Home Alone

Today, Glenn went to work for the first time. I'll try to get him to post the rundown this evening. I am home alone today scouring the rental sights for apartment leads. I am going to look at a few tomorrow and Friday. I'm also looking at a space for the wine bar on Friday at lunch time. I've had my eye on this one from cyberspace for a while and peeped the actual location yesterday. Very promising. It is currently an empty shell, but has an alcohol license. Best of all, it's in a basement! Not sure why this is appealing to me, but it has been part of my vision from the beginning. Fingers crossed!

For lunch today, I went to a lunchtime theatrical performance of the Santaland Diaries. For only 15 Euros, I had a huge bowl of vegetable soup, two hunks of delicious brown bread and was treated to a hilarous rendition of David Sidaris' chronicles of elf-dom at Macy's during the holidays. Alicia, Mom - you both know about my David Sedaris obsession. I wish you were both there with me. So funny! The actor was Irish but forcing an American accent. I was almost fooled until he started talking about the urine test he had to submit to before being the offered the elf job and pronounced it with a hard 'i' - like in rhinestone. It was fun.

Speaking of rhinestones, did I mention that we are surrounded by Bvlgari, Gucci, Channel, Louis Vitton, and every other high end store you've ever heard of? I'm having a tough time walking to and from our apartment without wandering into these glittering, glamorous, bedecked stores. I want one of everything I see and am a bit embarassed by my usual jeans/sneakers get-up. As Hastings would say, it's time for Snoop Doggy Dog to get a jobby job. Once I have the apartment thing settled, I'm planning to apply for some part time work in a wine shop in town. I need to learn more about the buying and selling of wine and it would be nice if I could pay for those gorgeous boots I've got my eye on at Marks & Spencer.

An intersting story to be filed under "No on in Ireland Knows the Immigration Rules": Glenn and I dutifully went to the Guarda National Immigration Bureau to get Glenn registered as a foreign national and get his GNIB card. We looked into this situation quite a bit by researching online, calling the Irish cunsulate in Boston, and directly asking the HR person at Glenn's new office. Most of the answers we got were confusing, but both the Consualte and the HR person told us that the process when like this: Glenn gets a job offer, Glenn accepts said job offer, Glenn 's new company files for his work permit (costing them about 1,000 Euro), Glenn waits, and waits some more until the permit is issued, Glenn receives permit in the mail, Glenn goes to Ireland with permit in hand and registers at the GNIB office. When we arrived at the GNIB office we were told that if Glenn registered with his work permit he would only be legal for a period of one year. If he registered as the spouse of an Irish national (moi), he would be legal for 5 years and wouldn't have to pay the 150 Euro registration fee. If he chose the latter, he could work for whomever he chose and would never need a work permit. Mind you, we informed folks all along the way that I was an Irish citizen. Wouldn't you think that one of them might have told us this tidbit? Too bad his new company blew all that coin on a pointless permit. Jeesh! Moral of the story kids, Glenn is now legal in Ireland for 5 years and we won't have to worry about changing his status if/when he changes his job. I know this won't be our last tangle with the dreaded beast that is the Irish bureaucracy.

A few observations:
Apparently we need to get used to mince pies - they are everywhere!
Having boutique chocolate shops on either corner of our street is going to lead to badness, I can tell.
On the topic of chocolate, consuming 3/4 of a Cadbury Dairy Milk just before bed is a terrible idea in any country for a person who gets all jazzed up just by smelling someone elses' caffinated coffee. Oops!
Paper Euros don't fit in the average American made wallet.
The only CD in our apartment, accidentally left by the last occupants, is the soundtrack from Mama Mia. It is a Christmas miracle!
This country is batty over Mama Mia! the movie. I'm serious, it is all Mama Mia! all the time. A sign from God that I have landed in just the right spot.

More later....Hugs!
Jenny