And By the Way...

Did she mention my name? Did she mention my name just in passing?

I should really start playing a game on this blog called: Andrea references a quite-possibly-obscure-to-everyone-else song and you tell me who I'm singing.*

Anyway, in amongst all the whining bitching complaining crying frustration of the last blog, I forgot to mention my exciting news: I GOT MY PLANE TICKET BABY!!

Now it's not just official that I'm going to Ireland to visit the famdamily because I keep saying I'm going but because I actually have a ticket in my hot little hand (well, I have a booking confirmation which will turn into a ticket but you get the point).

That means it is 72 days until:

I wander around Dublin (although this time will be sans the ice cream but probably still with the latest copy of Four-Four-Two. Oh, and the overall shorts are loooooong gone, you'll be happy to know.)

I pop into Bewley's to laugh at their ridiculous outfits enjoy a cuppa after a day of walking around Dublin.

I arrive too late to catch the All Ireland Hurling or Gaelic Football Matches but that doesn't mean I won't be joining in the good natured ribbing of anyone who talks smack about 'my' teams. For the record, I am happy when any of the following teams win: Monaghan (ha! Good luck with that ever happening), Tipperary (my stepmom's family comes from there and her cousin-in-law was a hurler although he's been retired at least 10 years now and unlike my other teams, they actually win with some sense of regularity), Armagh (uncle lives there, it's where I spent most of my time when I  was not in Dublin on previous trips), or Galway (I lived and worked there when I was 19).

Story behind the picture. That's my dad and his friend, Alan, at Alan's Dublin home in 1996. My uncle (dad's brother-in-law) is from Wexford (the flag shown) so we were all pulling for them in the All Ireland Hurling Final but Alan is from Limerick. My stepmom had made a bet with Alan on the Limerick-Tipperary semi-final game and lost. When she demanded a chance to win it back, Alan was more than willing to make a bet with her on the final. He ended up making £10 bets with multiple members of our family. When Wexford won (1-13 to 0-14**) we took a little bit too much joy in going around Alan's place to collect our £60 worth of bets from him.

I visit possible locations for the Zombie Apocalypse.

I hang out with cousins, aunts, uncles, and possibly some sheep.

I cheat death on Monaghan's back roads. Seriously, I love my family but the whole country drives like it was supposed to be somewhere 20 minutes ago.

I make my family take me to tourist spots and then make them stand with me in the pictures.

My family and I get into the beer and start playing the "do you remember...?" game. Eventually someone will try and be funny and whip out the old "do I remember? Will I ever forget?" and we'll all have a good laugh before the story teller of that particular memory says "no, really, do you remember?". I can't wait to whip out the "do you remember when we all wore short-shorts and Barry McGuigan shirts?" If Alan wants to win back some of that £60 (however many € that would be now), I'm willing to bet they all remember but none of them will cop to it...

See you in September, Ireland!

*If people do want to play along, I'll answer this answer in the next post if no one gets it (which would mean my mom has stopped reading my blog). NO GOOGLING FOR ANSWERS!!

**Hurling is a sport that I love to watch (I've been to three games in Croke Park--all with my uncle Frank--and they were easily the best live sporting matches of my life) but I don't really follow because, well, hello, I live on the west coast of Canada. I say "I like hurling" and people respond "Curling?" We had two hurleys growing up and I used to take them to the lower field and practice flipping the sliotar up from the ground and then hitting it in midair. I've described hurling as 'field hockey played by rugby players' and an aunt calls it 'open warfare with a referee'. Both are pretty apt. If you don't believe me, I've linked to an instructional video. I may do a post about it in the future because it's an awesome sport. It's also played in some of the larger cities in North America with sizable Irish populations. I encourage you to try and catch a game to see what all the awesomeness is about.

EDIT: incorrect links in original posts. My bad!