This weekend was supposed to be the highlight of my trip as I traveled to Paris to meet up with some of my very favorite people: Madame Bowen, Lindsay Fowlkes, and the wonderful Birthday-Girl Hannah Margaret. After an unfortunate turn of events, Hannah Margaret was unable to go and since Madame's school group was leaving bright and early Saturday morning, it would have been me all alone in Paris for two days. For any grandparents reading this right now: don't worry I did not go to Paris by myself. I was very tempted to - had my bags packed and was walking out the door. However, I decided to call my Dad to get his opinion. I'm sure my parents loved getting a long-distance phone call from an unknown number at 4:00 in the morning their time...every parent's nightmare. I don't know if you have seen the movie "Taken" with Liam Neeson, but it consists of a girl getting snatched in Paris and her Dad coming to rescue her by kicking some snatcher butt. Well, my Dad and I decided that we didn't want to deal with that. And as my brother, Walker, said as his parting words to me, "Remember, if you get taken...Dad is NOT Liam Neeson..." I didn't go to Paris: strike one.
After moping around for a day (and by moping I mean going on the London Eye and booking a train ticket to Oxford...) I decided to have a good attitude about not being in Paris and losing money for tickets and such because after all I am still in London. Things could be worse. We headed to Oxford Yesterday, and as we were leaving I realized that I had forgotten my camera... that may not seem like a big deal but wait until you hear what we were doing in Oxford. We visited The Kilns, which is the house that C.S. Lewis lived in for most of his life. We visited The Eagle and Child Pub, which is the pub where the Inklings (Lewis, Tolkein, Barfield, Williams, and many others) would meet to have their literary and philosophical discussions every week. We visited University of Oxford's Christ Church, which is where the Great Hall for the Harry Potter Movies was filmed... If you know me at all, then you will understand how distraught I was that I did not have my camera. No pictures of Oxford: strike two.
I spent the whole day in Oxford walking, which normally is a great thing for me because I love to walk. However, that is not as enjoyable when you have a bum ankle and it hurts to walk. I'm a dope and have somehow hurt my ankle, so I hobbled around the city for hours trying to keep up with the group and making a fool of myself limping around everywhere. I felt like my black lab, Dixie, who waddles around with a limp. Dixie, we can keep each other company now. Limpin' like a dog: strike three. Three strikes, you're out! The funny thing about being in London, though, is that even when things don't go as planned, or when things seem to be going against me...I'm still in London. I'm also very lucky, because my brother, Daniel, and his girlfriend, Caitlin, are in my part of town this weekend! Dan has been gallivanting around Europe "studying" for the past few weeks and his last stop is London. He doesn't have a phone and doesn't currently have internet, so getting in touch with him to let him know that I'm not in Paris this weekend has been tough, but it looks like we will be meeting up tonight!
I said "when it rains it pours," but ironically enough it hasn't rained here yet, literally or figuratively. Life is good in London Town.
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