Visitors!
Mood:  incredulous
My sister is coming! Wednesday week and I will get to show Annie round Galway. I'm really excited to have her visiting and show a family member what I've been up to. She'll be staying for nearly a month and my mom will join us part way through her stage. The plan is to see a bit of Ireland and we'll also be in Scotland for 5 days. yay!
Anyone else want to visit me???
But unfortunately, this coming is paired with a going. My fantastic flatmate will be moving out on the 6 June, two days before Annie appears. I'm gonna miss him sooo much. We're going to throw a major goodbye party for him and a few others who will be moving to New York for the summer. Its going to be complete with bouncy castle and kegs... Could be messy. We're still trying to find out who will let us have a bouncy castle on an apartment block over night.... Could be tough with our apartment block's location/reputation. I'll let you know how it goes.

The Rosary
Mood:  bright
Following up my previous blog entry

The Mysteries
The recitation of the Rosary is traditionally dedicated to one of three sets of "Mysteries" to be said in sequence, one per night: the Joyful (sometimes Joyous) Mysteries; the Sorrowful Mysteries; and the Glorious Mysteries. Each of these three sets of Mysteries has within it five different themes to be meditated on, one for each decade of ten Hail Marys (10 beads on the rosary). Pope John Paul II, in his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (October 2002), recommended an additional set called the Luminous Mysteries (or the "Mysteries of Light").

(The list of mysteries below corresponds to moments in the life and death [the Passion] of Jesus and Mary chronologically.)

Joyful Mysteries
The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Fruit of the Mystery: Humility
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Fruit of the Mystery: Love of Neighbor
The Nativity of Our Lord Fruit of the Mystery: Love of God
The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple Fruit of the Mystery: Obedience
The Finding in the Temple Fruit of the Mystery: Zeal for God

Luminous Mysteries (added by Pope John Paul II)
The Baptism of Jesus Fruit of the Mystery: Openess to the Holy Spirit
The Wedding at Cana Fruit of the Mystery: To Jesus through Mary
The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God Fruit of the Mystery: Repentance and Trust in God
The Transfiguration Fruit of the Mystery: Desire for Holiness
The Institution of the Eucharist Fruit of the Mystery: Adoration

Sorrowful Mysteries
The Crucifixion of Jesus - the fifth of the Sorrowful MysteriesThe Agony in the Garden Fruit of the Mystery: Repentance
The Scourging at the Pillar Fruit of the Mystery: Purity
The Crowning with Thorns Fruit of the Mystery: Courage
The Carrying of the Cross Fruit of the Mystery: Patience
The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus Fruit of the Mystery: Perseverance

The Glorious Mysteries
The Resurrection of Christ
The Ascension of Christ
The Descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Coronation of Blessed Virgin Mary in Heaven

Days of recitation:

Including the Luminous Mysteries
The Joyful Mysteries are recited on Mondays and Saturdays.
The Luminous are recited on Thursdays
The Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesdays and Friday
The Glorious Mysteries on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Without the Luminous Mysteries
The Joyful Mysteries on Mondays and Thursdays.
The Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The Glorious on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosary#Rosary_beads

Is it true you learn something new everyday?
Mood:  quizzical

First of all, I'm going to apologize to all of my Catholic friends out there, but I really had no clue.

While at work today I was doing a little boring spring cleaning when I found some rosary beads we use for doing Communion photos this time of year. (You wouldn't believe how many people come in for their communion photos to our studio. We actually have around 50 bookings so far!) I was looking at them and I realized I didn't really know what they were for. I've always thought they were purely decorative and that old ladies held them due to the crucifix on the end of a pretty chain...

Yeah, its not really the case, I know now. As I was holding these rosary beads I turned to Aoife, my newest 17 year old coworker who grew up speaking only Irish in the Connemara west. (Imagine little old men and fishing villages and those cute Connemara ponies). I turned to her and said, "Aoife, what are these really for? Are they just some sort of jewelry to bring to mass with you?" She gave me a blank stare before asking me what I meant. She really couldn't believe that I hadn't the slightest clue what they were for. Anyway, she finally laughed it off and explained the purpose. Basically, the rosary beads act as a guide for prayer. That's why people are seen fingering the beads, they are keeping their place. The beads are grouped together with a space following them, so you say however many Hail Mary's before the space which signals that you are to move to Our Fathers, and so on. I don't actually know the full progression or what the end piece stands for, but I promise to look it up.



Anyway, that was my something new today. What was urs?

Goooood Friday--following Drink Frenzy Thursday
Imagine this...

Today, i had the day off because this extremely Catholic country gives employers the option of taking a public holiday. So, sitting here at 12pm I am basking in the silence that surrounds my apartment. Normally on a Friday night you would hear the shrieks from the bottom of the stairwell that leads to the courtyard just beyond my door. This coming from the under 18's 'bushing' (drinking in the streets or any available nook such as our stairwell) because they can't drink at home before going out in town. The usual queue outside the GPO (a club across the street) has also vanished.

Is it simply that people stay in to observe the holiday like pious Catholics? No, it's simply because its the one day a year other than Christmas when all sale of alcohol is banned. Shop owners like those of McCambridges where I always go for their lovely selection of cheese, wine, and mint chocolate truffles even went so far as to put curtains of plastic up over all of the wine shelves to remind us of the sanctity of this religious tradition. Suggesting that one ought not to even look at drink lest they be tempted to indulge their sinful habits... Well, I wouldn't go that far, but they do cover up the bottles.

Interesting though isn't it? So, what does this do? Do people stop drinking for the day? I'm not sure, although I'm sure many do, there are probably plenty who just decide to stock up the night before. Brian, my ever intelligent housemate has shared the Loughrea tradition with me. He grew up in a this little town, 45 minutes outside Galway, and worked as a barman in the local pub starting at the age of 13. Every Thursday night prior to Good Friday the pub would be crammed with the frenzied townspeople. At last call many would even order four pints for themselves because they felt the need to get as much drink into them as possible before the bar stopped serving at midnight. Brian claimed that its one of the biggest going out nights in town simply because of the ban.

Interesting fact: This love of drink is why Happy Hour is also banned in the country. The Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003 has the following stipulations:

'Happy hour' drinks promotions will be banned.

-There will be no entertainment during the 30 minutes 'drinking up' time. (This is the last half hour befor a pub closes)

-Publicans who sell alcohol to people who are already drunk will face stiff fines, starting at 1,500 for a first offence. (Obviously not followed very often, and what is the definition of drunk anyway. Do they expect breathalizer tests in pubs?)

-These fines will also apply to licensees who allow drunkenness on their premises.

-Publicans will be allowed to set a minimum age for the sale and consumption of alcohol, which is over the statutory minimum of 18 years. In such cases, the minimum age must be publicly displayed.



The new provisions will also give greater powers to the Gardai, including greater enforcement powers for non-uniformed Gardai.

-A return to an 11.30pm closing on Thursday.

-Young people aged 15-17 will not be permitted in pubs after 9pm, unless they are attending a private function at which a substantial meal is served. (Haha)

-Those aged 18-20 will have to carry ID with proof of age, in order to remain in a pub after 9pm.

But who knows if it actually has decreased binge drinking which was the ultimate goal of the Justice Minister who signed the bill...

Interesting fact # 2: Almost three of out four young people aged 15 -18 are regular drinkers, according to a recent survey which also found that 19% of girls admitted to having been drunk on more than 10 occasions.

Nearly half of all school pupils aged 11-18 are current drinkers. Current drinking is defined as taking an alcohol beverage at least once a month. (Eastern Regional Health Authority Study 2000)

Interesting Fact #3:

Drinking among 15-16-year-old students, selected Western countries and United States, 2003

France Ireland Italy Sweden United Kingdom United States
Minimum purchase age (any alcoholic beverage or venue) 15 16 18 16 18 18 21
Had a drink, last 30 days 58% 73% 64% 51% 74% 35%
Had five or more drinks on at least one occasion (binge drinking), last 30 days 28% 57% 34% 37% 54% 22%
Been drunk at least once, last 30 days 15% 53% 19% 34% 46% 18%


Lifted from: Except for minimum purchase age, Bjorn Hibell et al., The ESPAD Report 2003: Alcohol and Other Drug Use Among Students in 35 European Countries (Stockholm: The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs [CAN], 2004).

This table doesn't work so well, it shows up in my myspace account if you want an easier to read version.
http://www.myspace.com/stephbux

Home!
Mood:  lazy
At home for a little less than a week! If you read this and around around Lake town, come on over to my parents house and say hi!

a href="http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=p0ykzu3.8w5458gj&x=1&y=5koomq">Lot's of New Pictures!!!

The much awaited for photos! Yay! Everything but Barcelona is in there... Just have to get those from Liv then they'll be up too!<

Barcelona
Mood:  blue
I went to Barcelona last weekend with a kiwi girl and irish lad. Only took us 14 hours (jayzus) of travelling. Sucks when you're flight is at 10 and the only bus to Dublin that will make it in time for your flight leaves at 215 in the morning. Of course I was running on 4 hours sleep from the partying the night before. Life is rough!
Eventually we made all the transfers (bus to flight to bus to metro to walking around lost) and found our hostel off La Rambla. La Rambla is the main tourist spot. It's basically a really long road filled with street performers, shops, and at night loads of drunk people and hookers. Haha. Barcelona really is a city that operates 24 hours a day.
The first night we stayed in the Ideal Youth Hostel which really did live up to its name (other than the fact that you have to pay additional fees for your sheets, blankets, and pillows). Livy, the kiwi, and I stayed with 12 guys in a mixed style dorm room. We met three french canadians who were really fun. They invited us to drink with them but we had to be meeting Paul, the Irish lad, and Livy's ex boyfriend.
Finding Paul was great fun since he let his PA book a hotel for him, but she booked the wrong branch and he was stuck 30 km outside of town. Talk about a long taxi ride. He ended up having to pay ?30 to get into Barcelona (about $36 I think). Seemed he was having trouble explaining McDonald's to the Spanish taxi driver who didn't understand a word of English. Livy and I were waited outside the golden arches so he could find us easily. After attempting to sing Buh-dah dah dah dah 'I'm lovin' it,' to the senor and getting no response save a string of incomprehensable spanish he decided to ring us. At which point I had to go find any spanish speaker to give directions to the taxi driver. So, I grabbed a McDonald's worker (who also didn't understand english) and said en espagnol por favor-the only thing i could think of saying. She dashed off to the back with our mobile phone but luckily came back saying outside in spanish. We took this as our cue to try and find Paul outside. After waiting out in thug central for a bit longer we found him. We dubbed the area outside McDonald's thug central because it was all boys from 15-20 dressed in baggy clothes, wearing bling, speaking spanish and trying to pick up women. Not the best place for two lady tourists to be standing, but we made it out with minimal comments and jeering.
Later we found ourselves at an Aussie pub (which became our fav hangout for the weekend). It was complete with crocodile & kangaroo nostalgia as well as a drunken Aussie stag party (equivalent to a bachelor party). The stag was dressed in speedos and some sort of plastic shirt with wife watcher written on the back. Very disturbing if you ask me. Later we wandered down the main pub street off La Rambla which happened to have one Irish pub after another. How is it that we leave Ireland only to find more Irish pubs? Anyway we had plenty of fun and chatted with some nice Argentinian fellas who happened to also be staying in our hostel. After we found the club where the Spanish mafia operate. I swear we were the only ones with pale skin there, needless to say we got a few questioning looks and left the place fairly quickly.
On day 2 we changed hostels in the hot sun with monsterous vodka hangovers (ugh!). Nothing like a 30 min walk with luggage and pounding heads. But our new hostel, The Centric Point, was gorgeous! We had a fifth floor room with a balcony overlooking one of the many beautiful spanish streets. Just around the corner was one of Gaudi's beautiful architectural creations. He has the most interesting style, so fairytale-like. It for some reason fits in with the city giving it a very unique feel. Then, we took a bus tour to see all of the major sites in the city. Livy and Paul said it was great, but I fell asleep... Maybe coming in around 4 isn't the best idea when you have a day of tourism ahead of you.
That night we drank at the hostel bar where we chatted with Marios (my Italian/Romanian bartender friend woo woo!) and two crazy Aussies. Around 1230 we finally made it down to the Aussie bar again where we met a group of Dubliners and two Americans. One of the Americans was a hulking giant of a man from the OC complete with bleach blond hair who plays water polo, nationally, I believe. We found a slighty better club this night with our group of 7 by the time we got there, but it was not as busy as we’d hoped being a Sunday night. There were still plenty of people (which suited all of us, save the 2 yanks). The music was a bit odd, being mostly 50’s-90’s music upstairs like ‘do the twist,’ and ‘girl’s just want to have fun.’ While hip-hop and rap blared downstairs with a room full of Africans. I eventually got Livy to dance with me downstairs since I love hip-hop music, but she was a bit put-off when a giant African dude tried to grind up on her. Haha. She grabbed me and made me go bounce around upstairs. The Yanks at this point were bored to death with the odd collection of music and people and wanted us to head to another club on the beach. Unfortunately I was the only one keen to go and they got the shaft. Mr. Waterpolo was severely disappointed that I wouldn’t go with him to be sure but ya can’t please everyone. Haha. We ended up staying with the Irish lads who were just visiting for a couple days before heading to Andorra for a ski trip. It turns out they had a huge group going but all but 2 backed out so they had an entire apartment to themselves. They tried to convince the 3 of us to head up with them and stay for free, but sadly we all had to be back for work in a couple days L. We had a good time dancing with all different nationalities, Irish, Americans, Italians, Spainards and it’s really funny when you see how different they all are.
Day 3-Save the best for last!
On day 3 we toured on the bus once again, but this time I managed to stay awake the entire time. Unfortunately pretty much all of the museums are closed on Sunday and Monday so the bus tour was our only way to see things, but still we packed a lot in. We also made it to the sea, which was gorgeous. I miss being around water that is such a rich beautiful blue colour. Unfortunately, the water in Galway is typically a nasty stormy grey colour, which reflects our weather patterns. Livy and I spent a bit of time collecting the pretty little shells in all different pinks, blues, and oranges, until Paul got bored and so hungry he couldn’t stop winging (how they say whining over here, pronounced win-jing). After that it was back to the hostel for a nap before we went out again.
Dinner was fantastic. We ate in the lounge of our hostel where one of our hostel roomies, a man from Mexico City made us Quesadillas with ham, cheese, refried beans, and peppers. Mmm mmm. After that we joined our Aussie friends from the night before at the bar with Marios who kindly supplied us with free flaming shots and drink nearly all night. We had a great time making fun of all the typical stereotypes of our different countries. This was mostly brought on by the fact that Aussies and Kiwis love to slag (make fun) of each other non-stop. But of course you can’t avoid making fun of how unintelligent Americans, thanks Mr. President and the media. It can be difficult to watch every little thing you say. The Aussies decided to name Paul ‘Declan’ since that was the only authentic Irish name they could think of. We all eventually started to call him that and I think I’m not going to switch back.
Finally we heading down to the Aussie bar again cause the Aussies hadn’t actually been there yet. Marios was very sad cause he couldn’t join us as he had to work, but it was time to move along. On the way I decided to give them a good laugh (accidentally of course). I was walking ahead of the others with Tim, one of the Aussies and for some reason stopped in the middle of the intersection. A Spanish opportunist saw this and honked from way back, scaring the bejayzus out of me. Then, as the Spaniard drove by he waved to my friends and laughed, causing them to all roll on the ground with laughter. At each proceeding cross walk Tim would grab me and say ‘The man is Red!’ (our little saying for the crosswalk signs) and not let me cross regardless of whether it was red or green, making everyone laugh all over again. Needless to say, it was quite a long walk to the pub.
The Aussie pub was great fun again. I made friends with a bunch of English marathon runners and some fellas from Leeds. They have very thick accents. One of the lads was dubbed my Leeds boyfriend. Haha, his friend who didn’t have any front teeth found this very entertaining and yelled out there’s your Yank every time I passed by. At this pub our group grew yet again as I made friends with a group of girls we later found out were from our hostel and told them all to come sit with us. As the Aussie pub closed we had a group of 12 or so moving along to a nightclub, which included so many different European and North Americans that I can’t even remember all the nationalities. In the end, we went to some nightclub, which was in a wine cellar type room and playing some sort of metal. Again, it was an odd collection of people, but this time they were head banging and socializing alternately. Livy and Paul left me with all my new found friends, but we had a great time dancing around and making fun of each other. It was probably my favourite night of our trip.

Routine
Mood:  chillin'
Decided I'd take my lunch break to update this little thing. Lately, I've just been falling into the routine of work and taking a bit of time on the weekends to play. For a few weeks in January I was working six day weeks because Peter needed my help with the bridezillas at the local and not so local wedding fairs. Basically, I got to be his pack horse, drag in all the display materials and set-up our booth. Then, while he mingled with the other exhibitors or spoke with some couples I would try to answer questions on our Wedding album collections. My favorite was 'You're expensive aren't you?' I know this was a rhetorical question but it never failed to embarass me. I have nothing to do with pricing of the packages I just get to tell people what they can expect to pay. Which is anywhere from ?2500 to ?4500 for your wedding day photography plus album. And that's only part of the wedding day expenses. Needless to say most of the couples that come to Peter are fairly wealthy and can afford our prices. It helps to be the best wedding photographer in the West, if not the country. I even recently wrote an article on him for the Irish Wedding Diary (a wedding magazine) on Peter to assist some wedding photos he took.
The worst part of the wedding fairs has to be the following weeks when I have to sort out all of the entrants for the free portrait drawing and ring every couple that hasn't booked a photographer yet. So far I've rung a total of 70 couples anywhere from 1-3 times. I'm sure they hate me even though I'm offering them a free engagement shoot. It's been good for me though. At least now I know I'd never make it as a telemarketer or even a salesman. I don't have the necessary bullshit gene which my boss definitely does have. It's crazy to see him when he goes into action. I envy people with the natural ability to read others and tell them exactly what they need to hear.
As for my free time, I've settled down and only go about about two times a week. Usually Thurs Fri or Sat. It's still great fun, but I'm looking forward to the summer again. I really like that the days are starting to turn warmer and longer too. It's almost to where its still light out for my walk home from work at 6. Well, that's it for now.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Mood:  special
*DON'T FORGET, 2 NEW ENTRIES BELOW!*

As a few of you know, I managed to make it home for 11 days to visit family and friends for Christmas. I hadn’t been home for more than two days in nearly a year, so it was a much-needed visit. I got to stop over and see Ela in Chicago for one night before I made it home. She’s looking sexy as ever and very excited about her new loft and job. She repeatedly told me (as did pretty much everyone over break) that I’d better move back the states eventually and not live abroad forever… I don’t really have a response as of yet, but I think I’ll make it back one day J.
For Christmas, I spent my time in our house full of people (8 of us) as my sister and brother, 2 grandparents, great grandmother, and parents were all there. Don’t forget, myself and two dogs as well. We had quite the house full and I managed to sleep past 930 one or two days of my break since you hear everyone when you sleep in the most central part of the house… We had all of the relatives over Christmas day and it was really good to see them and catch up on what everyone’s been up to in my absence. On the night of the 26th my family went to the Tulalip Casino to celebrate my cousin Josh’s 21st birthday at 1201 (technically the 27th). It was crazy to see how many people actually go to the casino on Christmas night.
My sister, Annie and I went to Seattle with our friend Mike who goes to UW a few times. We hit up places like J&M, Tiki Bob’s and Cowgirl’s inc. We had some fun nights together. My aunt and Amy, Josh’s girlfriend came along to Cowgirls where we danced all night long. I actually also went to a house party of a boy that I hadn’t hung out with since 6th grade. I ran into him randomly when I was out in Lake Stevens one night and we reminisced. It was really odd to go to his house party and see people I hadn’t seen in a long time and find out what they’d been up to. Annie and I also went and played pool with my bro, Jeremy and his best friend from childhood Josh (yeah, there are a lot of Josh’s). Jere and I beat Annie and Josh 2 out of 3 games. Yay! This is an amazing feat since I suck at pool, thanks Jere for picking up the slack. It was strange to go out with both my sister and bro since Annie just turned 21 in Sept. but it was a really great time. Overall, my holidays went really quickly but it was really good to see everyone and I enjoyed all my chats with my various grandparents. Also, I got to see Josh Padgett a few times, which was really fun. He came and played cards with my fam one night. He’s doing really well, but anxious to find out if he passed his second actuarial exam so he can start hunting for a job in that field. Good luck!
Also, congratulations to my cousin Eric, who by now should be engaged to a wonderful woman! He was supposed to be proposing on New Year’s Eve. The first of the cousins on my dad’s side to get engaged, but not that surprising since he’s our only cousin on that side, haha! Now who’s gonna be the first in ours? Not it!
I came back to Galway just in time for New Year’s Eve. After 24 hours of travelling from 6am on the 30th to 2pm on the 31st I had time to take a quick nap and head off to Liv and Tracy’s to get ready to go out. We ended up sitting in her ginormous bathroom and chatting till bout 1030 when we decided to head into town. We ended up at Busker’s, a pub as most other places were full. It was a great time and we met up with a few other people we knew. The three of us girls gave each other kisses on the cheek for New Years… Aren’t we cute? Haha. Then, we went back to their house where there was a bit of a house party goin and stayed up till about 6am.

Work Permit Madness
Mood:  celebratory
Since I haven’t been updating my blog you wouldn’t know the pain I’ve had to put up with when it comes to my work permit. My first application for sponsorship by Peter Harkin Photography Studios was rejected in the beginning of November. This was just after I was nearly not let back into Ireland after my amazing weekend holiday in Edinburgh Scotland. Customs didn’t like that I didn’t have a valid work permit but eventually got through to Peter and found that I wasn’t lying about my work permit application being processed. PS if you ever get over this way, go to Edinburgh, by far one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. It’s also one of the oldest in Europe.

The Work Permits Section claimed my position wasn’t highly skilled/highly paid enough after telling me that restriction didn’t apply to me because I had a previous USIT student visa. Apparently that rule had changed since I applied and they decided to apply the new rule retrospectively for my and Kelly’s work application. Then, Kelly’s appeal was put through and she received her work permit for 3 months (she’s waitressing at a posh restaurant in Barna, outside Galway), while I was told there was no hope for mine. We got in contact with Frank Fahey, Minister of Justice, Social Reform and Law who is a friend of Peter’s and he said he’d look after my permit but that it was unlikely it would pass. Then, after talking with my friends Ronan and Padraic, we figured our that Frank who had been helping me was Ronan’s uncle so Ronan rang him up and pleaded for Frank to help me. We were told the same thing once again. Then, while I was visiting my family over Christmas I received a phone call from my boss Peter. He had just received my new work permit in the mail! Yay. So, I am now officially allowed to work and no longer an illegal alien. My work permit expires on the 30th September 2006. I’ll keep you posted on my plans for after that point, but I really have no clue as of yet.

October and November
Mood:  caffeinated

So, as you can all see, I haven’t updated this thing in about 3 months… Pretty sad. In order to catch everyone up to speed, I’ll give you the highlights of my past few months.
Birthday—Went out with friends on both the Sunday and Monday (31st, actual birthday) nights. It was really good and I was happy that at least a few of my friends made it out with me. For Sunday Night, my American friend and I dressed up and went to Shite Night at the GPO. The GPO is the noisy club across the street from my apartment. It attracts a lot of students on Mondays. Needless to say the queue was really long when we got there at 10 because everyone was in costume. The place was jammers when we got in an hour later and everyone was in costume. Someone even came as Captain Jack Sparrow. That was probably the best costume I’ve seen as he did look exactly like him. My friend Padraic also went as a mime and proceeded to hit on girls by only using gestures such as reeling in the fish all night. Great fun. Kelly was white trash with God Bless America written on her wife-beater, some people didn’t understand she was joking and said things like stupid Americans all night, while others just had a laugh with us. I went as a waitress again, so I didn’t have to bother finding a costume. Shite Night was great and I imagine I have a few friends who would have loved it, as the only music they play is the worst music from the 80’s to present. Makes for a great laugh and lot’s of crazy dancing.
Thanksgiving—Since they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Ireland, Kelly and I decided to make Thanksgiving Dinner for our Irish friends. I took the day off from work, which was odd since I am so used to having the day off. Then, Kelly and I cooked all day long at our separate apartments and served everyone at mine. Kelly brought over appetizers including bruschetta and tortilla chips and dip, then sweet potatoes, and two pies, one pumpkin and one apple (which I helped with, yum yum!). I cooked two turkeys, one in my oven and one in the lad’s upstairs. Unfortunately one smelled funny and tasted toxic so we ended up throwing it in the rubbish, but the bigger of the two sufficed for our 15 guests. Then, I made vegetarian soup for our veg friends, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and I think that’s about it. I don’t really remember anymore. It was a very long day of cooking and I give everyone a lot of credit who has ever made a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner as a lot more time and money goes into it than I had ever known. Our guests really loved the dinner, we had 13 Irish people, 1 Kiwi, and 1 Jamaican and all but 2 or so of them had never had a Thanksgiving feast before. Everyone chatted for about an hour or so after dinner before returning to their apartments as the big feast made them a bit tired… Sound familiar? It was a pretty big success, except when Brian toasted the chefs and said “Thank you to Stephanie and ….” (he forgot Kelly’s name). Most of the guests didn’t know Kelly that well, so no one pitched in for him, but instead there was a long silence and Brian turned really red and hid for a bit. But we all had a good laugh about this in the end. After that Barry and Ronan decided to throw water on passers-by from my kitchen window while we watched from other windows in the apartment. Pretty funny, except that it was cold outside and some people got pretty pissed off, yelling obscenities from below. Oops.