The wedding is over....now what???

Back in Manchester. Meh.

Three weeks off of work does not help in terms of motivation to go back to school. One paper and a bunch of reading. I can do it!

I can't believe it's already Saturday though. I literally spent all day yesterday in bed. No lie.

Monday I saw Soul Surfer with my mom, which was pretty good - very inspirational. Tuesday I got up early and did something I thought would never ever happen again: spent a block in high school. Went in to see Brys and the Barrys in art, which was very nice. Brys's class also picked their spots for Evening with the Arts and Mr. Barry showed them where all those spots would be, so I even got to walk around a bit with them. It's quite surreal going back, since it seems like I was just there. I was even told to sign the tardy sheet when I went into the office. Sorry lady, I haven't been tardy at Oakmont in three years.

My mom and I then went to Panera, Emily's lacrosse game, and Lucas's first baseball game, before going home and watching Glee with Julie, who came over. Wednesday Brys came over after school and we played Life and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Brys whooped my butt in Life.

Thursday I realized I should probably pack, since we were leaving at about 3:30. Got to the airport and found my gate, where I also found a wedding reception for William and Kate:

Yep. Fake cake, real cake, drinks, cardboard cutouts... It was really amusing. At least our flight was going to London.

Luckily for me, the middle seat in my row was empty, so I got extra room in my window seat to stretch my legs, while the old lady on the aisle just sat there. Seriously, I don't think she ever even went to the bathroom. For some reason I was really restless on that flight. All the shows and movies were the same from the last flight I took three weeks ago, and I think I started about 3 shows and 2 movies before getting bored and starting new ones. I watched an old episode of Parks and Rec, Family Guy, and Little Miss Sunshine. And I think I spent a combined total of about 1 hour napping.

We landed in London sometime after 6, and holy cow I have a newfound hatred of Heathrow. Although I knew it was one of the worst airports to fly into, I didn't have problems with it three weeks ago. This time was horrendous. We got off and there was a screen with about 6 flights on it, and only instructions about if you saw your flight. Finally some worker told us that if we didn't see our flight, we had to take a shuttle, the same kind I took last time. Only there were about a million people trying to get on, and I swear I thought I was going to be run over or pick pocketed. Managed to make it out alive, and somehow find customs. This part is kind of a blur. Customs was easy though. But once out, I realized I was in the arrival section. And panicked. I had another flight to catch! So I asked someone and they told me I was fine. Turns out you literally have to leave and then check back in, going back through security. Such a pain.

By the time I found my gate, I had enough time to buy a water, but not a bagel. Because the flight started boarding. Again I had an open middle seat, though I was now on the aisle. I basically just napped on this 35 minute flight.

Took a taxi back and only when we arrived at my dorm did the guy explain that because of the wedding, the taxi service was actually on a bank holiday, and that was why the prices were raised. So instead of paying about 16 pounds I ended up paying 24. Oh well. I was about to collapse from exhaustion and a taxi was much much better than a bus.

Manchester is still several weeks in advance of New England, in terms of springtime. The trees are much greener, and this is what greeted me on arrival at my dorm:

So I literally collapsed onto my bed and, since it was 9:30 and I knew festivities of the wedding were starting on US news channels, I turned on Slingbox and watched the wedding in its entirety. This literally took about 3 hours. Only once did I almost nod off...there was a lot of singing during that ceremony. Between the arrival of the new couple at Buckingham Palace and the balcony kiss at 1:25 I watched The Office and cried like a baby because Michael left. Maybe I'll blame that on my exhaustion. After the kiss I watched Parks and Rec and at about 2 I finally fell asleep for 2 hours. Watched more stuff in bed until after 6, when I realized I hadn't eaten since 8:30 am and figured I needed to go get food. Unfortunately I realized that everything was closed because it was a holiday for the wedding. I think Subway must have closed at 6. Just missed it. It was sad. I walked a long way to be reduced to my last option: McDonalds. The store didn't even have sandwiches left. So yes, my first meal back in Manchester was Mickey D's. Sad. I ate that while watching some crappy version of Red Riding Hood online, which was very entertaining because I had no freaking idea who the wolf was.

Went to bed at 10 pm, woke up at 4:30 am, back to sleep, out of bed at 10...and now here I am. Fun times.