we could get her up to speed before the new Stargate movie airs on Wednesday of this week. She's only just started season 5; she'd need to watch at least seasons 9 and 10 to have a clue what was going on. There's no way she can watch that much in two days. So I came up with a brilliant plan, and typed her out a list of all the things she has to know for Wednesday's movie, so that she's not completely in the dark.

It was four pages when I finished, and I did it all from memory, too. Megan enhanced it and reminded me of a detail I had completely forgotten, and I printed it off and will give Rachelle her study guide tomorrow. She should be set.

We wouldn't do this if it wasn't important, but if Rachelle wants to have any idea what is happening to the characters this little update should help.

I wish she was two seasons further along; things might be easier for her to understand if she knew about the Ancient stuff already. But the storyline hadn't worked up to that yet in early season 5 and didn't reach it until the end of that year...and even then it took three more to really get the full idea of what was really going on behind the scenes there...

Ah, I can feel my fingers protesting this banging on the keys and I can see I've typed a lot, so I will sign off.

Ta,
Bec

Nothing Got Done

Hey, it's my weekend off. Kind of.

Mind you, tomorrow I will pay for today's little indiscretions.

It's late; I'm tired from not doing anything. Tomorrow I have to finish three papers (somehow, someway) and then MAYBE watch Mulder and Scully get attacked by bees in their movie from 1996. At least I think it was bees...I do remember there was a spaceship in there someplace...and Antarctica. Or maybe I'm thinking Stargate Atlantis.

Hey, where else are you going to hide a spaceship on this planet? Under the ocean (ha ha)?

Or maybe I'm mixing my winged stinging insects with little gray men from Raxacoricofallipitaurius.

Happy bit of news: Doctor Who returns on the 5th of April here. JOY IN MY SOUL. MORE DOCTOR. JUST WHAT I NEED IN MY DEPRESS-ED STATE.

I'm too tired to geek right now. Maybe tomorrow.

Must get to bed-I have little lights dancing before my eyes...and they ain't looking like alien bees.

Ta,
Bec

Working Hard

I actually did work very hard today. I finished my British Studies term paper (got to take it easy tomorrow-did a little too much today.) I read a book I needed to read. I got to watch Indiana Jones kick some serious Nazi butkus in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

All in all, a very good day. Hopefully I can type and read all the stuff I need to type and read in the next two days, and then I can the rest of the semester OFF. Almost. I'll still have one paper to type.

I did overdo it on the typing today, so I think I'm going to stop here. I'll have to take it easy tomorrow and read stuff again.

Ta,
Bec

I'm on Vacation

Despite the title, I still have homework to do. I did enough of it today to make up for my utter laziness at the end of it.

I'm currently watching a really good movie called Time Bandits. It's from the early 80's and it was written by a couple of Pythons. This kid basically gets with these dwarfs and goes through time, stealing some of Napoleon's stuff and running into the Devil and the Supreme Being.

What was most hilarious, I think, was they kept going through these time portals and falling through onto the same two people, so this couple got hit with dwarves at least twice.

I watched another one earlier called Titan A.E. This one was about a guy who to had to find a ship called Titan that his dad had built just before the Earth gets blown up by these beings.

It's animated, and I thought I wouldn't really like that but it was AMAZING. There were these ice rings that you could have sworn were really there; it was almost like CGI but not quite. Very cool. I will be trying to get this movie when I get back.

I was going to watch Last Crusade but I think I'll save that for tomorrow morning, as I'm pretty tired and I think I'm going to take the morning off tomorrow and work afternoon and evening instead. All depends on my mood.

That's about it for today; not much going on around here.

Ta,
Bec

Everyone's Leaving 'Cept Me

This entire campus is going to be EMPTY at the end of the day. As far as I know, there will be about 5 students on campus.

Not that I mind. I have 5 papers to finish; I have forms to fill out. With forty bajillion things to catch up on I really don't mind staying here all long weekend long.

And the fact that I'll have the run of the place.

This means any movies I want to watch, I can watch 'em.

Any thing I want to do, I can probably do it.

I can play music really loud and not bother anyone. Lots of Muse, this week.

And of course there's homework to do (yay me).

So, come, dear weekend. I can't wait to have the entire building practically to myself...

Ta,
Bec

My Weekend Is Over

Monday has come.

Today's not bad-everyone around me is falling ill in some way, but I remain unscathed. Seems like I've paid up in illness points for the time being.

We had a wedding at Harlaxton last weekend. This is a fairly common occurrence around here; we were asked to stay away from certain areas during certain times, and we did as asked. No biggie when you don't live in the Manor anyway-easy to avoid those places.

But apparently some people on this campus just couldn't contain themselves. It appears (according to the rumors) that 6 people went upstairs after the reception for the wedding was over and swiped what was left of the wine from the wedding.

And to ice the cake even more, the 6 of them then proceeded to bust into the Gold Room safe, where the liquor is apparently stored (no idea if this was other people's that they'd bought for family and put in safekeeping-we're not allowed to have alcohol in our rooms and if we buy any bottles of Scotch or whatever for family we're supposed to put it in safekeeping for the duration of the semester)

Anyway, there was a safe in the Gold Room, apparently full of booze. They supposedly broke into it.

I am fairly certain there was an alarm on the safe; otherwise I can't see how this lot got caught.

But they did, and now there's rumor abounding that these 6 are going to get expelled from Harlaxton, possibly from their universities back in the States as well. They also COULD be prosecuted under British law and have to see a magistrate, mostly for breaking into a locked safe. I think they said 3 months in jail and deportation for this little stunt (?)

I say throw the book at them. I don't like people who act irresponsibly. This was nothing short of stupid-they could have gone to the pub down the road and gotten drunk, but they had to kype someone's wine from their wedding. Really.

That's about all I have to say on the subject-the lights are behaving strangely this morning in the Manor (love this crazy electrical system) and since we've already had the microphone short out in British Studies this morning, right during Prof. Owen's discussion of the Titanic, no less, I think I will end here.

Ta,
Bec

Steroids Are Working.

Hi, everyone! I am on steroids. 4 little red candy heart things a day...and it appears that, at least for now, they are having SOME effect on my rotten joint system.

I can type! I can't write worth a damn (a pen's gotten a little too hard on the muscles of my arm to use,) but I can type! Which means that I can write you all!

Went to London yesterday for a "class trip"... we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we saw a lot of monuments to a lot of dead famous people (but not as many as there probably are in Westminster Abbey) and we checked out Nelson's Monument (they gave the man a small one in the cathedral, and we thought that was tiny. Then we saw THIS thing..at least a couple hundred feet.) It made the Duke of Wellington's look positively shrimpy by comparison...

Of course, we couldn't take pictures at St. Paul's. Except when we climbed nearly 500 steps to the ROOF (that. was. a. LOT. of. Stairs.) Saw the London Eye (big Ferris wheel) and that funny round egg-shaped building that they blew all the windows out of in an episode of Doctor Who, and I THINK I saw Big Ben from a distance. I think.

Somewhere in the middle of all this melee, I took my sling for my arm off because it was annoying me, and though I had promised to wear it another whole day, I felt that it was no longer needed.

Don't tell my mother. Or my nurse. Or my doctor...

THEN we climbed down from the roof and took off, walking half an hour through London's central district at lunchtime and seeing the sights. Went down Fleet Street, saw a church with the road built right around it (I kinda thought it was cool) and we came up at Trafalgar Square, Nelson's Monument, and the National Gallery.

Nelson's Monument was HUGE (it was basically a statue of Nelson up on a tall column) and we went inside to check out the paintings.

The nice thing about really good British museums is all the national ones are free, so we could just slip on inside and have a look round. There were many lovely ones; we saw some Hogarths and Turners and I SAW A RENOIR! A REAL ONE! EEEE!

Then we went on the Underground. I have never been on a subway before, so this was a completely new experience. It is the equivalent of a bus underground; that's about as near as I can get it. It's crowded and hot, the cars go really fast, and we had to stand up for most of the rides, and I was unable to figure out how the rest of them sorted out routes by just looking at a wall...but it was interesting.

We went to the British Museum and hung out in the Dark Ages exhibit for about half an hour (my friends are all in a Norse Mythology class, while I'm in the Medieval Era class with the same professor. So we had overlapping agendas)

THEN two of my friends left to go do something else and I, Bethany, and Bailey headed off on the Tube to get back to the cathedral where the bus was parked. We got back in plenty of time, they got their luggage (staying over the weekend) and I dropped my backpack (I was coming back here) and we went half a block away and had dinner at a nice restaurant.

Then I came back here, vowing that the next time I go to London, I will be better prepared for it.

Well, I'm still kind of sick, and my hands aren't totally agreeing with all of this, so I'm going to sign off, kids.

Ta,
Bec

Murder on the Dictaphone

In order to take my test for British Studies today, I was put away from everyone else. I was allowed my little laptop. I was allowed a Dictaphone/Digital Voice Recorder.

Let's say I got more amusement than I should have out of using that thing. When the people living in the slums are "getting sick in the gutters...and stuff like that..." and when the ship you're talking about is described as "not cute," you know things aren't going to go well.

I managed; hopefully Bujak can translate my "the world was DIFFERENT and the people had the VOTE," into a coherent answer for the question. Maybe.

Gotta quit; arm is sore again. Wanted to let you know how my first test with voice recording went...we'll see how he laughs at my feeble attempts...

Ta,
Bec

Still Dis-armed

Yeah, I'm still fighting with it, although it's better on painkillers. I'm not pushing my luck-I need this arm tomorrow for various things.

My British Studies exam is going to be done by Dictaphone tomorrow. I have to take the exam, I have to find away around the problem, and this is my only solution.

If the rain would let up I might be handling the pain better.

There's not much else going on around here-I'm only backlogged on two papers at the moment, so that's not bad, but it's not good. I have a sound recorder on this computer; now if we could figure out a way to get it OFF of here and onto a transcription I could finish everything and la! I'd be caught up.

That's about it. I really am pushing it, so here I stop.

Ta,
Bec

Hey!

The codeine has finally worn off (only took two days) and I'm feeling far less woozy and sick than I was when I last wrote y'all.

The steroids are now hard at work making me better. I have reason to think I am already getting better, seeing as I'm typing this with both hands. There's a little pain involved, but not as much as before. And no, I'm not on painkillers right now-I'm staying far, far away from those at the moment.

The doctor here told me that she thinks I had a bad reaction with the codeine. I'm not arguing with her. I took the full two-pill dose twice-once the night I got the pills (Wednesday) and once in the morning after that (Thursday).

I started feeling like I was a little out of control of my body (not having total control of my limbs counts, right?) so I decided to cut the dose down for the afternoon...so I only took one.

About an hour to an hour and a half afterwards, I was so dizzy that my friends insisted on walking me down the hill to the Carriage House (I think I might have looked sick or something.) I was laid up in bed the rest of the night; only got up to take two more codeine pills to balance out what I thought was withdrawal.

I went to sleep round 11, got up to throw up at 1 and 3, my roommate left for Spain at 5, and I woke up again around 8.

I spent all of Friday feeling off; today was much, much better.

Needless to say, after the fun I had the first time around, I will never take that stuff again. Ever. Vicodin was more fun to deal with than THAT stuff...

So, ixnay on the codeine-ay, and yes to the little red steroid pills that could. She put me on pills so that she can take me off them if she needs to; injection is harder to get out of me if it's already in.

I think she's got me on prednisone; she's got me on dinky red pills that could easily be mistaken for those hot little cinnamon candy heart things. No wonder it says keep away from the kids...

My arm's hurting, and I really have nothing more to say. I WAS going to Nottingham this weekend, but the codeine pills and the new steroid stuff kind of ruined that for me.

Oh, and Atlantis' 4th season ended this week. Now we are left with the question of whether anyone will make it out of the collapsed building alive. I hate cliffhangers...

So, cheers. May your week go better than my last one just did...

Ta,
Bec

My Apologies

I have not written in four days because A) my right arm is hating me B) because the codeine that was supposed to ease the pain actually made me dizzy and sick for the last two days. And C) I think they may have found something I'm allergic to. I've been so sick the last 12 hours I almost couldn't see straight at 1 and 3 this morning when I threw up. Still feeling icky and staring at this computer screen isn't helping.

So I have to go make an appearance at lunch/eat something or I'll have the friends that aren't on trips this weekend on my back for not taking care of myself.

Ta,
Bec

Here We Go Again...

Three days reprieve was all I got from my arm aching. It got cold, and now I'm in trouble again.

OY.

I'm definitely on edge these days; things are getting nastily tense and since everyone around me is tired, I'm trying to be accommodating.

But I keep thinking that the NEXT time someone smashes into my sore elbow, even if it's an accident, I'm going to snap at said someone. And it isn't going to be very pretty.

Sorry. Today's worn me out. I had to give up hope of typing a paper the conventional way, thanks to my problem.

I hate this stopping me from functioning like a normal person. Hate. It. I want nothing more than to be seen as a normal person-and this darn thing marks me out for target practice.

Sorry again. My arm is really starting to ache (my Tylenol equivalent only works when I don't use my arm. Ha ha) so I will sign off,

Ta,
Bec

Coventry/Stratford

We only took a day trip this time, so here's the report on Coventry Cathedral and Stratford:

Coventry used to have a cathedral called St. Michael's. But in November 1940, a German bombing raid came through Coventry and one of the bombs destroyed the church pretty much entirely.

But instead of being mad and such, the next day the church leaders decided to rebuild the church.

They actually still had quite a bit of the old cathedral walls left behind; so they left those up and started work on the new cathedral about 10 steps away. Its front windows reflect the old cathedral walls.

The new one wasn't finished for almost 20 years but when it was done, they invited the Germans to come to the opening ceremony. The new church has a running theme of peace and reconciliation.

It's a little weird walking in the old cathedral where there is no roof; it was spooky. The new cathedral was lovely in a modern sense; it took some getting used to but it kind of grew on you the more you walked around in it.

Then we headed off to Stratford.

It was me and another girl named Rachel today, and we went to the church where he was baptized, where he worshiped as a child and as an older adult, and where he was buried. It was a small, but attractive little church whose only real claim to fame is him, and he's at the back of the place.

His wife, daughter, her husband, and I think another son-in-law are buried there together. There's a horribly painted statue up above that we saw unpainted copies of everywhere in Stratford, and a copy of the page containing his baptism and death records.

All in all, it was English major heaven...

Then we went to his daughter's house (she married a doctor) and there was some interesting medical information there about how doctors treated people with extract of peony in order to cure them of falling sickness, whatever that is.

We then went to what I think was his other son-in-law's house (the remains of Shakespeare's home that he bought at retirement was in the backyard).

Then we went to his birthplace; saw the room he was supposedly born in. Pretty sweet stuff, all around.

Then we went to see Henry the Sixth, Part 2. Lots of blood splatter and people hanging from pulleys. I personally got a major kick out of the seance that caused the floor to open up and what appeared to be ram-headed demons emerging from the red, smoky depths of the stage (I was so geeking out)

Not much else to say; I have so much homework yet, even though I worked hard on some today. Guess tomorrow is "Nose to The Grindstone whether I like it or no" day.

(Sigh.)

Cheers,
Bec