Do you need anything from duty free?/I got to get out of the wet UK
Well Frank Quinn is an Irish singer
A scuba-diving paramedic, and a dead ringer
For every Irish fuck who ever had his picture on
A poster for the Offices of Irish Tourism
Now I love Frank, and I love all o' his songs
And I love all o' his stories about fishing stiffs out of the Shannon
And how the moss and seaweed would grow upon the skin of the victims
And how one day Frank would go home, and get that gig again
Using a $10 iTunes gift card (yes, yes, I know, don't start) on Cracker's 2003 Countrysides album (covers of country songs, as the name suggests) was the best idea I had all weekend. Loving it, while feeling a bit abashed at the whole "alt-country is for people who'd like country if they'd stop turning up their noses at it" thing.
Trip home was wonderful. A week in the Bay plus a side trip up to Seattle for NYE and the Huskies' awesome upset against Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl, which I watched with a group of law school friends on a big TV. I got to see (some of) my Seattle nerds plus my law school buddies, eat at Annapurna, buy Vivace coffee, meet some new people, and watch the Space Needle fireworks from a 23rd-floor condo at 2nd and Cedar with an incredible view. Seattle was being beautiful - 30 degrees, clear and sunny, the Olympics looking just astounding. If the weather had been like that more often, I wouldn't have gotten the fuck out of Seattle with the alacrity I did. Anyway, great trip.
Being at home in the Bay: also terrific, seeing people who matter to me, going on adventures (Emperor Norton's and Wyatt Earp's graves, beach), hanging out with my law firm buddies, drinking with civil liberties attorneys, seeing Tron Legacy with snej (booo) and True Grit (AWESOME), and spending Christmas with my entire family, for once. My middle sister wasn't home for Christmas last year and my littlest sister was in Korea the year before that, so all five of us, plus my middle sister's new boyfriend (not the jackass, seems nice enough), plus my uncle, all got to spend the holiday together for the first time in years. Good times. I got what I asked for for Christmas (e.g., tea ball, fridge magnets, catnip mice for Boris - I am boring). I enjoyed the mild weather, which was good for running.
Plus, I got to do this all with the knowledge that I am Going Home in the fall. The paperwork to go back to the law firm where I summered in 2008 is signed, sealed, and delivered. Can haz jorb! Such a relief. I get to go back to the group I was in, to work under my favorite partner. Going back to the Bay was much more happymaking this way, instead of "oh god I miss this place I hope I can come back sigh."
rezendi arrives on Thursday, just in time for the San Sebastian Festival. This is going to be great, so long as we can get back into Old San Juan after adventuring during the day. We're gonna check out Arecibo and Culebra or Vieques. Getting into OSJ during the Festival is hard, and I'm pissed I didn't think of that when I told Jon to visit now! Might could just spend a night away since being squished by thousands of drunk teenagers and trying to sleep through late-night loud merrymaking does lose its appeal after the first couple nights.
I had the startling realization last night that, unless I'm forgetting someone, I haven't had a female houseguest since Quinn left in early March of last year. Not sure what, if any, meaning I should derive from that fact. Maybe it's just that I'm at the age where many of my female friends have small children (Quinn's kid is a little older), which complicates both the opportunities for and logistics of traveling. (The couples I've hung out with who brought their kid(s) along didn't stay at my house and were coming to Puerto Rico anyway, independent of me.)
As it happens, my mother's cousin and his wife are coming to PR for their 25th wedding anniversary, contemporaneously with Jon's visit. I'd never even heard of this cousin before; he's part of the Chicago Irish branch of the family, not among the ones that lit out for Southern California half a century ago. But my immediate family is small, and there are lots of maternal relatives I've met somewhere between zero and three times in life, so I'm welcoming the chance to meet them.
In short, 2011 is off to an amazing start. Now if only I can get my head back into work; I was singularly unproductive during our three-day week last week. I had to catch up on a bunch of e-mail and go through all the summer internship apps that had come in while the nation's law students finally had time to apply for jobs over the holidays. Indeed, the holidays weren't really over yet -- we got Thursday and Friday off because Epiphany is a Big Deal down here, so work was still super-quiet and everybody was still kinda checked out. But now it's time for nose to meet grindstone, as January through March is a very busy period. Wondering what the tone will be at work after Saturday's events.
Speaking of work, time to gently remove cat from lap and head thither.
A very happy New Year to one and all.
A scuba-diving paramedic, and a dead ringer
For every Irish fuck who ever had his picture on
A poster for the Offices of Irish Tourism
Now I love Frank, and I love all o' his songs
And I love all o' his stories about fishing stiffs out of the Shannon
And how the moss and seaweed would grow upon the skin of the victims
And how one day Frank would go home, and get that gig again
Using a $10 iTunes gift card (yes, yes, I know, don't start) on Cracker's 2003 Countrysides album (covers of country songs, as the name suggests) was the best idea I had all weekend. Loving it, while feeling a bit abashed at the whole "alt-country is for people who'd like country if they'd stop turning up their noses at it" thing.
Trip home was wonderful. A week in the Bay plus a side trip up to Seattle for NYE and the Huskies' awesome upset against Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl, which I watched with a group of law school friends on a big TV. I got to see (some of) my Seattle nerds plus my law school buddies, eat at Annapurna, buy Vivace coffee, meet some new people, and watch the Space Needle fireworks from a 23rd-floor condo at 2nd and Cedar with an incredible view. Seattle was being beautiful - 30 degrees, clear and sunny, the Olympics looking just astounding. If the weather had been like that more often, I wouldn't have gotten the fuck out of Seattle with the alacrity I did. Anyway, great trip.
Being at home in the Bay: also terrific, seeing people who matter to me, going on adventures (Emperor Norton's and Wyatt Earp's graves, beach), hanging out with my law firm buddies, drinking with civil liberties attorneys, seeing Tron Legacy with snej (booo) and True Grit (AWESOME), and spending Christmas with my entire family, for once. My middle sister wasn't home for Christmas last year and my littlest sister was in Korea the year before that, so all five of us, plus my middle sister's new boyfriend (not the jackass, seems nice enough), plus my uncle, all got to spend the holiday together for the first time in years. Good times. I got what I asked for for Christmas (e.g., tea ball, fridge magnets, catnip mice for Boris - I am boring). I enjoyed the mild weather, which was good for running.
Plus, I got to do this all with the knowledge that I am Going Home in the fall. The paperwork to go back to the law firm where I summered in 2008 is signed, sealed, and delivered. Can haz jorb! Such a relief. I get to go back to the group I was in, to work under my favorite partner. Going back to the Bay was much more happymaking this way, instead of "oh god I miss this place I hope I can come back sigh."
rezendi arrives on Thursday, just in time for the San Sebastian Festival. This is going to be great, so long as we can get back into Old San Juan after adventuring during the day. We're gonna check out Arecibo and Culebra or Vieques. Getting into OSJ during the Festival is hard, and I'm pissed I didn't think of that when I told Jon to visit now! Might could just spend a night away since being squished by thousands of drunk teenagers and trying to sleep through late-night loud merrymaking does lose its appeal after the first couple nights.
I had the startling realization last night that, unless I'm forgetting someone, I haven't had a female houseguest since Quinn left in early March of last year. Not sure what, if any, meaning I should derive from that fact. Maybe it's just that I'm at the age where many of my female friends have small children (Quinn's kid is a little older), which complicates both the opportunities for and logistics of traveling. (The couples I've hung out with who brought their kid(s) along didn't stay at my house and were coming to Puerto Rico anyway, independent of me.)
As it happens, my mother's cousin and his wife are coming to PR for their 25th wedding anniversary, contemporaneously with Jon's visit. I'd never even heard of this cousin before; he's part of the Chicago Irish branch of the family, not among the ones that lit out for Southern California half a century ago. But my immediate family is small, and there are lots of maternal relatives I've met somewhere between zero and three times in life, so I'm welcoming the chance to meet them.
In short, 2011 is off to an amazing start. Now if only I can get my head back into work; I was singularly unproductive during our three-day week last week. I had to catch up on a bunch of e-mail and go through all the summer internship apps that had come in while the nation's law students finally had time to apply for jobs over the holidays. Indeed, the holidays weren't really over yet -- we got Thursday and Friday off because Epiphany is a Big Deal down here, so work was still super-quiet and everybody was still kinda checked out. But now it's time for nose to meet grindstone, as January through March is a very busy period. Wondering what the tone will be at work after Saturday's events.
Speaking of work, time to gently remove cat from lap and head thither.
A very happy New Year to one and all.