MONEY

"money" being used in different senses. Currency yes, but also that delightful expletive used as such:
"I'm going to the Sox game on Sunday. They're playing the Giants."
"MONEY! You get to see Frank Thomas and Barry Bonds."

Anyway, this is why it was a money week/weekend:

On Thursday--and I don't know why this did no occur to me earlier--I realized that now that I have proper proof of addess--a National Insurance Number letter, other government docs such as a criminal abckground check--I can now upgrade my bank account. Because if you will recall, they gave me the shittiest-of-shit account and told me it was because my proof of address was not official enough. So I returned to HSBC on Thursday, armed with all my official docs, and they showed me in.

First they said I had to wait 3 months to upgrade. I said, but I'm going abroad and want to have a proper debit card so I'm not forced to carry around tons of cash. They accepted that. Then they claimed the reason they didn't give me a good account in the first place wasn't because of my address, it was because I didn't have a credit history in the UK. I said I understood that, however I personally know 3 people who have gotten proper debit cards from HSBC and didn't have any credit history either. I had to prod a little, and prodding works!! I could literally see this banker lady weighing her options and decide that it was better to just give me what I'm asking for than to risk losing my business.

They didn't even check my proofs of address. They said your new debit card will be sent to you in 4-5 business days. I was content and spent the rest of my Friday afternoon and evening laying in bed and reading--with the window open. It was that mild.

My card arrived Saturday morning. I had just finished moving all of my luggage up to the 4th floor (well, here in the UK it's the 3rd floor) from the 2nd (1st) because we had groups coming in who needed our room. I made it downstairs just in time to meet up with Meimei, with whom I was goign to the National Railway Museum and then to watch some rugby. Jacqui called me into the office and told me I had some mail. Lo and behold--there was my brand-new debit card. I felt like a real person finally, haha. Over halfway done with my journey and I'm now almost fully on-the-grid in the UK (only thing missing would be a UK credit card)!

But that wasn't all. Jacqui handed me a flat parcel, and my heart leapt. Sure enough, it was from amazon.com -- my Mulholland Drive DVD!!!! I actually jumped up and down. My Saturday was getting better and better.

So Meimei and I went to the museum. There's a reason why it's free...not a whole lot going ont here. But still, interesting and impressive. The sheer size of some of these engines is amazing, especially the hundred-year-old steam engines. We found a green one that looked like Percy from Shining Time Station, and Meimei took a picture of me next to it--I loved that show when I was little and Percy was my favorite train--or, I guess, character (Thomas was for morons). They also had a car from the Japanese bullet train that you could walk in. That was kind of cool.

Then we went to Sainsbury's to pick up supplies for the rugby game. And damned if they didn't have pizzas on sale for 2 for £4 (still a ripoff by US standards, but I've stopped comparing). We also bought plain Doritos whcih are really hard to find. They were also a ripoff, but I haven't had tortilla chips in far too long. I bought a can of chili to dip the chips in, and we got a bottle of Diet Coke. Good to go.

Now I'm not much into sports, so I mostly zoned out for the games. But Meimei's housemates were fun conversation, especially Glenn from Edinburgh. He looks like Dr. Heiser, my junior year Latin/Greek teacher. That was very amusing. And Gabor, another housemate who is from Hungary, made PALACINKE. I kid you not. Palacinke are crepes. They tasted like the ones I love when mom makes. It was awesome...I ate three even though I;d already eated chili and a whole pizza by myself. Live it up while you can, I say.

After two rugby games (Ireland vs. Scotland and Walse vs. Italy) I went back home. I set up my laptop and settled in to watch Mulholland Drive. I had the room to myself so I was able to watch with the lights off and the volume up. I was quite satisfied.

After that, I went down in the basement to the Dungeons Bar to visit Christine, who was bartending. I ended up helping her slice limes. There weren't too many people there when I first arrived, but it got more crowded as the night wore on. There were two parties goign on--two bachelor parties. Christine and I and Becs were the only girls there for a while. After some time, Nick, Jacqui and Becs said I was going to Toffs with them. Toffs is this club that is directly behind our hostel. It's the one whose noise kept me up all night before we moved to the bigger room.

Toffs is bigger and more impressive that I had imagined. It has three floors, first of all. The ground floor has two bars and a dance floor and the upstairs is a smoky lounge area. I danced for a while, until I twisted my ankle badly. Then I limped back to the hostel. i meant to go straight up to bed because I had volunteered to take Lyndsay's breakfast shift the next morning at 7:45am, but someone told em that Christine needed to talk to me downstairs for a minute, so I went back to the bar. It was "chockers", as the Aussies would say. Packed. Christine was overwhelmed with people. I ended up staying down there for a while longer ebcause I got into a conversation with some people from Newcastle. That and some beers. Then the rest of teh crew came back from Toffs, I looked at my phone to check the time and realized I really did need to get to sleep.

I never heard my alarm. And I had fallen asleep with my clothes and shoes still on. But miraculously, I woke up at 7:37--just enough tome for me to get downstairs and set up all the breakfast. Turns out I needn't have hurried, because Jacqui was 10 minutes late unlocking the café. There was a mob scene to get in, and DJ who had just finished door had to help me set up so that it got done faster.

Why is giving groups food such an ordeal? Every time I went into the kitchen to keep p with dishes (again, no dishwasher!) when I came back into the café I had to shoo people out frmo behind the counter. WTF?? Do people go behind the counter or the bar in a restaurant? No! Why do people think they can do it in ours? After a while I got tired of beating around the bush and flat-out said, "you are not allowed back here. if there's something you want, ask the one in charge--that's me." But that wasn't the worst. The worst was that almost nobody put away their own dishes. The rule is, and there is a clearly posted sign, that you put your dirty dishes on the cart and throw away your trash. Nobody did. And I don't care that they were from Germany; they all spoke English. Anyway, it took me two hours to clean up after them. It wasn't that unpleasant though, all things considered. It was sunny in the café, adn I could play whatever music I wanted on the stereo. I fell to the Amadeus sountrack and blatantly started singing along to the soprano solo from the Kyrie in his c minor mass, and the aria from Zaide. And nobody could say anything or complain, because here I was slaving away cleaning up THEIR mess. Suck on that.

After that I dragged all my luggage back down to my normal bed. Then I went to Sainsbury's, Poundland, had my pork/applesauce/stuffing sandwich, and came back.

That's when I started to feel really rotten. And I knew damn well what it was. The last time I'd felt this bad around this time of the month was in November. I spent the next four hours in bed, cramping and popping advils for my lower back which was all but throbbing. Watched Mulholland Drive twice through because it was what was in my DVD player and I was in too much pain to move. It finally let up in the evening, and I dragged my haggard carcass to the kitchen to make dinner.

That's all, until it was time to shower. I hung my pajamas on the wall next to the shower, and afetr I got out i accidentally pushed them over the side of teh wall, into this crevice. I ended up having to climb up the wall like Spiderman, launch myself headfirst into the crevice and reach down to get the pajamas. I could have fallen and broken my neck, but I needed those pajama pants. So...that was my adventure for the evening.

Tonight is the last reharsal at the University. Tomorrow is 3 hours in the Minster and I am going to try and take some film clips. Wednesday is the concert....