Life in the fast lane

My goodness, how the time does fly. I don’t seem to be able to get my act together enough to post, since work and the World Cup are consuming my attentions at the moment. There is soccer on TV pretty much all the time right now, and I’m in heaven. Last night I got sucked into ‘A Year in the life of Steven Gerrard’ – my favorite England player (though after last night’s game John Terry is my new hero). Soccer games and soccer documentaries … colour me happy! I am in a bit of a TV power struggle with Jeff, though, and were he not able to go off and watch 24 on his laptop, I'd be watching a lot less footie! I'm trying to get him excited about it, but I think it's a lost cause. Yesterday the receptionists at work wore England shirts and tied flags to their chairs. There was a festive atmosphere all day, and though the game started at 5:00 pm, I’d swear that 95% of the staff had cleared out by 3. What can I say … I love this country!

Some cool things that have happened lately:

I stumbled quite by accident upon J.R.R. Tolkien’s grave in the lovely little cemetery right next to my office.

I’ve found a group of women from work to play soccer with twice a week. It’s the other extreme end of the scale from the first team, so it’s not perfect either. But on the other hand I don’t get so stressed before every bout that severe nausea sets in. There’s no happy medium here! But these people are lovely and I’m having fun. And my knees are much happier.

We got a flyer through the mailbox announcing a street party on our block next weekend, with a screen set up to watch the world cup match, a tug-of-war, a 'beach zone', food and live music. I’m actually pretty excited about it.

I’m starting to get to know people at work and I really like them. It’s funny what a difference that makes in a job. I loved my coworkers at my last job, and was worried I wouldn’t get lucky twice. But what can I say … there are really cool people in publishing wherever you go.

And … in spite of the lack of good shopping, reasonable hours at stores, pharmacies, post offices and banks, and coffee shops open in the evening, Oxford is growing on me. I love that we can bike out to the countryside in 20 minutes, or even walk out to it. There are some stunning villages around. And the city itself can be charming, even with all the tourists pouring in right now. I guess you just get used to the differences, until you don’t really think about them and just get on with your day. Every now and then I get a bout of acute homesickness. But I’m starting to really like living here. Of course, I am susceptible to seasonal affective disorder, so it could just be sunshine-induced mania.

The ideal weekend: an Oxford Saturday ...

... and a London Sunday!


And here's a canal in London, for no reason other than that I once saw a photo of Gwen Stefani going into that floating Chinese restaurant.