A little on Ireland and a new job

Hello everyone! Sorry, it’s been so very long since I last posted anything, over a month! Well, since then I visited Ireland for 2 weeks, came back to the desert, and switched jobs. On Ireland-I can’t say enough good stuff about that trip! It was amazing and absolutely breathtaking. I went with SPC Rick Rzepka, from my unit, who will be named Zep for the rest of this entry cause it’s easier. We drove almost the entire island! We started out in Dublin, which ended up being just like any big city. We were happy to be in a city after months in the Green Zone, Baghdad, Iraq. It was so nice just to see people out doing normal, petty things. I had forgotten what it was like to worry about where to eat, what to wear, shopping, and sightseeing. It was really great to just be myself again. I quickly developed an affinity for Jameson’s Irish whiskey (12 year is my favorite) and can now drink and enjoy good whiskey straight up. We also hit a ton of cool pubs in Dublin, even went to the oldest pub in Ireland! We went to an interesting old prison and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Everything was perfect. We even got snowed on in a city park! Zep’s parents flew in to Dublin a few days later and we rented a car and started driving. Poor Zep, he was in charge of driving and his mom and step dad were in the back. It must have been rough. Between driving a an after driving Humvees the last few months, driving on the wrong side of the road, and all the passengers making noises like we thought we’d be flattened at any second-whew!! I am sooo glad I wasn’t the one driving. I did get to drive but it was a week later after I’d gotten used to watching vehicles coming straight at us because the roads were so narrow. And I wouldn’t be completely honest if I said I did great. I did do great after the first 5 minutes. As soon as I got behind the wheel and pulled onto a road I realized my seatbelt was undone and reached down to fix it. I forgot to keep my eyes on the road and immediately hit a curb (a small one!) and jumped the van (a little!) and Zep just looked at me like I was nuts. But after that I think I did pretty good. Thankfully we were mostly on big highways while I drove, not like the bumpy narrow country roads Zep had to drive. Anyway, drove from Dublin down to Killiney to stay in the Fitzpatrick Castle. It was so cool, the castle had it’s bar in the refurbished dungeon. The village of Killiney was great, quiet, pretty, and tidy. Zep and I parked in a lot across the street from a pub and when we went to leave saw that the van was locked in. Apparently we parked in a church parking lot and the priest was waiting by the gate and chided us, saying that we had taken a spot the elderly use to go to mass. I felt awful! We traveled down the coast, stopping in little town to stay at bed and breakfasts along the way. We heard some great traditional Irish music in very town but the best music was in Dingle and Doolin. They musicians there were soo great! They had the crowd in the palm of their hands.

Ok, folks, I’ve realized a hard lesson. I wrote all of that 3 days ago and I finally understand I can’t save a blog and keep trying to add on to it cause I’ll never post it. So I’m going to go ahead and post this incomplete blog. Sorry, I’ll talk about Ireland more later.

One last thing before I post…I have a new job! Yay!! I work in the Press Desk for a Marine Major and I help answer press queries and will be working with radio interviews. I really like it so far and I can’t believe my good fortune.

Oh, and why didn’t anyone ever tell me, a Marine Corps brat, about the book/movie “The Great Santini?” This was an awesome book, I just can’t believe I’d never heard about it till now! Ok, that is all sportsfans.