Looking back over the last post and how I was then, or even how I thought about things, it amazes me how much and how quickly we change. In particular, I’m laughing at my writing about the counselor job. I really thought I was at the frontier of youth work didn’t I? The truth is, that stuff wouldn’t phase me at all now. The job is not really that hard and i think anyone could get used to it. People get used to much worse things….

So, i was lookin over my files and i find the following, an update i meant to send out at Easter 2004 no less. It’s not a bad history of my life in America up to that point. Naturally, my life has changed a lot since then too, look out for the next post…….

Hello all,
It’s Easter Saturday in the beautiful twin-cities, I’m lying in bed at 3 o’clock and I thought I’d organize my thoughts a little by sending out an update.

In around a week, I’ll have been in Minnesota for 10 months. To say that I find that frightening is an understatement. It’s actually the longest I’ve been away from home (I came back for a week when I was in Philly) and Belfast flicks between seeming like a full-force reality to a hazy dream at times.

I spent my first four months here sleeping on either Jonny or Jake’s couches and looking for a job. It was hard and no mistake, but to be honest, I was being picky with jobs. Couple that with having few friends to speak of and we come up with more nights at home than I was happy with. I consider myself an upbeat person that deals with hard times well, but I’d be lying if I said that there weren’t points when I was a little depressed. Don’t worry; I wasn’t sitting in the dark considering the random injustice of life. I had some great days during those times. I drove cross-country with Jake and Birdie (Jake’s girlfriend) to the east coast and spent some time in Philly with Marshall and the Clampetts, not forgetting Marty and his new wife Jenine. Paschal and I drove to the Badlands and Mt Rushmore, and we went the other direction to Milwaukee to see his cousin and spent a blinding weekend there. Not to mention all the great nights out where I was able to talk shit (my favorite pastime).

However, that life did force me into becoming friendlier. By December I had some more friends, either through the Cunningham brothers or through SPO. Jake and Jonny have a great set of old family and newer college friends. All of them are both very friendly and spiritual and I have become friends with some of them like Dave and Amber, in my own right. SPO (St Paul’s Outreach) is an evangelical organization that works in St Thomas University (where Jake both attended collage and works now). They’re basically an older Y.I. and as loving and friendly in my opinion. They’ve been very good to me, as well as giving me a space to flex my video muscles (the only ones I’m likely to have). And I’d be remiss if I forgot my extended Cunningham family. Both parents and children have been amazing, inviting me to every birthday party or religious holiday you can think of, making Territorial Drive in Burnsville feel like a second home

Anyway, December came bringing a few welcome and unexpected changes. For one, I had just been given a car by Paschal’s cousin, Fiona. It’s a white 93’ Cutlass Ciera Oldsmobile, a big-ass American cruiser, that made me more mobile in what is essentially a car-centered culture; I could actually get places on my own. Secondly, I got a job working as a youth director of a UCC church. It’s a nice job, pays well and the only problem with the kids is that they’re too busy. It’s in Edina, which is a suburb of Minneapolis and has some of the lowest crime rates and highest test scores in the country. It’s an American Cherry Valley in other words. A lot of people say it’s an acronym for ‘Every Day I Need Attention’.

Around the same time, I moved into a house near St Thomas where Jake’s friend Jesse lives. We’ve become fast friends and I’ll be gutted when he leaves for grad school in Pittsburgh in a few months. The other residents are nice too. Ely and Judith are friends from Lima and they have connected me into the international contingent in St Thomas. I’ve had some great nights out with those guys, and I’ve made a good friend, Claire from Paris, in the process. There was only one thing that came in December that I expected, Winter. I’ve tried to cook up a fitting superlative for how cold it gets but I’ve eventually settled with the old Norn Irish faithful: ‘ball-freezing’.

So December was a hectic month, rounded off by a strange week in which my ex/kind of present-girlfriend Katie, came to visit. We’d decided not to be beholden to each other when I left, but to see how things went. By the time she came over, we’d both decided that we weren’t going to follow through. Katie had changed what was supposed to be two weeks into one, which I thought was a good idea. It was a nice time though, and Katie enjoyed it, which was enough for me. Amazing girl, whoever gets her is very lucky, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be me.
January was a hectic month too, I’d committed to making a set of videos for SPO’s winter retreat and my car had committed to breaking down. The fuel line went, costing $600 in tows and repairs. Then in classic mechanic tradition, I was told that the water pump needed fixing too. So, with a long time out of work, a part time wage, a new laptop, and after a dent of $800 my bank account was looking decidedly unhealthy (imagine the Queen Mum, now). After getting that news, I walked from my room into Jesse’s and asked him all about the position going at his place as a Residential Counselor.

I had the job in two weeks and I’ve been there two months now. It’s interesting to say the least, a couple of weeks ago I had a glass frame and a stereo system thrown at me. Last week I had the worst day yet. There were a ton of things happening that day but the highlights were; having to explain myself to parents in a family therapy session why I had given their kid a restriction, carrying a disabled kid up the stairs while the others screamed at me, working things out with a pissed off kid in the quiet room (a rubber room without the rubber) and the crowning glory, a kid having to take two anti-psychotics to prevent her from having homicidal thoughts directed at me. She had a plan and everything. She was going to wait until I was on my own, push me into the bathroom, hold me down in the bath and stab me repeatedly with a stolen sharp until I was no longer moving. The homicidal thoughts aren’t a big deal, the fact that they were specific is. And you know what, I really love the job.

I think that more or less brings me up to date. As for romance, the accent is the stairway to the stars, but I haven’t a proper date as such. I think I’m at the point where I’d quite appreciate one too, but it’s just as hard to find somebody suitable here as back home. The wireless laptop’s fantastic so if you fancy bouncing on for a videoconference or an audio conversation on msn, do so. I hope to talk to you all soon.

Twin Cities, MN. Apr 12, 2004

…or seven hundred days, for that matter, maybe more.

Before I begin, let me explain that I was put up to this by Lisa. As all of you know, I don’t have a cruel bone in my body!

Now. Anyone who has been a visitor to the McGarry Ranch in Crumlin may have seen the following picture in our kitchen. Following Mr Wooftie’s visit to Northern Ireland, Lisa and I decided to update the picture circa 2005.

Anyway, while Wooftie was visiting, he gave us a short update on the status (statuses?) of his ex-girlfriends. Esther got married. Blocker’s getting married. Katie’s getting married…Etc. Etc. You get the drift.

“So, ” we asked ourselves, “What would that picture look like today?” Here you go:

So, I’m back from a short stint in the motherland and I thought I would do some justice to Brian’s wonderful gesture and Gerardy’s fantastic work (i.e. Actually post something). Truth be told, although I’m a bit of a computer geek and love games/emailing/video editing, I really don’t know much about the whole web design/web logging thing.

Therefore I intend to do what I know; write.

I’ll be using this as a journal of sorts and anyone is welcome to comment on any thoughts I might have, with some ruminations of their own. If you’re a regular contributor, you just might be rewarded with you very own caricature, courtesy of my mate Gerard.

Tooteloo.