Oh where is my holiday?

Unlike the vast majority of Americans, I'm not spending today grilling up tasty bits of meat and golden ears of corn, instead, I'm sitting at a computer pretending to work hard. I would much prefer to be grill-side, sipping cold beer with family and friends eagerly awaiting the ribs on the fire, but alas, no can do. I did, if it's any consolation, enjoy a hamburger for lunch, which is about as close to Americana as I'm going to get at the moment.

The last few days have been amusing and droll at the same time. I went out on Thursday night and had a blast. We went to this club/pub thing (I don't know what you really call it) near where we work called Abacus. It's a giant expanse of bar and dance floor with reasonably priced drinks, lots of attractive people that aren't too snobbish, and music that is loud, but not unbearable. Good times. I even met some British girl, who, of course, I won't see again as she did not respond to my call the other day, but that's the norm, so screw it. She wasn't that nice anyway.

Friday, I had class. I was a bit fatigued, but made it through ok. We had a final exam on Saturday, so I didn't go out on Friday night or do anything at all after class. I was intending to study some, but then I realized that would just be a pointless exercise. That class was as close to frivolous as you could get. Seriously, how do you study for an exam that is essentially watching a movie and analyzing it in essay form after? Well, being the creative genius that I am, I found a simple answer - watch Pirahna's II on the TV. For those of you who aren't aware, Pirahna's II is one of James Cameron's finest, not to mention the inspiration for The Abyss. Well, at least the underwater footage. As you can imagine from the title, the movie was, shall we say, the worst movie of all time. In fact, the plot was so utterly confused that it was virtually impossible to keep track. The way these types of films try to operate is that you establish a core set of characters, make the audience like them, then start killing them off. It doesn't work if your "core" set of characters reaches double digits.

However, as I am now fully trained to look for the hidden messages in films (or not so hidden), I found myself analyzing the film as it unfolded. As I saw it, there were at least two central messages. First, the virtuous are the ones that survive flying Pirahna attacks. If you're arrogant, rude, or a thief and the Pirahna's strike, you're screwed. Second, and perhaps more...poignantly, if you have a broken marriage and the Pirahna's attack AND you happen to survive, that bodes well for your marriage.

Anyway, after the exam (which was effortlessly easy with all my hard studying), a group of us went to Hard Rock Cafe at Green Park. Now, I've never even been to a Hard Rock in the US, so I certainly wasn't too enthusiastic, but one of our group desperately wanted to go pay too much money for an American tourist attraction in London. Go figure. After lunch, we headed to a pub. But that pub was ass-tastic so we went to another one. The 2nd pub became our spot for the rest of the day. As most people who read this are not ostrich's, you should be aware of something called Live 8. I tried to get tickets, but failed. The next best thing was to go somewhere and watch it on TV. That's what we did.

Oddly, the pub we were at had a strip club attached to it which made the whole, "stay to the left when you go in" thing a whole lot more of a serious proposition. At any rate, it was quite loud in there and as I had a few drinks, I was in full rant mode, so my voice was carrying to the point that I obviously bothered an English bloke. He kept glaring at me and then finally "shushed" me. I was shocked. I've never been shushed and sure as hell not in a pub, for f*ck's sake. So, I followed one of my friend's advice and just glared at him until he looked away. That tactic, apparently, had three possible responses: 1. Fight, 2. He leaves, 3. He feels uncomfortable for the rest of the night. Since my friend is a very large ex-marine, option number 1 was clearly out. Since, the bloke was there with his wife, option 2 was out. Thusly, he turned away embarrassed. Not only that, he tried to buy me a drink later when my marine friend went to the bar. The offer was declined.

The topping on the cake, however, was seeing Pink Floyd play. Saturday was the first time in 24 years that they had played together with Roger Waters and the only disappointing thing was that they only got a quick three songs. They could go on tour right now and make a billion dollars.

Later, I met up the Roving Alcoholic and The Nurse, who he is sort of seeing (and by that I mean "shagging"). I won't belabor the story. After about 90 minutes of looking, we found the place and stayed until 3 or so. The Nurse sucks at giving directions and that aspect of the night was more annoying than anything. For awhile now, it's seemed like my friend and The Nurse were happy to just be shag-buddies, but after seeing them interact on Saturday night, it's clear she wants something he's never going to give. I told him today how I feel about it and that I think he should let her go, but he doesn't see it that way. I don't have much of a problem if both people are on the same page - it's a mutually use-use relationship. But that's not what this is anymore so I just can't agree with it. Maybe that's just me, but I think it's wrong to keep going with her simply because he's getting something out of it in the short term (or until he finds something better, as he puts it).

Yesterday, I did absolutely nothing. I should have finished this paper that's due this week, but I was tired and lazy. I should be able to finish it up this afternoon or tonight. Of course, that depends on having energy after work, which is no set conclusion. Weekends are supposed to be re-energizing yet I feel more tired today than I did on Friday.