Its Always Something…

So I’ve had a rather hectic past week… But it may be that I’m just imagining it’s hectic because I feel like I should be taking Thanksgiving off like all my friends and family back home… But alas… I’m stuck in the land of the English and have yet to spot so much as a Turkey in a grocery store… Haha Although I have to admit the Brits are worse than Americans at decorating early for Christmas! I almost had to pinch myself, when in the middle of my classic “Monday writing-athon at the local cafe” they were playing non-stop Christmas music already! Haha

But anyway… After spending the weekend trying to get back into the “tutorial essay” routine (it’s amazing how two weeks of debates instead of essays makes your brain go a little soft… Haha), I was rather exhausted by Tuesday afternoon (although that may be due to the awful insomnia I can’t seem to shake for some reason)…

Tuesday evening I went to College Hall at St Cross (a once a week formal dinner hosted by the college)…  This week was Thanksgiving theme in honor of all us Americans! So of course I couldn’t miss the chance to actually eat some turkey and mashed potatoes that I didn’t have to cook… While it didn’t in the least bit compare to home (and in some ways almost made even more jealous I would be missing my mom’s amazing cooking), we had a great time!… It turned out to be a lot of fun and it was a relief to finally unwind, eat a good meal, and have a full conversation that didn’t involve essays… But by the time it was all over I was definitely looking forward to my “mid-week” weekend… :)

But wouldn’t you know… I get home late last night to find that I have a ridiculously nasty virus on my computer… I could have hurt someone I was so upset… Apparently McAffe Security (note to self: never use them again!) completely missed it, and it was only detected by the Oxford server which immediately locked my computer out of everything on the internet network… (Did I note that it’s a little busy right now, with it being end of term and all… Really not a good time to be without internet/email/remote access…) I had a host of ugly warnings from Oxford waiting for me, all claiming my gorgeous, wonderful, new laptop was “contaminated”…

So I was up at the crack of dawn this morning in Oxford Computer Services… The poor guy at the Help Centre was so sweet, but I was there for almost 4 hours… They did everything… For the first 2 hours he kept telling me Oxford had made a mistake and there wasn’t even a virus… For the next two the kept telling me there was no way to repair it… Long story short… It probably came through an email and was tricky enough that even my anti-virus software (and theirs for a while) didn’t pick it up… My computer is now healthy again, and no worse for wear… (Although I have to admit I’m now terrified of my email inbox!) They managed to remove it, but I still had to go through the long process of getting everything double checked, and rechecked, and changing ALL of my passwords and IDs (I mean really, it was hard enough memorizing those 101 passwords for Oxford the first time) But it’s finally straightened out thank goodness!

So unfortunately I will be in tutorials and seminars for most of the Thanksgiving Day tomorrow… Although a small band of us Americans have decided to gather for a make-shift Thanksgiving Dinner and hopefully some internet streaming of the Macy’s Day Parade tomorrow afternoon! :) It won’t be at all like home, but I’m rewarding myself tonight with a much needed viewing of “Pride and Prejudice”… It brings back great memories of watching the “ever-so-handsome Mr. Darcy” over Thanksgivings I spent at the farm with Gammie… Goodness how we loved to watch Colin Firth and giggle over it all (Grandmother’s can be wonderful that way)… I have to admit I miss her a little bit more than usual for some reason… <3 It’s hard to believe I was with her this time last year… I guess a lot can change in 12 months…

Anyway, onto some more Darcy and Elizabeth… :)

With Love from Oxford… –Mary Elizabeth