The Emerald Isle

It has taken me a while to write a post the accurately sums up my trip to Ireland. I wrote one, but it was filled with a little too much vitriol and negativity.

I'd love to say the trip was an amazing adventure. There were parts of it that were great, and there were parts of it where I was pretty miserable. This is partly because I was not at all mentally prepared for this trip, or the concept of traveling with people besides Steven. Lets just say that I probably would have enjoyed the trip 100 times more if it had been just Steven and me. I knew before we left that I don't travel well with people, and this just solidified that fact for me.

The short summary is as follows:

We arrived in Dublin, where we only spent about 6 hours before getting on the road to Kilkenny. Kilkenny is a really neat little town, and we met a bunch of crazy Irishmen at the pub across the street from our hostel. Apparently the way to get Irish people to talk to you at a pub is to start playing cards. This is a pretty normal bar activity in Wisconsin, at least where I come from. Apparently not so much in Ireland, and we were made fun of for doing so. At least it was a good conversation starter.

After Kilkenny we headed to Kilarney where there is a national park. We ended up staying in Kilarney two nights and I really enjoyed the time we spent there. It was pretty much the highlight of the trip. I sure do love nature, and nature abounded. We saw mountains, lakes, waterfalls, and lots and lots of sheep. You know what I don't love? Narrow Irish roads and using a map that isn't drawn to scale to figure out where in the heck we were in the park. It sure was beautiful though.

We filled out the rest of the trip with stops at the Cliffs of Moher, a stop in Galway and then on to a wedding in Rathmullan and a reception in Ballybofey. Irish wedding receptions apparently go until 5:30 in the morning. There was no way I was going to make it that long. I was actually pretty surprised at the number that did.

Let me pass on some things I learned while I was on this trip:

• When one is traveling very long distances by plane, one should set aside a day to become acquainted with the new time zone, especially if one has already been awake for 20 hours. One should NOT attempt to get by another 12 hours with 20 minutes of sleep. If one does attempt this, let this be a warning: you will become one tired, cranky traveling companion.
• Ireland is hella expensive. I thought it was terribly ironic that the dollar reached an all time low against the Euro the first time I leave for a European vacation. Add on top of that the fact that Ireland is known for its "rip-off" culture. I paid 9 Euros (about $14) for the greasiest fast food quarter pounder and cheese with fries. I had no choice because...
• In the off tourist season, you have a very small window in which to eat dinner. This window is 6-9. If you had a late lunch and aren't hungry until 10, you are fucked and you will pay $14 to eat a meal that will have you hurting for days afterwards.
• Also, bring Kleenex with you when going on a hike in the woods. I think that's all I'm going to say about that.
• If the other couple you are traveling with suggests playing Euchre, politely decline. Especially if it ends up being boys against girls and one of the boys is officially THE SOREST LOSER ever. Arguments will abound.
• When one is entering a really cool area of a bar in Galway, one should pay attention to where they are stepping. Otherwise, one might inadvertently miss two stairs and roll their ankle. This was even before any drinks were to be had. [Incidentally that happened to Steven and not me.]
• If you are prone to panic attacks, do not try to visit Slieve League, Europe's highest sea cliffs, with someone who drives like a maniac. The roads to get there run very close to cliffs, and as I mentioned above, Irish roads are already too narrow for my tastes. Every time a car came at us I kept envisioning our car careening off the road and down a very steep cliff into the very cold ocean. It was not a good thing.
• I say this every time I fly there, but I refuse to fly out of O'Hare ever, ever again. I am ashamed to admit that Steven and I got lost in the Economy parking lot (sadly, this is the second time that's happened). We were tired and disoriented and cranky. We just wanted to get home after a fairly stressful trip, and O'Hare was determined not to let us do that. F-off O'Hare.

I'm labeling this trip an experience. That labels it neither negatively nor positively. It just was. The country itself was incredibly scenic, but I don't really feel the need to go back anytime soon. I have so many other places I need to visit.

She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah

This time of year always makes me think of The Beatles. It was a Sunday evening in November 1995, the Sunday before Thanksgiving to be exact, when I feel completely, hopelessly, head over heels in love with The Beatles. I was 13 years old. This was the Sunday when the first part of The Beatles Anthology aired on TV, and from that moment forward I lived and breathed The Beatles.

As any adoring Beatles fan should, I own The Beatles Anthology on DVD, and yesterday I popped it in. It had been a while since I watched it (I did eventually expand my musical horizons to encompass music other than The Beatles.) I think the last time I watched it was when I forced Steven to sit through all 8 parts when we first started dating. If he couldn’t do that, then there was no way I was going to be able to continue seeing him. I knew he would like it though, as one of the reasons I agreed go on a date with him in the first place was due to a drunken debate we had over which Beatles album is the best. He thinks it is The White Album. I contend it is Rubber Soul, although I am apparently the only person on the planet who thinks this. I have my reasons.

As I watched The Beatles Anthology, I realized yet again how much certain music signifies certain parts of my life, and how closely associated my memory is with this music. The Beatles are 8th grade and freshman year of high school. I hear that music, and I instantly feel 13 again. These are my memories:

• This one girl and I used to type up Beatles lyrics and give them to each other. This was before the Internet and the possibility of just going to one of many lyrics web sites. In order to type up the lyrics, I would listen to the song on my walkman, pausing after each line so I could slowly henpeck the keyboard to get the lyrics down. I wasn’t typing 70+ words per minute back in the day, that’s for sure. It was always a competition over who loved The Beatles more with this girl. I think I won. If not, I’m declaring myself the winner now.
• I would exchange notes with my BFF that were basically glorified games of Pictionary based on Beatles lyrics. You know, a hammer for "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer," a raccoon for "Rocky Raccoon," etc. The one drawing that I will always remember was actually kinda mean. There was a girl at my middle school named Michelle who always wore really tapered leg jeans and, as everyone in 1995 knows, those are totally not the cool pants to be wearing. She also had really stringy hair that looked like she never washed it and, like me, she played the clarinet. Therefore, the picture that signifies the song "Michelle" was a girl with tapered leg jeans and stringy hair playing the clarinet. Don’t feel too bad for her. Last I heard she got rid of the stringy hair, got a boob job and was doing pretty OK for herself.
• I read a really terrible Beatle’s biography for a paper for my English class in 9th grade. Seriously, it was one of the most terrible biographies I have ever read. I have the most recent Beatle’s biography, and I still haven’t trudged through it (all 1,000 plus pages) because this other biography I read was so terrible.
• I borrowed the movie version of Yellow Submarine from the library over Christmas break in 9th grade. I forgot that we had to go to Milwaukee and therefore would be unable to return the video in time. My parents wouldn’t make a special trip to the library. I therefore had a $5 fine on my card and I carried that balance through the rest of my high school career. Instead of paying the fine, I just stopped using my library card. I used my Mom’s or Dad’s instead. I am a horrible library patron.
• I would beg my Mom to purchase me Beatles’ t-shirts from kiosks in the mall. These shirts were overly expensive and were inevitably too large for my 14 year old self. I persisted though and did persuade my Mom into a Rubber Soul shirt, a Revolver shirt and a White Album shirt. Oh how I loved those shirts.
• My stand partner in band and I would sing "All Together Now" really loudly during class. One of us would just say, "Boom boom boom," and we would be off. That really is one catchy, if not all together annoying, song.
• If my piano teacher let me pick a song to learn next, I would learn a Beatles song. I played "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" for my piano recital in 10th grade. I still have it memorized to this day. That song is also where the title of this blog comes from.

I could come up with some more, but those are the ones that came flooding back to me yesterday. Beatles, I still love you

Back, right where you started from

I have to laugh, because everything comes full circle.

A month and a half ago I was in so much hate with my job it wasn’t even funny. It was actually beginning to affect other aspects of my life, like my relationship with Steven. I got up every day and dreaded the next 9 hours ahead of me. The only thing that got me through the day was the sheer relief I knew I would feel as soon as I walked out the door. I didn’t really want to take the time to find a new job for a number of reasons. First, I’ve only held this current position for a little more than a year. It took me 9 months of searching to find this position alone. Embarking on another long and torturous quest for a new job that isn’t guaranteed to be any better than the current one seemed like an insurmountable task, a task that I did not want to take on at the moment. Second, I was only going to continue working full time until I got into grad school, and it didn’t seem worth it to find another job that would hopefully only last until next fall.

To calm myself down and quell some of my feelings of frustration, I took two sick days back in October (or “mental health” days, as I like to call them since I wasn’t actually sick) and hoped that would make me feel better. It did, and I’ve trudged through work week after week with little incident, knowing that this was only going to be temporary until I got into grad school. I didn’t even want to think about how devastating it would be if I didn’t get into grad school and was stuck with no other option than to continue working here.

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from my former supervisor from the job I held when I lived in Oshkosh. She has, in the three years since I left that job, on and off offered me, no practically begged me, to take the job back. I really, really like the job and everyone I worked with. The problem is that it’s in Oshkosh and I’m not. I would never consider moving back there, not to mention the fact that I’d be hard pressed to convince Steven to go back there with me. This e-mail, though, was to let me know that it’s now possible for the position to be done in Madison and that they wanted me back. I called and spoke to her that evening to let her know I was definitely interested. Here I was sitting at a job I despise, when this position just fell into my lap again. No long and painful job search required!

Former supervisor said she would work the boss man for me, and yesterday I spoke with him and the wheels are now in motion for me to go back. I can’t believe my life works like this some time. The best part is they know my plans for grad school, and they want me back regardless of if I plan on staying short term or long term.

SO HAPPY!

A good day (or weekend) ain't got no end

I love lists. I can't help myself.

A weekend in bullets:

• New clothes that fit well
  
• Taking a sleeping pill to be able to sleep in until 10 on Saturday
  morning
  
• Yarn, glorious yarn
  
• Ordering tickets for my Mom and I to see the Saturday matinee of The Nutcracker at the Overture Center
  
• The Darjeeling Limited, which I enjoyed very much
  
• Yummy Indian food (naan and butter chicken, I love you)
  
• Chocolate martini for dessert at Madison's
  
• Two glasses of wine at Natt Spill
  
• Going to bed mildly buzzed at 10:30 on a Saturday
  
• Waking up Sunday morning and realizing that I magically and unexpectedly now have another hour due to DST
  
• Not getting out of my pajamas all day Sunday
  
• Egg Boats and Dad's Awesome Potatoes (recipe follows) for brunch
  
• The Packers winning, not because I actually like football but because I know how happy it makes my Dad and brother
  
• Grilled cheese with stone ground mustard and a huge slice of tomato with Sweet Potato, Squash, and Apple Soup (recipe follows) for dinner
  
• Going to bed at 8:30 due to extreme tiredness from extra hour due to DST
  

Things that were not awesome about the weekend:

• Realizing at 8:30 on Friday night that our furnace was no longer working
  
• Shelling out $140 on Saturday to get our furnace to work again
  
• Not doing any work on my final presentation for my Women in Society class

Dad's Awesome Potatoes

1/2 to 1 stick of butter, depending on how unhealthy you want to be
2 baking potatoes, cubed
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt
pepper

Melt butter in frying pan over medium high heat. Add potatoes, onion, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are crisp and onions are caramelized. Garlic will become blackened. Makes 4 servings.

Sweet Potato, Squash, and Apple Soup

1 med onion, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
2-3 apples, cored and diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat olive oil on medium high in stockpot. Add onion and sauté until translucent. Add vegetable stock, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, apple, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Transfer two ladles worth of vegetables and one ladle of broth to food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Add back to stockpot and heat on low for an additional 5-10 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings.

Some pictures I took this summer

 

 

 

 

Are you a positive person?

A conversation from last night:

ME:

So yeah, I don’t want to be around negative, lazy people anymore. That’s my choice, right? I want to be around positive people who want to do stuff!

STEVEN:

Did you honestly just say positive people who want to do stuff?

ME:

Yes, they may not necessarily be doing stuff, they just have to want to.

STEVEN:

I think you should start www.positivepeoplewhowanttodostuff.org

ME:

That would be so awesome. It’ll be the first step for people. “Are you a positive person? Do you want to do stuff? Well, here’s what you can do!”

And I can be all, “Hi, I’m Julia. I’m a positive person. I wanted to do stuff, so I volunteered at the Rape Crisis Center!”

And you can be all, “Hi, I’m Steven. I’m a positive person. I want to do stuff. That’s why I’m here!”

STEVEN:

I’m neither positive nor do I want to do stuff.

ME:

Oh.

Life is what you make of it

Things that have been making me happy lately:

• Watching Freaks and Geeks (although I am sad that I didn’t know about it while, you know, it was actually on TV)
• Otis Redding
• Apples from trees in my parents’ backyard
• Cool, crisp mornings
• Franklin Delano Rosencat, the wunderkitten
• That yoga made my muscles feel all happy and stretched
• New haircut
• Awesome dress (and boots and purse) I found for an upcoming special event in…
• IRELAND, which I am leaving for in two weeks

Things that have been making me unhappy lately:

• Realizing a person you classified as a “friend” is really not a friend at all and is instead highly irritating and not worth associating with.
• The red truck on University Ave this morning with a serious exhaust problem that was spewing out highly visible pollution all over the place. Where is a cop when you need one?
• As always, my evil Women in Society class