Paddy's Day!

Well, since I'm a dork my Paddy's weekend started with a Seamus Heaney poetry reading at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. I almost didn't go, but then someone reminded me he was old and could die, so this might be my last chance to see him.... talk about a depressing motivator. But it worked, I got there when they were announcing doors closing in 2 min.


The next day I met Sarah, Lucy, Lucy's bf and his friends (who's names at the moment evade me.... Matt, Spence and ??), and Maggie for the parade in Dublin. Now, I did not know the parade was themed. The Irish in their infinite wisdom don't really do parades like we do. Most of the marching bands were from the States, and the theme of the parade was energy. I wish I had known that before the parade, because to me it looked like a bunch of crazy costumed people running around (think Mardi Gras on LSD).

Then we headed up to Croke Park for the county finals of hurling and GAA football. I have to say, being in Croke park was loads of fun! We were 3 rows back from the field. There were about 32,000 people there. I'm sure if I could get tix to a big game it would be even more fun. I highly recommend going for the craic if you can and you're in Dublin.

I met Ciara and Damien in Dalkey after that for dinner and drinks. All the crazies were out but it was a good time!

Bono Sighting!

Today I went for my usual walk/ run. Though, after last night, it was more walk than anything. Some of you know this but others may not. I live in the same neighborhood as Bono and the Edge (of U2 fame), Van Morrison, Enya, and Maeve Binchy. Bono, Enya and Van Morrison all have houses on the back side of Killiney Hill where I walk.

I decided today to head down Vico Road which takes me down to Killiney Beach and walk the beach for a bit. On my way back up the very long hill I see these two men running towards me (obviously they weren't running towards me just in my general direction). The one man was dressed head to toe in spandex and the other had this crazy white hair and was in shorts and a t-shirt. I kept walking and as they passed I made eye contact twice with the man in spandex... yes my friends it was the great Bono himself. Just in case I thought I had lost my mind (as he was NOT wearing his trademark purple glasses, just a skull cap hat) I asked my host mom about him when I got back. Apparently his house is right on the corner of the road and the man with the crazy white hair is his friend who owns quite a few pubs in town....

Just another day in Killiney I guess.

Rugby & the Druids, Bray for a night out

Today I went for a fabulous run. I don't know if it will ever happen again but it was great! I need to do a few more if penny and I are actually going to do the San Fran Marathon in Oct....

Anyhow, I get back, and I go to sit down on the side of my bed and there is this god awful cracking noise. My fat ass broke the bed frame!







So Mary had to call Fay so he could bring his tools home to fix it. I was so embarrassed but we all had a good laugh about it. Fay says the wood cracked length wise so it was probably a defect... and even if that's a lie I'm going to go with it.

After Bob the Builder (aka Fay) got done. It still creeks, I'm convinced I'm going to end up on the floor one day....









After that we went down to the Druids (which is a block away) to watch the rugby matches, have a few pints and hang out. Then we had dinner at the house and headed out with Ciara (my host sister) to meet her friends in Bray. It was a good night!

Here are some pictures in case you think I never go out:

Work Update

So for those of you interested here is a work update...

After preventing me from getting as much (or really any school work done) Jimmy has left for NYC and the art show has gone off without a hitch! I had to knock a few heads but it worked out. We've sold 7 paintings so far, the first one going to Jean Kennedy Smith. And apparently Jimmy's been talking me up to the Irish Consul in NYC and they'd like to meet me the next time I'm in town (could a possible job be looming... only fate knows). The Consul is going to be doing a huge thing (poetry, video, art...) on bogs in Feb and Jimmy wants me to help coordinate that. No prob, I'm a rock star anyhow, ha. So for as frustrating as he has been I have to give the man credit, he has good contacts.

View my catalogue for the art exhibition here:
www.finugeweekend.com

Click on the Irish Boglands link, must have Flash installed for it to work and the link is only good for 4 weeks. The catalogue design is all mine, someone else made it an e-book tho.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The answer appears to be "to get to Mary and Fay's house.."


I came home from Mugs one day (the Internet cafe in Dalkey) only to be confronted with a real live chicken at the front door. It was standing between me and the door... maybe a new guard chicken? At any rate, I knew I couldn't open the door because it would fly (or cluck its way) into the house. I just started laughing, I mean who is greeted by a chicken when they come home? My laughing offended it and the bird hoped the fence and went into the yard. I walked in the house laughing too hard to tell them what was going on (writing this it doesn't seem as funny as it actually was..) I managed to say chicken front door, and Mary thought I was "puting her on" until she saw chicken shit at the front door.

So now we can hear the bird, but cant see it. It had gotten stuck in the hedge! Fay was trying to call his brother Eamon (the guy who owns the donkey too...) because he's the only one in the area with a chicken. Turns out it was his. The thing managed to get out, wander down the hill, turn right, wander up onto the terrace and stop at our door. It took them almost 20 min to get the thing out of the shrub, but at the end of the day the chicken was saved!














Here you see Eamon and Mary getting the chicken into a bag so it can go back up the road...