Bridge

Today I went to Dublin to do some shopping. I  stopped while on the bridge to just enjoy the moment. I was staring at the river and beautiful view of the city. I was thinking it was the exact same place where about three years ago I gazed at this amazing city for the first time. And how lucky I was to be back. I was thinking that except for Branson I had a lot in common with Sybil from Downton. Okay, maybe the only thing I had in common with her was moving to Ireland. But still, it is a big thing.  Picture of me on same bridge three years ago.

When all of a sudden this grandad came up to me and was like "Don't jump!"
I responded with something, witty, charming and relevant like "Um... I wasn't going to. I was looking."

Then he said. "Be safe. You have to watch out. Hold your bag in the front love. There. Be safe. Be careful."

I was like. "Um okay. Thank you."

He wasn't satisfied until I backed away from the railing of the bridge and moved on with my shopping. "Alright now."

It was funny and sweet. I am a granddad magnet. Seriously. Old men just appear to help me. It is a genetic thing actually, my mom has it too.

But on a less funny note I saw two Nazis today. I was shocked. Two kids in white body suits covering their whole bodies ( I guess that is implied in the title "body suit") masks and swastikas attached to the hoods of the body suits. It was actually very disturbing.

I guess this is a post on the incredible range of the human species. We have old men who stop to help young girls. Even when said girl was not melancholy so much as philosophical. But we also have members of our species who embrace and revel in hate.

Parents and Aliens

This weekend my dad told me: "Never trust anyone who says Nutella is bad for you."
While my mom told me: "Your future requires money!"
There is only one explanation. The aliens, after doing whatever aliens do, put the brains back in the opposite bodies.

While this change has been difficult to adjust to I am left with two questions.
1. Did the aliens do this switch deliberately? 
2. Why were the aliens using people residing in Beaver County as part of their test?

I surely hope that it isn't a test only on people from Beaver County. I mean, they are going to get some pretty skewed results of the human race if they are only looking at Beaver County. But, then my parents aren't from Beaver County. I don't know. I'm not an alien expert. 

Okay their might be two explanations.
1. Alien experimentation on my parents causing brain mix up. Whether deliberate or accidental remains unclear.

2. Way too much Doctor Who this weekend. Way too much. Time to go watch a sick, but very much set in real-life, murder mystery.

London an Intro

I spend Easter Weekend in London. Just to get away and to be by myself. Just me and a new place.  Well, semi-new. I've been there once before.

I love London. Literally. It is one of my favorite settings. The city of Shakespeare, of Spooks, of Sherlock, of Platform 9 3/4 and a million others of my favorite stories and things.
It is the city of hundreds of years of fascinating history.
It is an amazing and beautiful city.

So why was I not enjoying myself?

I was on the trip I'd saved money for. That I'd looked forward too. I had been dreaming of this trip for basically three years since I had last seen London.

But now I was there. I was exhausted, annoyed, and wishing I was in my bed and watching TV or reading a book.

This was discouraging. I wanted to love this city. I wanted to feel inspired and enlightened and instead I was just exhausted. London in my mind was one of my favorite cities. Just like Galway or Edinburgh or D.C. But now that I was here I felt like Adele, lamenting that my deep passion lay unrequited.

I was so upset about this that I actually lay awake on Saturday night agonizing over it. Then I realized. I was in love with the London of the stories I loved. Now, a lot of these stories went to great lengths to capture London. But, that didn't change the fact the London I thought I knew I knew from other people's eyes. I had only ever been there once myself and had spent most the time in various theatre-- no regrets.

The main problem was that I was tired so tired. Too tired to really let these places have an emotional impact. Travel is always exhausting. But this was worse than tired. This was zombie walking through the holiday I'd been looking forward to.

So Saturday night, while pretending to be asleep on the wrecked hostel pillow as my Spanish roommates discussed their party plans for the night in steryo-typically loud voices, I made a plan. I would cut some things out of my list to see, I wasn't going to make it to most of them anyway at this rate. And, if I officially cut them from the list I wouldn't be stressing about missing them. I needed to relax. I needed to enjoy these things. I wouldn't see everything. But I would be happy seeing the things I did instead of just crossing off check marks.

London was huge city. It wouldn't become on of MY cities right away. I need to quit pushing expectations onto this place and just enjoy it. Furthermore I needed to quit comparing it to other trips. Like Edinburgh, I had loved every minute of that trip, but until now I had somehow allowed myself to forget that I had zombie walked through the beginning of that one too.

Slow down. Enjoy the city for itself as I saw it. 

And you know what? It worked.

I'm not saying that next time I go to London I won't be overwhelmed and exhausted. But, I am saying that London is still one of my favorite cities and this trip was great.