Flying to far away places

I am exhausted. Everything went smoothly with my travels, but of course I was too damned excited to sleep on the plane. My backpack was too heavy for my shoulders--yes, I know, I should have worn it around the block a few times, but I really didn't have that much in it it. Turns out, the pack itself hits my shoulders in weird ways and feels heavy even empty. I bought an extremely lightweight folding truck for it in the Atlanta airport, but those things are never very stable. I was all set to send some stuff home by post, but, honestly, I could only eliminate about 3 lbs, unless I want to send away my cpap and my DSLR and telephoto lens.

And my checked bag showed up in Dublin torn. Still usable.

So that's the funky travel news. Here's the good stuff.

My hotel could not be better located. It is just a few blocks from Trinity, from Temple Bar, and from Hannah's Queen of Tarts cafe. There is a guitar store right across the street with a big ole Rickenbacker in the window. I counted 10 guitar stores on my very very short walk this afternoon, and I passed by one place where a woman was singing "I Shall Be Released" in a storefront.

The room is a little worn, but really comfortable and much larger than I expected.

But here's the cool stuff. At the Queen of Tarts, which is very tiny, the folks sitting next to me introduced themselves. Two sisters--about my age--were traveling with one woman's college age daughter. One woman was from Illinois, the mother and daughter live in San Francisco. The young woman, Amy, is interested in stage management, and they all were quite keen to hear about ISU's Theatre program. Then they asked about my sabbatical and what I was working on. I told them. I mean told them I was writing a book about growing up gay in small town middle America. The woman from San Fran said "I'm from San Francisco. I spotted you right away" and we laughed. It was really great, and I felt my professional self in a really okay way. I loved telling them about ISU.

Then I got back to my hotel--just had to take a shower and a nap--and found an email from Al Goldfarb: he's in Dublin this weekend!! We tried to work out seeing a show together tonight, but that isn't going to work, so we are having dinner in a few hours. Perfect.

And then there was the cab driver, who flirted with me shamelessly, talked to me about history and politics and how to get around Dublin. And I handled the flirting okay. When he stopped at my hotel he said he wanted to give me directions to Trinity, but he'd have to get in the backseat with me to do it, and I firmly but kindly said "no you don't" and he laughed and told me how to get to Trinity and then to the Abbey theatre tonight. It was actually kinda fun instead of creepy, only because I felt completely in control of the situation.

For no real reason, I suppose, except that I feel a confidence emerging in me already that is new and exciting.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad. Haven't figured out how to add photos with this app yet. Give me some time.

Location:Dame Ct,Dublin,Ireland