A topic for discussion

Ha, ha.. Anonymous G, you made me laugh. I put those 2 posts together and didn't even realize it. Yes, I guess I can't say I shouldn't sound like a lush when I obviously am! ;)

RG, the greasy food came after the true queasiness was gone. I don't know why it's greasy food for me, like bacon & eggs or something used to work but it was so far past breakfast, that I went for lunch. It seemed to do the trick although I have to admit a day on, I'm still feeling the effects and it's not pretty. That won't be happening again anytime soon.

Joe (jigga320), if you are okay and lurking out there, let me know. I hope all is okay.

M and I had an interesting talk this weekend. I know I've mentioned that sometimes we get onto the topic of what we are going to do with our future. As you know, he's been married and burned badly by it. In theory, neither of us care if we ever get married. The institution of it won't change how we feel for each other, we know we are committed and we are in for the long haul. But when the subject comes up for our future 'living' situation, therein lies the problem.

The easiest way for us to stay in the same place (he in the States, or me in the EU), would be for us to get married. If he is my spouse, after some paperwork is completed, he can live in America and work. If I am his spouse, I can get the same thing over here. He is adamant about not getting married for the sole reason of 'residency'. We always get to this same point and I understand his feelings.

This time I took it further. I said, is there some reason that you don't want to marry me? Do you feel like I could be a person you would marry? He said, of course. I said, well, it's been almost 3 years, do you feel like you know me well enough and love me enough to marry me? He said, yes. I said, couldn't you change your way of thinking so that instead of telling yourself you were marrying me for a green card, you could tell yourself you were marrying me because you love me? Because, in truth, you do? He said, yeeaaah, I suppose. We bandied it around some more. We were finishing the walk, having discussed what kind of wedding we'd have if we got married, another strange subject because his parents probably wouldn't come (them believing that his divorce really isn't a good thing in the eyes of the Lord) and I wouldn't be inclined to get married in the Catholic church. Besides that, I'm too old for a church wedding and just want to get married on a beach, or in my parents backyard, or on top of Machu Picchu or something like that. But I digress.. So I said, is it just that the truth of it is that you wouldn't get married if you didn't have to? He said, yes, that's probably true. And I realized it's true for me too. I would let our relationship go on forever without that piece of paper. I've never been one to think that I need to be married to have kids. I'd just get on with it whether I was married or not. So the truth is that I don't need to be married either. I'm in for the long haul, he's in for the long haul. The only thing keeping us from being together forever is the right place to live or... we could get married. It truly would be the reason then, that we got married. To be able to live in the same place. And in that case, is it a good enough reason? It's confusing, I know. It confuses us too. Sigh.

I really need to get a job. LOL

I'm wrecked..

It's been a nice long weekend here. Easter at M's parents was lovely. We got some chocolate eggs - my favorite is Yorkie bars. Here's the container they came in - the ad campaign says they're not for girls!



I always thought this was hilarious so I had to take a photo of the box.

Last night our neighbors had a 25th wedding anniversary party. We went over and met some new people, which was great fun. I kept getting my wine glass filled and I hate to say it but I got drunk. You know how some nights you can drink a few glasses of wine and it's no bother. You don't get drunk or end up hungover in the morning? And then there's those times... those other times.. usually when you are at the house of people you hardly know.... and something you ate reacts badly with the alcohol (that's what I am blaming it on!) and you get drunk too fast. And you go home early and pass out. And you get up in the morning feeling the worse for wear and you actually get sick and throw up. In the shower. Yeah. That was my day. I haven't had one of those in AGES. I know I didn't make a total fool of myself but I'm still a little shy about seeing my neighbors outside their house... as M would say, Jay-sus! I was not a pretty sight today. But I have a good man. He went out to buy my requisite greasy food lunch (hot chips & fried chicken) and he made me a lovely dinner later. 'Comfort food' he called it, to make me feel whole again. It worked. I'm exhausted and heading to bed early.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Not-so-Good Friday

Gosh, I just realized I'm going to sound like a lush or something when this story is finished! LOL

Thursday night we hit the store to pick up a few items. I knew we were down to one bottle of wine and no beer so I wanted to pick up some wine for the weekend, knowing it was Easter and things might not be open. Well, I didn't find the wine I wanted (we just tried a great new one that was on sale and I was going back for more!) so Martin suggested I go to the store on Friday. I said fine and we proceeded to drink the last bottle of wine at home on Thursday night. So 'Good' Friday rolls around and it's like an official holiday here. Besides many places being closed, there is absolulely no alcohol served ANYWHERE on Good Friday. Meaning, there is no alcohol sold anywhere either. So, while the grocery was open, they did not allow the sale of wine. Or beer. Harrumph! I couldn't believe it! I had to chastise my Irish boyfriend who has lived here for 35 years now and still doesn't know that the stores don't sell alcohol on Good Friday. Can you believe it? And even though we don't drink every night, it suddenly seemed imperative that we have booze last night! LOL

Anyhow, we survived without and I lived to tell about it. That's the story of 'not-so-Good Friday'.

Oh, BTW, we have almost completed our work, we even bought carpet for the stairs and landing and our bedroom, to be arriving on Wednesday and installed! We also finally found great handles to fit on the new closets that Martin built last month, so now we'll be able to open them without bending down to the floor to stick our fingers under the lip of the closet door! Ah, the little things in life!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

LOL

I now know that my online life is having as much of an impact these days as my daily life. I had a dream last night with R, her mom and B, even though I've never met any of them! R was having a bad day and I was with her mom, trying to keep things under some control (I don't know exactly what we were trying to keep under control, mind you). Then B arrived on the scene, R introduced us and he gave me a big hug like he knew exactly who I was. While he was hugging me, he asked me to tell him truthfully how R was doing. He was really friendly and seemed quite thrilled to meet me for some reason. LOL This is where I was when I started getting snuggled in the morning hours before we woke up. I'm not sure why I had this dream but R, if you read this, you are in my thoughts!! ;)

I s'pose it could've been all the fumes I've been inhaling from the undercoat and gloss we are using to paint the trim, doors and doorways.

Jigga, thanks for posting yesterday, I'm glad to know you are alive even though you aren't blogging right now. I hope you are doing okay. You have a lot of online readers looking for you! :) But you probably know that.

RG, I'll definitely post some more if you like them enough to print. There might be some others that you'd be interested in.

Last night's Indian meal was gorgeous. I happen to love this place because, besides the food being great, the service is incredible. I suppose I wouldn't notice so much except that normally when we go out, the service isn't great. It downright sucks, the people working are usually so unfriendly. I try to make an effort when we eat out, to look the server in the eye and ask 'how are YOU?' when we sit down and they come by to take our order. I get a grumbling answer at best and it doesn't manage to improve the service. Not that I'm trying to get better service, to be honest, I'm trying to make a connection.. But this Indian place, with native Indian servers (all men), is great. They are friendly, efficient and beside themselves to get you whatever you need and more. It makes me happy to pay for a meal like that. And we just don't get them too often here.

I don't know how well this will turn out. This was a lovely bridge somewhere in Killarney. (Sorry I can't be more descriptive than that.


A photo of the coast and the lighthouse on the ring of Kerry. The scenery was amazing!

I think I've finally got this figured out!!

Thanks R, for suggesting Photobucket. I'm getting the hang of it finally, which means I will be able to post some photos of my trip to Killarney from Valentine's Day. (and later, I'll be able to post photos of our 'cappuccino' walls for those interested parties. ;))

I love taking photos of gateways and doors. Here are two.




I love the long days now. Finally, I'm getting some energy back (seems like I get low during the equinox times, I've figured out). We have been getting up early again (this time with no problems) and walking in the mornings. It feels good, even if it's been rainy again. Then the evenings... it's 6pm and still light out. Because Ireland is so far north, as the days wear on, it stays light later and later. Even in summer, there's still some lightness at 11pm! It's great. I DO look forward to summer here. But for now, it's nice to see the sun still shining at 6pm, time to have another walk or something. It definitely keeps the spirits up. Even after spending the whole days painting!

That's all for now. Heading out for a bit of Indian food later. At probably the best Indian place I've eaten at. I'm very excited about it!

p.s. thanks to rg and r for your insights about the miscarriage. i haven't heard anything since then, i hope they are doing okay..

Our work is never done...

It was a gorgeous, sunny weekend. Warm, too. A plus. What did we do? Paint the hall, stairs and landing of M's house. It was already a rather mustard-y yellow so we had to paint the whole thing white first (2 coats), then paint the lighter cappuccino color that we used in the kitchen (2 coats). M is finishing up the trim and skirting boards with the first coat, tomorrow we'll use the normal gloss white. It'll look gorgeous when it's finished. And all in the name of impressing my parents.. They will be here in 2 weeks time. M wants the place to look great. (it already did). But he's anal retentive so everything has to be perfect. Hence, the new color and the updated trim. It'll be great when we sell someday, so it's all worthwhile. But it didn't need to be crammed into the two weeks before my parents arrive! LOL He's too good for me. ;)

Back to the weather though. We had this freakish weekend, since St Paddy's Day. Warmish, sunshine, very mild for what we HAD been getting. I even got some garden time in. I mowed and weeded to get a little time outdoors. We added compost to the beds. I love this shit! If I was MY garden, I'd be out there creating little raised beds, I'd make a little vegetable garden out the back. I hate to ask M any more favors, he's already working a million hours. It's funny. If I was home, I'd buy the wood, I'd hammer the thing together myself. I know if I said I was going to do this, I'd get the answer 'oh, I'll do that for you. just let me finish... (fill in the blank). And then I feel bad that I asked him to do more. So, I'll hold off for now. Maybe I'll do it while he's out of town working on the other house! :)

I had some bad news last week. My brother sent an email saying that my sister-in-law had a miscarriage. She was six weeks pregnant. I've never been pregnant so I would say that I think it's better that it was early on, rather than later. I've never miscarried so I don't know if the pain(physical, emotional) is as great as it would be if it were later.. I assume that it is. I never know what to say except I'm sorry.. My brother's email also made some comment about the Italian medical system (for those that don't know, my brother has been living in Milan since December). I tend to get frustrated when people assume that because some other country does things differently to the United States, that they do things the wrong way. He may not have been saying that but it sure sounded like to me. I mean, a lot of doctors abroad go to medical schools in the U.S. so they are going to be just as effective as doctors in the U.S. Even those that don't go to medical school in the U.S. certainly can be as well trained as those in the U.S. I get so frustrated with the ethnocentric (if that's the right word) view of the world. Country centric might be more accurate. Ah well, my rant today. It just rubbed me the wrong way.
I just read what I wrote there and hoped that I didn't sound like what I was just ranting against. What I hoped to convey was that there are alot of doctors out there who have not been trained in the U.S. who are great doctors, just as there are doctors who have been trained and work in the U.S. who can be shitty doctors. It works both ways. We shouldn't assume that we have the ONLY medical staff who can help people effectively. People have been having babies, surgeries, etc, in many countries, around the world, for years! Ok, off my soapbox!

St Patricks Day

And we thought it was just an American drunk fest... NO! It's an Irish one too... The Irish actually get the whole day off today to drink... em.. I mean celebrate St Patrick and his ridding of the snakes in Ireland (or something like that).

Last night we went to a play with some friend's of M's. It was called 'The Home Place' and was set in the late 1800's. Here's the story.. It was really good. M hadn't ever been to a play before (heathen!) and he loved it. I think we'll do it again, occasionally. Afterwards we went out for drinks and ended up at The Clarence Hotel which is part-owned by Bono. It was a nice bar and atmosphere where they had froo-froo drinks and good alcohol. Expensive but we were able to sit down... a big bonus from the looks of things last night.

When we left the bar, we walked through Temple Bar, which is a place loaded with pubs, bars, clubs, restaurants etc. There were people all over the streets (it was only 1am after all!) and still a lot of partying happening.. Something I find interesting is how many seriously drunk people you see there all in one place. I mean, they have that cross-eyed, glazed over look that says no one is home.. if you know what I mean. People falling in the streets, staggering along the sidewalks, kids really (the drinking age is about 16 here), it's unlike anything I've seen anywhere else. I mean, people get drunk in the Bay Area too, I just never saw it like I see it here each time we are out on a 'party night'. Kind of scary really. It's no wonder they've recently opened the Women's Crisis Clinic on Sunday mornings early, so all the girls who got too drunk to use a condom the night before can have access to the 'morning after' pill! Pretty sad, but true..

Anyhow, one of the things I *love* about Dublin is the ability to get home from a drunken night without driving. They make it sooo easy. Besides taking a taxi, they have a service called the Nitelink, which is a bus that leaves every 20 minutes from the center of town, for €4 takes us to our front door pretty much. It runs from midnight til 4:30 in the morning and it's fantastic. I guess that's the nice thing about living in a small city..

That's all for now. Off to figure out how to upload more photos for your viewing pleasure... ;)

Help..

Sorry, trying to work out the posting of photos.. I just don't get enough computer time to work this all out. I have Hello/Picasa, I want to have more than one photo in a post but I can't figure out how to get the link to other photos, to bring it into here. I just need to some time to figure it out... In the meantime, I will tell you that this is a little stone cottage that we passed on this tiny, one lane (our car was almost too big for the lane) road that drove through the mtns outside Killarney.. our dream home (after cleaned up and remodeled of course!)




Now I'm off to see what else I can do with these photos.. Sorry for the suspense!!! LOL

The posting of a few photos

Let me see if I remember how to do this..

These are the few shots that I took in Killarney on our Valentine's Day weekend. This first is the best view of the ring of Kerry that we got. Can you believe that sunshine? We couldn't either.



There must be an easier way! Whew! Let's see what else I can do...

Where did my energy go?

Whoa! The last 3 days have been very, very, VERY low energy. I'm dragging. I can't even explain it. I know, I know... I was sick while I was traveling and then I had houseguests, while I still wasn't recovered.. Now I've had 3 days to rest and relax and I feel like crap! I think it's probably from lack of exercise, even though we've been taking walks daily, maybe it's from the chinese herbs my acupuncturist gave me.. who knows? All I DO know is that I haven't felt this way for a long time and I don't like it. I don't have any mo-ti-va-tion. Sigh.

I'm trying to work on eating differently. I'm sure all of this feeling, along with the trouble losing weight is due to the fact my system isn't working efficiently. I've only been to the acupuncturist twice, this last time he did some things to clear my cold and phlegm so it wasn't even to do with my digestion. But I think we need to get started on it and get started on it fast. I don't like the way I am feeling. It's only 8pm and I'm so tired if I went to lay down right now, I'd be asleep immediately. In fact, that sounds like a great idea. I'll write more tomorrow.. Good night!

Finally back and online...

I'm sorry I didn't get online sooner after I returned home. I was totally wiped out and on top of that, had guests. It just didn't seem right to get online while they were visiting. ;)

R and anonymous g, I wish we could have met up! I would've loved to have met B too (I admit to being more than curious to meet you and probably should've pushed it more but I know you only get a small amount of time together). I promise next time I'll spend a little longer and make sure I see my online friends! anonymous g, I hope you had your surgery and it was successful.. please let me know how you are doing. i think of you often... RG, your new page is beautiful. i was admiring it the other day. cnfg, you are probably too busy to check this but i hope you made it safely to VA. and E, i'm glad to hear that things are going well with your new living situation. you sound in love. S! Come back! We miss you. jigga, haven't had a chance to drop in yet. thanks for checking on me. i hope you are doing well. jules, congrats on the hardest part, buying the ticket.. you are on your way!

So, I arrived home last Friday at 7:30am and had guests arriving at 2pm the same day. M and I scooted home for a little welcoming snuggle (etc!) and gift opening and we drove back out to the airport to pick up my friends. It was a bit of struggle for me as I was still run down from the cold I had and from the drugs I was taking to keep things dry during the flight.. (if you've ever flown with a sinus infection or head cold, you know what I was dealing with) but we managed to show them a bit of Ireland. They flew out yesterday morning and are home as I write this. My girl friend kept hoping for rain but we had a beautiful week (albeit cold) and I'm just not unhappy that she didn't get her wish! LOL

Aside from the illness, I had a great visit home. I spent time with my friend C who is so busy with work that she doesn't have a life. She won the trip, so without her lack of life I wouldn't have gotten to visit Maui, but I keep crossing my fingers that she will create some balance. I always tell her that no one at their deathbed EVER says 'I wish I spent more time at the office'... it's always about wishing they'd spent more time with their family and friends. I pound perspective into her. At least I try. I think I did a little good though as she's responding to my emails now. I told her even if she writes one line, I'd be happy knowing she's alive. It was THAT bad for a while. That said though, she kicks ASS in her job and I'm sure she's the only woman my age(she's actually only 33) making 6 digits that I know. So, I know she's awesome at what she does. Aside from seeing her and Maui, I met up with my last boss for lunch, my girl friend in Danville for a few days, my dentist, another friend for lunch, and my ex-boss/friend and ex-coworker/good pal for wine drinking and lots of chat. As well as my parents and a great friend for chips and margaritas! And I did my taxes. That was a challenge. Selling a house and exercising 2 types of options, etc, etc... Next year should be alot easier. I can go back to the 1040EZ! :P If I even have any income to report! LOL

So I purchased everything on my list and somehow managed to get it back home. We have been enjoying Peets coffee for a week and even printed out a few lovely color photos on the new printer.. It survived the trek in the suitcase. My dad is bringing over the laptop. I dillydallied (love that word!) and decided at the last minute to purchase it... obviously it didn't arrive in time for me to carry it over, so he is. Can't wait to get started on that. Hopefully setting up the wireless network will be a piece of cake.

Ok ladies and gentleman, that's it for now. You probably stopped looking to see if I had written at this point... sorry about that. I expect to be online from now on! At least until my folks arrive and I'm off on travel again. Oh, and I'll post some photos soon. Cheers!

I'm still alive!

Just a quick note. R, thanks for the message yesterday, it was good to hear from you!

I'm winding up my trip now.Staying down in San Diego with my folks. I ended up with a sinus infection in Hawaii. I felt fine except for my throat (ended up with laryngitis). After spending $500 with doctors visits and medication, I was able to fly home. After a week, the cold is finally in my head and I'm ready to go home. Still on antibiotics and nasal spray. What a fun trip! LOL

I'll write more soon. I just wanted you all to know I'm thinking of you and hope you are well.