Staying Busy

I've never been one to sit still for long. Most of you probably already know that by now, but the last week has been particularly busy. I think it's a good thing with Glacier moving out last Friday and all. Everything's been so busy with university preparations, moving into the new flat, running practices, parties and working through Tenie's bucket list, I've managed to keep myself from feeling too sorry for myself. Admittedly, Monday I took the afternoon to stay curled up in bed, having a mini pity party, but after that time, I kicked my own butt into gear; way too much to be done to be wasted on pouting for a whole day. Besides, there's only so much lying around Hermione's going to let me get away with.
Tenie also came to stay with us from Tuesday until today because she was allowing her other flat mate's friends to stay in her room while they visited. Her stay  was great and having her around helped pull me out of my funk. Roscoe, who was definitely missing his Glacier, seemed to perk up as well. We did some more flat organising, hanging paintings Mr. K has painted and getting things into their permanent places. We spent a few late nights curled up on the couch watching TV shows and painting toes. I am so glad that I got to have that little bit of time with her before she has to leave.
Tenie found out a few weeks ago that she will not be getting the scholarship she was relying on in order to write her PhD. She had been accepted into the program, but she needed the funding to afford the insane international tuition fees. So, unfortunately, she will have to go home for a year as her post-study visa has expired and she won't be able to study without that financial support. She has started laying the foundations for a return plan for next September, and although I am going to mis her like crazy, I know everything works out the way it should. She'll be back!
Anyway, with her looming departure moving ever closer, she's made an Edinburgh bucket list. So, we're going to work through it before she leaves. Today we managed to strike two items from the list; the first being a complete fluke.
Last night we had a flat warming party and had several friends over for drinks and munchies. It was deemed a "mad hatters" theme and pretty much everyone showed up wearing hats. We had a few girls in what we like to call "old man hats," a princess crown (which the wearer felt suited her quite well), an Indiana Jones hat (we had over five archaeologists at the party, someone had to come with an Indiana Jones hat), Robinhood head wear and much much more. I had told my friends I wanted a wizard's hat and was pleasantly surprised when a few friends showed up baring my hat of choice. We had great food and in total loss on how to keep the drinks cold, I suggested we get ice and dump everything into the bath tub. Definitely a throw back to university house parties, but what are you going to do?
UK fridges are tiny and so there was no way we were going to fit all of the drinks into our fridge. I don't think a bottle of wine would even fit in there on its own. So, the bath tub and ice it was.
 The night ran late and a few someones had a bit too much to drink. I had stayed mostly away from the alcohol as I'm trying to stay healthy for training and drinking dehydrates a person drastically. Due to this prior event, today  we chose to take a cab into the down town city centre in order to avoid motion sickness from the bus. Since the Fringe, a huge nearly month long festival, is going on, we had to wait quite a while for our cab to arrive. We were about to throw in the towel when it showed up and it happened to be a taxi painted like the Scottish flag. Tenie has wanted to ride in one of those cabs since she moved here four years ago and this afternoon we were able to scratch it off her "to do" list.
We had the cab take us as close to the castle as possible and we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Edinburgh castle. I was impressed by the history of the grounds and was amazed at how dark some of it was. We got to see a military wedding taking place, which was complete with piper leading the procession away. We viewed the crown jewels and I got to read about them on some braille plaques that were posted. Some people were so surprised by me reading the braille that they stopped to take photos.
I wonder if they knew that I didn't come with the castle?
Roscoe was with us of course and he worked like a champ. He maneuvered Mr. K easily around other castle viewers and made sure Mr. K was safe on the uneven terrain of the volcanic rock that the castle is built on. If ever I was to show someone what a guide dog is supposed to do I would have used Roscoe's work this afternoon as an example. He was focused, which was amazing in and of itself because of all of the people and food around that must have been so tempting.
Of course this whole outing wasn't just work for Roscoe. He stopped at one point to nibble on some grass growing by one of the walls while we took photos. I guess he wanted his part of royalty too. At another point we stopped to take more photos and he started sniffing about and we were slightly concerned that he was going to do his business, but he was just being nosy.
Roscoe, don't you know that you can't poop in a castle?
The royal fun didn't end there for Roscoe. We stumbled upon a woman dressed in period costume who was going around crowning everyone. She crowned me, Tenie and Carmen and then it was Roscoe's turn. We had to try twice, but she finally managed to lower the crown onto his head. I am sure Roscoe will be expecting us to call him "your royal highness" for the rest of his life.
It was a really great afternoon that was finished off with me eating half my body weight in hamburger. Ever since I've started running on a consistent schedule, I can't seem to satiate my appetite. Mr. K pointed out that I yelled "because I'm hungry" at him twice in a three hour period. I think it'll be back to carrying around bananas and granola bars for me.
As for Tenie's bucket list, we have a few more things to do: going to the museum, seeing Brave in theatres in Scotland and going through the entire art gallery just to name a few. We have approximately two weeks to get all of these things done, but I have full confidence that her bucket list will be complete when she boards her plane at the end of the month.