Party Harty

I actually went to a party yesterday. I thought about skipping out on it but since I was meeting a coworker at the U and we were walking over together, I couldn't really skip it. I had 2 mixed drinks (pineapple rum and oj. that's some good stuff right there). I don't think I got tipsy even, although while walking home I was wondering if I was stumbling. :) It was (oh crap I have to get my gear together for water aerobics which means tomorrow in the AM for my shower I have to shave) a coworker's party. She is my water aerobics instructor (hence the sidebar) but she also works with new students. I like her, but like most Student Development people she's kind of effusive and touchy feely. I had hopes for possible single people but alas, apparently all the guys her husband knows are not. She seems to have an interesting mix of friends, but you could definitely see a divide among the cliques. I spent a lot of time talking to coworkers. I talked to this one guy for about 30 minutes (at least) about retirement planning and all that. That's his job too. There were a couple of people I knew from hanging out with her before but not that well and I'm not so good at the talking to random people. I'm impressed with myself for even going since usually I wouldn't.

There was a sign on my elevator last night when I got home that said the heater would be off and turned back on in the morning due to a burst steam pipe. I have no idea when that happened but I can say today it has been sweltering in my apartment. I turned down my own radiator to the lowest setting becuase I'm so hot. I was impressed when I did laundry that the newest manager (that would be #7 if you're keeping track) FINALLY replaced all the burned bulbs in the laundry room. We've been operating on 1/2 light in that room for at least the last year.

Headed to the library today to pick up some new books. They were taping a show called "The Phone" (?) at the library. I didn't see the cameras but there were official looking people wandering about and there were signs as you walked in saying that basically going into the library means you accept that you might be taped and shown on TV. I can't imagine what they were taping in the library, there seemed to be a heightened number of homeless in the library today.

While at the library I photocopied a roadmap of Ireland. I'm going to put the 4 pieces of the map together so that I can really study it and figure out the best places to stay. We're going to try to stay only in 4 to 5 towns that are centrally located to the region and then travel from each of those towns to the sights. In the driving vs public transport debate there are good arguments for either side. On the driving side is the ability to do things on our own schedule and not the artifical schedule of the buses and rails. There's also the expense of public transportation. They offer an Emerald Card which is good on the entire country's various public lines - trains, DART, buses, etc - and it runs like $180 Euro (which is about 250) but that would be good for our entire trip. So that's about $20 a day in transportation costs. The con to driving include the fact that apparently most rental cars in Ireland are manual. I can drive a stick but Lyday can't. Of course that may be a good thing (she knows I'm nervous about her driving, this is no shock to anyone). But I don't have car insurance so there's an additional expense on the car side. Also, gas runs almost $5.00 a gallon. Yikes. Oh and there's the whole driving on the left hand side of the road thing which you can toss on driving down narrow and really unfamiliar streets. So I don't know. Although if we're going public transport route (which I think we are) that will impact some of the places we go to and how long we spend there. Just about 2 months until vacation. Whee!!!