"Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays"

So, there I am the other day, sitting at work running through email after email. Someone walks by and comments to two people on my team - 'You guys don't look that great today. Must be a Monday...' Sound familiar? The last couple weeks of my life have been truly reminiscent of The Office. The days drag on. The clock slows down. And, eventually, you find yourself in the same place day after day. The funk is slowly ending, but where I've been the last couple weeks. It'll be another month before I have any solid plans and my life becomes more permanent. My purgatory has a few benefits, but generally horrid. You don't sleep. You're anxious all the time. Your life becomes hostage to something you can't control. I'm admittedly a bit dramatic, but rightfully so. Like so many before me, I'm ready for a little consistency in my life. I'm ready to live and work in the same city, to put down some deeper roots for a change, to own a normal life for a while.

That said, the drinks have come both often and in large quantity. London's an easy town to do that in - and an increasingly hard place to keep fit in. I did manage to go hiking at Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales last weekend, followed by a crazy night in Cardiff. (Be sure to check out the pics - http://public.fotki.com/raggett/). For anyone that cares, I've been running a fair amount and playing soccer two to three times a week.

Anyhow, it's late and I'm low on sleep. Drop me a line and I'll send you a more detailed account.

As you can probably tell, writing once or twice a week has been a bit difficult for me. I guess, life's too short to spend summarizing the past. Anyhow, there's a lot to update you all on and only so much time.

Shortly before my last post, my mom arrived. She stayed until June 29th with her friend Barb. We visited Edinburgh, Scotland the weekend of June 20th before heading to Parliament and Wimbledon on Monday and Tuesday the following week. English Parliament was especially interesting to see. We were able to see both The House of Lords and The House of Commons (kind of like House of Representatives/Senate). Lucky for us, Tony Blair argued in The House of Commons for the last time. For those that don't keep up with English politics, Tony retired from politics on June 28th to join the private sector. He put on quite a show during a debate over EU policy. Blair returned two days later for his final Prime Minister Q&A at Parliament (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZQKG_ff9bo) - happens every Wednesday.

Wimbledon was pretty amazing. I can still remember sitting down with my dad on weekends in the summer watching Agassi, Sampras, Ivan Lendl, Bjorn Bjorg, etc with my dad growing up. I don't know if I'll be able to see anything like that again - but hope to take my dad if I do.
My mom left a few days later...

Then, off to Krakow, Poland for a friend's birthday with the guys. Too bad my friend slept in and missed his flight. That said, we celebrated for him - Krakow is a very cool city worth visiting again. The clubs are mad and plentiful. We did spend a day visiting the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Berkenau. It was quite an eerie experience - walking the grounds, listening to the horrors that went on there, being lead into the gas chambers, etc. An eerie experience to say the least.

I arrived back to alwasy rainy London Monday and been working quite a lot since. A few coworkers have ended their six month stints and shipped back to the US, leaving me sitting next to empty desks. The life of the short termer strikes again.