Moving In?

As you read this tale, you may believe that I am exaggerating for effect.  I assure you, gentle reader, I am not.

Moving day started bright and early on Friday - emphasis on "early."  We had planned to take the cats over to the house and let them wander around for a good hour prior to the movers' arrival, hoping to relieve some of the stress of the day.  Eli had scheduled a taxi for 7 a.m.  When he checked his trip info around 6:40 a.m., it said our driver William was going to arrive in about 5 minutes.  We scrambled to get the cats loaded into their carriers.  Norris hasn't been in his carrier since we moved here, so it's nearly been a year for him, and he wasn't happy about it.  He cried all the way there - fortunately, the trip was only about 10 minutes.

The cats did some exploring of the new digs.  Patrick was more brave, moving around all the rooms and upstairs.  Norris cried for a while and hid beneath the sofa.  Since he found a safe place to be, we left him alone.

Eli stayed for a bit, and then he went back to the apartment to await the movers.  They were scheduled to arrive at 8:30 a.m.  They called Eli and asked if they could come at 8:15 a.m., which was fine.

After Eli texted me to let me know the movers were on their way after loading the truck, I put the cats into the bedroom with their litter box and went back downstairs.

Eli took the tram back to the house, and he got there before they did.  At some point, I went up to be with the cats so they wouldn't be so upset.  Norris was unhappy that there wasn't anywhere to hide in the room.  I opened up the two doors of the closet, and he slunk in there.  I shut one of the doors to give him a sense of safety.

At one point when I was back downstairs, I asked Eli if they'd gotten the stuff from one of our closets.  His face fell, he swore, and he said he'd forgotten to open the closet and let them know there were more things.  He let the movers know the situation, and they were glad to go back and get the forgotten items.  They bill by the hour, rather than the job, so it just added a few more minutes/euros.

Eli took the tram back to the apartment, the movers did their thing, and then everyone reversed gears again.  Eventually, all of the things we'd packed were at the house.

Generally, the homes in Ireland do not have air conditioning because it's not typically needed.  However, Friday was probably one of the hottest days of the summer (28C, which is around 82F).  We have no fans because - again - they aren't typically needed.  And the heat pump in the house, which should've been extracting hot inside air and throwing it outside and circulating the air, was not working.

It was 32C INSIDE THE HOUSE - this is 90 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT.  INSIDE THE HOUSE.

I contacted the management company and explained the situation.  The gal I talked with said she'd email some information about the heat pump and that if that wasn't helpful, we should call back.

It wasn't helpful; the instructions she sent weren't relevant to our equipment.  Eli called back.  The person I had talked with was on lunch, so this other person left a message for her to give us a call back.  We didn't get a call back but eventually, I got an email which stated that a work order was entered for our issue - but in the same email, it said the order was cancelled due to being resolved or being a duplicate.  I forwarded the email to Eli.  Eli replied to this email and logged a new ticket - because after he replied to the email, he saw it said "Don't reply to this email."

At this point, he received an email from Emily (the gal I had spoken with) who said there was a glitch in the system and that our work order was still active and had been referred to a third party to address the problem.

Eli got a call from the third party - the guy was calling from the right company, but he was calling regarding a different property, not ours.  He called back a few minutes later - he told Eli he felt bad about calling and not addressing our issue (even though he didn't have our work order in front of him).  He gave Eli some high-level/generic troubleshooting, which didn't help.  While Eli was talking to this guy, the guy who actually DID have our work order called and of course Eli didn't get his call because he was talking to this other guy.

Still following me?

The second guy texted Eli, and they texted back and forth.  He said they couldn't come out until Monday morning.  WTF.  It's supposed to be HOT all weekend.  Monday is too late.

But there was nothing to be done about it.  We opened a window a sliver on the north side of the house in an attempt to provide some cooling.  The windows here don't have screens and with the cats, we can't open the windows wide because they'll get out.

During the afternoon, we needed to keep the shades down on the southern-facing windows because it was like a blast furnace.  Even with the shades blocking the sun, I could feel heat radiating from the shades while I was standing a couple feet from the window.

I had a meltdown at some point during the day because I was miserably hot and Patrick wouldn't stop crying.  I don't think he was uncomfortable with the heat, he was just being Patrick.

We needed some food, so I placed a delivery order with Tesco.  My delivery window was between 4-6 p.m.  It got to be 5:59 p.m. and still no order.  The online information where I could track the delivery wasn't working.  I was feeing faint from not eating and from being so damned hot.  At approximately 6:01 p.m., the delivery man showed up.

Once the sun swung around, we were able to raise the shades on the windows facing the field.  The cats LOVED it!

I had planned to return to the apartment after the Tesco delivery to collect clothing and toiletries and such.  Instead, I came back to the apartment to sleep.  With the heat, I knew I wouldn't be able to get any rest.  If we didn't have the cats, we would've both come back to sleep at the apartment.  But with their litter box being at the house, it would've been too difficult to bring them back, and of course we wouldn't leave them alone in the house on their first night there.

Eli, wonderful man that he is, took one for the team and stayed overnight at the house.  We were texting back and forth, and he was telling me how much the kitties were enjoying looking out into the field.  I said I hoped that maybe some deer or bunnies would show up.  Not more than a few minutes after I sent that text, a bunny showed up!

It took me a while to both cool off and to fall asleep, but eventually I conked out and slept through most of the night.  Amazingly, Eli said he'd slept most of the night as well, even in the awful heat.

Saturday morning, I packed up all my remaining clothes, my bathroom stuff, my food that was still here and got over to the house.  It was around 9 a.m. and the house was already showing an inside temperature of 31C (87F).

Eli went to a bunch of stores, trying to find a fan.  We thought maybe if the air were moving, it wouldn't be so oppressive.  But since it's been over 80 degrees here, there were none to be found.  We planned to at least get some spray bottles and ice cubes, thinking to spray ourselves with ice water to cool off because that was better than doing nothing.

When he was on his way home after an exhausting, disappointing trip, I noticed that Norris was breathing more heavily than normal.  I texted Eli, and he texted the ventilation contractor guy that he'd been talking with on Friday afternoon, telling him it was 33.6C (92F) inside the house and one of our cats was starting to have issues with the heat.  While waiting for him to respond, Eli called the emergency number for the rental management company.  While the person he spoke with was sympathetic, we were told there was nothing to be done about it until Monday.  After that, Eli heard back from the contractor guy who said he couldn't come out unless it were authorized by the management company, which it wasn't going to be.

We tried a couple more interventions on the heat pump, hoping it would start up, and it never did.

With Norris having issues, I was done.  We decided to bring the cats back to the apartment and completely abandon the house for now.  Eli contacted FreeNow (taxi service) but with it being Saturday, there weren't any drivers available.  I had the Uber app on my phone, and I was able to schedule a taxi to come within a few minutes.

I was stressed, I'd already had a couple of crying jags, and I just wanted to get out of that house and back into a cooler environment so I didn't include a note to the driver that we had cats.

Our driver Lalit showed up, and he popped the trunk open because he saw us carrying the cats, thinking we had luggage.  We got in (I whacked the back of my head hard on the door jamb), and I said we didn't need the trunk because we had cats, not luggage.  He asked if I'd put in a message for the driver about the cats.  I apologized and said I was sorry, I hadn't put in that message, that our ventilation system wasn't working and we were in a hurry.  He wasn't impressed by this and said "You need to put in a message because some drivers won't take pets."  (I assume this meant that HE didn't want to take pets, but he was there and we were in the car, so what do you do?)

I understand his point but, as I said to Eli later, "Don't fucking scold me right now, Lalit, or I will rip all of your fucking hair out."

We got the cats settled in the apartment.  Fortunately, we're moving in stages so we still had cat food and bowls here.  They've got a makeshift litter box, made from a cardboard box with a completely new brand of litter Eli picked up at the grocery store on his way home after the failed fan expedition.

We went back to the house to get some clothes for the next day or two, food we'd brought to the house, toiletries, etc.  So I'm dragging stuff back to the apartment that I'd just dragged to the house earlier in the day.

The tram was due in about 15 minutes, so we left the house and went down the shaded path toward the platform, planning to stand in the shade until closer to the time the tram was supposed to arrive.  Between the shade and the breeze, it was more comfortable outside than in the house.  With about 5 minutes until arrival, we went over to the platform. The electronic board at the platform said the next tram was due in 10 minutes....and then 6 minutes...and then 18 minutes.  OH MY FUCKING GODS.  It showed up a couple of minutes after the scheduled time that we saw on the app and we were headed for the apartment again.

I was so excited about being able to move to this new place.  But with this inauspicious start, the excitement ship has burst into flames and sank to the bottom of the damned ocean.  I am frustrated, sad, disappointed, and angry.  This is not a good beginning to our partnership with the new management company, and it had damned well better improve.

The Day in Bray

There's a new bus route - L14 bus - that goes directly to the Bray Promenade which is right alongside the beach.  And happily for us, there's a stop for this bus very close to our new home.

Eli has this week off, and I had wanted to spend a day in Dublin City Centre, just wandering around looking at the shops and such.  However, I did a pivot and said that I'd rather go visit the sea.

There's a stop for this route a couple of blocks from the apartment - or so we thought.  We hiked up there, only to be confronted by a sign stating that this stop wasn't in service at the moment.  Fortunately, there was another stop a couple more blocks away, and we'd left the apartment early enough that the shift in location wasn't an issue.

It was a fairly quick trip to Bray.  As it was mid-morning on a weekday, the bus was pretty empty and we didn't have to make too many stops, either to let someone off or pick someone up.

The beach was mostly unpopulated when we arrived, just a couple pockets of people scattered here and there.  We walked across the rocks and settled in near the water.

Eli took off his shoes and went to stand in the water for a few minutes.  I'm planning to get some beach/shower shoes so I can comfortably experience the water - and walking on the rocky beach - during one of our trips here.

Sound on to hear the sea:

There were a lot of rocks with holes like this.

As I sat there watching the waves, I felt tears starting to slide down my cheeks.  Eli came to sit down next to me, and I said "Lissa should be here."  He said, "Yeah.  It's not fair that she isn't."

We saw many puppers with their humans.  One little dog - it may've been a Jack Russell but I'm not sure - was very excited to be there.  He kept running toward the water and then back, barking at his people to get a move on.  In the next video I post, I think that's him in the background barking up a storm.  One dog drew a little near us, and his owner called him back and said that he knew some people weren't comfortable around dogs; we assured him that we loved doggos.  Another lady had a dalmatian and a black lab - the lab was all about jumping into the water to chase his ball, the dalmatian not so much.  

We got up and moved a little farther down the beach before settling in again.  The first photo is a tangled clump of seaweed.  In the second photo, all of those little white spots sparkled like diamonds in the sun.

We left the beach and went back onto the promenade.  Lots of people were out enjoying a stroll, eating ice cream (there were three ice cream shops right next to each other, as well as a little ice cream kiosk closer to the water), walking their dogs, and just drinking in the day.

I was beginning to tire, and we were both hungry, so we walked a few blocks to get to our bus stop.  On the beach, I was scouring the thousands of rocks, looking for a purple heart-shaped stone.  Purple was Lissa's favorite color, and I've taken to looking for heart-shaped rocks when I go to the beach.  If you squint a bit, the one rock looks a little heart-ish and is a bit of a lavender color.  The larger stone has all kinds of sparkles in it.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't find a definitive purple heart-shaped rock.  However, on the walk to the bus, we passed many houses that had names (I had mentioned in a previous post that many folks here name their home and usually put a sign up that displays the name).  One of the houses we passed was named "Lissadell."

Once on the bus, it didn't take long to reach our lunch destination - a tiny diner called Shake Dog.  As with many shops here, it was quite narrow - a hole in the wall.  There were only two other diners when we arrived, which seemed strange because it was around noon.  Perhaps things are simply more quiet in the middle of the week.

I had chicken tenders and fries - not pictured is the chocolate shake which was sooo good.  Eli had a Kit-Kat shake, along with some onion rings, fried mushrooms, and the smoked veggie burger.

When I was looking at the map to find somewhere to eat, I noticed a place called Chipped which was only a couple blocks from Shake Dog.  Even though we'd just eaten, there was no way we were going to pass up the chance to have more fries.  I had a small cone of fries smothered in cheese sauce; Eli had the peri peri fries.  We sat at a small bistro table in the shade, enjoying the breeze while we ate our treats.  And they were SO FREAKIN' GOOD, y'all.  We'll definitely need to go there again.

Then it was off to find the bus stop for the ride home.  We had a timely arrival as the bus was scheduled to be there in about a minute when we walked up.

After another short trip, we were at the apartment again.  The cats greeted us at the door, wondering why we'd been gone ALL DAY (3 hours) and why no one had been around to feed them.

All in all, I'm glad we went to the beach rather than City Centre.  I think I needed the quiet steadiness of the sea rather than the hustle and bustle of Dublin.

Home Sweet Home

We went over to the new house today so we could get some photos, put together an inventory list of furnishings, and clean the flat surfaces.

We'll have a bit of a walk from the tram to our place.  Happily, much of the walk is through this wonderful canopy of trees and plants.  There's an old stone wall along a portion of the path - I'm assuming from a farm or something that used to be on the land.

This is a photo of our front door, as well as the view from the front door.  There's construction happening in the distance so they've dumped some dirt in the field.  But most of this space is flowers and wild grasses.  Windows in the living room and dining area look out in this direction, so the cats will probably enjoy this view.

This is the view from the front door.  There's part of the staircase.  Behind the door is a powder room.

Here's the living room.  This area is HUGE.  As I told the letting agent, this room itself is nearly as big as our combined living room/dining area/kitchen in the apartment.

Here is the dining area and the kitchen.  It'll be so nice to be able to move around in the kitchen while the other person is sitting at the table.  Currently, the dining table is about two feet from the kitchen space so when you want to use the microwave or get into the fridge, you either have to work around the other person or the other person needs to move.

Here's part of the back garden.  The grass is artificial turf so there won't be too much maintenance.  To the left of this area, there's a bricked patio slab so we'll be able to put a small bistro table and a couple chairs out there.  I don't know if they allow bird feeders that might attract pests, but I hope to put out a birdbath and maybe some potted plants.

Here's the other half of the staircase and the view from the top of the steps.  I hope the cats don't get any ideas about jumping up on that half wall because it's a bad drop onto the stairs.  You can see the main bathroom at the top of the steps.  It has a tub but it's so narrow that, unless I lose a lot of weight, I won't be able to take a bath because I won't fit.

We have three bedrooms, all looking out over the field.  The middle photo is of the smallest bedroom, and we're thinking that will be the cats' room.  We'll probably put the litter box and cat tree in here.

This is the ensuite bathroom in the larger bedroom.   It has a rainfall shower head as well as a handheld so that'll be pretty cool.

This is a second path from the house.  This leads to a sidewalk that goes down to the tram platform.  There's some vagrant in that second photo.  Not sure how he got in there.  🤣

 

Glimmers in the Darkness

I was at Tesco Express, which is the small market in our sister building one stop up the tram line.  In Ireland, there's a small fee added when you buy a bottled drink - usually 25 or 50 cents - but you can get this refunded if you take the bottles to be recycled at any store that has a recycling kiosk.

I had a big bag full of empties....and the machine said it wasn't accepting bottles at the moment.  Grrrr....

So I went about my shopping and noticed that someone was using the machine.  I waited my turn and when I got up there, the machine again said it was out of order.  The kiosk is right next to the customer service desk/checkout.  The clerk was ringing up a customer but said he'd reset the machine for me, which he did.

I was wearing my "Meow Wars" T-shirt, and he commented that he liked my shirt.  I thanked him and said it amuses me to wear it.  He then said, "What part of the States are you from?"

Gee, how did he know I wasn't from Ireland?  😀

I said I was from Minnesota.  He got a smile on his face and said, "My all-time celebrity hero is from Minnesota."  I asked who it was, and he said Prince.  I said, "Prince was the best, and he was gone too soon."

He said, "My mum got the 'Purple Rain' album.  Her mum let her stay home from school so she could go get it.  When you go to her house, it's the first thing you see because she's got it up on the wall."

In my head, I was like "Crap, if this guy's mom was young enough to be in school when the album came out, how young is this kid??"

Express has self checkout machines, so I rolled my cart over there and got my stuff scanned.  When you recycle bottles, you get a receipt printed that you can scan at checkout to get the discount and for whatever reason, the machine never thinks you put the receipt into its slot so you have to hit the button for assistance.

The same young man came over to assist, and I said I hated that the machines never recognized when you gave it the coupon.  We commiserated about AI making more work for people because he said they have to run over to the checkouts all day to clear them when people use a coupon.

He asked how long I'd been in Ireland, and I told him  since August.  He asked if I liked it here, and I said I was grateful to be here because the US is a wreck at the moment.  He said he'd been in Texas once and was amazed that people just walked around carrying weapons.  He was asking a guy about his gun, and the guy was just like "Here" and handed it to him.  That completely flabbergasted this young man.  I said I'd lived in Texas for about eight years so I knew the mentality that inhabits much of the population there.  I said, "I can't understand taking an AR-15 to the grocery store.  It's like, what are you afraid of at the grocery store?"

He mentioned the gun culture, and I said it was one of the problems screwing up the country.  I said it was nice to be in Ireland where people seemed sane because there are a lot of stupid, crazy people in the US at the moment.

Things have been very dark lately.  Being in Ireland has insulated me a little from the horrors going on in the US but I've still been affected by it.  It was so nice to have this small glimmer of comfort in the midst of it all.

Movin' On Up

About three weeks ago, we toured a couple houses and an apartment at a development that's two tram stops from here.  We didn't care for the apartment at all, but we liked the two houses.  One had two bedrooms, and the view out the front was of construction.  One had three bedrooms, and the view out the front was of a green, grassy field.

Can you guess which house was our favorite?

We put applications in for both houses, listing the three-bedroom home as our first choice.  Sent along all the requisite information - bank statement, pet applications (with photos), employment verification for Eli, landlord statement from our current place.  Most management companies here want your rent to only be about 30-40% of your income.  Since Eli's the only wage earner at the moment, our buying power isn't great.  However, we told the letting agent that if that were a concern, we'd be glad to pay an entire year upfront.  With the sale of the house and our two vehicles, plus the savings we had socked away prior to those sales, we were fortunate enough to be able to do this and not have it severely impact our finances.

I didn't hear anything so after a few days, I emailed the letting agent to inquire about the status.  He said our application was being rejected because our income didn't meet the requirements.

I had a few moments of disappointment before my emotional compass swung to bewilderment and anger.  What the fuck??  How in the world could this place turn down having an entire year's rent in their account in one fell swoop?  That made absolutely no sense to me.

So I responded to the letting agent and asked why our savings wasn't being taken into account and that, since we said we'd pay an entire year at once, there was no financial risk to the management company.

Sent off that email on a Friday afternoon and stewed for the weekend.

Come Monday, I got an email from the letting agent stating that he had taken our case to the management company and they relented.

As of today...WE HAVE A HOUSE!!

We met Joe, our letting agent, at the house this morning to pick up keys and take a quick walk-through.

The first thing that greeted us once we were inside the house was a blast of heat.  I don't know if a lizard were the previous tenant or what, but the temp was set to 26 degrees Celsius - which is nearly 79 degrees Fahrenheit.  When Joe was showing us the thermostat, he turned it down - or maybe even off, I'm not sure.  We definitely don't need heat right now!

He seemed amused because I kept remarking about how BIG this place was compared to our current apartment.  I was like, "No, dude, you don't get it.  This living room is almost larger than our kitchen, living room, and dining area combined!"

He also seemed to get a chuckle from my remarking that I was grateful the bathroom light switches weren't behind the door, like they are in our current apartment.  It's a minor irritation, to be sure, but an irritation nonetheless.

Joe departed, and we were left to our own devices.  We wandered upstairs - we'll have an upstairs, y'all!! - and checked out the bedrooms and bathrooms, trying to decide where to put some of our things.

I'm planning to get some photos to post here.  Eli needed to go to work, so we didn't linger too long.  I could've stayed there by myself, but I didn't feel entirely comfortable doing that - which was good because we had a devil of a time trying to figure out how to lock the front door and if I'd been there by myself trying to fight with it, I might've panicked a little.

I've contacted a moving company, and we're hoping to move on July 11.  I'd love to do it sooner, but we're doing the packing ourselves to save some money and I don't want to feel rushed.  Our lease with the current apartment is good through July so we have some wiggle room in closing up shop here and getting moved over.

I am relieved that we'll have more space.  I don't need a McMansion, but it'll lessen my stress to be able to stretch out a bit and not feel like we're on top of each other all the time.  As an introvert, I need to feel like I have a protected space to hide in from time to time.  We're hoping that this new environment will help Patrick too, since there will be stairs to run up and down, more rooms to explore/hide in, and many more windows with better views (the windows all have a little ledge on the bottom sill so I think the cats are going to LOVE sitting up there and looking out).

As we were walking back to the tram after leaving the house, I told Eli that I was grateful for our current apartment.  When we had so much chaos and uncertainty before the move, having this place gave us a secure landing spot.

I said, "It hasn't been a bad apartment."

He said, "But it wasn't home."

On Your Birthday, I Visit You in My Heart

It's Lissa's birthday today.  She would've been 57 years old.

I wanted to do something to mark the day, didn't want it to pass as though it were just another nondescript date on the calendar, but nothing I thought of felt right.

I considered going to the old cemetery in Tully Park, spending some meditative time among the dead.  Some may consider that morbid, but cemeteries are very peaceful places.  However, I knew there would probably be people flowing in and out of that area, and I have a hard time crying in public.  Deep down, I know there's nothing wrong with doing so.  But as a kid, I cried a lot and was teased for it, so I have a block about being vulnerable around others.

Instead, I walked up to the grocery store in one of our sister buildings and bought a small red velvet cake.  I sang "Happy Birthday" to her, starting to cry in the middle of the song, finishing with "I really miss you."

With each bite I took, I said aloud something I loved about her:  Her laugh, her kindness, her willingness to drive us everywhere (since I wasn't comfortable driving in big cities), her devotion to caring for her mother and her nephew when they were experiencing life-altering challenges, going on adventures with me, being my best friend.

I'm planning to spend the rest of the afternoon listening to Corey Hart (one of her favorites) and reading her creative blog (LaLa Creates).

On Facebook, I shared my post from last year where I said I hoped that her birthday in 2025 would be less sad and painful.  It is not.  The pain has gone from sharp to gnawing but it still eats at my soul.  This is her first birthday to hit when I've been in Ireland, and she was an Irish lass.  I said on Facebook "I hope I've pulled some of her essence with me so she can soar over the green hills and dance on the sea."

I miss you, dearest friend.

She gifted me with this beautiful wooden trinket box for the holidays one year, inside which was this slip of paper.  It reads " Into this box, I have placed my happy memories of times we've shared, struggles over which we've triumphed, our tears of joy, our girlish laughter.  each time you open it, may you feel the blessings of our friendship, may your heart smile, may you know the magnitude of happiness your love has brought to my life."

Park and a Playdate

On Sunday, Eli and I went to Tully Park, which is located in our neighborhood.  He had gone there multiple times, but this was my first visit.

The park was built around an ancient church and burial ground.  The original church structure dates back to between the 6th and 9th century, and the chancel was added around the 12th century.  The church was in use until 1615, when it was damaged by storms, fell into disrepair, and was abandoned.

It boggles my mind to traipse around structures that were in place centuries before the United States was a twinkle in its Founders' eyes - well before even the Founders were twinkles in their parents' eyes.

Before I knew we'd be moving to Ireland one day, I would amuse myself by going onto Zoopla (the UK version of Zillow) and looking at houses there for kicks.  It never failed to amaze me when I'd be looking at photos of a house and there, in the back pasture, would be the ruins of a castle tower or something.  I couldn't even wrap my mind around the prospect of having part of a castle in my backyard - it just didn't compute.

Here in Ireland, you can barely turn around without encountering some kind of historical landmark, which is pretty cool.

(Little fern growing out of the church wall)

Today (Friday), I had an adult playdate with a new friend named Meg.  At the women's club meeting I attended back in March, I struck up a conversation with a gal.  I asked where she was from and when she'd arrived - she said she was from Minnesota and her family had arrived in August.  I was like, "Does your husband work at Element?" and she was like "Yes!"  When Eli got home that evening, I asked if he knew her husband - Eli said he wasn't in the same unit but that they did work together at times.

I was able to friend her on Facebook recently and I sent her a message, asking if she would like to get together to chat.  To my delight, Meg accepted the invite so we got together this morning.

She suggested a place called Helios Coffee, which is in Dundrum near the library.  It's basically a food truck, set back from the street in an alley between a bank and a beauty salon.  There's also a sauna component to this company, which is an interesting but odd pairing.

This is the sign that was out near the sidewalk - if you can't quite read it, it says "Sunny Init" which is a very informal way of saying "It's sunny, isn't it?"  For the last few days, the weather here has been warm and sunny, and I don't think the Irish folks know exactly what to do with themselves about it.  It doesn't usually do this, apparently.

I was early (I'm perpetually early) so I went up to get my drink and snag us one of the small wooden tables that were lined up on either side of the alley.  I paid for my hot chocolate with a crisp €5 bill.  The cashier held it up and remarked that it was unbelievably unmarred and new-looking.  I joked with her and said, "You're probably thinking 'this is counterfeit - call the authorities.'"  She chuckled and said, "Yeah, we need to get one of those pens [where the ink changes color when used on a dud bill]."

I collected my drink and sat down at a table in the shade.  It was over 50 degrees when I left the house, so I figured I didn't need my hoodie.  But sitting in the shade with a breeze blowing, I felt a bit chilled.

The truck had music playing, and I was enjoying many of the selections:  "Benny and the Jets," "Lovely Day," "Drops of Jupiter," "Stuck in the Middle with You," and "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" were just a few of the songs I heard while waiting.

A couple of people had dogs with them and from behind me, I heard a man say "Be careful, she wants to steal your croissant."  😃

I'm terrible at recognizing someone after only meeting them once, so I let Meg know I'd be wearing a teal-colored shirt with "Duluth" written in white on the front.  She responded and said she'd planned to wear a teal-colored sweatshirt with MN and a crossed-paddle design on the front.  Serendipity.

She arrived, got her drink, and we fell into chatting as though we'd known each other for more than a passing couple of hours.  I felt so comfortable talking with her, telling her how I met Eli, how I lived in Texas for nearly a decade, that I was an introvert.  She shared how she'd met her husband, her adventures in driving in Ireland, and that she was also an introvert.

We talked for two hours before she had to leave to pick up one of her kiddoes from school.  As we said goodbye, she asked if I wanted to share a hug which I did without hesitation.

As I have written before, I've felt very unmoored here, very isolated and disconnected.  Spending time with someone from Minnesota who's also new to Ireland was exactly what I needed, and I owe Meg much gratitude for helping me regain a sense of peace.