Not Quite Quarterly

Yes, I know it's been a long time but if y'all would get on facebook you'd be able to keep up just fine :) Since February nothing much has happened. Just kidding. I've been busy and I guess since it was that long ago, first and foremost I must mention that I have a permanent job that I love. Well, as permanent as any job is but I'm cautiously optimistic. It's challenging, interesting and exactly where I want to be. Actually I don't know if Atlanta is exactly where I want to be but so far so good. There are quirks about this place that I will never like but there is a lot to like too with the main thing being that I have a great job.

I think my church is the thing I like second best although that's going through a change too but I think it will be ok. Fr. John is retiring after being priest there for 11 years and we will now have Fr. Jeffrey. I've only seen him once but knew Fr. John ok and will miss him. Since the new guy is from New Orleans though I have high hopes.

Another thing I love is my apartment. I'm pretty sure it's my favorite of all the places I have lived. My bathroom in Japan may have been a bit better but not much. It's got all the things I love. A balcony, huge windows, it's on the 4th floor so I just look out at the tops of trees, a walk in shower, an open kitchen with an island and more. The only thing that I really don't like about it is the address. I live on Confederate. What's a Northerner to do when you move South though? (I thought about using the Y word but I hate the baseball team to much to call myself that.)

Speaking of baseball, I've caught a few games this year. I went to a Braves/Cubs game courtesy of work, then a Twins/Boston game courtesy of a friend and a boss who lets me fly to Minnesota for a day game in the middle of the week, then a Braves/Phillies game courtesy of a friend, then a Phillies/Twins game in Philadelphia, then a Braves/Nats game courtesy of work and finally last week a Rochester Red Wings/Gwinnett Braves game. (Twins/Braves AAA teams) Gwinnett is a suburb of Atlanta so not too far. As far as watching AAA ball, it was great because the seats were cheap and good but I hate to tell you that the Twins have already called up their main talent. They were swept in a four game series although Jacque Jones did have a 4 RBI night the day after we were there. Also saw Wilson Ramos in his last game before he was traded to the Nats. Toby Gardenhire and Brendan Harris were the others we knew. Pat Neshek is with them but didn't play the game we went to.

Oh, the pic is the new comforter set I bought today. I was using a great quilt that Grandma made but it was too small for a queen sized bed so I took advantage of my Target gift card and a sale. And yes, my whole wall is pretty much a window which I absolutely love. My living room is floor to ceiling windows, even bigger!

Dublin

Since I was reminded today that I've been to Dublin by my lower pay check, I figured I should finally write about it. Even though the airline doesn't charge us, there are still fees at international airports that they don't take care of for us. Hence, my Dublin trip was paid for by a $49 deduction from my check.

Dublin was great. It wasn't real warm but it stayed dry for the most part, we stayed at a hotel that was extremely convenient to everything and I discovered a new favorite drink. Old cities tend to be more walkable with everything closer together and that was the case in Dublin. I think all the sights we saw were within a 15 minute walk of the center of the city. In another trip I would love to see the countryside but with just two days, staying in the city was really the only option. Another cool thing I did was take a tour of the old Jameson distillery. It's not where they make their whiskey any more but it was from the late 1700s until the 1970s when they built a new modern facility further south. It was really interesting and I had a free sample at the end. There was talk about what people mix their Jameson with and even though mixing it with anything was greatly frowned upon a few years back, it's been gaining acceptance. The tour guide said her favorite (mixing it with ginger ale) is popular in Britain so I gave it a shot and loved it. I guess that will be my St. Patrick's Day drink at the local Irish pub.

Here are a few pics and you can find the rest of the gallery here.

Note the date and place on the memorial from the church. Pretty sad to think that the situation remains in some ways the same.

2010

So the not quite daily is really not even quite monthly. Maybe I should make a New Year's resolution to blog more although I can tell you right now that will probably not happen. However it's kind of funny that while I spent most of 2009 unemployed I feel like I've taken on more in 2010. I hope that it's a better year for me and a lot of people out there who had a miserable past 12 months or so.
So update on me personally: In November I started a contract position at Delta, my dream job. I'm still waiting for it to turn permanent but crossing my fingers that it will be soon. So far I love my job, partially because I love the industry, well, probably mainly because of that. I have never had a job outside the airlines that I found so stimulating, challenging, maddening, interesting and exciting. It's definitely the right fit for me. Not to mention the travel perks. I've only taken advantage of them once so far with a trip that could have easily been driven but next week I hope to get out of the country for the first time since I moved back from Japan. My poor passport has been feeling sorely neglected. It's funny that I used to use it so much that I ran out of pages in less than three years and now three years later those extra pages have been used maybe once. Oh, the trip I'm hoping to take is to Dublin, Ireland. It'll only be a few days but fun to go somewhere I haven't been.
Another project that is taking some time is that I've finally started running pretty consistently again. I found a great running store here that is only about half a mile away and they have a run club once a week. I've been a pretty regular attendee so one of the staff asked me to be one of the coaches for a beginning group of women training for a 5k. It's great to have that extra commitment to get me going and so much fun to find other people to get out there with. Phidippides is the store that I run with (I know it's a strange name but that's the guy who ran the first marathon so it's appropriate.)
A few other items of note: My friend Marnie has really exciting news to share with her crafts now being sold in New York at the Museum of Modern Art. The link to her blog is on the right (Karger-Tift) so you can check them out. Way to go, girl! :)
On a completely different note, I've been completely glued to the coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. I guess I'm pretty fascinated by tragedy as anybody who knows of my fascination with New Orleans can tell you. I'm watching the telethon right now. I remember watching the one that took place after 9/11 and I think that was the first time that all the networks had gotten together to do something like this. Since then it has happened for the Asian tsunami I think as well as after Hurricane Katrina. Just a note to put the magnitude of this disaster in perspective: Death toll: 9-11 attack: 2,992, Asian tsunami:230,000, Hurricane Katrina: 1,836, earthquake in Haiti: still very uncertain but recent estimates have put it at 200,000. While this is less than the tsunami, the devastation is so much more concentrated. Haiti as a whole is smaller than the state of Maryland and has a population of less than 7 million. That's like Dallas-Ft. Worth losing 200,000 people. The other part of the tragedy is how little Haiti had to begin with. Heartbreaking. One story that particularly resonates with me is the loss of UN life. It is the single worst loss in the history of the UN. When I think of soldiers giving for their country, I also think of these UN workers who are giving not only for the sake of their nation but for all of humanity. Not fighting but keeping the peace. They are definitely heroes.

That's probably enough of my rambling until St. Patrick's Day or so.... Take care and give if you can. I would encourage people to give to The Bush Clinton Fund bushclintonhaitifund.org or Doctors without Borders doctorswithoutborders.org