Moshing and Ministers

On Thursday, I went out to dinner with my friend Chelsey. We went to the Eagle and Child, and for pretty much the most famous pub in town, the food was no good. But whatever, it was fun anyway. Then we were going to meet Ryan at "Thirst Lodge" for a jazz society thing. We wanted to go last week, but ended up getting side tracked until it was too late. So we were determined to go this week. Little did we know, it was the night of some themed pub crawl. While Chelsey and I were walking to the venue, we saw tons of groups of kids wearing the same shirt as well as pirate attire. They were also accompanied by guys in neon orange vests. When we got to Thirst Lodge, the bouncer asked if we were there for the jazz thing, and then he asked us to wait outside. We did, for a half hour, and the jazz thing still wasn't starting because all the pirate kids were still buying drinks. I was studying one kid's shirt, and it had all the big clubs on the back with boxes next to the names where you were supposed to check after you had been to the club. There were hundreds of these kids about. In groups of about twenty or so, but they were all over town. It was freaking me out. And they seemed like they had just turned eighteen. When I got home, I googled "Stamina" because it was on the back of their shirts, and sure enough, it's some website where you sign up to be a part of a giant pub crawl. It freaked me out. And we went home without seeing any jazz. Next week!

I was sick on Friday. But I still managed to put together a decent Biochemistry essay. Then Amanda and I watched No Country for Old Men. It was really interesting. I can't say that I enjoyed it, because it was very depressing actually, but I do think that it was a fabulous movie.

Yesterday was a glorious day. It was so beautiful out, so Amanda and I went shopping for a bit. Then I got some reading done before my Biochem tutorial. At the end of the hour, we always decide when we will meet next, and Rob suggested Friday afternoon, and I told him that I actually didn't know when I would have a race, so then he was muttering to himself about when else to meet, but the he was like, "well since the Prime Minister is coming, I'd like to meet at this time..." "What? Gordon Brown is coming?" "Oh, yes. No one's supposed to know that it's him giving the lecture at the Sheldonian, but I know (because he's the almighty Dean)." "Ummm Can I go?" "Sure. You'll have to apply for a ticket. Find out in the Porter's Lodge". So I went to the Porter's Lodge, and a sign was up about the next Romanes Lecture. This is a free, public, annual lecture given at the Sheldonian Theater in town, and it has been going on for over a hundred years, and they speaker may talk about pretty much anything. The flier said that a "Senior Cabinet Minister" would be speaking at 1.00 pm on Friday the 27th. They don't want all the publicity about who it actually is, I guess. Thank goodness for crazy Rob! I ran home, emailed the University events administrator, so hopefully I get a ticket. And hopefully I don't have a race at that time on Friday...

Then, last night, Amanda and I went to a concert. We missed the first opener, but oh well. Suburban Legends was the second opener, and they played the Ducktales themesong. Blast from the past. I loved it. Then Reel Big Fish came on.


I think Amanda was scared for her life the entire time. We were pretty close to the front, and once they started playing, the crowd got pretty rowdy, and we were pushed about the entire time. At one point, we were standing right at the edge of the major mosh pit, so we were sucked in a few times. I just kind of went with it, and pushed/punched back, but Amanda was in total shock. I felt bad for her, but I'm glad that she went with me. I was actually surprised at how moshy the crowd was. At one point, Amanda got pushed to the ground, and I was like a mother trying to save her baby. We were separated by a few people, and I pushed them away so hard to get to her and pull her up. She also ended up breaking her earring and her bra because we were smashed up against people the entire time. What a great first concert experience for her... Other than a couple bruises that I woke up with, I didn't incur any damages.
Before:

During:

We were surrounded by very tall, very sweaty, guys. It was impossible to see the band and/or escape the madness.
After:

You can't really tell, but my face was so red. I was a dancing fool. Amanda on the walk home: "I don't know how you were laughing and singing along the whole time"... It was wild. I had a lot of fun.

This afternoon, we are supposed to row in order to qualify for the tournament this week, but the river may be too high. I haven't been told whether we're rowing or not yet...