Yesterday marked one year since I touched down in Dublin with two bags each easily twice the size of myself (and I mean that), plus my bike and my cat Gypsy. I arrived at about 5a.m. then promptly went to sleep. On the plane over, it took me a good hour to stop crying. To be honest, the emotions I felt when I left made me wonder if I was doing the right thing by leaving my friends and family behind to go to a place I didn't know anything about.

The first few months were not easy. Sure, if you read my blog it looks pretty rosy, but I can tell you I felt homesick; discouraged by running out of money and not being able to find work; hemmed in by the rainy, windy weather; at times depressed because I didn't have any friends; frustrated at getting lost and having to look at maps, not to mention trying to negotiate the buses; isolated from people back home whenever bad news struck -- you name it, I felt it. Some days I would just log onto my gmail and wait for people in the US to wake up so I could talk to them, and then would do little else all day.

But slowly things started to turn around. I began to make friends. I got used to being broke! The weather got a bit warmer and drier. I started to realize that there are places in Dublin to have fun without spending a ton of money. I started being better at exploring the city. I started getting back to the things I used to enjoy doing, and found some new hobbies too. I set up a work table for myself. Basically, I got myself out of my rut.

So looking back on the past year, I feel satisfied. Did I accomplish everything I would have liked to this year? Hell, no. But was it a happy year? It definitely was. And for the first time in many, many years, I'm going to have a couple of New Year's resolutions!

However, the weather over the past few days does remind me of what I encountered when I first got to Ireland. I'll take a snowstorm any day over this wind and rain. All I can think of to do is stay inside as much as possible, safe in my little hovel! It's so easy to hole yourself away when it's like this and decide not to come out until Spring. But sadly, spring won't be much better! Living in Ireland means coming to terms with the crap weather. So I'm going to make an effort to go out and do fun things rather than stay in with tea (ok, whiskey) and TV just to stay warm and dry. But I gotta tell ya, it ain't gonna be easy.

Not a whole lot to report this week! It's been rather quiet, with Mark back in school after his spring break, and I'm home trying to work on my various "stuff." It's been incredibly windy all week long -- downright blustery. But today the sun is out at least.

Last night we had a good laugh while watching Television. An advertisement came on for an Irish plus sized women's clothing store called, swear to god, Oxendales. Like, seriously? Oxendales? What a message that sends out to the larger women of the world: "You're big as Oxen! But it's ok, shop here!"

Speaking of television, I haven't talked about what we have been watching on TV. Sex in the City does play every single night, so if nothing else is on, admit that I will flip over to it as a default. But the US television shows like Heroes and the TLC cleaning shows that I used to really love aren't on the channels we have now, though they do play in Ireland on fancy cable channels. The shows I'm really enjoying are:

Heston's Feasts. Heston Blumenthal is this British chef that has a very pricey restaurant in England that serves all kinds of wackadoo stuff. And for his show he puts together these meals that aim to recreate the culinary experiences of places and times past. Then he serves the food to a dinner party and films their reactions. It's very interesting and entertaining. You can watch an episode HERE.

I saw the English comedian Russell Brand host the MTV music awards and I thought he was utter crap, so I had pretty much ignored him from then on. Also, his hair really bothers me. But he has a TV Show called Ponderland and one night I happened to give it a chance and I found myself laughing hysterically, and then I was sold. I'm not sure if he does his own writing for the show or what, but it's very funny. It's sort of like America's Funniest Home Videos meets Mystery Science Theater 3000 meets SNL News. He plays clips from random old documentaries and makes fun of them, basically. While it sounds like shooting fish in a barrel, I don't know, it's just funny! He's very intellectual, I think, as it turns out.

Some people back home are also watching the show Skins, a teen drama that I got hooked on thinking it was a comedy. The acting is better than most teen ensemble shows, and the writing is not bad either. It's not exactly uplifting, but if you need a little jolt of catharsis, it's a good one to watch.

The other show that was on for a while that was entertaining to watch was called The Convention Crasher. This comedian, Justin Lee Collins, preps and trains for a few weeks before going to different conventions in an attempt to fit in and win the competitions there.

I'm about 3/4 done with this silk dress. I'm going to attempt to finish it up today and then head over for a visit with my mother in-law. I hope I don't fall over getting there in this wind!

And now for the weather...

It's getting warmer here! Just enough so that going out is more enjoyable. But even more importantly, it's raining less, and that makes all the difference. It still rains almost every day, but the rain is lighter, and it's for shorter periods, and like now, it's a sun shower, so you don't feel this hum drum dark day ugh it's raining again feeling. But I'm still thankful that I made the extra effort to buy three (yes, three) different types of waterproof jackets before I came. And in fact, I wish I had a fourth. First, there was the winter parka for freezing weather. When I got here it was quite cold and we even had a bit of snow, so I was happy I had my most loved and favorite/cherished/maybe too revered for a winter jacket Orage parka. Then now that it's too warm for that, I have a breathable waterproof jacket I picked up from REI that is just a bit thicker than a windbreaker. It's great for layering. The hood comes off in such a way that you can't even tell it had a hood. It's lovely. Then I got an ultra light, packable windbreaker style hooded rain jacket, also from REI, that I can keep in my bag during the summer. I think these should cover all of my bases except for dressier days. I did realize that when I'm wearing a dress, none of my waterproof jacket options look very nice. But you can't have everything can you?

The Dublin 5-day Forecast

Wednesday: PARTLY SUNNY WITH SHOWERS
Thursday: PARTLY SUNNY WITH SHOWERS
Friday: RAIN
Saturday: SHOWERS
Sunday: MOSTLY CLOUDY

Well, I guess it's lucky I don't leave for another 11 days, then.