(no subject)

I hear I missed out on a lot while I was away. I love how I get 14 free paid days because of an outage I didn't even know about. How long was it out for?
I missed a Rocky weekend and miss Sarah twisted her poor knee falling off the stage. AND I missed my Physical Therapy department's holiday party, which I hear everybody was wasted at, even the ones you wouldn't think would drink. But. Well worth missing it all for the vacation I had.
Here's the pics I took. Heather and Dad took tons more, so as soon as I get my hands on them I will put those up as well.
First off, I am so glad I got out of covering the hospital the weekend we flew out. It would have been such a pain in the ass, plus I needed time to pack at the last minute like I always end up doing. We flew out of the evil airport that is O'Hare Sunday the 9th. Luckily we found a sleep, park and fly program at the Windham Hotel so we saved a lot on parking and started our vacation a day early. Dad even took us out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I've been there twice in less than a month! Our flight out there was 8 hours long. Now, I've flown before, usually by myself. I get really nervous and anxious getting through security and surviving the flight. Also, I couldn't stop thinking about the show 'Lost' (good god am I obsessed with it) and wondering if Dominic Monaghan will be on our island if we crash. Not a good idea to watch shows with themes of planes crashing when you're about to ride one across the big blue ocean. The fates were kind to my family and we landed safely. Not too much turbulence either, which is really good for me because it usually takes my stomach much longer to land than the rest of me when it's bumpy (just ask Liz. she knows). We landed in Shannon early Monday morning, grabbed our luggage and took a shuttle out to meet our rental car for the week. This car, which Heather named the Go-Go Gadget car, was the strangest thing I have ever seen. The steering wheel was on the right, which I was expecting. It has no key, just a high tech little credit card sized keychain thing. To unlock the car all you have to do is have it in your hand near the handle, pull up, and voila. To start the car, you put the clicker in a slot next to the gear shifter and push a button. Even the windshield wipers are automatic. It has a sensor that detects rain and adjusts speed depending on how heavy it's raining. Crazy. Dad did all the driving, which was fine by me. Our first 10 minutes of driving on our own I had my jaw on the floor, flinching when cars flew by on the right. And the intersections are 90% roundabouts, which at first seem really weird and hard to figure out, but after a day or so they seemed much more natural than what we have in America. Our family spent the week in Ireland driving across the countryside, staying in farmhouse bed and breakfasts along the way. One of the farmhouses had a horse born the night we were there and let us see him the next morning, only a few hours old. Very cool.
We visited lots of castles and ruins. With the exception of 1 day we went to a pub every day. Irish cider is my favorite. I tell ya, everyone raves about Guinness and claim it's better from a tap and even better than that when you're in Ireland. Not the case. Not even after walking through 8 floors showing you the brewing process and getting a free one in a 360 degree window bar high above the Dublin skyline. I'm pathetic I tell ya. Just not a beer person. Never was, never will be. I bought some pint glasses and a shirt in the gift shop, though. Don't ask me why. Just had to. I'm weird like that.

Ok. More stories and pictures later. I'm tired, yo.

(no subject)

I hear I missed out on a lot while I was away. I love how I get 14 free paid days because of an outage I didn't even know about. How long was it out for?
I missed a Rocky weekend and miss Sarah twisted her poor knee falling off the stage. AND I missed my Physical Therapy department's holiday party, which I hear everybody was wasted at, even the ones you wouldn't think would drink. But. Well worth missing it all for the vacation I had.
Here's the pics I took. Heather and Dad took tons more, so as soon as I get my hands on them I will put those up as well.
First off, I am so glad I got out of covering the hospital the weekend we flew out. It would have been such a pain in the ass, plus I needed time to pack at the last minute like I always end up doing. We flew out of the evil airport that is O'Hare Sunday the 9th. Luckily we found a sleep, park and fly program at the Windham Hotel so we saved a lot on parking and started our vacation a day early. Dad even took us out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I've been there twice in less than a month! Our flight out there was 8 hours long. Now, I've flown before, usually by myself. I get really nervous and anxious getting through security and surviving the flight. Also, I couldn't stop thinking about the show 'Lost' (good god am I obsessed with it) and wondering if Dominic Monaghan will be on our island if we crash. Not a good idea to watch shows with themes of planes crashing when you're about to ride one across the big blue ocean. The fates were kind to my family and we landed safely. Not too much turbulence either, which is really good for me because it usually takes my stomach much longer to land than the rest of me when it's bumpy (just ask Liz. she knows). We landed in Shannon early Monday morning, grabbed our luggage and took a shuttle out to meet our rental car for the week. This car, which Heather named the Go-Go Gadget car, was the strangest thing I have ever seen. The steering wheel was on the right, which I was expecting. It has no key, just a high tech little credit card sized keychain thing. To unlock the car all you have to do is have it in your hand near the handle, pull up, and voila. To start the car, you put the clicker in a slot next to the gear shifter and push a button. Even the windshield wipers are automatic. It has a sensor that detects rain and adjusts speed depending on how heavy it's raining. Crazy. Dad did all the driving, which was fine by me. Our first 10 minutes of driving on our own I had my jaw on the floor, flinching when cars flew by on the right. And the intersections are 90% roundabouts, which at first seem really weird and hard to figure out, but after a day or so they seemed much more natural than what we have in America. Our family spent the week in Ireland driving across the countryside, staying in farmhouse bed and breakfasts along the way. One of the farmhouses had a horse born the night we were there and let us see him the next morning, only a few hours old. Very cool.
We visited lots of castles and ruins. With the exception of 1 day we went to a pub every day. Irish cider is my favorite. I tell ya, everyone raves about Guinness and claim it's better from a tap and even better than that when you're in Ireland. Not the case. Not even after walking through 8 floors showing you the brewing process and getting a free one in a 360 degree window bar high above the Dublin skyline. I'm pathetic I tell ya. Just not a beer person. Never was, never will be. I bought some pint glasses and a shirt in the gift shop, though. Don't ask me why. Just had to. I'm weird like that.

Ok. More stories and pictures later. I'm tired, yo.