"This country is freaking confused!" - Nick Dalbey

I'll get back to my descriptions of the people in this house, but I feel more like just describing bits and sketches from the day right now.

Nick's comment in the title of this post was prompted by the weather today. He and I spent most of our morning/early afternoon at the kitchen tables as other housemates passed in and out, some staying for a while, others just long enough to fix a cup of tea. He was working on a paper for Anne the Scary Eye-Shadow Lady (i.e. his tutor) and I was just moseying about, hypothetically reading Henry IV, Part I. Through the course of the morning, we saw rain, mist, blue skies, more rain, sleet, hail, sunshine, and heavy heavy snow.

At one point - one of the sunshiney points - Kate decided to try reading outside. She had tried this yesterday but as soon as she got settled the sky had promptly dumped a large amount of rain on her head. However, as Daniel noted, she is bad-a**, so this previous obstacle didn't foil her eternal optimism. We looked outside a few minutes after she left the kitchen and there she was, all joyfully propped on two garden chairs, reading her book in the golden sunshine. "Aw, look at Kate! She's so happy outside," was roughly what Nick said. Three minutes later - or maybe less - it was sleeting like there was no tomorrow. Kate came in, slightly wet, slightly bedraggled, and super pissed.

In the next half hour, the sleet went away, the sun came out, and then the real clouds came and dumped a good half-inch of snow on everything in sight. We played in it. ("We" being Kate, Mia, Nick, and me.) Then the sun came back out.

Our conclusion is that this country - or at least its weather - is freaking confused. Some of us girls have had a few serious conversations about how to best ward off depression if the clouds refuse to lift. But so far our precautions have been fairly unnecessary. There have been unexpected days of intermittent sunshine and honestly the weather here has never been as bad as it is up on ol' Lookout Mountain. At least we're not in the clouds.

But there was a moment today, as I was pouring my tea, that my spirits suddenly and unaccountably sank. I turned around and realized: the sun was gone.

Here's what will keep us going on those long gloomy Oxford days: I'm sitting in the warm and cozily-lit living room with Emily and Daniel and just overheard their conversation.

[totally sincere voices]

Emily: "Oh, I just love our Crick family!!"

Daniel: "Dude, we are so cool. Thank you guys for being so great."

Oh my gosh and Shane and Nick just walked in with a cup of tea for everyone.

Aw!

Time to enjoy a warm cup of tea with friends. . . .