Road Trip to County Clare, or Reasons to Procrastinate

I know too many geologists. No, really. Yesterday, some friends and I went to the beach somewhere in Co. Clare. I spent that time running around searching for rocks and interesting shells. Yes, this seems normal to some of you readers but let me tell you why. You are a geologist or are friends with one. My friends roamed around the beach for a bit, found some nice rocks and sat back to watch me go running around the place, barefoot over rocks and sand. Occasionally someone would shout to see where I was, and I'd answer with my head popping up, looking like Pebbles Flintstone because I'd tied my hair up to keep it out my face. One day, I will at least look like an adult. One day.

Earlier, we'd gone to the Cliffs of Moher. I'd been before with the lovely Diane Kanter, but this time, four of us: myself, Orla, Valerie and Anne, piled into Orla's car and took off. In a fit of stress, where I found myself sitting in the postgraduate room/my room/the library (it went on for a few days) willing myself not to cry, I decided I needed an adventure. Something to look forward to just to get through the week. So, I booked a flight to Italy in May and Orla suggested going to the Cliffs this weekend. Escapism at its best. Still, I felt better, began functioning like a human again (albeit a highly caffeinated and excited one) and we took off on Saturday morning for the Cliffs.

If there is anything more beautiful than green hills ending abruptly into cliffs with the ocean pushing against them, I need to know. At the moment, I'm gonna (ha!) go out on a ledge here and say there isn't. There was a great moment of hilarity when I misread a sign in my best movie announcer voice. Just for reference: Unstoppable Cliffage is not the same thing as Unstable Cliffedge. Why was there no space between cliff and edge (besides the obvious)? Classic.

After the cliffs, we went into Doolin to have lunch with our friend Anna. Her family owns a little cafe there and the food was quite tasty. I had the chicken pitta with paprika vegetables and herbed yogurt and Valerie and Orla ordered the bruschetta that looked so delicious I almost forgot I hated tomatoes. And peppers. And pretty much everything but cheese. Tasty, I tell you. After lunch, we headed to the beach and then went up to Anna's house that overlooked the ocean and the beach below. The views! I'm beginning to think I just need to spend the summer bouncing from one house to another. Jenn's house in Cork overlooks the river and is gorgeous as well. These houses and their waterfront views! I think though, if any of my new friends were to come visit me in the States, they would be just as excited about the mountains. Nature is so cool (see what I mean about hanging out with geologists and their outdoorsy-ness?) The whole way there, we were driving through the Burren, which is pretty amazing. Rock everywhere, then the ocean. All of us were high on fresh air, goofy photoshoots and the entire collection of Glee soundtracks in Orla's car. We decided we'd drive up to Spiddal to see Liz and Yvonne's new house. So just before 8 p.m., we pull into their driveway. The place is really nice and out in the country. Whatever stress I felt this past week had evaporated and I was just absolutely happy to be with my friends. So I enjoyed it and came home exhausted and with sand in my socks.

Today, I'm supposed to write my full Kathleen Kennedy article. Just to see if I can do it. Just to take the pressure off of April. I also have to finish a short story that must be submitted by Tuesday. The house is filthy because clearly everyone that lives here has a life too busy to clean up after themselves or for one moment think about wiping breadcrumbs off the counter. Trash needs to be taken out. One of my library books is overdue (surprise! I thought I had three weeks!). The clocks were supposed to spring forward this week, but my phone didn't change time, so I have no idea what time it is. Maybe I got the days wrong? Ah, well. Things need to be done. I will do that as well. The sun is still shining and advantage must be taken. Spring might kill me but I don't care: I'm going to see Country Strong this week and I have the soundtrack. If all else fails, I'm hitting the road with Gwyneth.

Those who show up rule the world

"Allie, you haven't updated your blog in awhile"- Sorry, Day. I'll try to do better. I write this while in screenwriting class. We're pitching film ideas but I've already gone. We have about an hour left. Now, I really like our professor and you all know I love movies, but sometimes it's hard to concentrate. We're talking about cross-dressers now, so there ya go. It's raining, or threatening to so, nothing new there either. Next month is the Cuirt (pronounced Kertch, I think) International Literary Festival and I believe we get free passes to seven events, which is pretty exciting.

We've moved on to talking about character introductions. The screenplays I brought in were 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' and 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' Classic and hilarious. You can't get any better than Paul Newman or the Cohen Brothers. Just great. What isn't great (mini rant alert) are people who 1) aren't prepared. ever. or 2) come prepared but refuse to participate. What is the point, really? Just don't show up. The saying goes 'those who show up rule the world', which may be true but, holy cow, be prepared to rule the thing. How most of the world's population hasn't found themselves dead in a ditch somewhere, I don't know.

Update: I'm sitting in my rather chilly room wrapped in my zebra snuggie listening to Kasia scream in Polish over the phone. I am a little afraid to make tea. At least the romance languages SOUND nice, even if the meaning is not. I think I'll just wait until things quiet down, keep a low profile and be thankful that while my workload is heavy and my toes are pretty cold, I have the most beautiful bouquet of daffodils to give me happy thoughts. No, matchmakers (ahem: Giles County), these did not come from a suitor. Part of them may or may not have been stolen from the nuns next door and the others came from my dear friend Jen who brought them to me because I'd been ill. Never fear, I'm on the mend and now my room smells like springtime.

I read two books this weekend, 'A Mercy' by Toni Morrison and 'All Summer' by Claire Kilroy. Both are excellent. Toni is possibly a literary genius and Claire Kilroy is my new girl/author crush. Why? 1) I recently met her (she came to speak to our class) and she's NORMAL. Most speakers come to talk to us about the industry and their method of creativity and let me tell you, though everyone (with the exception of one person who shall not be named, but he was raised in Texas, case closed) has been lovely, some of them have been out there. That's all well and good, but their out there and my out there are completely different places. Claire, I liked because she is creative but admits it is really really hard work and most of the time, incredible boring and frustrating. YES. It is. Afterwards, we talked like normal, down to earth people and she did a reading at the library. Her writing (in that particular novel) is dry, funny and engaging. I want her to be my friend. She's coming to Cuirt and my friend Liz and I are dragging everyone we know to go see her. Liz likes her because she was at the same Kate O'Brien conference and apparently, when a man stood up and criticized writers who didn't do public readings or 'perform', Claire gave him down the road and really put him in his place, arguing that writing is solitary and good writing doesn't always equal performance. YES. Enough about that, 'All Summer' was really good and I think everyone should read it. Next on my list is 'Tender Wire', but I have 'Summer' by Edith Wharton and 'Love' by Toni Morrison to get through first. I count reading as research in my plan to take over the world.

In other news, while I really do love it here and have made some pretty cool friends and meet awesome people, I am just a teeny bit stressed out. One word: Jobs. Why must people write cover letters? I'm sure it's just as big of a pain to read them as it is to sit here and stare at a blank screen/paper. Also, if anyone knows of any openings/has any ideas for ways I might feed myself/pay back student loans come September, shoot them my way. In the meantime, I'm going to sign off here to stare at that blank page and/or work on the non-fiction project that just seems to be going nowhere. Wouldn't want to show up unprepared. World domination awaits. One novel at a time.