Up And Down ... You Can't Always Get What you Want (or some such cliche)

Been a roller coaster of a day. Left Brussels this morning for what I thought was going to be a week, but shall in fact prove to be three. Arrived in Glasgow to a mysteriously smelly flat and a disconnected phone. Signed two loan cheques that shall pretty much have me hustling cheap, alleyway sexual favours until, at least, I'm drawing Social Security. Spent too much money shipping said cheques back to the States, because changing them to sterling is too much of a headache. Battled with a printer that a friend bequeathed me when he left Glasgow last year. Ultimately won battle, thus eliminating the 5 pence per page at the university that I've been shelling out since last year. Added up the expenses of my Melville conference -- barely met the budget that I at one time thought was rather inflated. Checked out three CDs from my local library, discovered that, in contrast to the wonderful public library in Cincinnati, I have to pay 80 pence per CD -- had £2.50 in my pocket. On the promotional sticker of The Delgados' "The Great Eastern": 'The greatest songs in the history of recorded sound' (NME). Laughed at Katrien upon learning that, after eighteen months of unfettered, free travel aboard the Brussels Metro, she was today busted for travelling without a valid ticket. Won a £330 4-Day European Holiday off a scratch-off game from Katrien's copy of Company (a British knockoff of Cosmo).

So it goes . . .