whew! [exhale]

so yesterday was kind of a marathon essay-writing day -- hung out at the library from 10 to 6:30, with a break for lunch, and then came home and banged out not nearly enough words on Optimality Theory in morphology (1) and the Absolute Slicing Hypothesis vs. Autosegmental Phonology (2).  oy.

this morning, went out early to stop by the post office on my way in.  relayed an eBay package to jgesteve, acquired stamps for a form to be sent to flt, notes to my cousins (the children of the great-aunt who just died), and sundry other things; and scurried along to my tutorial.  good phonology tutorial, yay; bought ticket for Episode III; went to Borders to read and sip really stupid drinks and meet servalan for lunch; went along, after a bit, to my morphology tutorial, where after about fifteen minutes it was clear to the professor and to me that the other student was going to show, so i scurried along and the thing will be rescheduled.  bit of window-shopping retail therapy, rejoined by servalan; picked up a couple of groceries, but not the ones i'd gone in for; boggled together in abject slack-jawed horror at a book genuinely and un-ironically titled "Roundabouts of Great Britain"; bought an electric kettle because the one in my kitchen has joined the choir invisible; decided to go have dinner.

and when it came time to pay the check, i realized i had a lot less money in my wallet than i'd expected to have.  i mean, i know starbucks is a pricey kind of place, especially in sterling.  but, like, i took money out of the ATM this morning, and almost all of it was already gone.  that didn't seem right -- but my wallet hadn't been out of my sight long enough for anyone but servalan to have rifled it, and the suggestion that she would do such a thing is so absurd that i didn't even remember until just now as i was typing the words "out of my sight" that she babysat my bag for a couple of minutes when i ran to the ladies'.  in short:  i'd spent an alarming amount of money very quickly.  gah!

fortunately, i decided to think about it a little harder, and i made a list of things i knew i'd bought today -- and there was still about £20 i couldn't account for.  twenty pounds is a lot of money, y'all -- it's pretty important to me that i not just blow through it and forget about it in less than eight hours.  but then, i don't even know how, i remembered:  at the post office, i couldn't use my credit card.  i had to pay cash.  and between the package and a good supply of stamps, yeah, i'd spent a little more than £22.

thank god.  am not quite senile.  and the money is not gone; it's in the form of postage stamps now, is all.  i cannot tell you how much better i feel.