When you consistently go for a month at a time without updating your blog, you end up with a lot of random things you want to talk about when you finally start a post. I like to theme my posts, and it turns out that, with a month of material, that is sometimes impossible. I have updates about weather. I have updates about food. I have updates about my job. I have travel updates. How can I relate these things to one another?
With GIFs.
Without further ado, friends and readers, here is the story of the last month of my life, illustrated with GIFs.
Update #1: I am a food blogger now kind of. I've been contributing a lot lately to a local food blog called Lovin Dublin. I eat a lot, and then I write about it. So....largely I do the same thing I've been doing here for a long time, but now a lot of people read it and occasionally follow me on Twitter because of it. Joke's on them.
Update #2: I bought a bikini yesterday, and the above is how I look in it. Go ahead and take a look at it; it's super cute. This purchase is a big deal to me on a lot of gender-studies levels. I will omit that particular soapbox from this blog post. What's important here is that I have been searching for a good plus-sized bikini for about two years now, and I have finally found one. In this swimsuit, I believe the teens would say that I am on fleek. It makes me feel good about myself - almost as good as my honors degree from the University of Notre Dame does.
Update #3: I saw the pope again!
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In a strange instance of four-day-long deja vu, I went to Rome this weekend for all of the Vatican Easter festivities. This trip, which I also did in 2013 when I studied abroad, was a good time. I ate a lot of gelato, including Frigidarium which will forever be my favorite no matter what you Giolitti's and Old Bridge lovers say so haters back off. I had an awesome meal at Tony's, which I hear will mean a lot to my friends who studied in Rome. (Yes, y'all, I loved it.) At this meal, I accidentally ordered two courses that consisted of just potatoes in different shapes. I really do belong in Ireland.
Update #4: At Easter Mass, I learned that sometimes it rains so hard that umbrellas stop working and rain just pours through them!
I know. Yeah, so, as you may have seen on the news, it was a rainy Easter for the record books in Rome this year, and I was right up in the middle of that. I created a rain cocoon for myself, which gave me about 45 minutes of dry happiness and then three hours of sad. I had my rain jacket on. This thing is extremely waterproof. It's just a short jacket and I often forget to zip it up as high as I should, so it doesn't always cover that much area - but if it's covered by this jacket, in almost all circumstances, it's dry. I also had my umbrella. This trusty contraption was a gift for my high school graduation and has been with me ever since. It's a good umbrella. It works. And finally, for extra waterproofing, I laid a trash bag out across my legs and my backpack to make sure I'd be totally dry. Sitting in my seat with these three systems in place, I was bone dry and perfectly content despite the rainstorm for the first three-quarters of an hour. Once the end of the first hour approached, though, things began to unravel. My neighbors' ponchos were raining in on me from the sides. A puddle was forming around my feet. And yes, folks, my umbrella STOPPED WORKING. It didn't blow inside out or break in some way. It just stood up to so much rain that water started dripping through the seams. Did you know this was possible? I didn't! You learn so much living abroad.
Update #5: IT GETS WARM IN DUBLIN!!
Now that I've said this, the local weather will retreat into wintry, rainy misery. For now, though - and for several days in a row, in fact - it's gorgeous outside! It's been in the mid-sixties, the sun has been shining. I didn't know that was even possible here. That's kind of why I moved here. But hey, after the lashing we all got at the Vatican on Sunday (didn't think I'd ever say that phrase), I could not love this sunshine business any more. I'm not wearing tights with my dress today, and not even because I couldn't find any. I'm not wearing tights on purpose.
Life is good, everyone. Life is good.
