Sleep Wanted

I don't know what the deal is, but the past couple of nights, I have not been able to fall asleep for the life of me. I'm tired, but I can't keep my eyes closed. I realized the first night of this that I only had tea with caffeine so yesterday I went and bought an herbal tea so hopefully that will help a little bit.
I can't believe June is almost over! I thought the summer was going to drag by, but it's really going pretty fast. My apartment is working out well, and living above an Irish store hasn't proved too bad for my checking account :) It helps that I haven't quite figured out her open hours, too. Having my bed in the living room is a little strange, but we have the couch halfway across the room and I hung curtains behind it to give me some semblence of a "room." It's definitely not as awkward as I thought it could be.
I received my official placement into the Early Irish History program at UCD! I e-mailed the director and asked if she had any books she would recommend for me since I've obviously grown up in America and don't have that much background in Irish History. She said that she doesn't expect anyone to have any background but she did recommend two books for me to read. One was by a professor that two of my friends had in Galway! Daibhi O'Croinin (sp?) is evidently "the man" in this field so I'm going to get at least his book. The other one she said was a little more advanced and since I really probably only have time for one, I'm going to just go with Daibhi's.
Irish insult:
Go n-ithe an cat thu is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat.
Literally: May the cat eat you and the devil eat the cat.
I love Irish insults.

Things I've Learned Working at Walmart

I've worked at Walmart a short time, but I've picked up on a few things that I feel you, who most likely are a Walmart consumer, should know:

-If you have time standing in line, please remove your clothes from the hangers. It will make your checkout go so much faster.
-Put all of your groceries together so the cashier doesn't have to spin the bag wheel 50 times to ensure no grocery items are put in with chemical cleaners.
-ALWAYS put the bar between your stuff and the next person's stuff. Don't assume the cashier will automatically know where the break is (the belt keeps moving until something stops it. Chances are the cashier didn't see the break there.) This one really irritates me.
-If you call the cashier by their first name, even though you don't know them, stop. It's creepy.
-Try to empty your cart and move forward to grab the bags of the wheel thing as fast as possible. There are only so many bags, and, especially when you don't separate your items, they fill up fast.
-Make sure there's a bar code or a price tag on every item. If there's not, find one that has one or remember the price.
-Don't get angry at the cashier when the card reader doesn't work. They've had to deal with it all day and are probably more angry at it than you are.
-Keep your card out until you're positive the transaction has gone through. If you're paying with a credit card, keep it out until you're sure the cashier won't ask to check your signature.
-Cashiers judge you by what you buy. And we question what you could possibly be doing with these items (especially in the express lane with minimal items). Like condoms and butter...maybe I don't want to know...

Irish quote of the day:
"I can resist everything but temptation." ~ Oscar Wilde

What do you do with a BA in History?

These are the lyrics to a song from Avenue Q. Instead of the original What Do You Do With a BA in English, I have changed them to What Do You Do With a BA in History.

What do you do with a B.A. in History?
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge
Have earned me this useless degree.

I can't pay the bills yet
'Cause I have no skills yet
The world is a big scary place.

But somehow I can't shake
The feeling I might make
A difference
To the human race.

The answer? Apparently, work at Walmart.

Irish gem of wisdom:
In heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink ours here.

Here we go again

I never really stopped doing my blog, but I'm going to start writing a little more regularly now (hopefully!) Although I won't be the Galway Girl anymore, the Dublin Girl does not have quite the same ring to it so I will be sticking with this title. :)
I am about 3 months out from flying to Dublin to start grad school! It seems so close and so far away at the same time. Currently, my preparations for Ireland consists of working at the Baker Archives and the Walmart in Lawrence. I've started a savings account at home entitled "Ireland fund" (much safer than my envelope all the money was in! Now I can't access it anytime I want Taco Bell!) Other than saving, I can't really do much in preparation until I receive all the official stuff from UCD. For some reason they think graduating is a prereq to grad school (lol) so my official transcript is en route to Dublin, then they'll send me a packet via snail mail in return. This is when I really hate how slow overseas mail is.
Once I receive my packet, my 'to do' list is sure to grow. Right now it merely consists of scholarship search, graduation thank yous, and Ashley's Christmas gift (yes, from last Christmas - she'll get it eventually!) I still need to find a job in Dublin, find a place to live, and buy a plane ticket. I was hoping my unused Italy ticket would be able to be changed, but the tour company said that they can't do that. :( Sad day.
At least while I play the waiting game I have plenty of reading to keep me busy! I just brought home two books my parents borrowed from one of the Sisters in Concordia called Absolution by Murder and Suffer Little Children by Peter Tremayne (both mysteries of Ancient Ireland), I have two from the Baker Archives entitled How the Irish Saved Civilization (love this title) by Thomas Cahill and A History of Ireland by Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, and I have two from my advisor, one of which I've had since January (senior sems pretty much took care of any free reading time this past semester) called The Twilight Lords by Richard Berleth which is, surprise, about Ireland during Elizabeth I's reign. Hmmm....all of these books are about Ireland. I'm sensing a theme. The other one from my advisor is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke which is about fairies, but takes place in England so a little different. I also have another book given to me by another professor called South of Broad by Pat Conroy which is actually not about Ireland! So needless to say, I have plenty of reading material for the summer! Oh - I almost forgot the book I'm currently reading! It's called Delaying the Real World by Colleen Kinder. It basically tells you how to put off an office job and do something fun that gives you a unique life experience - pretty much the best book ever!
Well, this became a longer post than I thought it was going to be! I think I'm going to start ending these posts with unique pieces of Irish wisdom. Here's the first:
The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke. The Scots still haven't figured it out.