Meeting up with friends

It's our last day in Eire, and nothing big to do except pack. We'll have a final group dinner tonight. It's been a "grand" and "brilliant" time (as the Irish would say).

I'm heading out here in a bit to take the first bus into Dublin's City Centre for some early morning photos of the Liffey. But first I'd like to share the joys I had of meeting up with two friends this week.

Tuesday, Jim and I met up for lunch at a café for the first time. I met him at my sister Ginnie's photoblog with Shutterchance.com, where he also has a photoblog. Jim is a Dubliner, graphic designer, world traveler and photoblogger in spades. He also introduced me to Photoblip, where he has another blog. There is a serious question whether I will be able to keep up with three blogs (yes, I hear you out there), but I started one so that I could visit Jim at his. It seems like a very nice community of bloggers, very responsive and welcoming, thanks to my introduction by Jim. I like the format very much, and I like their idea that you post a picture that you took on the day you post it.

Jim is one of the reasons I love blogging so much: meeting nice people. He is charming, kind, interesting, and has an eye for taking lovely photographs of his Dublin. Most unfortunately, a few days before we were to meet up, he was struck by a bicyclist-courier going in the wrong direction and broke his wrist in the accident. We laughed at his Napoleanic pose.


Carrie is the friend I talked about in my post about letters Don's 4th graders wrote to a Marine pilot in Iraq, Carrie's husband. She teaches English at Boston University and has been participating in a 6-week NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) project on James Joyce at Trinity College, a summer seminar for university teachers. Carrie is a fellow "Sappho" -- a member of my poetry group. She graduated from MSU the year before me, also in English. The happiest news of all is that her husband Derek will be leaving Iraq in just a couple of weeks for a two year job in San Diego! He had expected to be deployed until February 2008. Hallelujah! And Carrie will even have time to be with him a while before she starts her teaching semester in the fall. It was great having a picnic in St. Stephan's Green, eating Thai shrimp salads and custard pastries from Marks & Spencer's Food Hall. A nice French couple took our picture together.