Orientation Day 2: The Revenge

It is only my third day here, and I already want to sleep in. The sunrise comes late. I took a few pictures. The dark one is at 8:15am.

And the other is 10am.

As Yeats once wrote, the sunrise is “cold and passionate.” Cold, indeed. I have been freezing since I arrived, and I don’t expect to warm up anytime soon. Let’s do some brief math and then I can describe the rest of the day, shall we?

Late sunrise + COLD = Shama skips the second day of orientation

I missed it, by a long shot, but not entirely of my own doing. The ceiling light in my room burned out, and then my wardrobe door fell off. Yes. Fell. Off. On my foot. After that, I didn’t want to do much of anything, except curse, which thankfully, is widely accepted in Ireland, if not outright encouraged.

After cursing and nursing my sore foot, I went out in search of the orientation group. Wildly unsuccessful. I did get to see more of the campus though, which is, in a word, astounding. I have never had an on-campus experience before, despite my long career in higher educational pursuit. This is different. I wonder what it would have been like had I gone away to school when I was younger.

I probably wouldn’t have gotten up early back then, either.

looptopia and other things that don't work

it was not so good, last year. it was cold and there were too many lines. this year it's raining. but it's relatively warm. such is life.

i am soaked to the bone. these storms have got to stop. they're infringing on my plans. i did get to see some fire dancers, but only because i thought the scene would be warm. ha.

looptopia is such a great idea, but the past few years have been a bit of a disappointment.

LATER:

hm. i was at looptopia from about 6p to 9p. i got rained on. a lot. i didn't mind that much, but i decided that the events i wanted to see weren't going to happen, so i went home. i did. i went home. i showered myself back to warmth, changed, then got a surprise visit from a friend.

we hung out at my place for a short while, then one of us said, "Wanna go back to Looptopia?"

so, we went. it must have been midnight or so, but hey, the event was supposed to go on ALL NIGHT. yeah, right. it would only go on all night for those who had purchased wristbands, which they ran out of by 10p. boo. i understand the need for crowd control, but to run out of 'admits' by 10p? that was just poor planning.

maybe next year will be better, but i'm skeptical.

warm weather storms and accordion show

woo. i drove around in a summer storm to pick up shirts and merchandise for a pal. he played an excellent show at the house of blues. i've never been there before. it was neat. so was the storm.

have you ever driven through a storm? have you ever driven thhrough a Hand-of-God-style storm while blasting Aretha Franklin? if not, then you must try it. there's nothing quite so satisfying. especially if you sing along. oh, man, was that fun. it made the wait for UPS to get their shit together worthwhile.

the show was fantastic, as usual. although, i did find the relief portraits on the ceiling of the House of Blues back porch slightly creepy and disconcerting.

if you like accordions, give Jason Webley a listen. if you don't like accordions, give it a listen anyways. then go see one of his shows. he's one of the best performers i've ever had the pleasure to watch. i'm always amazed at his ability to control a crowd, hold their attention and get them to spin in slow circles whilst staring at their pointer finger.

after you do all of that, go drive around in a storm with Aretha. then you can give me a call and we'll have a laugh.