(Audio)BOOKS!

Monday chats in the basement library

Believe it or not, the pictures above still cannot do the Warners' basement justice. There is still another 180 degrees not captured. Penelope's office is a library in the basement of the Warners' house. Shelves are stacked (triple stacked) with books while more pile up on the floor. And the most impressive thing is that Penelope knows where everything is. This is always my first stop when I go on the quest for books needed for my tutorials.

A tradition has started in which I visit Penelope's library every Monday. At first the purpose was to get books, or to pick up my food stipend. But now the purpose is for conversation and company in a cozy home. Penelope always keeps a plate of biscuits on her desk for callers such as myself. For the past few Mondays, Adrie and I have left the flat together after breakfast to head over to St. John Street. There we are greeted by Penelope with a, "Hi, come on in!" and join her downstairs. Janice, who assists Penelope with paperwork, is usually found sitting on the couch organizing Penelope's makeshift card catalogue. After a while, Britney finishes her tutorial in the living room and comes down the stairs as well. Then we all talk about our adventures of the previous weekend and plans for the next week. Without fail, we always manage to touch on the subject of food, and it's at that point that Janice passes around the plate of biscuits.

It's not until Francis interrupts our stories by coming downstairs (to which Penelope says, "Hello, Beloved!") that we realize we've been there for over an hour and should leave to go work on our essays. Then we're given biscuits for the road and leave to do other errands and study.

Today my "other errands" included going to the post office where I sent off some postcards. This was my third time to go in the last week and the lady behind the counter now recognizes me. Feel free to send me snail mail because the lady at the post office can confirm I do write back!! (My address follows at the end of the post.)

Paper friends!

When I got back to the flat after going to the post office, I resumed my spot at my desk to start my essay for my upcoming Tolkien tutorial. The plan was to have all of the Lord of the Rings books read by Wednesday (the day of my tutorial). But, with the combination of sickness and...being realistic...I don't think this goal will be met. However, my tech-savy brother succeeded in sending me a copy of the audiobooks. This means I can listen to the series while doing other tasks at the same time, like writing my essay (or writing postcards...or playing with my hair...). I even used my new ability to multitask to teach myself how to make paper cranes (which now lie about my desk, made out of my old notes). There they sit, serving as a reminder to STOP DILLY-DALLYING!

Tonight the group joined Penelope and Francis at the Oxford Playhouse for a production of "The Handyman." I realized that this was the first play we've seen while here that was not Shakespeare. It was a play about an old gardener (played by Timothy West) accused of war crimes. On Wednesday we're having a discussion at the Warners' about the play with one of the actors.

Now I sit again at my desk, writing my paper (or blog post) while the audiobook continues to play from my laptop speakers. This morning I had to explain to my roommate that the old, british, man's voice coming from my room was actually the narrator of the audiobook and that I didn't have an old, gentleman caller. Both Britney and I are getting over being sick, and while we are now able to walk about, we still have persisting coughs. My best description is that it sounds like Britney and I are communicating with a modified morse code. Except instead of dits and dashes, it's wheezes and whoops.

For anyone with the itch to partake in snail mail:

Olivia Goza

21 Venneit Close

Roger Dudman Way

Oxford, OX1 1HZ

U.K.