'cause damn it feels good to be a gangster

Ohhhh ho ho I ache from that game yesterday. I hobbled around all of today until my joints loosened up and then I simply hobbled upright, mostly around the side streets that surround Bond Street. Great little cafe's, over-priced shops, beautiful apartment buildings. I only window-shopped, spending a whopping 1.75 pounds on coffee. I've since finished the Jane Austen Book Club and have moved on to a book Josh (LA Josh) sent me called the Eyre Affair. The front cover boasts that it "combines elements of Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's odd reading fantastical fiction. I've always had a hard time with fantasy and sci-fi. My willingness for bended rules doesn't extend into literature, I've found, and although I'm enjoying this I'm really working hard to keep track of what's "allowed", if you will, in the world of the book.

I was thinking today about how my tendency towards being a loner has evolved. Or if in fact it has. I think I've always been one, to some degree. I can remember eating lunch in Mrs. Althouse's room in the second grade, preferring her company or none at all to that of my classmates outside on the playground. I remember vividly squatting in the forrest of bamboo outside Mum's house, hiding silently from anyone passing by- mailman or strolling neighbor alike. I know I would spend long afternoons upstairs in my room at Mom's house, engrossed in some art project, the instructions for which I usually neglected to follow because tape involved less waiting than glue, and because where was an 8 year old to find papier mache? I remember once at Dad's house I emptied the decanters that held olive oil and vinegar, filled them up with cranberry juice, raided the bread basket, and held communion for my stuffed animals, prayers of intercession and all. This is not to say that I was a lonely kid per se, but just that my clearest memories were of spending time alone. Or if not alone, then with adults or my family. I remember afternoons with Annie in which I would beg her to make chocolate chip cookies with me, pretending we were on a cooking show, pre-measuring ingredients, bantering with each other, throwing back witty remarks and winks to the camera, wherever it was. Part of the experience of making cookies with a 10 year old like me, however, is that you did it my way. My way meant tossing aside the instructions, and simply adding all ingredients all at once. And usually leaving Annie to clean up. Man, I was bratty. Resourceful, imaginative, cooperative (mostly), but bratty. I...don't even remember where all of those 'I remember's were leading me...I think they were just to say that the tendency to be by myself simply because it's "easier", whatever that means, has always been there. I wonder how much of that is me being a loner, and how much is me being elitist. See, these are the kinds of thoughts that Kate's so helpful with. *smile*

Now I've had dinner and am gathering my gi and ipod for the short walk up to the gym for karate at 7:30.

Really can't figure out why I'm so sleepy lately; I'm getting to bed at a reasonable hour (1ish), sleep till 8:30 or 9, not being terribly lazy throughout the day.