Commitment

Today I committed to the one thing I've been putting off since I arrived in Ireland...

The mobile phone contract.

For the past 3 years I've been hammering away credit with my archaic, little Nokia phone that only makes and receives calls and texts.  Email?  Wouldn't dream of it.  Applications?  No way.  Who needs an extra expense and 2 year commitment to a communications conglomerate? Not this gal.

My view began to change about a year and a half ago when I started working for one of the largest tech companies in the world.  I would need a smart phone just to do my job.  But I hesitated and powered through the lack of technology relying on other resources to assist with my daily tasks.

This whole cloud computing thing changed my mind.  In order to support the people I deal with everyday, I would need to understand how the heck this all works.  And I'm much more of a visual/learn by doing person than learn by reading/remembering/etc.  After weighing the costs of credit vs paying a bill every month, the solution seemed simple.  Buy the iPhone and sign a contract.

Well yeah I could have bought the phone outright if I had a spare 600 euro or so sitting around, but I didn't.  Plus at this point in my life, I should be able to handle something like a cell phone bill.  But signing a contract is a huge (ahem 2 year) commitment to a phone and to Ireland.  I feel like such a grown up.

And it's so pretty.  A 16 GB, iPhone 4S in white all to myself.  I've been glued to it all night setting up my email, texting my friends on iMessage, playing Angry Birds, and talking to that bitch Siri.  It really is a lovely little gem and I'm glad I took the plunge and finally signed away my soul to Vodafone.

Hopefully my decision will still be sound when the bill arrives.

Back to the Land of Living

Everyone will be happy to know that my dad's visit to Cork went very well, minus the torrential downpours we had on Saturday that disrupted our trip to the Cliffs of Moher.

In spite of the above, we managed to do a little sightseeing, ate some fine foods, and drank some fine drinks.

The morning dad left to return to the mother land it hit me...a dreaded relapse of the illness I had just taken a week to get over.

Normally every winter I get one bout of the plague (in addition to a sinus infection every two months) that puts me on my ass.  Hopefully, this is it because man, it was rough.  Headaches, a horrible cough, and extreme tiredness.  Breathing hurt and staying awake was a challenge.

After about 4 visits to the doctor I am now on my second round of steroids and have a lovely, strong antibiotic to bust this thing out of me.  Lovely enough, it's finally working and I get to return to work tomorrow.  This is nice because daytime TV is absolutely horrendous in Ireland.  I'm excited to get back to the land of the living because staying home (as nice as it seems) is just down right depressing.

The downside is, the drugs that are helping me have horrible side effects. I have a nasty taste in my mouth 24/7, anything I eat makes me feel sick and bloated, I can't sleep, I'm sweating a lot, and I'm moody.  I have a whole new respect for people who are put on steroids for a long period of time.  I've been on them for almost 2 weeks and I'm going crazy.  I finish my dose of meds on Saturday and am looking forward to it indeed.

So no news really as I've been glued to the couch or asleep for the past 2.5 weeks.  The most exciting thing that happened recently is Baxter got into the trash and ate 2 tampons.  Yep, color me disgusting.  He managed to purge them though (details aside) and is hopefully okay.

Aren't you happy I've left you with that lovely image?

Until next time...