so about bananas

the coldest beginning of july since 1930.

2009-07-03T00:34:01Z

summer is halfway over and i suck.

thus, i list.

new summer goals.

1. move downtown
2. make money. meaning save it when i make it.
3. move out of my apt
4. read two books a week
5. donate a ton of my shit
6. more road trips
7. six flags
8. figure out grad school/teaching certification shit
9. teach myself geometry
10. re-watch simpsons seasons 1-10...ish
11. continue working on getting in shape
12. care packages
to be continued.

it's getting to that time.

2008-11-29T13:28:50Z

i'll get some rockin' updates goin' soon. but currently...

it's countdown time! yay! countdown time!

2 days til december
4 days til bon iver concert
5 days til i have to finish my 15,000 words in essays
6 days til our holiday party
7 days til paris
12 days til josh ritter concert
13 days til i'm from barcelona show
14 days til madrid
20 days til playboy of the western world
23 days til pogues concert
24 days til m-t's birthday hullabahlooza
25 days til christmas eve
26 days til christmas
31 days til i go home
32 days til new year's eve
33 days til the new year.

yikes!

itinerary!

2008-11-11T00:30:48Z

my future.
november 11 :: pub quiz.
november 12-15 :: berlin.
november 15 :: our yay obama party plus marie-t and shane visiting!
november 20-25 :: amsterdam.
december 5 :: last day o' classes slash essays due and padraig's 30th.
december 6-9 :: paris.
december 11 :: josh ritter
december 12 :: i'm from barcelona
december 13-17 :: madrid.
december 19 :: mommy arrives. playboy of the western world.
december 20 :: wexford?
december 22 :: pogue's concert.
december 23 :: mt's 21st bday shindig.
december 24 :: eve
december 25 :: day
december 30 :: fly back home.

and a lot of squeezing between.

aw.

2008-11-11T00:25:59Z

"if only there was some way that you could both feel like the little spoon...maybe that's what true love is."
-sheila langan

tobers1313 @ 2008-11-10T14:56:00

2008-11-10T22:39:53Z

friday: dublin - > belfast
friday we woke up. we packed. and we hit up busarus on
CAIT AND SHEILA ADVENTURE WEEKEND.

we hopped on the bus to belfast, fully intending to read all of the reading that we were behind on for our classes. instead, we stared out the window and watched how i met your mother.

we arrived and walked to our hostel. belfast had a really weird feeling for me. it really reminded me of germany. in fact, it reminded me so much that i forgot at times that people could understand me. we found our way to our hostel.

oh the hostel.

it was the only one online that had accommodation for under like 35 euro a night/person. so we booked it. then read the user reviews.

"have you seen the movie hostel? that's what this place is like."
"fucking weirdos stay here."
"the toilet was clogged so everyone just peed in the sink."

they weren't kidding. this place was grosssssssss. it was in the building of an old linen factory. the man at the desk was on SOMETHING. possibly heavily sedated. we asked where we could lock up our bags. he said the luggage room and pointed. we went to it, and it was locked...which he obviously knew. we went back to him for the key and entered the luggage room. which was actually a cement room with a washer and dryer and a couple shelves. he then came in to take the key from us...and asked "are you just picking up your bags?" keep in mind we checked in mere seconds beforehand. we said no dropping them off. he pulled off a couple little like recycled paper kind of tabs with numbers on them and put a cm of scotch tape on each and told us to keep them on our bags. completely pointless and they don't use them at all. we find our floor. that has one (clogged) (smelly) bathroom. then our room. which is room 15. but the door says 51. easily remedied one would think. sheila had originally asked if she could have the top bunk because she figured it would be more difficult for creepy men to hop into bed with her. after seeing the bunks...decided bottom bunk might be harder for them to crawl in because the bunks were soooo low to the ground and short. we left quickly agreeing we had to be hammered when we came back to sleep soundly. it took us awhile to decide where we wanted to eat for dinner, eventually going with Bourbon, this new orleans style place. freaking delicious. freaking freaking delicious. we left Bourbon and began the cait and sheila two man bar crawl. we had a tourist brochure and mapped out all of the pubs and bars we wanted to hit up.
we began with the gin palace. i had gin. i ordered cork dry and they gave me gordon's. all well. rocka rocka. the table next to our had some very boisterous northern lads. they made me laugh. the bouncer was also super nice.
we continued on to....Paradour? or something. it was the bar right next to their campus (our equivalent of doyle's). and boy did it kick doyle's ass. so awesome. so well decorated. so chill. so not disgusting. had this cute library room. had chairs that made me feel like a king. had a bunch of split levels. then when you went upstairs to the dance floor they had plastic cups for you to pour your drink into! how freaking considerate. not dancing on glass?? whaaat??
we also went to hatfield house. it was designed and decorated by the same guys who did the titanic. i wonder if they know that this place now is inhabited by a bunch of the scariest people i will ever meet. we didn't even get a drink there. we left quickly. there was esquire. jager shots. shudder. and the liquor lounge. then we found some bar that i don't remember the name something with an a. it was reaaaally chill though. we tried to go to kremlin's the gay bar, but they had reached capacity and were closing. there was a bit of a debacle round 2 with bars closing and all the 5 am bars charging mad cover. we went to one at 2ish that informed us "5 pound to get in, open til 5, no bar." we curtly said good day to that bouncer. we eventually headed back to our hostel after deciding we REEEEEEEEEALLY liked belfast. and slept soundly!!

saturday belfast -> cork
we woke up. checked out of creepsville and went on our black taxi tour. it was really sweet. we saw all the murals and memorials and all that stuff. i definitely didn't know that til this day they still separate catholic and protestant neighbors to such an extent that they have huuuuge security gates between them that close at like 8 every night. and we signed the peace wall. we got back to the bus station at 1. got into dublin at 340. left dublin at 4. got into cork at 8. and watched how i met your mother on my ipod the whole time. i'm trying to get sheila and co. caught up so they can get excited about new episodes with me. that and i was hardcore avoiding my reading. so we dock in cork. and by dock, i mean the bus arrived. annnnd marie therese picked us up!!!! i missed her like hella. that's right. i went there. we went back to her apartment. she baked us delicious food and then we went up with people. went to the bailey. saw lisa working. drank. went to crane lane, NOT crane alley. crane lane = 10000x cooler. but we danced and listened to some awesome jazz. sheila and i chugged bacardi breezers for old time sake. got falafels, went home. maz and shane insisted we take the bed and they'd take the couch. how sweet! woke up the next mornin'..went to mass. then got a huge irish fry. so freaking delicious. oh my god. rashers. saussies. toast. hash browns. juice. yum freaking um. since it was jazz festival weekend there were all these stalls set up along the main road. i got a chocolate and orange brownie and i think i may have proposed to it at some point. at like 2 we went to the metrapole hotel and met up with steve and met shane's parents. we listened to some jazz. it was pretty freaking sweet. drank quite a few pints and quite a few jacks. the boys went to get mcdonald's and the girls went home to change cause we realized we were dressed way too warmly for all the body heat cause everywhere was packed. we met the lads back at the bailey to see this ol' jazz musician who i guess has a huge role on fair city? who woulda thought. i took a bunch of pictures for nana. we then moved onto this other place. don't remember the name. we got some lame hats that everyone else liked. then we went to another place. and at this next place...i blacked the hell out. granted, all i'd had that day was breakfast and i'd been heavily drinking since 2. the next thing i know i woke up in marie therese's bed next to sheila. i reached into my pocket and pulled out a receipt from 1150 that said "cheese and chips." i don't remember such things. i also pulled out a receipt from the last bar that saaaaid..dum dum dummm...

Vodka
Vodka
Jack Daniels
Jack Daniels
Red Bull

sheila and i laughed at this one for a while. i guess i disappeared for a while with steve and that's when i must have purchased said beverages. "maybe you and steve both did a shot...and then he made a drink...and you did another shot...? or maybe you both did double shots and you chased them with red bull...but you don't like red bull." but yeah. that was a good one. especially cause i was already blacked out at that point. steve and i also apparently hooked up there. in front of steve's uncle. oops? but yeah. so i had parts of my night recounted to me the next day. then we went to gino's pizza and i got a hawaiian pizza and it was heavenly. we took the bus back to dublin (ps i just typed chicago and had to backspace it) and watched how i met your mother til my ipod died. we then got home, changed quickly and went to The Bank (a snazzy bar and restaurant) with the Heaps and the Manns. emily's mom, aunt, and 2 grandmas were in town and so was erin's dad. and boy was it delicious. and boy are their families AWESOME. i made plans with emily's grandma to go to a bulls game haha. she was the bee's knees. erin and emily afterwards ditched their families and went to the windjammer with sheila and i to catch up on gossip and boy do i freaking love the windjammer!

tuesday
tuesday was cold. i skipped class and stayed home and made sure i was warm and cozy. i think. i don't think i did anything else. we were going to see hedda gabler but people pussied out.

wednesday
wednesday emily and i walked the entire city of dublin looking for a costume store. i swear. it just didn't exist. it was ridiculous. we eventually met up with sheila and erin and went to a way too expensive wig store. then irish class. then we went to go see hedda gabler with sheila. i had no idea of the plot so i was like whooaaa. but yeah. top notch ibsen. top notch. on the way home we stopped in every single spar/londis/centra to find ben and jerrys/rockstars/simply cheddar sammies. it wasn't a very fruitful search.

thursday
at midnight thursday it was halloween. whoo! i didn't have class so i went and found the costume store. meesh. then i met up with rosie alyse and sheila to get costume stuff. alyse and rosie wanted to be chipmunks so we searched the whole town for long plain turtlenecks. didn't really work. they ended up being m&ms. sheila and i decided to be the walk / don't walk men on the intersections. i already had green sweatpants and green t-shirt and green shoes. i got a green hat, green tights, and green face paint. sheila purchased similar clothing in red. erin was audrey hepburn from the morning after at breakfast at tiffany's. emily was a purple people eater. we drank...a lot. we went to lillie bordello's. it was nice. we think. we danced. we laughed. we came home and passed the hell out...after scrubbing fervously at all the green face paint on my face. alyse and rosie stole me a glass coke bottle for me to drink as the coca cola bear the next day.

friday
friday i went to the costume store. and came back. as a polar bear. it was very freaking awesome. i also made a bad fucking ass halloween playlist. i went AS A POLAR BEAR to meet charis to hear
dum dum dum
Patrick Stewart talk. it was amazing
so amazing.
he talked about his career and his family and his childhood and star trek and his hopes and his relationships and the election and just awesome awesome awesome. and boy was he spry. and freaking hilarious. it was a tiny room with only a finite number of us there (we queued up) and he came RUNNING into the room with his arms outstretched and his back/head hunched over with a black and red cape. he told us he found it earlier that day and was like OoOo! i put some videos up on facebook. i suggest watching them.
then i went home and quickly cooked dinner (still as a polar bear) and began drinking. we tried to say people come at 8 instead of usual at ten...but that didn't work. it just meant we were drunker. we had an interesting game of kings. i learned james p cahill has worn eyeshadow. but yeah eventually everyone showed up. quite an interesting array of costumes i'll say....a tree..a flapper...work out jane fonda...a 2nd grade dork...britney spears (?)...lindsay lohan's girlfriend...tom cruise (risky business of course..no creativity)...80s..the senator at the irish parliament...phantom of the opera..a vampire...pippy longstocking..a cat..grease people...a hula girl...don't really remember what else. but everyone else did not buy enough booze. i however drank a litre of paddy. oops? needless to say i blacked out before we left. there's a great picture of me at doyle's hooking up with this kid...andwe're both inside the polar bear head. ahhhoohhgah. i thought i lost my phone and my camera...til i found out i'd give them to people. kevin matt jenna erin b and i went to supermacs AND burger king. bets were made about sundaes. bets were won about sundaes. matt and i eventually headed back and realized erin and sheila were both still awake even though it was like 5 am. i had sobered up by this point. and then i passed the fuck out.

saturday
saturday i was informed as to what happened the night before. then we went to the temple bar market! i got a couple sweet dr seuss books and an awesome color book. the girls got mexican food. i got a crepe. and then we got delicious cookies. there was so much cheese. and this amazing cocoa woman. then we went to go see burn after rising, the new coen bros. movie. so good. brad pitt was hilarious. we came home and sheila and erin went into uber vegetarian mode when emily brought it back home midwest style. we bought striploin steak. made DELICIOUS mashed potatoes. each bought our own milk carton. and drank a lot of milk out of wine glasses. so freaking delicious. then we talked for long time..and i realized they've seen 49074368073 more movies than i have.

sunday
i don't remember sunday. i'll get back to you on that one.

monday
monday i went to my 4 and my 5...then all the english students had a thingy we had to go to about our end of the year final essays...then told us there'd be a kind of welcome meeting following that upstairs. WHICH WAS CATERED. there were all these guys in vests carrying around trays of wine and shit. and tiny cheeseburgers. and bruschetta. and salmon thingys. and prawn things. it was ridick. sheila and i had 4 glasses of wine each before we had to leave to hit up the wine tasting thing thing we got tickets for from the food and drink club. so awesome. 7 euro and we had all these types of bread and we learned all about wine. sheil and i went back to her dorm and chatted. then i went home and emily and i decided to not do our work and drank MORE WINE and watched how i met your mother. i drank a lot of monday for not drinking on monday.

tuesday
election day!!!
tuesday was a long day. i woke up and went to my ten am. sheila and i accompanied me to return the polar bear suit. from the second i woke up that morning i craved subway like none other. she wanted oatmeal. we found her oatmeal. then i returned mr. bear. then we went to the bookstore so she could get her book for irish. i found a cool book at the cash register and got it. it was like....famous songs in graph form. i'll take a picture of some and show them. they're quite funny. and then. i got my subway. all i had wanted. it was so amazing. i kept seeing all these other people with subway and thinking "they aren't enjoying it as much as me." then we went to hmv and i got forgetting sarah marshall, a couple cds, and center stage. yeah. then we went to mark's and spark's and i got lots of delicious yummy foods. then i went back to the apartment to drop off said yummy food, then went back to class. then went home and took a nap. kind of. it didn't really work out. sheila called me not knowing i was napping and i agreed to go out to dinner with her mom's friend's son and his cousin. complicated yes. but they took us to bewley's and it was delicious and they wouldn't let us pay. we then went to the pav with them...the cousin was a med student and all the med kids were doing a century. they called it a centurion. weird. we had a pint and went back to our apartment, but bought booze and cake first. we really wanted cake. we all went over to the botany bay dorms to meet tom, kid i can't remember name of, and kevin. then we hopped on a bus and went to ringsend for this party thing with everyone watching the election. it was weird cause it was just people that were thinking obama was guaranteed a win but we were all still kind of nervous. the guy who's flat we were in was loooving playing host. he had like all these bowls of chips and popcorn and dip and told me had had like 6 pizza and 5 things of cookies and 2 huge things of milk. we left though because we had told sspers that they could come over to our apartment to watch it cause we had a tv but the dorms didn't. we went back and a bunch came over. we watched. and drank. and drank. and then john made beef stew and pizza and all this shit. so good. and then he won and we had a hugging party. i passed out on the couch.

wednesday
i skipped my 2 o'clock for i was knackered. i went to my shakespeare class with em and caitlin that was rescheduled for 5 though. we colored. and it was very obvious that we were coloring. all well. the guy's an eejit. then i went to my six. and thennnn sheila, johanna, caitlin, other caitlin, charis, maggie, and i all went to captain america's. i got a chicken and cheese enchilada. so good. also a bunch of cocktails were 3 euro. which sadly is an awesome deal. we walked over to parenell's cineworld and saw the new bond movie. i wasn't too big of a fan of it. but i also just don't really like the new bond. HE WORE JEANS!! and he was blonde. what the fudge yo.

thursday
i finally got my garda shit in order. and then i went to this lecture thingy with this writer i forget his name but it was on like..marxism in children's books. it was pretty kick ass. the girls and i drank a lot of wine and watched forgetting sarah marshall. aw. then we went out. and partied.

friday
i woke up at like 3. i went to the gym. i showered. i got dressed. i got fed. and then we started getting uber excited for okkervil. emily and i somehow managed to drink this like handle of smirnoff between the two of us. and i didn't black out. not in the least. the show was awwwwesome. addition of the stand-ins into the line-up..a+. except the people AT the show were not. they were all super sucky. like super super sucky. they weren't dancing at all. they were being downright retarded. we went to doyle's as per uze. except i had sobered up by this point and it was gross. sheila and i found food and then went back and passed out.

saturday
went to the gym...met maggie for lunch...did osme awesome grocery shopping..but like 6 kinds of cheese...showered...skyped everyone preparing for the barscramble...started drinking and watching (guess what?) with emily...rosie came over...we were out of mixers and experimented with her bacardi. the experiment failed. then we met erin sarah walker john over at goldsmith and played asshole and drank. walker bought me a little baby whiskey because he knewi hated vodka! it was so awesome! then i went to some birthday party out in springhill, dublin 7 with maggie. and drank wine out of a pint glass. how classy. the apartment was really cool...and the birthday party was for the head of the lit society who i'd met a million times...i had no idea it was his party. someone stole maggie's coat though. sad face. caught a drunk cab ride home round 5 am.

sunday
woke up at ten still hammered, packed all my dirty clothes quickly into a bag and made my way over to the bus station where i took a very queasy 3 hour bus ride down to new ross to visit friends and fam. was greeted by john...got back to nana's and she had made me like a full on christmas dinner. sooooo delicious. i went over to nolan's. jane margaret tommy and maz were all there. eeee!!! it was soo good seeing all of them. i felt so at home. i went back over to nana and john's and john was like we have to go into town!! will you come with me? i'm imagining it's something super important cause his dealership had a big show that day cause the new fiesta was being introduced. but no. he wanted to bring me to the chipper. :) so we got 3 huge bags of chips and then all ate them with delicious honey ham nana had cooked. and then vienetta. mmm. vienetta. i went back out for my friends and came home just to see on tv TWO GUYS A GIRL AND A PIZZA PLACE. yeah. i know. man did i miss that show. i went up to my wonderful wonderful comfortable bed. nana had turned on the electric blanket and john had made me a hot water bottle. i read the woman who walked into doors. good book.

monday
nana had done all my laundry and made me a little care package with (once again) a full on cooked and stuff chicken. bread, cheese, chocolates, sandwiches for the bus and orange juice poured into a sprite bottle. she also cooked me a big irish fry for breakfast. mm diddly mm. i said bye to them, caught the bus, and headed up. got home, put stuff in the fridge, and realized my mommy had found my basketball shorts and mailed them to me!! i'm complete again. i made it to my supernat, shakes, and irish, and went to the gym. came home and chit chatted with the roomies about the weekend. and now i'm attempting to read john banville's the sea for tomorrow morning

<3

tobers1313 @ 2008-10-29T20:48:00

2008-10-30T02:15:57Z

sunday
don't remember anymore...i know i watched shortcuts with emily at one point which was awesome and i suggest it.

monday
i got mail from pat!!!!!!! it was awesome and totally made my day. i also had supernat (machen and mr james!), and shakespeare...and then irish. irish being super awesome because we learned the numbers for 1-10 and then the teacher said who thinks they can do it without looking at their notes? no volunteered so i did and he took my notebook from me and i was like whoa we're going legit here and he was like yeah...actually. how about if you can do it i'll give you two euro and took out a coin! i slightly mispronounced seven, so johanna tried to beat me...and totally failed. she couldn't even remember five. loser. so i won it. i ran into maggie. a few other awesome things happened but i don't remember the details. i went home and emily i discussed at length how awesome our days were. and went out. somewhere. don't remember where.

tuesday
tuesday i got a nice lie-in cause my ten am is post-poned for a couple weeks cause the teach's wife just had a baby. i was slightly late for irish lit and lang and it was the new awesome guy instead of crazy robes man! it was great! we were pumped. i went home and did some tasks that i needed to do. then i went and met maggie for WINE AND CHEEEESE. the food and drink club was having a wine and cheese shindig and the first like 30 people who signed up got it, including yours truly. five euro for pretty much as much wine and cheese as you could handle. and we learned all about all the different cheeses and the milks involved and the proper age and all that good shit. it was awwwwwwesome. then i went to doyle's with maggie and her crew friends which was a right laugh. one girl was pouring wine out of a bag into her pint glass and was hammmmered. they were really nice and cool though, i enjoyed myself.

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sunday
don't remember anymore...i know i watched shortcuts with emily at one point which was awesome and i suggest it.

monday
i got mail from pat!!!!!!! it was awesome and totally made my day. i also had supernat (machen and mr james!), and shakespeare...and then irish. irish being super awesome because we learned the numbers for 1-10 and then the teacher said who thinks they can do it without looking at their notes? no volunteered so i did and he took my notebook from me and i was like whoa we're going legit here and he was like yeah...actually. how about if you can do it i'll give you two euro and took out a coin! i slightly mispronounced seven, so johanna tried to beat me...and totally failed. she couldn't even remember five. loser. so i won it. i ran into maggie. a few other awesome things happened but i don't remember the details. i went home and emily i discussed at length how awesome our days were. and went out. somewhere. don't remember where.

tuesday
tuesday i got a nice lie-in cause my ten am is post-poned for a couple weeks cause the teach's wife just had a baby. i was slightly late for irish lit and lang and it was the new awesome guy instead of crazy robes man! it was great! we were pumped. i went home and did some tasks that i needed to do. then i went and met maggie for WINE AND CHEEEESE. the food and drink club was having a wine and cheese shindig and the first like 30 people who signed up got it, including yours truly. five euro for pretty much as much wine and cheese as you could handle. and we learned all about all the different cheeses and the milks involved and the proper age and all that good shit. it was awwwwwwesome. then i went to doyle's with maggie and her crew friends which was a right laugh. one girl was pouring wine out of a bag into her pint glass and was hammmmered. they were really nice and cool though, i enjoyed myself.

<wednesday
wednesday rosie came over as we attempted to book flights and hostels and shit. didn't totally work out. but we lounged around. erin came home and BROUGHT DELICIOUS FRENCH GOODIES. so awesome. and we watched weeds. rosie sheila and i ditched the 2 o'clock lit and lang class cause it was robe man...then got a text from johanna about how it was cancelled cause he was sick. we were rewarded for playing hooky. love when that happens. then sheila came over. it was a party. then we went to irish. then sheila emily and i went to go see beckett's happy days at the abbey theatre. it was soooo awesome. really interesting to see how it can be directed...such a different sense than what i got from reading it. and fiona shaw was absolutely incredible. my dad said he saw her as hedda gabler years ago. (she also is aunt petunia in harry potter fyi). they played the Happy Days theme music at intermission, i laughed and thought it was pretty awesome...but couldn't decide if ol' sammy b was rolling over in his grave. emily and i went home and dove into the vegetable drawer...aka where the booze is...and watched many many episodes of how i met your mother. many.

<thursday
i know i did stuff during the day but i don't remember so all well. at night sheila erin emily and i went to bewley's. so freaking delicious. although i will say the margarita that i ordered..that came in a martini glass with a sugar-rimmed was a tad strange. afterwards we met up with a bunch of people at chaplin's for the literary society's thing. people just brought their own work and read and drank. it was pretty chill. some shit was awwwful though. that sounded mean. but it was. all well. sheila and i went to doyle's after. met our future drug dealer. he be named joe. great guy. went searching for food. went home.

from the future

2008-10-30T01:29:05Z

i always do this. always. i'll wait a few days before updating. and then every day i'll want to post very specifically about my day, but i tell myself no you have to include days that came before. and then i postpone. for...two weeks?

a quick abridged summary before i discuss some specifics, if i can remember them.

sunday night i went driving around and hot boxing with some lads in new ross. it was a good laugh, they really crack me up. and then came home and was greeted by GRANDMA'S COOKIN'. it was poifect.

monday i took the bus up from whitechurch to dublin. i had packed a shopping bag with like a kettle and a toaster and stuff cause i needed them for my flat in dublin. i woke up and my grandma had taken said shopping back...and placed it inside another bigger bag. and packed it full awesomeness. like bread. and butter. and cheese. and chocolate. and cookies. AND AN ENTIRE WHOLE COOKED AND STUFFED CHICKEN. yes i know entire and whole was redundant, but it was also necessary for emphasis. so i went back. had a lecture on the turn of the screw. seriously, it's not a bad book but why is this the third class i've had that not only had it on the class' reading list, but featured it on the class' reading list. then shakespeare. i'm slightly, actually no exceedingly, unhappy about this. my shakespeare class is supposed to have two lectures a week by two different profs, with a different play each week. it's supposed to like do...a different way of interpreting it courtesy of both professors. but one of the usuals is on leave and we have this buffoon taking his place. he just rambles. like seriously it sounds like listening to a less profound version of sparknotes. it's absolutely awful.

"i'm going to suggest that there were three brawls in romeo and juliet. actually, i guess i'm not suggesting. it's in the text, there are three brawls in romeo and juliet"

"now the friar. well the friar is the only character that wants them to be together."

"...i guess i won't get into metaphor and simile. perhaps you might have figured out what the difference is on your own? no bother..."

and he's not even kidding. it's awful.

i followed that up with a bit of irish class. i am pretty much fluent by now, you know.
that night i succeeded in procrastinating all night. i eventually read the story of lucy gault for my contemporary irish class
tuesday i woke and walked in the pouring rain (figures) to class, which i learned is being moved to like 5 minutes from my apartment. chicka chicka yeah. the class was swell. i'm still a bit confused as to how an english class that meets once a week is an english class. that to me is a book club. shrug.
i then went with sheila to purchase tickets fooorrr THE ROLLER DISCO (dum dum dummmm).
followed later by an irish lit and lang class.

then everyone came over to start getting ready for the roller disco. annnnd everyone wore my clothes. apparently i own roller disco clothes. everyone changed like a million times between all of my clothes. let's just say we definitely had more fun getting ready than the actual thing.
i put on my green sneaks, black knee highs with pink and lime stripes at the top, with my polka dot homecoming dress from sophomore year with a bright yellow one strapped tank top topped off with blue and red headbands.
erin debating between her slightly star trek-esque dress, my black strapless top/dress thingy and my black ice skating dress. eventually went with the former.
sheila tried on all of my ice skating dresses. it was cute.
rosie wore a stripey tank top of mine, my purple tights, and one of my skirts.
emily showed up and realized we were rockin' it roller-disco style and she was not so she put on my magenta skirt.
after a few bottles of wine and champagne and some good ol' mariah carey, we were off.

the roller disco
keep in mind, this is my first roller disco. i imagined like a big ice skating rink (and was later told my vision was correct). however this was a multi-storied crowded bar where you can go to a certain section of the bar and rent out roller skates/blades for a few songs and return them. we entered and immediately it was announced that there would be no skate renting for at least half an hour. soon after they announced they wanted all the skates back in. we inquired and they said skate-ness was over. this is like 1145/12. the bar closed at like 230. then they turned off the music and refused to put it back on until they got all the skates in. it was wretched. even tequila shots didn't help. we eventually went upstairs and got some pints and went home.

wednesday sheila rosie and i were all quite late for our irish lit and lang class. this being a 2 o'clock class and my FIRST class of the day. yeah. sheila and i wandered around for a while after class. we went to mark's and spencer's and found COTTAGE CHEESE (this in itself was a feat cause dublin had seemed barren of cottage cheese) WITH ONE KIND WITH PINEAPPLE AND THE OTHER WITH CHIVE AND ONION. my heart melted. i also made an appointment to cut my hair. and we went to avoca. yum diddly um. sheila and i went and had dinner at rosie's that night. it was adorable. she made us tortellini and ravioli. we then went to spar and purchased three bags of...
-fruit pastilles
-WHITE maltesers
-aero bubbles

then we proceeded to book it over to the cinema on parnell street to see tropic thunder. it was hyped up for me so i didn't think it was as funny as it was made out to be, but it was still pretty good. but i did NOT KNOW UNTIL THE CREDITS THAT THAT WAS TOM CRUISE.
i hate him a little less now, i'll be honest.
that came on and we all just looked at each other like ...WHAT???!?!
i highly suggest youtubing tom cruise tropic thunder dance if you haven't already.

thursday
thursday i had no class. i did however have a haircut at 2. i got bangs! i also bought a nice aran sweater and scarf. i returned home and kind of bummed around for a while. eventually rosie and i decided to go to the gin palace to add a couple gins to our ten.
refresh:
the Gin Palace was a pub next to my old flat that once you drink the top ten gins you get a complimentary fleece. we had one with our dinner the last time we were there and hadn't been since cause i moved.
we went with erin cause she was gonna get dinner and we were gonna have a couple gins. well we got there at 915 and they had stopped serving dinner at 9 so erin went home and rosie and i moved to the bar. she had to go home and work on her thesis...yet somehow we just decided on gin drink one that we would just get our fleece that night. we made friends with the bartender...his name was Christian. i drank all nine of mine on the rocks. well eight on the rocks. one of them rosie and i both got as a martini. but he was like baffled and i told him i didn't like tonic water and he was like i know but don't you want lemonade or something...and i said no and he said no one does that. i found it slightly odd, and i guess kinda cool? but anyways he was so nice. he offered us free glasses to take home. and he put a jar of peanut m&ms in front of us and finding out i don't like them found a thing of after eights and threw them in too! what a sweetheart. he even tried to say we could be done after the 9th and i was all hellz naw, we want to do this shit legit. and we got the fleeces. and they are MAGNICIFENT. so freaking warm. SO freaking warm. we went to leo burdock's (dublin's oldest chipper) and got some foodage and headed back to our apartment. i had just had 9 gin on the rocks and i was only tipsy, it was a little disappointing. erin thought we had SPLIT the nine drinks she had been so befuddled. but amazing. and delicious. pictures on the 'book.

friday
friday i went to my first friday at 9 am shakespeare class with emily. we met up with erin afterwards and went to mark's and spark's to get sheila a cake..and we bought her a big huge ABOMINABLY SOFT bunny at avoca. and i got her a card about toast. perfect. we went back to the apartment and i took a glorious nap. and then we started setting up for her party.
the theme was five year old birthday party.
we blew up balloons...or more specifically, erin blew up balloons. apparently emily and i are no good. insert bj joke here. i cut tails. we all learned that apparently my image of a donkey tail is actually a horsie tail. it took me way too long to understand emily that a donkey tail is, in her words, "fleshy." emily drew the donkey. we set the fairy princess cake on the table. got the potato read for the hot potato slash shot game.
we left to go meet rosie, sheila, dara, and francesca at havana tapas bar. oh my god delish. when a night begins with spanish meatballs and sangria, it's going to be a good night.
we got back to the apartment and did the whole birthday surprise for sheila with her bunny with a tiara on it. the night started out cute. an innocent game of circle of death. john made french toast. birthday cake. lollipops. beer. then as more and more wine and vodka showed up, the night got a little bit sloppier...culminating in a ridiculous game of pin the tail on the donkey. we eventually left for doyle's, slowly to be haulted cause caitlin fell and busted her ankle badly. sheila and i took her home and made sure she was in bed with water before continuing on to doyle's. some irish guy walked me home. we adamantly discussed my career as a math teacher and talked about web design INTENSELY. it was cute though.

saturday i woke up and was a bit of a bum until i texted caitlin to see if she was okay and offered to go to the hospital with her. we spent from around 2-7 in st. james' hospital. she pulled a ligament in her ankle...they gave her crutches and a support thing and put her on physiotherapy :( i helped her back home and got her settled and returned home. emily gave over and we met sheila erin and francesca at captain america's for dinner. delish. then emily went home and the four of us did the sketchy alkie bottle walk to the bars. we went to this girl bar called anseo...then blazing horses...then to the palace. which was a mix between station, c.o.'s, and clybourne and ten times skeezier. some guy pinched my ass and then said i like your ass. seconds later sheila turned to me and said this place is disgusting. i agreed and recounted my story and she informed me she just saw some guy dry heaving in the car. within 20 minutes, francesca was straight up asked if she would be interested in a one night stand by this sleezebag. we decided to leave. got chips. went home. lovely. gotta love scumbags!

tobers-style length entry

2008-10-13T19:44:03Z

My last week
(by me)

Sunday…
I don’t really remember Sunday.

Monday…
I went to my 2 o’clock class. It was math. It was also dreadful. The professor really gave the asian TAs at u of i a run for their money. He was Russian. I think. I couldn’t understand a worrrrrrrd he was saying. I don’t even think he could understand a word he was saying. I think it was also the first math class i’ve ever had in my life that was all 100% white kids. Strangely odd.
I then met the one and only MARGARET MARY O’DONOGHUE for juice. It was grand.

Then i went to supernatural literature. It was pretty spooktacular. Not really. But it was, indeed, spectacular.
The professor was a right laugh…she asked us all to go around the room and name a book or movie that scared the crap out of us. TWO people said Independence Day. I said Ursula and pet semetary really did it for me. One kid was great..he was like “i guess i’m still scared of a lot of things….” And the teach goes “like what?” and he goes “well..like..monsters.” lovely. One kid said the happening. It took every bone in my body not to burst out laughing. Someone was discussing haley joel osment and the teach was like “yeah…it’s just that kind of innocent child star. Who is that of our generation? Maybe Dakota fanning?..although i guess she is like 12 or 13 now…so old enough to have a hollywood drug addiction.”

next was shakespeare! i had that with emily and caitlin. i feel like the class will be interesting because it meets twice a week, once with one lecturer and once with another. it’s a different play every week and there’s like two different ways of interpreting it. haha i think one of the ways listed to interpret Hamlet is like “You think you have problems?” or something. but yeah the first day was kind of rough cause it was just this old man’s like discussion on “interpreting.” and he kept going for like an extra ten minutes “concluding”…aka repeating himself over and over.

so his long long talking made me late for Elementary Irish. but as we sat in the class for like 10 minutes we realized the professor may not be coming…checked the bulletin board and lo and behold…the class starts 13/10. oops.
with that class was over for the day. i don’t remember what i did later on.

tuesday…
i slept though class. oops. haha day two…but yeah. but it was my 9 am math class…and i’m probably dropping it anyways. so whatever. then i met sheila and we walked to our contemporary irish fiction class. i lurrrve the teach. but there was like 60 people piled into a 22 desked tiny room. it was like how many elephants can you fit blah blah. it was ridick. so then i went to the post office to buy some boxes and send some postcards…and then went to easons and bought supernatural and contemp irish books! then i came home and made some yummy nummy lunch. involving mature irish red cheddar. MmMm. then i went to irish literature and language. somewhat daunting. the professor was wearing like full on graduation slash harry potter robes over his suit. he yelled at some poor kid for coming into the room and finding his umbrella he had left there. but the content of the class was pretty cool. i had done my presentation a couple weeks beforehand on the history of the irish language, so it was slightly redundant for me cause i’d already read like 3 books on what he talked about for 50 minutes. but that was just the intro…it shall get better i know it.
i went home then.
rosie and sheila and emily came over and we made din dins and we drank wine and watched Hair. oh treat williams. we were supposed to go out, but by this point we realized places were closing so we stayed in instead.

wednesday…
i woke up at noon. it was great. late classes are just swell. i went to get waxed, it wasn’t the same without ol’ danielle. sniffle. i then went around st stephen’s green and did some shopping. i bought uncle buck and 40 year old virgin for 9 euro total. rock on. then i went back to the irish lit and language class. johanna and i wrote notes the whole time discussing traveling and schedules. it got me really excited. i learned some important figures in the irish revival process.

went home. rosie came home over. we watched 40 year old virgin. we went to the lombard and met up with caitlin johanna and sheila. and i’m still telling you guys, our local neighborhood bar has got to be the windjammer…the lombard is just too swank for me. i feel like an ass playing cards there. then we moved to the pav to meet eloise and folk. then we moved to…guess….doyle’s. maggie came! and we met up with all the goldsmith people who were out celebrating a birthday. we danced. we drank. matt and i went back to my place and watched a movie.

thursday…
i actually went to my noon o’clock math class. which i regret. the class is useless. i’m so dropping it. i convince myself more and more everytime i talk about it. i met rosie sheila and erin and we went to go get lunch. sheila and erin brought rosie and me to Blazing Salads. it was really cute but i was so hungry i could have eaten 2 porterhouses and the salad place specialized in like tofu and like chickpeas….so erin and sheila bought some falafel thingy that looked like it was going to attack them…then we went to o’donoghue’s pub and rosie and i got ginormous cheeseburgers. de-voured. went back to my place and bummed around and watched uncle buck. emily and rosie came over. i eventually showered. i think i’m going to get my hair cut soon…it’s slightly necessary. then we went to MICHEAL O’SIUCHRA’S BOOK SIGNING. i love this man. he was slightly in charge of our semester start up programme and gave two of our lectures. he is oh-so-eloquent. i would listen to him talk forever. i almost took one of his classes…if only i actually liked history. all well. so there was lots of SSPers there…plus free wine. as per uze. his book was entitled God’s Executioner. and was all about oliver cromwell…ahhooogahh. we ducked out after the speeches to go to captain america’s for dinner. one barbeque chicken, lasagne, fish and chips, enchilada, and round of long islands later we showed up at the literary society. they had some quiz thing like…who said this quote…which of these did oscar wilde not say…what does the d.h. stand for in d.h. lawrence and so on…emily sheila and i ended up winning 10 euro to hodges and figgis bookstore. hot damn!! so we left there to go to the concert that emily had heard about. it was supposed to involve a bunch of local bands…unfortunately, we didn’t know where on o’connell street this venue was. and unfortunatelyer…it was named the Boom Boom Room. so we had to ask bus drivers, bouncers, bartenders, and hotel staff…”Excuse me, do you know where the Boom Boom Room is?” we ended up not being able to find it and went to O’Neill’s to meet the literary club. we found a good few in a booth in a corner, they were all nice enough. then sheila and i went to Four Dame Lane to meet maggie and her friends. we drank there til 3ish…sheila and i had one of those “no..you’re the greatest!” nights.

friday…
emily and i had decided at a quite early point the night before that we were not going to make it to our nine am shakespeare class. so i woke up at noon-ish. got some b-fast. delish. i went and mailed care packages. whooo!! i also went and bought a bookshelf for my room. and let me just say. bullshit argos. bullshit. the thing looks so big in the catalog…it came up to like…my hip. maybe not even. it’s ridiculous. anywho. i took baby shelf into my room and cleaned said room. then showered. then ATTEMPTED to make dinner. but really failed miserably. i had some major problems with my garlic and herb marinated chicken…namely it was burning but not cooking all the way through. then i put some spuds in the microwave…but they weren’t getting soft…eventually emily took over from me in the kitchen. she cooked my chicken. sliced my taters and threw in some olive oil and cooked them on the pan. it was splendid. why do i even try cooking? meanwhile, erin is having massive technology problems…emily is banging all of her freshly painted nails off anything you could think of. we were pretty much all failing at everything we were attempting to do. a major sign for the night. to top it off we went to the store nextstore to get booze and on the way back i stepped away from the curb to avoid the huge puddle on the sidewalk. then stepped RIGHT into a puddle about a foot deep. sign sign sign. it was then pre-party time. which was slightly ridick. erin, emily, sheila, caitlin, johanna, and their friend and i started playing circle of death. which they call kings. i really am not a fan of that name. but anywho. then kevin and james p. cahill show up. then maggie shows. then jenna and walker and john and jeff and three girls i don’t know. then johanna’s friends…and while all this is happening the circle of death game finished. sheila and i got destroyed in beer pong. and then senior shots were taken. and just multiple other shots. including one of gin. oh why oh why i did that i don’t know. basically by the time we left i blacked out. we then got…wait for it…refused from doyle’s. john and other james were told that we were all too drunk. you know the night is officially taking a turn for the worst. i ended up going back to goldsmith way before anyone else. how we harassed the security man into letting me in i will never know. i woke up in the morning and ran home at 8 am. without my coat. without my phone. without my shoes. MY SHOES. and i ran through the spar. hahah. legendary. eventually he called erin back later and was like umm i have cait’s things…why didn’t she at least take her shoes…

saturday…
well i ran back. we went through that. fell asleep in my bed. woke up in the afternoon. sheila erin and i got hungover food nextdoor. we watched some how i met your mother. and thennn i went on skype! hayes nathan mark cory brian arun were all over at becky's apartment pregaming for the football game. i did a power fifteen with them...out of a ramekin. and with a couple half full pint cans of heineken all warm and gross from the night before. it was so good talking to them...i missed them so much!! and then erin took my hand and we went and got my things back. then, i called the g-rents and got the go ahead to come visit them. went to mark’s and spencer first and got some pink lillies for nana. how much of a darling granddaughter am i? my train left at six…i was supposed to read william trevor’s the story of lucy gault on the way down. i didn’t quite read all of it. i eventually switched to watch the big bang theory on my ipod. i docked at 9 and nana and john picked me up. we went to tesco and they bought sooo much food. i’m here for TWO DAYS. 9 pm sat til 11 am monday. and nana must have bought me 3 pounds of ham, 2 whole chickens, 3 loaves of bread and so on and so forth. she made me pick out a kind of cookies and when i came back with one pack she was like oh you’re silly now, go get two so you have another pack to bring back to dublin. i swear when i told her i didn’t need a tub of ben and jerrys ice cream i thought she was really just going to lose it all together. then as if that wasn’t enough, we went to the chipper and i was forced to purchase 3 bags of chips. we came back here and i had like a midnight feast. i talked to my nana til like midnight. it was awesome 

sunday…
i woke up at noon and walked downstairs to a big plate of irish brown bread, rashers and sausages. it was awwwwesome. i ate them while watching Big. what a fab morning. then around 2 i was told dinner was ready, walked into the kitchen and was greeted with this:

like ummm..christmas dinner in october?

i walked down to my house to steal the toaster and kettle. i also decided i wanted the measuring cups, big spoon, and picasso painting in my bathroom. and i found my complete fawlty towers collection! i went nextdoor to seamus, marie, alison, and john. it was cute…good to see them. talked to marie for ages. what a hoot. went back up to nana and john’s. nana was insisting upon ironing all my t-shirts. i showered. they drove me into mass. i came back and was greeted by christmas dinner number two. complete with tiramasu!

and that is where i leave you all. for i am writing this on my laptop, but i do not have access to the internet to post it. g’day.

CLASS!!

2008-10-05T21:58:41Z

so classes start tomorrow!!

i am currently enrolled in:
Abstract Algebra
Supernatural Literature
Contemporary Irish Lit
Irish Literature and Language
Interpreting Shakespeare

my schedule looks like this:

needless to say those thursday and friday classes will probably be skipped slightly often.

my supernatural lit class includes such texts as the exorcist, i am legend, the ring, turn of the screw, and the haunting of hill house

my irish lit class includes such authors as william trevor, roddy doyle, deirdre madden, ohn mcgahern, ellis ni dhuibhne, colm toibin (my namesake!), jennifer johnston, and john banville!

ALSO, as well as seeing damien rice last week...i found out john mcginley (dr cox), jonathan rhys meyers, AND HILARY DUFF will all be making appearances at trinity this term. i'm still waiting for news on timbaland. chicka chicka yeah yeah.

i deregionified my tv/dvd player which is pretty awesome so now erin and i are watching the office in our cozy living room snacking on crackers and cheese.

whoo :)

i have an apartment to live in!!!

2008-10-05T21:46:20Z

ho ho ho and a bottle of rum!

hello friends and loved ones. i speak to you now from my bed. in my apartment. that i live in. what does that mean, you ask?

it means you can send me mail!!

lots and lots of mail!!

and i know you want to because i have an adorable address:

Caitriona Tobin
Windmill Lane Apt. 43 (LANE, NOT "the windmill")
Dublin 2
IRELAND

isn't it cute?!
but yeah we moved into windmill lane apartment 43 and we knew our friend lived in 46...we told her to come down and visit when we moved it and had an awkward open your door...it is open...no it's not...yes. it is...conversation until we learned that there are two complexes next to each other - one entitled windmill lane and one entitled the windmill. so if you choose to place the parenthetical addition, it might actually be a wise move.

backtrack:

so i had to move out of bachelor's walk. it was sad. the last thing i did was turn off my fire. my beautiful fake fire. i got all my shit over to sheila and caitlin's dorm...which was quite a feat.

i slept on sheila's floor wednesday night and went to prague thursday morning!!!

Praha
we had to wake up at 415 in the morning to catch a cab to the airport for our morning flight. it was sick. sick sick sick. and our cab driver was more than a little odd to say the least. we checked in. got muffins. boarded. and sat on the plane for about an hour because of all the fog. classic dublin. we arrived in and met johanna's friend who is living in prague this semester and went to go eat at the Dog's Bullocks. and what did we all get? cheeseburgers. yeah. took the bus to our hostel..which actually involved a LOT of walking uphill. it was cool, but the backpacks kiiiind of made it a pain. but yeah. the hostel was really swank. we confused the hell out of the poor woman checking in, but beyond that. it was all good. then we ventured into town on the el. and by el i mean their version of chicago's el and i plan on referring to all country's train thingies as the el. we walked around for a long time and saw the powder tower. and the place i bought the boys' bears dolls present. we eventually wound up at dinner somewhere and then we went to some bar where they had like huge mojitos with super long straws and..shrubbery. no joke. refer to pictures. we woke up the next morning..and by we i mean everyone else woke up and then poked me til i got up. we went to our new hostel which was awesome. it was right in the middle of everything. we went into town and saw the astronomical clock tower show. they ventured to go to the castle, but emily and i decided to explore the forest area instead...i had already seen the castle. it was so so cool. i love prague because it wasn't like...bombed. it looks the same as it did hundreds of years ago. but yeah the forest was awwwwesome. we found this like park area with a slide and a weird see saw where you stand instead. we met the girls and went to go find cheese and wine. emily and i bought a TONNN of brie and gouda for super duper cheap. and found baguettes. and really cheap wine. and yeah! so we started making our way to the top of the hills so we could watch all the buildings light up at nightfall. johanna and i fell behind cause we were lazy...and because katelyn and emily have ridiculously strong legs. so we jumped on...THE FUNICULAR! the awesome train thingy that takes you right up the hill. and we didn't pay. bonafide bad asses. so yeah then the two of us got up there and realized that we couldn't call them (our phones weren't working the whole trip) and so we just started wandering around this massive hill. we found a massive garden! and eventually them. we camped out at a pretty spot and devoureddd the bread and cheese and wine. we found some benches and watched the pretty pretty city. we walked back and played circle of death...they got hammmered. emily and i went to Roxy, a super cool club. we found out that czech guys dance....weird. and by weird i mean they sway in a big blob of other guys like gelatin. it was fun though. next morning we went and got yummy yummy breakfast. we wandered around...i bought a painting on canvas. then we went PADDLE BOATING. it was awesome. johanna and i went into the NON NAVIGATIONABLE ZONE. so bad ass. then we went to the market. i bought some wooden flowers. we got ice cream. it was delish. i found a sweet store where i bought a name sign for my door and this awesome elephant toothbrush holder that has an hour glass that shows how long to brush your teeth for. we went and got chinese food for dinner. it was sooo good. we went back and played cards and then went to a neighborhood bar. it was fun. the bartenders there enjoy filling the glasses of wine so high that it's difficult to walk with them. we woke up at the crack of dawn the next day to take the plane back. when we landed this song went off that sounded as if the vengaboys had made it...beginning with trumpets and then going like WE FLEW ON RYANAIR OH YEAH RYANAIR and some voice came over saying "You Are On Another Successful Flight With Ryanair!" it was awesome. and slightly frightening.

i then went back to caitlin and johanna's dorms to transfer some of my shit and get my books to write the paper that i had due the previous friday. the ONE actual real assignment i had for four weeks and i couldn't do it. but yeah i went to the computer lab with erin caitlin and rosie and procrastinated for a good fifteen hours. i pulled an all nighter that night. i eventually finished it tuesday morning and turned it in very late. it was a paper on beckett's irishness. i titled it "Beckett. Feck It." it was bad ass. but yeah monday i...

MOVED INTO AN APARTMENT WITH ERIN!!!!

my housing kablajamy thingy with maggie got waaayyy complicated. it's way too complicated and boring to write here, but basically if i were to live with her we'd be sharing a room kinda far away. sooo erin and i signed a lease. it's so cute. pictures to be posted in a moment. and there's a supermarket literally nextdoor. so sweet.

ahem ahem ahem

Trinity's Registration Process
i write this down so that everyone can appreciate the states' registration. here is the breakdown of our registration here. i went to the international student office and got a form. then i went to the english office and got a booklet of classes. classes that are this term and next term and yearlong. classes that i am allowed to take and not allowed to take with no indication of which is which. classes that don't list times either. english timetables actually still weren't up until thursday. and discussion sections STILL aren't. and classes start tomorrow. so then i think about what classes i want and i go to meet with this woman who will tell me if i can take the classes i want or not. one woman. for all english students. there was a line a good 9 hours long. no exaggeration. and she kept sending people away and telling them to come back another time...that still didn't make sense. meanwhile, there's these meetings that no one knows about for every department where they give you useless information. i went to the math one and it was for freshmen and visiting students and they gave me a full on timetable of my classes that i had taken three years ago. i talked to the guy and he was like...oh look online for classes...come talk to me...and i'll see if the prof will let you take it. so once the woman in the english department tells me what classes i want, i have to bring that sheet to all subsequent departments that i want to take classes in and get it signed by them. no timetables mind you. some departments, like french and polysci tell you you have to email the profs and ask if you can take their classes...then go get it signed by them. or attend classes in the first week and then go up at the end of class and ask if it's okay if you take it. so then i have to bring it back to the english department where they bring it to the head of school and then i go pick it up the next day. DEEP BREATH. so yeah. appreciate electronic registration.

soooo then fresher's week things
there was a traffic light party tuesday. yeah.
wednesday there was a BALL. yeah.
thursday sheila emily and i went to doyle's and we weren't really drunk. and...wow. doyle's is skeeeezy when you're sober. ALSO thursday afternoon i went and saw a damien rice interview in our chapel. it was so freaking cool and intimate and he sang a bunch and was awesome. videos on fbook.
friday there was a toga party at the on campus bar. it made me laugh a lot. we started heavily drinking at six...and after the toga party at like 9 we went to eloise's dorm and drank even more...we were done by like midnight. and searched everywhere for pizza to no avail.

yesterday we had a bad ass housewarming party entitled "We Got A Spaceheater (!) Housewarming Party. get it? harrrrrh. but yeah we played cards and beer pong and a ton of people showed up even though it was pouring and it was really awesome and yay!!!

tobers1313 @ 2008-09-20T08:06:00

2008-09-20T13:51:45Z

well hello there livejournal!

updation!!

i am in the final stages of my bachelorsdom temporary stay. i'm kind of sad, not going to lie.

let's see what i can do from memory here...

thursday i went to class. it was 9, 1130, and 130 discussion sessions. and boy were they painful. everyone was way to tired to contribute. the history one at 9 was like pulling teeth. the 1130 was amazing, merely because i'm slightly in love with my like 45 year old bald teacher...he is the bomb-diggity. i'm in a silent battle with my friend sheila vying for his affection. i'm pretty sure i'm winning. and he talked about tommy makem! like we had to read an article he wrote about "being irish." i've seen the man perform umpteen times. the museum one at 130 was pretty wretched. we like passed around artifacts...and maybe i'm uncultured but holding what used to be a soap dish in myhand from hundreds of years ago slightly bores me. shrug. came home. sheila came over and checked out my bad ass fireplace and then we went on an adventure on the luas to trinity hall to drink over in dub6. first of all, let's just say that all the friends i've made here's spirit of choice is vodka. yeah. but anyways they ran out of mixers...and started drinking vodka and tea. yeah. so cans and shots later we headed down to temple bar, pausing for shots with molly mullone along the way. we must have gone to 12 bars/clubs. i lost track. it was ridiculous. enter burger king fries at some point...and there was like 25 of us. it was a slight mess. topped the night off with delicious subway.

friday i woke up at like 3...went to the abbey theatre at night and their production of wilde's an ideal husband was absolutely amazing. the lighting, the acting, the way the actors slipped in and out of their parts, the lighting, staging...absolutely everything was exquisite. it was an hour and a half longer than we were told it would be, and this girl, for one, was quite happy.

saturday people came over here...and we drank. and we went out. fun was had. i don't really remember much.

sunday sheila and i went to the pub to go watch the hurling match. AND KILKENNY WON. rock on cats, rock on. then we met emily later for chinese food and they put us in a dungeon in the basement and i got sweet n sour chicken and it was delightful.

monday was class. i slept through the first one. oops? afterwards we all walked to the gaa museum for our field trip. all the girls were bored out of their minds...some of the boys tried to feign interest. me? i was IN HEAVEN. it was amazing. we got to go in their locker rooms, warm-up lounges, normal lounges, into the ulster bank box, into where the president nicky brennan (who went to secondary school with my pa) sits...saw where brian cody (coach of kilkenny cats..who also went to to secondary school with my pa) parks, and the museum was abolutely awesome. so informative and well laid out. absolutely fantastic. followed up with a giant muffin at cafe kylemore and i was 100% satiated.

tuesday i did lots of errands...bank errands and class errands..attempted to find the gym and failed miserably. i looked for it for like 40 min on our campus and eventually gave up and decided i had done my work out looking for it. i walked all around and went to buy shoes and groceries...i walked for like 5 hours. i was pooped.

wednesday i went to the guinness factory. and it was bad fucking ass. pictures on facebook. later sheila and caitlin came over and we watched superbad.

thursday i had a couple classes. we had just read clay for my irish lit class and my awesome teach was like who wants to play a game and i said me!! so i had to stand up, put on the blind fold, and pick any of the things on the saucers...i didn't get clay/death, or money/luck, or bible/convent, or whatever the other one is. i got ring/marriage within a year. i also went to a museum for my irish art class and saw the tara brooch and a bunch of bog bodies. they were odd. my grandma and grandpa and mom were in dublin. i met them for lunch...did some shopping with them...went home to get ready and was making myself a baby grilled cheese before i met up with them and i slashed the FUCK out of my finger. it was horrible. like i was on the phone with my dad doing tests to see if i needed stitches. it bled for TWO STRAIGHT HOURS WITH me putting pressure on it. gross gross gross.

friday i went on my field trip to trim castle, hill of tara, and boyne valley (battle of the boyne site). it was so pretty. once again, pictures on facebook.
we were chased by bees all day.
all freaking day.

friday night i took the door of my closet, bought 20 plastic pint glasses for 5 euro and people came over and we played beer pong. i was on fire. not by beer pong terms, but by my terms. it was difficult too because they were pint glasses so the trajectory is entirely different. and johanna graced us rapping Stronger...ALSO available on facebook. we went out..wound up at doyle's once again...was a jolly good time.

saturday, i woke up completely wrapped in my blanket....on the floor NEXT to my bed. ???. monkey came up on the train. caitlin and johanna came over to do their laundry. we began drinking. more people came over and we tried to play beer pong but it was hopeless. so we played sevens and circle of death. all went to stag's head..and the globe. decided we weren't in the appropriate mood for either and wound up back at doyle's.

sunday we went to the nearby coastaltown of howth on the train. it was really pretty. we got fish and chips. delish. we climbed some mountains...saw some lovely landscape...and, of course, it poured. i went back a bit early so chris could catch his train back down to ross. i took a nice hot bubble bath put on the fire and watched tv. yum diddly um.

monday i woke up and couldn't find my hair brush ANYWHERE. anywhere. so i used a fork. that's right. i dinglehoppered it. class class class. then went to kilmanhaim gaol. really freaking cool. it's where all the people from 1916 were put. and it was panopticon (foucault) style. pictures on the 'book. my mommy came up that night (she was flying to chicago the next day). so i went home and cleaned my apartment and put the closet door back on. we went to the grand central bar for dinner and it was AMAAAAZING. two thumbs up. then went to the abbey theatre because i had bought tickets for us to see the ideal husband because my mom really wanted to...got there...and it was cancelled. one of the lead actresses was sick. major major bummer. we got a refund and a voucher for a couple free drinks. my mom, of course, got hammered off of two.

tuesday i had to wake up super early to help her out with her luggage. went to class and had my history lecture on the potato famine. i absolutely adore the guy who gave it. he's partially in charge of our program and he's given us two lectures and i could listen to him speak for days. oh man. and the literature one that day? it was on film. hottest prof ever. i believe there is a picture of him in my gaol album. that's right. i photographed him during class. bee-you-tee-ful. tuesday night we had some meeting to be told about different classes being taken. irish-style. meaning there was dozens of bottles of wine for us to drink and afterwards we all went out to drink with the profs. caitlin sheila and i walked back towards my place, stopped at burdock's chipper, each got about an infant size amount of food (infant sized...not to be confused with an infant's size portion, which would be a portion suitable for an infant).

wednesday i went to the library. and worked out. which was depressing, i can't do half of what i used to be able to do. came home and procrastinated my presentation for eons, eventually did it.

thursday i gave my presentation on the history of the irish language, went to the library and read my homework for lit. got a magic muffin. it was magical. had class. went to museum. was falling asleep and went home.
i fell asleep on the couch around 330 in the afternoon
circa 630
phone rings.
in my sleep, i hit ignore.
i hear knocking
i eventually get up and erin and emily are standing at my door.
i look at them confused.
me: whaa?
them: oh..you just woke up.
me: yeah...what's up?
them: umm..we can get food somewhere else...
me: whaa?
i look at my watch. it says 645.
me: oh my god....we have to be at school in like 45 minutes to go to kilkenny..breakfast?
them: cait...it's 645...pm. remember? we made plans to come over and order chinese and make forts and sleepover?

yeahhhh.
i had "chicken with orange cantonese style"
hahaha, funny.

kilkenny brought back a lot of good memories. it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

then last night was culture night, so all the culture thingies that would close at 6 and cost money were open til 11 and free. and we drank. and got supermac's.

today i woke up at 9 am and could NOT fall back asleep. at all
i cleaned, did laundry, made lunch, uploaded pictures, and colored.

i still need to hit up the post office, shower, and then people are coming over here for pregaming and what-have-you.

i move out of this apartment on wednesday. it's going to be nice to live with people, but i will miss my sweet bad ass location. not to mention my ballin' fireplace.

i'm going to prague next thursday with a bunch of girls for my program, and when i get back, maggie will have arrived!

ANNNND big bang theory and how i met your mother begin monday and nbc is back on itunes so i can watch the office from here! thank goddd.

that was the general crappy summary so that more specific posts can come soon.

peace out homies.

ballin' in dublin'

2008-09-04T00:11:35Z

first of all, a question: does anyone know how to get rid of the bloody advertisement that is ruining the beautiful layout i hand-wrote 7 long years ago? it's quite irritating to me.

so let's see....last i left off was arriving in dublin?

so i finally went up to my room...passed the hell out. i woke up to the annoying alarm on my phone (if anybody has a blackberry listen to "alarm antelope," it is by the far the most obnoxious alarm ever created. so i rolled out of bed and went over to trinity...i don't really know what their point of this thing was. they told us we had to be there from 6-8 the sunday before class because important information would be given out. well....we got packets that didn't really say much. and pizza. and booze. so cool?!
there's 56 of us in the program, and i've met maybe 5 that aren't from the northeast. i'm 99.99% positive that i'm the only one from the big ten. represent, yo. everyone's nice...there's like 11 that are doing it through IES and are living in houses/flats together. then the majority are living in dorms on and off campus, with a few others in random other places. myself being included in the random other place. now i would feel all like mannnn i wish i was in the dorms so that i'd be surrounded by social life...but almost everyone i know in the dorms...is trying to get out of the doors. everyone is trying to sublet from me. boomshakalaka. either way, i can't wait for mags to get here. in her words, "there are lots of cute houses waiting to be trashed with empty bottles."
annnnnyways. so that thing was cool, i met the girl who i should have lived with if i had accepted trinity's housing. she's pretty awesome. reminds me of a mix of amanda ryan and amy krzyzek.
next morning BRIGHT AND EARLY 9 AM i had to be at the introductory lecture. so ireland's classes don't start til october, so right now me and the 55 americans are the only ones really taking classes and we're all taking the same. basically it's a four week program and the first 3 consist of
MTW
9-10 irish history
10-11 irish history of art
11-1130 everyone runs to the little cafe to grab coffee/scone/any type of sugar to stay awake
1130-1230 irish literature
then thursday we have these seminars in our groups that i guess are the equivalent of our discussion sections...except half of them are just like trips to museums on campus

then friday is field trip day!
this week we're going to the abbey theatre to see oscar wilde's an ideal husband
next friday we're going to the battle of the boyne site
the following friday we're going to my old stomping grounds in kilkenny. rock on.
we're also going to kilkmainham (the jail) and dail eireann (irish parliament)
ANNNNND we're going to the gaa museum and get to go out on the pitch and everything
we're actually going monday which is the day afterrrrr
sunday. the day of the all ireland hurling final. between kilkenny and waterford. talk about family rivalry! i'm so excited. except i haven't quite decided slash even have a thought of where to go in dublin to watch it. i'm psyched either way. rock on kilkenny!

the fourth week consists of one class for an hour a day titled "course summary tutorial"

....

yeah.

then thursday there is no class. and friday the only thing on the syllabus is a "literary pub crawl."

i repeat. boomshakalaka.

so yeah...the lectures have been good. it's not like one guy each time...it's pretty much like 3 guest lecturers every day. so, minus the art ones, we never get the same guy twice.

after the intro lecture the first day we had an hour break before we registered and got our id cards. me and my should-be-roomie left campus to find an open pub to get a pint. it was 11. pubs open at 11. yet the first three we tried were all closed. i was an unhappy camper. so we went to registration. then we had another hour break before the library tour so we got sammies. (delish). then we had ANOTHER hour tour before the campus tour. we decided to go to the campus bar for a pint and said to the other members of our group standing around (mind you it's like 2 pm by this point) and they all shuddered and said pass...we walked away and were like ummm so we're officially the alcoholics? great. then went on the campus tour. except not the "this was built in blah blah and so and so gave the blah blah speech" no this was the "go to this restaurant it's better than that one, there's an atm here, don't buy your books here, drink here, do laundry here.." pretty bleh. i survived, however.

lectures tues. then a few hours later we had our "assignments meeting"
so the only work for this 4 weeks course is

eh eh hem

one two page BOOK REPORT
"does anyone not know what i mean by a book review"
"umm not really"
"basically...did you like it? not like it? why? how was it compared to something else you read.."

one five minute presentation
"as long as it has something somewhat relative to do with ireland, that's fine"

and then the 2500 word paper

so they took what we said we wanted into consideration and assigned each of us those three in the three different sections. i got my presentation in history, book report in art, and essay in lit. somehow i think i'll survive these four weeks....

today we had lecture...once again good stuff...minus the art one. that one kind of made my head hurt
amusing discussion in the history lecture
prof: okay what's the most important event in irish history
guy 1: st. patrick's day
prof: ah yes st. patrick's day...the day around the world where everyone is irish for a day...even though st. paddy was a brit. anyone else?
girl 1: christianization
prof: ah yes good answer. and when was that?
girl 1: 500 BC
prof: Before Christ....yes...well...wow. okay so you were a little off but still a good answer. anyone else?
girl 2: the easter uprising?
prof: also a good answer *insert talking about it* yes yes. anyone else?
me: the potato famine
prof: yes...also good. how do you think you all wound up across the pond? anyone else
guy 2: the introduction of strongbow [the cider]

well...i laughed?

anyways. so after that i dashed back to grab a sammie and get the keys for MY NEW APARTMENT.
went back cause we had our "walking tour of dublin"
well the guy was really nice...but he was kind of soft spoken...so we couldn't hear him at all. and it was POURING out...so after a while we started making up our own dialogue...then after another while...a few of us just left.

came back.
got my keys.
hell yeah.
bought groceries.
damn straight i bought those delicious potato waffle things they have here.
also damn straight i bought pineapple bubble bath. it smells awwwwwesome.
unpacked allll my stuff.
got my tv set up.
got my internet set up.

and now i'm free.
except that i have to be in class in less than 8 hours

tomorrow:
seminars
chinese food
drinking games (oh how i have missed thee....if only i had a beer pong table and some solo cups)
getting hammered

plus my place is like 5 minutes from campus and 5 minutes from temple bar...which is like the belmont of dublin. and my address is "bachelor's walk"

ALSO!!!!!!!!!

and this is probably the most important part of the post.

i live 4 doors down from a pub entitled "Gin Palace"

life. is. grand.

in ireland. go figures.

2008-08-31T09:15:19Z

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!

this may or may not be the return of frequent livejournal posts. i know. insane.

so i landed in dublin t-minus 102 minutes ago. for those of you who don't know, i will be spending this semester studying at trinity college dublin. aieee!!

so i shall be living with maggie once she arrives at the end of september. until then, i should probably find that out. my grandma is really sick so my mom is following me and flying in tomorrow. i'm currently at a hotel. i know, right. what kind of study abroad student flies in and stays at a hotel. a loser one. but my mom booked it for the next few days for herself and tacked on another one for me so i had somewhere to go hopping off the plane haha. i'm currently enjoying some lovely brown bread, rashers, and saussies. yum diddly um. i'm actually bored and waiting on my room to be ready. it's pouring out. figures. i think i'm gonna live for the next month with this kid advertising his apt on daft.ie for someone to sublet with him. works for me. i think it makes my mom kind of want to crap her pants...all well!

it's ten am...at 6 pm i have my first meeting slash "party" for my program. i hope there's booze. man i need a nappppp. i can't sleep on planes for the life of me. it didn't help that the guy in front of me and the girl across the aisle from him apparently knew each other and spent the entire 6 hours and 45 minutes having pillow and tickle fights. i said it didn't bother me and it was amusing. i lied.
man. i love apple juice.
so i start school tomorrow. no books, no idea what my classes are cause i guess i find out tonight. i have a batman pen becky gave me though, i guess that's a start? i broke my nail taking my suitcase off the carousel. it is now a genuine weapon. also in other news, i am wearing my sweet new pair of nike dunks. they are beyond bad ass.
the hurling match is on sunday! kilkenny versus waterford. talk about family rivalry. i'm stoked.

for the record, my us phone is unlocked and i have my american sim card and my irish one, and i just keep the one that's not in the phone in the back with the battery. i switch 'em out often and it doesn't cost you anything different to text me, so feel free to often. my irish number is +353877886331 fyi.

IN SUPER DUPER AWESOME COOL NEWS. you would think with a beginning like that it would have something to do with the cool adventure i'm embarking on. but no no. okay so yesterday i woke up in champaign around 7 am after passing out around 4..not exactly in the clearest state of mind..and drove up to chicago and dropped hayes off. packed. because i hadn't packed yet and my flight was at 650 and i'm an idiot. then drove to oak brook cause my mommy made me a 1 o'clock apt to get my hair dyed. was out by 3, went to my car to get a bra to bring back to victoria's secretizzle and what did i do? LOCKED MY PHONE AND KEYS IN MY CAR. i'm a dumbass. i had to go to macy's and get them to call my mom and have my brother come bring my spare but i didn't even have a phone to find him. needless to say i booted it home and just ran out of the house. who knows if i even packed a phone charger. i'm an idiot..but THE POINT IS. i found this out. and i didn't have time to test in so i request somebody does and inform me if it works or not. apparently if you lock your keys in your car, then you can call someone who has a spare (this only works if you have like the fob thingy to unlock via remote) and have them hit unlock near the phone and hold the phone near the car door and the SIGNAL TRAVELS. THAT'S MAGIC!!!!! ANARCHY!!! somebody try it and get back to me thanks.

time to go pester the lady to make up my room, take a long luxurious bath, and soak it all in that i am damn damn lucky.

love you guys.

also, i don't like how 'stoked' nor 'psyched' are possible moods.

procrastination by means other than facebook?!?

2008-02-18T10:02:19Z

things have been interesting lately, i'll say that. i currently hate all of my classes. i have lit theory. barf. history of the british isles. barf, i think. it's a 9 am lecture that i'm under 20% in actually making it to. math 444. something with analysis. it's terrible. and math 461, probability theory, which is probably my favorite class, but i'm still bitter cause i have a test on unofficial.

i've been sick the past week, so i'm a bit behind on life.

i cleaned my room today. and bought season one of weeds. i think tomorrow i'm going to set up shop in my room with weeds and mario and sonic at the olympic games on my tv. that or just get really drunk since i haven't in over a week.

i've made a lot of stupid decisions lately that i'm not proud of. i've done some stupid things, said some stupid remarks, and partook in bad life decisions all round. i really need to get my act together in school, my gpa was the one thing i could be actually quite proud of and now even that is slipping through the cracks. i've developed this mentality of "i don't care if i do shitty on this homework, if tonight works out in my favor." and it never actually does. and my homework never actually gets done. it's a terrible terrible habit.

i miss my mommy. a lot.

my birthday is in 24 days. twenty-first. hell. freaking. yeah.

for some reason when buying a calendar, i thought upon seeing one featuring cows, "cool!"
the cow is staring at me, though, and i'm kind of regretting my decision.

i need spring break plans. anyone?

i need to quit outback. and soon. yes, i like the people i work with. and yes, i like being a server. and yes, i like the discount. but too much shit has been going on recently and i would rather come home on a friday night and chill with my roomies than go carry food.

as far as boys go....i finally figured out what i wanted. and boy did it surprise me. and then the world did a topsy-turvy on me, and as i was about to accept my current situation, i figured actually ...why don't i just keep myself on my toes. who knows what the hell the future is going to bring this time.

Was your last kiss a mistake?
i say no.

What was the last thing you heard?
besides my music playing right now? hayes telling me he opened the twizzlers if i want one

What is bothering you right now?
my homework looming in front of me

Do you think slavery was wrong?
duh.

Have you ever seen somebody get hit by a car?
i don't think so actually

Who do you tell everything to?
girls: becky, regine, maz
boys: fez, frank, mark

Have you ever taken a picture in a bathroom?
i'm sure i have

Do you use big words?
i used to.

Does your head hurt?
still a little stuffy, but not too bad

Favorite number?
thirteen!

When was the last time you saw your Father?
i feel like such a good catholic, that first made me think 'God'. my dad though...hmmm not since mid December i guess.

Name a lyric from the song you're listening to?
you think you'd like to play ball with the law?

Do you use your friends?
no

Do you fight with your parents often?
if i fight with my mom, it means nothing. and i don't really talk to my dad.

Where is the shirt you're wearing from?
it's a pink floyd shirt i got for christmas

Do you have to check in with your parents before you go someplace?
never ever did when i lived with them

Do you know anyone with cancer?
yes :(

Do you have any picture frames in your room?
haha i have pictures...and i have frames...yet there aren't any pictures IN the frames...

Where did you spend Christmas?
in whitechurch, ireland :)

Ever smoked a cigarette?
neva!

Do you think the whole day is better if you smoke pot?
nope.

Do you get good grades?
yep.

Have you ever been intoxicated twice in one week?
...

Have you ever thought about getting your nose pierced?
nope.

Does a kiss make you feel better?
yep

Have you ever passed out on the bathroom floor?
oh yes. the famous "all i want to do is cuddle with the toilet" stage

Do you start the water before you get in the shower or when you get in?
before i get in

Have you ever brushed your teeth while in the shower?
hahaha no...but that sure is an idea..

Would you rather be in a permanent relationship or play the field?
hahhaa interesting question. this is the first time since last may i have even CONSIDERED being in a relationship. the word permanent is scary. and i wouldn't want to jump into anything. but the idea doesn't sound so horrible anymore, i'll say that.

Have you ever had stitches?
only in me mouth

How long ago did you hug someone?
yesterday

Do you like the Red Sox or Yankees?
Bulls

Whats your favorite cereal?
it's allll about the cinnamon toast crunch.

Have you ever had an oreo with peanut butter on it?
no, parent trap didn't convince me on that one. although i did learn a couple weeks ago my friend likes oreos with applesauce. ummmmmm..ew.

Are you more of a coffee or tea drinker?
i can't drink hot bevs :(

Have you ever thrown shoes on a telephone wire?
in a dream

Have you ever climbed up a water tower?
no...but i wanna. who's game?!

Do you dream in black and white?
i have before, but not usually.

Do you talk in your sleep?
oh yeah. i'm kind of scared of what i've confessed to people :/

Last time you had butterflies in your stomach?
tuesday

What does the 10th text message in your inbox say?
hahahaha it's nathan from last thursday "yoooooo hooooooooooooo! get it? cause it's a blustery day"

Can you recite the alphabet backwards?
it takes me a really /really/ long time

How do you feel about life right now?
grateful after the tragedy at northern...but also kind of anxious and confused

Would you ever get someones name tattooed on you?
only if his name was keith richards

Do you feel guilty?
yeah

What do you want to get accomplished today/tonight?
considering i woke up at 4 today and i've already overhauled my room, worked out, gone to walmart, eaten, and showered i feel pretty productive. but i still need to write a couple papers tonight.

Who were your last 3 texts from?
i delete a majority of my texts unless i know i need them for reference or they make me laugh/smile. the last three in my inbox are from don (we're currently texting discussing the new "oatmeal" addition to teddy grahams), jesse, and frank.

Where was your default picture taken?
well my lj one isn't me. my fb one is becky and i in my kitchen on matt's birthday chugging a whiskey coke.

what is your middle name?
Mary. irish and catholic and lame, i know.

Your current job status?
waitress at outback steakhouse incorporated!

What is your current mood?
right now? i'm smiling.

What color shirt are you wearing?
black and navy dye with pink floyd writing. why is this the second question about my t-shirt?

Who has the ability to hurt you most?
those that i don't expect. well that's obvious. i guess those that i feel have always got my back. i guess that's the same thing. whatever. you know who you are.

If you could go back in time and change something, would you?
yes. i would change a lot of things actually. although i attempt to have a "no regrets" type of perspective...given the chance...yep. things 15 years ago and things 2 weeks ago.

Where was the last place, out of town, that you went to?
besides chicago and champaign-urbana? i guess dublin

Ever had a near death experience?
nope

Something you do a lot?
ruminate. and text. and drink.
bad combo.

Do you have a fondness for gnomes?
i can honestly say i've never been asked that question. i mean...i don't have a problem with gnomes. especially in garden statue form...but fondness is pushing it.

Who can you tell EVERYTHING to?
maz

Name someone with the same birthday as you?
wikipedia time! kay got it. william h macy.

when was the last time you cried?
yesterday. meaning saturday. i almost broke down at outback actually.

Where are you right now?
i swear to god this question was already asked. in my bed!

If you could have one super power what would it be?
i used to say read minds...but i don't know how much i'd like that anymore. i'll go classic yet awesome and say i think flying would be pretty damn sweet.

What is your favorite color?
green. all about the green.

What is one thing that annoys you on TV?
laugh tracks, when the same commercial is played back to back, when wendy's commercials are playing even though all the wendy's in c-u are closed down, whatever the hell cause boy meets world to not be shown during normal hours, when people buy all the vowels in a row on wheel of fortune. i guess that was more than one.

Do you still like kiddie movies?
oh boy do i!

What are you eating or drinking at the moment?
i just had some nestle tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate chips :)

Do you speak any other language?
pig latin! actually, i'm very VERY bad at pig latin. i used to be able to write spanish pretty well, but i was pretty wretched at speaking or hearing it.

What's your favorite smell?
boy

Describe your life in one word.
colorful

Have any tattoos?
nada

What are you looking forward to the most?
right now? my birthday i guess. in the closer future though...i'm actually very much so looking forward to stocking up on booze and meat, getting on top of my classes, and kickboxing tomorrow

What are you thinking about right now?
how i really need an electric blanket and a body pillow to cuddle with. just the body pillow that is.

What should you be doing right now?
my english homework...

Who was the last person that made you upset/angry?
the new dumb host

What are you listening to?
bob dylan. you stupid stupid survey.

Do you like working in the yard?
maybe if i had a yard. actually probably not. plants do much for me, and i sunburn during actually yard-work months.

Do you act differently around the person you like?
i don't think so

What is your natural hair color?
crappy browny-redy

Whats your favorite place in the world?
ireland

What is the holiday closest to your b-day?..
st. paddy's day. how appropriate.

What is your dream car?
1955 ford thunderbird

Has anyone sang or played for you personally?
yep :) nothing makes me swoon more than a guy who can play the guitar. bonus points if he can sing.

Have you broken a bone or had stitches?
never!

Anyone on your mind right now?
perhaps

new year's

2008-01-03T20:35:56Z

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
definitely not. i had about nine billion of them. and yes, i will make more for this year. cause i'm naive like that. typical shit as in not procrastinating and working out more...but also....i think i'm going to take more pictures.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
i...don't know. i don't think so?

4. Did anyone close to you die?
yes

5. What countries did you visit?
ummm mexico. ireland. london. i think that's it?

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
a clean room. permanently.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
this is mildly depressing...i can't think of a single date that remains etched in my memory?

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
gaining my self respect back

9. What was your biggest failure?
not going all out on opportunities

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
besides bruising myself senseless....i got my wisdom teeth pulled? does that count? haha...ummm no. just general cait's always sick and injuring herself kinda thing.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
i bought a sweet guitar...but never learned to play it. hahaha probably my wii.

14. Where did most of your money go?
i don't really wish to discuss it. let's just say it rhymes with dafamahol

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
getting a job that lasted more than like 2 months

16. What songs will always remind you of 2007?
temptations - my girl

17. Compared to this time last year, you are:
More...
apathetic to school (agree rocio)

Less...
down on myself

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
things to better myself. like learning new skills or reading or anything that's good for the mind

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
waste money

20. How will you be spending/did you spend Christmas?
spent it in ireland with the fam fam

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?
i was IN love in 2007...but the actually initial fall was 2006. i've developed many a crush, but i think it would be rather dramatic to refer to any as love

23. How many one-night stands?
this summer was interesting, i'll say that.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
i got really really into the office by the end of the year...and i think everything else i had watched a lot in previous years so we'll go with that

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
i don't think so? i don't hate anyone, i'm like a care bear!

26. What was the best book you read?
well it definitely wasn't hp7!

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
i have become obsessed with the song to the dogs and whomever by josh ritter. download it.

28. What did you want and get?
i wanted to appreciate college more...and i got...i guess that actually.

29. What did you want and not get?
well not wanted the whole time, but i guess i initially wanted to get back together with matt and i didnt'? i also wanted my guinness hoodie back but..alas...

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
ratatouille haha

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 20...i flew a kite and i watched good morning vietnam in disney class...and i went to wine night and got depressed. it was probably the worst birthday ever, i have high hopes for this one though.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Ummmm the ability to not lose things. and for my crushes to not be in vain

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
ummm...pajamas. i guess i probably wore more skirts this summer than i ever have in years past?

34. What kept you sane?
becky

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
i like that this used the term fancy. hmmm. i've kind of become obsessed with john krasinski

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
ummmmm...

37. Who did you miss?
maz. hands down.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
too bloody many to name.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:
that i like being me.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
first of all, rocio yours was quite depressing hahaha
"you may say that i'm a dreamer"

ow.

2007-09-27T19:30:01Z

dear whoever thought it would be a good idea to leave a keystone light box in front of my apartment building full of bricks in anticipation of me kicking it,

you suck.

love,
tobers

oui

2007-09-18T03:18:58Z

i am purchasing a wii on wednesday.
i am very excited for said wii.
it's pretty much all that's getting me through the next couple of days.

What is everyone's favorite wii game(s) and why?

**real post to come soon. i promise. lots to say. lots.

revisiting the summer checklist

2007-07-12T19:09:21Z

let's see my progress

1. make lots of money
2. meet lots of people CHECK!
3. work out a lot
4. ireland?
5. visit a lot of people
6. weird al
7. become master of the bike
8. send lots of care packages
9. re-read shakespeare
10. learn some gee-tar
11. organize all my dvds
12. organize my iTunes
13. help others
14. party CHECK!
15. feel like myself again CHECK!

well. 2/3s of the summer and 1/5 of the points isn't terrible is it?

and now to go eat chinese food leftovers and watch some boy meets world.

tobers1313 @ 2007-05-20T20:03:00

2007-05-21T01:12:57Z

points
1. i'm still swollen...it actually hurts more today than yesterday...maybe because i stole some of noonan's curly fries at shrek 3 and this is karma?
2. i have rekindled my love for pudding.
3. the bulls. 'nuff said. :( i'm going to need some new font colors...
4. i have found out my grades forrrrrr: math 347, engl 255, engl 208, engl 373, and ib 109...all A's baby. all fucking A's. and now the one class i'm legitimately scared for the grade hasn't been turned in..yeah that's how much of an ass that prof was.
5. i missed erica and regine and pat
6. i saw shrek 3 and i was sitting there and all of a sudden i was like..."is that eric idle?!?!?"...it pretty much made my night.
7. dq gave me a horrific blizzard today
8. i spend far too much time on facebook while bed-ridden
9. i must memorize a menu.
10. www.flashcardmachine.com is a gem.
11. i miss a lot of people...i feel like i haven't seen many people recently. and this is a summer for road trips and reunions.
12. my hair is really effing long.
13. i can't wait to be in a habit of going to crce.
14. i also can't wait to eat meat
15. i saw "brand of the brain!" at the music box today. it was pretty interesting.
16. i met crispin glover (george mcfly!)

more points
to do this summer
1. make lots of money
2. meet lots of people
3. work out a lot
4. ireland?
5. visit a lot of people
6. weird al
7. become master of the bike
8. send lots of care packages
9. re-read shakespeare
10. learn some gee-tar
11. organize all my dvds
12. organize my iTunes
13. help others
14. party
15. feel like myself again

paragraphs to follow in locked friends-only post.

deedah

2007-05-15T20:43:16Z

1. i'm in champaign
2. i'm back tomorrow
3. i need to get my wisdom teeth pulled STAT because i begin training in a week
4. outback orientation was pretty fun..i met another amy...and i smelled delicious food
5. i found out they're getting rid of the handled mugs in 2 months..which SUCKS
6. i found out i have to carry EVERYTHING on trays...so i need to figure out how to get arm muscle quickly
7. laura came down and got me awesome shampoo/conditioner (my hair smells amazing)
8. and she brought me a bike
9. and re-taught me how to ride it (sad..i know)
10. and it's raining
11. i'm okay
12. i've decided something...and it may make me a little uncomfortable, but that's okay
13. there's a lot of people's stuff in 333
14. the apartment is clean (thanks becky!)
15. ...and cold.
16. i still have cheesecake factory leftovers
17. i need an i-card
18. annnnd...break?

tylenol pm is the greatest

2007-05-14T06:05:34Z

1. my mommy is the best mommy
2. i'm re-reading harry potter 6
3. meg brought me a shrek happy meal...and therefore is amazing
4. i'm feeling strangely confident
5. i probably shouldn't
6. i am very freaking wise
7. the bulls need to get their act together on tuesday
8. i begin orientation at outback tuesday
9. my brother has a final tomorrow and i'm wishing him luck
10. amy and i are going to cuddle
11. i miss typing in this stupid thing...although i'm sure no one misses reading my jibber jabber
12. i am a zebra. and i need to rectify this.
13. i have cheesecake factory leftovers
14. my mom left a ton of 3 year old smithwicks my dad bought years ago in my room
15. they're pretty much fermented
16. i miss ireland
17. i miss a lot of things
18. i really want to watch gattaca
20. instead i'm watching our "behind the shells" from the original tmnt movies
21. crce is going to be my second home this summer
22. i need a new watch
23. i can't wait to watch titanic with sammy
24. i'm left with a something awesome

sigh

2007-05-12T15:47:58Z

so i'm sitting at home in my bed at approximately 1030..approximately 21 hours after matt broke up with me..and i'm not in the greatest mood.

although i haven't really been in the greatest mood all semester have i?
and that's probably why this happened.

i don't know what's been wrong with me lately...but my self-esteem has plummeted into like the critical danger area...wow that just sounded like a suicide threat..well it's not. but still. i've just been feeling so terrible about myself all semester..and in turn i've been feeling immensely jealous of everyone else. and i've been taking it out on them. not just matt, everyone. i've been snippy and out of control and stupid and ridiculously jealous. and i hate it. i can not stand this. it's not me and i hate it. i'm a happy person...not someone who cried herself to sleep most nights in the month. and all i kept thinking at the end of the day was "at least i have matt." and now i don't even have that and it's all my fault. i'm sure there's a multitude of reasons he broke up with me...and i'm sure i can relate every single one of them to me being a basketcase recently. and it just makes it so much worse because i know it's all my fault. i drove him to it. i hate this me. i was just so happy it was summer and i could get some fresh air and work somewhere new and meet new people and gain some self esteem back and feel like my old self and tell matt how sorry i am that i've been so snippy and demanding lately and that i can go back to being my old self. and how thankful i was that he put up with me. but it doesn't matter now does it? when he told me he'd "house me" if i visited him in milwaukee this summer it almost broke my heart. but i can't even blame him..who'd want to stay with a mess like me? i just know he's so amazing and the best guy in the whole world and he's going to meet someone else and it's pretty much going to break my heart. and i don't know why i'm even writing all this in a livejournal. so that i can just read it later and cry some more? i don't know. i just can't stand this feeling because i know how amazingly well we fit together and i just hate that i ruined it all. i fucking ruin everything. just knowing that he wouldn't give it another chance for me to sort out my thoughts..just knowing that those 15 months of inside jokes, fun, amazingly close relationshipness and everything doesn't mean as much to him as it does to me hurts so much. i just want to hold him and kiss him and tell him how much he means to be and i can't. and he's fucking sick of me. and he's probably at home and everyone's telling him how good this will be for him and how he'll get some air and how he doesn't need me and...i just am so confused and sad. my mommy came down to get me last night after matt left and the whole way home she talked about how fucked her and my dad's relationship is and i guess it was supposed to make me feel better in a "nobody's perfect" sort of manner but it didn't. it just made me feel even worse for several reasons...that my family's relationships are fucked up and that's probably the reason i am the way i am...and that her life is so much worse than mine and all i can think about is myself. that's been making me feel even worse all semester too...knowing that i'm sitting here crying and complaining when i have so much more than so many other people. i just feel like such a fucking jerk. and all i want is for matt to hold me and tell me it's gonna be okay and now i don't even have that. well..looks like i should get out of bed.

home sweet home

2007-04-07T17:58:16Z

back in chicago! for like..A night.

busy busy busy day.
i need to see people.
and i have two tests to study for and a paper to write. bad timing all over the place.
and i need to go to mass.
and i need to figure out MY SUMMER.

things to figure out
A. where to spend it
1. ireland
2. chicago
3. champaign
B. once i choose where to spend it..do i want to go to other places for part of it..like when i'm going to go to ireland if i say chicago/champaign
C. summer classes
1. not take them
2. try and take one in the city
3. take an 8 week course in champaign
D. summer job
1. beg max n erma's even though they've told everyone they're not hiring any seasonal help
2. work somewhere else (waitressing..i need moneyyy)
i. where?
3. work in chicago versus champaign

so i guess here are my options...
Uno: spend the entire summer in ireland and work there
Dos: spend the summer in chicago working and go to ireland at some point
Tres: spend the summer in chicago working and taking a class and going to ireland at some point
Cuatro: spend the summer in champaign working and going to chicago on many weekends and Ireland at some point
Cinco: spend the summer in champaign working, taking a class, and going to chicago on many weekends and Ireland at some point

And then there's the issue of studying abroad....
-I know my mommy really wants me to study in ireland during the spring...I know it's the excuse she's looking for to move to Ireland entirely
-and i know my grandparents won't be alive for much longer and my mom keeps saying if i went there i could visit them a lot more than i usually can
-and i know i physically have room in my schedule. i have 15 classes left to take for a double major in math and english..which divided by 4 is a little less than 4 a semester..so it is possible...especially if i could get some credits there
-and i know that although i signed a lease..it is like 280 a month and i'd only be gone for 5 months...and i know that that is a RIDICULOUS amount of money to just waste like that, but my parents are so gun-ho on me studying abroad a semester that they keep saying that "it wouldn't be the end of the world if we paid the rent while you weren't there"..which is crazy but at the same time 5 months there is almost the same amount for the summer where i'm living now
-then there's my roomies...who i would never want to disappoint in a million years, and if there were real issues about me leaving for a semester then duh..they come first (a. because i love them dearly but of course i signed a lease too). i mean technically they would have an extra bedroom to put all their shit in and i know becky was thinking about studying abroad too...but i would never want to cause drama if it was a big deal
-and lastly....graduate school. como what?!

ohhh being 20 sucks.

oddly enough...

2007-03-14T18:45:22Z

today is already a better day than yesterday. and yesterday was my birthday.

-yesterday i woke up kinda sickish
-went to math and took my midterm, which was AWFUL
+had lunch at the six pack that was fairly good..i will say that
+/-went to disney and watched good morning vietnam, which was a good movie but it was SO hot in that room
+matt gave me his presents including all dogs go to heaven on dvd, mad gab, and a STUNT KITE
+we tried to fly the kite!
-we failed. (it's been so long since i've flown a kite and we couldn't get her going..tips?)
+my mommy came and gave me presents from her, my brothers (even though she so bought it..and the card was very obvious, it was far too nice...and damien wrote "guess who bought the card?" on the inside of it), my grandparents, and my dad
+nana and john called me...and seamus and marie, which was kinda unforeseen
-my mom and i spent far too long trying to track down an ipod to replace my stolen one, which left no time for me to actually sit down with her
-i heard...a lot of bad news :(
-i kinda had a small breakdown
-steve and don were the only people who came out with matt and me to wine night at clybourne for my birthday....which i totally understand cause a lot of people had homework...and i feel really bad cause i tried to down my sorrows and drank far too quickly after eating very little all day and i ended up an emotional super drunk and had to leave really quickly..i'm gonna make them brownies

today...
-i woke up sick. so did matt. we looked at each other and were like...ughhhh.
+/-i was awake and ready to go to insects but i wasn't feeling so good so i laid in bed for a little while
+pita chips made me feel better
+as did looking at stuff i wanna buy online (becky. i really want a wii.)
+it was really nice outside...warm but not like yesterday so it wasn't so sticky and i didn't feel like i was getting sunburned
+i got to american lit...and not alone was today poe day (!!!) but WE WATCHED SIMPSONS' THE RAVEN FROM TREE HOUSE OF HORROR..which i was actually envisioning while i re-read it a few days ago oddly enough
+i got back my american lit test from last week...100% baby. i lost 4 points for my essay because i had nooo time to do it BUT i gained it back from my extra credit. hellll yeah.
+i talked with my mommy
+i had finished my math hw before so i'm not hastily trying to slam it out right now before class

.2-250: math 347. ughhh.
.then read my victorian lit reading
.330-445 victorian lit class
.walk home happily (hopefully)
.shopping for cancun!
.writing my victorian lit take home midterm...barf!
.sleep soundly because matt will be studying at his place for his test (no offense)
.skip math 415 class cause i just had a test in it and i deserve it
.anybody want to get pita pit for lunch around noonish on green st?
.disney class!
.edit my midterm and turn it in.
.pack for cancuuuun!
.class on friday
.go home!
.ignatius play (does anyone know if it's on this weekend?)
.perhaps dinner with the noonans' for birfday
.sleep giddily

CANCUN

yuck.

2007-03-05T21:21:28Z

so i'm walking to math today along the quad and some guy is standing on the walkpath giving things away. as i walk past him, he hands me a banana laffy taffy with a sticker that says "vote for so-and-so" and tells me "vote for so-and-so." i was like uh no thanks dude.

who the hell thinks giving someone a BANANA laffy taffy is going to get them a vote?
that was very foolish.