Well, we've done it

After much negotiation and a lot of research on Irish's part, we've agreed to purchased a new car. I know, I know... if you're like me, you're wondering what we are doing wasting money on a new car.... which is why this process has taken us over a month to agree to. We both swore we'd never get a new car, we both swore we'd never get a black car (having had them before and knowing the work it entails keeping it clean), we both swore we weren't those kind of people who spent huge amounts of money for no good reason.... now we are those people.

We've justified it a thousand different ways. Currently, we both have 2 seaters. I have the M1ata; Irish bought a truck that has the little jumpseats in the back. It was a little tough carrying my parents around in that when they visited last year. We knew we needed something that would at least allow us room for 4. We wanted something that we could carry a dog in, because that's on our list of things to do this year (I just reread that and it sounds like owning a dog is just something you check off the list. that's not what I meant at all!). For Irish, this is a dream come true. He's never owned a new car - in his last job, the bank provided vehicles, like they often do in european countries, it seems. This is one of his 'dream cars'. He's tickled to bits!

Our other rationalization - well, HIS, really - is that he's still thinking in euro terms this year. This car he's getting costs 60k euro in 1reland, here it's half that price. He knows that probably by next year, after being in the US awhile, it won't seem cheap anymore... ah, there's so many reasons. Frankly, I just want him to have it, if he wants it. It's not like we don't have the money. We do. He sold his house in Ireland enough above the asking price to pay for this. It's not like we made a snap decision.... in fact, it's taken us longer to make this decision than it took to buy our house and we often laugh at that fact. We will both get immense amounts of pleasure out of this car, we are sure of that. We may never buy a new car again.. (Unless we BOTH want to drive it, then we may have to get another. lol)

Here's what our new baby looks like. That's not our car, or our house and ours is actually a 2006 (this is the 2005, they look the same). I feel like a proud mama.

Hurtin'

Last night Irish and I went out for an evening of rabble-rousing with a new group that we met... ahem.... online. One lovely girl started this local group and if last night was any indication, it's certainly been a success. There must have been 35 people there! We met at a local irish pub (poor show of Gu1nness, we didn't bother...) and some of had dinner and pints, others just drinks. The people I met were really nice and even though most of them had been out together before, they made us feel welcome and that felt really good. There is constantly something to do with the group - that particular event was the 3rd Tuesday gathering at a local establishment. Those with dogs often meet up at the local dog park and hang out. There's coffee days, hockey games, parties. You name it. If they don't have it, you can arrange it. They even have salsa dancing lessons, which irish is willing to give a go. It's tonight though, and after 5 pints last night, I woke up with a cold starting and all I want to do is lay down and go to sleep!

Looking forward to making new friends though. It feels good to try and get connected in a new town. Hopefully it will continue to go well.

not the post I was planning...

Diverting from our regularly scheduled program...

---Q: why did the pervert cross the road?
A: he was stuck in the chicken.-----

Ok, this is Irishs' joke. this is what I get to live with... day in/day out. Silly joke, maybe. But it never fails to make me laugh. HE never fails to make me laugh. I never fail to say rude, unexpected things that he doesn't expect. It's a good combination. Laughter truly is the most important thing in a relationship, methinks. Never have I been in a relationship where one minute I'm irked by something he's done, the next minute I'm laughing at something he's said. I can't hold a grudge, I can't be angry, frankly, life is too short. Why would I want to be angry at my best friend? Why would anyone want to be mad at a friend, ever?

I understand someone doing something to you. I understand losing trust in a person because they hurt you, because their definition of integrity is different than yours and theirs isn't enough. What I don't understand is 'misunderstandings'. When one person says one thing and it's miscontrued, taken out of context, or just plain taken wrong. Why would anyone who's a truly a 'friend' just let something as little as that keep you from being friends with them? The first time I experienced this, I was doing something emotionally abusive to myself. My friend that I was spending a majority of my time with was also affected by it. I don't remember exactly what I was doing to her but it wasn't good, I didn't even know I was doing it. She wrote me a long letter and told me what I'd done, told me she was planning on backing off from our friendship because I wasn't being good to myself, to her. Thank god she wrote me that letter instead of just cutting me out of her life. We were able to move past the problem after talking about it in great detail. We are still great friends today, probably one of the only friends that I have a truly 'honest' friendship with. I can tell her anything.

Having true friends is such a blessing.. actually making them, even harder. Especially as I get older, I cherish my friendships more. The people who actually stick around, who put in the work that it takes to maintain. Meeting people is easy. Finding people who not only want to have a new friend but who actually want to do the work is like finding a needle in a haystack. When you find those people you have to hold on. So I don't understand when some people back off, when you don't hear from them for awhile. I don't understand people who hold grudges. Tell me you're pissed if you are, let's move on from this. Tell me I said something shitty, or I don't call you enough and you want to hear from me more, let's move forward. Give a sh1t, like you care that you haven't heard from me in a couple weeks - have enough balls to make the first move. I don't care. Just don't let the friendship end. Don't let it disappear to nothingness. Fight for it. Don't you think it's worth it?

Global warming? or just winter weather...

I can't believe we were in NYC last week - under sunny but very chilly winter skies - and the news is now reporting a sensational 27 inches of snow in Central Park over the weekend! I cannot believe it!

New York City is an amazing place - more so because we met some lovely people there - as crazy as we thought it would be but also friendlier and cleaner than we thought it would be. It was fun to see the steam coming out of the streets, like in the movies; to see the steps of the courthouse ala Law & 0rder; the massiveness of the Empire State Building and other buildings; the beauty of the Brooklyn Bridge and the history of Ellis Island. We were surprised at the size of Central Park (I knew it was huge but relative to the size of the island.. wow.) - not quite as beautiful as Golden Gate park in SF but it IS winter after all.... everything is just barren and dead anyway.

We had the best Gu1nness in NYC, at JD's near Joe's work. Irish won't abide a bad pour - seems the american's (even irish pubs in america) pour too fast and the drink doesn't get the nice creaminess that it has in the Emerald Isle. Even I can tell the difference and I've stopped drinking it here. But JD's... well, we found the place thanks to a little help from our friend.

We were eating dinner at a place in Little Italy, where the tables were nice and cozy, and a woman from Texas started chatting with me. She was really friendly, her husband a little quieter but then mine was too. We chatted between courses and after we were finished, had a bit longer chat. We wandered back to the subway together and invited them to meet up at a pub near our hotel to watch the SuperBowl. They actually did! It was good fun and added to our experience altogether. Hopefully I'll get an email out to them soon.

So that's about the extent of our NY trip. I hope Joe is staying warm out there and doesn't have to shovel too much snow in his front walk or driveway! I've heard it's going to snow here too but for now, we have beautiful, unusual winter sunshine... I just can't complain! Not that I would - life's been pretty darn good to me and it's still going.

Waking up in Washington

I know.. I know... it's hard to believe that our lives have brought us back home finally. It feels a little weird, to be honest, like my house is new all over again!

It's a gorgeous morning in $eattle, like only a person who doesn't work can enjoy. It always seems like when you are at work, the weather is gorgeous. Then the weekends, when you can actually enjoy it, it rains cats and dogs. Right now, I can see the mountains from my perch at the kitchen table (the one that doesn't actually fit in our kitchen, for those of you who know we bought furniture for the house we PLAN to have, not the one we actually have!) - which is hanging out in the front room for now. We kind of like the layout though and may keep it like this in the future.

So... where to begin.... first there was Yosemite. I was looking at the photos again today. In fact, we took more photos in Yosemite than in NYC. I think we only got two photos in NYC - of myself and my blog buddy/now family friend for life (don't get scared Joe!) - and we took it on a disposible camera which means that it probably won't get developed until next year!

We have a running joke in our house regarding our digital camera. It seems that every time we need to use it, the batteries are dead. We open the thing and see the flashing red battery light and we just start laughing. In an effort to remedy this, I actually charged the batteries the night before we left my parents house. I was so proud of myself for remembering this. Thought I was being clever and all. We drove into Yosemite a day later, where the gorgeous photo ops are right at the entrance and the 'village' is about 20 miles inward. Of course when Irish took the camera out, the battery light was on. OF COURSE IT WAS! We had to drive the 20 miles into the village (it was 20 miles the way we came from too) to buy batteries, the drive back out to take the snaps. We hate the f%^%&^%% camera. If we didn't have a disposible in NY, we'd have no photo of Joe because for sure the batteries woulda been dead.







Anyhow, it was just a quick trip to Yosemite but it was worth it. Irish hadn't been and I hadn't been for a few years so it was nice to show him. We'll go again in the summer, and drive over Tioga Pass which if you haven't done it, is gorgeous. We'll camp. We'll make s'mores. Maybe we'll meet our coyote cousin again.

After that, we met up with friends in the Bay Area and I signed up for my next tour of duty with the same company. I'll be doing training for electronic timesheets. This should be interesting, as public speaking has never been my strong point. Which is exactly why I am doing it. Because it's time to face a fear and move on.

Next post will be NYC and meeting the wonderful soul at Random Thoughts from NYC. If you haven't read Joe, you should because he's funny and his comment section is pretty funny too. I guarantee he'll put a smile on your face.

New York City, here we come!!!

I didn't have a chance to mention that I found cheap tickets online last weekend. $180 return to NYC from SEA. I told M about it and he said sure, why not? Sure, I haven't been home in 6 weeks (oh, just got home on Wednesday night) and M isn't finished with the bathroom but why not take four days out and go to NY? We've never been. We're wildly excited about it now.

Joe, I emailed you! It was very last minute and even more so the email, but if you can meet up with us, please do. I sent you my cell number. It would be fun to meet you and talk about the Seahawks. lol Irish gets a kick out of your blog.

Anyhoo, we spent the weekend in Yosemite on our way back to the Bay Area. I'll post photos next week. It was nice because it's off season, not too many people there. The sun was shining but there was snow on the ground. We came about 5 feet from a coyote that was absolutely gorgeous in it's winter coat. We snapped a few photos of it too.

After Yosemite, we drove up to the Bay Area and I negotiated another contract for that same company. I'll be developing a training for the employees to learn to use the new electronic timesheets. It's shorter and the money isn't as good but I don't have to work a real job at least until May now! Yippee!

So... all is good. I'm sure we'll have plenty to talk about after this weekend.. Talk to you soon!