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Goings On

I don't really have the will to post much anymore, and it may be because life hasn't been all that terribly interesting lately. Every day seems to merge into the previous and next...It might be the time of year, being as it's in between holidays and interesting things to do, or because it's not quite winter and not quite spring. It might be a general lack of desire to go do anything lately, or it may plain be that blogging has bored me as of late. Whatever the reason, I haven't felt the need. Anyway, it's not as though I have a massive readership.

However, since it's 1am and I can't sleep, I think I shall just post regardless of how interesting it is.

First subject: St. Paddy's. Good day.
It began the night before St. Paddy's, when I went with my mother to attend a trad session and dinner at the Marriott downtown. The music was great. The singer was Eddie Delahunt, a friend of Mom's, a local favorite and someone I've heard often. Mom made him two huge loaves of soda bread, which went over quite well. Dinner fare was, of course, corned beef and cabbage. This was somehow the very first time I'd had corned beef. I have to say, I'm not really a fan. It was kind of chewy and tasted like bologna.
The next day, I worked the morning, having tried unsuccessfully all week to get someone to cover me. See, I originally intended not to take off at all seeing as St. Paddy's is on a Friday this year. However, since I'm only working there for another week and have a lot of sick time built up, I figured I'd call in sick. Unfortunately, in my line of work, you can't just call in sick. You have to get your obligations taken care of by others, or else some child or parent is left very, very disappointed. I was unable to find coverage, so I had to work until 1pm.
I then went to what used to be an authentic Irish pub, McBride's, with Shan's mom. Back in the day, the pub was run by an Irish immigrant. Mom and all her immigrant friends would often meet up there to celebrate various things. About a year ago, they built a second location in another part of the city, and all the real Irish moved up there to hang out. Now, the place has turned pretty silly. Example one was my lunch. On the menu was a sandwich that they claimed was a real, Irish banger sandwich. I ordered this, having been granted a dispensation by my Archbishop. It wasn't a banger, and when the waiter asked how it was, I told him, "Well, it's not an Irish banger but whatever it is, it's good." He informed me that it was a Johnsonville. I then saw someone nearby be presented with what had been purported to be a scone. It looked more like a dinner roll. Example two, it was St. Paddy's, and it was an Irish pub, but neither of the live musicians played Irish music. They sang Jewel and The Beatles and American Pie. Example three, I saw not one but two Guinesses come to the table unfinished. Apparently the bartender had just poured the thing once and had not even bothered to let it settle before sending it to the table.
By the time Shan and his friends got around to coming, it was one-in-one-out. They didn't feel like standing in line, so we left and joined them up the street at another bar. After a couple of hours, we proceeded back to a friend's house to grill out and watch the basketball game. Once I remind you that I'm a Jayhawk fan, you'll know what that didn't turn out to be a good time. The night in general was very fun though, mainly because of the steady flow of alcohol and good company. I even managed to stop drinking early enough to get Shan and I home, and avoid the "passing out on the floor of a friend's house" scenario!

Second subject: My car.
My lovely little putter arounder is going to be paid off very soon, and I'm feeling the pride of ownership. After all, I bought the car practically new (it was three months old) all by myself when I was 22. As a result of my newfound interest in my car, I've had a couple of things fixed that needed to be for a while. First was my previously mentioned wheel bearings. Second was the sole cosmetic default: a nasty little crack that split the grill of my front bumper right in half. When I was in Europe, my car lived at my mom's. I left with the express instruction that my vehicularly irresponsible youngest brother, who is car-obsessed and lives with Mom, not be allowed anywhere near the driver's seat. I came home to find that my precious little brother had driven the car, slid in the rain, and cracked the front end against a gutter. I, of course, told him that he was going to be held responsible for fixing the bumper. Since he was in school at the time, I decided to let it go for a while. When he dropped out of school, began working full time, and continued to live rent-free at home, I decided not to let it go anymore. After about a year of occasionally nagging him about it, he finally replaced my front bumper. It's really soothing to have a whole car again!

Third subject: People from high school who made it.
I know of just one. I found out recently that a guy I "dated" in high school wrote and directed Saw 2. I put quotes around the "dated" because we didn't really date. We went on one date, to the mall, and his mom drove because we were both 14. We also hung out a school a lot and talked on the phone. I think after that we may have been friends for a while, but I can't really remember. That's not an insult to him; it's just a testament to how awful my memory is. Anyway, he's the only person from school that I've heard of having done anything even kind-of famous. Well, except the girl who had a scene with Doogie Howser (AKA NPH) in the movie My Antonia back in middle school. So, congratulations Darren Bousman and I hope you go far!

Anywho, it's now 1:55am and I stink at conclusions, so I'm just going to publish this now.

posted by Jen @ 3/19/2006 10:51:00 PM