HA HA! i am back. Escaped the hold of Dame Edna's House of Glory to inform you all that I HAVE A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am not entirely sure what I am going to be doing but who cares?! I start Monday at 9. £7.81 an hour for 35 hours a week. I got it through the temp agency that I went to a few days ago. I called and called and pestered them and they finally called me back. Thank God. Haven't got much money to last as Lib. paychecks are to pay rent. It's gonna be cream cheese sandwiches for the next couple of weeks. You know, those are really, really good. I don't know why we don't eat them in the states. They're much better, of course, with tomato and cucumber.

On the food front, meat now makes me largely sick to eat. I just keep thinking about all of the diseases. I can't help it. Every time I eat it (a blt, a sausage roll c/o lauren, and God help me a double bacon cheeseburger from burger king in the past week) it makes me ill. I will be so glad to get home and eat my weight in cornbread. keep thinking about the last meal at grandma's. Cucumber sandwiches and corn flakes it is, then. Gonna be svelte when I come back.

Funny thing...now that I sort of know my way around no one asks me for directions anymore! Fourteen people in the first week and none since. I guess my look of confusion was confused with some sort of demented kindness by passing strangers.

Not been able to do much sightseeing as am broke and have been LIVING QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST STRESSFUL WEEK OF MY ENTIRE NATURAL LIFE. Lauren and I had to drag all two hundred lbs. of our luggage four blocks to paddington station, down three flights of stairs and one escalator, onto the bakerloo line, off of the bakerloo line, up three flights of stairs and four blocks to our house (D.E.H.O.G.). Rinse and repeat. Took two hours. Move in. Find the toilet leaves much to be desired. British plumbing leaves much to be desired. Let's just say there's lots of flushing going on at 181 Bravington Rd.

British t.v. is good. Six feet under and Sex in the city come on regular bbc which we pick up with the antenna.

This is long but i must say that the fliers that people hand to you are a great way to get to know the city. Been to two "indie" dance nights (never thought i'd dance to blink 182) and one "metal" night. Lauren and I requested Slayer's "Angel of Death" at the metal night and the d.j. got all excited. And all for a pittance because of flier+student i.d. Met 9 guys from Croatia and Kosovo at one dance night. They were a bit strange but nice. They loved us because we were Americans. Because of what the American military's done over there. Never thought I'd hear that. They even walked us to our bus. One of them broke my heart. All he wants to do is get to Miami and see the ocean and the beaches. He wanted clean, open places. And Miami is that to him? I wish him the best of luck. He said he wants to see the sun. Anyway they were fun and paid for our every whim. Thanks to Zim and co.

gonna lay low this weekend and prepare for the job. lots of love to everyone. mom, if you want to call, you know the number but my cell phone time is quite precious these days so i can't call you for awhile.

Oh yeah, why does everyone take it upon themselve to explain to us why the US shouldn't go to war. We are not on speed dial to the president. This accent of mine is more trouble than it's worth sometimes. Today was weird, too. The papers here are hideous and sensational and spashed with full color images. Watched the St. Paul's Cathedral ceremony from BUNAC...so sad. Glad when it's not today. Although we are so cut off here...No t.v. will do that. More on Dame Edna's House of Glory later (speaks like Dame Edna looks like Ms. Cleo) peace out broughams.

Good grief. Yesterday was loooooooonnnngg. Waited for Dame Edna ALL DAY LONG. Because of forces beyond our control (time diffs/dame edna/western union) we were unable to secure the place until 2:00 AM. Yes, Lauren and I wandering the streets of London after dark and navigating the night busses wasn't my idea of fun. Not to mention the stress of HAVING TO GET IT ALL DONE. Went to sleep at 3:00 safe in the warm stench of (both pairs) of my shoes (and Lauren's pink converse sneakers). Poor Rosa, our Italian roommate...she had to suffer through our giggling at the Snoring Korean and the Stench. Rosa's idea of a bath is to stand topless in front of the mirror and sink and vigerously scrub her hairy armpits with the bars of soap the hostel provided. An interesing sight to behold. Yeah, she contributed in no small part to the Stench.

Sent off more CV's today. The job hunt is on top speed now that we have a place to stay. Went to Camden Palace last night to hear five minutes of the Strokes after Dame Edna. Indie rock night was sorely missed but next tuesday is on.

what? high stress for trisha day. soon over. more later. apartment...interesting. details later.

HAHAHAHA. No sooner does Lauren arrive than we run into some hijinks. After the airport and some power napping from Lauren, we went about the town. We looked up this place called Freaky McNasty's Whiskey House near the Angel tube and cruised on over. There was a drunk party celebrating someone's birthday, a thin waitress, a party of soccer-types and some randos. Rando #1 Sean (shawn, jeffrey, not seen). Drunk old irish guy. Good heart but kinda creepy. cornered lauren at the table. Randos #2-4 Mike - the law student from UT Austin, Amit- the unknown guy from Texas, and Igor - a very friendly fella from the Ukraine who is in a band that is "pavement meets country twang" they rescue us from Sean and we ditch Freaky's after an hour or so.

Then we find some place that was lit with purple lights and had gigantic pool tables. Igor and Lauren vs. Amit and Myself (me later substituted with mike). Igor makes the first shot of the game (after many tries by others) and runs around screaming "that's the first ball of my life" and shaking his pool stick over his head like some sword of victory. Pool game ends and we decided to look for some after hours places that Amit knows about. Yeah, and it's only like 10:30. We spend the next two hours running around one end of London to the other. We end up, finally, (after none of Amit's places work out) at Amit's hotel lobby. Swank number called The Leonard. haha. They serve us beer, weird doritos, some prawn-peanut mixture, and THREE HEAPING PLATES OF SALTY CHIPS made fresh to order. Lauren and I take a cab home.

Giggle all night because of loud Korean snoring roommate. Makes most unnatural sounds.

Went to temp agency today and i think it went really, really well. they seemed pleased and i was too. turned in CV to other places. Went to look for flat in HAHA Brixton. It ended up being nice but a fifteen minute walk from the tube station without adequate protection from the DRIVING FREEZING RAIN. I was wearing sandals, skirt, and sweater. Ony time as yet that I have left hostel sans umbrella and met with utter disaster. It is so cold right now! i'm still cold inside! gotta go only 2 minutes left. more detailed account of flat finding as was also hilarity. love all! thanks so much for responding! trisha

Speaking of dreams, i actualy remembered one last night. I was at the Esplenade mall in Meterie, and was acosted by a ver agressive infomercail personality trying to get me to go into his store. As I finally apease him and enter his store, I notice a SWAT team create a barracade/perrimiter around the enterence to the store. As the personality notices, he runs to the back and grabs an arsenal of weapons such as grenade launchers, moarter , etc. etc. Large explosion after large explosion. I think I died, or just woke up.

Nothing exciting today. Stayed in last night. Dinner: hummos (sp?), pita bread, yogert (plain) with cherries on side, apple, and two sticks of cheese. good, good. watched rush hour with italian roommate. bad bad. have amazing snoring korean roommate now. she woke me up out of a dead sleep. making noises i thought were of mechanical origin. every dream i had after that featured her off somewhere in a corner, snoring away. briefly considered smothering her in her sleep but i wasn't in my right mind.

dream: on a theater stage at usm: extra large version of the recliner in my room in hburg. i mean large. and people dressed up in costume, made to look small by the chair. seated on chair: downy snuggle teddy bear and dog. bear was teaching dog how to act on stage. woke up and thought "hope i remember this, its quite odd."

that's it so far for today. lounged on bed reading american mags lauren brought with her. love,