Sleepless night #4.
Again, it's after 3 a.m., actually after 4 a.m. (since clocks went forward tonight), and I've been lying in bed for hours, unable to sleep despite my exhaustion.
Thankfully, the days since receiving my bad news on Wednesday have gotten progressively better--it has helped to talk through some things with a few people and I have really felt the support of my friends and family.
Unfortunately, the issue has not been resolved, and since SCCS has spring break next week, it looks as though further communication with school administration is going to be put on hold. Until then, thoughts continue to flood my mind at night when I should be sleeping. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to put this out of my head.
I think I need a therapist. Or perhaps a mild sedative.

On a more positive note, I was able to make it to two museums this week: the National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday and the Tate Britain on Saturday. Both of these places are FREE, so there's no guilt for only staying an hour if one manages to hate them. I happened to stay interested and engaged at both places for nearly three hours each (with the help of an audio guide)! The Portrait Gallery has portraits of British people and the Tate focuses on British artists, so I suppose they would appeal even more to British citizens.

Painted portraits are a curious thing... A thing of the past, really, because of photography. That is, unless you're royalty or something. Nowadays, a person would have to be pretty full of himself to commission a portrait. Honestly, what would you do with a gigantic painting of yourself?!? Hang it above the fireplace? Seems quite narcissistic to me. You'd have to be pretty confident that it would end up in a museum at some point. There's probably a portrait of Bill Gates somewhere. Anyway, it was very cool to see what some of these historical figures from the 1600-18oos looked like. Their clothes and hair were hilarious.

King Charles I (1631)

Henry, Prince of Wales (1610)

The Tate Britain has a huge variety of art, which I like--a little bit of everything. I'm sitting here trying to remember if something stands out, and all that comes to mind is this:

The Lady of Shalott

I guess I've read Anne of Green Gables (and seen the film) too many times!
There really was A LOT more to the museum than this!

On that note, I think I'll try this thing called sleep. I've heard a body needs it to feel good.