In England, it can be extraordinarily dark in the winter, and I think it’s finally getting to me a little bit.

Today the sun rose at 7:51 am and set at 4:34 pm. As a point of comparison, in New York today, the sun rose at 7:13 am and set at 5:02 pm. You guys have an entire hour and 6 minutes on us. Geesh. At least it was light out while I walked from the tube to work, but I’m about done with this. I am trying to be pleasant, but really I feel pretty grumpy, and to make matters worse, so does EVVVVVeryone else. Miserable so-and-sos - all of ‘em. The GOOD news, however, is two-fold.

1. It will be daylight savings time before I know it. March 26th is a mere two months away, and between now and then Todd is coming to visit and we’re going to Greece! Not bad, really.
2. Because it gets so dark in the winter and so light in the summer, the change seems to happen faster, so when we came back from the States on the 5th of January, the sun rose at 8:05 am and set at 4:07 pm. That means that we have already gained 14 minutes in the morning and 27 minutes in the eve- ok, maybe in the afternoon. But still - that is a noticeable change! Once it gets past the time I leave work, I think I’ll really start to notice.

Anyway, how do I know that it’s getting to me? Well, I yelled at a lady I don’t know. BUT she was being horrible. I was trying to wheel Melinda’s suitcase through the little tube doors, and I bumped into this lady, because she was trying to get past me (presumably thinking that I would be slow thanks to the suitcase). So I very sincerely said, “Oh I’m sorry!,” and then she huffed and puffed and took the Lord’s name in vain, which -admittedly - isn’t as great an offence here as it is in America, but still - I said I was sorry. So I really yelled at her, “I SAID I was SORRY!” She walked off saying, “Take it easy” and looking embarrassed.

For a second, I felt a little bad. The poor lady was probably having a bad day, and I’m sure if I were having a miserable day I might huff and puff if someone got in my way. But then, I decided that no - she was being nasty, and if I were - on my miserable day - being nasty to someone, I would absolutely deserve to get yelled at. So now I’m OK with it, but goodness it surprised me when it came out of my mouth!

The point of this whole story is that the sun needs to come back out, and also, everyone else needs to stop being grumpy so that I don’t have to be grumpy back. No worries - only 2 measly little months to go.