Well it took me six months, but I finally reached my 111th post. I know most people do this at the 100th post, but I didn't have the time. So I will be celebrating today, on day Eleventy-one, by writing eleventy-one things about me.

1. I have a dachshund named Snoopy. He's lazy and good for nothing.
2. I also once had a hamster named Cookie Dough. He lived for three years and is now in a shoebox under my bay window.
3. I have a California King size bed that makes me room look three times smaller, but I wouldn't give it up for the world.
4. I kept a piece of my tail light from my first wreck. It's on a shelf next to the bed.
5. I'm an only child, and my parents spoil me.
6. I had a sister who died as a baby when I was two. Her name was Natalie.
7. The only kind of pizza I like is cheese.
8. I'll eat pepperoni or even hamburger on occasion, but it's not as good.
9. The only thing I can make from scratch is peach cobbler.
10. My favorite color is cerulean, but my room is green and yellow.
11. My apartment bedroom will be in green and pink.
12. Even though green's not one of my favorites colors.
13. I drive a gold 2000 Malibu LS.
14. I told my dad I didn't care what kind of car I got, so long as it wasn't gold.
15. It also happens to be the same color as dirt, so I never wash it.
16. If he'd wanted me to wash my car, it shouldn't have been gold.
17. I do like the sunroof, so I can't complain too much.
18. I've seen every single James Bond movie ever made.
19. I've seen most of them at least twice, except On Her Majesty's Secret Service because George Lazenby sucks.
20. I'm half British - my dad was born in Manchester.
21. I like Irish, Scottish, and Australian accents better than British.
22. At this very moment, I am looking up cruises for Spring Break to celebrate my parents' 30th anniversary.
23. Last time they took a trip like this was to Hawaii, and they left me back in Georgia.
24. It won't happen again.
25. Even if Dad is under the impression that I'm not going.
26. One of the most valuable things in life is a long, hot shower.
27. I like to play with Scotch tape.
28. I have three best friends, one of which is my mom.
29. My hair refuses to curl.
30. I have 9 different colored solid tank tops from Old Navy. I have an addiction.
31. I have matching flip flops for each one. Addiction number 2.
32. I have a pink Razr phone that I love, even if everyone always told me they were crap.
33. I live in a yellow house that used to be sky blue.
34. It has a red roof (even though Dad swears it's brown).
35. Destin is my other home.
36. I have a strange attachment to Van Gogh's Starry Night that started all because of a Cyndi Lauper album.
37. I really like mixing paint.
38. The only authors I cannot read are Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.
39. I took ballet for five years and jazz for one.
40. I performed in the Nutcracker and Beauty and the Beast.
41. But I can't dance.
42. Aladdin is my favorite Disney movie.
43. Belle, Jasmine, and Ariel are my favorite princesses.
44. I wear Princess perfume, by Vera Wang.
45. My favorite lotion is Magnolia Blossom from Bath and Body Works, but it's been discontinued.
46. I use my Garmin GPS all the time. It saves my life.
47. Sometimes I watch it just for fun even when I know where I'm going, and I end up getting distracted and passing my destination.
48. I love strawberry jam (not jelly, not preserves), but not strawberries.
49. I've never eaten a watermelon.
50. The only cat that's ever liked me was eaten by an alligator.
51. I hate snakes.
52. And spiders, lizards, and frogs.
53. Pretty much all reptiles.
54. Except turtles. I like to feed them pancakes.
55. I get into pancake battles with my mother.
56. I joined Twitter specifically to follow Tom Felton. I'm sad.
57. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl is my favorite movie.
58. Ave Maria is my favorite thing to sing in the kitchen when no one's at home (great acoustics in there).
59. I like to make fleece blankets. Both my parents and all of my cousins have one. I have three.
60. I have more books than I know what to do with, but I'll never get rid of a single one.
61. I'm too cheap to buy dresses, even though they're comfier than anything else.
62. The first and only alcohol I've ever bought was some English Scotch for my dad.
63. Getting through US customs was a nightmare because I was convinced they'd find it, and I'd get arrested.
64. I had tuna noodle goo for dinner.
65. You must be related to a Dekalb Co. fireman to know what that is.
66. I like to take pictures, but I never remember to take my camera anywhere.
67. My favorite kind of gum is the blue 5 kind.
68. It used to be Polar Ice Extra.
69. I live in a Beaver Cleaver type neighborhood.
70. I would rather spend the day inside reading by the fire instead of playing out in the snow (when we actually have snow).
71. I will never eat another Chick-fil-a milkshake because it once gave me food poisoning.
72. Right before Thanksgiving.
73. I very rarely get really angry with anyone.
74. I honk everytime I pass a golf course in the hopes that I'll make someone miss the ball because I think it's funny =]
75. Because of an Are You Afraid of the Dark episode, I'm afraid of pool drains.
76. I live in the Poultry Capital of the World.
77. The Civil War is my favorite time in American history because I think it's the most interesting.
78. There are a lot of Beatles songs I only like in the Across the Universe remake.
79. I've recently started to watch NCIS on USA every single day.
80. I have a crease in my nose from rubbing it up and down my entire life.
81. I've actually gotten a nosebleed in the nosebleed section. I'm not sure they're related.
82. My face refuses to tan and is usually several shades lighter than the rest of me.
83. I highly support the lottery because it pays for my education - thanks HOPE!
84. I like writing in pencil better than I like writing in pen.
85. I have to sleep with my door and the hall door closed because I was told as a child fire couldn't get me that way.
86. I've always wanted green eyes.
87. Braces were absolutely awful, but my Herbst appliance was about as nice as a medieval torture device.
88. I was on colorguard in high school, and joining was one of the best decisions I've made.
89. Because I got to march in a parade in New York
90. And eat cat in Chinatown.
91. My first and only job was at Banana Republic.
92. It made me hate people.
93. Especially Asians. Not in a racist way, but they mess up stacks more than anyone else.
94. I can't wait for Shark Week!
95. I'm glad they put it at the end of the summer because if I saw it in May I wouldn't get in the ocean.
96. I'm constantly on the lookout for animalage.
97. Dirty Jobs and Ice Road Truckers are two of my favorite TV shows.
98. So are Myth Busters and America's Next Top Model.
99. I would rule at Cash Cab if I ever got in it.
100. I love horror movies, but I spend most of the time watching them with my eyes closed.
101. My favorite one is Darkness Falls, but the most scared I've been is watching The Descent.
102. I have vastly different vision in each eye: 20/100 in my right, and 20/25 in my left.
103. One day I'll get lasik surgery so I won't have to worry about contacts ever again.
104. I love brightly colored, decorated socks.
105. I don't like inanimate objects to stare at me.
106. I would cheat on my husband with Taylor Lautner.
107. Just because I like the guy doesn't mean I like the movie.
108. I know how to make apple pie... with no apples.
109. The B flat scale on the piano is my favorite to play.
110. Sheboygan is one of my favorite words.
111. Complete with distractions, this took me about three hours to finish.

Anyone know where the phrase eleventy-one comes from? Brownie points if you can guess without Google!

I HATE UGA Parking Services. Hate them. Why? Because they decided not to give me a parking permit for this coming school year. Instead, I'm on waitlists. About five or six of them.

I applied for a parking spot in North Campus because, hey, that's where all my classes are, so it makes sense, right? I put my name down for 7 lots and figured that I'd get into at least one of them - especially the ones that are farther away. However, I was wrong. For my desired lot, I am 906 on the waiting list. The best chance I have of getting into a North Campus lot is for N02, where I am 259.

Needless to say, this freaked me out. I have to have a parking permit - I'm not on the UGA bus line at my apartment, and it's certainly way too far to walk. So, I called UGA Parking. Apparently there are no available lots. The best chance I have is the Carlton Street Deck, in South Campus.



My classes are at A. My parking spot, should I even get one, since I am 15th on the wait list, is at B. To give you an idea of how large this space is, (sorry the picture's so small), there's a green circle surrounded by a brownish circle about half way up and to the right. That's Sanford Stadium. So, as you can see, this is a REALLY long way from where I need to be.

So, I decided to call downtown Athens and see if I could get a spot in one of the parking decks there. Three. Year. Wait list. THREE YEARS! So that's not going to happen. There are, however, three lots that will probably be available by September (even though I start school in August). If you look at the first map, the red box at the top is where my parking spot would be. I'd have quite a ways to walk to get to campus... yay.

However, Randa came to my rescue, and is willing to let me park at her apartment and walk to the UGA bus line. It's still a long way to walk, but it's a lot better than having to rely on the Athens Transit System, which is really unreliable and would make me late to class pretty much every day.

Ugh... this is unneeded stress. I'd rather be reading about 1580s English Society than having to deal with this. So I think I will.

Well, the "vacation" portion of my summer is over. I've been to Destin twice, then England, then New Orleans, then Destin again, and now I'm home for good. Until I move into my apartment on August 8, anyway.

I'd never been to New Orleans before. It's SOOOOOOO hot. Heat index of 115. Just going outside meant you'd sweat about a gallon - ew. I liked the French Quarter though, and for the Fourth we went on the steamboat Natchez for dinner and to see the fireworks. Before we got on the boat though, we had to wait in a long line to board. Apparently I hadn't had enough water or food or both, because I almost passed out from the heat, but Dad came to the rescue with a bottle of water and a cold rag. I still felt really sick the rest of the night, but regardless, it's been one of the best Independence Days to date!

Destin was fun, if uneventful. I ate fish, went to the beach, and rented a ton of movies (we don't have internet there). I also bought some of the first few things for the apartment. I'm particularly proud of my pots and pans - a 10 piece set that also came with 3 utensils, 5 glass (or clear plastic... I don't know) mixing bowls, and a covered roasting dish. All for fifty bucks! I don't know exactly how much cooking I'm doing to do, but I have the stuff to do it in!

On a completely random note, my laptop is sick. It doesn't have a virus, but the Internet Explorer has started to freeze my whole computer, and sometimes the fingerpad decides it wants to go wacko. So I took it to Best Buy, where the Geek Squad is running a diagnostic on it, which will take two to three days. In the meantime, I'm using an ancient Gateway that my mom brought home from work.

I've also finally started working on one of my two 15-page term papers for the Oxford classes. Since I don't have my own laptop, and therefore my iTunes, I'm using Pandora. I've had "All That Jazz" from Chicago stuck in my head all day, so that was my radio of choice. The first song it came up with was "Roxie", also from Chicago. But this wasn't the movie soundtrack version that I'm familiar with, it was the actual Broadway version. It's really different... and I really don't like it.

I'm finally home! And man am I loving the food - I've had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, giant pancakes, real bacon, and macaroni and cheese in the past day and a half. But England was amazing. I absolutely know that I'm going back one day, no matter what. There's so much that I didn't get to see or do, and I will see Stonehenge before I die.

This is me in front of the Queen Victoria monument in front of the gates to Buckingham Palace. Two friends and I took a day trip there on one of our days off. We went to Harrods, Buckingham Palace, and Trafalgar Square.

I'm really tired now, because I've been writing all day, so I won't say much, other than I wish I hadn't had to leave so early. I never even got to try treacle sponge!

Today, we went to Westminster Abbey. It was absolutely gorgeous, but they wouldn't let you take pictures! I thought that was ridiculous, so I cheated and took them with my phone instead. They're horribly quality, especially compared with my fancy new camera, but I thought I'd post them because it was easy to send
them to my computer via Bluetooth.


Ceiling




Someone's tomb. One of the King Richards, I think?


Coronation Chair


Queen Elizabeth I's tomb


And again


One of the people buried with Mary, Queen of Scots whose name I can't remember


Top of Mary, Queen of Scots Effigy Tomb


Mary, Queen of Scots Effigy Tomb

Picture custom of BBC

So, here's my interesting story for the day:

I got up this morning to go see a play, The Tempest, in Regents Park in the Open Air Theatre at 9:45 AM. We were to leave at 7 AM in order to get there in time, but three people didn't wake up on time, making us late. Instead of hiring a bus to take us there, Dr. Trivedi, the program director, decided that we would use public transportation to take us to London, since there's a bus stop right next to Regents Park, and it would be cheaper and convenient. Because we were late, we had to take the Oxford bus to the bus station to take us to London.

We got to the play 5 minutes before it started, watched it, and left (unfortunately they had designed this one to be geared towards kids, so I didn't like it as much as the one I watched a few days ago).

Dr. Trivedi had given us round trip bus tickets, so we could go back any time we wanted. The Victorian literature people had class at 2:30, so they had to leave immediately to get back in time, but history wasn't until 4:40, giving us some time to do whatever before going back. Two friends and I decided to get lunch before getting back on the bus to go home, so everyone else left, and we went to Pizza Express (which was actually pretty good!).

In the middle of lunch, we get a call from Trivedi. Did you know that there was a protest about Sri Lanka going on in London today? Well, that means that all the roads get blocked surrounding the protest. The rest of the class hadn't been able to use the bus stop we arrived at, because the roads around us were blocked. He told us to get a cab to take us to Victoria Coach Station, and we could catch another bus there to take us to Oxford. So, we finished eating and hailed a cab. Twenty minutes later, the cab driver told us that he couldn't get to Victoria Coach Station, because with the road blocks, he was just going in circles. So we got out, and called Trivedi again. He told us to hail another cab and go to Paddington Station, then catch a train to Oxford. We got the cab, and drove around for another twenty to thirty minutes. We made it to Paddington Station, and bought three train tickets. However, the train was leaving in 6 minutes, and we didn't know where the platform was or how to get to it. We did find it, right as it was leaving, and were able to get on.

Once in Oxford, we had no idea where we were, because none of us had ever been to the train station. We asked several bus drivers, but none of them could take us to the UGA House. So, we got another cab.

Three hours after we left Pizza Express, three cabs, and a train later, we finally made it back - before anyone else! They must still be either in London, on a bus, or on a train - I'm not sure. On the bright side, we did get to see a lot of London our first day there, and we're being reimbursed for all the money we spent on transportation. Plus, we figured out where the train station is and bought our tickets for when we go back tomorrow!

While you can't see it very well in this picture, because we were facing the wrong way, this is me and some others from the UGA at Oxford program standing in front of Christ Church, which has one of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen. I haven't gone in yet, but I'm planning on it as soon as I have the time. This is where they filmed the moving staircase scene from Harry Potter! I've also seen the place where they filmed the dining hall scenes. Exciting =]

On the same day that we took this picture, I also went into a building that has been around since the 1200s. It's been completely refurbished - in the 1500s! Everything is so old here. What they consider to be "recent" is often before my country was even a real country yet. It's incredible!

Yesterday and today have been devoted to papers. I was up until about 4 AM finishing one, and I'm now working on the other. But after that, I don't really have much due the whole time I'm here.

As a side note, here are some things I've learned thus far:

• The dollar to pound exchange rate SUCKS
• Coke Zero tastes funny
• You're supposed to eat pizza with a knife and fork
• They intentionally give you more reading than you could ever possibly finish
• Drunk Englishmen will serenade you with birthday songs if asked nicely
• The peanut butter also tastes funny
• People back home sometimes forget about the time difference and call you at 3 AM
• In the summer, the birds start chirping at 3:45 AM and the sun starts to rise at 4
• Pea puree comes with everything
• This is the land of no free refills
• Everything comes in really tiny glasses. Obviously they don't like liquids
• Baked beans are a breakfast food
• It's a trolley, not a cart or a buggy, and you must pay for it, along with your plastic grocery bags
• If you have one foot in the bike lane, someone will ring their bike bell angrily at you

Well, I'm off to do more of my paper. Cheerio!