so fab to go hiking again...and its the end of june?!?

um so tomorrow is july?
seriously?

june flew by, like. i guess it still doesn't feel like summer for me. its not warm out, i'm not going somewhere to work at camp and i'm still doing college work. i guess once i'm home thought it will finally feel like summer.

so things are great here, i had a fabulous weekend! thursday it was such a yucky dreary day and i did some thesis work in the morning and i met with karen for lunch. and since i had the afternoon off we went back to my house to have tea and chat, and well we completely lost track of time and next thing you knew it was 5.30. it was soo good to properly catch up with her, especially since she is leaving for the alps and i'm going home. so that was fun. then kara came over and we made curry for dinner. it was fabulous. so needless to say thursday wasn't as productive as it could have been on the thesis, oh well.

friday i worked in the morning and then met up with kara and we had an adventure over to blarney. i wanted to go to the blarney woolen mills to get wedding presents. i wanted to get big something and and also i needed to get coop something, so i figured waterford would be nice. so i got big a vase and cooper a set of wine glasses, both are in special ireland only patterns. so then since it was sunny and nice kara and i got some food for a picnic and decided to be slightly knackerish and drink cider with our picnic, but stupid me had to get a bottle. and of course we didn't have a bottle opener, so we attempted to open it to no avail. but it was funny anyways. so then friday night catriona was celebrating her 21st. so that was great craic with everyone from the club, and a great chance to see everyone before we all go on our holidays. a bunch of people from the club are headed to the alps and i'm headed home.

saturday i worked on the thesis, i wrote another 1500 words. so i'm now up to 12,500. yay! chapter 3 has 3000 words, and i need about another 1000 for the chapter but of first i need to get more sources. gah england. so i'm meeting with andy to discuss it wednesday anyway, so we'll see if he has any ideas. so another 4000 words to write before i go home.
then saturday evening i went over to kara's for a wine & cheese. it was fun and great to just sit around drinking wine, taking and eating great food.

sunday was fabulous. i met up with some friends and we went hiking! i haven't been hiking since donegal the last week of march, so seriously forever. so karen, catriona, k2, brian, jack, tim, tom, denis, maurice and i set off for kerry, not sure on what we wanted to do, so we decided once in killarney to do the eastern reeks and it was fabulous. we did the second half of the reeks ridge hike, so up to the grotto, over the ridges and then down the bones. it was actually reallly funny, once we got to the bones a few of the lads were like lets go down the zig-zags, which were a 2 peaks over, so when we decided to split up, the girls all ended up choosing the original plan, and the guys all did the extended hike. we had to laugh at that. but it was great fun. and a mostly gorgeous day, the clouds came down a little at the end and it rained for like 5 minutes, but it was really awesome to see cahir, carrauntoohil and beenkeragh, because i haven't seen the tops from this side, they are always in the clouds. and when we did the reeks ridge in march, we did this section, but today we did it from the opposite side and last time it was sooo cloudy but this time it wasn't and the ridge wasn't as scary because you could actually see the drop, and not just the mist. and it looked really cool. so that was fun. but i think the highlight of the day was jack bringing a bottle of wine, where we toasted to catriona's birthday. it was pretty funny. we are some classy mountaineers.

so today just worked and i'm relaxing and might start thinking about what i'm bringing home, so i can try to get some of that organized. i'm trying to bring a ton of stuff home now, just so it is easier later.

carrauntoohil and beenkeragh

me

the ridge

cheers

the group

picture survey

I did a picture survey, but most of the links don't work anymore :(

halfway there, two weeks, photoshop

so in fabulous news on sunday i passed the 10,000 word count on the thesis.
i have half of it written :)
YAY!

that was quite exciting, chapter one and two are done, and are in my advisor's office, chapter three has 1000 words, and is being worked on this week. it should be around 3500 -4000 words, but i seriously need to find some more primary sources on domestics in britain, hopefully when i meet with andy next week he might have some good ideas. the goal for this week is to write 3-4000 words. so finish chapter three and start four. go erin! which is good, considering at the start of june the word count was 0. so to write 13,000 words in a month, i think is pretty good. especially since i'm working and having a life, not living in the library.

ok, enough with the boring thesis news.

it has been a good week, quiet at work, except for all the crazyness with the international student housing placements, but overall good. the weather could be a little nicer, but i'm going home in 2 weeks where it will be warm and sunny, so that will help. i can't believe it is the end of june and that it is july next week. seriously. annnd i'm going home for a month! i'm actually super excited about that, i've been emailing everyone making plans and figuring out everything. my dc/coop's wedding weekend is going to fab! i'm staying with hilaberry, lunch with my worch girls, the wedding and seeing almost all of my favourite people, then meeting up with my little/glittle. and that's just the first weekend home. eeeeeeeee! and then 5 days at the shore, i am soo excited to lay out on the beach and do nothing except read and soak up the sun. and then my boston lovers renunion. :) and twin is working at peec, so she is super close too.

i've been meeting up with friends a lot this week, kara and i have hung out a few times this week like always, sam and i went to wagamamma's for dinner tonight, karen and i are doing lunch tomorrow, friday is catriona's 21st, so i've been a busy little social butterfly. the last two nights brenda and i have hung out watching tv/movies at night and it has been fun :)

so i've been playing with photoshop the past few days again, it is soo addictive and here are some of my creations - photoshop fun :) they are in order of me doing them the first bunch are all from junior year after i came back from ireland the first time.

here are a few of the ones i did last night while watching grey's.

gw and i on graduation

kel and i being funny in az - aug 07

me along slieve league - march 08

sherbert reeks - march 08

sunset over the caldera in santorini - april 08

black sand beaches in perissa santorini - april 08

These are all ones I did last summer, that are my favs

chester river - june 2007 (this was my last time in ctown before going to asheville)

fountain in central park - august 06
benches in central park - january 2007

and this message at 8.30 ireland/3.30 east coast time possibly made my day.

person who shall not be named:omg, i just put my pants on backwards

apparently they've been like that all day

and i JUST now noticed

and that my friends, is why i love her.

off to the pub :)

drowned rat

It is pouring out today!!
But that didn't stop us from going on an adventure.
I saw on tv that Debenhams and BT were having summer sales, and I wanted to try to find a new dress for Coop's wedding, so I asked Kara if she wanted to go into town and go shopping last night, she said she was thinking about going to Mahon Point (a small mall on the outskirts of the city) so I figured why not. So woke up to it pouring this morning, gaaaah! So around 11.30 headed over to Kara's to meet up with them and we headed into the city to catch the bus. So that was uneventful, except it was the annoying misty rain. So part of the reason we were headed to Mahon Point was because Steph saw there was a Ben & Jerry's giveaway, so she thought it was in the mall, but it turns out it was in the outer mall area, outside one of the DIY stores. So we go back out in the rain, and walk over there, and we got our samples of the new B&J flavour. It was pretty funny, especially with all the rain.
So then we headed back into the mall and I found a dress in Debenhams :) and it was on sale! YAY! So I am pretty excited, its kinda differnt from other dresses I normally wear, but I really like it. It is yellow, brown and black, thick straps and right below the knee. So I'm now I'm even more excited about her wedding, I love dress shopping. Then we shopped some more and everyone was having their huge summer sales, so in Zara I found a cute black shrug cardigan to wear with the dress, a white crew neck summer sweater and then a black cartigan, because I miss my old one. So they were all on super sale as well. So I was pretty happy with my shopping. So of course it was POURING when we left the mall. Luckily we didn't have to wait long for the bus, and it pretty much slowed down, until we got off the bus and had to walk home. I was completely soaked, it was pretty funny. Nothing a change into comfy pants and a cup of tea can't fix.

The end of this week was pretty uneventful. Wednesday afternoon I hid in bed with tea and the a Jodi Picoult book - 19 minutes, I recommend it. I love her books and this one was really interesting and made me think a lot about high school, friendships and life - it is the school shooting one. Then Brenda and I watched movies and hung out. Thursday I had the day off and I was super productive, ok for half the day. I didn't do anything in the morning, but in the afternoon I wrote another 1500 words of the thesis :) yay! I'm now just over 9,000 words. Chapter 1 needs like 500 more words, chapter 2 is done and I'm planning on working on 3 tonight/tomorrow. Friday I worked in the morning, and we had a workshop on accommodation and dealing with the legal aspects of everything, tenant's/landlord rights and all that. It was interesting and I felt I learned will be good because we have sooo many questions on deposits and such. Then all morning my allergies were killing me, my eyes were itching and my contacts gave me a fight going in but I wore them, so by mid-morning they were reallly bothering me, and one wasn't in right, and I put it back in but it didn't help. So my vision wasn't all there, so it gave me a massive headache, as soon as I got home from work I put my glasses one and tried to watch tv, but it was such a bad headache I took a nap, and then watched movies with Brenda. So I didn't get anything done. grrr. oh well.

So now I'm off to thesis for a bit, I want to write another 2500 words before Monday. What a fun Saturday night...

why would this be funny?

So I'm at home, and I should have been working on my thesis for the afternoon, but it is just a yucky day out and so I decided to curl up with a cup of tea and a book. And it made me feel better. I was in a good mood this morning after the gym and then as I was leaving for work I opened the door and it was raining - now, I know the weatherman, said there was going to be showers, so I wore a skirt and boots, so my pants wouldn't get wet. But in the 5 minute walk to work, my happy mood slowly vanished. It was quiet at work today, only a few calls, but a lot of emails and checking accounts, but we are finished with them! So YAY!

So I am done with work at one, went home for lunch and Home & Away, and then instead of doing the thesis relaxed with my book, until I called the researcher at the Ulster Folk Park/Emigration Centre, who've I've been emailing, so I have to figure out if a trip up there is worth it or not. I don't think I'll be able to make it in the next 3 weeks, so it will most likely be August. I want to get up there anyway, so we'll see.

So anyway, I'm reading the news and I come across this article - Is Giving a Laxative-Laced Cake to a Teacher Funny or Not? and Students' Laxative-spiked Cake and well I'm sorry that isn't funny. Why would something think that would be funny to do? Gah, why do I want to teach?

Anyway, off to maybe pretend to be productive on the thesis. Maybe?

the one where i don't like numbers

Work today gave me a headache.
It was seriously crazy all day today.
and I have a feeling it is going to be like this all week.

Someone in the office is on holidays, so D, S and I are doing her work. So I spent my morning dealing with all the international students accommodations questions. We do a housing placement for the international students, and well right now we are booked. We've been booked for about a week now. We must have gotten 15 applications today. It is going to be interesting. There is housing for them, just a lot more complicated. Then there is the usual, phone calls - there were a lot today, I felt I spent half the day on the phone, and then people looking for accommodation. Then in the afternoon, D had me helping with society accounts. The one I was dealing with was so messed up, it was crazy. All those numbers drive me crazy, there is a reason why I study history and not accounting.

I don't want to work on my thesis tonight, but I majorly need to. Maybe I'll just type up the few things I found yesterday on 1950s emigration, and then actually read and take notes on all the NY Times articles I found from the 1880s online on domestic service?

And where is summer? I am sick of this 60 and cloudy crap. It is making me cranky.
Happy Monday.

And since I haven't posted pictures in a while, here are some :)

my house

my room

more of my room

baby guinness for Sam's 21st!

not wanting to write the thesis

So I don't want to write my thesis yet today, so I'm stealing this from Amy...

1. What were you doing five years ago?
It was my last week of high school, so taking the only finals I had, English and Physics, and packing for camp! That was such a crazy week. I graduated Friday night, then it was project graduation in the Poconos, twin's grad party on Saturday after like 2 hours of sleep, 5th HP came out, then I was down at wac for registration on Monday and then camp on Tuesday for the summer. I can't believe it has been 5 years since high school. Wow!


2. What are five things on your to-do list today?
It seems my to do list is often never ending... but 5 things for today
1. write another 1000 words on my thesis
2. call home and wish Dad a happy father day
3. email a few friends
4. read and take notes on the 3 books I have on Ireland in the 1950s
5. clean around the house

3. What snacks do you enjoy?
I go through phases, but I love doritos, tortilla chips, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels... really any salty snack foods.

4. Things you would do if you were a billionaire.
I don't know if I really want to be a billionaire, I'd like enough where I don't have to worry about money. But some things I would love to do would be to travel around the world, going everywhere, have a beach house, and I'd love to have a single, so I could row when ever I wanted. I'd also donate a few boats to the crew team, I'd love to have a shell named after me.

5. Three of your bad habits.
Perfectionist - It has to be done perfect, just the way I like it.
Procrastination - Yea... I like to keep putting things off.
Picking at my cuticles... drives me crazy, but I can't stop doing it.

6. Five places you have lived.
Netcong, New Jersey
Tranquility, New Jersey
Chestertown, Maryland
Cork, Ireland
And I guess I'll throw in Hoover as I lived there for 3 summers, plus 6 as a camper.

7. Five jobs that you’ve had?
Bus at the Still/whatever name it was called by the 3 different owners
Aide at Garnett Elementary School
Substitute teacher
Camp Counselor at Hoover, Hawthorn Hollow, Harbor Hills, Salem Spotlight and Asheville
Accom office problem solver

8. How did you name your blog?
A Garth Brooke song, Ireland has the line
- And her heart it is in Ireland, deep within the Emerald Isle
and after my study abroad in Cork, I loved the line, and I felt it described me. So once I decided to come back to do my masters, and do the ireland adventures, it seemed perfect for the name :)


So things are good, last night was Sam's 21st. It was hilarious. I haven't had that much to drink in a looong time. Definitely felt like crap for most of the morning, gah. I hate getting hungover so easily anymore. I also went to see the Happening with Kara, Steph and Lorna. We went because Kara loves Mark Walhburg, I mean who doesn't, its Marky Mark. And it was just hilarious, I don't know if it was supposed to be that funny, but it was. Kinda freaky though.

Its been a good weekend, Friday I worked for the morning, had lunch with Kara, then spent the afternoon in the library where I wrote another 1000 words. YAY! I'm hoping to get another 2000 done today and also might go to the park with Kara, because it is kinda nice out, and apparently there is a big picnic? So we'll see. Oh and Big got married yesterday, I wish I could have been there for the wedding. I can't believe so many of my friends are getting married this summer, its crazy!

Not much going on this week, just work and the thesis. Hopefully it will be a productive week.

thesis

I hit the 5000 word mark last night! Yay!
I am now a quarter of the way there. I had a really productive day yesterday, which was good for once. I had the day off so I went to the gym with Kara, then did a little bit of work at home, met Catriona for lunch and then spent the afternoon in the library. I was pretty good, writing a little over 2000 words yesterday. I wish I could be that productive most days when I sit down to write. I hope to get another 3000 words over this weekend. Yesterday evening I just relaxed and watched some tv and read, it was nice to be relaxed and not worried about not getting enough work done during the day.

The rest of the week has been good, didn't really get up to much. Monday just worked all day and then did a little bit of thesis work and then Brenda and I watched the newest Tommy Tiernan dvd and it was hilarious. He is one of my favourite Irish comedians. He had a great sketch about a t-rex, which of course I thought was great. Here is one of my favourites on the Cork accent.

Tuesday I worked all day then went over to Kara's where we sat out in the sun before we made dinner along with Steph and Lorna. Dinner was hilarious, just lots of laughing and telling stories. It was a great night. Wednesday I worked until lunch, then ran some errands in town, and then I made ziti! It was amazing! I had a huge craving for ziti, so I had my dad email me how he makes it and it came out perfect. And since I never actually measure I was impressed that I had the right ratio of pasta, cheese and sauce. Then I went to the pub and caught up with everyone. It was a fun night.

So yea, my life is pretty much thesis and work. It is Friday! yay! And a quiet morning at work, this afternoon I plan on working on the thesis, then relaxing tonight. And the only thing I have this weekend is a 21st on Saturday. So it should be a productive weekend :)

routine life

Apparently my personality type is a Engaged Idealist:

Engaged Idealists are extroverted and helpful. Others find them to be very congenial and inspiring - especially as they are always willing to see the best in the other person. Their humour, their energy and their optimism attract other people. Engaged Idealists are very good at communicating and are good at convincing and firing on others. That is why it is a matter of course that they often take over the leading role in groups. This personality type often produces very charismatic persons.

Engaged Idealists have an unusually strong ability to empathise. They are tolerant and generous towards others; they sometimes tend to idealise their friends. They always try to suit everybody and want their relationships to be harmonious and satisfactory. To achieve this, they are prepared to invest a great deal and to put their requirements last. As Engaged Idealists are very considerate, there is the danger of them sacrificing and overexerting themselves for others. In their job, they therefore have to be very careful not to develop a burnout syndrome.

Engaged Idealists are reliable, well organised and love structuring complicated situations. They have difficulty accepting criticism; they quickly feel hurt and misunderstood. Their perfectionism also influences their love life - they look for the perfect relationship for life. Once they have made their decision, they are faithful, well-balanced and loving partners. However, should they get involved with the wrong person, it can happen that they allow themselves to be exploited for a long time before they end the relationship.

I think that describes me pretty well. I love little personality quizzes.

So my life has been good :) I've actually been productive on my thesis this week :) And I went climbing to the pub on Wednesday and worked. Work has actually been great this week. Denise and Sharon are now both full time for the summer and Dave has been on holiday this week, and it has been super quiet. So the three of us just sit and talk and drink tea. Also with the girls now working, it isn't just me in the office for 4 days, and until I go home I'm back to my 25 hours a week, so I can get my thesis done.

I moved into my bigger room downstairs today :) Had to majorly clean it before I could move anything down here, but it is nice and I'm definitely spoiled with a double bed for the summer. Now the little room upstairs is where I will be writing my thesis because during the summer the library closes at 4.45, so pretty much most of my time won't be in the library. Oh well. Kara moved into her house, so now she is like 1 minute away. YAY! Also, Brenda, the other girl in my house is super nice. So I am looking forward to a good summer living here. The only annoying thing right now is a TON of stuff was left in the house, like food, video games and such and I don't know if the guys are coming to get it or what? I just want to clean the kitchen and sitting room properly, but don't know what to do with it all. GAH!

So I still don't know how I feel about the democratic primary news from this week. While I am a Hillary supporter, I think the primary mess had been going on for too long, every week at work Dave and I would discuss it. So even though I think she is the stronger Democratic candidate, the party was completely split and she did the right thing by stopping. I don't know if her as the VP would be a good idea. I like Obama, I just don't know about him as President. I don't think he knows enough and is ready, but he did do a great job of getting people out to vote. I just don't know. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks.

avoiding the thesis

This weekend I completely avoided the thesis. And it was fabulous.

It was a bank holiday weekend, so I had Monday off as well.

Friday I worked in the morning, then I relaxed for the afternoon and organized some stuff, then I went over to Kara's for dinner and some Home and Away, and spent the evening there just relaxing and talking.

Saturday Kara and I went downtown to watch the Ocean to City Race, which is a 15 mile boat race from the Ocean up the Lee to Cork City. It was really cool to see all the different boat types (most are traditional Irish boats) and unlike the rowing I did in crew, they are all fixed seat boats, so it is all in your arms, not your legs. But it was totally awesome to see these boats, from 3-15 people per boat and most of them were gorgeous! It was fun watching the finish, but totally made me miss rowing. And it didn't help that this weekend was NCAAs, either.
So after watching the rowing in the morning and it was fabulous and sunny, Kara and I decided to spend the afternoon in the park. It was awesome, laying out, reading and just basking in the sunshine. I also handed over my old keys, so I am officially out of Fern Lodge! Then we cooked dinner and watched the finale of Britain's Got Talent, which was pretty awesome. The kid who won was amazing. Watch the video and then Sleepless in Seattle was on tv, and we wanted to stay up to watch our favourite trashy show - Paradise Hotel, which wasn't on until 2am, and well we just can't stay up that late anymore, so we went to bed.

Sunday we went into town to run a few errands and it was nice and sunny, so we decided to have a picnic in the park. As soon as we spread out the blanket and put out the food, it started to rain, so we had a picnic in her sitting room on the floor and watched Pocahontas (which I still don't like). Then our favourite pub - Costigan's was having a bbq, so we headed there and also met up with Maria and her boyfriend, because she was moving back to Spain. It was a fun night at Costigan's except the 40 year olds hitting on us, gaaah. I am sooo tired of getting hit on by 40 year olds at the pubs. Seriously, leave me alone, we are not interested. So my favourite moment of the night was when the table next to us was going through their marathon packets, and I saw a bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade on the table. So I asked, did that come in the marathon bag or where did you get that? She said the marathon bag and was like do you want it? So I happily left the pub with some Gatorade, it was like Christmas. They don't have it in Ireland, only powerade.
So we left the pub around 11 and headed to our favourite chipper. And since it was a nice night, we decided to be total knackers and sit on the courthouse steps and eat them. So we were still hungry, so we went and got a pizza and also sat on the steps eating that. It was hilarious to see all the drunk people, and since it was only like 11 people were still coming in and going into the clubs, so we were in prime people watching areas.

So Monday I went and watched some of the Cork City Marathon, then helped Kara move into her house. Which means she now lives 2 minutes away from me! YAY! Then I cleaned some of the house, (I can't wait for the boys to move so I can clean the rest) and made chocolate chip cookies for the bbq. Then I went over to BelAir for the bbq2. It was fun, great convo and food, everyone loved my cookies (and I love baking), the bonfire was fun, but it started to rain.
So after I got home my roommate Brenda was finally moving in. YAY. She is really awesome (we met quickly last week when I gave her the keys) and we spent a few hours with tea and talking. So I'm excited for the summer. She is also neat and it is just the two of us in the house.

About an hour left of work for today. I'm going to the library to get writing, then Kara is coming over and we can finally watch some Grey's! The 4th season is starting tonight and I'm excited, even though I've seen the majority of the season already (up until Christmas) but it was a few months ago, so I don't really remember. So YAY!

So in other fabulous news, my girls did really well at NCAAs this weekend! They made it to the petite finals and came in 11th overall, which is awesome. They are such a young boat, so next year they should be fabulous, only 1 senior from the eight. I am so proud of them. I got the best facebook message from one of the girls in the eight,
"NCAA's was amazing, and I wanted to let you know, that in the final, I took a ten for you after the 500, for my sophomore year coxswain. You were incredible last year as a coxswain and a role model to me, and I want to say thank you so much!!!"
Seriously almost made me cry, so sweet and I love this girl. I really miss rowing. I spent some time over the weekend attached to a computer watching the live updates on the NCAA website. Looked like some fabulous rowing especially the DIII final, wow. And in DII, W.Washington won their 4th straigh DII title, some of the interviews with seniors in that boat were just cool. Their record and never loosing to a DII school in 4 years, pretty awesome. I couldn't imagine 4 years of rowing and being that successful. And the DI races looked pretty sweet too :)

boats all waiting after the finish line

a dragon boat - they are so cool!