Alright, so i say this will be my last major blog before i get home, hostels charge too much to spend much time writing. I am pretty much all packed but i still am going to get up early tomorrow to make sure everything is done and dusted. After last year i am still completely paranoid about forgetting something or leaving something behind. I have two big bags, one of clothes and one of books, my laptop and my back-pack. The two bags are well heavy but hopefully i will not have to lug them around as much. I am looking for a hostel in Boston that is pretty near South Station Bus Terminal, bringing that much luggage through the subway is not a good idea. I will be flying to London at 6 o clock in the evening and arriving in Shannon at around 8:30 on Saturday moring, it had better be sunny i say.

So we had a little going away party last night, twas a civilized affair but a few people from work that usually do not emerge came along and so it was very enjoyable. i got a selection of odd presents, from the plate of potatoes that were sliced to spell BYE PAUL, to a Julie Cooper book and a CD of Cheesy 80's classics and World of Warhammer videos. I also forgot to say that i got the Family Guy movie off Dubs in New Paltz, i watched it today and it is pretty good. I went in to the store today then and said a final goodbye to everybody. This year it has been very different from last. I came over here on my own and now i am leaving on my own. None of ye know the people i met over here or the place i stayed so when i go home it will be like this place never really happened. At this stage however i do not feel that bad about leaving. There were a few people that i will be sorry not to see but i do have their email acounts so i am sure we will stay in touch for a while before gradually stopping. That is something that i have found out since college, between working in Dublin, going to New Paltz, coming here and generally meeting people in college i have met and then lost touch with many many people. When i was younger i could not handle that at all but i am gradually finding it easier, i dont hold out any hopes that i will stay in contact with everyone i meet in college and i will just enjoy it as it happens.

I must be off, it seems that there is no space in any hostels in Boston tomorrow, Uh Uh

I am just packing up my stuff. I get so tired of saying goodbye to people, its exausting and i hate it. Lots of stories from New paltz but at this stage i will just tell ye in person in a few days, or on the phone for the unfortunate souls who dont live in Ireland.

Sean, interrupted while argueing with Amanda about how i was not actually in New Paltz, another humorous surprise. Toilet scratchs his elbow in the background

Here is natalie, taken seconds before my camera died.

Here is one of Joe and his little brother Jack, just a month old. Bless. Obviously this was not taken at New Paltz....well perhaps not obviously.

Here do be one of Lais, Natalie and their room-mate, amanda i think. Hey to Lais if she is reading this.

Boo-hoo-hooo.....again

So i am posting this from Natalie's flat. It turns out that she was in the city fot the last while and that is why i have been missing her. She appearantly has an internship at ABC television station. I am leaving tomorrow at 6:30 so i have pretty much seen everyone i am going to see. I have to say good-bye to New Paltz yet again and it is pretty hard. New Paltz is my college as well as UL. It feels so natural to be here. Lat time i spent two weeks saying goodbye to various international students and come the end i was just sick of it and wanted to go home. That was not the case this time. I have had a great time here and i do not want to leave, not to Maine or to UL. I spent most of the day with joe or Lais and it was eally hard to say goodbye. I will not ever be back in New Paltz again so this time any goodbyes are petty final. I will not be going next year and the year after most people i know will have graduated so this is the last time in New Paltz for me.

I spent a lot of time in my room last year and Joe is like a younger brother to me. I realy hope that i will see him again but i dont know if i will. He is growing magic-mushrooms under his bed and selling them and he has given up the basball team in favourof the ice-hocky team but he seems to be doing good. I went back over to Dub's apartment with him tonight and did 2 power Hours and had a class time. I do not want to leave. I do not want to leave.

Hurrah

So i am posting this from Dubs's room while listening to 'BANANA PHONE' Yes Dubs, who a select few of ye may remember asJoes friend has downloaded the classic and i am listening to it at this very moment. Make sure to tell Eoin in work that i got it.

So i ran away from the hostel as i knew that i would not have gotten back before twelve and i left my stuff in Lais's apartment. I then headed off to Happy Hour at around eight o clock, a bit late i know but i had a shower in Lais's then had something to eat in Gullies. Sop i go in and i se nobody. Sure Vader, Dice and Doug are around but i can only say hello to them, not hang around and talk to em. I went to Oasis, and Gullies as well and decided to give P&G's one mor etry. It was then that i met Laura and Annie. I hung about with them for around an hour and then trhey were heading down to therir apartment for a few drinks and i said i would join them. As i was waiting outside however i met Amanda and Sean (apologies for those who were never in New Paltz and never knew these people, i guess this post is mostly for Amanda, liam and James.) That was pretty sweet and i stuck around for a few before we went down to a cafe to watch Dylan (blondiosh rugby guy who spent a bitof time in Australia) play a gig in a cafe. He was really good but a bit mellow. I got to say hi to vadar and Dice though which was good. I WENT BACK TO p&g's for a bit but then i got bored and decided to head back to lais's where i was going to be sleeping but who did i bump inot but Joe, who i had been ringing all day long but getting no answer. I am in Dub's apartment now and it is pretty cool. He seems to be doing pretty well for himself. i will write more later

New Paltz mark II

Roysh so i got up today and went for a long stroll around campus, its very hot, sunny and sticky here at the minute so i am well glad i did not bring the long pants that i was starting to waer a lot in Maine. For a while i just sat down in fron the the Humanities building reading a book and surprising random people, well not random i knew them but the fact that i bumped into them was random. I rand Lais later on and i went down to her place and talked to her for a while, she said that she would sign me in as a guest in Hasbrooke, i think it was the first time i was actually excited about going to that place. Sitting in there was surreal, i kept imaging i would see Amanda stumbling in, in her pyjama and glasses and looking worse for wear after the night before. I was tlaking to Lais for a good bit but then went down town for lunch. It was two plain subs and a gatorade for me in the Convenience Deli again, ah the memories. Myself and James would go down there every saturday morning and he would try and piece together what happened to him the night before.

I was walking past the Quad when i saw one or two guys that i recognised as being a few of Silja's friends. I got talking to them then had a nifty game of Ultimate Fizbee for around an hour with a big bunch of them. You would not think that i was an imposter walking in their midst. I called down to Amanda eile then, one of Seans friends and i was talking to her for a while, did a few shots of this 150% proof Barcardi Rum which i am still recovering from, twas as strong as that Stroh shit. She did not have Seans number but appearantly he is now playing rugby and so i said i would kill two birds with one stone and surprise him and say hello to a few of the rugby guys. Amanda rand his grlfriend and she said practise was over at 4, unfortunately the silly cow wa wrong and i missed them by half an hour. That plan went out the window. Now i am back in the hostel and i am going to have a shower then call up either Laura and Annie or Natalie and Laura and see do they want to go for something to eat.

NEW PALTZ, NEW PALTZ, IT'S A WONDERFUL TOWN!!!!

So i finally got here, i am writing this for ye from the Hostel that is there on Main Street, it was the one with the slightly disturbing Halloween display of Michael Jackson and a bloody child. Anyway it is so cool to be back. My bus was delayed in New York and then i could not get through to Marie, conals aunt, who i was hoping to meet. I just could not get through to her with the public payphones, i was unsure as to what digits to include or leave out. So that sucked. I went for a bit of a walk abound New YOrk which was as smelly and loud as ever, I liked it though. I also went for a bit of a walkabout in Boston which was sunny and nice and pleasant.

So i eventually arrived in New Paltz a little after 11, Annie and Laura met me at Poughkeepsie train-atation. It was weird to see them, i have began to associate them more with UL that with New Paltz. They dropped me off at the hostel and i was lucky to get a place, reserving a bed would have made too much sense. So then i went for a walkabout the town. I did not realise how much i missed the place. It felt like i never left, my time over here last year was perhaps the best few months of my short life. Walking around was so familiar and i saw a few of the rugby guys and one or two guys from my class. Then on my way back to the hostel and just passing the HAB building who did i meet puking into a bush but....JOE!! The look on his face was priceless, i had sent him an email but he never checked it so he had no idea i was coming. He was a bit drunk so it took him a few minutes to figure out what was happening. He has grown since last year, god bless him, he's an inch or two taller than me now. I got his number anyway and i am going to meet up with him tomorrow. Hopefully i will be able to get onto a few people and meet them in Happy Hour. Even if i dont i will be satisfied having met Joe and the girls and just walking around the campus.

I must be off, theis place is as hippyish as the rest of the town and there is no wall betweent he common room and the bedroom and these bums are trying to sleep. I am actauly exausted yself, i did a lorrah lorrah travelling. I will post again soon

BOSTON BABY!!!

Roysh, here is Laina looking suitably awestruck by the Prudential Towers, or the Prud to those in the know

Happy Almost Halfway to St Patricks Day Day

Roysh, so i have just got the chance to update after my few days in Boston. I have a spiffing good time with Mrs Lainadoodle. I was only in the city for 24 hours but fu times were had. We stayed in the same hostel that the New Paltz group stayed in last year and that was kindof weird. The whole being in Boston again was kind of odd, i kept imagining Amanda or James to run out. Laina was actually staying in the room Rachel was supposed to be in last year.

So i went and did a wee bit of shopping which was helped by it pissing rain, we saw the Famine sculpture again but did not mock it this time. I actually went and spent a bit of money which was nice but a lot of the stuff over here is ver 'American' (obviously) and i nae like it. I went into a few stores that while they looked grand turned out that i was either a few shades too Caucasian or poverty-stricken to feel comfortable. We went down to Crossroads, the local irish bar to get something to eat and drink a wee bit. I had my first Magners of the summer, twas lovely. We then had a pitcher or two and some of the house beer in big glasses. Laina stole some stuff for me. Appearantly they are having a big celebration in all the irish pubs in the city in October called 'Halfway to St Patricks Day Day' which is a very good idea.

Now as i mentioned in my previous post we got a nite-club called Julliet's reccommended to us but unfortunately we could not find it so we went into this big one with a queue in frint of it that seemed popular, plus there was no cover. It was only inside that we realised that while it may not be an actual gay-bar it was very...very gay friendly. Still the music was alright and we had a few drinks there. It was my first time in a gay bar and while i dont consider myself homo-phobic in the least it was a little jarring to see so many same-sex couples dancing away. Now New Paltz and Maine is choc full of lesbiens but that was actually the first time i had ever seen two guys kiss, poor innocent irish guy that i am.

The next morning we got up resonably early at nine and while i checked out we settled on going to the Science Museum. That was a good laugh even though unfortunately there was no Lord of the Rings Exhibition there. The first place we looked at was all these optical illusions that in my state at least meade me feel very quesy. There was also a butterfly garden there that had huge flapping things in it, the terrified look on Laina's face made it worthwhile. Lots of other cool stuff, i bought a venus-fly-trap which will be cool. We left it too late when we were leaving though and i very nearly missed my bus home which would have sucked major ass, luckily the taxi-driver was hanging for a piss so he was in as much of a hurry to get to the station as i was.

Now hows that for an update. Today was my last day working in the book section at work and it shall be relatively dearly missed. I only have 5 or 6 working days left and i still have to organise my trip to New York. I was going to do it this evening but i started watching Kung-fu movies + Manga + X-Men2 so i got kind-of sidetracked. I was reading the Irish Independant as well today and heard about the vandels at Thomand Park. Appearantly they left a note saying "fuck the guards, fuck the system, signed scumbags" Now that note tells me they were either very socially aware knackers or what i think more likely is that they are the middle-class scowbs of Caherdavin, i know the type........

NEW BOSTON UPDATE

Its half two in the mornming, i went ot a nite-club for the first time in 4 months, tw3asa a good laugh. We went to Crossroads and had a nite-club reccommended to us. We could not find it though and went into the first one we found. Pity it was full of raving homo-sexalxss and fag-hags. Myself and Laina had a good time though. Forget Marc, robert is the new man. saw somew irish guys there, i was very disappointed in the state of irish manhood.

NEW UPDATE...........just for pa

i am in Boston, i have 30 seconds left on the computer in the Hostel. Having a great time with Laina

*America Update*

So today is Sept 11 again. I bought the New York Times Sunday Edition today and actually sat down and read the thing. I bought it several times in New Paltz but is always just turned into an unread pile in the corner. Now i read todays edition from front to back (no mean feat i tell you, thats over 200 pages) and i was really surprised by the lack of articles on Sept 11th stuff. There was no talk of any big concerts or marches or nought. Now i know that that may not surprise us at home because it happened so far away but last year in New Paltz several of the major TV stations gave hours to relatives rading out the names of the dead. One year it was parents reading the names, next year it was children and i cant remember what it was last year, then there was a big candle-lit vigil around the campus, which was kind-of spooky. This year i have heard nothing. I suppose it is kind of over-shadowed by the whole Hurrican Katherine thing, its a pity they could not have spelt the name right.

With regards to that things seem to be settling down in some way. They are still taking people out of the city and trying to clean up and the 'evacuees' (not refugees, only foreign types are refugees, American are evacuees') are still moving around the country. Appearantly it is the biggest organised movement of people since the Civil War. There are a few up around us and staying with our next-door neighbours. It odd, all their worldly posessions bar the case or two they have and their two cats are gone and the places where they worked are also gone. They are saying that a lot of them wont be going back and settling in their new States.

Word!!! Believe!!! Believe in the Word!!

Today was a good day. I went into work and the new schedule is up and WOOT i got the two days off so now i am going to New Paltz. I was smiling like a Cheshire cat for the afternoon. That was a weight off my mind. Of course today was the first day that i was working with Bi-Polar Betty after she announced her wuitting and i think we have just given up on any veneer of civility, we were jsut snarling at each other all day. She will be gone by Wednesday.

In other news, a new fella came to work with us today. Its a pity that he is an incredibly camp 17 yr old. He is all eager and asking questions and generally annoying me. Still its good that we got someone, i probably would not have got the days off if he had not come around.

I went over to play World of Warcraft again tonight. It was a good laugh but the most fun was just hanging with yerone, her boyfriend, their crazy dog and their house-mates. They are all my age and we just sat around talking and drinking, something i have not done since i came her. All in all, a good day.

A Conundrum and no mistake

Oh waily waily waily, i dont know why i am still up writing this, perhaps it is my undying loyalty to all my faithful supscribers. I am so tires it is not funny, i went to bed yesterday at eleven but could not for the life of me sleep. I do not understand it, i had not eaten or drank anything for two hours befoer bed and i had not had my protein shake at all that day. At 4 o clock i decided to take some of them anti-histamine tablets as they knock you out. I dont want to take them as sleeping tablets as i would be screwed if i started not being ablt to sleep with out them. So i go to sleep some time after 4 and then get up an hour and a half later at 6 to get ready for work. To say i was a zombie at work today would be a major understatement. We had no cereal so i had no brakfast and so for the first few hours i was chronically fatigued and had nothing in my stomach but the remains of sleeping tablets, which were doing their job all too well. I came home at 3 and just collapsed in bed for three hours. i deliberately woke myself at six cuz i did not want ot be screwed tonight.

Anyway, apart from that bit of mosfortune, there was also a bit of scandel in work today. My good frien Bi-Polar Betty is quitting and leaving next week. While i had known that she had gone for and interview for a beautians she had saind that she would probably not take it. Long-story short she is leaving and also leaving us high and dry. There are some good points and some bad points about her going. 1) She is going, 2) i may now be trained to make drinks meaning something for my CV and a 75 cent payrise, unfortunately the bad points are that we are now even more chronically understaffed than ever and my chances of getting to New Paltz are fading fast unless in the next two weeks they can hire someone of Manager material. It has yet to be resolved.

Thinking of titles is such a drag

Alright just a small post. I have changed the setting on leaving comments like Liam. It pretty obvious, you just type in the letters that appear in the box before your post can go ahead. That will stop all the stupid fools from leaving advertisment shit on my comment board. Its in the 'Comments' part of 'Settings' if other people with blogs want to turn it on.

I now have 24 days left over in the States, that just over three weeks so i am really feeling like i am winding things up over here. While i had a great time over here it will be far easier to leave here than New Paltz, saying goodbye to everybody there was very very hard. The only person that i care about over here and will not see again is Lacy but the strange thing about that is that i am not too worried about it. Not to be too crude about it but we are basically just friends who sleep together. Bar Suzanne, she is the person who i have spent the most time with over here and while it has been fun it was never serious. When i think back to how much i dreaded saying goodbye to Amanda, (whom i never had relations with, regardless of what does damn paparazzi say!!!) there is nothing that really compares over here. I will of course see Suzanne again as she comes to Ireland for a month every year and Patrick sometimes comes over. As much as i complain about her, Bi-Polar Betsie is another person i would spend time with, i have gone to the cinema and the bar with her on her own and enjoyed myself.

It is looking more likely that i will be able to go to New Paltz, Lacy suggested that i get my request in quick and it should be alright. If it were any other job i would probably quit now and go travelling for the three weeks but since i know Suzanne it is more personal, after all i am going to be seeing her again in January when she comes over. So on my days off this week i hope to go for my kayaking lessons, the week after i am going to Boston to see Laina and the week after that i will hopefully be in New Paltz and then on the friday after that i will be flying home. The time will fly i am sure.

Looking at vegtables causes cancer

Ai-yi-yi, here is me looking chuffed, why? The weather has been brilliant the last few days after the rain blew itself out. I went to the beach yesterday and just lazed around with Lacy and read books. The place is really nice, its a forest that runs right down to the coast so you have the sea, the beach, thick forest. I got a wee bit burnt but nothing like what happened me a month or two ago. Fun was had an i started a few good books. I am thinking of going down to New Paltz in a week or two and it will be around 8 hours travelling each way so i am trying to find a stock of books to keep me going. I worked it out and if i get the 9:15 bus from Rockland i should be in New Paltz by 8:30 that night and that included an hour stop in New York and Boston. I am looking into it and got some good news today when one of the girls in work said it is usually not much of a problem to get days off after labour day which is monday.

So anyway i went to see Transporter2 yesterday with Cliff, my man-date. The film was alright, it was almost a parody of the genre at some stages and was sometimes so cheesy that you had to laugh but twas enjoyable. I was talking to Cliff afterwards and it turns out he is a screen-writer for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, unfortunately i dont watch it much so i did not know much about it but it seems pretty cool. He knows that guy who played Keller in Oz which Steve might understand. We got talking about borad-games afterwards cuz he is a complete afficiado and he gave me a few suggestions about some games that we might get for Christmas. Unfortunately our nerdy conversation was broken up by the women who had gone off and gotten very drunk on their own. We went back to bi-polar Bettys place and just hung around there. I got on really well with her last night actuall, i showed her how to do Irish dancing and we bonded over our shared appreciation of the Carpenters. All in all very confusing.

So since i was not starting work til half 2 today i went kayaking with this woman who comes into the store a lot and is fascinated with Ireland and all things Celtic. Still i got to ramble on about home while we went paddling out the coast to her families Island. It was scorching hot out and the water was just beautiful, it made me really glad to be here. At the minute i am just back from work and i am exausted. I was closing in the store today and while i enjoy it, it means that i sometimes finish quite late. Still i managed to get another invitation to go play World of Warcraft again so that is cool. Apologies for the brevity and mundanity of the post but perhaps i shall have more to say tomorrow. It is kind of hard to make everyday things sound exciting.

I am very discret, but i'll haunt your dreams

You know what makes me homesick? My dreams. I have just after woken up and my last three dreams have included one of myself, my sister and my brothers all going for a trip to the Empire State building, of being in Fanore with the Honan, an meeting up with Joe in New Paltz. Of course the first involved flying cars, the second of Conal running away from home and the third with New Paltz actually being in Fanore and the dorms have been replaced with caravans but you get the picture. So now i want to get to New York for a while then go home to see ye guys.

WOMEN, a defence tool of known value

Hmmmm, I went the The 40-Year Old Virgin last night. I dont know if it is out back home but if it is i recommend it. The lead man is the guy who played Brick in Anchorman and he is very good, his character is a good bit different. It was a weird movie, i say a lot of girls would like it as well, that is if you feel like being stereotypical and saying that girls do not like fart jokes but do like romantic comedy. It is the perfect date film i think, something for everybody. It got a bit slow and touchy-feely near the end but the finale was fucking class and made it all worthwhile.

Bar that i do not have much news. I am going on a man-date on friday. Kaia has set me up to entertain her boyfiend who is up from the Bronx on Friday while herself and Lacy get stoned and read all the Fall catalogue magazines, they have piles of them ready. I think we we will go see Transporter 2 cuz it looks class and otherwise i would end up going on my own. He seems alright, he's a screen-writer and a big action movie buff so we will have something to talk about. He is 15 yeas older than me though.

I only have a month left here and i am quite looking forward to going home. Its not that i am not enjoying myself here but I have done nearly everything i can do here and i would like a change of scene. I am in the same kind of mood as i was near the end of New Paltz where i am feeling very nostalgic about Ireland and listening to Sinead o'Connar, Mary Black and other 'Celtic Mysticism' shit i dont have any time for back home. I am thinking of asking can ii finish work on the 21st which would give me a week free. I would really like to go down to New Paltz even for two or three nights. I am definately going down to Boston to visit Laina, i shall have to get on about getting accomodation, oh woe woe why did her blog have to die. Perhaps i shall hear from her through the ether...or shit.