Journal for tbrounst

Internet is still out. What happened was someone has a virus that attacks the network (or something) and it took them about two weeks to fix it. They got the internet working again on Thursday for about 45 minutes…then the person with the virus logged on again and crashed the system again. They say Tuesday at the absolute earliest, but most likely not. I’m feeling it will be another week or two before we get it back at this point. It’s frustrating, but we’re doing what we can. I’m just camping out in the library (which does have internet) on a regular basis.

Also, I apologize for the lack of blog posting yesterday. I decided to post my Cork photos instead. There were 79 photos, and I wrote captions for all of them. It’s sort of equivalent to several blog posts, really. Especially when you remember I wrote 79 captions. If you have Facebook, go thumb through them and write comments. That said, I did have an awesome moment when I hopped on today and had 51 new comments. That was impressive.

On another note, remember when I mentioned I had a little bit of spam on the comment system? I got three more pieces. I have no idea where this even comes from—who even knows about this blog? Like, how am I getting spammed? Do they just spam all sorts of random blogs? Either way, it was sort of a funny experience to read these “comments,” and I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of idiot would take them for a real post.

So, onto real stuff. Today is Valentine’s Day. I really hate this holiday. Typically, it just serves to make me feel lonely and miserable. I get hurt repeatedly. It doesn’t help that at this point in the semester most classes are starting to layer on the work more heavily. This is actually one of the hardest parts of the semester, typically, because you transition from the easy stuff to the hard stuff that serves as an important foundation. You need to learn this stuff, but you’re having troubles adjusting to it, and it’s more complicated than what you learned before. Thus, school has an added pressure, and the stress of being single and lonely and desperately wanting someone just makes today really, really suck. I imagine it might be better if I was in some sort of relationship, but then there’s the pressure to make sure today is amazing, and that can only backfire.

I’m actually glad I’m in Ireland for Valentine’s Day. It’s not a big deal here. In fact, they’re pretty apathetic about it. It’s mostly an American holiday, after all, created by greeting card companies as a way to push more products (same for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day). It’s slowly spreading to other countries along with the rest of America’s influence. The same force that lets me watch Lost in Ireland is also dragging this stupid holiday to Ireland. Fortunately, while Lost is popular here, Valentine’s Day isn’t as much. People seem to be doing small things, maybe flowers and chocolates, but I haven’t seen anything close to a Valentine’s Day sale, or “get this gift for your Valentine.” I was even in a truffle shop earlier today and they weren’t having discounts (though I wish they did…).

It’s a nice change. While I’m used to these holidays being overly marketed to the point of losing all meaning, it’s interesting to have the day pass by without giving it too much of a special value. It’s a day, and you should do something special—tell her you love her and how much she means to you, but that’s it. No need for extravagance. It’s not the built up expectations and hype that we have in America, but just a day where you remember to do something a little nice for someone.

All of us Americans are celebrating it in our own little way. The girls I hang out with are going out to dinner, and the guys thought we might do something (probably dinner followed by them drinking). Brian and Chase are still planning on doing this, I think. I, however, got a text from Elyse saying her and Mellissa were doing dinner and movie if I wanted to join. I responded saying sure, I would like to join, and what movie are we watching?

High School Musical.

It’s a Valentine’s Day miracle! Okay, she said that’s what they were considering, and that it wasn’t set in stone or anything, so perhaps we’ll watch Love Actually (ick) or Sweet Home Alabama (yay). Either way, it doesn’t matter. I plan to spend today with friends enjoying myself. None of this stupid pressure or angst or lonely feelings. Just a day with friends having fun.

And isn’t that the true meaning of Christmas? I mean, Valentine’s Day.