sweet child of mine

I've reached that blissful point that I was at for four or five months in the States, where I had more work than I could possibly accomplish unless I stopped sleeping for several days. Yay! And to think that only three weeks ago, I thought that I was going to be bored and underutilized. So, if you've been wanting to talk to me online, that's why I haven't been around, and I'm not particularly good at responding to emails either :(

Today, I worked (por supuesto), then came home and had dinner. I had intended to stay in tonight and catch up on some busywork...but instead, I got dragged out to 10 Downing Street for the second Thursday in a row. Their cranberry juice tastes more like cough syrup, but I still prefer vodka cranberries to beer, and the drink also typically matches whatever I'm wearing, which is key (for some inexplicable reason). I also got to go shoe shopping--stores stay open late here, while bars close early, so I went shoe-shopping at the store next to the bar. I bought an adorable pair of pink sandals with sparkly, shimmery beadwork, and so my rampant conspicuous consumption continues unabated.

Even though I'm not a fan of Sheryl Crow (and in fact like to refer to her as the homewrecker even though I doubt that it was her fault that Lance Armstrong's marriage collapsed), I had to go up and sing 'All I Wanna Do' with Regina. Sheryl Crow definitely can't compare to Bon Jovi, but it was still fun. We were only there a couple of hours, since bars close at midnight here and we were all tired anyway.

I have to do a ton of work tomorrow, because I'm rather unexpectedly going away for the weekend; some of us are taking a four-hour road trip to Srisailam, which is a heavily-forested, hilly nature preserve/religious site southeast of Hyderabad. There's a dam that has created one of the largest reservoirs in India, as well as a huge park that is home to a variety of tigers, monkeys, and other animals. In addition, there's a temple/fort complex with some parts dating back to the first century A.D. So, it should be pretty awesome, if we don't all die of heat exhaustion or get into a car accident. I'm also in charge of procuring the Old Monk to help us with the spirituality part if the natural beauty and wonder of the area isn't enough to do it for us. The only brutal part is that we're leaving at six a.m. on Saturday, which means I need to be very productive tomorrow and yet also go to bed early. Will it happen? Only time will tell!