Back in Ireland Again

In four days I'll be leaving to go back to Ireland. This trip, I'm sure will be unlike any other I have made to the "homeland". For one thing, I am now older than ever I was before (does that shock you?), and I have achieved a much higher level of immaturity. I am now old enough to know that I cannot afford not to enjoy myself as well as to become satisfied. For another, I will have money this time- not alot by any stretch, but much more than I as a college kid or early adult "intrepid traveler" ever had. I may be able to settle my own age old question of whether I would be able to get really drunk on stout before I got too full to drink anymore- I could never afford the experiment before. For a third, I won't be going to see the country (although how could I avoid it- I'd have to stumble around with my eyes closed like a blind guy- no, wait, blind guys don't close their eyes...) I will be going to see the people. I won't feel pressured to do anything or to see anyone I don't want to see. So many times before I had hit the ground in country (mostly Ireland or Ghana) and immediately had things to do, people to see, respects to pay, or an agenda set by someone else. Undoubtedly, I will pay my respects and see people, but it will be at my own pace and in company of my choosing (how could my wife ever have imagined that the last trip to Ghana was relaxing for me?). I am looking forward to putting my ever widening Yankee ass in a kitchen chair and sipping tea and not catching up on old times but rather whiling away new ones in the comfortable knowledge that I can rise up and take my leave when the emotion hits me. The kids I last saw will be women and men now, and the kids I will never have seen before. I know the country has changed a lot since my last visitation, and I'm trying not to limit it to what I knew it in the past to be. However, I think that will be easier said than done. Yesterday on the phone with an old friend we reminisced about the sandwiches at the Long Valley on St. Patrick St. in Cork, about the drafty-ass, no central heat house we used to live in "Aldergrove", and about all the funny things we were and lived back in the old country.

There is one thing that I will regret leaving here in the States. The Patriots-Colts playoff game. I can't believe I am going to miss the Patriots-Colts playoff. And then the other playoffs to follow, up until the Superbowl if the Pats get in. O, woe is me, they were only able to progress as far as they had because I was there to support them. How will they get by without me? I'll have to settle for a game of darts. Do you think they'd let me in the US Embassy to watch the game with them if I could prove I was from Boston?