pre-Christmas chilly-ness

I think, because I mentioned to my housemate the other day that so far I've been fairly pleased with the weather because it hasn't been too ridiculous since I've been here, England decided to show her contrariness in full color. This is by far the most miserable day of English weather to have hit me so far. Freezing, raining, hurricane-wind-ing. And this is by far one of my busiest days. I made the executive decision (isn't it wonderful when you only have to consult yourself to make an executive decision?) to abandon my plans of getting some errands done in town, but I'm still left with half a full day of stuff to get done before the holidays grab me in a whirlwind. I've managed to make it to campus to do some library things, but now I have to make my way back north of town to the village just past called Headingley to meet a friend for a pre-holiday poetry catch-up. I'm excited about the poetry, but not the journey.

Kat from Atlanta comes tomorrow and my heart is absolutely ready to see her, a friend, a familiar familiar face to share my England with -- and so today I have to do the boring holiday things so we can do the fun holiday things together as soon as she hits English soil early tomorrow morning. We'll be traveling to Liverpool, the Lakes District, and London and around Leeds (with a Christmas day in Pontefract, north Yorkshire, with my housemate Ben -- his mom sweetly invited us to have dinner with them) for a little less than 2 weeks, so it really will be a whirlwind. This was another task on the to-do list for today -- let the faithful readers know that I won't be alone for Christmas -- and though chapped and wet and windblown, I'll be a happy camper until 2009 when I have to start work on the Great Essay Assignments. :)

Nathan, I got your Christmas card today! And thank you for thoughtfully mentioning that I would have to choose the English language option on the German train site -- without you giving me that advice, I might have been bothering over the German bits for ages! :)

I have to trek out into the rain and wind again, so I'm hoping that you all have a wonderful, wonderful holiday, and a warm one, at that!