cultural divide

One of my cousins in Dublin sent me a message via bebo this morning that read:

i'm thinking about coming over for a few months, i cant get a job for my placement n i think im gonna start lookin over there!!!

Hit me back...

So I responded:

you have to!

when would you come? (that's what she said)

And she wrote back:

thats what who said??? what are u talkin about??

Since I don't really believe that Americans actually get the perks that we so often broadcast about ourselves (i.e. all are created equal, land of opportunity, the American Dream), at least I can get excited about this perk of being an American: that's what [s]he said jokes.

can'tstopwon'tstop

Something I've learned about myself lately is that I do things really quickly. Call it a compulsion; I have to walk, talk, make decisions, eat, cross things off my necessarily-never-ending to-do list all at break-neck speed. Living by myself all summer has allowed me to be blind to all my weird "things" but my awesome new roommate doesn't let that shit go without remark, and rightly so.

This morning for example, I asked a hotel desk worker for directions to the nearest McDonalds, and could barely stand to wait there while she told me. In my head, I was thinking, frantically, "PLEASESTOPTALKINGPLEASESTOPTALKINGGOTTAGETOUTOFHERE." Not because I was in a rush for any reason, but just because my internal clock was telling me that it was time to be done with the where-is-McDonald's conversation.

And my Mom just told me about a deal on flights to Ireland in the coming months, and I gottabookitnow.

What's up with that? I need to chill. the fuck. OUT.

"Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears."

I thought I hated PlayStation and all video games (not for some problem I have with what video games may or may not be doing to the kiddies, but because I think they're boring.) But SingStar rules. I'm so glad my eight-year-old cousin got it for Christmas so that I could play with it. I wish I had the video of Sinéad and I singing this, but these Italians are doing a pretty good job, no? Here's us:



I had a blast in Dublin, and am now back to beautiful Evergreen Park, Illinois. Tomorrow: Urbana!

Dear Guy-sitting-next-to-me-on-the-plane,

You have got to be kidding me.

You wanna know why I don't want to talk to you?

Well, just to name few reasons: (1) you made mention more than once of your desire to physically harm all hippies, all Yankees, any guy that wears a pink shirt, all persons from California, and all persons from Oklahoma; (2) one of your life goals is to "talk to every person in Texas" (What?); (3) you prefaced more than four statements with, "This is going to make me sound racist, but..."; (4) as you got drunker, you edged your legs and arms closer to me, until I, trying desperately to just not have to touch you, found myself plastered against the wall of the plane, which was I guess a good thing; because (5) if I had been taking up my whole seat, you would have spilled your glass of whiskey on me and not just on two-thirds of my seat; (6) you stared at me while I was reading my book, and asked me each time I underlined something or made a note why I was doing that; (7) you stared at me for minutes at a time while I watched a movie and yelled loudly at me "Why are you laughing at me?" every time I smiled at the movie; (8) you woke me up to ask me "Do you prefer Mandy or Amanda?" and when I replied, "I'm not sure what you're talking about," you heatedly responded, with your face an inch from mine despite my desperate attempts to back away, "Listen, Erin, I want to see you again. I like hanging out with you, and I want to see you next week."

I don't like "hanging out with you," and I don't want to see you next week.

Very sincerely,
Ellen

'olidays for me

And some España también, but I don't have exact addresses for where I'll be there which makes finding Google satellite images for it a little less exciting.