Sunny summer

A month ago (where did the time go?), Aileen came to visit. While she was here, I took her to multiple yarn shops (with some major stash enhancement) and to explore the city. The day that we went downtown was sunny (but hazy) and hot. As we walked around the city center, I was reminded of how interesting the architecture is here. I had forgotten how varied the buildings are, and yet they work together well.

I have to say, it is wonderful to have a summer again. Last summer in Ireland was so rainy. Even during the nice summers in Ireland, they don't compare to summers here. However, now the sun sets sooner, there is a chill in the air at night, and autumn is coming...

Where's home?

Periodically, people ask how we are settling in after our move. People often ask how it feels to be "home." This is something that I have been giving a lot of thought to lately. See, when Aileen came to visit, I found myself referring to Dublin as "home." I did this without even thinking. For example, when we took her to an "Irish Pub" for dinner (for the humor value since it is NOTHING like an Irish pub), I looked for the bathrooms and upon finding that they were downstairs, I thought, "oh, they're downstairs, just like at home." My next thought was, but I am home. I also referred to Dublin as home during conversations with her. I thought is was maybe because she is from Dublin so it made sense. When talking to my sister this weekend, I also referred to Dublin as home a few times. This seems to be happening more since we've moved, rather than less. I'm not really sure what this is about. I wonder if it is because we aren't truly settled yet (and I don't think we will be for a while). We haven't "laid down roots" yet.

Anyway, these references and my thinking has made me wonder, what is home? Where is home for us? Do we have one? Dictionary.com has 31 entries under the search home! The one that I think is at play with me is this one: "the place in which one's domestic affections are centered." See, we have multiple places with "domestic affections." Does that mean that we have multiple homes since I don't think there is one place where the affections are "centered?" The old saying says that "home is where the heart is" which means that, yes, I have many homes. One is where I grew up, another where my sister lives, another is Dublin, and finally where we are currently living!

Busy Weekend

It seems like we've been quite busy since we've moved back. If we aren't visiting people/collecting stuff, we seem to be organizing the house. I am really glad that I have Mondays off, too. However, my Mondays seem just as busy. During my commute, I often wonder where my time is going. I just don't know. All I can say, it isn't spent knitting (well, unless it is Tuesday night).

This weekend was no exception. I got a wonderful evening to myself while John went to a barbecue place in the city. On Saturday, we woke up, hung up art on the walls and then went shopping for more house stuff, like picture frames. We also had a pre-marriage counseling session and then went to a party. The party was good since we got to meet new people and see people that we haven't seen in a while. It was strange for us, though, that we left a bit past midnight and more than half the people had already gone home. We then dragged a friend to a "post drinking" breakfast place and finally got home about 2:30 AM. We haven't been out that late since we left Ireland. It was really nice to be out late! (bonus points if you notice what is different about me in the picture)

Sunday morning, we got a phone call at 10:00 AM from my brother asking what we were up to since he was going to a Renaissance Faire and would be about an hour from where we live. We already had lunch plans and I went to a movie with a friend in the afternoon. We then went up to have dinner with him and went shopping afterwards (that will be another post).

On Monday, I had an eye appointment at 10:00 AM and then we met with the caterer in the afternoon and did our weekly produce shopping. This weekend, Aileen is in town (she arrived today) and we should have another fun, busy weekend!

Accents

Since moving back home, people have told me that I have an Irish accent. Now, I know that I don't have a full on one because people in Ireland told me this all the time. :) When we moved back, I heard the accent a bit but now only hear the local accent in a few people.

A couple weeks back, Aileen called me from her sister's. It was so good to hear from her. I miss my friends in Ireland so much. Anyway, while talking to her, I heard her accent for the first time. I never noticed that she has a bit of a Dublin accent (sorry Aileen). A while ago, someone from Ireland called to talk to John. Again, I heard the accent. I have to say, when I hear it, I get a bit of a pang of "homesickness." I miss that accent and really look forward to Aileen coming to visit next weekend!!!!!

A new local?

This weekend, we decided that we needed to explore our new area a bit. So far, we've been going to places that we know and mostly driving there. So, John had the suggestion since it was a nice evening to walk into the downtown area of our new town and see where we could find to eat. He knew of an "Irish bar" that wasn't that far away and off we went.

After a 15 minute stroll, we were at the pub and sitting outside in their "beer garden" area looking at their menu. I smiled at it since they had two Irish dishes on it: a full Irish and fish and chips. The menu was very beef heavy with only one chicken dish (besides a couple salads). We ordered home made mozzarella sticks as a starter/appetizer (very tasty) and John also got Guiness cheese soup. That was very rich and since it had a lot of sausage in it, I let him eat more of it. I had a chicken sandwich for my main and John had a Paddy Melt. They were tasty and the best part was that they were served with chips, not fries! I was very happy about this since I was missing the Porterhouse chips.

I don't think that they had dessert, but we were too stuffed to get it anyway. However, the chips made me miss sticky toffee pudding (I need to learn to make this myself).

We'll definitely be heading back there.

Slipping back...

OK, I like to shop. However, during our time living in Ireland, I really tried to not acquire too much stuff (besides yarn). We made a few lifestyle changes that I hoped we would continue when we moved back. For example, I like the idea of getting the food you need for the week and going each week to the grocery store (for fresh stuff anyway) and walking to places and taking public transportation. I liked not having a car.

However, upon moving back, I now need a car to get to work. Well, unless I want it to take 2 hours to get to/from work that is. The public transport system just doesn't work well for long distances (and we didn't want to live in area where my new job is). :( I do take public transport whenever possible to places, though. I don't mind taking it and I then John can have the car some. However, I feel us slipping back into driving places, even when they are walking distance away.

Since we've moved back, we've been in major acquisition stage. I don't really know why or how this happened, but we ended up buying a lot of stuff. I needed new clothes for work (I didn't really have summer clothes since Ireland doesn't have hot summers). We also needed bookcases to store all the books that we'd put into storage and have now gotten back. But we have bought loads of other stuff, too. Today we went to one of the ultimate mass buying places that probably don't exist in Europe: a discount warehouse. Everything is big in this store. Everything. I got two 72 ounce bags of chocolate chips and a 2 pound (I think) bag of M&Ms. We also got tortilla chips that came in a package about twice the size of the "normal" here which is about twice the size of those in Ireland.

After we checked out, we thought about how we would store everything that we just bought. I was happy that our refrigerator is probably about 3 times the size of the one we had in Ireland and we have probably about 6 times as much storage space! Everything really is bigger here...

How does it feel?

People on both sides of the "pond" (and even random strangers for that matter) keep asking me things like, "Are you happy to be back," and "how does it feel to be back?" Well, I really don't know how to respond to this because it feels, well, weird! I mean, I am enjoying reconnecting with people that I haven't seen in a while but I also miss my friends in Dublin and we aren't settled here yet.

Actually, to be honest, I feel drained. I am really enjoying this time off work. I am doing a bit of house related stuff every day but just vegging as well. I know that I need that. There is a part of me that doesn't want to start work next week. I could use some more time off. Yet, I am bored, too. Not really sure how that works and I need to get back to work and get into a routine so that I can feel more "normal."

The other main piece of it feeling weird to be back is that our place doesn't feel like "home." I feel like I am in someone else's house because we don't have many things yet (like pictures on the walls). We are still setting up. I am sure that soon it will feel like home. I'm curious to see how long it takes for this house to feel like "home" because it is easily at least twice the size of anywhere that we have lived before (and about 3 times the size of our apartment in Dublin). It is in a nice neighborhood but it is suburban. We are off a main road but there aren't shops or restaurants within walking distance. At least the train is within VERY easy distance and they have made this one more frequent so it is pretty easy to get places via public transport.

The other reason that it feels strange is because we haven't seen our friends that much. Since we aren't leaving in a week, we have time to reconnect and see people when they are free and aren't on this manic "must see people" schedule. That meant that during my first week back, I only saw people a couple times. It was great to reconnect with them but lonely at night when I was sitting in this empty house eating on the stairs because we didn't have any furniture yet. (Don't worry, it wasn't that lonely and I was too tired to socialize much anyway).

What did you do last week?

So, I have been back home for 10 days. They have been 10 long days! Yesterday, John looked around our house and asked me what I did last week since there didn't seem to be much done. So, here is how I have spent my last 10 days:

1. Sleeping! Last week, I just did not have energy to do much (other than go to Target). I have been absolutely exhausted. J assures me that this is normal (for moving country and changing jobs with the type of job we have) as she was wrecked when she moved from Ireland as well.
2. Shopping! We got rid of most of our stuff in Ireland and we did have some in storage but we have been acquiring things like crazy. Most big things we are acquiring used which is nice since it is better quality than we would have paid for new and then we aren't adding as much to the mass consumerism...
   
3. Laundry
4. Cleaning

Here is a general idea of what I accomplished:

• Tuesday (day after arrival): Got new mobile phones for both of us since our Irish ones don't work here (well, we can receive texts/calls but not send). I also got 2 pairs of shoes since I didn't have any work shoes. Really, I didn't. I donated or threw them away because they were worn or not so comfortable or just too big or heavy to bring back with me. After dinner with friends, I picked up the car we are buying from friends.
  
• Wednesday: Got the cable and internet set up. After this, I got a bed. After this, I went to Target and got loads of stuff for the house (think garbage cans, garbage bags, laundry soap, etc). I then met up with friends for coffee and unpacked some of the stuff and watched silly cable.
• Thursday: I don't really remember Thursday. Oh wait, that is the day that I drove out to my new job to see where I'll be working. That took a long time! I meant to go to Ikea but didn't get that far.
  
• Friday: I got a few clothes from Kohls (I don't have many work clothes left, either) and visited a friend of mine. It was so nice to see her and her daughter and reconnect with people.
• Saturday: This was a wonderful day! I had a day at the spa and got pampered and a lot of stress relief. After my spa day, I had more energy than I had in a while. I also picked up John's favorite chair from a friend's who had it in his condo. After that, his brother brought a van full of our stuff to me! Happy days, stuff from storage. It felt like Christmas because I had no idea what John had put into storage since I had moved before him. We didn't get our couch or TV but that should happen this weekend.
• Sunday: went to many stores trying to buy a Nintendo Wii for John. I was unsuccessful. I intended to make him cookies but that is a different story with a different post...
• Sunday: John came home!!!!!! His flight was 2 hours late but he made is safely and we had frozen pizza for dinner since he was exhausted.
• Monday: Checked Craig's list for furniture and responded to many, many ads looking for 2 dressers and some bookcases. Also went to a thrift store and found some decent dining room chairs and a TV/plant stand thing that has been put to good use. We also put together the dining room coffee tables (legs had been removed for storage) and unpacked a bunch of the plastic bins full of stuff and washed loads of dishes. I was wishing for that dish washer...
• Tuesday: Unpacked more, got a dresser and filled it. John worked from home. I also got to go see the Sex and the City movie with a friend of mine. :) I had missed my girlie movie partner.
  
• Wednesday: went to Target again, Home Depot, and the pet store (twice) to get general home/pet stuff. We then went to the electronics store to look at printers and TVs and found ones we liked. We wrote down numbers to check reviews (both got decent reviews but are cheaper elsewhere). We then went and got a bookcase and had dinner with two of John's friends. Stopped at the grocery store at 9:15. :)
  
• Thursday (today): got a dresser (pretty close in color to the other one we got) and I filled it with John's clothes. John worked from home. I played online and made cookies.

So, that is how I have spent my last week and a half. Somewhere in there, I also got keys made for John and got a kitty lounger thing and two scratching posts. Tomorrow I get to go on "mission get stuff from sister."