bedlam

went for a run around regent's park last night--beautiful beautiful area. we were going to try to get tickets for the importance of being earnest which is playing in the outdoor theater there now but they ended up being sold out. just as well because this ended up being a long day as it was.
maybe as a break from the weekend which was pretty exhausting, we didn't have class today but did have a field trip out to bethlam royal hospital, aka bedlam. it was founded in 1247 and is the oldest functioning psychiatric hospital. although it used to be pretty ridiculous in there (visitors would/could just come in and wander around looking at the crazy people until the 1770s) hence the evolution of the word "bedlam", it's now a good, modern hospital.
the awesome part was when we got to look through the old case books from the 1890s. there were some really neat things including letters to and from patients in the hospital. one was a letter from a delusional girl to her deaf mother wondering if God would forgive her. it was pretty crazy to be reading this very personal thing from over a hundred years ago which was just tucked in a giant book as another piece of evidence regarding her sanity or lack thereof.
we also poked around the museum which was smaller than my bedroom (take your pick of bedrooms--home, winthrop, or london it was smaller than each of them. literally) and then headed home.
spent the afternoon dealing with getting my computer fixed and reacquainting myself with the internet which is a brilliant brilliant thing. i made some risotto for molly and i then came back to do work. some school-blogging and some reading then some not-school-blogging.
but now, some sleep!