I will never, EVER have another Toshiba Laptop as long as I live... EVER

When I was about to enter college in 2001 I purchased a Gateway Laptop to begin school with. That was 6 years ago. Since that time I have spilled liquid on that computer probably 5 times. The first time it was lemonaide and I didn't do what you are supposed to do when liquid comes in contact with your computer, which is to unplug it and turn it quickly and lift it up so that the liquid can drain from inside without burning through your hardrive. Because I didn't do what you are supposed to do, my hardrive had to be replaced, but only the hardrive, nothing more. Every other time I spilled the Gateway stood up like a champ. Last week I spilled water on my Toshiba laptop. Yes, I know, I really should keep liquid AWAY from the computer. Thinking that a Toshiba was as good as a Gateway I quickly unplugged it, turned it off, and lifted it up so that it could drain. I then let it dry out for a long time. Well, Toshibas apparently are NOTHING like Gateways, because, when I turned it back on the next morning, the keyboard didn't work. Some of the numbers would type, but for the most nothing would work. So I called Toshiba, and of course it was no longer under warranty, and they told me they could fix it for $500. I said no thanks. So I went to the Computer nerds at my school and had them look at it and they said they could fix it for $100-$150, which is much better than Toshiba, but still a little high for me considering I could find a new keyboard on ebay for $12. What is the other $138 for? Labor? My ass. So at the moment I am without a computer and have been using my 2001 Gateway computer, the one that is so worth the extra money you spend on it, the one that through thick and thin has always been there for me. I will never own another Toshiba. It's Gateway all the way for me from here on out.

Last week was not a good week for me and machinery.

Aren't Vampires supposed to be eternally beautiful?

Last night Darko and I went to see 30 Days of Night, you know, about Vampires and what not. Let me tell you. It was creepy. But see, I've always been under the impression that when you are turned into a Vampire you automatically become beautiful. These weren't. They were scary and ugly and didn't understand the concept of "wipe your face after you eat". I know, you're thinking, why waste your money. But considering we live in Grundy our options are a little bit limited. It was either that, Saw 4, or Bee movie. I kind of wish we had seen Bee movie because we were sitting in this theatre and the characters were screaming and there was loud music, and I just kept thinking that poor Little Jerinic was all by himself/herself in the womb scared out of his/her mind because all he/she could hear is screaming and really loud music. After the movie was over I apologized profusely to my spawn and then played him/her some Josh Groban Christmas music to calm his/her nerves. We thought about going to see Saw 4 tonight, but I think I might pass on that one.



Speaking of rated R movies though, you would not believe how many children were in the theatres watching these movies. I swear to God I saw some who looked to be around 10 watching this Vampire movie. The sad part was, they were with their parents. I mean, what kind of parent would let their child see 30 Days of Night. I'm 24 and had nightmares about it last night. I can't imagine being a child and ignorant, and having to deal with those thoughts. It was disturbing. Before we went into the movie we were sitting on a bench and there were these two children sitting beside us who looked to be around 7th or 8th grade and they were both saying how they had to see Bee movie because they weren't allowed to watch the others, and one girl was like, "Well, if we can find someone to buy us tickets we can go see Saw 4", and there was a boy who said "My dad said I couldn't see that" and the girl was like "Can't you lie to him" and the boy said "No, my dad would find out somehow". And I thought to myself, WAY TO GO BUDDY!!!! FOR STANDING UP TO THEM!!!! I know his father would never find out. He just didn't want to lie to his daddy. What a great kid.



Let's talk more about pregnancy stuff. I was browsing the Target website looking at their Liz Lange Maternity line and I was looking at Jeans. Some of the Jeans said they were full paneled, of course, other said they were elastic waste, duh, but then some said they were under the belly jeans. I don't really understand under the belly maternity jeans. If you're just going to wear them under the belly, why wouldn't you just wear your regular jeans and just push them down under the belly? Wouldn't that save you a whole lotta money in the maternity clothes area? Some of the shirts and sweaters are cute though. I think I'd be more motivated to look at Maternity clothes if I were actually showing any. I'm not.

Here's to good friends and getting presents...

I love getting presents. It's probably one of the worlds greatest feelings, you know, besides being loved, blah, blah, blah. But no, really. Especially when it's unexpected. So, I know I have yet to post my registry anywhere, only because I thought perhaps it was a bit too soon in the game. However, I did tell Jessi and my Mom, and I would definitely tell people if they asked. Nate asked and so I, of course, told him. You know what he did!!!! HE BOUGHT ME A PRESENT!!!!!!! And a super sweet present at that. I'm going with the whole Classic Pooh theme for Baby Jerinic, and I had on my registry a Classic Pooh stroller. It was probably one of the things I wanted most on my registry, and NATE TOTALLY GOT IT FOR BABY JERINIC!!!!!!!! He/she is going to be riding around in style thanks to his loving Auntie Nate. I'm so excited. WOO HOO!!!!!!!!! I can't wait for it to get to my mom's house, and then I can't wait to see it in December (yeah, that's the next time I'm going to be home).

AND this past weekend while I was home Jessi brought me a pregnancy gift bag, filled with goodies not only for Baby J, but also for me. Let's see if i can remember everything: Nipple Cream (not just for nursing, but for tender nipples anytime of the year), those plastic thingies that you put in light sockets (so in case Little J feels the need to grab a fork and shove it into the closest light socket), those things that hold cabinet doors closed (so that baby doesn't get into our cleaning supplies), those things that you put into the back seat windows of your car that block out the sun, the car sign that says "Baby on board" in a yellow warning triangle, um, and some other stuff that I just can't remember at the moment. I can't wait to use the nipple cream.

My grandma also got me a present. It's a giant pillow that can be manipulated into all sorts of different positions, perfect for sleeping on your side, or nursing, or just sitting up in bed with some back support. Think boppy meets the husband pillows meet the body pillow and you'll know what I'm talking about.

For those of you who are wondering, the only registry I have at the moment is at Target, under Baby Registry.

I know you're all looking forward to hearing about my ultrasound, but tonight I'm just too tired. It's been such a long week, and I still have a ton of work to do tonight and tomorrow. So, I'll pick it up from here.

There is nothing like the soft pitter-patter that is your unborn child's heartbeat...

I heard baby Jerinic's heart beat and it was the most beautiful sound in the world. I had a pre-natal visit on Thursday, the 12 week visit, and apparently at 12 weeks you can hear the heartbeat. I was kind of sad though, because I thought this time was just going to be going in and doing the regular check-up sort of deal, and so I didn't have my roomie come with me, so he missed out. But on Wednesday I go in to have my first ULTRASOUND!!!!! I'm so excited. I can't wait to see the little bean shaped fetus that is my offspring. This is just a routine ultrasound where they verify my due-date and how far along I am and what not. I'm hoping we get a sonogram picture as well, but I'm not sure if they do that yet. Darko is definitely going to go with me this time. I want to hear the heart beat again. It's so cool. They put the microphone thingie up against your abdomen and you start hearing lots of weird gross sounds coming from your belly and then you hear a heart beat, but the doctor tells you it's yours, and then all of a sudden, you hear this heart beat, that if it were in a normal person would indicate that they'd just finished running a marathon. A fetus's heart beat is super fast, but apparently that's healthy. It was really cool.

I was in Northern Virginia on Saturday because my sister's fiance's mom's sister was throwing Jessi a bridal shower, and as her maid of honor, I was required to be there. I'm going to go ahead and skip over how the shower was, and just say that the one I'm throwing in January for her, hopefully, will be better. After the shower though, Jessi had mom, grandma and me attend a Mary Kay party with her best friend Sara as the Independent Beauty Consultant. I was pleased with the results, and thus bought some of their products. Now, I know what you all are thinking. Mary Kay? How hoky right? But actually the skin-care products were really nice. Ever since I got pregnant my oil glands have been working over time, resulting in more zits on my pretty little face than I've had since I was around 15, seriously, and I figured what I usually do isn't working, so Mary Kay can't hurt. I bought the cleanser, the moisturizer, and the foundation from Time-wise, which is supposed to cut down on the lines and wrinkles in your face. Not that I have wrinkles at the moment, but isn't it better to start now then to wait until you actually have wrinkles? And also, if I like the Mary Kay line, I have Birthday and Christmas present ideas for the rest of my life. Know what I mean. I'll keep you guys posted on how it all works.

I was a little bit excited to go to Nova this weekend and one reason for that is I haven't seen the inside, well, or outside for that matter, of a Starbucks in roughly three months, and if I had to go one more week without spending some time in Target I was going to go crazy. I had starbucks three times while I was up there, Tropical smoothie once, and we spent two hours in the Target in Charlotesville on the way home yesterday. I've desperately needed sunglasses since I lost mine the first couple weeks we were in Grundy. Isaac Mizrahi makes the best line of sunglasses for Target. For the past, oh, two years or so, that's all I've been wearing. And again, he doesn't fail. I found the cutest, biggest pair of sunglasses that not only blocks my eyes from harmfull UV rays, but also covers half my face on days when I refuse to shower. They are perfect. Since the sun is finally shining after a week of rain, the glasses couldn't have come at a better time.

I know this is a short one, but I have to be in class in 10 minutes. So, I'll sign off for now, and if I think of anything else I'd like to say then I will write later this evening.

Oh, I forgot. When I went to the Dr. they weighed me, of course, and I had only gained 1/2 a pound in the past month, which to me was UNBELIEVABLE considering the imense amount of Hardees Hashbrowns I've consumed in the past few weeks.

Have I mentioned I hate Law School?

Today has not been a particularly good day. It started out alright. I woke up early, had some breakfast, and made it to class on time. But that's where the good parts of the day started to dwindle. Wednesdays are the worst days for me. I have classes from 8:30-12:15 and then from 1:30-3:30, all in the same classroom. That's right. For roughly five hours every wednesday I get to sit in the second row, first seat, of the appellate courtroom. It's tons of fun. Today was better than most Wednesdays, however, because my 1:30 class was cancelled. I was then able to enjoy a nice lunch of Chinese Food with the roomie, something we haven't done in a while. But again, things went downhill from there.

For the past, oh, month or so, Darko has had the sleeping habits of a vampire. That is, he sleeps during the day and is awake all night. We've done numerous things to try and rid him of this habit. Sleeping pills, trying to stay awake the entire day after staying up all night, but nothing has worked. Yesterday he went to sleep around 2:30 in the afternoon, and I hoped that he would sleep, if not entirely through the night, at least until sometime in the wee hours of the morning. He woke up at 9:00 p.m., and as he walked from our bedroom to the living room, where I was sitting, I thought to myself "Damnit, another sleepless night". But, luckily, I had taken a nap early in the day, so I was able to stay awake for a little while longer than I usually did, so when I went to bed, Darko decided to join me for a while, and subsequently fell asleep for a few hours. I am under the impression that I have a magic essence for giving him everything he needs in life. But maybe I'm just being dramatic. I was so excited waking up today because I figured after sleeping during the night, surely he'd be able to stay awake for the entire day and go to bed at a reasonable time.

Well, no. He asked me to watch basketball with him around 4:00 p.m. I don't really like basketball, so I left him to go do my own thing, and he fell asleep. I tried to wake him up, but he got a bit snippy with me, and so I left him alone. He woke up at 9:30, but claims he'll be able to go to sleep again tonight. I'm interested to see if he really does. But the thing is, I need him awake tomorrow because I have a doctor's visit, and I'd like for him to be there, if you know what I mean. Moral support and all while I'm being probed. Maybe I can slip a Tylenol P.M. into his milk or something, just to help him a little sleep tonight.

Our roof is leaking. It's been raining the past two days non-stop, and I was walking through our kitchen today and walked right through a puddle and thought "Did I spill water while washing the dishes?" But then I looked up and it was definitely coming from the ceiling. So, I grabbed a bucket and threw it under the leak so that it's not spilling on our kitchen floor. It's not a huge leak, only a drop every 2 seconds or so, but it's still a leak, and it's really annoying. And it's not like there's anything that can be done about it at the moment, considering it's still raining, but the thing is, it's supposed to rain for the next three days and we're supposed to be headed to Nova this weekend. What do we do if the bucket overflows? That'll be lovely to come home to. The only silver lining is that we don't own this place, so it's not like we have to pay to get it fixed, unless of course our stuff gets ruined because of it.

While the roomate was sleeping I went to the library to do some work that is due early next week, so I wouldn't be rushing to do it Sunday night when I get home. I'm so serious when I say this, I almost burned down the entire school. I spent probably an hour looking for one case. One case that my professor swears is in this one random digest that I was supposed to be able to get to by looking in the Index, which is an entirely different book, by the way, then the digest itself. I could not find the case. At all. And after looking through the book for roughly the 20th time I said "Fuck this", and left.

That was my justification for driving through Hardees on the way home. The fact that I have had such a bad day, and also, because Baby Jerinic LOVES french fries.

But, even though I had a bad day, I can't complain that much, because there are people out there who have it much worse than me.

So, my mother has this disease called Crohn's (sorry mom, if you didn't want the entire world to know that, and by the entire world, I really only mean Maura, Nate, Kelly, and well, Jessi). It's a disease that affects your intestines and can cause severe inflammation in your digestive tract. In a lot of cases it can be a fairly mild problem, however, there are some cases I've heard in which a person has to be fed through an I.V. because their systems cannot digest food correctly at all. When my mom was 30 she had a flare up of the disease and had to have a pretty basic surgery that removed a portion of her intestines and her appendex. According to the internet this is a pretty standard surgery for Crohn's patients. Luckily, everything went well with the surgery and my mom is fairly healthy considering she lives with Crohns on a daily basis. However, I heard something yesterday that sent shivers down my spine, because it hit a bit close to home. There was this girl named Lyndsay who went to VCU. Maura, you already know who I'm talking about, and I'm sure Nate and Kelly would remember her. She was a pretty, skinny, blonde girl who went to the gym on a regular basis. I was never really good friends with her, but she was always nice to me when she came to the gym. Apparently last year she was diagnosed with Crohns, and on August 3rd of this year she underwent a surgery to remove a portion of her intestines, much like my mother. However, unlike in my mother's case, there were complications with her surgery. She came down with a bacterial infection which would eventually lead to the amputation of her arms and legs due to poor circulation caused by the infection. She remains in intensive care. When I heard that it made me really sad, and even though I didn't know this girl very well, I kind of wish I had.

It's stories like this that make me wish I was a better person, you know, one who DOESN'T complain about the fact that she can't find a book in the library, because at least I am healthy enough to go to the library, and so are all the important people in my life, and for that I am lucky.

Did I Mention I was Hungry?

Today I'm going to discuss a few seemingly un-related topics. However, I promise that they are related in the sense that they are all fairly important to me at the moment.

The first of which, is the shout out to my wonderful sister Jessi, who is always supportive of my decisions, well, maybe not ALWAYS, even though she says she is, but you know what I mean. My only sister is getting married on March 15. I, as her Maid of Honor, am blessed with the chance to throw her, not only a bridal shower, but a bachelorette party as well. For those of you who know me, you may think that I am not excited about this. On the contrary, I can't wait. I love throwing parties. Well, maybe not LOVE, but at least like a lot. It helps that I have my mother's input in everything, because, well, Law School sucks ass (if you don't already know), and it's difficult to find time to wash dishes, let alone plan two unforgettable parties (as I sit here writing my blog, when I'm SURE there is a case somewhere that needs briefing, but no, really, I'm busy). However, I plan on throwing the most fantastic party EVER!!!! We're holding it at the school to reduce clean up time for us (plus they cater everything), and it's going to be decorated, of course, in the colors of the wedding. And what bridal shower wouldn't be complete without Games. I'm so gonna rock at the "Who Knows Jessi Best" Questionaire. The last shower I threw, two years ago for the BFF Toni was fun, and would have been a LOT more fun, had we not invited a few specific guests. SO, after the shower, of course is going to be the bachelorette party. Now, I know what you're thinking, isn't it going to be a bit soon for the party? Well, in most cases yes. But those cases do not involve the Maid of Honor, who, not only is in Law School (do I need to reiterate the busyness?), but who is in Law School in BFE, and who does not like driving through the mountains, especially not more than is absolutely necessary. So, it seemed the best idea to do it all in one go. At the moment everything seems to be going smoothly. Now, if we can just figure out how NOT to invite this one specific guest that Jessi insists be on the list.

The last couple of weeks Darko and I have been going through the fantastically fun immigration process. Oh yeah, baby, it just gives me shivers. I had an idea of how time consuming and frustrating this whole process would be, but not to this extent. It involves form, after form, after form, complete with document, after document, after document that has to be filed with the forms. With all the information we have to give the U.S. Government, I'm kind of scared that we're signing away our first born. However, we may have to SELL our first born in able to pay to file the forms. Not only does the Gov. consume hours and hours of your time with this process, but it also screws you up the ass for money. And it's not like we pay this money and then if they deny his application we get it back. Oh no no. That money is gone. So there's a possiblity that he will be kicked out of the country, AND we'll lose the down payment on a house. I'm pretty sure the people at USCIS (Former INS) know us by name now, considering the number of times we've called asking questions along the lines of "Do we REALLY need to pay $350 for a re-entry permit, when he's not even planning on leaving the country for the next three years?" and "Now when you say refugee, is that something that needs to be issued by a specific office?" or "If he decides he doesn't need to eat for the next three years, can I be a sponsor if I don't meet the income requirements?", etc, etc. I'll be happy when this process is over. Wish us luck.

I'm hungry. No, really. I'm hungry ALL THE TIME!!!! And after I eat, I feel sick. There are about two hours a day during which my stomach does not hurt for some reason. I am either so hungry that my stomach feels like it's about to eat the baby for sustanance, or I feel like I'm about to throw up the food that I just ate. It's ridiculous. I can't find a happy medium. Seriously. The worst times are when I'm both, you know, hungry and feeling ill at the same time. Like right now, actually. I'm starving to death, but I'm still feeling a bit sick from the bowl of chicken noodle soup I ate an hour ago. I don't know what to do about it. There are also foods that I loved prior to being pregnant. However, here is a list of things my child refuses to let me enjoy anymore:

Pasta with marinara sauce
Chicken Noodles Soup
Eggs (even when Daddy makes them)
Toast with butter and honey

However, there are a few things the baby absolutely loves and cannot get enough of:

Pickles (Clausen)
Popsicles (preferably orange and purple)
Saltines
Potato Chips
Hardees hash browns
Bananas

I wonder if it's going to get worse than this.

I must end it here. My stomach is on the verge of consuming everything on the inside of my body, including baby Jerinic.

And baby makes three...

Sorry this is all scrunched together. This blogger is a POS. But bear with me.

I'd first like to address the issue of when I will begin posting pics of my ever expanding belly. The short answer to that is not anytime soon. The reason for this is simple: I am a big girl, I always have been, and at this point I have very few qualms with that. However, as many big girls do, I have a tummy, and not a flat one at that. In the past year that tummy's gotten relatively smaller; however, it's still there. Now, at this point in my pregnancy I have begun to "show" in the sense that I am gaining weight, which in turn is emphasising that tummy and those rolls that I have worked so hard to get rid of. Now, until I start showing enough that those rolls start to smoothe out, no one is seeing my belly. You can tell a little bit in the picture below that I'm starting to stick out a bit more than I have in a while. If I can keep taking clothed pictures of my belly that make me look relatively cute, then you will continue to see them, however, I can't wait until I actually look pregnant, then I'll be taking pictures galore.

However, I will be glad to share some fun pictures of me and Daddy. We're always only by ourselves so we can't often take pics of the two of us, unless of course they are arms length, as with the following two.

Yes, I know, we're adorable.

Next, I'd like to continue with the story of my "condition", and by "condition" I mean pregnancy.

We arrived in Grundy, Virginia on August 12, and I started school. Almost immediately upon his arrival, we reconviened our... um... "relationship"... if you know what I mean. Now, ever since we met practically we've talked about chillins. I honestly had hoped to be pregnant when I came back from the Emerald Isle. But that was not to be. Actually I started thinking that there was something wrong with one of us, considering the quanitity of relations we shared, and the complete lack of caution, and still nothing. So when he got here we didn't really think much of it. We did discuss the pill a time or two, but decided against that. We figured, if it happened we wouldn't be upset by it. And oh did it happen...

We went about our lives like normal people do. In the two weeks that followed his arrival, we had a bit of a rough time adapting and making sure we had done the right thing. We had a run in with a tennis court that led to a major fight, which then led into my questions about the last two weeks he was in Ireland, and his complete disclosure of the events. That was a hard night. At that point I was already pregnant, so had our fight been bad enough for him to leave, I would have been screwed. Thank the Lord baby Jesus, we were able to work through that, and life went on as normal.

Now, let me know if this is TMI for any of you, but I was supposed to be visited by Aunt Flow on August 28. On September 6th, I thought to myself "hmmm, I wonder what that's all about...", so I told my lover and we braced ourselves. I bought two pregnancy tests, and took one on September 6th, which was a Tuesday. I was actually super excited about it. And then it came out negative. And I felt defeated.

I tried not thinking about it, but it still made me wonder why I was late, and so I stopped all the medication I was taking and continued to cut back on Caffeine and all that wonderful stuff, and thought to myself "Ok, if I'm still late by Sunday, I'll take another test". Yeah, try going five days thinking about that. It's a lot of fun. Sunday rolls around, and it's around 5:30 in the morning and I feel the roomate slip out of bed beside me and I think "Well, I'm awake and it's Sunday. Shall we see what the ol' first response has to say?" I climed out of bed and headed for the bathroom. A 20 foot trip that would alter my life forever. I did the whole peeing on the stick thing, set it on the sink, and waited. There was the dark pink line that shows up on all tests, and then right beside it, there was a faint pink line, which made it a double pink line, which meant positive. So I ran into Darko and said "How many lines are here" and he said "I don't know, one... " and I was like "No, no... THERE'S TWO!!!!". And he just looked at me and said "What does that mean", and I just smiled, and he got the picture.

It was a little early to call my mother so I had to wait a few hours, but the second I could I called mom. I know you're supposed to wait and all, but how can I keep that from my mother. I went to the doctor that week, you know, just to make sure and all, and for those of you who don't know how they determine how far along you are, they count by the first day of your last period, which for me was July 29th. And then they count two weeks from that to determine when you're conception date was. So, by the time you know you're pregnant because of the whole aunt flow thing, you're already a month pregnant. And when you concieve you are already two weeks pregnant. It's weird, I know, but that's how they do it. So my conception date was August 12th. Darko arrived on August 10... yeah, we didn't waste much time, which means those two weeks prior to his arrival when I was close to a nervous breakdown, I was "pregnant". Unbelievable. When I went to the doctors they told me I was 5 weeks along. And now I'm 12 weeks, and happier than ever.

Now, I'm going to rant about American healthcare for a minute. So, on most healthcare plans you have to be on the plan for six months to a year before you can get pregnant. If you get pregnant before that, they refuse to pay for ANYTHING. NOTHING. So, while I was in Ireland I wasn't on any American healthcare plan. I got back at the end of May and immediately got health insurance. You do the math. At the end of August when I found out I was pregnant I had only been on health insurance for four months. That's right. I would not be insured for my pregnancy. That was a stressful period. We're fine now, and all insured and what not, but it was no easy feat. But what bothers me most about the whole situation is that a lot of women don't know about that whole waiting period thing. I mean, my mother didn't even know about it. She had more of an idea about it than I did, but she didn't know all the details. It just doesn't make sense to me. What if you aren't planning on getting pregnant and it just happens. Are you supposed to have an abortion because you're health isurance won't cover it. It really makes me angry. But Darko and Mom were so good about the whole situation. I kept thinking "We're going to have to go to Europe where I can get free healthcare", but my mom kept saying "Honey, we'll just make payments on it if we have to" and Darko kept saying "We'll pay for it somehow". They were both very supportive of the whole thing, and that made the situation much better. But everything is fine now.

After the inital doctor's visit, I went three weeks later, when I was 8 weeks, at which I got to pee in a cup, got probed and prodded, and stuck, and all that other fun stuff that goes along with an OBGYN visit. Yeah, that was nice, and everything was moving along as planned. I have my next visit on Thursday. I can't wait till I'm 20 weeks and we can find out the sex. I'm super excited about that.

So, that's it for now. Next time, the United States Government and Immigration nightmares.

I'm 12 weeks tomorrow...

But I promise this entire post won't be about all that.

It's been about 6 months, give or take, since I've had this blog up and running. I know some of my very devout readers are wondering what's been going on, and why I've taken such a long hiatus. And by devout readers, I really mean Nate, Kelly, and Maura.

So, let's recap.

I spent a few months in Ireland living and working, as most of you know. Also, as most of you know, I met and fell in love with a beautiful Eastern European named Darko. We were inseperable for the duration of my stay, so when I had to leave I was devasted, as you probably can imagine. As I was walking onto the plane Darko promised, in a very movie like fashion, that we would be together again very soon. Because I'm such a realist, I did not believe him AT ALL.

I arrived back in the states on May 23rd, at 2 in the morning, after a delay out of Dublin made me miss my flight from Chicago to Washington D.C., and then trying to locate my bag after hugging my mother in D.C. Surprisingly, I didn't sleep the whole next day. It wasn't difficult for me to reaclimate myself to the time here in the states. The only problem for me was that I was still living 5 hours ahead of me. Every time I looked at the clock at home, my mind immediately went to what time it was in Dublin, and what my second half would be doing. When my love and I were talking about what was going to happen after I left, and he kept promising that he'd come to the states in September, my initial thoughts were 1) The best case scenario would be that we would talk for the first few weeks, and then realize we had nothing in common and stop talking all together, or 2) we would never talk again.

We kept in constant contact for the most part, and I was incredibly relieved. After the first couple of weeks I was actually able to talk on the phone with him without breaking out into hysterical sobs. That's improvement. The best days were when he would go to the internet cafe and we could talk for hours and hours for absolutely free. My moods during those periods were definitely based on the number of minutes I was able to talk with him. I know. I'm pathetic.

The rest of my summer pretty much went that way. I did everything in my power to keep myself busy, whether it was reading Harry Potter at Borders, or watching a ridiculous amount of television, to keep my mind off the fact that I was separated by an ocean from the man of my dreams. One of the best days of the summer was June 10, when he told me he had booked his flight to Washington D.C. for August 10. I was so excited. Then it hit me that I still had 2 months to go. I know I shouldn't be complainging about 2 months, that many couples have to endure MUCH longer periods of separation, but at that time 2 months felt like an eternity. I continued my daily routine, talking with him as much as possible, reading a lot, watching a lot of television, and preparing myself mentally for the horrible move I was about to make to the depths of hell. Grundy. However, I swore to myself that I would not go to Grundy by myself. If he didn't come, I was going to find a job in D.C. and get some use out of my masters degree.

Everything was going fine up until July 28th, two weeks before his expected arrival. The weekend of our gathering in Richmond. The worst two weeks of my life. He started hanging out with a girl. Yes, that's right, a girl. A girl that was not me, and when he started hanging out with her, and by "hanging out" I mean spending hours and hours with her, he stopped talking to me. In the two weeks up to his arrival we talked, probably two hours the whole time. He was so enamored by this girl that he didn't feel the need to call me and tell me how things were going. *Just a side note, I only had my suspicions that he was spending so much time with this girl, he never came out and told me, and I never came out and asked, because I'm a pussy that way. It wasn't until after he got here that I found out the complete truth. That he loved me and didn't want to lose me, so he didn't tell me what was going on and tried to keep some distance between both of his worlds. We had a pretty bad fight because of the lying. We're past that now, because we're adults, but it was hard. * If I could portray the hurt and sadness of those two weeks to you all, you guys would probably jump off the tallest building you could find. I've never understood the whole "can't eat, can't sleep" thing when it comes to relationships, but for those two weeks I slept on average 3 hours a night, and usually could only finish one bowl of soup the entire day. It was not a good period in my summer.

However, we did still talk enough that I didn't COMPLETELY lose hope. The day before he was supposed to get on the plane he called me and we talked for a few minutes and he said "I'm giving my phone to a friend, so I won't be able to talk to you until I see you" and I said "Are you kidding me, you're not going to be able to call me and tell me you got on the plane?" and he said "I guess not" and I said "So, the next time I talk to you you'll be getting off the plane? You better get off that plane because I'm driving all the way up there to meet you" and he just laughed and said "I'm confused. I'll see you soon". Yeah, let me tell you. THAT was not a good night.

His plane was due to arrive at 5 o'clock at Washington Dulles International Airport. The entire morning I was a complete nutcase. I piddled around town for a while just trying to stay calm and relaxed and not give myself an ulcer. I kept looking at the clock and thinking "O.K. if he didn't get on the plane wouldn't he at least have the decency to call me and tell me he didn't get on?" But I couldn't answer that question. I left my house at around 3 and got to the airport at 3:45. I was still a nervous wreck, and after buying a magazine that I found was too hard for me to read, I sat and I waited. I probably went to the bathroom 28 times the entire time I was at the airport.

His plane was delayed. At around 6 I asked the staff when it would be landing. They said around 6:30. While I was sitting there I met this really nice couple. It was an American girl and an Irish dude who were there to pick up some friends of his flying in from Dublin. We chatted for a while and I said I was there waiting for my man friend, and wasn't entirely sure if he had even gotten on the plane. They were super nice and that passed some time.

Finally, his flight landed, and because I wanted to be able to see when he walked through those double doors, I stood up and waited by the gate. It took him around 30 minutes after the plane landed to get through customs and find his luggage. The entire time I was waiting numerous scenarios were running through my head. I was so nervous, I seriously almost passed out because of all the adrenaline and blood rushing to my head. I almost cried 12 times just waiting for him to come out. My knuckles were white from gripping the hand rail so tightly.

Finally, he walked through. And I have never seen a more beautiful sight. His hair was different, and he had on a new sweatshirt, but that was my Darko and I was so happy and excited. But let me tell you . Our greetings to each other was not what you would see in a movie, you know, when the girl runs into the open arms of her lover and he picks her up and swings her around and they engage in a passionate kiss. No no. Our was more along the lines of smiling and giving each other a high five. We couldn't stand long where we were because there were people coming off the plane and it was a bit of a madhouse, so we just started walking to the car. After we got out into the parking lot I finally had him stop and give me a proper hug. I think both of us were a bit nervous at that point and we needed to get used to the fact that he was here, but by GOD!! HE WAS HERE!!!!

That night we were alone in my house because Pete's wedding was the next day and all the family had already gone down. So we spent the night getting used to each other again. And then the next morning we drove down to Staunton so he could meet my entire extended family and attend his first American wedding. I got plastered. And by plastered I mean falling down, can't remember a thing, plastered. It was probably after about the 10th rum and coke that I stopped remembering my name. Apparently trying to do the Electric slide was NOT a good idea after consuming that much alcohol. It was great. Darko caught the garder, which I don't remember, and had to put it on the sister of the bride, who caught the bouquette, which I don't remember either. Someone broke a glass and apparently I thought it would be a good idea to walk around without my shoes on. I woke up the next morning with my foot slashed open and a very mild hangover. I think the hangover was so mild because we went to bed at 9. Just so you know the duration of my drinking. The wedding wasn't until 7. Which means the reception didn't start until 7:30, I was in bed my 9:30. Gotta love open bars and not eating dinner.

But Darko made an amazing impression on my family. Everyone loved his accent and his Europeaness. He got along splendidly with my cousin Byron, and my mom was just thrilled that he was here in the first place.

I was happy. That feeling has lasted, minus a few fights here and there, and working through an insane issue. But I am glad he's here. We're living here in Grundy and having a blast.

Well, I'll finish for now. The next installment will be explaining how it is that within three days of his arrival, I was knocked up.

This is Katie... signing off from Dublin...

There will be no more posts until after I get home...


That is, after the end of the reclusive stage I inevitably will encounter upon my arrival back to the states...



Once I feel strong enough to actually leave my room I will compile my thoughts on the whole experience, my expectations for the future, etc, and share them with you all...



P.S. Just one thing though... Last night Darko and I read a book together. We sat in two chairs facing each other, my legs propped up on his, and we took turns reading out loud from the book... i will miss the small things...

I called in sick today...

Last night I thought I was getting the flu. You know, like I was nauseaous, I had body aches, I was tired, and incredibly cold. So after I got off work I came home to a lovely meal of pork chops, potatoes, and salad. It was beautiful. And even better because I had asked him to cook. Too bad I couldn't eat any of it. I went to bed around 6:30 and slept pretty much through the night.

I woke up this morning and still felt a little sick, but not nearly as bad as I did yesterday. So I called in sick and have been relaxing most of the day today. There is nothing better than sleeping in until 10:30 then cuddling till 12 only to be cooked lunch. Amazing. I wish I didn't ever have to work but still had money to live. That would be the best.

That's it for now. Just wanted to post a quick hello, because now I'm laying down for another nap:-)

Another Lazy Sundy

Welp, this week's been about the same as the last few weeks. Not a whole lot going on. Work, live, work, sleep, sleep, etc. etc. etc.... But I'm doing it in Europe, so that makes it much more fun.

Today marks the one month time period for when I'm supposed to come home. That's right ladies, in exactly one month from today I am supposed to be getting on a plane to come back to the states to live a miserable existence before heading to law school, where my miserable existence will be multiplied due to the fact that I will be living in a tiny mountain town that has a population of roughly 500 and will be completely alone.

Now, what would all of you do in my situation? There's nothing I can do. That's right. I'm doomed to be miserable for the rest of my life. Drama much?

Darko says I should come home in May and he will follow later. I'm a bit skeptical, but that's becauase I'm skeptical about everything. I can't help thinking that maybe that's the best thing considering it's going to cost a bit to change my ticket, and I won't be able to work, thus I won't have a whole lot of money. Know what I mean. But it makes me so sad when I think about leaving. I was almost in tears today. Seriously.

Bleh. This sucks.

It would have been much easier if I had just stayed home. Coming here was a bad idea.

It's a PMS day...

You know how I know? Because I woke up this morning in a good mood, had one thing go wrong, and now feel like crying and sulking for the rest of the day.

There's this place called Bella Roma, which is one of our favorite Italian restuarants in the city. Well I haven't had it in a long time and the last time he had it I wasn't with him. So yesterday I asked if we could go and he said we'll go tomorrow around 12. I got really excited. At 11:30 this morning I woke him up and said "Can we go now?" and he said, get some soup to tide you over, we'll go in two hours. I didn't want soup, and felt resentful (the first pms clue) that he didn't jump up when I woke him, so I bought myself a sandwich, and was in the process of eating it when he came downstairs not ten minutes later. I just looked at him and kept eating my sandwich. I was looking so forward to going to Bella Roma and then to O'Briens for coffee. Had he just gotten up when I told woke him this wouldn't have happened. Pissed. That's what I was. Then the feeling refused to go away.

Later, he walks over to me and says "Lionel wants us to go to Pheonix Park for a barbecue. Call him and make arrangements". Not appreciating him telling me what to do. I said "I don't want to call him, you call him." We argued over who was going to call him and in the process his phones falls off the table and breaks open on the floor. Nothing that can't be fixed easily, but he scoops up all the pieces and slams them into the trash can and says "Then neither one of us will call him" and storms off. This would have been the second phone in a week that he lost, so as I'm digging the pieces out of the trash (luckily it was early in the day before it got really full) I was getting angrier and angrier (second pms clue). I get the phone together and working and storm into the living room and slam it down on the couch next to him and tell him he's an asshole (third pms clue) and storm out.

So I call Lionel and ask what the situation is, and he tells me they're going to have a bar-bq at Pheonix Park, etc, etc, and that he'd give us a call when he had more details, which pissed me off even more becuase if he was just going to call us back then why the fuck did I need to call him in the first place. So I seriously talked to Lionel three times before we left. He calls at like 3 and says, ok, be at the meeting spot in 15 minutes (the meeting spot being 20 minutes away). I hate being rushed. But apparently Darko hasn't caught on to that point yet. He starts rushing me and then looks at what I'm wearing and says "We're going to a barbeque. It's ridiculous for you to wear that". Let me fill you in on what I had on, and you all determine whether it was appropriate for the occasion. Keep in mind it's roughly 75 degrees outside, sunny, with a slight breeze. Dark Jeans, a black short sleeved shirt, flip flops, and pearls to finish off the effect. Raise your hand if you think that's inappropriate for a barbeque. Yeah, I didn't think so either. So I changed shoes threw on a longsleeved black T, but kept the pearls.

Since we were in a hurry we were walking really fast through the streets of Dublin. Because Darko had made me change shirts, I was sweating, and then we get to the grocery store and meet up with Lionel. This is what I see: Lionel, Nicky (a boy), Brad, another two boys I don't know, and Darko. So I say to Lionel "Is this supposed to be just a boy thing". And he looks at me and I can tell he feels kind of bad and he says "Yeah, sort of." I just looked at him and then said "You couldn't have told me this one of the 75 times we talked today, BEFORE i walked all the way down here to meet you". He said "I'm sorry, I thought it would be kind of rude to say that to you" (which maybe it would have, but I would have appreciated it more than being told to go away once I got there). So I said "Well I'm not going to go if it's just a boy thing, so I'll see you boys later" and proceeded to walk all the way back by myself in the Africa heat.

Then when I got back to the hostel I tried to get into my locker to get out the computer. Darko has a tendency to change the combonation without telling me. Today was NOT the best day to do that. I tried the combo probably 10 times before calling him and saying "Did you change the fucking combonation" and him giving it to me, with me hanging up without saying goodbye.

All day I haven't been able to shake the pissy feeling. At all. Which is how I know it's PMS. When it's not I can usually get over it pretty quickly. But not today.

It's so frustrating.

And it's even worse because I know Darko feels bad about everything, but nothing he does cheers me up when I'm like this, and then I feel even worse. So it sucks.

Anyway. I'm going to go sulk now. Have a beautiful day.

This, my friends, is Urban. He arrived on Saturday and stayed till wednesday. The first thing I noticed about him was how much he acted like Darko. Seriously. They talked exactly the same, had the same facial expressions, etc. It was uncanny. That must come from spending 25 years together. Or maybe it's just a Slovenian thing. He was super nice and really funny. I was sad to see him leave.

Since so many of my blogs have been filled with negative thoughts...

Things that make me happy...

My Friends

My family (mainly my mother and sister)

Black flat slip-on ballet slipper type shoes

Dark blue jeans

Diaper-bag sized purses

When multiple songs that I love come on my ipod in a row

Darko when he finds something he really likes

Sunshine coupled with bitter cold

Earplugs

Facemasks

Venit non-fat sugar-free hazlenut extra-hot no-foam lattes

Kissing

Puppies

Babies

People who go out of their way to help someone in need

Laughing

Finishing an amazing book

Movie theatres

Movies that make you want to stand up and cheer

The smell of fresh flowers

St Stephens Green in April

Knowing that I'm loved

Music

Singing to music as loud as I can

When girls wearing high heels in the city trip and fall

A random smile from a stranger

Cartoon sheep

A good bottle of wine with friends

Giant can-hold-an-entire-bottle-of-wine wine glasses

Giant retro sunglasses

Flip-flops

Capri pants

Make-up

Karaoke

Baja Bean Company

Rum and Cokes

Wheetabix Mini's

Scratching my arm in the morning

Waking up on my own before the sun rises

Starting a good book

5:30 in the afternoon every weekday

Europeans

Meeting that one random American in Ireland

Casear salads

Pearl necklaces

Talking to my mother on the telephone

Talking to anyone on the telephone

Getting email

Shopping

Food

Big jewelry (especially earings and rings)

Laying in bed all afternoon with no cares in the world

Richmond Virginia

Families who stay in hostels

Realizing you have just enough 1 euro coins to buy lunch

Showers

Sleeping

The theatre

Satsuma anything from the Body shop

Boots Essential Shampoo

Old Navy Jeans

Penney's on a Thursday afternoon

Coffee in the afternoon

Not having to pay for magazines

Soft skin

Dancing

A clean kitchen

Back rubs

Gum

If you haven't already noticed... It's been a good day... I'll go into more detail in a bit...

Slovenian music

1. So, who knows the chicken dance?

::Raises hand, and begins shaking her tail feathers::

That's right, I know all of you know it, and on command can hum the music to it. Well, who wants to know where that song originated? I'll give you two guesses, but probably you'll only need one. Slovenia. That's right. That famous song that EVERYONE in the world knows, was originally sung by a Slovenian artist. Darko's been downloading his music and he played one of them and I was like "Hey, that's the Chicken Dance Song" and he said "Yeah, you didn't know it was Slovenian?"

I was pretty impressed...

2. I bought a new purse today and it was only 8 Euro. I'm so excited. I've been needing a new purse for a while and this one is perfect. Almost as large as a diaper bag, but much better looking. My kind of purse.

3. I hate people who walk slower than me. I walk really slow, and so it's really bad when someone walks SLOWER THAN ME!!! It's just ridiculous. I want to push them into on coming traffic. Really.

4. It's good friday right? Well, in the states, we don't give a flying fuck about good Friday. Here, apparently they do. It's illegal to sell ANY ALCOHOL ALL DAY LONG!!!!!!!!! No, I'm serious. In a city where there are like 4 pubs on each block, there is absolutely no alcohol sold the entire day. The pubs are all closed. It's kind of weird walking down the street on a Friday night without the common scene of pub smokers congregating outside. Also very annoying when all you and your boyfriend want to do is share a bottle of wine or two before going to bed. Mother fucking catholics. Stupid.

5. Tomorrow Urban comes. I'll let you all know how it goes.

This will not be over quickly... You will not enjoy this...

I finally got Darko to go see 300 with me last night, and.... it.... was.... absolutely... AMAZING!!!!! It was seriously almost orgasmic. It was probably the best movie I've seen in a very long time. Not only did it have a beautiful story about love and honor, but it was just a beautiful movie to watch as well. The cinematogrophy was absolutely stunning. It was very much computer generated, but still magnificent. The sound was also really stunning. It was perfect for the story and everything just fit perfectly. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past couple of months, 300 is the story of when 300 Spartans fought a Persian army of millions in order to keep them from overtaking Greece. King Leonidus was the king who led his soldiers into battle, and his wife Queen Gorgo was the BEST character in the movie. I love seeing strong female characters, and this was definitely a strong female character. She is my hero. Women everywhere should see this movie just for her character. It's hard to explain why she was so cool, but in one scene she kills a man, and I wanted to stand up and cheer. In the Sparta culture men are bred to be very strong and not show emotion, etc, etc, and in one scene the Queen is speaking to a messenger of the Persians, and he questions why a woman is speaking to him, and she responds "Because only Spartan women give birth to real men." Again, I wanted to stand up a cheer. Also, as the King was leaving for battle he wasn't supposed to show emotion or anything, so he didn't actually tell his wife he loved her, but she knew it, and he really was just madly in love with this woman. The very last line he spoke in the movie was "My Queen, my wife, my love". I can't tell you why he said this because it would give away some of the story, but it sent chills up my spine, and made my heart almost stop, because it was just so beautiful. I just can't tell you how good the movie was. See it. See it now. See it more than once. I seriously want to go see it again, because I loved it so much. Jessi, I can't believe you said it was an unromantic movie. There was so much love and romance in it, and I guess a bit of violence mixed into it as well, but that's to be expected. So good....

There is nothing that a venti non-fat sugar free hazelnut extra hot no foam latte can't cure...

I'm thinking that this blog thing is going to have to be more weekly than daily. I'm just too busy now-a-days to keep up with it. However, I have been making a list of everything that I needed to discuss, or rant about, whatever way you take it. So here we go...

1. I love Starbucks. Like, I can't even tell you how much I love it. However, I love a very specific drink at starbucks. As you can see from the title of this blog it is a Venti Non-Fat Sugar Free Hazlenut Extra-hot no foam latte. Now, I didn't just wake up one morning and decide that this was the drink for me. Nope. It took a long hard process of trial and error to finally fall in love with the perfect coffee. Let's first begin with the non-fat- we all know that I've been attempting to lose weight over the past few months. A regular latte is made with whole milk. I have never liked whole milk. Jessi and I were raised on skim milk, thus, I have a strange aversion to anything made with cream-like whole milk. Although, when it's in coffee, you can't really tell how thick it is. But, what really is the point of having whole milk in your coffee. All you really taste is the coffee anyway, so skim milk serves the same purpose. Now, the weight thing also leads us into the sugar-free hazlenut. I started getting sugar free vanilla. I love vanilla, and the sugar free version for coffee is really good. Jessi always gets hazlenut. On a whim in D.C. with Nate I chose to get hazlenut instead of vanilla. THANK YOU JESSI!!!!!! Hazlenut is the BEST flavoring EVER for coffee. Seriously. The first time I drank it I thought I had died and gone to heaven. And every morning, after walking for thirty minutes in the rain and cold, the hazlenut makes it all better. The final two options are the last acquired. Ever since that incident a few years back when that fucking cunt spilled hot coffee on herself and then sued McDonalds, no one makes coffee hot anymore. When I take my first sip of coffee I want it to scald my tongue. Seriously. I want my coffee to be so hot that the first few sips are painful. I know it's made hot enough when I can still feel the burn well after the coffee is finished. I want the last sip to still be hot when I finish.The last few times I've gotten coffee at the Starbucks on the way to my job, the first sip has been luke warm. Not even slightly hot. Now when you get a Venti it's pretty big, which means if the first sip is luke warm, you know what the last sip is? ICE COLD!!!!!!! The only time i like ice cold coffee is when it's blended in a Frappacino, not when it's in a latte made to be hot. So I started asking for extra hot. Now, the extra hot is much better than the not-so extra hot, but they still don't make it nearly as hot as I'd like. I think I may ask for extra extra hot. I haven't had a nice tongue burn in a while. Finally, no foam. This came about when I was watching one of the girls at Starbucks making my venti non-fat sugar-free hazlenut extra hot latte. She poured in the milk and she left, I'm so serious when I say this, 3 inches from the top of the cup empty. I thought to myself "She must be out of milk". No. In those 3 extra inches where that precious milky goodness should be, she plopped in a HUGE spoonfull of foam. Foam. Not coffee mixed with milk. Foam. She put the top on it and passed it to me. Now, foam is not coffee. In order to get to the coffee you have to drink through the foam. When there is 3 inches of Foam on the top of the coffee you have to practically tip the cup upside down for the coffee to reach you, or you have to take 7,896 sips of straight foam before being able to comfortably drink the coffee. I now ask for no foam. Fill that bad boy up to the brim with extra hot coffee, skim milk and sugar-free hazlenut, and I am GOOD TO GO!!!!!!!

2. Darko and I are usually homeless on the weekends. Since Dublin is the only big city in Ireland, people tend to flock here to have a good time on the weekends. This does not bode well for us regulars when we can't get a bed in a fucking hostel anywhere. We were able to get some this weekend, but only by calling around. We have to move from our current home in order to have a bed to sleep in. I hate Dublin on the weekends. There are people EVERYWHERE!!!!! And don't even try to go shopping on a Saturday. It won't work. I tried going to Penney's last weekend and thought I was going to get an elbow to the head when I picked up the last strand of black beads. It was insane. Since it's coming into the spring and summer, things are just going to get worse. I hate it.

3. Jess, you'll love this: I was reading the newspaper the other week and there was the following in the editorial page. It was titled "The truth about cats and dogs" and it read as follows: " In response to the question: 'Has anyone ever see a dog catch a cat?' the answer is complicated but very interesting. Cats are unique in their abiliities; they have nine lives, they can squeeze through spaces that appear impossible, they can fall off huge heights in comparison to their size and survive, etc. I have heard that people describe koala bears as 'cuddly', foxes as 'clever or cute' and polar bears as 'gorgeous' but when was the last time you saw one of those animals lying across your sofa? Cats have totally fooled humans into believing they are just friendly household animals. They are sophisticated, intelligent and surprisingly ruthless predators. They lounge aroudn accepting praise from their owners about their ability to clean themselves as 'mans best friend' gets hosed in the back yard. They purr with delight at the sight of a poor dog being dragged out in the cold for a walk. They are far too intelligent for a normal dog to catch. With all their attributes I believe that, if they were humans, they would all make very good polticians".

I kind of thought this was a cool editorial. I wan't sure whether or not it was complimenting cats or what, but most cat lovers would agree with most of what is being said. I still prefer dogs.

4. Everyone knows that the American work ethic is really strong. We work long days, weeks, months, years, and are not actually given a lot of time off in the mean time. I was browsing through my company handbook today and was shocked to come across their leave policy. First of all, they are given four weeks of leave time a year. Even brand new employees. In the states you're lucky if you get a week off the first year you are employed. Second, there are nine bank holidays a year. Random days, for no reason, are defined as bank holidays and the entire country has them off. One of the bank "holidays" is the first Monday in May. Ask me why? Go ahead, ask me? I HAVE NO IDEA!!!! It's no one's birthday, it's not a religious holiday. It's like someone woke up the first Monday in May years back, didn't feel like going to work, and deemed it a bank holiday. So bizarre. So that's four weeks, plus nine bank holidays, and seriously, like two weeks of sick leave. How amazing is that? Why can't it be like that in the states. The only people who get more than a week off a year are teachers. AND, the maternity leave here is so great. They really treasure and help their pregnant women. In the states you are allowed to take up to 12 weeks off for having a baby, and only 6 weeks of that is paid, and only if you've accrued six weeks worth of leave. So if you haven't accrued 6 weeks of pay, you have to go back to work pretty quickly after having a baby. Get this. Here, you get a MINIMUM of 22 weeks off PAID!!!!! PAID!!!!! Here's how it works. When you have a baby social welfare will pay you like 250 Euro a week guaranteed. Then, with a lot of companies, like mine for example, the company will pay you the difference from what social welfare is paying you to make up what they would have been paying you on a weekly basis. So for 22 weeks you don't have to work, you get to raise your baby, and you get the same salary that you would have if you were working. And even if you don't work for a company that pays you the difference, regardless, social welfare will pay you that 250 Euro a week. AND, after that 22 weeks, you can take an additional 12 weeks of lower pay, and still have your job when you get back. So you can take up to like 8 months off, with an income, and still have your job when you decide to come back. It's amazing. I don't know how they do it, but I can see why so many young people are having babies here. You don't have to work forever to save up for a child. And welfare is not looked down on here like it is in the states. Everyone gets it regardless of your position or status. It's great.

5. Darko's been watching tennis on my computer, which is fine, especially since I like tennis as well, but in order to write this blog, I came to the internet shop across the street from the hostel. The computers suck. There's this big black box in the middle of the screen that's blocking some of my view of the screen. It's ok, as long as I don't need to select anything under that box. Also, I tried using the free call thing-a-ma-bob to call mom, and it was all screwy as well. It really pisses me off when computers don't work.

So, I think that's about it. Oh wait. A couple of things about Darko. First, next weekend his friend Urban is coming to town for about 4 days. This is a friend from Slovenia. I'm really nervous to meet him. This will be the first real Slovenian friend I've met of his, other than the stupid girl who I met, who's in love with Darko. But I'm pretty sure for that four days that Urban is here I won't see much of Darko. Which is absolutely fine. Don't get me wrong. He needs to spend some quality time with some Slovenian people. Just like I would love to spend some quality time with some Americans. But I'm still nervous about meeting Urban. I really hope he likes me. All I need is for him to go back to Slovenia and be like "Oh my god, you would not believe the girl Darko is dating". Also, Darko joined this thing called Hi-5, which is like myspace but it's run by google. Well I was looking at his profile today and in the relationship status part he has "Open relationship". I looked at him and was like "excuse me?" and he was like "What?". I said "Do you know what an open relationship is?"And he said "It's a relationship that's out in the open?". I said "No, honey, it's not. It's when people are technically together, but dating or having sex with other people". He said "OH, well that's not what I thought it was, so I'm going to leave it", and I was like "Please don't leave it, other people know what an open relationship is, and I don't want them thinking you're in one". He left it anyway... You all know what an open relationship is, right? Yeah, me too...

Let's re-visit a popular Topic...

Things I hate (Sorry if there are re-peats from my earlier post)

Being bored

Not having anyone to talk to

Girls who walk around the city in high heels

Penney's on a Saturday

Dublin on a Saturday

Boys with PMS

Me with PMS

Inappropriate work attire

Greasy hair

Running out of Shampoo

European girls

Arrogance

When pharmacies don't have generic brands of drugs

Being told how to feel

Germans

Large groups of loud teenagers

Flies

Ugly people

Irritating people

People who know english but refuse to speak it

People who are too proud

Waiting for a movie to start

Not being able to see a movie when I want to

Buying magazines

Buying newspapers

Dirty laundry

Wet bathroom floors

Girls who do makeup in the only bathroom that she's sharing with 7 other people

Paying for internet use

Computers that don't work

Tourists

No sunglasses on a sunny day

Rap music

Ignorance

Being hungry

Oily food

Green exit signs

Anything with banana in it

Getting a drink without knowing it has banana in it

Purses that are too small

Clothes that are too big

People who don't work at all during the week and then complain on the weekends that they are tired

Figuring out how to use the bus system

Cars that run red lights

Bunk beds

Crying babies

Crying children

People who stand/walk too close to me

One outlet in a room with 8 people

Irish Bank hours

When things aren't open on Saturdays

Irish work ethic

European fashion

I'm back and let me just tell you... Scotland is AMAZING... but I'm happy to be back in Dublin...

Greetings from Scotland!! (well, not really, because we're back in Dublin now)

Well, ladies and gents. I am back from my holiday in Scotland. This is my favorite picture of the entire trip, and it was the last day. This was a stray dog that Darko befriended at the Millrace lodge in Navan. You'll hear more about that in a bit.

After a fun night of drinking on Sunday with the Swedes and other random travelers, we went to the airport at midnight, Sunday night/early Monday morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 in the morning, so we had some time to spare. Apparently there were a number of other travelers who had the same idea as us, to go to the airport and sleep, because there were no chairs left to sprawl out on. Therefore, we ended up on the floor. Since he is a boy, and apparently boys can sleep anywhere regardless of the surface, Darko fell fast asleep. I guess it helped that he was still a bit drunk from that night's festivities. I actually was able to sleep a bit as well, but I was awoken at about 2:3o by policemen asking to see our passports, to make sure we were actually at the airport for a reason. I had to wake Darko to get his passport, but shortly after that he was fast asleep again. I on the other hand, remained awake, and freezing. We were beside an open door, and we were on tile floors. Not a good combination when it's minus 30 degrees outside. Just kidding. It wasn't really THAT cold, but it was close. So I sit and listen to my ipod for a bit, occasionally getting up to walk around. We had decided to check in around 5, but at 4:30 I seriously thought I was going to freeze to death, so I woke Darko up, probably not a good idea, and we checked in for our flight. We were both a little irritated at that point, and I was a little worried this would have a bearing on the trip. BUT, it didn't. We both cheered up and began enjoying our time together. The flight took off on time and within an hour or so we had landed in Edinburgh Scotland. It was cold there. Colder than here in Dublin, but not entirely unmanageable. We jumped on the bus and headed into the city.

On the bus into the city, my Feder-bear went everywhere with us. Don't judge me.

This was me on the bus, after twenty four hours without showering, being up all night long, and managing a bit of a hangover. I think I look pretty good, considering.

We arrive at the hostel around 9, and our check in wasn't supposed to occure until 2, so, again, we had a bit of time to spare. Before leaving the airport, Darko had bought some really disgusting coffee. Not by choice of course, but still. At that point we needed a good cup of brew. So Darko invited me to Starbucks. We both had some really good coffee, and I said "You know why it's good? Because it's American." He started to laugh, but only because he knew it was true. So we hung out at Starbucks and then decided to walk around a bit. We made our way up high street and ended up at the castle on the hill. Let me pause here a second and tell you a little about the geography of Edinburgh. Everything is on a hill. I swear to god. You have to walk up steep STEEP hills to get anywhere. The only plus side to walking up the hills, is that when you get to leave, it's mostly downhill. The castle was no exception. However, the hill was not nearly as bad as it looked from the bus when we were coming into the city. We went to the castle. We didn't actually go in because it was 11 pounds (22 dollars) to go in and look around, and really, that wasn't necessary. So we just took some pics from outside. There was this cool horse statue that I told Darko to climb up on and sit, so that I could take a picture, but he didn't and this was as close as he got. Now, what's cool about this shot is that I sent my mother a postcard with this statue on it. I'm hoping she puts that, as well as this picture in the scrapbook. That, at least, was my intention when sending her the postcard. Hint hint, mother.

Considering we had both been awake for a while, with not much sleep, we decided to head back to the hostel. It was only about 11:30 at this point, so we still had some time. I fell asleep on one of the chairs, and Darko slept on the couch, until 2 when we were finally admitted into our room. After that we both desperately needed to shower. So we took showers, had some lunch, and headed back out. So we were just wandering around and we came upon a theatre, as in a stage theatre, not a movie theatre. Now we all know how much I love the theatre, but what most of you don't know is that SO DOES DARKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!! AND the show FAME had premiered that night and was going to be on all week. So I desperately begged Darko to take me, which wasn't that difficult considering he loves musicals just as much as I do. So we bought tickets for Thursday night, and I was as happy as a clam. At this point it was around 7:30 and we decided to look for a pub. Now, in Dublin, there is SERIOUSLY a pub about every other shop. Not so much in Edinburgh. We kept walking and walking and had not seen any pubs. Finally we stopped and asked, and were directed, up a hill, to what seemed like typically scottish pub. We went in, had one drink, decided we were exhausted, and left to go to sleep. That was Monday.

I forgot something. When we were booking our hostel we booked a 16 bed dorm, like we always do, because they are cheaper and not nearly as bad as one would think. BUT, when we got there and checked in, they had put us in a four bed room with another couple, and I don't think they charged us more for it. AND, there was one other couple in the room, but they left Tuesday morning, and we had the room to ourselves until Friday night. I seriously felt like we were on a honeymoon.

This was a memorial built for Sir Walter Scott. It was hard to get the entire thing, but this was the best angle.

Tuesday was slightly uneventful. We went to the gallery of art, and tried to decide what kind of tours we wanted to take. The art gallery was really nice. It had a few Titians, El Greco's, and Rembrandts. It was definitely not a waste of time. We sat for a while on the benches outside the gallery and talked for a while and discussed what we would do the following day. We concluded that we should take a tour of the highlands, so that's what we did. We booked the trip and then had some lunch. Our lunch consisted of scottish food at this adorable little Scottish pub, where Darko had Haggis, Neeps, and tatties (yeah, don't ask, cause really I'm not sure what they are) and I just had a chicken sandwhich. Since we had to get up early for our tour the next morning, we called it an early night on Tuesday.

The next morning we left for our tour at 8:15 in the morning. Up until that point I really hadn't heard that many Scottish accents, but the tour guide was a born and raised native, so he had a nice thick one. The highlands tour was amazing. The scenery was beautiful and it was so nice to just sit back and enjoy everything. All of the pictures of that tour are on facebook. I'll put some of the better ones up here.

8:15 in the morning, waiting for the bus.

Isn't this just adorable. I told you, Feder-Bear, everywhere.

Who thinks it looks like there was a picture of scenery and then Darko was cut out and placed in front of it?

We stopped for a bit of a rest.

There was a tour of a Whiskey Brewery. However, Darko and I had both seen breweries before. So instead of actually going on the tour, we found the bar and made our way through a few shots of whiskey on our own. This was the result :-)

This was the big yellow bus we spent most of the day on. How Pretty.

While on the tour, at one of the stops, Darko bought my Feder-Bear a companion. It should be noted that this is the first present he's bought me. I will treasure it always.

The highlands tour was so great. I would recommend it to anyone. We got back to Edinburgh around 5:30 and hung out for a while at the hostel. We made dinner and had a quiet evening in.

Thursday was bad. I was having one of those days. You know, the kind of day when nothing goes right and you just want to kill everyone around you. We went to visit some ruins, and I was irritated before we even left the hostel. And then it started to rain, and the wind was ridiculous, after it had been sunny not two minutes before. So then, the ruins, of course were up a hill, and then some steps, and then another hill. I wanted to kill someone, and it just so happened that Darko was the only person around me. If he had said "Come Katie", one more time, I seriously think I would have thrown either himself or myself off the side of the cliff we were walking up. I was so irritated. I knew I just needed to be alone for a little while, so at lunch I told Darko I was just going to walk around for a bit by myself. It worked. I walked around for an hour or so and was good as new. I had to be better, FAME was that night.

The play was good. The music was amazing as was the dancing. I think there was a problem with the sound system though. A lot of the songs were really hard to understand and I think it had to do with the fact that the actual MUSIC was much to loud, you couldn't hear the people singing. It was a bit frustrating at times, but still. When you could understand the words the songs were amazing, and when you couldn't, you knew they were good. I would definitely tell people to see FAME. It's a good show.


I need to pause here again. I can't tell you how much I laughed on Thursday night. Earlier in the week I made the mistake of saying that if he went to America, everyone would think that Darko was Russian. He was saying that he thought he had a pretty good American accent, and I said "No, people would automatically know you weren't American, and chances are they would think you were Russian". So, he actually started talking with a Russian accent, and started saying things that were so stereotypically Russian, that I just laughed and laughed. And he wouldn't stop. When you guys meet him, he'll have to do it for you. When you first meet him you don't really think about what his accent sounds like until you hear him talk with a different one, and realize it's not the same. I seriously thought I was going to pee my pants walking home from the theatre. I wish I could describe how funny it was. Man. I'm lauging just thinking about it now.



Friday we had lunch at Pizza Hut. That's right. I got him to eat American food, and he liked it. Then we did some shopping and talked about going to the zoo, but stayed at the hostel for a while instead. Everyone knows what a pub crawl is, correct? When you go to a bunch of different pubs in one area. They always have them advertised in hostels, but Darko and I decided to do one on our own. At around 7 we headed out and made the decision to just stop at the first pub we came to, have one drink, move on to the next, etc. Pub crawls in general are not very good ideas because you tend to drink A LOT. This was no exception. At every single bar we stopped at I had a pint of bulmers and a shot of Sambuca, except for one that didn't have Sambuca, at which I had some Jack Daniels instead, bleh. Raise your hand if you know what Sambuca is. It is the BEST liquere EVER. It tastes like liquorice and has a very sweet, like candy, after taste. It's dangerous because it hardly tastes of alcohol at all. So yes, by about the third pub I was feeling good, and by the sixth, I was gone. The last thing I clearly remember is taking four shots of Sambuca in a five minute period at the last pub we went to. I was COMPLETELY gone, as was Darko. I'm surprised we even made it back to the hostel. I vaguely remember getting in a taxi cab. At least we were coherent enough to do that, instead of trying to find our way home in a drunken stupor. That was our last night in Scotland, and sadly, we didn't take my camera, one because we had only like 10 pics left on my card, and two because we didn't want to lose it. We probably would have lost it.



The next morning was NOT fun. I wanted to die, and Darko remembered only 4 of the 6 pubs we had gone to. I on the other hand, could remember every single one. We spent, wait for it, 100 pounds. That ladies is 200 DOLLARS!!!! In four hours, for two people. I can't believe it, and Darko was convinced he'd been robbed because he couldn't remember some of the pubs we went to. 100 pounds. The ONLY time I've ever spent more than like 40 dollars drinking was at Toni's bachlorette party, and there was five of us drinking for like 8 hours. 100 POUNDS in FOUR HOURS for TWO PEOPLE was ridiculous. We were acting like we were millionaires. I can't say that I regret it though. I had the time of my life. I was not looking forward to getting on a plane though. We left Edinburgh at around 10:30 and headed to the airport to go back to Dublin.

This was Saturday March 17th. Who can tell me what day that was? That's right. St. Paddy's Day. Who can tell me what that means? That's right. There wasn't a single bed available in the ENTIRE city of Dublin. Instead of sleeping on the streets, we decided to leave the city and extend our holiday a bit. We went to Navan, a little town about 40 minutes outside of Dublin. We stayed at this place called the Millrace Lodge. It was so nice. Again, we had booked to stay in a dorm style room for like 20 euro a night, but this lodge is family owned and we were picked up in the town by the woman who owns the place, and she said she had worked it out so that we weren't in the dorm rooms. That's right. We stayed in the equivalent of a double room for 40 euro a night. A room like that in Dublin would have run 80-150 Euro, and we stayed there for 40. It was so nice. And because it was family owned and what not, the owner sat and talked with us, and got our opinion of the place, because this is her first season doing the hostel thing, and treated us really well. There was free internet, and a HUGE shower, that Darko and I were quick to take advantage of. We didn't do much while we were at the lodge, because it was snowing and neither one of us wanted to leave, but it was so comfy at the lodge that we just relaxed for the last two days of our holiday.


This morning we jumped on a bus and that is when our holiday officially ended. I am sad, as is he, that we are now back to reality. We both have to work tomorrow morning, and that is not going to be fun considering we haven't gotten up before like 10 for the past week. But it has to be done. We can't be on holiday forever. I can't wait for our next trip. I think it's going to be Rome in May to see the tennis tournament. Scotland was so awesome. I am so glad we went. I really think it was good for our relationship, and I just can't wait to do it again.

In closing, I would like to say that the following picture is the best picture I've ever taken of Darko. I always tell him that he looks so much better when he smiles, and this picture is proof of it. I look disgusting in it, which is why I am cut out, but he just looks stunning. I wish he would show his pearly whites in ever picture. But he won't.