so since i had to retire the old brown boots (i'm steppin out this old brown shoe) i allowed myself to buy new brown boots today. they are awesome!!! You can view them on macys.com here. they're a dark reddish brown and they are just so cool. the heel is kind of curvy and girly and i just love these boots so very much, even though they do make me almost 6'1" (oh well, i'm tall, i own it)... :)

i'm totally going to wear them out tomorrow night on our girls' night out. beck and dodi and i are planning on going out... probably to jillian's or the big house in albany. i might have to go get a cute new shirt to wear with one of my denim skirts and my fabulous new boots.

so my friend aaron that i met in scotland has started up a blog, so you should take a look :)

i woke up late-ish. i mean, technically it was on time because i woke up at the same time that i wake up every day lately. but really, it's late, but well, whatever. anyway, that wasn't the point. the point was i got up. yeah, so i got up and everything seemed normal and i took a shower and was rushing around because i was running late and i was in the kitchen trying to get stuff together to bring to work for lunch and i realized i felt weird. kind of sick. i walked into the bathroom and i suddenly felt very hot. really hot and kind of prickly all over. i looked in the mirror and saw that i had no color in my face and i was glistening with sweat and i understood that i was going to faint. and since i was alone i really didn't feel like fainting in my bathroom and cracking my head on my toilet and dying there and being found days later with my face half eaten by my cats on the floor of my bathroom so i stumbled out of the bathroom into the living room and layed down on the sofa. i layed there until i felt a little better and then attempted to get to the kitchen but had to retreat back to the sofa a couple of times before that worked. i got into the kitchen and looked around for something to eat. but really, i didn't feel like eating and was pretty irrational and so this took a few minutes before i randomly decided on a can of garbanzo beans. i opened the can with great difficulty because i was feeling so weak and the damn can opener wouldn't pierce the lid of the can and poured most of the beans into a little rubbermaid container and ate the rest of the beans that wouldn't fit into the container straight out of the can with a fork. i felt a little better, i mean, i still felt a little weird and out of it but i knew that i was ok enough to drive so i called my supervisor and let her know i was going to be a little late and drove to work.

just a couple of random things i'd like to mention:

here is a phone conversation i had at work today:
"Good morning, ******* Insurance, this is Alison speaking, how may I help you?"
"Ok, I'm not saying it's ok for anyone to spit in a parking lot but..."
"I'm sorry, who am I speaking with?!"
"...this is Michael - but I just walked out on my way to the diner and I saw a woman spit in the parking lot! Right on the ground!"
(Michael is one of the supervisors here at work). I love the people I work with. They really make the job bearable...

i need to retire my tall brown leather boots. and i am so upset. i love those boots. sure, they make me about 6'2" or so when i wear them, but i've decided to just own that i'm so tall. i mean, people seem to be really jealous of the height so it must be a good thing... although kissing guys that are shorter than me is slightly uncomfortable, i feel like a giant or something, but i guess i just won't do that standing anymore ;) anyway... tangent. so yeah, um... right, the boots. they are awesome. they come up to about three inches below my knee and they fit very well. the leather is a medium dark brown (not mahogany, but not camel... so medium brown i guess...) and it's nice and soft. there are some skuff marks, but they could clean up well... but it's no use, because i'm apparently allergic to my boots. there's a band around the top of the inside of the boot that's leather like the outside (and the rest is cloth). and where the band around the top is against my skin i break out in some sort of rash. it's so itchy and horrible. and really unattractive. i looked it up online and self diagnosed myself to have some sort of allergy to leather or a chemical in the leather that seeps out when my legs sweat. ew. so yeah, i only wore the boots for a few hours last night but now i have two bands of, well, almost like tiny hives around my upper calves. and they itch. and i read that it'll get worse for like 72 hours before it gets better. so suck. and i'm so sad to have to retire those boots!! i need to get new brown boots though in some sort of manmade material. god, how ghetto am i? my body rejects leather! ;)

i cut myself with a butter knife today. i think i'm the only person in the world who could manage that. i'm amazing. i actually impaled my left index finger. and it bled and everything. ew. but yeah. cut myself with a butter knife. i rule :)

cannot wait for the weekend. sigh.

ok, so back to the Stag's Head...

SO... we sat down next to a couple who were obviously tourists. there was a day pack sitting on the bench next to the wife and a camera on the table. turns out they were americans also... i think they were from an "m" state for some reason, but i can't remember where... beck ordered lunch for us at the bar: she had the meatloaf and i had the fish and chips. it. was. awesome. that was the best fish i ever had. awesome. beck's meatloaf was apparently very good as well. the staff there was helpful and very nice... we practically inhaled the food because it was so good and we were so hungry...

and then we wondered down the road to Christ Church Cathedral. which was beautiful. we probably wouldn't have gone but it was one of the places that glen suggested we visit. the day had turned gorgeous by the time we got there. we took some pictures of the outside and were debating if we should go in... we wondered in to see how much they charged for a visit and the two little old ladies behind the counter kind of roped us into staying... well, all they did was offer us pamphlets and we felt like after we took the pamphlets we were committed to paying and going inside... they asked if either one of us were students and beck said, "she is" and i was like, um, yeah, i am and showed them my old student ID from SUNY Albany (for some reason they didn't put an expiration date on it...). i paid a reduced rate and then felt a little guilty for lying in a church... damn. ah well. anyway, it was beautiful on the inside, and i'm glad we went in. (see the pictures) we went into the crypt and saw the treasures. there were signs all around that said no pictures (with words and pictures) and still some dumbasses were snapping flash photos. nothing irritates me more than rude, inconsiderate people.

after Christ Church we walked down the street to see St Patrick's Cathedral. We didn't go in this one, but we snapped some pictures of the outside. we hopped on the city tour bus and rode over to the Guinness storehouse. we were informed that the storehouse was open until 10pm during the summer and that guinness provides a shuttle to the middle of town after the city tour busses stop running. we arrived at guinness at about 4:15. the last city tour bus left at 7:15... we missed that bus and took the shuttle at around 9:30. but hey, this was the inspiration for the trip so... yeah.

and i'm tired so it looks like guinness will be a post on its own. i cannot believe that it's taking me this long to finish this blog. suck...

i woke up the other morning and wondered, what do chinese people eat for breakfast? i mean, i've never heard of a chinese restaraunt that serves breakfast. i wonder what they eat...

you know you're going to have an interesting day when that's the first thing you randomly think of when you wake up.

had a pretty excellent weekend. went to a party in saratoga friday night... the girlfriend of a friend of alex's is vacating her apartment because they're buying a house. apartment was beautiful: a two level starting on the second floor of a large victorian. kitchen was huge with a cute breakfast area, living room was larger than mine... half bath on that floor and upstairs where the two bedrooms were was a large full bath. gorgeous apt with lots of cute old house details... and they only pay $1000/month for it (so, irritatingly, because it's split in 2 they each pay less than i do a month). feel now that i live in a hovel. ah well. party was fun with lots of free booze. went out with beck and her friends saturday in albany at jillian's. band was sucky but beer was good. and pizza later was phenomenal. quiet day today: was lazy for most of the day then went to meredith's for a pampered chef party. had a wonderful chocolate mocha trifle and an excellent tomato/dill dip. stopped at price chopper on the way home and spent almost $100 on food. but had no food in the house before... came home and was lazy again... watched monty python on hbo (and now for something completely different) which delayed my walking until it was too dark to venture out. was irritated with self for being so lazy/sedentary but then just made a bagel for dinner and watched faking it on bbc america (love that show) and then sex and the city (rooted for carrie and big even though i know i shouldn't) before working on the photo albums... completed london photo album and made much progress on dublin album. planned on going to bed early but as it is already 11:30 did not necessarily suceed. (will go to bed now which is technically earlier than i normally do, but not really what one would consider early).

still haven't finished this. unbelievable.. will have been back a week tomorrow evening... i did finish the london photo album. the pictures are all cleaned up and sized and the captions are all in. I've completed the photo editing and sizing for the dublin album as well, but I haven't written any captions yet...

goal: to have this blog completed by friday. hmm...