My Cousin Got Married

and some AWESOME wedding pictures were the result.

Maureen and Brian's Wedding. These were taken by the wedding photographer, who was a childhood friend of Maureen's.

Remembering Grandpa

Narrative written about a "happy memory", 8/13/07

Grandpa and Lyla came to visit us the summer I was 16, and Grandpa had to be taken to dialysis while he was there. One day, my mom and dad were going golfing, so they asked me to pick him up from the dialysis center. The clinic was in Gaylord, about 45 minutes away from our house. When I got there, he was still receiving treatment, so I waited with him and we talked. I also spoke with the nurse who told me that I would have to help him to the car and he would be very tired.

When I turned the car on, the CD I had been listening to, “White Blood Cells” by the White Stripes, blasted through the speakers. The White Stripes are a two-person experimental rock band for those who don’t know. We didn’t speak at first, and I assumed grandpa was tired so I didn’t push conversation and enjoyed the music.

All of a sudden grandpa pipes up. “Humph…this isn’t music,” he said. “This crap you kids listen to now a days, this isn’t music, it’s just noise.” Even though he had just insulted one of my favorite bands, I couldn’t help but laugh. I began explaining my point of view on why I thought the band was good and their music was as much an art as jazz. For the rest of the ride home we got into a jovial if slightly heated discussion about what makes music music. We both forgot about dialysis and just focused on the joy of talking to one another and the scenic hills of northern Michigan.

High School Flash Backs

I was told recently that I'm not the same person I was in high school. Even though the conversation was sad and disappointing, I ultimately took it as a compliment that I'm not the same person as I was.

Here is a picture of me at 16:




I'm the one with the crazy red feelers on my head. I'd like to think I've come a long way since then :)

Everyone changes after high school, I learned in Personality Psychology last year that those are the years that your self image and personality are prone to change the most throughout your life, and those constructs are finally stabilized sometime in your 30's.
I think the greatest challenge for friends after high school is whether they can change and adapt together or separately and if they can accept the other for their changes. I had a lot of trouble accepting that things weren't the same as they were in high school when I was fresh out and even a year after graduating. But if life and people never changed, the world would be a pretty damn boring. I'm trying to accept people for who they are or who they've become, now. I wish everyone did.

Regina Spektor

Check it out Here.

The World is Jill's Oyster

Jill has always been one to jump up and grab life by the horns. Her parents repeatedly recite that she can do anything as long as she sets her mind to it.

Jill is not the sharpest crayon in the box, however. She’ll complain that whatever she’s doing is harder than nails and avoid doing it at all costs. One day she doesn’t work her butt off at the beauty salon where she’s employed and won’t do a lick of work. As a result, she is kicked to the curb and promptly kicked out of the nest to live on her own. She becomes depressed but quickly learns to take things with a grain of salt.

Jill panics when she finds herself in quite the pickle with no home or job. But her boyfriend Jack comes to the rescue with an “I love you,” and a “will you marry me?” Without a moment’s hesitation, she’s run off into the sunset to live happily ever after with Jack, 2.5 kids, and a dog. Throw in the white picket fence and she’ll be happy as a clam, thinking this love was a match made in heaven. She’s forgetting that money can’t buy happiness.

Jill’s friends are eternal cynics, so when Jill says “Don’t worry, be happy,” they are skeptical. Everything is sex, drugs, and rock and roll in this modern world and the white picket fence has lost its appeal to people like Jill’s friends. Misery loves company, too, and her friends plan to end Jill’s marriage. Since all’s fair in love and war, her friends wickedly end Jill’s relationship with Jack. Jill’s heart breaks into pieces and she feels like a fish out of water for the rest of her life.

The moral of the story: don’t rely too heavily on clichés or your life will become one.

In Retrospect

Wow. What a summer. I am writing this entry on my last day at my internship, only two days before I leave Dublin and Ireland for home, and I don't know when I'll return to this beautiful (but dreadfully rainy) island.

And what can I say about my summer. I find myself at this point, and I'm almost speechless in a way. How can one make others comprehend the feelings they have at the end of such a monumental and life-changing summer. How can I convey that this was the best summer of my LIFE and what that really, truly means? I guess I can't, I guess I have to wait for one of you to experience something as wholeheartedly as I have this summer for you to realize it. Experiences like this are truly once in a lifetime and are real gifts. If you had had such life altering experiences in your life, I congratulate you. If you have yet to "rock your world" quite literally...may I suggest going to Ireland at the drop of a hat? ;)

When it comes down to it, I'm a very sappy person. I'm very sentimental and I'm very cliche. I've come to accept this, because trying to not be is very exhausting, and it's more fun to be a "wear your heart on your sleeve" kind of person. I think that you live life in a very pure and compelling way if you just let everything affect you. It may be good sometimes and bad others, but at least you can say you're living.

With that, this summer has been wonderful and it has been awful. Things have happened to me and I've done things I've never thought possible of myself. If you are curious, I've written about a few of my experiences in Ireland throughout this blog. Overall though, everything I've done, every mistake I've made has been completely, totally, utterly WORTH IT.

This ending is so entirely bittersweet I can't determine which I want to do: stay or go. I'm going to miss everyone I've met in Ireland and Europe, but things have been happening back home that I'm anxious to get back to. This waiting period is almost killing me. Thinking about it, I've used up every resource I got my hands on in this trip, and this trip is over for me. I do love Ireland, but since my internship is over and I have nothing more to be here for, I'm ready for the next stage of my life. I'm looking forward to my classes that start in two weeks, going back to work and actually making money instead of spending it, my future trip to France, and what I do next in my life. I also miss all of my wonderful friends and family back home that have helped me get through the rocky times in my first time away from home.

I'd like to end with the last paragraph of my final paper for my Professional Writing class:
"This summer has been a whirlwind of traveling, adjusting to a new country, and trying desperately to make an impression on the Irish publishing world. Through trial and error and lots of pitfalls, I have come to find a little niche in this country and in this industry that made my internship a very good experience for me. Although the company and maybe even the country were not ideal for me, I learned so much about myself, about publishing, and about Ireland that undoubtedly will contribute positively to my life. I do not see myself following my feet to Ireland for a professional future in book publishing, but in retrospect, I wouldn’t change a thing about my summer. It truly was the best summer of my life, and through the good and the bad, it helped shape who I am and am on the road to becoming."

I think that sums it up nicely.

note: this blog will not end with my summer in Ireland. Please keep reading for continued adventures in my mildly entertaining life.

My Mom Visited

Pictures from the weekend Mom and Theresa visited.