Friday

Today is Friday! Thank God for that. I have basically done nothing this week and will soon pay for my procrastination. For now, I'm content.

I just left a training session for my research project. I will be working with documents released in the Minnesota tobacco trials of 1998...and the ones from other cases as well. In order to work with them various databases and search engines must be utilized. I won't lie and say it is going to be easy. Far from it. The training session now has me a little scared, but my supervisor acknowledged that we may be overwhelmed. Jeff (my supervisor) has decided we will all have fortnightly meetings to discuss any issues and concerns. personally I couldn't be more delighted. I like have set time frames to accomplish things and I like have genuine support in new endeavours.

I hope all is well in the States. It's starting to get warmer here and the sun is staying up forever. ha. My mom, my aunt, and my cousin arrive in the SCO on May 23rd!!! I am sooooooooooooo excited. Accommodations for them are at the top of my to-do list. I must must must get them a hotel ASAP. (Again I am a procrastinator.)

Graham is here now, and we have decided on a night in to watch movies. It will be both cheaper and more relaxing. I think he's cooking...at least I hope he is or we're having pizza! So I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Sorry my blog is somewhat bland these days. As soon as exams are over I will be free to move about and enjoy myself again!

love
tippy/tiffany/tiff

Piss Up in Glasgow

So I spent the weekend in Glasgow with Graham to meet all his college friends. I was really nervous, but luckily I arrived a few hours before they did and only had to meet 2 at a time. I made homemade brownies that Catherine-Rose taught me to make. I also made Chocolate Oatmeal Candy...a family recipe which was a great success.

I arrived to Glasgow on the train around 6 PM. We took all my stuff to Graham’s and then went back into the city center. Glasgow is HUGE...about 7 times Edinburgh, so very different for me. Because we had not planned where to eat on Friday we pulled a “where do you want to eat...no where do you want to eat”. I hate that, so finally after an hour of walking I decided on McDonald’s. Graham doesn’t eat McDonald’s, so I figured that would teach him. haha. He didn’t order anything, but ate my fries. :( Unfortunately I won a free cheeseburger on the Monopoly game thing...so he ate that!

At 11:30 Matt and Dom made their debut. Matt is uber-gay. Dom is in the closet...pretty sure! ha. So within 5 minutes of meeting them I had insulted them and given them each a “booty snake”. I stuffed them with brownies and forced them to like me with my hospitality and general good nature (haha I’m not 100% about this, but I feel these aspects of me are commonly loved bahahhhaha). Working my charm as usual! We played singstar that night....OH.MY.GOD. I am horrible at this game. I really wish there had been a video for when Matt and I sang Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”. The dance moves and off key singing were classic!

Hollyoaks is a soap opera here. A while back there was a character named Tiffany whose daughter’s name was Courtney. Dom and Matt decided to start calling me Courtney for the weekend! I now enjoy Courtney as my alter ego. I think I will claim “Courtney did it” anytime I do something mean, out of line, or inappropriate!!!

Saturday consisted of Matt cooking us a proper breakfast and meeting the 4 additional friends. I know Bully and Fiona because they are how I know Graham. Lisa and Bex were girls that did their MSc with Bully and Graham. So now you know everyone’s name! Saturday was full of Graham and I going back and forth to his flat to take all their shit back, let them change, etc. Sadly Graham lives like 15-20 mins from the city centre...by bus or train! Ugh, so annoying.

Finally made it to dinner at an Italian restaurant. This was after we lost Bex and Lisa at the subway station. Graham had to go find them. RIDICULOUS!!! After drinking the most wine and taking loads of photos, it was time for dessert. I ordered Tiramisu and got basically a cake soaked in coffee. Gross. So I was just drunk enough to tell the waiter about it. Mind you this is a country where people are asked if everything is alright and they always say YES! I asked him if that was really Tiramisu and told him that it wasn’t. haha Courtney was in full force for the rest of the night.

We went to a bar that specialized in Bloody Mary’s. They were awful, but I don’t think I was expecting them to be perfect. We then moved on to a bar that had comfy leather sofas and was super nice! I added to my drunken state with Long Island Iced Teas that I was drinking as if they were plain coke. NOT GOOD!! I was completely inappropriate, all over my boyfriend, and bringing Fiona’s out of his shell.

We later moved on to Oran Mor for some dancing. Again, Courtney was in full forced and dominating the dance floor. We danced on the stage...no need to dance with the commoners. hahaha. We went back to Graham’s where he let Fiona and Bully have his bed. Problem is his flatmate has a cat and I’m very allergic to cats. No dice! I broke out in hives and was having trouble breathing due to being relegated to the living room. At about 5 AM I took a nice hot bath to wash off the “cat” haha!

Sunday we had another lovely breakfast cooked by Matt! Then we all just hung out around the city! Matt and Dom left late that evening. Fiona and Bully left around 2-3. The 2 girls left that morning. So Graham went to his weekly football (soccer) game while I napped. We cooked pizzas and just watched movies. Unfortunately I slept through the movie due to my now inflamed respiratory system!! haha

I ended up staying on Monday to go shopping. I didn’t even think to get his keys since he lives so far out, but probably should have done so. I spent 8 hours shopping (alot of window shopping) and reading in Starbucks. I basically loitered there for 3 hours!

The title of this blog comes from Matt’s weekend itinerary. He’s into politics and does alot of organizing of events for the political party for which he works. So for the weekend he had a really cool itinerary with maps, numbers, and details! The title was “Piss Up in Glasgow 2008”. haha. To get pissed is to get drunk. So a ‘piss up’ is basically a drinking event! haha

Now it’s back to work!!! :( I have a dissertation presentation next Tuesday! woooo

Graham and my new gay lover, Matt!!!

Life is Crazy

(Some colored pages from Graham’s family holiday. I let him take my coloring book, and it was a huge hit with his family!)

So sorry to have seemingly disappeared from Earth. I have been crazy busy writing an essay, but that was turned in a few hours ago. Yay!!!

Now I have 2 exams and my dissertation left before entering the “real world” again. ha. I met with my supervisor on Tuesday to discuss a presentation we are supposed to give in 2 weeks. We are supposed to present our research question, aims and objectives. Well, I wasn’t really sure what mine were. :) During the meeting he asked me to submit an abstract for a world tobacco conference in Mumbai, India!!! This is an AMAZING opportunity for me and my CV. haha. I’m not sure if I’ll actually go to the conference as it is in March 2009. But my supervisor would be the second author and he will most definitely go and present it. Supposedly my topic is a ‘sexy’ topic which makes me super happy! So off of the nerd stuff. haha

Things with Graham are going really well! He is so sweet and takes very good care of me. I think he appreciates my Southern charm and hospitality. haha. We’ve taken turns planning our dates, and our last one was his date to plan. I had mentioned needing a beach vacation...preferably in Mexico. So he took me to a Mexican restaurant and told me that was as close as he could get. What a sweetheart! Then we went to see Son of Rambow...it was OK. I’m not a huge fan however of this movie. He went on a family vacation last week to the Highlands. I let him take my coloring book, and it ended up being a huge hit with his family!! It was returned with many colored pages all accompanied by the signatures of the authors! haha. (see the photo above)

I am going to Glasgow (where Graham lives) tomorrow to stay for the weekend. A large number of his friends from college are coming up from London and other places. It should be really fun, but the sleeping situation is really not pleasant. I have to sleep with 2 other girls in a double bed. Probably will need a nap come Sunday/Monday. haha

I see the most random crap in this city. I saw a pigeon the other day that was missing a foot. It sounds crazy because it was!!! It was just hopping on one foot. When I told my friend Marc about it, he said he had seen one like that on George IV Bridge. haha...well that’s exactly where I saw this one! So the damn bird is just patrolling that street. Kind of interesting to know pigeons have their ‘territory’.

The sun is staying up so late now. It’s about time since we were experiencing darkness at 4. Now it’s well after 9 before the sun goes down. It has completely freaked my body out, and I don’t know when to eat or sleep. :(

I’m off to do laundry now. Essay writing always leaves me with a load of dirty clothes and a filthy bedroom!!

love
tippy

Date from...??? Who the hell knows but it was crazy

So last night was officially my first date with Mr. Graham. How did it go? Well let's just say it was the most eventful date I've EVER had.

Graham called to say he would catch a taxi to my flat from the train station. Well good thing he did. I got STUCK in my room due to the the door handle breaking. I have no idea how it happened. I just shut the door and it wouldn’t reopen. NO WAY OUT!!! So scary. My flatmates were too incompetent to call fucking security. Really Is that possible? I repeatedly told them the number all the while they couldn’t figure out how to use a phone. Honestly WTF?? Are they in grad school? Yes! Who did they pay? Still nothing, so I called the accommodation people myself. WTF???

Pollock Halls sent over 2 idiots that wanted to argue that it was my deadbolt. I could see the door handle tongue piece was stuck, but whatever. The security guard later insisted that he climb into my room via the window. Mind you I live on the 2nd floor. Um really? Is that allowed? Can you imagine that fool and I sitting in my prison cell playing cards? Because honestly what the hell was he going to do? PLUS PLUS PLUS I had to pee. Lovely.

So while my flatmates sat in the kitchen and gossiped about me, I cried on the phone to a few friends. Marc was an ass and made fun of me. Megan was a sweetheart. Both responses were exactly what I needed to smile and laugh at the situation.The flatmates didn't ask if i needed anything and acted almost offended when I asked them to help me try to get the door knob off. (but this was after i left a nasty note in the kitchen about how they leave food on the counter for days, but whatever).

A few attempts were made to warn Graham of the scene he was about to enter. Unfortunately his ghetto cell phone was dead. Nice work! Eventually he called back to only be informed that our date would be delayed due to me being trapped in my room. Some laughter of course followed my statement.

Upon his arrival he said "if you didn't want to go out you could have just told me." haha It was really funny, but of course my flatmates weren’t impressed.
The flatmates awkwardly exited the crime scene and left Graham and I to a conversation through my door. The hookers were horrible hostesses....no water, food, or conversation was offered to the poor soul. He had no idea what he was signing up for when he asked me to hang out. I'm sure he's second guessed himself and deleted my number. bahahahaha.

In the end Graham got to be a “hero” by helping to pry my door frame open. haha. I was just standing there at the door the entire time. Just like a fairytale...a prince charming saves the day by freeing the fair maiden from her tower of hell. Too bad this maiden isn’t fair and there was no white horse! Frog into a prince? Perhaps.

But my hair and outfit looked good when I emerged. haha. We went to dinner at like 9 (luckily he only had to sit outside my door for 30 minutes before I was freed). We also had drinks after dinner, but by that time it was midnight and he had to work today. Of course the night couldn’t end normally. Graham has an allergy to the cold. Yes, it is a real allergy...wikipedia that shit! We exited the bar to find the weather rainy, windy, and cold. No good for people allergic to the cold! haha. We ran to my house in the rain only to find Graham’s face swollen upon our arrival. Poor thing looked like a wrinkly old man. So sad, yet sooooooo funny.

Today was of course an adventure as well. We got up around 9 so he could catch a train at 10. About 5 minutes after the man’s departure I discovered a large set of keys on my table...um clearly not mine. After immediately thinking FUCK...I threw on some clothes (not very well mind you). My outfit consisted of some jeans, a t-shirt (no bra), and shoes. I grabbed my phone and wallet and started calling him. Unfortunately his phone died last night.

I ran to tesco (about a mile away) and then caught a cab. But the cab got caught in traffic, so i paid, hopped out, and ran to the station. I probably ran passed him in the station because he got on just a bit before me. I bought a ticket and ran to catch the train, but went in the wrong direction. Finally figured out where to go and ran to the train...only to sit there for like 10 minutes before the train left.

Luckily he was on the 10 AM train. I put his keys down in front of him and said “you looking for these?”. haha. I stayed on the train, and we chatted all the way to Glasgow. I could've gotten off, but i figured since I bought the ticket I should go to Primark. haha. I bought 2 swimsuits, a shirt and a belt all for £20. Go me!!!

So now I'm home a few hours later and exhausted!