Resolutions vs. Realizations - Holidays 2008

Well... to date one of the best holiday seasons I've had in ages.
Ok... totally miss the snow, but we can get over that :) :)

The weekend before Christmas, Gary came to visit in Galway and we had a lovely, relaxing weekend while we were both still tryin' to get over the flu. Ma, I attempted to make him one of your famous salads, but mine just doesn't hold a candle to yours!

Monday (before xmas) we drove up to Irvinestown...
Holidays with the McNulty's would consist of the following:

A constant inflow/outflow of various people, consistant talking and laughing (mixed with a bit of normal family stuff of course!) endless potatoes, abundant food, movies, relaxing on the most comfortable couches you will ever sit on, creative drinks, a toasty warm fire, a silly moving santa surrounded by beautiful decorations and ever-glowing Christmas lights, smoothies, more delicious food, a second vegetarian(!), kindness, outgoingness, laziness, no rain (I know!), beautiful frost, fun times in the pubs, a very interesting Christmas Day mass, dancing, amazing music, good people... good people. good people. good people.

It was a wonderful time.
I am thrilled to have met some wonderful new people (you will see them in the pics) and to have spent such quality time with a beautiful family (and lovely friends) while away from my own!
Thanks to all of you who welcomed me!

So... news, updates, etc.
A couple weeks ago I started to wonder about here. I mean, and you all know this, I love Ireland... the people, the landscape, even the weather, the music... I love it, but there's somethin' that I'm not enjoyin' and I'm starting to see that maybe this isn't where I will be. I know for sure that I need to leave... soon. So I began to get a bit antsy... good timing because we now have booked our tickets for New Zealand... onward to Australia and SE Asia.

We leave from here on Feb 14th and then from London on the 17th.
Excited is an understatement.

So, I left the north this afternoon and had quite an interesting trip on the way down.
There was an old alcoholic in the back of the bus where I was. He was desperate for conversation yet unable to carry one on. I just couldn't do it, but I was watchin' the girl he had moved onto after I so blatantly put my headphones on... she and I were silently and jointly able to tune him out. Hard to describe, but it was one of those moments.

I watched (even though it was dark most of the time) the houses pass. I love those thatched houses, the walls, the green, the rain. I will really miss all this.

I arrived in Galway and that's when it hit. I was arriving "home" or at least to the place I've grown to call just that. Here I was, off the bus at a station I've been to more times than I can count... surrounded by various nationalities, appearances, travelers, locals, etc... I started to walk with my pack. People were lookin' at me. Was I an outsider? Was I a local? I look like a traveler... had I been here before? My pack felt REALLY good, the sides of my legs felt familiarly sore, my shoulders ached and I loved it... welcoming the familiar solitude. I was arriving somewhere and I almost forgot what all that was like.
This feels like a temporary home.
Forever just doesn't fit.
And I am not sad about this realization... yet.

Smiles all!
Jess

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