Only the most amazing thing in my whole entire world!

31/12/08 4:27 PM GMT

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! This year will be a whole second longer! The official atomic clocks of the UK are adding a second to compensate for the earth’s slowing spin. For those of you with significant others (and you know who I’m talking to!), that means a whole extra second to smooch! Woo!

There actually was a news article to that effect on Google News this morning, smooching bit and all.

Anyway, I’m chilling in my room, relaxing after a… wholly relaxing and unproductive day. Awesome. However, I did acquire only THE coolest thing in the whole entire world! Wanna see it?

Taa daa!

“What is it?” you may ask. “Why is it so cool?”

Well, it’s a Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Glass in the British Museum, what else could it be!?

As for why it’s so cool…

It’s got my name in it! Oh yeah, who’s the best Assistant Editor in the whole world? That’s me! My name, in a real book, made by a real publishing company, and not just a little book of poems or whatever made by a high school competition! Woo!

I’m on quite a natural high from that. I wandered around the British Museum for hours, hugging my book and grinning as I looked at everything. You know what, though? Last time I was here, there was a Roman sculpture gallery that was closed off, and I really wanted to see it. It was supposed to reopen the week after I left. I managed to get a private tour, which was awesome, but I didn’t get to see the Discus Thrower.

Guess what gallery was closed off today.

Oh well. I’ll see it some day.

So, what did I do today? Well, I woke up around 3 AM, and tried to keep quiet so as not to wake my roommate. It was hard, though, because I wasn’t sleepy. I was hungry, actually. And thirsty. I compromised with myself by pouring a glass of water, but I didn’t eat. That would have been too noisy. I then read a magazine—thanks, Mom, for the book light!—until I was tired again, and I managed to return to sleep around 4. I woke up again around 10 and stayed quiet some more, because, again, Macy was still asleep. Maybe I should have been noisier—when she woke up at 11:12, she learned that she had missed the BUNAC orientation that started at 10:30. Oops.

After lunch, I headed over to the British Museum. First, I dropped off a Christmas card and note for my old boss, Josephine Turquet (Series Editor in that book above). Unfortunately, she wasn’t in. Then I went into the Museum itself, and saw a gift shop right in front of me. Might as well look for my books, right? Right. I found one of them, but it doesn’t look like the other’s come out yet. Doesn’t matter. I bought my Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Glass. I’m supposed to get a copy for free, Josephine said, but I never did. I figured it was worth the £35 to buy myself a copy of the first book that I got my name in. I also acquired two pens—I love the British Museum pens. They feel really cheap, but they write amazingly well. One is red and has Rosetta Stone stuff on it, the other is green with cat stuff.

I spent a lot of time wandering around the Museum with my book, reacquainting myself with everything. It’s a huge place, and awesome, and I wish I could share it with everyone. It was rather dim today, though, because they rely a lot on windows and skylights, and it was overcast.

After the Museum, I was hungry, so I swung by Tesco for some more groceries: laundry detergent, another 2L of water (I ran out already), some Snickers bars (and a Snickers flapjack, which is turning out to be quite unappetizing), and some yogurt. Then I returned to the hostel and had the rest of my KFC. Their coleslaw isn’t as good, I don’t think. The yogurt was the best yogurt I’ve ever had, though.

After that, it was return to my room to munch on my Snickers flapjack and write to you all. The walls here are really thin, and the people next door have some sort of electric guitar or something. They aren’t very good at it. Macy’s not back, and I’m not sure what time we’re going to go out to the fireworks.

Want to see something gross? I wiped my face last night with a face wipe thing. It started off white. It’s this color on both sides now:

Ah, the London air…