SAINT MATTHEW

Sorry I haven't updated this lately, but every time I start typing something to put here, it ends up being about being worried about things related to going back to the States.

Mind you, I'm not nervous about it all of the time, but it seems like when I actually start to sit down to type, or when I start talking when I'm tired, that is what it ends up being about.

Incidentally, last night it was really late, and I was feeling worried about things in general, and then I had two glasses of wine.

This is a bad idea.

It's kind of funny that I spent several years researching the effects of alcohol, (granted, my research was limited to thermoregulation in recombinant inbred strains of mice and to the effect on hepatic and renal microsomes/endoplasmic reticulum/mitochondria when used chronically) and yet I'm completely clueless when it comes to most aspects of human consumption.

This is the second time I've had wine when I was feeling worried about something, and the second time it was a Really Bad Idea. I ended up being *really* scared and *really* worried--to scared and worried to sleep--and kept Matthew up until well after 4 am worrying and crying.

Matthew was wonderful. I mean, it's not very pleasant having someone keeping you up at 4 am. But he was reassuring and kind and everything. I think he should be nominated for sainthood.

I suppose Miracle #2 was taking me to the Globe Theatre. This is a reproduction of the theatre that William Shakespeare was in--the one his plays were originally performed in. We had tickets for the standing area in front of the stage, which is really the way you should see stuff here.

They were performing A Midsummer Night's Dream, and it was *fantastic*. The men were far better performers than the women--at least one of the women recited all of her lines in a sing-songy way that made the meter and rhyming obvious and irritating, like she was at a poetry reading. But the men were pretty much all really good, and it was staged interestingly.

Mark Rylance came up on the stage afterwards and mentioned that it was Founder's Night. The guy who envisioned the theatre and fought to see it built died before it was completed, and yesterday was his birthday.

It was really fantastic.

Matthew definitely should be nominated for sainthood.

Oh, by the way, I have a hangover today--probably the second of my life. And I have no idea what to do about it, although I have now been told to drink water.

Crazy!