Seriously?

There's a guy named Paul from Arklow (36) who was on Today FM (national radio station - you can tune in at www.todayfm.com) talking about how he gave up drink for 2 months because he was drinking 4-5 days a week in the pubs and looked in the mirror and thought he looked pregnant. He's married with two kids (8 and 10years?). The comments that were coming in about Arklow were too funny. People don't seem to think too highly of the town I live in now - not that I can blame them sometimes.

The funny thing was that he didn't think at all about the health consequences he was having or the money he was spending (probably €200-€400 per week) as being a problem at all. I missed most of the original conversation but the dj calculated (from what Paul said) that he must be drinking upwards of 120 units of alcohol per week. Every week. Since he was 18.

So now he was trying to figure out what to do with himself since he wasn't at the pub with the fellas and missed the social aspect of it all. I don't know... How about spending some time with his FAMILY??? If the kids are involved in sports there must be other dads at the matches to talk to. Going for walks? Bringing the kids to the pool? Playing outside with them? Going to the cinemas? Spending the money to hire a sitter and take the wife out to dinner?

It's amazing the number of people who drink as much as they do in Arklow. I was thinking just the other day as I drive down Main Street and saw a man I know walking into a pub 'How on earth can he be out at the pubs so much with a wife at home?' I always see him walking in and out of pubs on any given day at all hours and I know he's married. You rarely see her out with him. It's just odd because they'd be a young couple - shouldn't be tired of each other yet and God help them if they are! I'd be bored with it. Not to mention broke. It's hard to go out in Ireland and spend less than €50 a night. Drinking all day on a Sunday can mean €100 easy.

I don't know. Part of the culture, I suppose. But even people outside of Arklow were saying they couldn't believe it so maybe it's just the town.

And yes, I know it's been forever and that I'm a slacker. My whole family has been over for just about a month now. Maybe I'll try to get back to blogging now that I'm down to just Mom. I'm heading home on the 24th for a little over 2 weeks. SO excited to get some summer weather and see everyone.

I should probably get back to work!!! Feel free to send some sunshine this way if you've got any to spare!!!! ;-)

Directions

In a totally Irish moment, I stopped in a small town to ask directions on my way to Athy. It's pronounced A-tie, like the thing you wear around your neck - dare to pronounce the 'th' properly and people will look at you like you have 4 heads and then say 'Oh... You mean A-tie!! Anyhow - I stopped in Hacketstown to see if they had an atlas because mine was in my new car and I was driving the old one, which was to be handed back to the company once I returned to Arklow. They didn't have an atlas or map, of course. So I asked these two men in the car park and these are the directions I received:

Man 1: Go up to the top of town there (pointing) and you'll want to take a right - that puts you on the old Carlow road. Then you go straight through the next 4 junctions. Then you go straight through the next four junctions (that was NOT me double typing). Then you'll take a right and a left.

Man 2: Straight away! There's a large cow field right there (because there AREN'T cow fields at every other junction in Ireland??).

Man 3: Then you'll got straight through to Castledermot where you'll take a right, left, left, and right.

Uh-huh. I've been here way too long because I actually UNDERSTOOD what he was talking about and managed to find my way to Athy following their directions. Lol. Only in Ireland. ;-)

Glue

I think I'm going to get high on glue if I sit at my desk much longer! The guys are installing the floor and it's REALLY stinking up the place. At least it's the only spot they have left. The glue has been giving me a WICKED headache by the end of the day.

So it's been less than a month since my last post, which is an improvement. It would have been shorter since work's slowed down a bit, but I didn't have a desk for the last week and a half with all of the floors being put in. I was sitting on the floor in a corner with my desk on my lap trying to get stuff done so I kept computer time to a minimum.

I've entered into this 'simplify mode' at home. I've been going through everything and trying to organize papers, fill out paperwork (taxes, absentee ballots, etc.), sort through clothes to send home (it's just not cold enough for some of my sweaters here), and generally clean out my apartment a bit. The paperwork took forever but it's just about sorted and my clothes are all over the spare room but I hope to have that finished this weekend.

In Ireland news: the Taoiseach (Tee-shock) , Berti Ahern, has resigned from power. He's the political leader over here and has been absolutely hammered over the past 18 months in regards to his financial affairs and mysterious transactions linked to his bank accounts. It started as an investigation into planning corruption (taking payments and then allowing people to build developments, etc) and every turn came with more and more sketchy answers and actions from Bertie. Living in the States, you might be familiar with his daughter, who wrote the novel-made-movie 'P.S. I Love You'.

So now he's out of office and every new program is covering his leaving and the new successor and I'm already sick of hearing it after two days. Bertie did a lot of good for the country (Northern Peace Agreement, amazing economy, etc.) but it would have been a bit better for him if he could have done it without discrediting his reputation!

In other news, my mom and my dad's cousin Dorothy are coming over next week. I'm looking forward to them being here and I'm looking forward to Dorothy making my birthday cake! It's going to be yummy! I'm thinking I might take the day off and hang with them while they're here... Might be fun!

Okay - this day is dragging. One of those that's going to take forever to end. I'm hoping I can get out of working tomorrow. I want my Saturday to myself! In the meantime I think I'll try to get some work done. It might just make the day go by faster. In the meantime, TGIF!! ;-)

Ugh!!

Sorry guys! I know it sounds like an old excuse but work is seriously crushing my blog time. It's crushing any life I had at all. I remember that when I moved over here, one of the reasons was because I really liked the whole emphasis on work-life balance. What happened to that? I'm now going to be stuck working over the holiday weekend while my cousin and her boyfriend are in town which just sucks. I already pushed all of my guests as late as I could because of this job and now the stupid thing just won't quit. They keep delaying us and not giving us info and not turning over areas for us to work in. At least there's this other guy from our company who's up here now. I think it's true - misery DOES love company!

All in all, everything else is okay. Football has kicked off again and this year we've got a Junior team, which means everyone gets to play more matches. It's good for a workout but it also tends to swallow up all of my Sundays. This past Sunday we had a match at home at 11am and then an away match (1 hour drive) at 4pm. Not much time to do anything else in between. Kind of frustrating when it's my only day off but at least it's fun.

My sister Anne is still living over here. She came over back in October and is trying to sort out visa stuff now. She seems to be having a decent time from what I can tell. I hardly see her since I don't get home until about 8pm and she starts work at about 7pm. I was looking forward to spending more time with her when she came over and I'm hoping that when (if???) this job finishes up I'll be able to do so.

I'm not sure if or how much I've mentioned Danny in this blog, but we've been seeing each other since last summer and things there are going great. He's an amazing guy and things with him just seem to get better all the time. He's from New Zealand, which I like. He's super laid back and balances out my stressed-out self when I have a bad day at work (that happens more often than not here).

My friend Heather was over a couple of weeks ago. It was so great to see her! I think she was a bit disappointed in the lesbian population of Arklow and she was a bit (okay, a lot) sick her first weekend here but she seemed to have a good time otherwise. I took her to London for the day as a belated surprise birthday present. It was a fun whirlwind day. There's definitely enough to keep you busy in London for a few days, but at least she got to see the major tourist points! I'm hoping it doesn't take us as long to catch up again but it's good to know she's the kind of friend I can go forever without seeing and when we do see each other it's like we never missed a day!

That's about it for updates. I'm kind of low on things to write about since I spend all of my time working. Trust me - you don't want to hear about that!!

Hope everything is grand wherever you are!!! ;-)

A Month

I suck. I know. If it makes you feel any better - my house is a mess, I have no food in it, I haven't consolidated my loans, and it's almost the end of January and we still haven't sent Danny's parents their Christmas presents because I haven't had time to finish the scrapbook. I'm exhausted. I need a full 48 hours of nothing but sleep.

It's Saturday and I'm working and it's the only reason I have time to type this, although it means that none of the other stuff on the list above that I'm meant to be taking car of is getting done. Oh, well. Such is life. Winter is not meant to be this busy!

Spring is going to be busy though. I've got visitors every month from here until summer. Heather's taking Ireland by storm next month and I can't WAIT. I haven't seen her since her commitment ceremony two years ago but she's the kind of person who can turn a horrible night into a good memory by knowing just the right thing to say. That, and I haven't had a decent short skirts/long jackets night out in ages!

March is my cousin Alex and her boyfriend (also my former co-worker) Andy. That should be good fun and they're renting a car so I won't feel bad if I can't entertain them because I'm working some of the week. It's St. Patrick's Day so I'll have a day or two off anyhow - which will be nice.

April is my mom and cousin Dorothy (my dad's cousin, really). Mom knows all the tricks and spots to go and I think they're renting a car during the week too, so also an easy visit (I just feel bad when people come and I have to work - I feel like I'm neglecting them!). It's my birthday while they're here - although my sister Shaine is pissed that she's stuck home with Dad for her 21st!

May is my Aunt Sharon (Alex's mom) and her friend Deyette. They're a fun couple of gals and they'll be in and out and around the country. I have to do a bit of research for castles they can stay in. I really liked Kinnitty castle, so I think I'm going to check into it. You feel like a princess stepped back into medieval times when you're there - just with all of the modern conveniences.

I'm sure summer will see Mom and Dad back and I think they want to bring Shaine and her boyfriend Greg too. How we'll get everyone around is beyond me - maybe rent a minivan?? Who knows, who cares?

So busy, busy, busy - but plenty of room for more visitors if you want to stop over too!!! I've got to go check on the boys - I'm hoping they want to get out of here as badly as I do so they'll finish up early. I don't think they took any lunch break, which is a good sign that they might be finished up soon! I'll keep my fingers crossed! ;-)

If there were an award

for 'ultimate slacker when it comes to blogging' I'm pretty sure I'd win it. Things have been crazy around here. The commute still isn't helping. It took me three and a half hours to get home last night thanks to a guy breaking down in one of the two lanes going through a construction zone. Sweet. Oh - and I had a guy try to drill his arm off at 4pm yesterday as well (it was an accident)e. Not too many dull moments around here!

Tomorrow is my last day of work and then I fly out to go home on Thursday. I haven't even taken my suitcase out to fix the handle (Samsonite sucks, by the way - second bag to break on me), let alone pack anything into it. I'm meant to bake Christmas cookies, clean the house, and finish this project up before I go as well.

At least the project is coming along nicely. Lots of little things left to do like mastic (caulking), some electrical cover plates, some flooring details, cleaning, etc... But most of the big stuff is sorted. Fire alarm is the big thing and that's being done as I type.

I'm super excited about going home for Christmas. I really need to get going so I can get all of this stuff finished and enjoy my break! If I don't manage to get back on here for another week or so, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! ;-)

Just In Case

Just in case you are wondering what on earth has happened to my blog... my reason is that it is now 7.30pm and it is the 2nd time all day I've been able to sit in front of my computer. I'm waiting for people to finish up on site (probably another hour or so) and then I have to trudge along on my 2 hour journey home, which will probably be much shorter tonight without the rush hour traffic. One bonus. This isn't the latest I've been here, nor is it the most tired I've been. It doesn't leave much room for blogging. Or sleeping. Or eating. So don't feel left out - I've also been ignoring things like that - it's not that you fall low on the list.

I will work on being a better blogger. Perhaps I'll make it a New Year's resolution. I should have more time in the New Year anyhow. That will help. I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO can't wait for this project to end. They'd have to send me to Northern Ireland to get me any further away and I don't think my visa allows it so at least I can look forward to being closer to home! ;-)