Spring Break Boredom!

Last Saturday morning there was a loud knock on my door. No one had buzzed from the street so I figured it was someone from within the building, perhaps something strata related, as I am on my strata council, plus it was a pretty determined knock, so I went to answer it, even though it was approaching the ninetieth minute of Arsenal-Middlesbrough with the scores level at 1-1. I opened the door to two young girls, perhaps one was 12 the other 10, I'm not sure as I'm not very good with guessing the ages of anyone under 23.

Me: Hello?
Them: Hello. Can you give us a word for our dictionary of made up words?
Me: What?
Them: We're making a list of made up words.
Me (stalling for time): Umm?
Them (standing there looking at me, not saying anything, waiting): silencio
Me (stalling for time): What's this for?
Them: It's spring break and we're bored (editor's note: what the hell?)
Me (stalling for time): What do you have so far?
Them (wondering why I won't just give them a word): blah, blah, blah, blah (Okay I don't remember what they said, they weren't actually just repeating the word blah)
Me (bored with this conversation): I don't really have anything.
Them (not taking no for an answer): If you had some time to think about it would you be able to come up with something?
Me (wanting them to go away so I could go back to watching second half injury time in the Arsenal game, with the Arsenal level and pressing for a winner): Maybe.
Them (not understanding what I'm not saying): Okay, we'll come back in ten minutes.

So, I went back to my computer to see the game had ended, still 1-1, and then tried to make up a word. I even went to a website of made up words, not to plagiarise but hopefully to be inspired. Nothing. They knocked again and despite not having a word yet, I answered the door again.

Me (thinking but not saying "there's no way in hell that was ten minutes"): Hello.
Them (waiting with excitement and anticipation): Do you have a word yet?
Me (not having a word yet): No.
Them (not impressed by me not having a word for them): silencio
Me (not impressed by them just standing there unimpressed by me): But I do have a definition for one.
Them (slightly less unimpressed): What is it?
Me (hungry): The inability to think when under pressure.
Them (thinking quickly): How about unthinkissure? (sp?)
Me (thinking that with more time I could come up with something better but not wanting to actually take the time to come up with something better): Sure.

So there you have it, my contribution to spring break and the English language.

CANCELLED!

I've just learnt that St. Patrick's Day has been cancelled this year. In the church calendar this is holy week, which takes precedent over any saint's days, thus, no St. Patrick's Day. So, turn off your Dubliner's albums, take off your green, cork your Jameson's, and get back to work.

Teen Angst Poetry!

I went to the Railway Club last night for Teen Angst Poetry. It's a somewhat regularly occurring (now the second Tuesday of every month at the Railway) open mic night. People get up and read from their journals from the darkest and deepest corners of their teenage years. They tell of their anxieties, of how no one understands nor will ever understand them, of how they'll be alone forever, of how Kevin likes them, of how sad everyone will be when they're gone, of true ever-lasting love, of how Kevin no longer likes them, of marshmallow horses (seriously), of how cold and lonely this world is, you get the idea. Some people took themselves a little too seriously, some people thought they were a lot funnier than they actually were, but for the most part it was just good and funny. A lot reminded me of my own teenaged deep and tragic poetic musings and it made me really want to read through them again. Not on stage, just to myself. But alas, those journals are in another city right now. Woe is me...

My Irish Pub Crawl

Spanning a number of days, cities, islands and, of course, pints...