My Life of Walking

Hey All,

So I still don't have internet access at home but found this little hole in the wall internet place 'round the corner from my abode so for 2 euros an hour, I get to surf away. Tom is home (hopefully) painting some shelves that a previous occupant painted a hideous shade of bright blue.

Finished my second week of commuting to Drogheda and it is definitely improving. Still not a long term solution but I am not hating it as much. Got to work on some cool projects this week and am getting to know my boss and his wife a bit better. Have a couple of events/trainings in the next few weeks that are in Dublin and will mean that I don't have to trek to Drogheda on those days...wahooo. I've decided to do this little Business Management for Design Cert. which consists of 8 one-day workshops focusing on various aspects of running a design company. My boss told me about them and offered me the time off to do it so why not? The courses are heavily funded by the Irish government so they're cheap and as an added bonus, they're in Dublin so it will mean two more days a month in the city instead of the 'burbs. Should be interesting and I'm always up for learning new things. It's in this building called the Digital Hub which sounds like it should look like a spacestation (but is in reality, probably an old warehouse.) The first one is in a few weeks so we'll see how it goes.

Went to see Sin City on Thurs. night with Tommy-boy. We decided to go to this cineplex thing away from the city and in our new carless life decided to walk there and Damn, we underestimated the distance big-time. Barely made it to the movie in time. Decided that it's a bad idea to walk multiple miles in Old Navy 3-dollar flip-flops. As for Sin City, visually beautiful but seriously disturbing on the gratuitous violence front. You get to see someone get all of their limbs amputated and then be eaten by a cannibalistic dog, as well as a person literally getting their head beaten to pulp and their male parts ripped off and thrown on the ground and that's just scratching the surface. No Joke. Not sure I would reccommend it unless you happen to be a cannibal or budding serial killer although I can't say it didn't hold my attention.

Had a pretty productive weekend. Went to a pretty, old downtown bar with some of Tom's co-workers on Friday night but managed to be up early the next day which was a surprisingly sunny and warm (ish) day. It's funny, the minute the temperature goes up above the mid-sixties here, people act like they're in the tropics. Lots of half-naked, pale Irish girls walking around getting absolutely fried and loving it. Went to the Temple Bar Farmer's market which was bunged with people as was Grafton Street and the entire downtown. Guess you've got to take advantage of the warm, sunny weather while it lasts...if the low to mid seventies can really be considered warm...haha. As usual, we went crazy buying stuff at the Farmer's market cuz it all looks so good. Got a ton of veggies and beautiful leafy greens, some fresh salmon, farm-raised meat, cheese, olives, pesto, brown bread, strawberries and a crepe with nutella and bananas...yum. Asked Bryce and Michelle over for dinner and I made broiled salmon with pepper and lemon, pesto, and a big salad with arrugula and really nice tomatoes along with some white wine. Good stuff. I love food. They brought chocolate fudge cake from Marks and Spencers (who make amazing desserts) and whipped cream. Nice.

We also managed to hit up the Irish version of home depot yesterday and bought paint and a bunch of herbs and plants although we didn't consider how we would get it all home untill after we left the store. There's that carless thing again. We managed to hail a taxi driver down who was on his way home from grocery shopping at the fortress that is the giant Tesco in that area. He was an interesting character telling us about the unreasonable price of orange juice, the golf balls he got on sale and picking up big-time Dublin gangsters in his taxi all in the same breath. Craziness. He also told us about the nephew of one of the big gangsters doing a, "runner," and stiffing him on a fare and how this guy ended up dead from a forced heroin overdose....hhhhmmmm...needless to say, we tipped him well...haha.

This morning, I woke up early, found the classical music radio station and planted all of the herbs that I bought yesterday in pots I found in the back garden. Felt like a cross between Lorraine and my mom. Maybe this means, I'll inherit their green thumbs and not actually kill these little plants which would certainly be a first. :) Went to the local Spar and bought milk and cereal and a the Sunday Times. It was the first truly, leisurely Sunday morning that I've had since I left Cambridge. Feels good to finally have a settled place to call my own. On that note, I'm antsy for visitors. Cannot wait. Tom is planning a "Stag Do," in July with his boys and one of Tom's female co-workers was saying we should plan a, "Hen Party." I thought it was really sweet that she offered to do that but thought to myself that anything wedding related without my peeps in Boston would just not do. Who would come to a party here...my imaginary friends?! Will have to have a bachellorette (sp?) party sometime in the future in Beantown or surrounds. Tommy can rock out all he likes in Amsterdam this July...My day will come as well, I'm sure ;) Do want to start planning some weekends away though regardless. Apparently, you can fly from Belfast to Prague for 21 pounds sterling. Not bad at all.

Well, alas, my hour is almost up. I'm off to supervise Tom's labor...haha. Make sure he's not lying down on the job. :) Hope you're all well and enjoying your hot weather. ( am comfortably wearing jeans right now which is awfully strange for mid June!)