Saturday

I decided to finally see 'The Dark Knight' and got a bus up to O'Connell Street a little early for some shopping. I have never seen a city bus so crowded on a weekend. I had to go to the top floor and I sat in the seat right in front of the stairs. It only took a few seconds to notice the man in front of me was talking to his hand. I promise there was no blue tooth, just this poor crazy man, who looked otherwise completely normal, speaking feverishly into his hand. Luckily he got off the bus at the next stop.

I headed up to a book store called Chapters, which I love. There are new books downstairs and second-hand books upstairs. I was there to look for a book about Vienna, my next trip in September. Not only did I find 'Top 10 Vienna,' I also found a street map book and a tourist guide book on Dublin.

After my success in Chapters, I thought I'd celebrate in style as I tried the new spring rolls at McDonald's. Not surprisingly, the spring rolls weren't very good, and to make matters worse, I had yet another run-in with regurgitation. A toddler in a stroller who'd been screaming since I had arrived lost his Mickey D's all over his sweatsuit. That does it - I'm a barf magnet. In Scotland, it was the lady on the Highlands tour bus. On my trip to Jax, the sick girl in the seat in front of me on the 8-hour flight. And finally, the McDonald's incident.

Disgruntled, I quickly gathered my trash and got the hell out of there. It was time to head for the movies. Dark Knight was really good, and as I exited the cinema, it began to rain on O'Connell Street. It has rained on me EVERY time I've been to O'Connell Street. It's kind of a thing now. I caught the bus and began to brace myself for the walk home. Luckily I had my rain jacket with hoodie with me. The rain was 'lashing down' as they say here. I was soaked from head to toe by the time I got home despite the jacket. My jeans were drenched and my hair had gotten wet despite the hoodie. The rain had also made its way up my sleeves and into my purse. It was insanity!

About two hours after getting home and watching the heavy showers come and go, it was time to meet friends at The Barge. The Barge is a pub pretty close to my apartment where we were to meet and have dinner before seeing a concert. It took us two hours to be served PUB GRUB, for crying out loud. The service was the slowest I've ever experienced. Although we were tempted to dine and dash, we got the barkeep to cash us out. We took some photos of the weather outside while we had waited.


Off to Whelan's, where a guy we used to work with at ML was performing with his band. And I do mean performing. Our friend was the life of the band! He was so into it that I had to smile. It was so nice to see such passion on the stage. He's the one on the left.


After the show, I called it a night. The bar was driving me nuts. It was so crowded that it was a battle to wedge myself between the wall-to-wall bodies to escape. It was nice and cool outside, and no longer raining. After a long day and night, I went home to bed.