Outstanding Last Few Weeks

It's been well over a month since I last got to blog, moving to a house with no internet for the final couple of weeks in NYC, as well as being very busy since I've been home, had given me very limited opportunity to update this. But with pretty much nothing to do from now until the start of college I figure why not get back at it.

The last 15 days or so in America were very enjoyable. I'd been slightly frustrated with how the summer hadn't quite been as good as I'd hoped but I couldn't really have had much better a time than I did once August arrived. However, it was to be the beginning of the end of my healthy bank account. On Tuesday, August 2nd, myself, James and our housemate at the time, Roisin, a pleasant Donegal girl whom we had just met this summer, took the Megabus to Washington DC where I was to meet up with two of my friends from school, Clionnaidh and Vanessa, who were coming from Ocean City, where they had been staying for the summer. The weather was fantastic that day in DC and I had a great time seeing all the wonderful sites that I'd seen so often in movies and on TV. The only downer to the day was that the Pool of Memory was under renovation and the water was replaced with diggers and clay, which prevented the taking of a wonderful photograph in front of it. We said our 'see ya laters' and headed home that evening.

Wednesday night saw me sleeping at the airport, waiting for my early morning flight to Chicago. To help keep me entertained among the seven hour wait until boarding time, I bought the movie Swingers from iTunes, (starring Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn) and watched it on my iPad. I loved it, and it really changed the way I want to approach women, something that I hope to put into full motion once the college nights out begin once again.

I landed in Chicago at around 10.15am Thursday morning and was picked up at the airport by the lovely Hanna Heidkamp, accompanied by the gang of Alli O'Rourke, Elizabeth Mueller and Niall Colbert. I cannot emphasize enough how great it was to see them all again! From the second I stepped into the car, I knew I was going to have an awesome weekend in Chi-City but perhaps not as awesome as it would actually turn out to be. From the airport, we went to Hanna's house in Barrington, which is about an hour from the city. There, the five of us drank a little, played some Beer Pong and some board games before making our way into Chicago to meet Hanna's grandparents at their beautiful downtown apartment. They are the coolest grandparents I think I've ever met and we drank and chatted with them for a couple of hours. After that and once we got some food at a bar, we journeyed on to Evanston, (Hanna & Liz both driving) to the Hanna's friend Sara's house, where we would be staying for the weekend. Sara seems like such a chilled out, kind and fun girl and it was really nice meeting her, as well as the other girls that were there over the weekend, Kathleen, Stephanie and Christie. We drank, laughed and partied the night away before doing it all again the following day at Lollapalooza!

Friday, even though Liz went back to Milwaukee for work and we missed Foster The People - a new band I've become extremely fond of, was one of the funnest, craziest days I've ever had. We met up with the charismatic John Reynolds, and only ended up seeing three acts, Two Door, Tinie Tempah and Coldplay, but they were all fantastic. I was in flying form at Grant Park, chatting and getting photgraphs with lots of random people, who were amused by my outrageous attire, before, to my devastation, I broke my camera. We drank once again until we passed out back at Sara's house. Saturday, Niall, Alli or myself weren't attending Lollapalooza so we hung out in the City. I was disappointed to be missing Eminem headline Lolla that night but again, it was a very enjoyable day, as Niall and Alli are two people I think I could enjoy prison with, I love their company that much. We all met up back at the house that night and the drinking games continued. On Sunday, Alli and Niall went back to Minnesota, leaving the rest of us, Hanna, Sarah, Stephanie, Kathleen and I, to finish off the weekend at Lollapalooza's final day. We saw Flogging Molly rock the place, before Hanna and I got separated from the rest of the group, who unfortunately, were minding both our phones. It also started to pour rain for the rest of the night, but we enjoyed Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters in the torrential rain before getting a taxi home. Hanna dropped me to the airport the next morning, where I said goodbye to an amazing weekend and I was back in NYC Monday evening.

I was also arriving at a new home, in Sunnyside Queens, where I met our second set of housemates, who seemed to be a real good laugh, pity I didn't have that much time to get to know them more. My last few days in New York consisted of me heading to Long Island to meet Brendan, a friend I was lucky enough to meet my previous summer in New York, before staying with him in Miami around this time last year. I also met up with mates from Clara, who live in the Big Apple now, Danny and Kev and had one too many beverages with them on my last Saturday and Wednesday night respectively. I said goodbye to my cool boss, Jose, all my work buddies and all the friends I had met and I headed to JFK Thursday evening with a massive hangover. I'm home now, in Clara and despite an action packed first ten days home, I think I'm inevitably starting to miss The U S of A! I actually wish I could go into more detail on the closing days of my time Stateside but I'll leave it there.

All for now..........................................................................

Heat Crankin' Up

I can't exactly remember how long it's been since the last blog entry, I've gotten a bit lazy already. A lot of stuff has happened in that period but it's too boring to go into detail on. My situation, however, has changed and now I'll be leaving USA to go back to Ireland a few weeks sooner than initially planned, meaning I've just a month left here. My feelings towards this are surprisingly mixed.

I actually miss Ireland like crazy! Being away has certainly made me more appreciative and proud of my homeland and although I want to travel the world and see as many places as possible throughout the next 10/15/20 years, Ireland, I think, is always going to be the place I'll be coming back to. That's not something I thought would be the case not so long ago.

Back to New York (my second home now).
One reason I'm kind of happy my stay here is being cut a few weeks short is that I've become increasingly frustrated with lack of companions. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of friends here, a lot of people I know and like but knowing people and knowing people willing are different things. I had so many plans prior to returning to NY but issues such as not finding anyone available or interested in making them happen with me has meant some of these plans are not going to work out, Niagara Falls being an example. No matter how much I love traveling, it's never that much fun on your own and a little part of me fears that I may have to deal with that situation over the years ahead as I look to tick all the boxes on my list.

Regardless, I've got Chicago and DC to look forward to, to end this summer, as well as more get togethers and nights on the beer with friends and I'm definitely gonna make the most of the last few weeks here. It's gonna be high octane stuff indeed!

I'm out!.... Paul

NYC: The Beginning of the Second Chapter

As unexciting as the first month back in New York has been, I still find I've so much to mention, but with it being my first blog post, and being new to this kind of thing, I'll keep it short and sweet.

Despite not having a place to live upon arriving (Thursday June 2nd) I wasted no time in calling my boss from last year, the great Mr. D (Daggett) to see if I could have my old job back. He responded positively as I had expected him to and the following Monday I was back in the Coliseum building 345 West 58th street, Manhattan. Unfortunately Mr. D has since left for a different Superintendent job in the City, but as of now a guy I get on with just as well, Jose, has stepped up from his assistant Super position to take charge for the time being. The Coliseum is a Midtown Manhattan apartment complex which I'm estimating holds about 700 - 1000 tenants between its north and south sides. I've become part of a group of concierges/doormen that are employed here to greet residents (and visitors) as they enter or depart the building, hand out their mail and dry cleaning, help with luggage and try solve any problems they may have throughout the day. But if you're given the midnight to 8am shift like I've had to do mostly so far, then your job is to pretty much sit there for eight hours and play with your thumbs, something that I've been excelling at to this point.
As well as Mr. Daggett and Jose, it's been great seeing again all the other doormen, the handymen, and the porters that keep the Coliseum running, like Vinny, Armando, Willy, Richie, Sergio, Rob McCrae, Dominic, Kenol to name just some. After being away for nine months, my first day was awful, as I'd forgotten basic things involved in working at the door but thankfully after a month of solid hours, I feel I'm back comfortably in the swing of things, not that the awkward moments have ceased entirely just yet.

So after nearly a week of crashing at Glenno's (a mate) place in Jersey, James found a big apartment in Fleetwood, right beside Yonkers. The story of the search for accommodation is a long and topsy turvy one in itself, way too much so to talk about here. We have currently too many people staying in the pad, four more than what's known to the landlady, so basically I'm just taking each day as it comes as we could be looking for a new place at any time over the coming weeks, it's that uncertain. The apartment itself is slick, the area has everything one would need, the only problem is it takes me nearly two hours to get to and from work. I can live with that, however, just like I can live with nine people in a one bathroom apartment.

Thus far, the many, but unexpected, working hours I've been receiving has restricted ventures out and nights on the beer. Time and energy is quite limited at the moment and getting sleep has become a luxury. I'm not complaining at all though, I know as summer 2011 grows older, the working time will lessen and the fun times will become more frequent for myself, Henno and James and all other mates I have here who join in and I will have plenty more to write about. That's all for now.