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.