In case you were wondering...

This is my life right now.

 Playing Jane Porter in Disney's Tarzan is a fabulous distraction from my Master's thesis.

And working at the Hale Centre Theatre is such an exhilarating experience. The production staff is made of artistic geniuses, every single one of them, and the aerialists are pure magic! The things these people do with their bodies! I'm lucky I'm playing Jane because there's NO WAY I could do what the ensemble does. Everyone constantly posts pictures of their fresh bruises, and I'm proud to share that my wrist has started bleeding and callusing from the little aerial adventures Tarzan and I have on the silks. I love how demanding this work is!

It's just about four weeks until the show is up and running. I seriously can't wait.

Oh, and I made the connection yesterday that I'm doing aerials in my Ariel wig. That's pretty special.

Banana.

Thank you.

The extended honeymoon's over, folks.
so some thanks are in order!

thank you:
1.elements, planes, trains, cars, buses, and suitcase wheels for getting us home safely. We had an INCREDIBLE four months and a world (literally) of adventure. But it is so so good to be home.

2. body, for waking up at 4 am so I could try to finish these fifty pages of writing I have due tomorrow. (ilovegradschoolilovegradschoolijustneedtokeeptellingmyselfthatilovegradschool)

3. n e w l i f e. We kind of feel like we were playing pretend marriage and now that we're back we're just dating again. We flirt more and fight less... it's funny. but. we don't have a place to live, a car to get there in, or a phone to find them with. That means A D V E N T U R E once again! Only it's just the one country kind this time-- The one country we belong to.

4. Everyone who helped see us off on the chance of a lifetime. Now that I'm back I'm seriously panicking about wedding thank yous. So I drafted up a couple this morning.

What do you think?

the back of this one says "we are the luckiest".

The back of this one says "thank you for helping us feel FABULOUS on our wedding day".

Do you think it's finally time to, like, get all of our wedding pictures? I'd say so.

love, jet lag, and big-time migraine medicine,

banana

It's okay.

I'm still here.
It's just that, well, it's that time of year, if you get my meaning. In case not, my meaning is that it's the end of the semester (which usually feels like the end of my life).
You see, there are just So many pages to write, with words like "thesis," "prospectus," "annotated," and "graduate" attached to them.

It's a hard life, but somebody has to live it, you know? How would the earth turn with one less scholar?
 So, while you have a week or something left in London and are barricaded in your flat eating digestives like Winston Churchill smoked cigars (or while I am), staring at a screen and literally howling like a hound dog puppy every few hours..... well, here's something to make you feel better about the past and future (the present is beyond me, frankly).

The Pleasures of Paris: A Sneak Preview

 

Jacob and me being tourists in the rain

 

 Feeling pretty awesome at The Gates of Hell

(Jacob got some "ideas" for our future children's bedroom door..)

 

 And enjoying the best French culture has to offer.



oops.
Did I mention that I have so much to be grateful for and that I love my studies and my career and everything?
It's just... well...
Well, maybe when all this is done and I scoop my scattered brains back together, I'll post about Paris and maybe even (dare I say it) my wedding?

Cheers, friends. It's all okay.
Banana

Getting my hair caught in my purse outside the Houses of Parliament; falling asleep within (and everywhere else)

Everyone knows that before actually taking a tour of Westminster Palace, it is proper protocol to take a picture in front of Westminster Palace, which is far more important and productive than not being allowed to sit on any benches in the House of Lords because they're reserved for "only very important bottoms," and so instead you stand there, in the gorgeously gilded, dripping with history chamber, nodding off while standing and coming dangerously close to careening right into Jo, the friendly and highly-informed tour guide, and taking her down right onto the very important carpet. Whether or not I actually did this, I will refrain from admitting here.

Thus ensues probably my favorite (or favourite, if you prefer) series of photgraphs I own. You may need to zoom in on Jacob's face to appreciate just how inexplicably strange it looks.

Thank you, Emma, for capturing this moment. Emma is my dear new friend with whom I can take perfectly successful posed photographs on the first try.

Proof:

Emma and me in front of Elizabeth Tower

 Emma and me at Wicked

Emma and  me at Hampton Court Palace

Emma and me at Canterbury Cathedral

 
Emma and me reading about the cats of Canterbury Cathedral

Maybe not such good proof:

Emma and me attempting to take a jumping picture because the statue from the Parthenon was also taking a jumping picture

In case you're wondering, the tour was wonderful. But we weren't allowed to take pictures (most likely, once more, because of the important bottoms). Probably the most important thing we learned from Jo is that the Thames is pronounced Tems  and not Thames because no one wanted to make King George I feel bad about how very bad his English pronunciation was. When in doubt, change the way you've been pronouncing something for centuries.

Illegal photo taken by Emma during the tour

Indeed, the tour was wonderful, but my "Annalepsy," as Jacob fondly refers to it, is not. Following is a list of  some other places I have recently almost died in because of falling asleep while standing and, a result, have nearly smashed into something sharp, marble, or archeologically significant (some of these I haven't even told Jacob [or Emma] about because I was ashamed):

1. Canterbury Cathedral

 Okay, so I fell asleep on the heater. Sue me.

2. The Roman Museum in Canterbury

 Particularly humiliating.

3. Waiting for the tube (A particularly dangerous place)

On the Tube  (of course)

4. Boat to Greenwich

I was trying SO hard to read Judith Butler...

 Us straddling the Prime Meridian Line like a Mormon Engagement photo on train tracks

This is the boat ride back from Greenwich, the entire length of which I was... asleep.
 
5. All over the National Maritime Museum

Me falling asleep at the wheel (unfortunately, this is the only staged one)

...I'm embarrassed to keep adding locations.

But the point is, we're happy and we're lucky and we're learning a lot. Especially when we're awake. And I've been having the most outrageous dreams... so maybe even when we're not?

Love, fatigue, and The East India Company,
Banana

fancy

I've rather taken a fancy to (AKA I am obsessed with):

 

 English school children,

 

astronauts at St. Paul's,

 

 statues! 

(this one was sculpted by Victoria's daughter!)

Honestly, they're incredibly endearing!!

Along with...

Visiting my art idols (like Millais and Turner) W H E N E V E R I W A N TTTTTTTTTT.

And this new husband phenomenon. 

Really, it's remarkable. When I'm in class he makes me lunch. When my feet are frozen he sacrifices his crevasses to be a human feet warmers. When I vow to never eat another carbohydrate he takes away the rolls at dinner and only gives in after my third or fourth cry of outrage.

And he's really very cute.

Sometimes we feel like we never get out and about around the city, especially compared to all of our busy bee little students. How they manage to make so many shopping trips and frozen yogurt stops and attend class and finish their assignments I'll never understand. But the heavy weight of our respective dissertation/ thesis ever confines us to our computers, and the bitter, bone-biting cold outside makes our darling little hearth into a sleepyannamagnet. WHAT DO WE DO? It's London outside and our fiscal futures/ corporeal warmness inside. And it's London outside. Like, THE London. Like, the one in England.

Ah, well. Any wisdom?

Stay warm if you can. 

(And pray for my toes-- deplorable circulation, you know).

Banana

The Royal We

One of the best parts of living in London

 is that we live in London.

Oh, and in case you mistook us for Victoria and Albert, it is, in fact, us.

(I'm just sitting in Victoria's chair)

You see? I'm the one in front. Victoria is right behind me, and right behind her is her house.

I can see how you got confused, because we actually live right next to her house.

This is me inside of her house, but it's on the Georges' side where Jacob and I worked our way up to be very prominent courtiers. Indeed, I was in charge of testing King George I's eggs for runniness, and of wiping his Royal *ahem*.

Jacob was His Royal Highness's personal physician, but let's not compare. 

...At least I make 30 pounds a year.

These are the signs for the royal toilets in which I complete my courtly duties.

This is my courtly husband. THAT'S RIGHT, FOLKS: H U S B A N D.

We like visiting Kensington Palace.
We like that we have to walk through Hyde Park to get to church.
We like meeting people from all over the world every day and getting to know our wonderful students here and we like being married and we like living together [finally].
We like it when Kate (mostly Hoffmire, sometimes Middleton) visits us from Oxford/ Utah.
We [mostly I] like running through the mist in the dark, early morning.
We like living in London.
We like learning.
We like each other.

All settled in, gov'nuh!

And as regal as ever.

We are as happy as clam chowder in our new little London flat, all married and ready for adventure-- maybe once I can get out of bed, that is.

We have eaten the best food since we got here two days ago. I guess I forgot there would be an abundance of french influence... I thought I was safe from french pastries this time. NEVER. Oh well, I'm married, right?

Oh. Maybe I'll get around to saying a little something about the wedding too. I guess that's important.

Until then,

Cheerio (or something)!
England is a place to be happy, as I learned a year and a half ago: here.
Happy husband. Happy wife. Happy fish and chips. Happy West End. Happy Sound of Music cape coat. Happy students everywhere. Happy little teeny kitchen that is smaller than the closet. Happy spider that crawled out of my blow dryer and bit me. Happy teeny leaky shower. Happy jet lag. Happy Greek grocer. Happy synagogue. Happy tourists. Not happy locals. Happy happy happy. Happy biscuits.

Oh yay, this is very exciting.

Oops, we got married.

I don't mean to give anyone unrealistic expectations, but it was literally perfect.

thank you to everyone we love who helped us celebrate our love.

I can't believe I married an angel.

This is happiness.

All I wish now is for a Christmas for everyone full of joy, family, and a little taste of this L O V E that is engulfing me with absolute bliss and perfect completion.

Guess What?