Flashback Friday: London Calling

So remember that one time I lived in England? I do, it seems like it was just twenty-four days ago.

Psych.

I don't mean that time. I'm mean the time before that time.

Well, this week marks the five-year anniversary of the beginning of that best decision of my life, so I wanted to give a quick shout out to all the awesome friends I made and a nod of thanks for all of the amazing, life-changing things I experienced from January through April 2006. If you look at any of my posts from that time, I think it's obvious we rocked the Argyle socks off London. (Then London rocked the Argyle sweater off Stephanie. Rude.)

Side note: I'm in San Diego for the week for work and I am SHATTERED, but I didn't want to fail on my first week attempting to resurrect Flashback Friday, so I compromised and made this post short and sweet. Don't think the brevity is a reflection of the awesomeness of this subject though, because it's not. It just gives me an excuse to bring it up again. (Because, if you actually looked at the posts I mentioned, you'll see I was just about as awesome at consistent blogging as I am now. Oh the stories I have yet to tell...)

Top 10 Tuesday

Okay, so remember that one time I decided to try and do this? (And succeeded a total of thirteen times...)

Well, this year it's coming back bigger and better than ever! And to keep it company, I'm going to go crazy and add another meme to the mix!

Top 10 Tuesdays will basically be a list of whatever I decide to numerically rank.*

There's no boundaries on how ridiculous epic these lists will be. Sort of like my listless phase.

So obviously this comes as part of my new year, better year plans, the reason being I am a horrible blogger, but I'm also the worst journal writer ever, so I'm choosing to tackle the lesser of two evils and then go from there.

For my inaugural Top 10 Tuesday post, I'm going to (re)introduce you to something else awesome I'm doing. Remember that one time I tried out for this? Well, thanks to your awesome feedback (seriously: *tear*) I got the gig! Now I periodically post book reviews, bookish essays, and bookish Top 10 lists (so you see where this is going) and I love it.

So, when a Tuesday, my turn to write The Blue Bookcase Top 10 List, and this blog align (oh look, another syzygy!) that will be the topic of the week.

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to The Top 10 Books Meagan Read in 2010!

*If you have any suggestions for Top 10 ideas please pass them on! (However, you should know I may be ranking them in order of awesomeness for one of my posts so make sure they're good suggestions :)

An Open Letter

Dear Boys,

Some advice on roping a girl into a confession session days before she is moving to another country during which you profess your love and ponder at length the truly mysterious circumstances as to why you never dated before now: Don't do it.

At the very best, she'll think you're either really slow on the uptake or simply a coward. At the very worst she'll think you're nothing but a shallow opportunist angling for a little NCMO.

And trust me, you don't want that to be the last memory this girl has of you.

Sincerely,

Meagan 'Do I look like a girl who's easy?' Brady

AWOL

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. My bad.

And I have so much to talk about, I don't even know where to begin.

I could talk about the miracle of finishing my dissertation on time.
Or my new B-list celebrity project.
Or that one time I accidentally went to the Strictly Come Dancing premiere.
Or how I won the Weakest Link.
Or saw Michael Ball perform.
Or GLEEKed out with Jonathan Groff after is new London show.

Or walked the red carpet next to Keira Knightley.

Or attended a cat funeral.

Or played leap Prague.

Or ate in a Lebanese harem.

Or successfully survived the Spider Wars of Fall 2010.

Or got a new gig as a book reviewer.

So much awesomeness, where does one begin?

little grey cells

Everybody loves a good murder, so everyone who is anyone is celebrating the 120th birthday of the Grand Dame of Mystery. There's even an official logo:

• London hotels that once boasted Christie as a guest are having special teas.
• ITV is having an Agatha Christie marathon all weekend
• BBC4 has commissioned three new radio dramatizations to play this week
• Even Google is in on it, quite cleverly too:

I decided the best way I could celebrate was by exercising my little grey cells by setting my

to work on my dissertation for a few hours.

Riveting...

Of course, I also took a lunchtime walk through

then rode home on the

After that, I murdered a delicious stuffed pork chop and washed it down with some non-alchoholic

which pretty much killed every last ounce of productivity in me, so now I've no choice but to head off to bed in my 8'x10' little room.

Because as Poirot always says, "There are those who have to exercise their little grey cells and some who lock people in them."

Apparently, I can do both.