Japandamonium!!!

From the book I'm being more and more wrapped up in, "Invisible Cities" by Italo Calvino:

Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone.
"But which is the stone that supports the bridge?" Kublai Khan asks.
"The bridge is not supported by one stone or another," Marco answers, "but by the line of the arch that they form."
Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: "Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me."
Polo answers: "Without the stones there is no arch."

A book? I'm reading a book? YES! That's right - I have time to read now, because I'M DONE!!!!!!!! DONE DONE DONE! No more schoolin' for four months! Holy hell, it feels wonderful. Wrote some good papers, wrote some crap papers, it's all in and I'm all done. Got Calvino's "Invisible Cities" and Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" to entertain my brain, and Blur's "Parklife" and a Blondie collection to entertain my ears (I thought it was an album when I bought it). Some anonymous stranger has been telling me to get "Parklife" for weeks, and now I've done my mystery friend honor by following his fairy-godmother advice, and I love the album. Any other suggestions, mystery friend? Also listening to the Smiths and the Cure courtesy of my darling Robin and the fine chaps at the Royal Mail, and Dylan '64 and St. Louis Jimmy Oden from Mom&Dad. I'm planning on enjoying them and freedom and London to the fullest in the next week and a half - because that's all I've got. Hooooooooooly crap. I only realized it on Thursday while I was changing for aikido (and I'm going to aikido again - yay free time!!!!!!!), that I only have two weeks left here. It is exciting to think that I'm going to be traveling and everything, but it's sad also; I've been having a really amazing time here, I have a great best friend who I've bonded with to the degree of being almost symbiotic, I have a dojo that I'm making more friends in and learning a lot, and I have THIS CITY that I'm living in and not a tourist in and love and enjoy, and it's crazy man. That said, I'm still enormously excited. Gotta get off my keister and make some solid travel plans this week though, and that will probably be both terrifying and exciting.

I saw "All's Well That Ends Well" on stage this Thursday with John; it was fan-goddamn-tastic. Dame Judi Dench was the Countess, and she was magnificent - everything was! I forget how watchable Shakespeare is. You know? It's so brilliant and complex and emotional and intellectual and layered, and sometimes I forget how it's also captivating and fun to watch. But it was, and was wonderful. This week will hopefully see me continuing my cultural education at many a museum; the Imperial War museum and Wallace collection are high on my list. And can one ever spend enough time in the British Museum? No. One simply cannot.