Today was a relatively mild day on Tuesday, January 22nd, my 18th day in London. I woke up and mostly stayed inside today but two really important events happened. One relates to a song by The Band Perry called “If I Die Young”. The song itself is one that I’ve grown to really love and appreciate over these last few weeks, and as I’ve come to appreciate it more and more for its honest and heartfelt description of loss and ultimately the cruel twists of fate that life can sometimes turn, I’ve been humming it in my head these past few days/weeks that I’ve been feeling a strong connection to home with that song.
Needless to say, when I heard it coming out of the store on the corner of Great Russell Street and Tottenham Court Road I was overjoyed, and felt an assurance that God was with me and had been with me throughout this entire process.
Not wanting to be cooped up all day in my room, I set a goal to visit a museum I hadn’t seen in London. Wanting a museum with a cllose proximity to where I lived, I chose the Grant Zoological Museum, which is a tiny museum located on the first floor of the University College of London, where it is “the only remaining university zoological museum in London”. The one specimen that fascinated me (so much so that I made a not in Evernote® for it) was the Quagga skeleton, a speicies of extinct zebra (no, I didn’t take a picture because it was forbidden, but images are available via Google).
My visit to the museum was short and brief, as I had to get back to start work at 5:00. This was actually the second night in a row where I didn’t need to cook dinner, as I had Subway™ on Monday and was going to have Dominos Pizza™ for the second pizza night of the semester. Unfortunately I didn’t get to spend much time with David because it was already 5:00 and he had to leave at 5:30. The time went by very quickly, and I was soon heading to bed looking forward to a six hour shift on Wednesday.
Hey Johnny Y! You made me go to You Tube and look up that song since I don’t know it – beautiful but sad lyrics! I’m glad your hearing of it made you feel God’s presence with you. Comfort comes in many forms, doesn’t it? OK, now I have to go google that skeleton you mentioned. Have a great weekend! – - – Patti T.
Thanks Ms. Thomas. It’s definitely a sad song, but there’s a sweetness to it that I find absolutely endearing. Hope you’re having fun in Florida.