quoted: "we know it's raining. we'll just put the food in the oven instead" -coworker

the other day someone tried to tell me that without the week, weekends would lose their luster. that is clearly codswallop. i've also been told that without the work week i would eventually get bored and yearn for activity. my three years at oxford would seem to argue otherwise.

there's scene in my favorite novel ever (howards end) in which one of the sisters (surely it's margaret?) lectures her brother, who is about to go down from oxford: "I believe in the last century men have developed the desire to work, and they must not starve it. It's a new desire. It goes with a great deal that's bad, but in itself it's good, and I hope that for women, too, 'not to work' will soon become as shocking as 'not to be married' was a hundred years ago."

tibby's response is pure brilliance: "I have no experience of this profound desire to which you allude." here here!

i disappeared from the office for two hours today to have lunch with keats, brennan, dottie, willings and tony. an indulgence? indeed, but if i didn't go, i wouldn't get to see keats at all until september. and that's hardly acceptable. i wish he'd just move back to london already.

quoted: "it all comes back to fisting...don't look at me like that" -carl to tony

my younger sister amanda sometimes has an IM away message that reads, "it's the wanting that keeps us alive". and ani difranco sings a song called grey in which she ruefully asks, "what kind of paradise am i looking for? i've got everything i want, and still i want more". i recalled these two lines last night when i found myself lying on the sofa with andrew, reading novels and occasionally distracting each other with quotes. is it true that the wanting keeps us alive? i don't know, but i do know that happiness is too elusive a beast in this world of ours, and that i won't take it for granted.

i need to stop being grumpy in the morning. i don't know if it's residual jet lag or that i haven't been able to go to the gym for a few days, but it's got to stop. i'm also a tad bit homesick, i think. i've never had to go from the beach to anything other than 8 to 10 weeks at my parents' house in spokane, and i think i'm suffering the shock of losing that downtime. how does the world at large go about this? i'm shocked.

quoted: "i'm going to kill you. in your face." -robin

i think i may be addicted to food. i just found myself in rather desparate need of a fix. as my blood sugar leval drops, i end up not only grumpy, but with a low estimation of my own self-worth. after a spot of sushi, though, life is good. eep. thank goodness i get free food at work!

there are six months until christmas. don't even pretend you're not excited. on my last night in spokane, i helped becky babysit the little busch children (including my 10-month-old godson). ryan is more skeptical about the world around him than jon jon ever was. jon jon (age 3) was adorable, though. he has a lot more words than he had last christmas. can't understand any of them, but there you have it.

my time at the beach was FANTASTIC, though i really don't want to see my mobile phone bill. eep. it rained more or less every day. that was fine. i got a lot of naps in (obvs) and read the first six harry potter books. hurrah. of course, now i'm a bit homesick. sigh.

i was in paris for work last tuesday and wednesday. meh. then wednesday night andrew and i went to gordon ramsay for dinner. we had the tasting menu, of course. it was painfully expensive. worth it? perhaps. i'd give the food a 9 (it was great, but i had VERY high expectations, and i didn't feel faint even once!) and the service a 9.5 (the straight couple at the next table got asked when they sat down whether they were celebrating a special occasion; andrew. value for money: 7 (it was, after all, the most expensive meal i've ever eaten).

many thanks to emma for hosting a little drinks thing friday. lovely.

saturday andrew and i made a poor transport choice, but ended up in oxford in one piece. we then proceeded to crash the new college ball by climbing over one wall and under another. the barbed wire scratched me up, but it's hardly an adventure if no one gets a scar (robin's toe injury may win best car). and in the end it was a WICKED fun evening, even if it did undo all my work on ending jet lag from my trip.

Happy 26th, Mike!
quoted: "there's nothing worse than waking up naked and not knowing where you are." -roisin

brennan returns tomorrow. i couldn't be more excited, so i won't say too much about that, because i'd bore you all to tears. also, though: HURRAH!!

went to my friend mike's play last night (different mike from birthday mike). it was...depressing. very good, though. mike performed especially well. i'm going to another play tonight. and then getting home early so i can go to the gym before the airport tomorrow.

all spring i've been saying that there's no room in my liberal guilt pantheon for the environment. i'm too busy feeling guilty about being a white upper-middle-class american man. still, i am accutely aware of how often i'm at airports (probably because i don't particularly like flying). thankfully, tomorrow's airport trip doesn't involve me flying...though thursday will.

quoted: "there's nothing worse than waking up naked and not knowing where you are." -roisin