End of an Era... Well, of 2008 anyway

Well it is New Years Eve today so I suppose I should get all nostalgic and philosophical about the year and everything that happened in it. Sadly I have the memory of a goldfish and I can barely remember Jan/Feb/March/April/May/half of June of last year, though I think that is because my brain is doing that survival thing where it glosses over traumatic events, namely the Leaving Cert. Wow those were some FUN months! Ridiculously pointless and stressful exams aside, 2008 has been one of the best years of my life so I can't help but stop to look back over some of the defining memories from it.

(anyone who gets bored during nostalgic flashbacks, stop reading here)

May:

Graduation and general year bonding. One of my favourite memories from school has to have been when we rearranged all the furniture in the common room and played 'the ground is lava', as well as having box races down the corridor. Even though this may not have happened in 2008 I have to mention the 'Fort Aisling' which we built in the common room using a pulley system developed out of some ribbon and a spoon. Naturally of course our principal walked into the common room and got stuck in it, then asked us 'what is that smell?'. Not 'why is there a sheet attatched to a spoon over my head?'... I think she thought that we were on drugs. The funniest part was that we had all just signed it, including Maria and Ashy (the head girl and deputy) and the two of them were hiding in the back of the room. Our year got really close towards the end of 6th year, and nothing will beat graduation where even a bunch of our teachers came to barcode, got drunk with us, then had to face us for nine o clock block classes.

<- We got bored at lunch one day

June/July- Never mind the leaving, what I remember from June was BULGARIA! We went for a week, the last few days of June and the start of July. It was epic. 12 girls, ridiculously cheap drink and sunshine. All the days are kind of a blur, but dancing on the bar in Select and getting free drinks from the bartenders is a defining night, as well as befriending random Norweigens, our hilarious rep 'Dan the Man', the essex guys, our trip on the pirate yacht, trying to explain what 'ish' means to people, happy hour being everywhere,... it was just a really good week. Ok yes some people got into a huge fight and one girl flew home early, and Louise ended up in a wheelchair for a few weeks, but apart from that it was great. We tend to sum it up like this: 13 booked, 12 went, 11 came back, 1 was in a wheelchair... (Louise fell off a step and fractured her foot, she is perfectly fine now.)

July- London!!! A few days after my 18th Maria and I went to stay with her aunt in Clapham Common for a few days. It was really sunny and such a laugh! We did the whole sightseeing thing (and befriended some knights at the Tower of London) got absolutely terrifed at the London Dungeon, after which I refused to go through the scary chamber thing in Madam Tussauds (I am still traumatised from when I went through it about eight years ago). We saw Spamalot the musical and accidently got drunk on one (giant) bottle of Bulmers each, after which Maria was convinced that a perfectly ordinary house was Buckingham Palace. Our greatest achievement was without a doubt navigating the London underground, and also for finding Abercrombie which is the hardest shop in the world to find (though in fairness we owe Fitzy for his amazing directions or we would have given up in Oxford Circus)

August-

Well I guess I would have to say getting into English first round was quite an achievement! I was fairly thrilled with that! Then one weekend Maria asked me and Kate if we felt like going to a giant night out in Ballybunion called 'Monday Night Madness'. It was Sunday night at this point, but never fear! Possibly one of the randomest things we have ever done, the three of us hopped on a train down to Kerry to stay with Maria's cousins and go out with them. It was one of the best nights out, purely because it was just so random! We got a lift up with her cousin the next day, which basically meant we went to the other side of Ireland and back in less the 24 hours, just for the laugh.

September-

Starting in UCD was interesting, our group and another group from our year became pretty close and we all started hanging out together in the SU (home to the comfiest couches in the world). I joined lacrosse during freshers week, which was again one of the more random things I have ever done because I am crap at sports, but the others convinced me that it would be a laugh and I was kind of scared of John so I didnt want to say no. (I now have no idea why I was scared of John). I also joined mountineering and badminton, I think Maria and I went on one hike and then were like feck this, and the closest I have gotten to badminton is when they arrive at the end of wall ball. But I much prefere lax and I have to say I think joining it was one of the best choices I have made this year, because without it I would never have gone to...

October- Karlsruhe

So I very nearly didn't go to Germany, but after much deliberation and everyone telling me I should I got out of my previous commitments and went! Maeve and I were the token Irish girls of the trip as every other girl was American. We were worried that it would be awkward but we all got along really well and Germany was one of the best weekends away I've had. Not only did we get to know the others on the team really well but we actually played a real game of lax which was entertaining. Mallori and I even invented our own version of lax, 'Prison Lacrosse' on the last night, and we still like to bring it up from time to time. There were so many memorable moments in Germany, but for some reason Flopsy making me run infront of traffic sticks in my mind. I think it was because I was terrified of him for the entire weekend, until he stopped yelling at me to take photos and get across roads and I realised that he is actually quite lovely when not giving out to me. Germany was definitly an experience and I am so glad that I went, I would have regretted it if I hadn't.

<-- Flopsy's photo. 'Worth risking my life for' apparently.

November-

Nothing overly definitive happened in November, but I got to know Mallori and Elyse really well and became really good friends with them. The 'reverse reverse' party was a lot of fun, though for some reason we ended up in a huge argument about Foxrock/Dublin vs the country (Foxrock won, of course). Rachel drove us from Maggie's to Paddy's and I have never been more sure that I was going to die in my life. Rachel is an...interesting driver at the best of times, and when she skidded even she got scared (I have more sympathy for those in the back though on the basis that Mal was lying across all of them). However the skidding was an accident, and once it got colder Rach started driving really carefully. I think that drive has scarred Elyse for life though.

November was also the month that I acquired the nickname 'Grassy', which sadly still has yet to die down and I am slightly worried that it never will. 'Team C' was also founded in November by Flopsy and Maeve, and I must say I do love the 'Team C' dance, it is not as good as mine and Mallori's invention, the John O Connor dance, but it is up there! November was a month of drunken fun, a CLASS month as Elyse would say!

the dances!

December:

I have gone on a fair bit about December in my blog already so if anyone has actually made it this far I will not bore you again! In short-

Exams (awful, but not as bad as I expected and not something I will stress about in future)

Kings and Crowns night- (amazing girls night out, SO much fun!)

Leslies birthday session (have not been that drunk in a long time, I blame Kings! good night!)

Last night out with Mal and Leslie-(sad day, but a fun night out... Saying goodbye was not easy)

Christmas- Family filled frivolity, then lots of quality time with the girls. I now spend too much time playing the Wii with Ash,Emma and Maria... I am still terrible at it though

Now tonight is New Years Eve and it is nearly time for 2009. Instead of going out to town where it will be overcrowded, expensive and impossible to get home Maria and I are staying in in hers with a bottle of wine and some dvds. The girls are trying to get us to come out to boomerangs but it is 2 o clock and I am yet to be convinced so I don't think that it is happening! Tomorrow is the beginning of a new year, and I am sure I will come up with lots of resolutions I will never keep, but I will bore you with them another time. 2008 was a year to remember, and I am so happy to have done all the things I have written about. Here's hoping that 2009 will be just as amazing!

Yuletide adventures

I had forgotten how wierd my family could be until we were all together for Christmas dinner. We went for Christmas dinner on Christmas eve at my aunts house. We always have it then and we alternate which house we have it in, its a random tradition. I don't know why we don't just have it on Christmas day like normal people, but I guess it makes Christmas a bit different! Sibling volunteered to be the designated driver, an offer she regretted about five minutes after walking into the house.

My family is quite possibly certifiably insane. We used to go on holidays together on a boat in France, where we always had a series of random encounters that I usen't to question until someone (probably Ashy) pointed out that they are NOT NORMAL. Any sort of drama or accident seems to be attracted to my family. One year sibling and I got attacked by swans, two years ago my uncle fell ( or 'jumped' as he likes to claim) into the canal while attempting to rescue an aged Luxemberger who had fallen in from the bank. That same year we almost got crushed in the gates of a lock because my uncle decided that if we sped up we would make it (that was a more eventful year). They spent half of dinner reminiscing about their trip this year, and how not only was it amazing that my cousins girlfriend survived it she also agreed to marry him when he proposed recently, despite having been stuck with the family for a week. Naturally any time the boat was brought up baleful looks were shot in my direction, as sadly I had declined the offer of being trapped in a confined space with my extended family in the middle of nowhere in France in favour of dancing on bars in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria with my friends.

The second half of dinner sent me into repressed flashback mode. My Uncle loves to wind up my Mum and Aunt, and generally does so through arguing with them about politics. A few years ago during the Nice treaty referendum things got so heated that my grandad is still terrified at the memory ('they turned on him like rabid dogs' is the exact phrase he used, I believe). So naturally about 3/4 of the way through dinner some absolute fool brings up the Lisbon treaty. ARE YOU KIDDING? My mother, aunt and cousin proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes having a huge debate with my Father and Uncle about it, which ended with my cousin not so subtley implying they were fascists. Funnily enough I had forgotten to revise all of European and Irish political history for christmas dinner, so sibling and I spent the entire thing rolling our eyes at each other and wondering if anyone would notice if we just left. Naturally my cousin HAD to point out to the entire table that I can now vote, and I think there may be some sort of power struggle over which side gets to indoctrinate me. I am slightly terrifed, and not impressed that he reminded them... some godfather he is! Thankfully sibling had enough and told the parents we were leaving whether or not they were in the car with us (it was like one in the morning at this stage) so they finally left, though they insisted on turning off Westlife's greatest hits in the car and instead we were forced to listen to my mother sing 'Jingle Bells' in a Jamaican accent when it came on Xmas FM. (Why a Jamaican accent? I don't know, and quite frankly I don't really want to either)

Christmas day was the usual, opened presents with the fam, went to mass for the first and only time this year, visited relations... My grandad didn't want to go to my Unlces house for Christmas dinner so my mom invited him and my aunt to ours, which meant that we had another Christmas dinner, one I am still full from. Sibling and I watched movies all evening afterwards, though we had to turn off Jason Byrne because we were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe (We are going to see him live in Feburary, so excited!). On Stephens Day I went to the races with the girls in Lepordstown, which was a laugh, even managed to win some money which was amusing! That night we went out for drinks in Temple Bar and got the nightlink home, Emma, Maeve and Rach walked me home because all three of them live beside each other whereas I would have had a fifteen minute walk home in the dark by myself, which was pretty nice of them!

Christmas is always good for hanging out with family and friends, though I will quite happily avoid some of the family for a while now as I am scared that I will have to listen to even more political propaganda... I'll see them AFTER the referendum...

Why I hate goodbyes...

So last night was Mallori and Leslie's last night in Dublin, which was kinda hard. I am really bad at goodbyes and stuff, I cry way too easily so saying goodbye to them was tough. We started predrinking at Mals at 5, and began our last night in Ireland the way we've began all our nights out (and in) for like the last 6 weeks... with a game of Kings. Naturally I got screwed over and got the last ace, master of men and the king cup (which was half vodka, half gin) but it was worth it for the amusement of seeing the looks on everyones faces when they realised I had downed it in like twenty seconds and no-one had noticed.

As a good bye gift for Mal we got a load of photos from this semester and put them in a book. Everyone wrote a letter and we put that in as well. Well I say everyone wrote, but really Flopsy dictated his letter to me on skype and made me handwrite it out for him. John of course took fifty million years to turn up with his letter, and also nearly gave me a heart attack when he jumped out at me when I walked out of the apartment. It was pretty funny, purely because I could hear Mal freaking out in the apartment about the fact that I was screaming and Kate wouldn't let her go outside. She really liked the book anyway which was the important thing, and even people who weren't coming out with us came over to say bye which was cool.

Messers was a laugh, apart from at the beginning when it was just old men perving at us on an empty dancefloor, but then Maeve turned up with GPEP and it was fun. They played lots of christmas music AND the Abba medley just as Mal and I were going to request it, which was nice of them to save us the effort.

Naturally we went to BK's for food, then got rained on while we tried to get a six seater taxi. We decided to do goodbye hugs and stuff before we got in, so that was just a barrel of laughs... nothing sucks more then saying goodbye to a friend for a very long time... in the lashing rain... at 3 in the morning... On the plus side we got the worlds perkiest taxi driver who made us sing along to Christmas songs, which is always amusing, though naturally being a complete sap I started crying after we dropped Mal and Leslie off and therefore was NOT in the mood to sing along to Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer.

As you have probably gathered I am not good at saying goodbye to people. Sadly I forgot my camera so I have no photos from last night, but I plan on stealing Mallori and Leslie's as soon as possible... And as much as I am going to miss them next semester I am consoling myself with the fact that we are having a reunion in Washington in August :-)

My return to childhood...

I have been acting like a five year old child for the last two days. I know generally I have the emotional maturity of an eight year old, but I have spectacularly out-immatured myself this time. I blame two things; Kate bringing me into a giant toy shop, and the arrival of our christmas tree.

It was kate's nineteenth on Thursday so a couple of us went into town to celebrate. Not in the usual going into town to celebrate way (as in drinking and going out) but to have dinner and look at the pretty lights.



We wandered around town for a while looking at the pretty christmas lights, and also the pretty shoes in BT's. After we went to visit the live crib outside the mansion house (one of the donkeys had a mowhawk, amazing!) we caught the Luas to dundrum to go to Milano's for dinner. Maria still had 45 mins before work so we decided to go to Hamley's, then go to dinner when she left for work. That was when my rapid decline started.




I tend to get extremely excited about Christmas you see. I was already excited enough about the shiny lights and the christmas carols in town, then I walk into a giant toystore...


It was amazing.


I kinda want to live there. A lot.




Then we went to dinner, which was yummy, and then we went BACK to Hamley's because Cillian hadn't been with us the first time and we wanted to bring him (even though he doesn't like it much). Well, basically we wanted an excuse to go back.







Then yesterday was Christmas tree day. Now my sister and I tend to become slightly hyperactive and childish around christmas trees. Never mind that she is twenty-one and I am eighteen, all maturity goes out the window on tree day. This year we managed to find the perfect tree in about ten minutes, which was slightly disappointing. Normally we take ages, go to about three different places, dither about trees (we're very picky) and my sister always drops one on me. Every year, without fail. Except for this year. While my head was happy about the lack of 11 foot tree falling on it, we still felt kinda cheated that it was so easy. Though we did get amusement out of my mom pretending the tree was too expensive so we could get a discount, though not as much as when she turned around to give us the worlds most unsubtle thumbs up in the world.

That night, when Mr Tree the third arrived (yes, we do name our trees. Guess how many years we've been doing it for?) We got all the ornaments out of the attic and spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out which ones were which (our parents have bought us one ornament for every christmas, so I have 19 now and Emma has 22). Then we turned on some sort of Christmas countdown music channel and started decorating in our merry christmas way. Now the thing about my sister and I is that we LOVE a bit of Cliff at christmas time, especially 'Mistletoe and Wine'.. .the moment he starts swaying we start laughing... then this giant gong appears and its just gas craic and banter from there on... That song came on and we were laughing and dancing around so much that the dog left the room in disgust.


Yeah, we ARE cool


So to sum up, I have spent the last 2 days playing in toy stores and dancing around my house with my sister acting like a five year old. In short, I've been a complete and utter child. Never mind that I still had 3 exams (now 2, hell yeah!) or that I should probably be acting my age. It is Christmas time, and I am not so secretly a total child.

I love christmas.

And so it begins...

So, my first ever exams as a college student...

Wow, I forgot how much I hate exams! You'd think after last year I'd be used to exam pressure, but the summer and this entire semester kinda made me switch my brain off, so suddenly having to WORK was- I'm not gonna lie- Awful!

Anyone who knows me knows that I can get quite stressed. Suddenly I was looking back over the semester going 'wow I did like nothing', and worrying about failing... Naturally this got on the nerves of non first year people I know, such as my darling sibling, because she is in her final year and therefore needs really high grades and I just need to pass. Anyone with a sense of self preservation would have shut up about it, so naturally I kept going... Ha I kid, sort of...

So I had my first two exams today, the ones I was most worried about so I'm feeling pretty relaxed right now. Mainly because I nearly gave my self a stress-induced heart attack this morning so I think I've used up my stress quota for the day... I genuinely believe that I am the ONLY person in the world who could manage to loose their student card (which was IN THEIR HAND) over the course of a 30 second walk... I nearly cried when I realised...

On the plus side, my other exam was totally less stressful after all that, and luckily some good samritan handed in my card... If I knew who they were I'd buy them a drink, I owe them big time!

Another high point to my day- I had a four hour break that was NOT worth going home for on the basis I'd have to leave like an hour after I got home, so I decided to be a loving friend and distract Elyse from studying so we could have lunch. We had philedelphia on bread and coke... then Elyse made me watch some show which SHOWED PEOPLE BEING OPERATED ON, which is not good after just eating...

I'm just counting down to Monday, because then it is over and I am FREE! I also get to meet Elyse's family that day which I am very excited about, though I'll be in the middle of cramming like mad for my last exam so hopefully I'll manage to seem well adjusted and normal as opposed to a big ball of stress! But either way, it'll be over and I'll be officially on christmas holidays.. Excitement!

The art of procrastination...

I have really surprised myself with my dedication over the last few days. Not to studying, but to my avoidation (I am not sure if that is a word, but I don't care, studying for English is TOMORROW) of studying. It takes some creativity to be able to think of so many things to do instead of working, WITHOUT leaving the room you are studying in. Some people may think it is too hard. To these people I say practise, the art of procrastination is one that does not come easily to some, but with time it can become a useful and distracting tool.

I think a lot of people get confused about the difference between procrastinating and just slacking. The difference is in your mind set- you need to genuinely BELIEVE that you are going to begin your work just after you play with the dog/start a blog/finish this conversation on facebook chat... Otherwise you are just slacking. Bascially a good procrastinator needs to be very good at kidding themselves, or so gullible they even believe it when THEY lie to themselves. They also need to be able to convince themselves that what they are doing is SO important it cannot wait until after studying (but the dog looks lonely, I need to arrange what time Rachel is collecting me later and that is easier on fb chat...) It is a skill which develops over time. Some people call it denial... I prefer to think of it as 'misguided prioritising'.


Procrastinating, when used right, I think can benefit whatever you are avoiding doing. If Kate is reading this she is probably giving her computer her disapproving, are-you-kidding-go-do-some-work-and-stop-waffling-on look. I know this because we have this conversation frequently- she is a responsible, dilligent student who gets her work done perfectly as soon as possible to get it out of the way, while I have the attention span of a newborn puppy and therefore find it hard to sit down and concentrate unless there is some sort of scary deadline looming. Personally I think I work better with an imminent deadline, so by putting off my work until I HAVE to do it, it means the adreneline from the ohnoitsdueintwodaysandIhaven'tstartedyet rush helps me work harder and more efficiently.


Which is why I think I (hopefully) am not too screwed for my exams next week. The 'holy crap its on wednesday' fear is kicking in and I am finding it a lot easier to concentrate on actually studying, so much so that I am even writing this on my lunch break so it does not interfere with my nerd time. That said it is only half two in the afternoon, odds are that by four I will have thought of something of extreme importance which MUST BE DONE NOW. Or I might actually do some work. Who knows?

p.s You want to know a REALLY good way to distract yourself? Google images 'puppies...

it is ADORABLE!!!

awwwww -->>

My amazing technological abilities

I have a theory that I would be better off in a world without technology. Not because I am not fond of it (we all know how much time I spend on facebook chat when I should be studying) but just because of my ability to NOT BE ABLE TO WORK IT

Its very upsetting... no matter how much I try, technology always outsmarts me. Well not neccesarily outsmarts, just confuses me so much that I give up. Take Skype for example... after Kate, Mallori and Elyse all told me to get it I decided to download it. I mean what the heck, its free and it would idle away a good bit more of my study time (actually studying is out of the question of course)

So I download it and go to add Kate to my contact list... but of course, before I can do that I have to test call the skype computer. Why I do not know, maybe its lonely and wants someone to talk to... So my heart goes out to the poor lonely skype computer and I try to click call... Does this work? No. Am I confused? Yes! After looking at the screen with a confused expression for a while I gave up. Who knows, maybe skype will magically start working later...

Ditto for trying to set up a link on this. I give it 8 out of 10 on the confusion front. After Flopsy informed me he had put a link to my blog on his, I decided to return the favour... even though he gave me step by step instructions on how to (because lets face it, if I had to figure it out myself I would have been there all year) it still took me about 10 minutes, and at least two attempts to do it...

In fairness, I will admit that sometimes the technological confusion is just me being grassy and not the fault of the innocent piece of technology involved... for example once I pointed at a picture of something and said 'wow, that is a funny looking tv'

it was a microwave.

I take full responsibility for that, that is clearly just me being an idiot...

Kings and Crowns

Hmm so various people have been going on about Blogs and how good it is to keep one so I figured I might as well give it a shot.. .we all know that I’ll do anything to avoid studying…

We had our Kings and Crowns night last night, that was fun! We pre-gamed in Mal’s in Belgrove, Maria got the first King cup which was hilarious because she HATES beer and there was a ridiculous amount of guiness in there courtesy of Chris… not to mention some malibu, gin, bulmers, (oh and Coke… Kate was driving…)

(not happy about the beer)-->

Ashy is the only person I’ve ever met who HOPES to get master of men… but then again she also drinks straight malibu (like full on downs it) and then complains when she mixes it that the COKE is burning her throat… right ashy…

Two rounds later as well as some drunken dancing around to Abba we tottered out into the cold icky night in our high heels to get to the bus stop… ( By WE I mean myself and the Americans… Ashy and Maria got a fecking lift, lazy much?) The rain didn’t get us down though, we were laughing too much at Elyse’s yelling ‘Wow, I just stepped in a wet puddle!’ (as opposed to a dry one Elyse?)

An uneventful taxi ride later and we were in Tripod… naturally we ditched our coats and headed for the dancefloor, where we stayed pretty much all night apart from venturing off now and then for shot/drink breaks… We did run into our friends Git and Shane as well, which was good because then I could steal Shanes funky hat and take photos of all of us wearing it…

A few hours later our feet were wrecked so we hobbled down to Bk in the lashing rain (stopping of course to take a pic of Leslie under the pretty grafton street lights) and got lots of yummy food (and crowns, thus completing the agenda for ‘Kings and Crowns night’.) After getting even wetter going to the taxi rank we went our separate ways and went to bed (well, not Elyse because she was leaving in like an hour for Paris and still hadn’t packed)

Basically it was a savage night out. With four cameras there we took an insane amount of photos, I might throw some of them up here if I can figure out how..

One thing I learned from that night though- I’d forgotten how much a group of girls by themselves on the dancefloor can attract creepers. And as much fun as a girls night out was, a little part of me missed the lax boys, because they’re fun to dance with (its not the same doing the Team C dance without its creator, Flopsy) and more importantly, they keep the creepers away….