Two weeks removed from my wonderful weekend in Montreal with Aisha, I find myself in Dublin for yet another work assignment.
I flew out Saturday morning SFO time and arrived Sunday morning in Dublin. Due to the length of the flight, I was unable to stop by to visit my parents as I had planned.
I arrived at my hotel around 9am local time. Of course my room was not ready. My company's office is not in the City Center of Dublin (or anywhere near as I assumed), but in a completely boring suburban bourough called Leopardstown. The clean and quiet of this area had me a bit unhinged on arrival.
While the staff got my room ready, I took the "tram" (called LUAS) to the City Center. It's only 3 blocks away from the hotel, the day was looking to be beautiful and the train is supposed to come every 15 minutes. Of course it didn't show up for about 30 minutes when I happened to be waiting.
To pass the time and help get the lay of the land, I cornered a local and held her hostage with my tourist questions. I was able to discern that it rains a lot here in the Emerald Isle (quel surprise!), U2 is in the middle of holding a series of charity concerts (probably to help pay for Bono's PR push for a Nobel Prize), the City Center would be trashed as a result, got the goods on a few places to go, and that Leopardstown is supposed to be a fairly well off area. This last tidbit will prove to be useful should I find myself running low on Euros (fairly soon as my cab ride to the hotel cost EU 60!). I could probably go house-to-house and panhandle enough to get me back to the airport by the end of the week.
I arrived in the City Center, which proved to be fairly large and very pedestrian friendly. Aisha is looking forward to some shopping and sight-seeing when she arrives to join me later in the week, but I don't know if this city will meet our San Francisco/Manhattan-centric standards of sophistication.
I physically cringed as I walked past goon after Northern European goon. You know the type...the badly dressed trendy Eurotrash types wearing leather, oversized knockoff sunglasses and sleeveless shirts/midriffs baring a jelly-belly that somehow manage to traipse about fooling themselves into thinking that they are even remotely above repugnance. Damn I'm a snob, but I gotta say that Aisha and I will be raising the beauty level of this city significantly in our week here.
I also got a little depressed. The world is getting smaller and nothing feels unique to my jaded eye anymore. I miss the Mochster and especially Aisha terribly.
On the flip side, I feel confident that Aisha and I will be wonderfully happy wherever we wind up. She has so much charisma that she can make anyplace exciting, comfortable and unforgettable when I'm with her.
I walked a good part of the City Center, had breakfast and did not take one photo. Dissappointing. The world feels so drab without Aisha. I have a feeling that when she arrives, she'll make this City exciting for me with her exhuberance and energy just like she made Montreal so memorable.
I lover her so much.
I am in Watertown, NY for the next two weeks. My company is releasing a new version of their software and I will be training my team for the first week and serve as an emergency escalation point the following week.
Next weekend is my birthday. I spent the weekend in LA with my family. It was very pleasant. Went to the dogpark (actually, it was a small dirt lot) with Charlie and my sister Carly. Then had some Vietnamese food with her and my mom.
It happened to be my parent's 30th wedding anniversary that day. WOW. Kind of balls me over that they've been together that long. It also reminds me I'll be 30 soon (not this year though).
We bought a chocolate-chocolate mousse cake in celebration. Aisha would've loved it. In fact I wish she could've made this trip. I forgot to ask her to come with me and she didn't say she wanted to go. Two desires passing through the night....
I then hung out with Akie and Goldie on Saturday night. We met in West LA at a place called Gaby's. My sister and Karl came with me. I met Akie's boyfriend Mike. Mark was also able to stop by. What a nice guy.
We then stopped at one of those "boba" places that are so prevalent in LA and played dominoes until late. Very G-rated.
My brother, sister and mom gave me early birthday presents. My brother gave me a very nice Fossil watch. All silver and steel and blue and very masculine. My sister got me a wine holder/champagne cooler and my mom got me a tea thermal. The thermal is racing red and is part of the same collection as one of my cocktail shakers. I told mom this and she didn't believe me.
I'll spend my birthday next weekend in Montreal. I'll drive in from Watertown and meet Aisha there. She is nice enough to work out of her company's office there and wait for me. I'm looking forward to seeing her and whooping it up and staying at the hotel we booked. It looked nice from the internet pictures we saw.
