Blogcoven

I’ve neglected my corner of the blog so long I’m surprised there aren’t colonies of spiders and layers of cobwebs blocking my way in. The sad truth of the past year is that I’ve had nothing I wanted to share with the Internets: grim accounts of thesis writing, power struggles with my PhD advisor and committee members, panic over table formatting in LaTeX, terror in the face of overwhelming evidence of my own incompetence, and the eventual resolution of pretty much everything.

I could have written about the optimal use of 5 Hour Energy for fun and profit, or how to get a snake out of the US and into Ireland (hint: the latter is easier than the former). I could have liveblogged my commencement. I think someone live tweeted my defense. I certainly gave a blistering account of my flight(s) to Dublin over Twitter. But nothing seemed interesting enough to blog, and I certainly didn’t have the wherewithal to report in anything more involved than 140 character chunks. So the blog has heard little from me.

Leaving LA for Dublin presents a new set of blog-friendly circumstances, however: I am unemployed and full of observations. Last night saw my happy Dublin debut, in which I forgot where Cassidy’s was (if indeed I ever knew), met up with people I haven’t seen in quite some time, found myself a game, and had my first decent pint(s) in years. The process of legalizing myself may take a little time, especially if the international banking system fails me and decides to hold my vast riches hostage, but last night assured me I will not want for things to do in the meantime.

I first took it into my head to leave the States when I was 15, and every large decision since then was based at least in part on that goal. While I certainly have new ideas and plans, it’s strange and disorienting to finally be here, clutching two hard-won things, looking out towards new goals that are lovely but lack the timeworn substance of those promises I made to myself so very long ago. Luckily, there’s quite a lot I need to get done. By the time things slow down, the short-term plan should have crystallised appropriately.