Today we ran around doing chores most of the day and the remembered we had concert tickets to see Jesse Welles. He’s this guy who writes folk songs about bugs, turtles, class warfare and the struggle of the proletariat in a world where we are lorded over by technocratic oligarchs, how everything causes cancer that we’re fighting a losing battle against, typical folk stuff. I got into him maybe a year ago? He started writing songs in response to what was going on in the news as quickly as he could and had written about United Healthcare that just blew up on TikTok. I believe it was after the CEO got shot but before his alleged shooter was captured. That stuff felt gimmicky but then he released stuff like “The Poor” or “Red” that were just brilliant. Between that and delving into his back catalogue I was pretty sold.

So anyway we’d walked all over the place and were tired and the show was in Temple Bar which is the tourist epicenter of Dublin so we were kinda iffy. We also should’ve walked but decided to drive over because it was just far enough to be a hassle and we were running late and it was raining.

So we had Waze set up to take us to the closest parking garage to the venue and it was full. So Ethan was getting stressed out trying to figure out how to navigate around (Dublin streets make Boston look simplistic) and I suggested pulling into the car park and turning around there. The parking garage looked like it used to be a prison or something. The attendant was super nice, I apologized for pulling into a parking lot that said it was full, and explained that we were just there to turn around, and he said to stay that it was all good, someone was leaving. Score!

So walk over to the Olympia Theater, knowing we’re running late but ot would be ok. We get there and the show is *packed* like probably oversold and being as we were late we were all the way in the back, literally the only thing behind us was the wall. Not the best but it’s more about hearing music than about seeing it so it’s doable. This is kind of the mindset you’ve gotta go into general admission shows with when you’re a woman, especially when you’re a woman who seems to go to shows where the audience is mostly men, otherwise concerts will be joyless.

The band was phenomenal and tore through the first set which was comprised mostly of songs that I love. Hooray! However I was tired and hot and my back hurt, so I wanted to go check out merch and regroup OR decide to leave, especially since tomorrow (technically today now) we’re going to see Dirty Three at Vicar Street (we have lots of shows on the roster and sadly had missed Lou Barlow last week due to fatigue)

So we head over there and there’s a shirt I wanted, so when I went to pay the kid he was worried that one of my euros was too shabby, and I just said, “can’t we tape it together?” and it was like a lightbulb moment or something because yes we could tape it back together, which we did, and it was fine.

At that point I was trying to figure out what I wanted from life or ant least for the rest of the evening, when I overheard these two guys talking about the song, “the book of love” by Peter Gabriel. Now this is our wedding song, and we picked that song because it was short and had funny lyrics, not because it had any great meaning to us (anything that had greater meaning was either too long or too loud or too obtuse and Ethan wanted a first dance so we made it work) but once it was our wedding song, it has gained greater meaning despite being played out as fuck, thanks in part to the Peter Gabriel cover. So I asked them if they’d heard the Magnetic Fields version, then we all started just talking about music, and one of them asked if we’d arranged a vacation around this show, and we explained that no, we’d just moved, and how exciting and scary it all was, and how we’d had concert tickets to a ton of shows before we’d even had an apartment. I made some throwaway comment about not being sure I had it in me to brace being smooshed at the back of the room again and next thing I know one of the guys hands is two VIP bracelets so we can go up to the front. WHAT EVEN IS THIS?!. I offered to buy them a drink but they said they just wanted to do us a kindness AGAIN WHAT IS THIS?!?

So we go from the absolute back of the venue to the first row and it was delightful. Everyone was singing along and everyone was jubilant and a few times they broke into that Olé, Olé, Olé football chant. The energy had been infectious at the back of the audience as well, but up front it was just a different beast entirely.

I just felt so blessed to be there in general, to just be here even, and then to have all these potential problems in the evening like parking or the bill being ripped end up being immediately and easily fixable, but to then have a stranger pull strings so that Ethan and I could be at the front of the venue was just next level awesomeness. I don’t know what about us triggered that kindness in that dude or if he’s just always phenomenally kind but it was so unexpected. I assume part of it was he was giving me a bunch of band and venue suggestions and I was writing them all down. The more I sit with my contrary nature when it comes to suggestions I have come to recognize if anyone is willing to share time or knowledge with me it’s worth at least paying attention, even more-so if it’s a stranger, so I’ve been taking notes during conversations so I can’t chalk it up to by sieve like memory (oh god it’s so bad right now, neither Ethan or I are firing on all cylinders - which makes sense what with the everything of life going on)

After the show we wandered around Temple Bar and took lots of pictures of Christmas lights, because I absolutely love them all the time any time of year and Dublin goes hard. It’s so beautiful.

Tomorrow we’re going to get our own Christmas Tree, maybe go to the gym in the building, and then wander Grafton St before the show. Sunday I get my new-used Peloton and I’m so psyched. Between the stress of moving and drinking less water and not riding my bike daily, my BP has gone up a little and I watch that like a hawk, so getting the bike back will be fantastic. We’re also going to try to go to IKEA to get some armoires.

Then next weekend Ethan goes to America to get Tulip and THEN we’re gonna try to get tickets for Kneecap. I feel at times like we’re maybe too old for this but fuck that.

Dear diary,

Today I moved to another country. I couldn’t sleep on the plane ride over so Ethan and I synced up our tvs so we could watch “eternal sunshine of the spotless mind” together as it’s been a tradition of ours to watch that annually, something that started after we watched it in the theater the last time we lived in a different country together. Ethan fell asleep pretty quickly, but we tried and that’s the important part, it counts. I listened to In ár gCroíthe go deo on the descent. It was a bright and sunny morning and I want to remember that, it felt like Ireland was welcoming us.

Our apartment is very over the top but I love it. There’s a gorgeous but very lux grocery store on the first floor, special occasions mainly. I’d love our apartment it more if it had furnishings but it doesn’t yet so I’m gonna stay in a hotel and work on that while Ethan goes back to America to clean the remnants of us from our house and picks up our dogs along with some certified dog transporter. We couldn’t manage all my meds (basically two suitcases - it takes a lot to keep me running) and the dogs on one trip and I am an admittedly not great flier so I’m sitting this round out (plus me flying back and forth means needing to transport more meds so it’s not necessarily useful) this will be my first time absolutely alone in a country but I think I’ll be ok.

Tomorrow we’re going to fit in as many chores as we can before Ethan leaves. The I’m just gonna have to take over Dublin and get stuff for the apartment. I still have a bunch of banking and phone number stuff to figure out. I will give myself one day for touristy shit and then buckle down. I was so scared of this leading to it, but now we are here and I feel really free. I miss my giant tub from the house though. That was remarkable. On the flip side tonight I had the best takeaway pizza I’ve had in years.