Introducing: the Black Lung! Part one: London Calling

Unless otherwise noted, all photo credits go to Niki Erickson, an awesome photographer, a fantastic friend, and a really top notch traveling companion. Thanks, Niki!

Hey all! As you know, I recently had the trip of a lifetime in the UK and Ireland with my friend Niki. It was so awesome and we did so many cool things that it will probably take a few posts to get it all up.

First, an explanation of the title. Everyone in the UK smokes. Seriously. You think it's a problem here until you go there and realize that it's an epidemic overseas. So Niki and I were talking about how gross it was, one thing led to another, and suddenly I had a new superhero alter ego: The Black Lung! Basically, the Black Lung's mission in life is to stop people from smoking. She has a whip, and she travels around whipping people's cigarettes out of their hands. Then she says something obnoxious like, "Saved your life!" or "I'm doing this for you!" or "Someday you'll thank me!" Then she speeds away. I suspect that she has super speed. Anyway, we spent our entire time in Europe whipping people's cigarettes out of the hands. We got pretty good at it. And really, someday they'll thank us.

The Black Lung, ready to unleash herself on the unsuspecting British public, Superman style. Also, I LOVE these phone boxes.

OK, so the start of our vacation wasn't great. We had the red-eye flight from DC to London, and of course it was delayed. I'm not sure what time we actually left, because I fell asleep as soon as we got on the plane, but I think it was at least 2 hours after our scheduled departure time of 9:50 PM. I had never flown red-eye before, and I really hope to never do it again either. It was pretty terrible. I actually slept a lot (maybe 6 or 7 hours), but not a great, relaxing sleep, and I was supremely uncomfortable. Plus you feel gross. I don't think Niki slept at all. So when we got to London on Saturday around noon, we were both feeling a little worse for the wear. Plus, the extreme lateness of our flight made us miss our time at the Harry Potter Studio Tour! Seriously terrible.

After some adventures with public transportation (favorite line of the Underground is Bakerloo, because I like the way it sounds when the announcer is talking) and some walking the wrong way, we finally found our hotel. We stayed at the Victor Hotel, which is near Victoria Station in a pretty nice part of London. That means it was expensive and our room was tiny. And it was on the 4th floor of a building with no elevators. I thought we were going to die when we were carrying our suitcases up those stairs, especially since "near Victoria Station" meant about a 15 minute walk, plus the time we were going the wrong way and the jet lag/lack of sleep.

On the bright side, when we got to our hotel, we called the Harry Potter people and they kindly let us reschedule our tickets for Monday without charging us a thing, so instead of rushing around like chickens with our heads cut off, we were able to shower and nap for a couple of hours. Then we headed down to the Tower of London area so that we could eat some food and go on a Jack the Ripper tour.

Here's something you should know about the UK-their restaurants are different from ours. It was kind of stressful. I really wanted the people to tell us where to sit when we came in, and to come to our table and give us our bill when we were done. But they didn't. Mostly you have to seat yourself and then when you're done go up to the bar to pay. This is what we figured out anyway. We did have a few good restaurant experiences, especially at a really delicious Lebanese restaurant in London, where we had great service, but mostly we weren't giving out tips, if you know what I mean. (We really were, because we are lovely, generous people, but I'm not sure everyone deserved one).

Our Jack the Ripper tour was pretty cool. It was really interesting and kinda disturbing. We walked to the different murder sights and they told us about the victims and the suspects. And it was our first experience with UK weather. It kept raining and being super windy and cold. After that, I took my raincoat with me everywhere. We were also amazed by how few people were out and about on the streets. At least where the tour was, it was really quiet. It was pretty creepy.

 

Random sign we saw in London. Magnify so you too can wonder why it says "Infants and Cookery" over that door.

 

After our tour, we went back to our hotel and slept the sleep of the just. We were really, really tired. We also discovered something that would plague us for the rest of our journey-the sun rises crazy early that far north. After waking up in a panic at about 5:30 Sunday morning, we learned to close the curtains of our room.

The next day was Sunday, so we went to Church at the Hyde Park ward. Apparently every other tourist in London was there too, because it took at least half an hour for them to pass the sacrament. Niki and I were both still so tired that it was very hard for us to sit and ponder that whole time without nodding off. But we mostly did it. It was a little disappointing though, because a bunch of the people were American. Whither all the British Church members??? Honestly though, after our church adventures of the next two weeks (spoiler alert!), I'm just glad that we were able to easily find the chapel. Good job with that, London.

After church we went to Buckingham Palace and watched the Changing of the Guard. Pretty cool, although there were a million people, and it was really hard to actually see anything. But we could hear the band, so that was nice. At one point, they were literally playing the theme song from Pirates of the Caribbean. Very weird. Also, I'm not sure how long the actual changing of the guard lasts, but it's basically forever. We were there for at least 45 minutes, and they were still going. In other news, why do they wear those funny hats? I understand that it's traditional now, but how on earth that ever get started?

I may have looked silly, but I was prepared for all weather eventualities.

Niki could see the whole thing much better than I could because of her superior height. Curse my averageness!

 

For the rest of Sunday afternoon, we traveled around London looking at cool stuff. We took our pictures in the ubiquitous (and fantastic) red phone booths. We went to Westminster Abbey and walked past Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye. We crossed the Thames twice, including on the Tower Bridge, which is really cool. The one thing we didn't get to do was go through the Tower of London. We just didn't have time. Next time, though.

 Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the Thames and me! Look how happy I am!

 

Not actually falling down, although I was pretty tired. (Awesome drum sound indicating that I just made a joke. Yay me.)

No, we did not ride on the London Eye. Honestly, does this look like something that I would like? High and spinny?

 

Sunday night we went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. We came to be really grateful for the maps all over London (and also bitter against them) because we totally got lost while trying to find the theater. On all the maps, there are two things listed: The Globe and Shakespeare's Globe. They're not the same, and they're not in the same place. We think that the Globe must be the original sight of the theater, but we're not sure because we never made it there. But in any case, the path to Shakespeare's Globe is confusing and not well marked. I don't think it's even on an actual street that you can drive on. Only open to foot traffic as far as I could tell. It's on the banks of the Thames, and it's really beautiful. And super authentic, which is impressive. There are no chairs on the main level of the theater. If you have tickets for that area, you just stand up the whole time. I think I would have passed out. As it was, we had seats in the Middle Gallery on really uncomfortable benches. Still better than standing up all night.

Huzzah and well met, Shakespeare's Globe!

The play we saw was The Tempest. It's actually a really weird play, but they did a great job, and we enjoyed it a lot. I was especially excited because the part of the spirit Ariel was played by Merlin from Merlin!!! That's right, Colin Morgan and I were totally in the same space for almost 3 hours. Pretty great stuff.

We did it!

 

The next morning we finally got to go to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. We were really glad, because it's awesome! It was really cool seeing the actual sets and props. My favorite part (besides the Butterbeer, which is yum) was the outdoor sets, like 4 Privet Drive and the Hogwarts Bridge and the Knight Bus. They also had the giant chess pieces there. We also loved Diagon Alley. So cool. I can't believe I actually stood outside Weasley's Wizard Wheezes! At the very end of the tour, there's a room filled with thousands of wand boxes with the names of every person who ever worked on any of the HP films. Sitting in the room is an old guy who literally knows who everyone is and what they all did in the films. So impressive. We also saw two sets of LDS missionaries there for their P Day, elders and sisters. They seemed to be having a great time, and who can blame them?

 Mmmm...Butterbeer...

 Much like Harry, I was uncomfortable riding in the sidecar of the flying motorcycle.

 Hogwarts! Movie magic is pretty astonishing. It looks much bigger on film.

 

Uh oh. It's the Mormons! Quick, pretend like we're not home!

 

 Just being crushed by the magical patriarchy. You know, the usual.

 Potions class! Although considering my non-success with Chemistry in Muggle school, I'm not super sanguine about my chances here.

 

Oh Weasley twins, I do love you. But I will not be buying any Puking Pastilles, thank you very much.

The wand room. I'm doing a terrible Vanna White impression here, but one row to the right and three boxes up from my hand is totally Rupert Grint's wand box! Seriously, why can't I point correctly?

Ahhhh! I'm no good at chess!

After that, we left London on a train to Manchester. We were both really excited to leave the giant city behind (even though we'd gotten really good at riding/navigating the tube), but Manchester is where our adventure really started, because Manchester is where we rented a car.

To Be Continued...

Don't feel too bad-I'm behind on the library blog too, and I get paid to write that

I have been neglecting you, but it's only because I've had to read soooo much lately. I'll post about it soon. But to tide you over, here's a few blogs I've written for Pratt lately.

Here's a post I wrote about Lloyd Alexander. If you've never read any of his books, then look at your life, look at your choices. His books are amazing and had a huge impact on my childhood.

Next, did you know that Pride and Prejudice is now 200 years old? I did, and I wrote a blog about it! I've decided to reread P&P sometime this year because of the anniversary, but I haven't done it yet. I'll be sure to report back when I do.

Last, but probably not least, a blog about reading series vs. reading stand-alone books. I tend to do more series, but I think that's because everything seems to be a series these days. It can be pretty frustrating.

That's all for now! I'll try to do better next month, honest.

I've redecorated my room!

If you've been a faithful reader of this blog for a while, you'll know that my room is really, really dark. For reasons that are best known only to people who don't live here anymore, the entire room, 4 walls and ceiling, are painted a lovely shade of maroon. Truly, it would be lovely as an accent wall. But as an entire room, it kind of creates the sensation of being in a cave. A maroon cave, but still. Not helping the situation is the fact that my bedspread, which I already owned when I moved in (I would not have purposefully done this), is almost exactly the same color as the walls!

I like to think that my room was pretty cheerful anyway, and not just because of my sparkling personality. I also have colorful decor and whimsical puppets. But it was time to spruce this place up with a new bedspread. And bonus, this bed-in-a-bag also came with curtains! Also a pair of slipper socks, but since I've never owned curtains as a grownup and have multiple pairs of slipper socks, the curtains are more exciting.

Behold, my curtains!

Mom, Maren and Gracie helped me pick out my new stuff, and then Dad put up curtain rods so that I could actually hang up my curtains.  We had to move my desk and my bed to get to the windows, which was kind of a pain, since one wheel of my desk is broken, and I keep everything I own (slight exaggeration) under my bed. Unfortunately, as Mom will readily tell you, I am no good at doing big projects. They make me cranky. Or scary, depending on your point of view. It is true that I get short tempered and irrational when forced to do any sort of unusual household undertaking. Imagine if it had been something bigger that putting up curtains! Wait, don't, it's unpleasant.

 Bed shot, and a view of my colorful decor. I painted that mural myself. 

It was totally worth it, though. My room looks awesome! So much lighter than it used to, and I think having curtains makes me seem really classy. I still live in a cave, but now it's more like that awesome cave that Kissyfur and his dad move into and less like Trapped in Death Cave.

I guess that's all for now. Tune in next time to see my new miniature Holly Hobbie China Tea Set! I'm not kidding. I just got one, and it's pretty awesome.

Have I lost my muse?

I used to be a prolific blogger. I would write about anything and everything, and also, sometimes, nothing at all (this is probably one of those posts). But lately, in the last couple of years, I have not been feeling very bloggy. Am I not interesting anymore? I'm pretty sure that's not it, because I hang out with myself in person and still have a lovely time. Maybe it's that blogs are kind of dying out. That certainly seems to be the case. Most of the individuals that I follow in the blog world only blog once a year or so now.

It could be because so many people are on facebook. They can learn all sorts of stuff about my life there! Or maybe I'm just not interested in telling people all about my life anymore. Perhaps with age comes experience, and with experience comes the realization that there are some things you don't want the internet to know. But since I never really posted that kind of stuff anyway, that's probably not it.

I think the real culprit here it laziness. And I refuse to let it conquer me! I want this year to be the  year that the creative juices start flowing again! So I'm determined that I won't just post links to my blogs for the library. But since I haven't done that in a while, here's a few links. First, I wrote a blog about Lloyd Alexander, one of my favorite authors. And a few weeks ago, the blog posted an interview with me! It's pretty great.

Ok, so the point of this is, I'm going to be more awesome about posting this year. But if no one reads this and comments about it, how will I ever be held accountable??? Hold me accountable, internet. It's up to you.

More library blogs!

I know you think I've been neglecting you, Internet, and I totally have. But not really, because in the time that I haven't been writing lots and lots of posts for Twin Like Me, I have written 3 new posts for Pratt Chat, the official, award-winning blog of the Enoch Pratt Free Library! It's true, we won a Mobbie. Pretty exciting stuff. I'm going to put my award on the wall in my office.

The first one is about judging books by their covers, a time-honored (by me) practice. I was also excited by this one because I got 4 comments, which is a pretty good amount for our blog. BSP, please read these posts and comment.

The next one is about when I went to the Baltimore Book Festival and met famous authors. I tried to make it pretty professional, but if you want to hear a more accurate (read: sillier) version, I can tell you sometime.

The last one is about our new art wall at the library. I'm very pleased to say that this has been a success so far, and that it was totally my idea. Yay for the art wall! I'm currently planning our December wall. If you guys have any awesome ideas for the wall for future months, let me know!

Happy (late) Halloween! I made you these crafts.

So, I've been meaning to post pictures of my awesome Halloween crafts for quite some time (since September, when I actually made them), but I'm just now getting around to it. It was my birthday. I was busy. Just kidding, I was lazy. Anyhow, these awesome spiders are a craft that I made at Family Home Evening with a bunch of Young Single Adults. I've also made this craft with kids at the library, but I'm not gonna lie, I had a lot more luck with the grownups. They were able to follow the directions better.

This is my FHE spider. We had a special, Halloween themed craft pack, with festive pipe cleaners, puff balls, and googly eyes.

 The Spider I made at the library to show the kids how easy it was. It didn't work.

I also made these cute pumpkins out of old books. Don't be alarmed, they really were books that had seen better days. I was recycling them! Anyhow, basically, first you break the spine of the book so you can bend it all the way in half. Then you fold each page of the book in half. It takes a long time, but the one that turned out best was the one with about 500 pages. Then rip off the cover, and glue the spine together so the book is in a column shape. I painted the books orange and cut leaves out of the discarded covers that I painted green. Then I glued the leaves to the top and put a stick for the stems. Okay, I'm sure I just made it sound really hard, but it wasn't. Just time-consuming.

Ta da! Super cute and impressive.

 

My final crafty thing for the month was my costume. I'm a camper from Camp Half-Blood.  If you don't know what that is, Shame! JK, it's from Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Technically, I wasn't any specific camper, although I guess I could have been.

Should have cleaned my room before I took this picture.

 

This is a super easy costume, and people who've read the books will for sure know what you are. I took an orange t-shirt (that's what they wear at camp), printed a camp logo off the internet, and taped it to my shirt. I also wore a necklace of clay beads (which we made at a different FHE once), because campers always get a bead at the end of the summer if they survive. I made up great stories for each bead, deciding what we had done that summer. You can't really tell from the picture, but the beads are a blue flower (from the summer those Demeter kids were completely out of control), a pink star (from the summer that Poseidon's kids took us on an underwater field trip and we saw starfish), the moon (from when we had a quest on the moon), a flat blue and green disc (when we found out the Earth really is flat), a pink horn (the summer we killed that crazy unicorn), and a lemon (the year we had that lemonade stand). I also carried around a magic pen. If you can't tell that it's really a sword, then you're not a half-blood. Lucky you. And, of course, I have my super cute Rasta hat that my sister, Missy made for me. I mean, I borrowed it from one of the satyrs. They were them to hide their horns, I wore it because it was cold. The hat is definitely the hardest part of the costume, but since I have a generous and talented sister, it was no problem. You could leave that part out though.

There you have it. My Halloween. I hope you also had an excellent and craft holiday!

More from Pratt

So, I've still been kind of a slacker about this whole posting thing. But I've written two more blog posts for the library, and I'll link them here.

The first one, I'm pretty proud of. It's about the large amount of authors and illustrator's who've died in the last year or so. Seriously, it's starting to become alarming. Since this post was published, I think I've read about at least 1 more person dying, maybe 2. If I were an author or illustrator, I'd be getting a little nervous. To be fair, most of these people were really old, so that's some comfort. Read about it here!

The next one isn't as exciting. It's a back to school blog that was published on the first day of school. It's more of a "services we offer" type of thing, which leaves less room for my trademark wit (not really trademarked. I don't think that you can trademark your own personal speaking style, can you?). But still, hopefully it has some valuable information. Do your homework, you rotten kids!

Well, that's about it, although I have another post due this week. Hopefully, I'll also find time to do some posting here. I just made a very impressive looking craft that I'd like to show off, so that might end up on the blog. I'm sure that I'm also very exciting and interesting in other ways, so hopefully I'll figure out a fun way to show that on the internet.

Happy reading!