**SPECIAL EDITION**

***SPECIAL EDITION***

Apparently my mom is reading my blog today! And she never gets on the Internet!

In honor of this special event, I decided to do a special edition blog post compiling all of the things I know you would like to know, Mom. (Regular blog features are at the end.)

1. My flat is in the safest area of London (lame!). There are like NO criminals around, and a lot of the people are pretty normal, with a lot of yuppies and young couples. The Docklands area is quaint and quiet. I find myself wishing I was living with the artsy crowd in Camden in a fleabag flat, but I figured you’d like this better.
   

2. I am drinking a glass of wine and watching the news right now just like you do at night. But thank God they don’t have Fox News over here.
   

3. I just cooked ALL BY MYSELF. With a POT and PAN. They don’t have enough cheap microwavable stuff here. :(
   

4. I am going to actually go to MASS this weekend … because I want to see St. Paul’s Cathedral.
   

5. I still haven’t smoked a cigarette. Everyone acted like I was going to get a nicotine buzz just by being in Europe, but London just passed a smoking ban similar to Ohio’s earlier this year. So I’m still more than three months strong without cigs.

6. I haven’t been getting drunk (because I don’t have friends and haven’t gotten up the balls to sit at a pub alone yet) … and you are the ONLY person who thinks this is a good thing.
   

7. It is a lot colder than I thought. I might need you to send me another sweater…
   

8. I officially DO think America stinks in a lot of ways, and I wish we had better public transportation and health care … and medieval buildings! And I think people in America need to get the heck out of America and see other places the way people in Europe do. ESPECIALLY in the Midwest. And isn’t it sick that we spend like three times the amount on defense compared to every other country but we have so much poverty?
   

…But I miss Ohio. I am really respecting you for going off to France when you were in your 20s without knowing anyone. It's harder than it looks. Love you Mama!

***

Word (phrase) of the day: Sod’s Law
Today my co-worker James and I were trying to wrap things up at the ol’ news desk and predicted that three huge bank mandates would roll in at any second. And he said it would be “Sod’s Law.”

Apparently there’s a phrase for when you light a cigarette and, sure enough, the train comes. (Or, for you Americans without public transportation: When you light a cig and your food comes in a restaurant…Wait you can’t smoke in restaurants …You get it.)

OK I don’t know that this is necessarily British, but I don’t really hear it from young people.

What I learned today: They say "bless you" here when someone sneezes JUST LIKE US. Finally, something the same. According to Wikipedia research today, we got this from Europe. This dates back to the plague. Sneezing was the first sign of the plague, so people literally blessed you. Isn't that the most morbid thing ever?

Next time I go to London I will: Stay in a crazy neighborhood with the punks and the hippies, and try to follow Amy Winehouse around. And do cocaine off a toilet seat (JUST seeing if my mother is still reading).

I’m listening to: Plain White Tees, “Hey There, Delilah”
It’s true! I so went there. But I guessed I missed hearing it every single day on the radio. And now it sort of applies to my life. OK, enough of that.