Gone to America

I haven’t had any really heavy drunks, but a large amount of alcohol has been ingested at a steady rate over a long period of time. Not only have I been meeting up with old friends and colleagues (meet someone for lunch, few pints – meet someone else for dinner, few pints – meet someone else in the pub, few pints) but Young Min, a friend from New York, was over for a week.

This was surreal. She wanted to see all sorts of pubs, so I had to be nice and help. I even went to Ri-Ra with herself, Conor Brennan (in Dublin for one night only) and his brother, Desmond. Odd – New York connections in the first nightclub I ever frequented. I have fond memories of discovering my dancing groove in there back in 1994-5, dancing to “Poison” by The Prodigy and “Wonderwall” by Oasis. Or stuff like that, anyway. I remember I even used to get in free sometimes, skippping the queue… I miss college. Young Min likes to dance. That was her last night, and she seemed to enjoy herself. She got to have proper Guinness, see real Irish bars and even some of Dublin, as well as meet my family, some of my old mates and watch me be decapitated.

That was fun. I think she struggled with some of the accents, but I enjoyed it. I would have liked to see it in a more crowded cinema, with a bunch of folks laughing and shouting as opposed to just one guy down the front. I can’t help feeling That a movie called “Dead Meat” is missing its audience a little in the IFI. Anyway, it’ll be on until the 30th, so go see it.

My plans, as usual, are in tatters. On my second night back, at the In The Dark Party I was offered a job. So I’ll be staying for an extra few weeks, until the end of January. Changing my ticket was easy. I won’t be missing any concrete work in NYC, as best as I can tell, and God knows I can use the dosh. I think it’ll just go on paying off debts, so I won’t have much more cash immediately, but I’ll be better off in the long term. I hope. Also, being here longer takes the pressure off having to see everybody all at once. I can be more leisurely about it.

As threatened, I didn’t buy any Christmas presents, but I did invent something called RecyclaGift™. I have a load of books and DVDs and such lying around here in my parent’s house, so I decided to redistribute some of them – disperse the library a little bit. This was actually quite hard. I had to find things that:

1. Were in good condition
2. Were good
3. I could bear to part with
4. Were suitable for the person I was giving them too, and
5. Hadn’t been originally been given to me as a gift by that person.

3 was the hardest. But I managed. I got some money (much, much appreciated), a nice scarf, the book I wanted, a cool Revolver t-shirt that I happen to know a good friend of mine wants really badly but will not get from me, and a fiendish puzzle, but no socks.

The no socks thing could become an issue. I’m going to be here nearly a full month longer than I had planned, so in general my packing is starting to seem inadequate. Oh, well – that’s what the washing machine is for.

I hope everyone else is having a pleasant holiday season. Oh, and if you met myself and Young Min when we were out and about, I saw the way you were looking at me. We’re just friends.