Oh dear, redux

I just woke up from a traumatic dream. I now feel vaguely exhausted. It was a dream I had dreamt before for the same equally unhappy reaction, but the scene and setting - plus the players were all different. I dreamt I was getting married, again. This time however the trauma came from the fact that in the dream it was a sudden thing. Like I had just gotten a call from Singapore and was told you're getting married now! in my current situation. For some reason the main setting was in the desert, like some sort of Las Vegas thing, except without any evidence of the actual Las Vegas and the fake Elvises. Plus the wedding decor that was up actually looked really well done and not some kitschy shite.

However throughout my mind was shouting 'NONONONONONO I'M NOT READY!' and 'NONONONONO! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?!'. Needless to say it felt very real, and unhappy. Plus I still feel the lingering effects of the dream, like how it felt so real to me and how scared I feel at the words 'wedding', 'marriage' and 'bride' now, though I like to think I'm not one of those runaway brides in actuality.

I woke up missing one fluffy sock. An awesome white fluffy one that I bought from BHS that is very soft and is meant for keeping your feet warm. I must have been thrashing about at night as I slept. Plus as a sign of the intense trauma I have just been subjected to, I looked at the image below and instantly thought of green tea lattes from Starbucks/Coffee Bean - instead of how cute the polar bear is. It does look like a green tea latte right? I miss them too.

A list not composed to me

As relayed to me by a dorm mate I was killing time with:
1) Never date a girl in your group of friends;
2) Never date a girl older than you;
3) Never date a weird girl;
4) Never date a girl in the same class as you.

Someone told me not to cry

Somethin' filled up
my heart with nothin',
someone told me not to cry.

But now that I'm older,
my heart's colder,
and I can see that it's a lie.

Children wake up,
hold your mistake up,
before they turn the summer into dust.

If the children don't grow up,
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to
rust.

I guess we'll just have to adjust.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.

With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin’
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am, go-go, where I am

You'd better look out below

-----

Now I'm not usually the kind who pastes song lyrics on their blog and expects everyone to interpret the meaning of the song to me, so I shall subvert the notion of pretending everyone knows what I mean by actually! explaining! what I mean here.

I've been listening to this song almost everyday now when I am alone. Even when I was in Singapore, or the US, or in transit among the many countries I've been to this year, I have been subconsciously replying the song in my head. To me it is a song about having to grow up and having to face the unknown - which is what I've been mentally trying to prepare myself to do.

I didn't want to grow up, but now I've been unceremoniously, tearfully and fearfully, dumped into the world of the adults. A world that is fucked up beyond comprehension that used to give me little nightmares when I was younger. Things like dealing with tons of red tape, things like dealing with tons of red tape FROM BANKS, things like having to do my own shopping and planning for food, having to find on things on my own and not be spoonfed. It makes me want to hop onto a flight home and go MUMMY HELP ME THE BANKS ARE BULLYING ME!!! but I can't because I am not dying from food poisoning like the last time and I'm stuck here studying for 3 years. Plus I'll probably be disowned.

For the past few days I've been waking up to the thought of 'Oh.' (if that even counts as a proper thought). The thought of 'oh I am here.' I still miss home alot, but through the help and support of people (and God) I've been occupied over the past few days. From bumming around with Mallek, talking to CNE on skype, meeting familiar faces just at the right time, my time is used up too much to feel really sad about being away from home (and I really shouldn't anyway). Even the note of encouragement Petrina sent me really helped a lot too. So thank you guys, all the randoms I talk to online who cheer me up included.

Homesickness does get better over time, but it never goes away. When I think about home I still feel sad, I miss people and my family, I miss the comfort and security. But like all things, such mollycoddling cannot last forever (nor is it very healthy that it does). I guess we'll just have to adjust.

Homesickness

Homesickness comes in 2 waves for me.

One comes in the morning when I first wake up. It comes when I open my eyes and realise I am not at home. It reminds me I am 50,000 miles from home. It reminds me I am anywhere but home and it reminds me of all the things I am currently missing right now. Things like convenience, privacy, security (both psychological and physical), family and friends which are not here for me, and that 2 months is a terribly long time to have to wait for anything and I'm so terribly impatient.

The second wave usually comes in the late afternoon, just when I return to my dorm after the day because I am tired. The feeling of tiredness does not help my mood. I have been holding back little tears all day long. They come when I am doing something that reminds me or makes me wish I was home. Things like looking at the price of tissue boxes. Things like realising I can't have ham for breakfast because it will get stolen in the fridge I put it in. I have been thinking "I wish I was home" all day long. In this time, when I am back with nothing to occupy my mind, it hits me hard.

I have just passed through the first wave today, now I am left to wonder and hope if the second wave will hit at all.

The first day of the rest of my life

Today after sending my parents off at Russell Square Station (circa 8:30am), I waved goodbye and watched them disappear behind a corner. Before turning to leave, I gave a weak smile to the tube station attendants who stood behind the barrier - sympathetic bystanders to my sadness at my parents departure. I heard one of them half shout "It'll be okay! You'll be fine!" as I walked off. I stood outside the tube station for a moment amidst the people rushing about (London always has people rushing about) and closed my eyes. I felt the cool windy air on my cheeks, drying up the little tears that were trying to escape from my closed eye lids. I took a deep breath and walked off, turning down to Russell Square.

A song kept playing in my head as I cut through Russell Square, so I took out my ipod and headed to a bench facing the main statue in the square to rest and collect my thoughts for a moment. Of course it being my luck, my ipod was out of juice. So no song. (I can't even pretend like my life is a movie because things like that happen to me. And well, if it was a movie that would have either been the ending, or a beginning - I still can't decide which was more apt.) I ended up looping about the statue and completely ignoring the bench, heading straight for my hall.

As I walked into the hall, I bumped into my roommate, Zoe, who was about to head out to get some semblance of breakfast. Instead I ended up going back to the room with her and giving her a museli bar instead. I then managed to set up the internet connection on my computer, mucked about a bit, unpacked completely, pushed half filled suitcases on top of the wardrobe (I really brought too much stuff! ): )

Around 9:45 am, Zoe and I left the room to walk to LSE for registration. We ended up bumping into some people she met before, from Passfield Hall, in the reception area. We ended up walking with some of the guys there to LSE. At LSE itself, the queue for registration was a nightmare. It was literally 'pai chang loong', and registration didn't even open up till 10:00am! In the queue itself, we also met other random people and started conversations. It really seems like everyone is on extra friendly mode now (thank goodness). We managed to leave the mess at about 11:30 am I think.

A few of us went to the quad (I think) to have lunch. The floor was damn sticky. It was like electrical tape lined the entire floor. As you stepped, you could feel yourself being glued to the floor, and rubber shoes like mine went SHICK SHICK SHICK. As you can tell by now, all you raging alcoholics, there was apparently an awesome party there last night and the quad people hadn't had time to clean up yet. The floor was a thick layer of spilled alcohol. Yay?

After that the four of us went to the Fresher's Fayre. It was a nightmare of crowd and heat. Too many goddamn people. We ended up getting separated, so Zoe and I stuck together. I ended up joining random clubs like the Hummus society (some sort of random social club that likes middle eastern food), Debate (didn't really want to, but the booth guy talked me into it. Must go to learn how he did it.), Afghanistan Development (apparently a middle eastern affairs group), Photography, Literature, Amnesty International and MMA (finally!). I kept looking for the group in the Student Union handbook called Post-Insane, but failed to find them after a 30 minute (CROWDED!!!) wild goose chase. Fail.

We left the Fayre and went to meet the 2 guys we got separated from for a few minutes before Zoe and I went to the Bank Fair briefly (her to set up and account and me to chase Barclays for my damn account). Then we walked over to Covent Garden and I bought some cheap (relatively) foldable shoe boxes from Muji. I fixed one just now to put my food and they are a pain to assemble -___- but I think I got the trick. Then we walked to Goodge and bought food from the Sainsburys there and backtracked to Argos to buy Cutlery (which is damn cheap compared to all the other places I've seen, don't get ripped off by the others fellow new UK-ers!). Then we walked back, cutting through Bloomsbury and past the British Museum and SOAS.

At 6:30pm we headed down for dinner (the interim of which I was sniffling away and feeling sad) and it was a sad lamb dish. At least the potatoes were nice. Even the veggies were sad. The broccoli turned a strange shade of grey-green and the peas were a vivid too green that they looked fake and dyed green. Sad sad sad. However the dinner partners weren't. I met a guy who turns out to be doing the same course as me. After he left this post grad came and sat in his seat, and we ended up laughing and giggling away so much during dinner about random things like unis, drunk people and weed. We both laughed so much that I think we got really high. After that I felt a bit sick, like someone sucked the air out of me, and my throat felt mucked up.

At 8:30pm, Zoe and I went to join a group of people, who for some odd reason all turned out to be South-East Asians that came from not very Chinese/South Asian ethnicity backgrounds. Basically what I mean is not the kind that you typically associate as being sticky to Chinese only. It just turned into a large coincidence. We walked down past Russell Square to a pub under Royal National Hotel (quite bad rooms, but cheap) and I had a pint of cider. The group split into 2 because of table arrangements, which was just as well since I prefer being in a small group as talking is easier. Then at 10:30pm, we left for the 5 minute slow walk back to the dorm.

And thus ends the first daye.

I read a quote somewhere that said something like "leaving is like dying", but I can't find it online anywhere

It has been approximately 17 days since I have left Singapore and 9 hours since I've last seen my parents. I already miss home and my parents. I missed my parents even when they were with me for the past few days, when we went to Portobello market, when we argued about the price of beddings/hairdryers and even when we were annoyed at each other because of our idiosyncrasies.

For the past few weeks since I've been in the UK, I've been traveling about from South England (Eastborne, Brighton, Bath) to South Wales (Abergavenny, Carmathen, Pembroke) and back to South England (Ross-on-Wye, Lea, Tewkesbury, Stratford-upon-Avon).

I've also explored almost every bit of central London. I feel like I have been here forever. I feel like I have a GPS built in my brain of central London. But somehow every street I walk down, every route I take, makes me think of my parents (especially my dad) because they are the ones that originally showed me the way.

When I walked today with my roomate, Zoe, from Covent Garden to Oxford Street, I felt sad. When we heeded down Goodge and Tottenham Court, I felt even more pangs. The worst was when we headed down Gordon Square Gardens and I remembered how just yesterday we sat there eating cheap sandwiches and my dad was so pleased with these chocolate puddings he got from Marks and Spencers at 4 for a pound (which were really yummy).

In short, I miss my parents a lot. At the core of this is the fact that I'm afraid because I've never been really good with being alone and that I'm afraid to grow up. I've thought these past few days how I wish I was a little girl again (or at least younger) and could stay happy with my parents all day in Singapore with my friends (who I also miss, but not enough to cry over apparently). The world outside is scary, and as a student of history and an avid reader of current affair magazines, boy do I know this.

I need love and lots of security, none of which are quite present here, but I guess I just have to suck it up and make do - and wait patiently for December.

London Calling (I really ought to listen to this song)

Partly copied from a message to Daryl because I am lazy:

"1) It's important to get a windbreaker for here because its very windy. Without the wind its not too cold. Mine was some Black Diamond thing I got real cheap from the New Jersey Costco. Try Queenstown.

2) There is Milo and Datu Puti (remember the Pinoy vinegar?) here. I even saw a guy selling Rendang and Nasi Lemak, like a REAL malay dude.

3) Immigration: have your documents ready on hand. There is a special queue that moves at a snails pace for first time students. Look for it (though spotting it shouldn't be too hard). When I came the est time was 3 hours+ to clear the queue. I think this is largely dependent on when your flight comes in though, because I came in at 7pm here. If you take the 12 midnight flight on SQ, you come it at about 7am when the airport first opens. I'm thinking that this means the queue to clear immigration will be substantially shorter.

4) Spend at least half a day at the Tower of London. Also wait for the guided Yeoman tour at the side entrance because it is worth sticking about with a mass of humanity. The yeoman guides are quite amusing and dodgy. I'm sure you'll get a huge kick out of it."

A few points to add on:-

5) I watched 5 movies on the flight here. Death Note (I kept lol-ing), 300 (Finally!), City Island (Loved it! Highly recommended for everyone taking SQ), Flirting Scholar (Early Stephen Chow, also highly amusing, making me giggle often) and a dodgy HK movie called Alls Well Ends Well (which I didn't really like. Some mash up of Alls Well Ends Well and Taming of the Shrew).

6) I watched 2 episodes of How I Met Your Mother for the first time. I think I might start watching the series for real. I like Barney's character.

7) Hadi, Cheam, Paul, Yihang, Ying Hao, Steph and Ianthe came to send me off. Thank you guys! I really appreciated it. Especially Hadi who had to rush to his hotsexmeeting next.

8) Immigration wasn't that bad for me in actuality. Thus begins my long grandmother story. I had earlier booked a cab for an airport pick up for 8pm without expecting the nightmare of immigration. As the queue was going to take about 3 hours+, we were frantically calling the company to either cancel the cab or to ask them to waive the waiting charges. Finally after about an hour, my parents decided to go off and take the cab themselves first, dump my stuff at the hotel and then my dad would take a train back to Heathrow to pick me up after I clear immigration. Thus they left me and went to the All Passports line. About 30 minutes later my dad came and pulled me out of the line to their own immigration officer. Apparently my mother had told the guy our dilemma and he decided to help us by passing me through. This turned out to be highly fortuitous because awaiting at the Student Immigration line was a nightmare of stern no-smiling-grilling with lots-of-document-pulling for at least 15 minutes per student. Best part? Our immigration officer looked like a real nasty fellow too, and we kept thanking him but he gruffly ignored us. He is awesome personified.

9) LSE is really really small. You can walk from one end to the other in about 7 minutes. I guess this beats sprawling campuses where you need to run from one end to the other to make classes.

10) I found the most awesome place to stay next year, but it's 213 pounds a week. Oh dear God. This makes me feel very sad. I really really need to get a job.

This is all I can think about really. For now.

Somewhere only we know

The hardest reason to ever have to accept a cessation of ties is that of circumstance.

I wish I had a dog

According to howmanyofme.com, there are 3 people in the entire USA that have the same name as me. This is sad. I obviously need a better name. Not to mention the fact that there are tons of Melodies in Singapore for some odd reason. Maybe its better that I am leaving Singapore, before I run into someone else with the same first and last name as me.

24 hours to go, uh oh.

Yesterday I went to The Animal Resort with my kid cousin and his parents. I think I killed one of the goats, because when I tried to feed it the remnants of the hay from the plastic bag, it grabbed the entire plastic bag from me and ran away. Then it started chewing the plastic bag. I ran away because people started to gather around watching the goat chew the plastic bag. When I came back the plastic bag was no where to be seen, a reasonable explanation then follows that it can't be seen because it had already entered the digestive system of the goat. Oh dear.

We went to Sloan Court for dinner, the Oxtail Stew was very good.

I saw Ianthe's dog, Missy, today

The more I think about it, the more I come to realise that the act of packing things is an act that goes against human nature. There is something to having to shove your entire life into a few boxes (or in my case piece of luggage) that makes you feel a bit empty inside. Something that makes you think Is this all my 19 years on Earth has really amounted to? while realising that you're woefully short of underwear and had never noticed so before.

Yesterday when I met with the Alchemist and Daryl, the Alchemist talked about how he had to clean up his parents home and how they were pack rats and had squirreled away lots of odds and ends. I think I am like that. I have tons and tons of odd things around, especially IB stuff. I obviously am not going to bring them with me to the UK, on one hand can't bear to throw it away, and finally on the other hand don't want to come back to a room where they have been thrown away. But I know this will happen, not that their being around has any sort of use whatsoever to me. I prefer to just let them lie, it gives me the feeling of my room being my room.

I can't even begin to imagine what my life in the next month will be like, the imaginary 9th October 2009. Looks like only time will tell.

I won't go home with you

I feel winded. I've not talked so much and laughed so much in a day for ages. First after rushing out at 10:25 am, I met The Alchemist and Daryl at the Holland Village Starbucks. Then after The Alchemist left around 11:40+, Daryl and I headed to Orchard where I went to pick up stuff from the Derma. We then wandered over to Lucky Plaza and had Nasi Ayam Penyet and vaguely explored the area. We ended up drifting all over Orchard Road and he left me at 6:15 pm. I then went over to McCafe at Shaw to wait for Hadi, Cheam and SL Tan to appear.

McCafe is really weird. It was nice and empty when I was there, but after a while more and more people started coming. I think people were taking photos nearby because there'd be flashes of bright light occasionally which was quite irritating. The guy at the table on the upper deck next to mine however, took great offence to these flashes of light and started half shouting/ranting loudly about people shining flashlights and how irritating they were. Problem was he was by himself, so he was effectively shouting only for himself to hear. I looked at him for a while, then hid back in my book.

Met Cheam, Hadi and SL Tan at the 3rd floor of Isetan, and we headed to The Ship, followed by TCC. Going home was dodgy though because the nearest and best Taxi Stand was at Orchard Towers. It was interesting walking past them as they eyed Cheam and me, and there were lots of ang mohs around my goodness. At the Taxi Stand it occurred to me I was the only non prostitute in the queue, and from behind some ang moh guy was giving me the once over look. Wtf. I must've been the most conservatively dressed female there. I was glad Cheam was about though. This happened when we got into the taxi:

Me: Uncle, two stops. One along -, one along -
Uncle: Huh?
Silence.
Me: Uh we're not going home with each other.
Awkward silence.
Cheam and Me: UH. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.

The taxi ride back was quite interesting. The Uncle was telling us stories about the prostitutes he ferries and Cheam and I were talking about related subjects to him. Good cab ride.

Apostles of Hustle

Things done today:

1) Meningitis C jab;
2) Lunch with Wesley at Iggy's;
3) Haircut at Yihang's place;
4) Topped up Ez-link;
5) Dentist appt that cost $120 wtf;
6) Dinner with YH at Chiharu;
7) Short 10 min jog because I have not exercised since I left USA.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I've just finished reading a book that compelled me to stay up till 3am reading and made me shrink in fear with the unfolding events. It is strongly reminiscent to me of Marisha Pessl's Calamity Physics, I would daresay she borrowed large plot elements from The Secret History.

In other news this means I have nothing left to distract me from the headache that is packing.

And they could float above the grass

It feels weird thinking I have slighty over a week left before I leave Singapore. I can't even begin to imagine what it'll be like living in another country. The thought fills me with a utter terror, the thought of there being so much unknown. Yet at the same time I find this terror reassuring, that I am able to feel it and fall into it and lose myself in an entirely new city.

I am terrified, but made alive from the feeling.

-----

These past few weekends have been entirely filled with meetings. I've been trying to jam pack my schedule with people I want to see and things I want to do before I leave. On Tuesday I went with my dad to the Ministry of Manpower to pick up something. After I sat down in their nice seats, I took out David Golder and saw a red thing flash past my eyes and fly off. At first I ignored then, then I started searching my bad and realised my bandage tape was missing -_- Problem with the MOM is that they had nice individual seats with spaces underneath them, so the tape could have flown anywhere. I started searching by frantically moving the chairs about and eventually a few of the staff came to help me. Talk about being really embarrassing. In the end one of the girls spotted the tape underneath a chair I lifted, so I managed to leave the MOM with my tape and without my dignity.

After that we went to Vivocity because it was raining heavily. We had lunch then walked about a bit and went to Haw Par Villa to take pictures. It was still raining a little and there was hardly anyone about. The ten levels of hell exhibit was every bit as freaky as I remember it being. I ended up snapping only a few things. I think I got more mosquito bites than pictures. After that we went to Reflections at Bukit Chandu for a short while as they place closed at 5 p.m and ended up having Teh Tarik at Farrer Road Hawker Centre.

Today I met Mong at Raffles Hotel and we went to eat Hock Lam Beef Noodles. Om nom nom. $6.00, beef slices only, no tau gay, dry and guo tiao. I'll really miss beef noodles, urgh. Then we went to Bras Bersah where I bought stationary and we wandered about Raffles City. I bought chocolates to thank the neighbours because earlier today my brother threw a bottle of wine over into their garden -_- (this was after already setting the toaster oven on fire just an hour ago). Then Mong and I went to play l4d at Selegie. It was my first time playing, I could feel my heart rate going through the roof -______- After about an hour of playing we went to The Cathay and had the XO fried chicken thing while watching 2 girls pole dancing in Jitterbug. So dodgy. Then we had the most awesome Teh Ping and headed for home.

I still feel my heart suffering from adrenaline overdose.

A Comparison of Two Coming of Age Stories

*I had 5 hours of sleep yesterday and had to rush to work a stressful 4 hours in the office after being called back suddenly: forgive me if this post is incoherent.

I recently finished reading the 'indie' favourite The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Rats Saw God. Both stories followed the lives of male protagonists as they go through High School, fall in love and so on. They were also written in the '90s and littered with the requisite pop culture references. However the similarities sort of ended there.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower pretty much followed what I expected, plenty of 'hip' literary references like Salinger and Rand (why the hell do indies love Rand anyway? Is there something they perceive about being an individual equate to being selfish?) and the requisite 'hip' music references to The Smiths. I laughed at some points because it was too indie for me. I must admit I enjoyed the personification of the narrator though, because I found I could really relate to him. I understood perfectly how he felt, and have actually felt that way before. However at the end of the I preferred Rats Saw God.

Rats Saw God on the other hand exceeded my expectations. I expected some Hunter Thompson-esque bunch of incongruity, but the originally perceived explosion of drugs never actually happened. No sheets of Mesculin were anywhere to be found. Instead it followed the life of a teenage boy who was relatively drug free until his senior year. I found the book utterly captivating. From the setting up of a highly amusing Dadist society to the ending which led to him fleeing Texas (which made me feel sick because of the memories it brought), it proved to be highly rewarding for a USD6 book.

Mr Gammett has a lot of things to say

Imagine me, the underpaid under appreciated unqualified law intern doing your legal work for you. Legal work that holds the fate of your suits many hundred of thousands dollar judgment in my little hands.

Now doesn't that scare you?

A recollection from Dubrovnik

I just remembered this:

We had just finished walking around the old city walls and we were all sweating profusely and feeling really hot. The sun was punishing and you could feel the skin burning from the strength of its rays. Basically what we really wanted was a nice cold drink.

I wanted a coke, but cold coke without ice was too sweet and therefore not nice. I looked at the cooler inside the shop.

Get me a 100 plus please!
There's no 100 plus here.
What? Why!
They only have it in Singapore, don't you know? I like drinking it too.
:O HOW TERRIBLE. Do they have Pokari Sweat then?
UH what?
Nevermind, get me a Fanta please.

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These

It is perhaps apt that right before (give or take 2 weeks) I leave Singapore for abroad, that I attend a mini school reunion. Just like how days earlier I was getting really excited about how it was the anniversary of one of the most dreaded days of my life, these past few months have often reminded me in the strangest moments how much IB in general has shaped my life.

My Dad used to tell me the reason Michael Jackson was so messed up (this was even years ago before he died) was that because as a child he never got a chance to attend school and mingle with his peers, to grow up dealing with people and all the mini trials and tribulations school brings along. To this I cannot help but agree, school for me provided a safe place for me to grow up in and to understand the world around me.

I learned un-pc truths like how incompetency and inefficiency in endemic everywhere, gained regrets at all the missed connections and things that could've been but never will be, discovered the more unpleasant sides of my psyche, lost my mind, struggled through the most mentally exhausting experience of my life, felt disappointment so many times I can't even count the number of times anymore, got to know the best lot of people ever, became friends with the best lot of people ever, grew as a person in trying to understand myself and most importantly I survived.

The reunion today felt strange. It felt like a year onwards nothing much had changed. It also felt like nothing would ever be the same again, that everything had been forever fully altered. It felt a little like something good that had been left out for a bit too long. It made me wish a little that I didn't go because what I had preserved in my mind was too good and anything further could only serve to taint my memory.

After the reunion most of us from .9 ended up drifting towards the bus stop where mild chaos unfolded as multiple snap decisions were made to take various buses and 'go where the bus goes'. In the end we boarded 166 supposedly to go to Arab Street, but we ended up alighting at VivoCity. Dinner was at White Dog Cafe (I think) followed by more aimless drifting about towards Timezone. After dismissing it as utter rubbish, the group splintered up to go meet the KKK, go home and go to Elliot's place.

In the end only JLC, Patrick, Gerald, Justin and I ended up at Elliot's place. They started playing Scrabble "wah SEX ruins everything" - Elliot while I channel surfed. We ended up watching Iron Chef, the rice special, Prom Night (good God) and finally the last 10 minutes or so of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In the end Elliot sent me home.

I don't remember anything very outstanding about tonight. It was a night like most of the class outings. The same people, personalities, innuendo laden conversation, laughter. Yet I know I would have been so much more worse off had I not attended.

I'll miss 6.9 2008.

Spooky

! Talk about weird coincidences. Just after I wrote the thing about a year ago I went back to check my entries from last year.

Happy 1 Year IOC Anniversary Date.

Okay now I really need to get to sleep.

Time

It just occurred to me that just a year ago, I would have been half awake at this very time sitting outside my house waiting for the school bus to come pick me up.

It would never have occurred to the me of then that the reason why I am awake at the exact precise time a year later is because of jet lag, for I have not slept the entire night. It is 6:49 PM in the US.