September 2, 2025

Dublin, Ireland; ~8:00 am 

Today is the day! In a few hours I will head to Cork and meet Miss Nancy who is to be my landlady for my stay in Ireland. Dublin has treated me well, not in the sense that it's been an uproarious good time, but in the sense that I finally got clarity on how to get my mojo back. I passed through the seven layers of suffering that were my own isolation and finally remembered why I came on this trip in the first place: to force myself so far out of my comfort zone, far away from any built in social connection that bring out old patterns in me, and into a state in which I am communing with the entire world. This is the state in which I feel most free and, as a consequence of that freedom, the state in which I do my best writing. What this means is continuing to talk to strangers, to try new things, to put my art out there, and to spread warmth in the world. I had a phenomenal run of living with this energy for about ~4 months in the immediate aftermath of my breakup in February, but work, death, and my own bad attitude got in the way. It doesn't matter how I lost the joy because now it's back and I'm going to make every effort to cultivate it and to make sure that it's here to stay. 

A quick catch up before I pack up: 

Last days in Lyon passed without incident. My legs are destroyed after going in and out of that 5th floor walk-up apartment on top of a massive hill. I went to a miniature and film museum which had lots of cool old props and also tons of Wes Anderson memorabilia: 

Isle of dogs is by far the worst Wes Anderson movie, but still, it's the actual dogs they used in the movie! 

On Sunday I flew to Dublin and arrived at my Air BnB in temple bar. Things in this area are expensive and touristy and at this point of being on the road for two weeks I am pretty much totally spent on touristy shops and museums, but I still managed to have a good, if somewhat more subdued, time in Dublin. I walked along the river for a while, popped into some shops, and ended up seeing the movie The Roses with Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch because it was playing in a theater I walked passed and I was getting rained on and couldn't drink any more pints. The next day I went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, considered one of the finest illuminated manuscripts in the world, ate a massive Irish lunch, and then passed out in bed for several hours. I woke up, got a simple grocery store dinner, walked around Dublin for a while longer, and then went back to my room to read. Like I said, I'm ready to be somewhere.

With all of this being said (in a somewhat tiresome tone), I am grateful to have had the opportunity of the last few weeks to get to know myself better, to challenge myself, and to spend time with good friends in beautiful places. I'm eager to get settled in Cork and get myself started on the next chapter of my life with a renewed positive attitude.