Re-orienting myself

I'd been back for nearly a week now and still hadn't been into central during the day. A tragedy, indeed. So I went out by myself to just... go. It was really nice, actually. I got on the tube, without any kind of map, without any plans or errands, and without an idea of where I wanted to go. I figured that getting off at Covent Garden/Leicester Square would probably be best because there's a lot of things that are within walking distance from that area. So, I wandered a lot. I went and got a muffin by Covent Garden, and I got Ben's Cookies (SOOO good), and I went in a bunch of shops and didn't buy anything (typical). It was great. Everything felt SO familiar. Coming back to a foreign city and feeling like it's not so foreign anymore is a really unique experience. I knew how to get from place to place. I knew where to look for cheap shoes. I knew where to get those great cookies. I knew that if I took off a different way than I'd walked before that I knew I could get to some other street that I knew. It was fabulous. I felt like such a pro.

Luck helped me out later in the evening when I ended up in Trafalgar Square. I was thinking about going to Regent Street to go fake shopping some more, but then I remembered that I'd been wanting to see the Neil LaBute play that was going on in Trafalgar Studios when I got back from California. I had been so tired during the week that I never wanted to call for tickets, and gave up. It was closing this weekend, so I figured it was sold out, but I thought I'd check anyway. The guy inside told me that someone had just called in and cancelled and that I could buy that ticket from him right then and there! So awesome! I went to kill time for a while, and ended up back in the National Gallery's temp exhibit "Manet to Picasso," AGAIN. I love that in London you can waltz into a museum for only 15 minutes if you feel like it because they're all free. I went and saw all my favorite Monet's and Van Gough's and watched a little movie about French Impressionism. What a nerd am I. Saturday night and I'm sitting in a museum watching a movie about 19th century painting techniques. Anyway, outside in Trafalgar Square they had some weird artsy thing going on with lights. Some people did this thing where they played the music from Swan Lake, and outlined this square in the middle of the... square.... anyway, supposedly, if you step into the square where it's dark, a spotlight comes up on you, and follows you. It was... strange. But cool, I guess. The kids that were there seemed to think it was fun.

Anyway, the show was great. I love Neil LaBute's writing. The show made me feel like this is the kind of work I want to do. It's written in such a natural tone, which makes it very accessable, both for the actor and the audience, and is always stinging with poignancy.

Unfortunately, the good day/evening was ended by yet another stroll up Snakes Lane at night, frost on the ground again, and grocery bags weighing me down. I hate the shuttle. I really, really do. I will not resort to explitives for the sake of keeping my travel blog quasi-clean, but oh man could I use some colorful language to describe how I feel about that shuttle.