A Million Words

We arrived in the US two weeks ago today, after several exhausting weeks. During our final two and a half weeks in Ireland, we visited London, packed up the apartment, and tried to keep up with the normal round of daily activities. Meanwhile, I wrapped up the rough draft of the Regency romance I'm working on and battled one of the most exhausting head colds I've ever had.  Nova sprouted her final eye tooth during a whirlwind trip to Edinburgh to visit a friend, and started putting words together.  Mike sorted through his entire collection of games and books, and shuffled everything over to his father's new attic.  Our final day in Ireland was spent cleaning the apartment and dealing with our landlord. He had seemed like a decent enough landlord up until that point, but he walked in that afternoon affecting a "very angry" mood and roaring that the place was "very dirty" (it was a hell of a lot cleaner than it had been when we moved in), and making up spur...

A week from today, we will be on the plane back to the US.  I was going to chronicle our oh-so-organized process of sorting through our things and packing up, but so far it's just happened around the fringes of my attention.  Mike has made great progress sorting through his collections of books, games, art supplies, and dice, while I occasionally throw a few books into a box, or clothes into a bag. Mostly, I'm trying desperately to finish this draft of my cheesy romance novel before we take off.   I began plotting this novel in late October or early November of 2007, shortly before Nova was born. I knew that I wouldn't have the energy and brain power to do NaNoWriMo that year, but a year later, in the midst of ridiculous amounts of household stress, I decided to give it a go again.  I started writing on the first and plowed through a few bumps in the road before losing two days to a vicious stomach bug (first me, then Nova, then Mike... or maybe Nova was first).  I took tw...

This time last week, we were on our way to Dublin for Mike's immigrant visa interview. His stamped passport arrived back to us on Friday morning, and I booked our flights to America. I have mixed feelings about moving home. I've made some great friends here. I also enjoy Galway's literary scene, which is younger and more active than what we have on the Vineyard. Living in the middle of the so-called city, with no need for a car, has also been great. I love being able to walk to the library and the grocery store in less than five minutes, and wandering down Shop Street with Nova, saying hello to all the dogs and babies and listening to the buskers. I'll also really miss our view of Galway harbor and the bay beyond, all the way over to the mountains in Clare. I will not, however, miss the constant noise and light pollution that comes with our view. Right now, for example, something is beeping out there as a crane piles clattering scrap-metal onto the heap. I won't...