Alone or Alonely?

Well, I have officially survived my first Dublin weekend with no Tommy and no imported friends from the states and while it was probably the quietest weekend I've had in a long time, it wasn't bad. Unfortunately, of the short list of people I can claim as friends here, most of them were out of town this weekend so Friday night I just came home and had an evening with me, myself and I. Made myself pasta and redwine and read my novel and talked to Lolo on the phone. Other than the absolutely gigantic spider I found in my livingroom and a young mother and child who rang my doorbell at nine o'clock at night for some strange reason, it was quite the mellow evening. I suppose it's not a bad thing to have some time to oneself (although it's better when it's a conscious choice and not a sad commentary on the state of my social life...haha) Saturday, I just got shit done...got a library card and enough groceries to feed a nation of millions. Eventually human contact was made and I met up with Jane and Johnny for some tasty krishna-vegetarian food and a couple of drinks at the most fabulous dive bar ever. The bar is in a fairly seedy part of town (of which there are many...) and looks like an absolute hole from the outside, but inside it's quite spacious and decorated in that old school Georgian style with low tables and leather stools and one of those ornate dark wood bars. It smelled like your grandma's attic and had the coolest, Georgian silver and burgundy, fuzzy wallpaper on the walls....fabulous. It was just us and the old men and a Neil Young CD so we got into some good conversation about Dublin and Boston and East Coast vs. West Coast ethos, and Online Universitys and The Rat and Local 186 and FSU and other uniquely Boston things that I didn't expect to be chatting about in a Dublin dive on a Saturday night. Good stuff. Late in the eve, I met up with Esther, Leon's girlfriend and some of her friends at a much more boisterous, modern and typically Dublin bar where there was a benefit going on for Dentist's going to Uganda (of all things.) Esther is a doll and was very sweet and friendly and saved me a few times from some less than exciting potential male suitors...

Woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover which seems to be the way Dublin Sundays begin... I blame it on the round ;) (which I'm sure I have pontificated on in prior blog entries.) Anyway, just laying low on this gray Sunday afternoon reading the Sunday Times and eating Wheatie Roll (otherwise known to people who are not Marina as Wheaten Bread.) Read an article about Modern Britain's epidemic of loneliness... supposedly all of this modern technology, email, the internet, television and our ability to function in our day to day tasks without much face-to-face interaction with other humans has some people feeling a bit disconnected and as though their social interactions are superficial. That was the gist of it anyway. They pointed out that some of the most popular tv shows center around close knit communities (like Friends, Sex and The City, Desperate Housewives) which many people seem to both lack and desire. Made me feel lucky in a way because while I may not have a closeknit circle of friends here in Dublin and do sometimes feel lonely, I know that you all are out there and I can call up scenes of family dinners and fakesgiving and summer barbecues and shared history and it's nice to think that you all are truly, intimate friends and that we don't all just live on the surface of eachother's lives (even if that means we see eachother being both our best and worst selves...) It is a great and important thing to have a community of friends. Just wanted to let you all know that I appreciate you and think of you often. Looking forward to the annual fakes...even if it is four months away...haha. Hope you're all well. I have finally found almost all the ingredients for vegetarian Chili so I am off to make a big batch of it. Tommy returns tonight and I plan to woo him with food so that he will give me all the dirt on his stag weekend in Amsterdam (renamed by Lolo:Ramerdam after Christopher and Oliver get their filthy paws on that place...haha.) Love to you all.