Jimmy Flynn

Holy cow - I almost forgot to mention this morning's bus stop run-in.

Ok, so I got up for the early bus this morning, and fortunately when I got there my buddy Lee from work was already there. If this had happened while I was standing there alone I would have been a little freaked. Anyway, I was standing there looking for my tic tacs (they help me not to cough) and I had my morning paper in my hand and this old guy walks up and starts talking to us about the sports headline! He asked us where we were from and started calling us Americanos and asked us about the election, "but I'm not gonna ask ye's who ye voted for!" Then he asked how we liked Ireland. He said Ireland was "HELL'S KITCHEN!!" He was slurring (obviously) and says, "ye's know how the Irish live? Ye's wanna see?" Then he whips a bottle of Smirnoff's out of his jacket and takes a big old swig on it. "That's how we does it! Eh heh heh heh heh!" He asked us all about our jobs and told us about his job (well, we think he did anyway. the slurring was pretty bad, I tell ya). He'd just eaten a full Irish breakfast at the Burlington Hotel, apparently, which is just up the street from our stop. He told us he was Jimmy Flynn and asked our names and we told him and he shook Lee's hand and then held my hand for about 3 full minutes while he tried to think of a song to sing to me. Luckily the bus pulled up at that point.

Now, I hate to paint a bad picture of Dublin. It's not all bad - you know I love it here. And in its defense, this is the only really urban place I've ever lived. For all I know, drunks could be wandering the streets in big cities everywhere at 7 in the morning. It's really hard to be bothered by them here. Jimmy was a jolly fellow. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to get by. At least he was clean and didn't smell like pee. Hey - he was probably warmer than I was with that vodka in his system!