I've gotta see a guy about some stuff

It was the end of Orthodox Holy Week on Saturday night, and one of the capstone events is a midnight mass. Seeing as how I went to Mass on Easter Sunday, I figured I'd go with some Romanian friends to the midnight ceremony to see if I couldn't tease out some of the differences between the churches. Initially, we thought that the service coincided with midnight in Romania, making it 10 pm London time, so we arrived at about 9:30 at night. We quickly ascertained that the Mass didn't start until midnight...London time! We quickly went over our options, and since we were planning to go out a club after church, we decided to piss off down to the pub for a few pints to pass the time. I wanted to get fairly intoxicated so I would be in prime position to go out after church, but due to my budget constraints I knew I couldn't do this at a London pub. Also, the thought of sitting in a pub for a few hours straight was a bit much for me, considering that the weather was fantastic out, the first decent night we've had in weeks here. Hmm...a vexing conundrum, indeed. How to solve this problem?

Why, by getting cheap hooch at the grocery store, of course! A capital idea! But this brought up the problem of how to get away from my friends (who were determined to hang out in the pub) so I could sneak down a bottle of wine? I decided to use one of my oldies-but-goodies by making some mention of having to take off for a few minutes. I kept saying the night was too nice for me to not take a walk along the banks of the Thames. After a bit of puzzlement on everyone's part, I made my escape.

It didn't take long for me to realize that, due to my continuing pattern of bizarre behaviour and the vague knowledge that I'm dealing with all sorts of personal demons, my friends now think I have a heroin or crack habit. The fact that I came back from my "walk" -which I actually did take- a wee bit wobbly only added to their suspicions. I'm sure their thinking was confirmed when we all ended up coming back to the residence hall, where the people I was with do not actually live, and started drinking in the basement room of some of my friends. It was while everyone was having a good time that I ended up making one of my patented disappearances into the night air by slipping out the door while nobody was watching and going upstairs to go to sleep. Awesome.


Still, in honor of my proclivity to take off so I can be by myself at the most random times, I figured I would leave everyone with an apropos snippet of some Springsteen:

Tonight I'll be on that hill 'cause I can't stop,
I'll be on that hill with everything I got,
Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost,
I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost,
For wanting things that can only be found
In the darkness on the edge of town.