Weekend in Kerry with the boss....

Well it appears my posts are getting further and further apart (and less funny).

Last weekend I spend Thursday night, Friday and half of Saturday in Listowel in Kerry with my boss. Thursday I worked all day in the Dail and then we traveled to Limerick and then onto Brosna for a town meeting. From there I finally got to get away from him and get some sleep at the B&B I was booked into. The thing I remember most about the B&B..... the 5 inch tall glow in the dark Virgin Mary statue in the corner of my room. No joke! I turned of the light and said to myself, what the F...!

The next day was a fundraising dinner for the Feale Rangers GAA team. So the day was spent preparing for that. My boss was an hour late picking me up and then left me at the hotel for 3 hrs. I could've walked back to the B&B, but no, I was told to stay there. Oh well. It wouldn't have felt like such a waste if I had brought some homework with me but instead I just stole the wireless and drank tea for a few hours. The dinner itself was fantastic. It had great food and the entertainment was a guy who used to play for Riverdance. I hung out with Jen and Claire until about 3 am when Jen gave me a lift back to the B&B. Plenty of cute men, however all of the good ones were taken, but there was still plenty of dancing!

Saturday I worked in his office for the first half of the day and then met up with John Pearse to talk about the Lartigue railway. I spent 2.5 hrs listening to this man tell me how he doesn't want the project to go into debt and how young people don't volunteer anymore. Now, for those of you who know me I don't like meetings where things get repeated, repeated, repeated. I'm very much a, tell me what you want me to do and we'll get it done, person. So that had me on edge. Then I went to another meeting before heading to the train to come back to Dublin.

After seeing the town and where he wants me to stay for the extra month, I don't think I'll be staying. His office is in Finuge which is 5 km from Listowel (about the size of Hollidaysburg) and I would be staying above that. The only form of transport I would have would be himself or John. I feel like its a bad situation so I'm not going to work for him for a month. But at least I got out there and saw it before I was stuck there for a while. It's is a shame, its a good project (peppered with a few crazies as usual) and Listowel has good people, but I'll pass and save what little sanity I have left, thanks.

Oh, and I forgot my camera or you would see the creepy glow in the dark Mary.

And I also forgot... he spent the whole weekend calling me Kathy or Suzie, even after I corrected him! At least know who I am, sheesh.

Internship Update

Well apparently over here I'm just an amazing person.....

I am working with Jimmy on coordinating an arts show in NYC. Thats going very well, I've been designing the booklet, trying to get funding, I've even heard from almost all the artists, yay for me. However, this man is a workaholic. I got a phone call last friday asking me to meet people on Saturday and then he called Sunday for a follow up. Hang on now, I'm not a full time employee. He must've gotten the hint, because he stopped calling.

Anyway, he's asked me to stay on in Kerry an extra month to do work on a museum they're trying to open up down there. Its about the first monorail in Ireland and it ran at the Lartigue station in Kerry. It's pretty interesting and I'd be willing to stay on to work on the project. He's willing to provide housing for free and I can't take payment while I'm considered and intern. Why? Well if you've ever read the fine print on your passport it says "knowingly and voluntarily revoke your U.S. citizenship if you.... accept payment from a foreign government." I'm hoping for bribes in the form of tickets to 6 nations or free food. I haven't said yes officially to the project and am heading to Kerry next weekend to meet with more people and see if I feel comfortable with the situation. One of the benefits is that I'd be in Tralee which is where my host sister is, so at least I'd know someone who's around.

I'll let you all know what happens!

Oh, and one of the other interns was out for a beer with her TD (if you haven't noticed they're a lot more laid back than US congressmen or Senators) and he asked her if her work load was ok ect. She told him it was fine. To which he said "I don't want to over work you and want to make sure you're having a good time. It could be worse, you could have Jimmy Deenihan." So rest assured, what I tell you is true. My guy has a rep.

The New Job

So I started work on Tuesday. I didn't know I was starting on Tuesday, I was just told to go meet the man, but it turned into a 6 hour work day. Jimmy Deenihan is a force of nature. He never stops moving! It turns out he's setting up an arts exhibition in NYC for artists from Co. Kerry. This is now my project. After being there for about 45 min on Tuesday he hands me a grant application and says, here, fill this out. Sure, ok, yah, no problem. I convince him to leave it with me and have a much better version for him on Thursday, one that's typed, not handwritten. Apparently, I've won him over because I now own this project and can actually write letters to people as myself on his stationary. So, what this says to me is this, I've been here less than a week and I have more responsibility than my previous job gave me in 3 years.... hmm...

The working conditions would be considered odd in the States. There is his secretary, Bernadette , and me. That is all the staff he gets. So I have to bring my own computer and share his desk... yes you read right.




See? Jimmy's chair is on the left... and mine is on the right. See my Mac sitting there?









That about covers it. He seems nice enough and riding the DART is like the metro, only slower. Oh yah, and the cheapest place to eat in the whole city is the cafeteria at the Dail. So that's a perk too.