Wexford Girl

A Warm Weekend

We're off to Florida tomorrow to visit Eric's family. It will be so nice to be somewhere warm for a few days, and I'm looking forward to Eric's brother Bob's hospitality and margaritas, and his mom's breakfast rolls and new sun porch - perfect with a glass of wine (oh everything is better with a drink!)

I'm sorry I will miss Rare Device's new opening on Friday night, Everyday. It promises to be a great show. AND I'm missing Lisa's solo show opening tomorrow, Thursday, at Swallowtail. Go check it out.

Wallpaper Bears

I am seriously in love with all of Nama Rococo's wallpaper designs. Here are some bears I did with a background inspired by one of my favorite NR designs:

Tonight we just finished our Bourne Trilogy, started with the Identity and Supremacy last night.

I like them all, but I think Ultimatum suffers in comparison to the others. I could just hear the round-table discussions about what chase scenes and set pieces would surpass the first two movies (at the expense of credibility that was already stretched to breaking point).

The last straw for me was when Bourne lures the CIA lads out of the building on a wild goose chase so he can break into their offices. Then he calls David Strathairn, who claims to be sitting in his office, and Bourne says, "I doubt that; if you were in your office, we would be having this conversation face-to-face." Consequently, they all screech back to the office and Bourne is almost caught. Isn't he supposed to be smart? If it was in his interest to get them back to the office it's one thing, but it wasn't; he could have easily kept them running outside and out of his hair. It was a trailer quip, and a cheap shot.

Plus I love Franka Potente ever since Run Lola Run, and Julia Stiles bugs me, so that was another point against Ultimatum.

Still, there are worse ways to spend a Sunday evening than feasting my eyes on Matt Damon, I must admit.

Rainy Week

To quote Emma Thompson in 1991 movie Impromptu, "stupid stupid rain." I had forgotten about the movie, and when Suzanne was here recently she quoted it and we were trying to remember what movie it was. Thank God for IMDb.

Stupid rain, but I do get to wear my pink rubber boots with tattoo designs on them.

I bought my first umbrella when I was about 22. For some reason that I can't fathom, I assumed umbrellas didn't work, so I went through many years of getting soaked by Irish winters (and summers and springs and autumns). I finally bought one when I lived in Dublin (red with a duck head handle) and I was amazed. Wow! This actually works. It keeps me dry.

In other news, the group show I'm in at Brown Bear has been postponed until February. That's fine. It gives me a bit of breathing room. I have tons of paintings right now, but I don't display paintings more than one place, so I will be hanging all new stuff.

This is Eric and me when we first started dating. This year it will be 10 years together. I can't believe it. Before Eric, I never made it past 6 or 8 months with a relationship.

The Olden Days

I've been bad about updating, and I don't even have a reason. Just lazy I think.

I brought back a bunch of old photos from Wexford to scan. It's amazing going through them. Most of the old ones are of my mom's family. My dad grew up on a farm in Dingle, County Kerry. There are some photos of his family, but not as many. They were too busy milking cows and threshing hay.

This is a stylish shot of my mom (on the far right) with some friends. I believe she was on the town in Cork, going to a movie or a dance. She's easily the prettiest of the three I think.

This is a school picture taken about 1974. A photographer came to the school to take pictures of all the kids. My dad was the school principal, so he had the opportunity to take a shot with his kids. I am on the left, sporting some crazy lapels. John is on dad's lap, and the blonde cutie with even scarier lapels is Liz.

I don't know which of my parents christened us with nicknames, but we all had them. I was called Annabelle or Nancy; John was always Johnny Jumps; Liz was Blondie Button;and Michael was Mickey Jo.

Junebug

When I was at Shash's fun Glogg party before Christmas, I fell in love with this poster she had hanging in her living room. I loved the movie too, although from what I remember, Eric hated it and we had a fight about it.

Eric thinks I sounded a little too happy to be without him in yesterday's post. So let me just say, Eric, I miss you and I can't wait until you're back.

I Love January

Yesterday was lovely. After leaving my dear husband at the airport to fly to Detroit for business, I met Suzanne (whom I wrote about before) and Larry at Dotties True Blue Cafe for breakfast - best in the city I think. Absolutely great to catch up with Suz, who looks exactly the same as she did when we were both 23-year old waitresses in Savoy Tivoli - just as young and fresh and pretty, and just as warm and funny.

Then I drove to Brisbane and hung out with Carter and Mark in their big warm house, catching up and playing with little Zarah, my god-daughter, who just turned two. Carter (AKA Suzi), is another old friend from Savoy Tivoli days. (Oh my God, that was 17 years ago!)

I went to the studio for a few hours, changed from my good outfit into a painty crazy-lady ensemble, and did some painting for my upcoming show at Brown Bear. After that, I changed back into the non-crazy outfit and went to meet Ashli.

I love January because December is crammed with holiday plans, shopping, parties, and there is little room for a quiet night with a good friend. Last night, I had a quiet night with a good friend. Ashli and I met at adorable wine bar Amelie on Polk Street and had wine and rich, delicious truffle ravioli.

Life is good.

 

The Fantasy

While I was in Ireland, I indulged (as I always do) in a fantasy about moving back there. I am very happy in San Francisco, but there is something so seductive about the idea of being back in Ireland, near my family, in the culture I grew up with.

When I have this fantasy, I always think, "what would I do?" The Irish economy is incredibly strong, and I'm sure there is plenty of opportunity, especially in Dublin. But I don't know if I could live in Dublin again. It's too busy and traffic-clogged. Wexford or Kilkenny would be more appealing.

There is also untapped opportunity online. I don't see much evidence in Ireland of the kind of Web-based creative industry that is so prevalent here. I mean the Etsy-conomy (ooh, I just coined that), Tiny Showcase-type businesses, or online versions of stores like The Candy Store, Rare Device and The Curiosity Shoppe. (I don't see actual stores like that over there either). Paul of Siopa Eile is trying to kick start a creative Web economy in Ireland, and encouage Irish artisans to take advantage of online opportunities, but the idea is slow to take off. ("Siopa Eile" means "Other Shop" in Irish, which I think is quite clever.)

Anyway, it's fun to dream about it, and who knows? Perhaps Eric and I will reach a point where we can make most of our living from creative pursuits, and spend half the year in California and half in Ireland. Although I think Eric would like Michigan to be part of that plan too; whenever he visits his home state, he has exactly the same sort of fantasy about moving back. And I can't really expect my sun-loving husband to endure the Irish weather for long periods.

Here's a shot of an interesting business in Wexford. Their pints will kill you.

Lauryn's Song

Posting From Dublin

Hello. I'm in my brother John's lovely warm house in Dublin. It's just Eric, me, and John; Geraldine and the girls are still at her parents' house. We head home to California tomorrow. It's always hard to leave, but it has been a lovely trip. Everyone is happy and healthy and the kids are great and cuter than ever (tune in tomorrow for a video of my niece Lauryn that will melt your heart.)

Today was supposed to be the day we went into downtown Dublin, and visited Grafton Street, O'Connell Street, Temple Bar, and all that. Instead we woke up at noon; last night was a late night. (Ten years ago, that would have meant out on the town hitting all the clubs, but now it means playing several rounds of Scene It? on John's XBox 360, and then watching Extras Christmas Special and Casino Royale. The joys of late 30s/early 40s partying!)

So today we did the Guinness Brewery tour. It was great. Plus - free pint!

And now - Kaylin and Chloe, the best little Galvins in all of Dublin.

Seven Days of Photos: Day 7

Oh, day 7 already. I think I miscalculated, because in futureworld it's only Friday and I am still in Ireland. (I'm doing this post way back in 2007.)

This is the view we had from our NYC house swap in May. We stayed in an amazingly huge 3-bedroom penthouse on Park Ave. We returned to SF to the disconcerting certainty that our swappees had not, after all, stayed in our house as planned. There was no history on the Internet, no garbage, no left over milk, and the paper we had left was still upopened on the table.

We never heard from them after we emailed to ask how their stay was, so we still don't know what happened, but we got a free place to stay in New York!

I love this painted window I saw on that trip.

And this is one of Eric's simple, lovely drawings.