Saturday 10:07

Well, I woke up again at 3 am this morning--what a drag... Managed to force myself to stay in bed until 6. I'm in the office trying to wrap up the very last (I hope) loose end on this ridiculous teacher career paths paper that has been dragging on for years. CG is completely incapable of being decisive, so we have to generate new numbers because she wants to change the definition of one of our variables (while I don't remember for sure, I think we have already vacillated on this definition before). But of course I didn't document as well as I should have the old versions of the code, and so we have to try to replicate the old results first, before changing the definition, so that we can be sure we are doing the same thing. Eeerrrgh!

Life lesson: always document your code with anal detail. You will thank yourself later!

Then I'm going shopping/dinner/etc. with VS to celebrate her birthday. I'm hoping that social stimulus will help overcome the jet lag...

9:51

Wow. I definitely feel odd. And no clue what to do with myself. To be expected, I guess.

I feel a little like these Dutch buildings...

Friday 8:30

Well, I'm finally home again. It is very good to be back (though it was also very good to be away). I am still decidedly jet-lagged: I slept from 7:00 pm-3:00 am -ish last night. Hopefully I can do better tonight.

I am embarking on a totally unknown part of my life now: I have really no idea what the next day, week, month, year will hold. No firm plans for anything except a wedding in September... I suddenly stopped freaking out about the uncertainty at some point during my trip--it just got exhausting and seemed pointless--but it will be interesting to see if my calmness lasts.

Fortunately (sort of) my school has given me a limited amount of structure for the next week: I have been notified that I must vacate my office by August 31. Way to make someone feel loved and appreciated ;)

I must therefore figure out how to deal with the vast piles of articles and pack them in such a way that I can actually find what I am looking for while I finish up my dissertation.

10:12

Had a nice day wandering around South London. Despite the creepy-crawlies that this particular house gives me, I think I could live in the area. The one drawback that I have noticed is the lack of adequate grocery stores. There was a market (that I missed) though which might provide sufficient sources of real food if one lived here and were diligent about going.

Didn't ever hear back from SL, though--I had hoped to have dinner with her and TL. Hopefully we will get together tomorrow. I go to Cambridge for the day for some networking, but could readily be back in London for dinner. If it doesn't work out that I see them, I will probably stay in Cambridge through dinner--no desire to rush back here! It smells of dog.

I like dogs, and the ones that live here are total sweethearts, but they do smell. I wonder if one can have two labs and not have the house reek? Certainly it would require some diligent cleaning--not something practiced here!

Sunday (a week later)

I'm back in London, Amsterdam was great. We were staying on a kooky houseboat, which I loved. Family dynamics were actually pretty good. Comments from committee members are starting to trickle in (not, of course, any from ET). So far no major road blocks.

I am now staying in a totally gross B&B. My hosts had to leave very early this morning for a party in the Midlands, and she invited me to fix my own breakfast whenever I got up (I am the only guest right now, though they have 2 guest rooms). I had to wash the pots before I could use them (not that the hosts had left them for dirty--they were put away in the cupboard--but they had food and scum encrusted on them). I think I will go for cereal for the rest of my stay here. On their refrigerator, they have a magnet that says "Dull women keep immaculate houses". My hostess is far from dull...

I guess that is why this is all only 25 pounds a night.

I am looking forward to getting home. I am so glad that I got time to do a real scrub of the house before I left, and, as far as I know, no one has stayed there while I was gone. (I offered it to a couple of people, but I don't think either took me up on it.)