twenty.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go,
but I think I ended up where I intended to be."
-Douglas Adams

20 days. Time, slow down. Please and thank you.


Thorpe Park was an interesting day. We had more than a few problems getting there, but three trains and a bus later, we finally made it to the roller coasters. Brooke broke her ankle last month, so she got a disability bracelet and could get onto rides right away with two or three other people. So Lindsay, Shannon, Leslie and I took turns skipping the lines, which is always fun. I managed to survive Saw! I almost didn't go on it, though. Lindsay and I were waiting in the single rider line when we saw security people go running past. Then I heard the worker telling the people in front of us that somebody had spit on one of the actors. Therefore, we immediately thought that they only let a few people in at a time because we would have to walk by actors, as in a haunted house. Those of you who know me well understand why I freaked. But luckily, nobody accosted me in the dark line, and the ride itself was pretty good. The best part was before the drop though, when you're going straight up. Usually on the way up you can see the track in front of you, but on this? Only sky. Fantastic. The best ride there was Stealth, which goes 0 to 80 mph in less than 2 seconds. Too bad the entire ride only takes about 5 seconds. And I also discovered that I have an irrational fear of bright yellow 3D glasses. I have never liked anything in 3D (I blame It's a Bug's Life from Disney, which my parents forced me to sit through twice), but the fact that I had my ears and eyes closed throughout most of an underwater 3D movie meant for kids was pretty sad. Anyway, I decided that I need to get to Cedar Point sometime in the near future. Anyone want to road trip to Ohio?

I spent most of the week sick in bed, watching movies. Apparently screaming on roller coasters all day with a sore throat isn't a good plan. I did see some things that have been on my "to watch" list for awhile though, including Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt and Knowing. I won't give anything away for those of you who may be as behind in their movie watching as I am, but a few thoughts: Slumdog Millionaire was as emotional as expected, and I can see why it took the world by storm. I hated the ending of Doubt (those of you who have seen it may be able to guess why), but I thought the acting performance of Meryl Streep was stellar. And I liked Knowing for about half an hour before the plot went terribly downhill. I like Nicolas Cage, but...why? I also caught up on American Idol and Britain's Got Talent, with a few more episodes of Heroes thrown in. I am so glad America realized that Kris is more talented than Danny, I love Simon Cowell's face when he truly loves an act, and the first season of Heroes was absolutely fantastic. I also went to see Angels and Demons on Thursday evening. I should really lower my expectations for movies based on my favorite novels, because I am never satisfied. The movie itself was alright, but there were too many pointless plot changes. And Tom Hanks will never be Robert Langdon in my mind.

On Friday, Leslie and I went to Windsor for the day! We left early in the morning so we could get into Windsor Castle in time for the Changing of the Guard, and then we stayed until nighttime for the Royal Military Tattoo. Windsor Castle is beautiful, though I wasn't overly impressed with the State Apartments. The Changing of the Guard was fun, especially when the band broke out into the Mission Impossible Theme. Too cool. Then we took a bus tour so we could see the area around Eton school, and we wasted away the rest of the afternoon by hitting up a candy and fudge shop and a fish 'n chips pub dinner. We also decided that we couldn't continue to hang out, because all we do together is eat. =) The tattoo was fantastic. It was a "military music spectacular", where we saw the following:
1. several military bands
2. a bagpipe ensemble
3. a few traditional horse acts
4. a skit involving the kidnapping of a TV report by rebellious forces
5. horses performing to Top Gun and Pirates of the Caribbean
6. a steel drum band with a dancer who limbo-ed under fire about a foot off the ground
7. a combined military marching band playing "Thriller"
8. some sort of race? I'm not sure, but our side won!
It was a great night, and even though it had rained all day, it stopped for the show! Too bad Leslie and I were already bundled up in ponchos.

Yesterday, I did statistics while watching sports all day. First up was Wimbledon Centre Court Celebration! To test out the new roof on centre court, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Tim Henman and Kim Clijsters played exhibition matches. I tried to get a ticket, but alas, people on ebay apparently are richer than I am. I had to settle from watching Andre at my desk, but it was still great fun. He won his singles match, cheers! It looks like all systems are a go for the roof in this year's Wimbledon. I will miss the rain days though, sometimes they show fantastic matches from years ago when trying to waste time. Ah well, technology is progress. My other tennis love Roger Federer managed to beat Nadal on a clay court in Spain. Sure, Nadal was probably exhausted from his 4+ hour match yesterday, but it's still an important win for Federer. Maybe this will boost his confidence going into the French Open. And it was also the day of a Chelsea game, so I proudly wore my new jersey! Sadly, Manchester United has already taken the Premiere League cup this year, but defeating Blackburn doesn't hurt anything.


Anyway, you can tell that I really haven't done anything with my life (besides Windsor) in the last week. Hopefully I'll have something to update on besides all of the TV I've watched next time. But, considering my only plans are to take the stats exam and start studying for chem, I make no promises. =)