Oh, god, I just had a dream - a nightmare - about my dissertation and my supervisors.

I'm all freaked out now *shudders* Come on, subconscious, it's handed in now, please no more nightmares until the night before the results are announced. =O

I wonder if a trip to the bank will get rid of this creepy feeling I'm left with?

Masters dissertations are acceptable softbound, though you are welcome to arrange for a copy of the dissertation to be hardbound after examination for deposition in the JBM/KM libraries. The Department would much prefer that Masters' dissertations are 'perfect bound', that is the pages and soft card (or transparent plastic) covers are glued with a flat spine. This aids our storage of the volumes and allows the spine to bear the required information (below). Only in extremis should spiral binding be used.

I could kiss whoever came up with this lovely system. Getting three copies hardbound is so much more complicated (and expensive) than getting them softbound *skips around her room* As if I could then be arsed to get one hardbound after. I laugh at the mere idea!

Of course, this all assumes that I'll have something to get softbound. I shall be putting out a plea for help to anyone who's ever studied or worked in any type of archaeology/museum/heritage service whatsoever in the next 24 hours or so, so please do be on the lookout, lovely, talented, superbly educated friends list.

A man spotted wearing a T-shirt bearing an "offensive" slogan in a city centre has been warned he risks an £80 fine if he is caught again.

Note that even the BBC put the word offensive in inverted commas. What the fuck, Peterborough, what the fuck?

In other news entirely, I had a dream last night in which I freaked out completely about not having enough time to wrote my dissertation and basically rewrote my last dissertation and handed that in instead, leading to manic worrying about whether or not I'd be done for plagiarising myself.

I am clearly going crazy.

My supervisor is stalking me.

Justifiably, to be sure, but I still don't like it.

So, I promised myself that I would do a shit load of work this week. Did I? Of course not. Since this time last week, I have managed to read two photocopied chapters of Beyond the Glass Case by Nick Merriman. I abandoned even that feeble effort when my highlighter pen stopped highlighting. My highlighter, for god's sake.

Self, you suck at life and you are fast on your way to getting kicked out of University. Now wouldn't that be just dandy?

I care about my dissertation. I care about my dissertation. I care about my dissertation. I care about my dissertation. I care about my dissertation. I care about my dissertation. I care about my dissertation.

...

Nope, it's no use. I do not care about my dissertation. I've not done the work I was supposed to. My supervisor is pissed. I? Do not care.

Instead of doing work, I've been ruminating on female characters in books/tv/film, prompted by something or other that I read in the Harry Potter fandom. Although I've always been vaguely aware of it, I've come to the full realisation that I tend not to like the main female characters in things.

Buffy - Hated Buffy. Liked everyone else.
Grey's Anatomy - Hate Meredith. Like everyone else.
Harry Potter - ... I don't hate any of the female characters, I just don't really feel anything for them at all. Which is worse, I think. I do, however, like McGonagall and fandom Hermione.
Lost - Kate, please die now. Thank you very much.
The Vampire Diaries - Hated Elena. Liked everyone else.
The Secret Circle - Disliked Cassie. Didn't particularly care for the other female characters.
X-Men - Am completely unmoved by Jean Grey.

I know there are more but they escape me at the moment. There are exceptions.

Stargate SG-1 - I love Sam. Love her.
Night World - I tend to like the NW heroines, even though most people don't. To me they're more realistic that many of LJS' other female characters.
The X-Files - Scully cannot be put down in any way whatsoever.

Although there are female characters I like, they're mostly secondary. For example, I much prefer Cristina to Meredith in Grey's Anatomy. I used to be able to say that about Izzie too, but they've been steadily taking away her self-respect. The main female characters that I dislike are not, in my eyes, good role models, but I don't know if this is an issue with me or an issue with how they are written. I am not, as many of you know, a fan of Joss Whedon. He has some fantastic female characters but they all get undermined as they progress along. His version of Emma Frost pisses me off beyond belief. As did much of what happened with Willow. Although Buffy leaves behind her intensely annoying airhead ways, she eventually grows into a hardfaced dictator. And as for what she does at the end of the TV series? Unbelievably selfish. Let's not even get started on the rape issue. Meredith Grey is unstable, selfish and far too thin. Three things which can also be said of Cameron from House (who is also desperate to the point of blatant stalking). Kate from Lost started out as a truly interesting character and has been on a downward spiral ever since. She now sits back and looks sulky rather than taking control of her own actions. There are times when all of those characters are defined by the men in their lives, rather than in their own right.

Sam and Scully, on the other hand are not only intelligent (Buffy, Meredith, Cameron and Kate are all clever) but they know their own minds, they know what the want and how to get it, they take responsibility for their actions and they think of others when they do act. They're both attractive, but their looks do not define who they are. They both have unrequited feelings for men they work with, but they do not let that to get in the way of who they are and what they do. They do not become desperate, or dark and twisty, or crazy stalkers. I do not want to bitchslap the pair of them until their ears ring.

As for Harry Potter, well, I don't know what's going on there. There are some female characters that I do like, but like Izzie from Grey's Anatomy they often go on to lose self-respect. Yes, Tonks, I'm talking about you. And you, to a certain extent, Hermione.

This has been a rather rambling post, but the point is that it saddens me that it is still harder to find a female role model in popular media than a male one. I like the male characters in almost all of the books/tv shows I mentioned, but often the female characters leave me fuming. Comics are, to a point, better, but then you run into the whole issue of costume and retcons involving sexual assault etc. Woman in a fridge phenomenon - it's not a good thing.

Now that I have thoroughly discarded my work and presented you all with an inchoherent discussion of my thoughts, I'm going to watch the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Where the only major female character makes me want to strangle her. Thank the lord of Calypso in the second and third movies, because Elizabeth Swann? No, thank you.

4.43am.

Our fun and exciting day of death begins at 9.30am sharp, which means I have to leave here at 9 at the absolute latest.

I have a vague idea of what I want to say, although I suspect it lacks coherency. So far it's not even a typed up argument. And there's no PowerPoint at all.

*bangs head on desk* I know I say this every time, but I really have to stop leaving things to last minute like this. I get no sleep and turn in something that's fairly decent, but could have been a lot better had I just started a day or two earlier. Stupid, Lorraine.

Oh, well! Keep your fingers crossed that I finish in time, and thanks for the comments you've left (are going to leave) on my last post. Some of them will be making it in to the presentation in some shape or form =)

I have to give a big presentation/lecture tomorrow (well, today now, but ssshhhh), which is worth 15% of my overall mark, so of course I have left it to the last minute. The day I actually advance plan something will be the day the world is redeclared to be flat.

Our topic is supposed to primarily be based on our dissertation, which gets a partly 'blah' reaction from me. My topic is how archaeologists view 'the public'. I can sum it neatly down into we think the public are a nuisance who should fuck off and give us whatever we want because we're clever, but, um, they probably wouldn't pass me for that.

Archaeologists don't like questioning themselves, so very little work has been done on this. Conversely, a lot of work has been done on how the public view archaeologists. Since I've not done my research yet, my presentation is mainly going to focus on how the public view archaeologists, in the vein of 'we're so worried about them misrepresenting us that we never think we may be misrepresenting them' (this is possibly a good time to state that I don't like the blanket term 'the public' but what can you do?).

So, the point of this post, apart from procrastination, is to see what you guys think of when you think of an archaeologist*. It would be really helpful to me if you could just tell me the first thing that pops into your head when you think of an archaeologist. What does one look like? How old are they? Where do they work? What do they do? You can be as detailed or not as you like.

So, pretty please, what do you think of when you think of an archaeologist?

* all references to desired sexing of Daniel Jackson will be edited out for the sanity of my lecturers ;D

(There's no mood thingie for interested. That's just stupid. I am not feeling thoughtful, I am feeling interested.)

I think my computer is messing with my mind. Either that or it has a virus, but my anti-virus software isn't picking anything up. For the last few weeks it's just been doing really random things. It's decided to forget where my iTunes library is at least four times, sometimes losing playlists before rediscovering them the next time it spazzes out. It's refusing to recognise my scanner, which I've not tampered with since I made those Wisdom icons a few weeks ago. It's not loading half of the internet properly, and it's decided that a 4.7GB DVD isn't big enough to hold 2.1GB of data... WTF, computer, wtf?

*sigh* I'm really only complaining because it's making it hard for me to effectively procrastinate. There are about 20 textbooks on my bedroom floor that I need to look through before Tuesday, but... well, they're mostly very, very boring. I'm finding it quite difficult to recapture the passion I once had for archaeology, which saddens me, thus making it harder to recapture the passion. I used to love archaeology. I never doubted that there was anything else that I should be studying. Even when I had shit lectures or assignments, I had that basic love. Now I think it's gone. I don't know if this year has beaten it out of me, or if I've just let myself drift so far that I've lost touch with the things that really matter to me.

I don't know what I'll think when I look back on this year. In some ways, it's been fine. A last year at University. A last chance to lie around all day and then go drinking every evening. I've made some friends, I've had new experiences. But it's been rubbish. I've hated the course. I've hated the place. I've been homesick for the first time in my life. I've realised that my friends here don't believe me when I say I've found this year difficult. They can't understand why and I can't articulate it to them. Meh.

I think if I could change one thing right now, I would want my love for archaeology back. What am I supposed to do without it? Resign myself to life as a shop assistant? Fuck that for a packet of crisps.

When I started typing this post, I didn't mean to talk about any of those things. I meant to comment on the absolute randomness of my computer, and to mention that I recently became a Staffer at TheFanlistings.org (TV Shows category). I was also thinking of briefly ruminating on whether or not I should get a new ear piercing. So... I don't know, if the middle paragraphs make you roll your eyes and be all 'suck it up emo girl', then read this last paragraph and elaborate the details in your mind until you have a much less 'woe is me' post ;)

To be updated throughout the day until finished, as fits of boredom see fit.

06.00: Alarm clock goes off
07.32: 717 words
07.48: Thesaurus comes out in an effort to avoid plagiarism
08.22: 1191 words
08.35: 1259 words
08.46: Repeatedly refresh friends list but everyone seems to be asleep
09.50: 1837 words
09.57: Begin texting random people in desperate attempt to ignore essay
10.11: Seriously thinks about running away and joining the circus
11.47: 2409 words
13.16: Realises has done almost nothing in an hour. Panics
14.39: Decides doesn't care but feels must struggle on anyway. Is bitter
15.26: 2331 words
15.50: 3038 words *wail*
16.17: 3266 words. Time's up *runs out the door*

I start my work experience tomorrow so, in the way of these things, I can't sleep.

I don't know why I do this. Whenever I have something important to do the next day, an essay to finish and hand in, a job interview, the pressing need to be on a train at 7am in order to catch a flight somewhere, I have a complete inability to sleep. Which is not fun. I like sleep. I'm what you'd call a big fan. Yet, sleep mocks me whenever it gets the chance.

Let's see... my course has been going better this term. Better in that my lectures actually seem to be fairly relevant. A novel experience, believe me! We've been contemplating the big ones - 'What is heritage?' - 'Why do we care about it?' - 'Why should we expect other people to care about it?' More interesting than it sounds, I promise. We've had some great guest lecturers, including one from the Council for British Archaeology who managed to be funny whilst also being very informative. Which isn't that easy to pull off.

Sadly, my fairly good run of lectures came to a crashing halt earlier today (well, yesterday now, technically), when I showed up for 'Research Skills' which was essentially a two hour session in which an American man told us repeatedly never to scan at a resolution any higher than 72dpi, and my course and I decided that the most important tools we'd be using for our dissertations would be a pen and paper, and all the Buildings and Conservation people could take a running jump with their GIS and AutoCad. We have no interest in such frivolities!

I have a meeting with my supervisor next week about my dissertation, as the proposal is due fairly soon. This means that I've actually had to start thinking about my dissertation, which has been quite taxing. My brain knows what it means, but it can't really be arsed to couch the ideas in academic words, because academic words are tedious.

Here is some music to tie in with my single-themed post. It's actually quite decent, and how can you justify living without music by a band called Archaeology? I honestly don't think that you can.

Archaeology - Abricka Bradaptah
Archaeology - Water in the Boat

(On a side-note, do we think that Eddie Izzard realises that there was a Woodhenge? Is it a deliberate aspect of the joke, or has he unintentionally hit archaeology paydirt, comedy-wise?)

01. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, decidedly! Apologies for posting this a bit late, but rest assured, I did have a drink (two in fact) to celebrate yesterday ;)

02. There is an absolutely idiotic person in the module I'm taking at the moment who uttered the following (and please keep in mind the fact that we are studying in an archaeology department) - "Yes, well, it's not like you can rewrite history, now is it?' - as a defence of current representations in heritage which favour white rich people over everyone else. It's a weak defence, for many reasons. The main one being, of course that IT'S OUR FUCKING JOB TO REWRITE HISTORY. She further decorated herself by referring to a woman's equality group as a 'ladies group.'

03. violentviolette, I sent a bunch of magazines to you today. The woman in the post office made me write my address in the top left hand corner, even though it was already on the back, because she said that the Canadian post have been sending stuff back if the return address isn't where they expect it to be. I object to this on several levels, none of which are your fault ;)

04. Who could have imagines that the republican slogan "our day will come" would encompass a power-sharing agreement with the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists in a Stormont Assembly and support for a police force that lost more than 300 officers, murdered chiefly by the IRA? - The Times, today. First of all, the republican slogan is not "our day will come", it's "Tiocfaidh Ár Lá", which, admittedly, does mean 'our day will come', but saying that republicans have an English language slogan is factually inaccurate and quite sloppy journalism. Second of all, the current Northern Ireland police service (the Police Service of Northern Ireland - PSNI), is NOT the same as the previous police service (the Royal Ulster Constabulary - RUC), which was disbanded after the Patten Report found it grossly biased, unfair and corrupt. Oh, and stop referring to Derry as Londonderry. Seriously.

05. Why do Marks & Spencers put cucumber on all their sandwiches?

Edit: nepenth, your lovely Christmas present arrived last week! My Mum forwarded it from Ireland which is why it took so long to get to me. It's really lovely, so thank you =D

This essay will be the bloody death of me, I swear. I feel like just typing "We need to be aware of value and significance, and the multitude of variations of both, because if we don't we're fucked. Absolutely, back against the wall, fucked." Somehow, I don't think that would gain me a passing mark although it does rather neatly summarise what I have to ramble on about for 4500 words.

So anyway, I have returned to the family home. Which is code for, I'm back in Ireland. Hurrah! So far, all I've done is sleep and use my highlighter rather liberally on some essay notes, but it is nice to be home. It's strange being in a house after a few months of living in halls. But in a good way. I already miss my desktop computer, but my laptop is doing its best to do all the things that I want it to (why, hello, unfettered broadband connection).

The journey back was rather uneventful save for a moment of abject horror when I realised that all the bars in Manchester Airport were closed when I got there. I mean, I know it was ten in the morning, but we're talking about an airport here. Time, and therefore licensing laws, mean nothing in an airport! I had to settle myself with a bottle of lucozade instead which was very disheartening.

There was a lovely pile of post waiting for me in my room - a card from hotaruanne (who has lovely writing, by the way), and packages from veraxia and mizzmarvel. Thanks guys ^_^ veraxia continues to be my supplier of American LJS covers, thus feeding my addiction, and mizzmarvel sent me a fancy-ass Christmas-themed Babysitters Club book (very cool) and a bunch of American sweets in my very own Christmas stocking! So much wonderfulness contained in three envelopes =D

Yes, alright, I should go back to working on my essay, seeing as how it's due today and all. I should stop posting on LJ and I should certainly stop reading Hermione Granger/Severus Snape fics. Even if they are really good and make me feel warm and fuzzy inside...

Things I miss about Ireland (in no particular order):

• Round steak mince
  
• Denny sausages
  
• Galtee cheese
  
• Tayto crisps
  
• Pubs
  
• Decent beer
  
• My books
  
• The drinking culture (it's almost the same here, but not quite)
  
• The newspaper
  
• The Panel and Podge & Rodge (TV programmes)

There are probably loads more, but those are all that spring to mind at the moment. I tend to utter the phrase "stupid British people" at least once a week.

I'm not feeling myself at the moment. I'm a bit scattered and a bit down. Like half my friends list it would seem! I don't know what it is exactly. I think maybe it's partly to do with my course, partly to do with my friends, and partly to do with something else which is not going exactly as I hoped. I have a 4500 word essay to write and I just don't care about it. Would you be bothered about an essay titled As cultural heritage managers, what should we understand by the terms "value" and "significance"? Pfft. I'm a bit tired of people coming to me to complain about their love lives, essentially expecting me to go out of my way to sort things out for them. Which I've been doing, but then I have to listen to the complaints about how it didn't go just right, or how they're still not sure that it's what they want. Blah, blah, blah. Do I look like the kind of person who should be a matchmaker? I mean, I'm not even anywhere close to a relationship myself and I have a complete inability to act on any interest I might feel. Really, that should tell you all you need to know.

On the plus side, I finally got all my Christmas stuff together today and all that's left to do is post everything. So, tomorrow I shall go to the post office and then do some work (...) before skipping off to see kayim on Wednesday. Good times, people, good times!

What movie should I watch whilst I clean up my room? *dithers*

OH, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO REQUEST A CHRISTMAS CARD IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!

I really wish my seminar group had agreed to make a pretty PowerPoint presentation. If they had, I wouldn't be sitting here wasting my ink trying to make various maps look presentable. I can talk about what I need to without maps, but it'll be so much easier if everyone has copies that they can look at and match features to etc.

This presentation is fairly interesting actually. Moreso than I would have expected, I must admit. The University wants to expand into an area called Heslington East and we're doing a presentation on the pros and cons of this from an archaeological perspective. Basically, they'll be raping irreplaceable archaeology in order to build another bloody lake to fit in with their biodiversity policy. Stupid, stupid University. There's lots of talk in their plans about sustainability, biodiversity, community involvement, blah, blah, blah, but not a word about what they're going to destroy to achieve this green utopia of perfect learning. You have to wonder why they have an archaeology department if they don't bother consulting with it in relation to things like this.

It's all about the money, at the end of the day, isn't it? How droll.

But yes, PowerPoint rocks and my seminar group are idiots for not wanting to do one *kicks them*

So, so much to ramble about.

01) I want need tickets to go see Deftones. Why is there no ticketmaster in York? I'd really rather buy the tickets on the spot rather than having them sent something - and they won't even deliver to where I live because it's on-campus so I have to get it sent to someone else's house...

02) Remember that essay that I had to hand in a couple of week ago that I did absolutely no work for? The one I wrote on the day it was due? Yeah, that one. I got it back today and... well, fuck me. I got 60% *falls over from the shock* I was completely fine with the idea that I'd get about 40% which is a fail, but no, I got 60% which is actually one of the higher marks in the class (?!) and the feedback is overwhelmingly positive - "This essay is very strong concerning the assessment of the aims and principles of cultural heritage management, and these sections were a pleasure to read." WTF? Were we reading the same essay? A couple of my friends, after gawping at me, said something along the lines of 'if you can get 60% without trying, imagine what you could do if you actually applied yourself.' I'm awarding myself a gold star for half-assed achievement. Oh, yeah!

03) I've started watching House and I like it way more than I thought I would. Hugh Laurie's accent still grates on me a bit, but he's so bitter and cynical that I find myself caring less and less with each passing episode. Plus, watching the guy from Prison Break get bitched slapped was oddly satisfactory. The female doctor though is starting to annoy me. I'm completely unmoved by her 'tragic' past and I really hope her relationship with House isn't being pushed where I think it is. I'm only 6 episodes into the first season though, so don't spoil me, people :p

04) Thanks to the lovely kayim, I'm now caught up on ( Season 3 of Lost )

05) Went to see A Scanner Darkly last night and LOVED it. Absolutely LOVED it. Even though I had to explain parts of the plot to the guy I went to see it with. I need to read the book now.

06) Last night, for the first time in well over a year, I did not want any beer. At all. I think I'm oversaturated with beer goodness :/

07) Bought tickets to go to London next weekend. Hurray for getting drunk un London! I might have another wander around the British Museum, but that place depressed me because there's just too much to see.

08) That might be everything...

The problem with being uninterested in a subject is that your dedication plummets. I have a presentation to give at 9.30am. It's now 7.19am and despite having the whole weekend and being awake since 6am, I still haven't opened a single book or typed a single word.

I just don't care. My course is just so mind-destroyingly boring at the moment. Hello? Motivation? Where hast thou gone? Although I strongly suspect that Motivation and I were never the closest of friends.

In other news, the rugby on Saturday was all kinda of fabulous, even if I was the only person in the pub watching it. Oh, and a bus driver yelled at me for standing up on a bus that is designed to allow people to stand up. Bizarre. Also, there was a toga party. Unrelatedly, I did three loads of washing at 2am whilst drunk, reading Harry Potter and dancing around the laundry room to Nine Inch Nails.

So, this is going to be a rant of the archaeological type. Which, by the way, makes me quite nostalgic for all the rants I included in blog entries when I was studying in Galway. It may or may not be of interest to non-archaeologists/historians/heritage-type-people. Which means that you can skip it with a clear conscience if this whole study of the past malarky isn't your cup of tea ;)

( Why, archaeology? Why do you make me so angry? )

Right, I'm off to continue my fuming in the shower.

Generally, there has been much drinking since I last posted. Having two Fresher's Weeks is the best idea there ever was. Ever.

More specifically... on Friday, after dragging myself out of bed for a lecture, I met up with kayim and crashed sn_uk. I've gotten over my random fear of meeting people that I know online so it worked out really well ^_^ It was really great to meet kayim after all this time and she's just as geeky as I thought she would be which was satisfying! All the convention goers were great too and they didn't make fun of me and my lack of knowledge of Supernatural. (I hope the pics I took turned out okay though. I'll be embarassed if they were crappy and everyone has no heads or something.)

I left them and headed to a house party where I got very, very drunk and lost my voice. Completely. I often have problems with my voice when I've been in loud, smoky places but this was worse than usual. It's probably something to do with the smoking ban in Ireland and the fact that my vocal chords haven't been attacked by the double threat of smoke inhalation and yelling at people to be heard over the music.

This became an issue on Saturday as we had planned a historic pub crawl (an enlarged repeat of the one I did with Mum when the two of us were here a few months ago). I spent the first few hours whispering into people's ears before finally being reduced to a state of silence. Beer mats, it turns out, are very useful when it comes to communicating with people in pubs. I started by writing actual sentences but in the end Rob made me one that said 'Love You' and one that said 'Fuck You' which pretty much covered everything. The voice still hasn't come back properly.

Today and yesterday was the proper start of my course. 9.30am to 6pm two days in a row does not a happy Lorraine make. Just blah. The lectures are alright, but nothing spectacular. I've covered some of the stuff before and am thus feeling superior and bored. Plus, we're sharing with a couple of other MA programmes, including the Conservation of Buildings people who are the most serious people ever. They never talk about anything but archaeology and they ask a billion pointless and boring questions. Listening to them stresses me out in one way because I start to worry that that's what I should sound like. BUT I LIKE HAVING FUN AS WELL AS STUDYING ARCHAEOLOGY!!!!!

marimac, the day in the life thing completely slipped my mind today (which is probably good since I've spent most of my day in the same room), but I'm hoping to get it done tomorrow =D

Note to self: Make archaeology icon.

Thank you to those who hoped that I didn't embarass myself terribly at my departmental induction after my last post. I managed to not fall over or be sick or anything like that, but it was touch and go. The drunkeness swiftly transitioned into hungoverness which was just as, if not more, evil. Plus, looking around the room, everyone was quite perky and had clearly put effort into their appearances. Unlike me. Talking to people later it turned out that everyone had gone to bed early the night before because they knew they had to be up early. How sickeningly responsible of them.

To summarise what turned out to be a rather long introductory session, all the staff (and there are many of them) are frightfully keen and it's going to be an intense year with little to no leeway - ie, you must attend everything. Just because something has the audacity to suggest it's optional does not mean it is. You must go to your lectures. You must go to other people's lectures. You must attend the evening lectures given by guest speakers. You must attend the lectures given by PhD students. YOU MUST ATTEND EVERYTHING. Which is a bit overwhelming when you've basically spent two years sitting on your arse doing nothing. Oh, and then they snuck in a module called 'study skills' which turns out to be theory. Fucking bastards. I hate theory. I had to study it for four years and I hated it all. I understood it but I hated it. Bastards. I cannot stress the 'bastards' part enough.

The introduction to my actual course was quite interesting. There were about 8 of us there, but apparantly there were supposed to be 4 more. It's mostly women, but there were two guys which was a relief. I never like working in a single sex environment, which is a direct result of attending a single sex school from the ages of 4 to 17. We introduced ourselves, gave a few background details and explained why we were interested in heritage management. I wasn't the only one who'd done an MA before, so that was a bit of a relief.

On a side-note here, my hatred of talking to people on the phone is well documented so I was dreading meeting the course supervisor. Just over a year ago I e-mailed her about the possibility of doing a PhD and she requested that I call her, so I did. She then proceeded to tell me that I should do another MA instead as it might be more suitable. The fear absolutely evaporated when she turned to me at the wine reception later and asked why I'd chosen to do another MA when I already had one. I just barely managed to stop myself saying 'Because you told me to.'

Now this is where things began to fall apart. Obviously I was very hungover and very tired. I knew there was a wine reception but some part of my brain malfunctioned because I was absolutely certain that I would go to the reception and then be in bed by about 7.30pm. Why I thought this I don't know because one thing in archaeology is constant - get two or more archaeologists together and they will go to the pub. It's universal. And yet I was sure that it wouldn't happen. It did. I got very, very drunk again. Which actually was quite good because I met a lot of people and had some great conversations. I cannot tell you how great it is to be drunk and to be surrounded by drunk people and yet still talking about the merits of some post-processual argument. Serious archaeological discussion + alcohol = all kinds of amazing ;)

So yeah, got drunk, fell home, sat with my legs dangling over the balcony in the kitchen whilst eating dinner and attracting strange looks from passers-by, and then I harassed violentviolette via AIM. It's all good!

Until I had to get up for a library tour this morning and was (and still am) all hungover again. That bit wasn't so good. Happily though, this time everyone was hungover, not just me.

When I actually have to do some work I'm going to go into serious, serious shock.