whistle while you work

It's a Tuesday, so that means I have been working. Yesterday I cleaned up the data base all day long--- not that thrilling, but it had to be done in order to move ahead with other parts of my project. my commute home worked perfectly with the bus getting to the stop just as i did, later dominique got on the bus at o'connell. too bad we were both really tired and didn't have much to say...When I got home I cooked dinner and visited my friends in 33A4 (or whatever block) and then I came back to my shoebox to watch he's just not that into you. i like that movie. dominique brought it with her here and has apparently watched it 5 times. it's probably time to do laundry, but I don't want to face that battle yet... i really need some febreeze.

let's see. today at work i finished cleaning up the database and started researching the friend schemes of other theatre in dublin. pretty interesting... tomorrow i get to see extremeties at the theatre. i met one of the actors in the kitchen/green room when i was cutting up a tomato for lunch. he was very nice even though he had fake blisters on his face and arms. he said his sister's boyfriend was from texas. a lot of that happens here. people talk about where you are from in terms of people they know or their own travels. chances are now that they have met me i could easily come in a conversation as "a student they talked to once working in the city for the summer from texas." it kind of works off of that small world theme.
i talked to a man on the LUAS today-- he was old and kind of dirty, but in his defense he was just getting back from a walking trip in the country. he traveled with a large back pack and wooden walking stick. he was shorter than myself and the seats are very close together on the LUAS so when we spoke i was kind of leaning down towards him to be able to hear him. he had fair skin that clearly had spent a lot of time in the sun and teeth that gold around the edges. he was skinny and thanks to great sun exposure reminded me a little bit of granddaddy melton--- sadly, i did not actually understand everything he said, but he was very nice so i smiled and agreed with him as much as i could. we talke about the weather and who he met on his trip (some texans, or maybe they were just americans...) how much more efficient the LUAS is compared to the buses and he gave some advice as to things to do in ireland. all of the irish are eager to tell you what you should see and do while in ireland, it's really very nice. you can tell they love their country very much. i told him i had gone to wicklow county over the weekend and he replied, "oh yes, we call that the garden of ireland." i liked him very much at that point. when we the train arrived at the last stop he said it was very glad meeting me and then he blessed me on my way in the name of santa maria. he was so nice. it was kind of like in the movies when the random old guy randomly shows up and then disapears because he's an angel or god or something, but he didn't disappear. maybe he was just a fairy.
after exiting the LUAS i began my walk to the bus. unfortunately i spotted it much earlier than i would have liked and had to run about three blocks to the bus stop to catch the bus. i saw it coming behind me and knew it would pass me and it won't stop if you're not at the bus stop. some people looked at me pretty crazy, but i made the bus! i feel like there may have been a stop closer than the one i was running toward, though. i need to do some research. when i finally got on the bus my head felt kind of swimmy and sick---from running so all of a sudden. bleh... public transportatin. . .
i know it's really hot back home, and i can't pretend to be disappointed that i'm missing it--- it's actually pretty warm here, too. it will never be as hot, but it has been hot for the irish. i hope it stays this pretty the whole time i'm here. i really haven't had to battle much rain (yay!!).

i need to take care of some business now. i have a scholarship to look into and some other things of that nature that must be taken care of. maybe i'll go to sleep early tonight. that would be nice!

goodnight!

where we ate lunch.

the sights. (it was crazy windy).

naked men swimming.


look to following entry for the story.

happy father's day!

today was another long day. i went with dominique on a wild wicklow tour. yes, it's very name inpires adventure. the trip was really very nice, but started very early and lasted until early evening. it was another opportunity to see the irish countryside and commune with fellow travelors and tourists. we saw the land where parts of braveheart was filmed and p.s. i love you, which i have not seen. there was a 1200 year old tower from on an old monastic sight and lots and lots of mountains--- or foothills technically--- and some wetlands: moors and bogs and the like. it was really wet and windy. it wasn't exactly raining, but it was foggy early on in the day and it felt like some one was constantly spitting on you. not really a problem, but not exactly desired either. the tour guide/bus driver talked the entire first four hours--- if i hadn't been so tired i would probably remember some of it. some of it was the same history and random facts i'd already heard and the rest must not have been that thrilling. we started by going out towards howth, but we got to drive around in places i hadn't seen before. we saw homes of various rich and famous, like bono, and we saw old men swimming in the ocean with nothing on. yeeeaaaaaaaahhhh..........
dominique and i ate at a cute b&b for lunch. it was really good, but slow and we got back to the bus late---- oops. fortunately it was still there when we got there. there were three girls that we know on another bus so we met up at the different stops and managed to take some pictures together.
i had some delicious icecream today. they played celtic music on the drive back and i kept falling asleep. i just finished a tale of two cities and thorougly enjoyed it--- it was my second time to read it. next i will either read wuthering heights or attempt to take on ulysses. it would be cool if i managed to read ulysses while i'm in dublin, but it is also a very large and heavy book to carry around.
i'm sleepy and need to do laundry soon...........

that's all folks.

one step at a time

today ann, ryan, and i walked and saw several dublin sights. we went to christ church, the guinness brewery, the ireland museum of modern art, had a delicious brunch, tasty dinner, and only got a little bit lost.

there is absolutely no hope of knowing exactly where you are going in dublin because the city was not planned at all, but with the help of several different maps we always made it to where we were going. we started with brunch at queen of tarts where i had my tasty soup the other day. ann loves the brown bread here and noted at dinner that she has had some form of potatoes at every meal. more than one form of potatoes at two. i'm kind of surprised at how often they use sweet potatoes, personally. the queen of tarts, besides offering delicious food also has a pleasant setting--- we took pictures of our teacups.

after that we headed toward guinness and ended up at christ church. we paid to go in, primarily because we thought we were going to see mummies (ann and ryan were all gung-ho for that--- i just happened to be with them). the christ church cript, however, only housed several old artifacts, some modern art, and a mummified cat and mouse that got caught in an organ pipe long ago during a typical chase. it was kind of funny because ryan had been complaining about the lack of cats in the city. ta-daaaa! mummy cat.

we headed to the guinness brewery, took a wrong turn and landed at st. patricks. fortunately ann and ryan were happy to see the park there and we took a brief park interlude before continuing on our way. eventually--- after a reasonable amount of confusion we ended up at the guinness storehouse and took the tour. we were all impressed at how well the musuem was set up--- it flowed very well. we didn't really look at all of the floors (there are about 6) but we did make it to the gravity bar. it's really cool and you can see the whole city through 360 windows 7 stories high. yeah, that's not that high, but buildings aren't higher than 5ish stories in dublin so you can see everything--- even the ocean! ann and ryan got their complimentary guinness and chose to sip on coke. gotta have my coke. i did sip ann's guinness though. tastes like a beer latte.

next we headed to the imma. upon our thankful arrival (those streets are VERY complicated), we had a snack in the cafe and proceeded to check out the art. the best thing about it? the museum is FREE! yes, that's right. the exhibits were interesting, but i was more impressed by the actuall building that housed them. it used to be a hospital for soldiers. it was just a rectangular building that had a giant courtyard in the middle--- so the exhibits were along the hospital hallway and in the different rooms. one exhibit was particularly eerie in the space, but it was really cool. the musuem also had a park, which would be referred to as the grounds in any historical novel. you know, like everyone is at a party and then go for a stroll on the grounds and the trees are all sculpted beautifully and there are statues about. it wasn't quite a park and it wasn't quite a garden...grounds seems to fit though. we really liked it there. it was pretty deserted, which is not common, and we got to lay down in the grass. ann and i had already spent some time dancing and stretching in the museum so this was another wonderful place to stretch out our tired limbs.

after the museum we were very tired and sore and didn't have much to say to one another... so we took the LUAS home. it's amazing how efficient that thing is. then we stopped in at the internet cafe just across the street from their hotel and i printed something off. tomorrow dominique and i are going on a bus tour south of the city to the place that braveheart was filmed. i'm sure other things happened there, but that's what i am excited about.

my face is sunburned a little again. i really need to get some spf for my face.

one of the best things about having ann and ryan here was the fact that i had a place in the city center to report to when i got tired AND they had a television. it's very odd not having a television. a lot of the shows were weird, but this morning i watched how denim is made and this evening i watched some friends (that was on every time i turned on the tv....) there little hotel is SO much nicer than where i'm staying. where i'm staying is nice, but everything here is like the cheapest stuff at ikea (made to be simple and economical) and there's was like the nicer stuff at ikea (economical, yet stylish and comfortable) haha... everytime ann and ryan get to their hotel door they wage a little battle against the two locks to the door, i unlocked it once and i have to admit it's a challenge.

it has been a weekend of exploring new parts and familiar parts of the city, good food, and lovely company. i have been so spoiled getting to share dublin with some of my family.

**

sorry, i blanked out. i know i was winding this down, but i don't know what i was going to say. oh my, i don't know if i will ever be not tired while i'm here. oh well! i'll add some pictures and call it a night--- as always enjoy!

haha, it puts the pictures first. well, so much for the surprise at the end.

HAPPY HONEYMOON ANN & RYAN!!! (thanks for sharing part of it with me :)

la familia

So, today I had the pleasure of hanging out with Ann and Ryan! It is quite nice to have more family here. I have to admit I am quite jealous of their hotel accomodations. They got a free upgrade and their hotel is WAY nicer than my little shoebox. Oh well. We went to eat when I first found them and then we wandered around a bit. Then we went to dinner and then I caught the bus home. Or rather, failed to catch the bus home. Grrr. . . I got a different bus that I was not familiar with the route and missed my stop. The driver pointed me in the right direction and it wasn't a bad walk but it was frustrating. The driver was also very young and drove very recklessly and heedlessly. I imagined that experience was very similiar to passengers riding on the knight bus.

yesterday i worked and ran the box office alone for an hour or so (on my second day!). I am really enjoying my time at the theatre, though. it's very nervewracking running the box office, but i didn't make any awful errors ( i think...) i did tell a woman her tickets would be thirty dollars and she laughed at me and said "dollars..." and i was like "oh, right. euros. I'm sorry, i'm american." it was all good, but i'm always reminded how human i am. hooray for flaws.

i've almost finished a tale of two cities. yay! hopefully i will have time and energy to write a composed and well thought out entry later. right now i am sleepy. goodnight!

estoy trabajando

I am working.

Today was my first day at work. I learned how to manage tickets (which is something everyone does), how to clean up the record of patrons (they have a lot of duplicates and misspellings, etc.), I learned more about the theatre's board and other innerworkings, how to safely escape the building, talked about important Irish playwrights, and discussed my projects. I have two projects.
(1) i have to create something to hear from the theatre's best patrons. they are only in their third year and have not done this yet, so it's exciting to be a part of it. it will probably involve a survey and bonus for completing the survey--- or something. i'll make it thrilling, i hope.
(2) their "friend of the mill" system, or membership system, really doesn't do much for the theatre in the way of encouraging increased monetary participation so I will be researching other options and compiling info on how beneficial it would be to switch that up, keeping in mind ireland's recession-- nothing new there...

I probably would have no idea what to make of either of my projects if it weren't for OPAS, so thank goodness for that. That's really where most of my confidence is coming from this summer. It is interesting though be The Mill produces its own shows, hosts local/community group shows, has several classes using the space during the day, brings in other professional shows, and the list goes on and on. The theatre itself is small compared to some in the states, but it's really a good size to enjoy a play in. It holds about 220, i think. Their biggest challenge is that they are the only non-public theatre in Ireland--- they are private. This is kind of funny because OPAS is uniquely challenged and different from other presenters in the US because of its tie to A&M and thus the state.

Thats all for now. I am tired. My commute is a solid two hours long (complete start to finish) and I ran into Dominique just as I got off the bus and accompanied her to the grocery store---which was much needed. I now have more than peanuts, poptarts and coke.... like pasta, potatoes, and cheese.

goodnight!

yes i said yes i will yes.

Unfortunately when I reached town today I discovered that my camera battery was tired and expected to be charged before capturing any more moments. Perhaps, this will make my Bloomsday experience more special since I am required to work my Dublin wanderings only with the written word. If I was really dedicated to the retelling of my Bloomsday experience I would unveil each experience as it happened to me on my stroll through Dublin, but hopefully this will suffice and delight.

Today is June 16, 2009, a day in Dublin known as Bloomsday. The day in which James Joyce’s Ulysses takes place. Temple Bar was simply crawling with people, which it usually is, but today was marked by several oddities. Old men, young men, and others in between were dressed as if from a different age. Great quantities of corduroy pants, three piece suits, and an assortment of hats strolled on the cobblestones quite at ease along side dred-locks, tattoos, and in one specific case a bandana and tennis shoes. Brave and industrious women could be found in costume as well, but as women’s fashion has traveled leaps and bounds while men have been wearing bowties up to last Monday their outfits were somewhat less convincing. Indeed, anything with ample amounts of lace satisfied some while others had to top their outfit off with very large hats and even larger bows.
The most pleasing addition to the area undoubtedly was the three jazz bands I had the privilege of running into. The first performed on the steps of Bank of Ireland, which also has the honor of being the setting for a scene in Ulysses. If not for the instruments I would have understood the band to be a barbershop quartet. Instead of a red, white and blue ribbon around their hats two had a solid red and two had a solid black ribbon. They wore shiny red vests, long-sleeved white shirts, black bowties which proved to have Guinness printed on them several times, and black pants. There was a bass, accordion, sax/clarinet/harmonica, and a trumpet player of sorts who also sang. The clarinet and sax player was the cutest because he was skinny and had a sweet face with a wonderful mustache in the middle. All of these gentlemen were older and seemed to long for an age gone by.
The next band was in the Temple Bar Square surrounded by eaters sitting outside in the square. I believe this was the Guinness band. They boasted of a tuba-ish instrument, a banjo, a trumpet, and a clarinet. The trumpet player here was younger than the others and wore aviators and had a shiny bald head.
After listening to the first band at the bank I walked down to a close bookstore to purchase a copy of Ulysses. To my delight the book was purchased, not unreasonably, and upon presentation from the cashier it was wrapped in a plain brown paper sack completely void of advertisements and additions and taped shut. It isn’t special at all, except that I bought it in Dublin on Bloomsday in 2009.
The last band was situated outside of pub close to my bus stop, which I happened to catch just as it pulled up (lucky!). As I rushed to my bus a guy stopped me, I believe he was hoping to convince to support some respectable cause, there are several such causes and several such askers in Dublin, but he asked me if my brown sack held a book and if so, which book it was (a very random question I thought), but I responded very sweetly, “Ulysses, of course,” and swept past him onto the bus.

After spending very nice days, yesterday and today, alone taking in various Dublin sites I am very much looking forward to beginning work tomorrow and interacting with my coworkers.