TRUE LOVE

This blog is still very much in its beginnings and we're still learning about each other...So dear reader today I am putting aside formalities and letting you in on the personal side of my life.
I have found the love of my life. It's been tough since I've been in England, long distance relationships always are, but we're in it for the long haul. The love of my life and I have known each other for years but it wasn't until I went away to college and realized how much I missed him in my life that our relationship really blossomed. I couldn't ask for a better boyfriend... he always available for me, whenever I need him twenty four hours a day seven days a week. He's popular and my friends are practically obsessed with him. In fact he's well loved by nearly everyone in the community. He knows all my favorites...he always gum and a New York Times waiting for me. Did I mention he is a master in the kitchen? He makes the best iced tea, lemonade, hoagies (subs or hereos for you non-philadelphians), donuts, muffins, salads, soft pretzels, breakfast sandwiches, oh and recently added milkshakes to his repertoire... and he makes the best DAMN cup of COFFEE i have ever had in MY LIFE!...all this and he'sw got the best gas prices to boot!!!

That's right I AM IN LOVE WITH WAWA
What is WAWA you ask? well I am going to pretend I never heard that blasphemy...because it is only the best most superior convenience store in the entire world...in fact to call it a conveneince store does not even do it justice...it is a practically holy place where that betters the lives of millions of people in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey area each day!

I am going insane and pining away without it here. SO much so that I am on it's website right now, using a feature that I never knew existed but that I of course LOVE that allows you to calculate the nutrition info of all of Wawa's delicious food. It EVEN allows you to build your own hoagies and sandwiches just like in the store and then find out exactly how many delicious worth every bite calories are in each one...OF course it is not the calories that concern me instead I am drooling over the numerous glorious sandwich combinations and possibilities that are available....Creating the perfect medley of delicious lunchtime foods a milkshake, a muffin, and a turkey sub WHY not? while your at throw in some of that fruit salad for nutritional purposes...

OH Wawa you may have the dumbest name ever but my love for you will never die...Less than a week until I am back in your loving arms...your coffee nourishing my addled jet lagged brain...until wait for me and think of me at 3:00 in the morning when all those kids with the munchies show up and disturb your peace :)

Seasonal Effective disorder or something like it

After about a month of unseasonably warm gorgeous weather, it has decided to rain and rain and rain. It's not exciting rain either. There are no thunderstorms or lightening that get me all scared and excited at the same time. It's just that cold constantly drizzling constantly miserable soul sucking, psyche ruining rain, that prevents me from enjoying the outdoors and drives me to the brink of madness from staying inside. Nothing is as disheartening as checking out the ten forecast for three weeks in a row and seeing it read: Showers, Showers, Light showers, Showers, Showers, etc.
I'm going so nuts that today I was standing at the bus stop under my crappy little umbrella, which kept threatening to blow inside out and my mind starting wandering to distant recesses of the past....Out of nowhere I started musing about Island of the Blue Dolphins... this book I had been obsessed with in the 3rd grade. it was about this girl living with her tribe somewhere on the coast of California and one day they all decide to pack up and leave ...I forget why...an they just leave her behind. Kind of like Home Alone except in the wilderness, without all the cool 90s fun and fending for yourself. She befriends this like crazy wild dog and has to do all this crazy surviving stuff like eat dried abalone and she weaves herself clothes form sea grass. I honestly thought it was THE coolest thing in the world. Of course then these nutty viking poachers or something show up and she has to decide to go with them or stay by herself I can't really remember but I think she just stays...
After that I got obsessed with the idea of living on my own in secret...I'm sure my therapist would love to hear all of this... I read books like Mandy where this little orphan girl finds an abandoned house and setting up house, but the house is owned by a rich man who finally comes and saves her one day when she gets sick in the house or something. And I was always watching Pippi Longstocking with that crazy monkey friend of hers just hanging form the rafters of her house and beating up pirates and bad guys.
I'm not exactly sure where this ramble is going, I guess I am trying to say that it's interesting to look back and think about what you liked as child and what kind of romantic notions you had. It's no suprise that I wasn't easily duped by stories where a girl falls in love and that makes everything amazing and birds sing and the sky turns technicolor. I guess I knew even then that there could be something exciting about being on your own and figuring things out for yourself. It's something that I certainly need to be reminded of now when i start getting all mopey about my lack of relationships and start acting like I need another person in my life to make it all complete. Things that seems insignificant from our childhood actually have a lot to do with who we become and how we behave and sometimes it takes a little rain and a miserable stint at the bus stop to remember all that.

Facing Challenges

To Do List:

- Read all of Plato's Republic
....for an essay due on Thursday
....an essay for a class called Shakespeare: Shadow and Substance
...whose topic is Shakespeare's "The Tempest" read in the context of Plato's Republic

Did I mention I haven't read The Republic yet?

Did you notice I am posting to this blog instead of reading said text?

Did I mention that I spent most of the morning scanning items into polyvore.com? and creating those "Oh if only I had the cash..." or "if I wasn't me but instead was _________." outfits all morning?

P.S. I found the PERFECT Summer....channeling joseph and the technicolor dream coat flats!!!

coutesy of where else? topshop.com


P.P.S. If any one has any suggestions on how I can live off of the four sweet potatoes and one bag of baby spinach, not to mentioned assorted spices!!! that I currently have in my possession as sustenance I would be much obliged. It just help me to buy those shoes...


And for any of you out there having a day similar to mine just remember at least you haven't been photographed wearing this...

Insight into into the deep caverns of my mind/I've always been a sucker for a personality quiz

The Five Most Recent Books I’ve Read

• The Ghost of John Wayne: And Other Stories- Ray Gonzalez
• Trumpet - Jackie Kay
• Flight to Canada - Ishmael Reed
• Rabbit. Run - John Updike
• Close Range: Wyoming Stories - Annie Proulx
  

Five Books I Could Read Over and Over

• A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
  
• The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
• Julip - Jim Harrison
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thomspon
• Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
  

Five Books That Blew My Mind and Would Be On My Syllabus If I Were a Teacher

• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
• Paradise Lost - John Milton
• The White Boy Shuffle - Paul Beatty
• A Prayer for Own Meany- John Irving
  
• A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
  

Five Authors With Whom I Would Like to Have Drinks

• Bill Bryson
• Jim Harrison
• Hunter S. Thompson
• Ernest Hemingway
• John Irving
  

Five Books That Make Me Want to Have Kids Just For The Books

• All of the Eloise Books - Kay Thompson
  
• All of the Madeleine Books - Ludwig Bemelmans
• The Berenstein Bears - Stan and Jan Berenstein
• How my Parents Learned to Eat - Ina R. Friedman and Allan Say
• Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
  

Five Non-Fiction Books I Am Evangelical About and Demand Everyone Read

• Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser
• The Gatekeepers - Jacques Steinberg
• Ex Libris - Anne Fadiman
• Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
• Pledged - Alexandra Robbins
  

Five Books the Rest of the World Loved and I Sort of Hated

• Ender's Game
• The Davinci Code
• The Lovely Bones
• The Color of Water
• Gulliver's Travels
  

Five Books I Just Could Not Finish, No Matter What

• The Last of the Mohicans
• The House of Seven Gables
• Anna Karenina

• Gilead
• A Confederacy of Dunces

Five Things That Turn Me Off of a Book, However Unfair

• Aliens
• Detectives
• Oprah's Book Club
  
• Cats
• Self Help
  

Five Things I am a Sucker For in a Book

• Prep schools
• New England/Old Money
• The West
• Pop Culture
• Nerds
  

…now it’s your turn!

Give me five books you think I should read.

A Week of Tweak

I've always been a little neurotic and I am frequently inclined to what my compadres call in secret girlspeak "tweak attacks." Not to be confused with the ever popular panic attacks which I am also prone to...tweak attacks are those moments or in which you become rendered absolutely useless by a person or a situation or just by your own crazy self. I had a paper due this Thursday that I was "working on" for nearly a week ahead of time. My "work" in reality consisting of looking at books I had to read, looking at the blank word document, setting myself a mental deadline of an hour to get a page done, then checking my e-mail, then checking what's on sale at shopbop.com, then "checking" to see what happens in Ugly Betty episode 4 and then mentally exhausted checking to see what all my other flatmate's were doing. Tweak mode had rendered me incapable of typing or thinking for that matter at any more than one sentence an hour. But that's not too say that all this time was completely wasted...I learned a lot about myself and the world around me in my state of mental paralysis. For instance...

-For just a pound ten purchase of Closer, The U.K.'s No. 1 Celeb Mag I learned the REAL reason that Mel B and Eddie split up!!!?! ....Her lesbians sex romps... WITH HER BEST FRIEND I would've never guessed
-I also a learned that some how I have not seen most of season 2 of Sex and the City...watching new episodes is going to be like Christmas come early!!
-The Coke machine takes 5 pence coins but the laundry machine does not!!! It might take two years while you stand in front of sia machine trying to fucking insert 20 tiny five pence coins but the refreshing taste of that liquid crack called Diet Coke is ALWAYS worth it!
-I spent some quality time thinking about where I should go out to lunch this Saturday? New Lebanese place or just stick with good old Pret a Manger? So many important decisions!
- I remembered that I love burritos...and then I remembered that brits don't have any canned black beans!!!
- I learned about the new Kate Moss line at Topshop...and that there is going to be long lines and security to stop potential "lady" fights...which means I will be avoiding that place like that plague for the next month or so...

Anyway that is life. This post blows!! but I will leave it up. Tomorrow is another day...

Lost in "Trend"nation

Or how I went from this





To this...




In just a few easy steps...


Before coming to England I received loads of advice from other people: "You'll love it!", "They drink tea!", "Digestives are the greatest food ever created!", "They call fries, chips!", "The dollar is worth nothing and you'll be so destitute that selling yourself may become a serious prospect!!!"

But there was one thing that everyone left out....
As I arrived on campus that first day, nearly delirious from a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam at 3 in the morning, looking and smelling like I had spent the night doing lines in back of a greyhound bus I couldn't help but notice... Every girl I saw had the perfect pair of slouchy brown boots that I had been coveting all fall, every limb bedecked in skinny jeans or the requisite leggings, topped off with enviable winterized dresses, tailored coats, and effortless scarves.

I, on the other hand, was wearing a pair of Lulu Lemon, reversible yoga pants, with a pair of black pumas and a now "off" white t-shirt, complemented by my pilled black Northface fleece that had certainly seen better days. Granted I had just gotten off of a ten hour flight and no one was expecting me to be a fashion plate... but clearly I had a lot to learn.

Before I left someone had mentioned to me that British students tend to take class a little more seriously, they dress up more - none of this rolling out of bed throw on the juicy velour and school hoodie business. So at the urging of my Mother I had picked up two Banana Republic oxfords and a ill fitting pair of Marc Jacobs khakis at Saks "Off" 5th Avenue. But no one had prepared me for a place where everyone seemed to up to the second fashion wise, where sneakers were called trainers and graced only the feet of those in the act of working out or a few "alternative", "indie" types who threw them on to complete their obviously well thought out " I don't give a shit" outfits.

At first I thought I could make do with what I had, I wear mostly better than mall brand jeans, I had a dress, a pair of Target flats, a H and M scarf, and a couple of glittery wife beaters that I like to call my "going out" clothes. It became quickly apparent that I was sticking out like a sore thumb...my fellow Americans and I could spot eachother from miles away, just by the sight of wilderness-ready, double layer jackets, and the glaring, shiny swoosh on our Nike sneakers. Things really got bad when walking back to my flat one night with a guy I had taken a "fancy" to I casually remarked, "I think I need a better coat." Only to be shocked when he replied, "Yeah, you do look like you might be embarking on some sort of polar expedition..."

A certain amount of cultural assimilation NEEDED to occur and luckily I was in the perfect place to do it. Norwich, where my university is located claims, that it has all the Highstreet stores with out the without the chaos of London! It boasts two huge malls, a Topshop, a Primark, a Principles, NEXT, Wallis, Laura Ashley, and three or four department stores - all within a one mile radius.

Four dresses, two pairs of shoes, a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, three headbands, a pashmina, four pairs of leggings, a spring-weight coat, a Toni and Guy haircut and two sets of knickers later I finally feel as though I don't look like a freaky mountain woman everytime I leave my room and I'm not ashamed every time I queue for the coat check...
But with all this spending of pounds I might seriously have start thinking about a career as an "escort"...

hi...

So this is my first post and it's probably going to be a little awkward but that's pretty standard for me.
Getting it out of the way...Who am I? Why the crap am I blogging? Who wants to read this anyway?

I'm Meredith. I am currently 20 going on 55. I enjoy grocery shopping, crossword puzzles - only the New York Times and only Monday through Wednesday, and scaring myself into thinking I have new illnesses. One of my greatest pleasures in life is overindulging in gummy vites...I am so hardcore I eat about 3 times the recommended dose for children ages 4-8 EVERY DAY!!! My Mom sends me an industrial sized vat of them!!!


Everyone I know is cooler than me, that's why I have this blog to talk about everyone else's cool lives and like I'm cool just because they tolerate my presence. I also just got a new haircut and I am thinking this blog might give it some much needed cred.



See what I mean?

Nobody wants to read this that I know about...maybe some internet pervs... we'll just have to see.

Anyway I am currently coming to you from across the pond- studying in good old Norwich, UK famous for the best shopping outside of London!! Apparently Norwich also used to have a church for every week of the year and a pub for everyday...but that's not true anymore.


I live a life of squalor and laziness...in a prison like dorm that is currently undergoing construction...
It's the last to be upgraded in the entire school.

Exhibit A: that is a suitcase full of dirty laundry and the requisite bottle of Febreeze



Today I accomplished nothing and that's the way I like it. So I'm done for now.