On Travelling

First off, I'm no longer in my flat in Ranelagh (not now, not in the fall). I have moved! So if you need that new address, let me know.

I actually spent last week bouncing between 5 different places: Ranelagh, the new flat, the flat in Mullingar, Donegal with Sinead, and IFSC with Deter. Now... it's home in MN for the next 2 months. I don't like living in a bunch of different places at the same time (I've decided it's quite stressful), so I'm going to avoid that in the near future. But on the up side, I had some fun times travelling!So first stop: Donegal! After about 5 hours in a car to get there, a heaping pile of food from Lidl, and two bright pairs of leg-warmers... Ridiculousness ensued.

(I got stuck in a bog)

(We took over a castle)
(We ate a whole cow)

All in all, great times! Thanks Sinead... And to our credit, we did find Bloody Foreland eventually.

No sooner was I back in Mullingar when I had to pack up and move on out of the flat up there to head back to Dublin... And move out of my flat in Dublin. Big mega thanks to Deter for helping me move all my shmaz and Jim for letting me litter his room. Because ND is doing work on the O'Connell house flats over the summer, my stuff is split between Jim's room and the sacristy (It's weird to leave your stuff in a sacristy). Deter and I had a slumber party the last night in town (again, thanks for tolerating me).

I woke up around 4:30am to pane shaking thunder. I was 100% confused (not being in my own room, thunder and lightning in Dublin... what gives?!). It was the start to a very long day of travel. It continued to rain all morning, so I did have to walk across the tarmac in a white tee-shirt in order to board my plane home. Clearly, there was a delay and I was a bit strapped for time when I reached Chicago. I hit the ground running and managed to just make my flight to MSP. I love getting into the MSP airport. It's like once I'm there, I don't care if my luggage shows up or if the weather is crappy... I'm home.

We had a family dinner (minus Joe, plus Kirsten). Totally the best thing ever. I was nearly asleep at the table by the time we had dessert, but I couldn't care less. I love my family.

Last night (being the 4th), we went to the club for dinner and fireworks. We've been going there for over 20 years and I can't remember ever being rained out. It's brilliant.

So... It's good to be home. Time to get cracking on the work that's piled up lately. And for the time being, you can find me in Minnesota (and can reach me on my MN cell or my Dublin mobile).

~L