An unusual combination I hear you think.

Last night, as I retired to bed I got a text from a number I didn't know just saying a friendly 'hello how are you'. After a few texts I realised it was a best friend's cousin. One night, my friends and I decided to text randomers and just say 'I love you.' I text this guy and he was really curious as to who I was. I had completely forgotten all about it and then last night we exchanged first names.

Today, I was walking over a bridge in town en route to Cork Coffee Roasters with two friends, one of whom is my 'I love you' guy's cousin. It was a cold enough day, but the sky was clear and there was a really good buzz around town. There was a flash mob dance thing as part of a protest against cuts in Arts funding and Cork looked like a cool place to be. The people looked good and everything seemed so nice.

So as we walked across this bridge and along the quays we commented on how this situation would unfold itself if we were living in a film. It would be something like this. We would keep texting for a while and then either happen upon each other and fall in love, subsequently finding out we had been texting each other all along. Or we would decide to meet up and then fall in love. The first option is by far the more commercial option but the second is a little (but not much) more realistic.

We'd get married and his cousin/my friend would be bridesmaid. And the cute/ironic/cheesy thing about the whole story would be the fact that the very first time we communicated it was to say 'I love you.' Altogether now : Awww.

When I came home from town my mum made my brother and I go to mass with her. This story is slightly different from the first, in that it's not as stylish or classy, but a nice idea nonetheless. When I go to mass my mind wanders and I think about all sorts of things. Today I found myself being distracted by a nice young man sitting in the next block of seats. I am fully aware the seats in a church are called pews, but these were not pews. The old little country church is being refurbished so mass is now held in the GAA hall. And we sit on plastic grey chairs. How glamorous.

As the priest droned on I took sideways glances at my newfound interest. He was about 17 and was tall and slim. He was wearing jeans, a grey t-shirt and a black jumper, and had spiky-ish black hair. He looked cool. At one stage we made eye-contact. Big whoop I know but it was the best I could do considering we were at mass. And then I caught him looking at me. Nothing too maajor, but a nice way to while away mass all the same.

Inevitably as I was walking out he was right next to me/in front of me, but unfortunately my mother was too. She's always in the way at the worst times. He had his phone in his hand. If this was a movie I'd have taken his phone out of his hand and put my number in his phonebook. But life's not a movie, especially not in a small-ish country-ish but still near the city parish. And there was the obstacle of my mother. But it was a nice thought anyway.

My mother was smirking away to herself, not realising she looked like a frumpy dope in her jeans-and-runners combo which I have rarely seen her leaving the house in before. She was, of course, smirking at the 'nice young boy'. As soon as I closed the car door after me she started. 'There was one nice lad in the whole church. Did you see him?' and she proceeded to give me a detailed description of what he was wearing. My brother threw in the fact that he was wearing Converse. How could I not like him?! Then Mumsie told me how she saw him taking a good glance of me as we were walking out of the GAA hall-come-church. Ah lovely! How convenient. Shall I marry him, mother? Then she tried to find him and point him out to me as we were driving out of the church. Does she think I am that blind?

It would be nice to get to know him though. I mean he obviously lives near me and I wouldn't mind at all at all having a friend from round these parts. Now I have to go to mass next week though. Feckin' dose, and knowing my luck he won't even be there. Christmas fair would be a good time to strike up a conversation, but if I had to stay at that jumble/cake sale that they consider to be a Christmas fair, I might just go mad.

All in the name of love though.

I got up early, had a shower, a slice of toast and went to town with my mum. I went for coffee with her and then wandered around. Ran into her later in H&M and she bought me an amazing grey jacket. This made me happy.

None of my friends were coming in I thought, but then I text Caroline and she was around until her French grinds at 2. So we went for coffee in Gusto. By 'we went for coffee' I mean she had a coffee and I sat there watching her learn her French vocab. I used to really love Gusto, but in recent weeks Cork Coffee Roasters has taken over. Nowhere can compare.

Caroline went off to French grinds so I went looking at grey jackets in various shops to make sure there wasn't something better (and cheaper) out there. There wasn't. Then Liam came in, and as I was going to meet him, Hannah came in, so we met him in Tesco and went for lunch in Tribes. I hadn't been there in so long. Last time was the for the most recent Coolaboola meeting. It's Coolaboola's official meeting place y'see. I like Tribes. Despite the fact that it's ridiculously expensive for what you get, it's all cosy and warm and homely and comfortable, and you can just hide away from the world and never come out.


When we finished there Hannah and I went shopping with Liam. To Dunnes. Dunno if you call that shopping but whatever. Caroline came to meet us, and form there we headed to Penneys but it was way too busy so we left and went to Cork Coffee Roasters. This is becoming an increasingly common pattern in my life. We sat at that little counter for about 2 hours, probably more actually, only getting up to order coffee / use the facilities, although Hannah and Caroline did leave at one point to go to H&M and Liam went across the road for a few "messages" before we ordered.

Just as we were sitting down with our coffees we noticed a Garda walking up the street towards Centra. I have a bit of a thing for men in uniform so, naturally enough, I kept an eye on him. He went up to this group of teenage knackers who were congregated outside Centra. He took one of them aside, who had a can in his hand. We watched the boy's heart break as he was made pour the can out on the street, and was then made hand over the other three cans in his pockets. And along comes this old hobo, and the Garda gives the hobo the three cans who proceeds to pocket them, and walk back the way he came, slowly but surely. Everyone in the coffee shop was watching this event and laughing; the guy who was working there even came down to the window for a gawk.

But it was just so nice in there. It's such an amazing place. You go in there and it's a different world. The best coffee ever, the friendliest staff, the cutest decor. The place is full of superlatives I tell you. We talked about everything and anything, whiling away the time as the rest of the world moved on outside, sometimes covered in a blanket of rain.


Eventually we managed to tear ourselves away from the place. A bit of a culture shock was in store for us because Caroline wanted a fecking footlong sub, so Liam and I waited downstairs for them, commenting on the dismal sight of the recently shut-down Romeos. That place was only open for about a week (slight exaggeration). We took a stroll to Tesco, passing the gangs hanging around outside, and bought some cheap-ass Coke and a big bag of McCoys salt & vinegar crisps. Savings galore we got.

Together we headed down Careys Lane to the bus stop, loaded with bottles and Coke and crisps and clothes and bags. That's a really cute street / lane actually. It's all narrow and pretty and historical and musical. What more could you want from a lane? We got onto a lovely double decker number 8, sitting in the 'upper saloon', always in the back of our minds that we may topple over at any second. Thankfully, to date, this has not happened.

We got off the bus at Bishopscourt Green and walked back, passed the cop shop Garda station and up the hill to Niamh's gaff. The rents are away in NY, so like any normal teenager, she decided to have a gathering, which obviously turned into more of a party than a gathering. You know when you put "Bring your own drink!" in the text it's never going to be just a gathering.


So it all started off ok. There was a nice selection of crisps and chocolate and sweets, along with a few bottles of coke, just crying out to be mixed with vodka. Hannah, Liam and I were the only ones who had managed to get some "messages" so the others were waiting for those with the fake IDs to come along. They came along, and the rest, as they say, is history.

That is until some random guys who weren't invited turned up and forced their way in through the back. Things got a bit noisy and messy, tensions were raised and a punch or two were thrown. The house was a wreck, random guys started fighting, but out came our tae-kwon-do heroes to save the day as people were ordered to leave.

But not before the neighbours came in. As I stood in the kitchen I suddenly noticed two people about 25 years older than everyone else in the house standing and staring at the utter mess of the place. Our black belt-ers forced more people out, and then the word spread that the Gardaí had been called. Fuck. Caoilfhionn and I sourced some refuse sacks and began clearing up every single bit of evidence. Two stuffed bags later the place looked alright, and we went making sure everyone who shouldn't be there were gone. I went and checked on Niamh who was being looked after in the utility room / bathroom. More people came in saying "Oh it wasn't my fault. I was only helping. Is everything ok?" "Yeah, everything's great. Thanks for stopping a civil war from breaking out. You're great. Can you leave now?". We rescued the dog from some guys who came round the back, kicked the last few people out, and locked all the doors.

I still don't know whether or not the Gardaí came, but if they did, they didn't come inside. We profusely thanked the neighbours for coming in and assured them we'd be fine. Once the majority of people had left the rest of the portay-goers went into the living room and watched some ridiculously horrendous X-Factor Uncut type show. Or maybe it was Who Wants To Be A Millionaire actually. Yeah, I remember a question about Blakjack and Blackball, or something to that effect. Instead I decided to go get the hoover out and clean the gaff. I do remember Liam being out with a spray-bottle of Dettol at one stage too to be fair.


After the place was all clean we went into the living room and sat down, analysing the night that had been. All us 'girls' were there, and randomly, in the middle of us all, who else but Liam. Sitting there on the couch with a blanket over his legs and the dog on his lap. That boy...I swear to God. But in the good way :). I made some tea. Then Ashling put on pizza and chips. And we crowded around the kitchen table tucking into the Tesco Value tomato and cheese pizzas and oven chips.

This is the stuff dreams are made of.

A few nights ago I had a dream about this guy I knew. My ex-tennis coach to be exact. He was only doing it for the few bobs really, but out of every single tennis coach I have had, he is by far my favourite. He was a cool guy. And I dreamed about him. I dreamed about hugging him in front of all my peers. I don't know what that means. I'm not big into the whole interpreting dreams thing, but to me, it's like it's telling me that I miss him, and that I want to be close to him again.

He moved away, to foreign lands, so i no longer see him. But now I know other people; others who have followed in his footsteps in recent times. And I'm worried I'll lose them too. What sucks so much is that I'm not best friends with them, because I can't be. Who am I to them? Compared to everyone else they've left behind, who am I to be the one Facebooking them or on MSN to them? They leave, and you can't do anything else. Try and talk to them as much as possible and you look a bit stalkerish and desperate, because they're not your best friend.

And like that, they're gone. People you may have only just been getting to know. For me, it's only just starting. People you wanted to get to know so badly just disappear off into the sunset. College draws people like magnets. This time next year I'll be thinking about what to put down on my CAO form, and this time two years, alot of my friends will have gone their separate ways. It's a scary thought.

It feels like only yesterday that friends were made and lost in seconds; that school meant a day of playtime; and all my problems and drama didn't exist.

(Photo taken from http://golez.net - Check it!)

Some Wednesdays are absolutely horrific. Despite the fact that we get a half day, it's not a whole lot of good to me seeing as I can't get a lift home for an hour and a half after I finish. Which just isn't good.

Today though, today was nice. Non-uniform day at school for a start, although it proved to be quite annoying due to my too-big jeans. My friend, Aisling (although I don't call her this. I call her Botch. She calls me Botch.), was going to town so I said I'd join her. After a little spot of embarrassing running between bus stops either side of my school I managed to get on the bus, albeit slightly out of breath. Not to worry. Although I was worrying about the fact that the bus was packed and every window was closed. Anyway..

The two of us went to tkmaxx first to go to the bathroom for make-up-putting-on purposes and whatnot. The bathrooms are pretty nice and big enough with shiny black tiles and circular mirrors. But we went down the steps, and to our horror, discovered that you now have to pay 20c to use the bathrooms!!! We just stood there, stunned, going ohmygod ohmygod when a man came over and put the 20c in for us. Weird, in the creepy way. Not good.

We had a little stroll around and Botch bought some nice blue tights, we passed the cute guy from O2, she then got some credit, we passed Rich singing Heyday, and finally got to Cork Coffee Roasters. Free coffee for me with my loyalty card (YaY!) and a scone. Nice chat. Bus home (and not on my own). Nice dinner. My Nana brought cakes over. Not a bad day.

And now that Wednesday is over we're on the home straight for the weekend. Just two more days left. I have an interview for School Bank Manager tomorrow though. It's only going to take about 5 minutes but ugh. I kinda have enough on my plate so I'm contemplating coming across seriously incompetent tomorrow. Maybe, maybe not.

I'll finish up now before you fall asleep and sue me for damage to your keyboard from your head falling on it.

Slán.