BEDA 18: Stretched thin.

The only thing I don't like about blogging every day is that I don't feel like I am doing justice to my time in London by forcing myself to blog about it in these tiny spaces between the things I'm doing while I am here. I don't like rushing through writing, but I also don't want to spend my time here crafting artful blog posts when I could be just living my life. So again, this will be short, and hopefully I'll write more about it later when I have a bit more free time to reflect.

Yesterday was mostly spent recording the video I mentioned (which will be on YouTube soon) and then I got Alex started on watching Community. Around four thirty (is it weird that after only two days I already find myself almost typing "half-four"? Oh London.) we left with Charlie to meet Rosi and everyone else in town for her birthday bowling excursion. She was already with Lex and Claire, so we got our bowling shoes on and headed over to our reserved lane.

When I was getting my shoes, they asked, "size"? and I froze for a moment and then replied, "Um. I have no idea what show size I wear here." I remember I had memorized it back when I was living here, but that's definitely the kind of fact that leaves your mind after two years away. After trying a few pairs, we deduced that I am a 4. So. That's a fact about me. Although I seem to recall being a 5 now that I think about it.

Bowling was a ton of fun. I felt badly, because everyone was saying "I'm terrible at bowling!" before we started, and I was joining in with the sentiment (because I am) but somehow, that just wasn't true last night at all. Maybe it's something about being in London. Maybe UK bowling is easier. I have no idea, but while everyone else scored in the 50's, I managed a 111. I think it was the first time I scored over 100 in my life, seriously. Unless we're counting Wii Bowling, in which case, I'm awesome.

Melissa came and met up with us about halfway through the bowling, and the computer made her take all five turns she'd missed at once, which was hilarious to watch. I can only imagine how sore her arm was after all that. Lex got a drink called a Zombie which was delicious but had so much alcohol in it they only let you order two in a night -- I decided I should get one too, without looking at how much it cost. It was twelve pounds. TWELVE POUNDS. That's like a $20 drink. There was a tiny of piece of me that was screaming as I handed my fancy little traveler's debit card over, but who cares. How often do I get to hang out with my friends in London, right?

We went to a little Italian restaurant afterwards which was lovely. It was so nice to get to chat with everyone. I mean, I've been spoiled in getting to spend a lot of time with Rosi this past year, and I see Melissa every few months; even Charlie and Alex I just got to hang out with at VidCon, but there's something different about hanging out with them in London. And especially Claire and Lex -- I haven't seen either them since 2009. So it was just overall a really nice evening.

We met up with Jazza again after dinner and headed to a pub for our third stop of the night. I had another "Cider and Black" (I realized I got it wrong yesterday, drat!) and we hung out there for an hour or two. It was in that moment, sitting there with my friends, talking and laughing, that it really hit me how short this trip is. I guess that's the nature of my life though. I have so many amazing friends in so many different places... you can't really spread yourself that far across the globe and ever really feel like you have enough time with anyone. Every moment you get with someone just makes you realize you had a hole exactly that shape in your heart that you'd forgotten about. And London left a huge hole in mine.

Alex and I are just simultaneously writing blog posts right now, and I think Rosi and Liam are both on their way over to the flat now. So it'll be nice to get a bit more time with people before my stupidly early flight to Poland tomorrow. At least I'm going someplace else that's fun and not just home. That would be a lot more difficult.

Anyhow. London. It's great. I'll write more tomorrow.

Flights taken: 18