Just Another Crazy Night In Ireland

I have had some pretty funny experiences while traveling. I would like to dedicate this next blog to my good friend Callie. I thought long and hard this week while I have been sick on what to write about, and I landed on one night I had in Dublin, Ireland.



This is a picture of me and my good friend Callie while in Ireland. We had a great day doing all the touristy things like the Guinness Factory, Book of Kells, Dublin Castle, etc. We (Callie, Josh and I) were staying in Dublin. Not really knowing what to expect, we found a random place to stay in the city and asked for a 4 bedroom. If you have every stayed in a hostel you know that rooms can range from one bed to 20+ beds.

A tip I learned from a friend is if you’re staying in a hostel you want to do 2 things. One: take a bed sheet from home and sew it into a sleeping bag so you can bring it to the hostel and sleep in it. This will help you not get bed bugs. Two: Always have what you can’t afford to lose on you at all times. So back to Ireland, it was our second night in the hostel and the three of us were all deciding on what we should do that night. Dublin is known for having a great night life and we had gone out the night before and listened to some great traditional Irish music.

We were all talking and our door starts to open so I of course grab my belongings and hold tight thinking, “I am not giving up without a fight.” Who walks in? Blazej a Polish man who lived and worked in Ireland (what we came to find out is that a lot of people live in hostels and just move from room to room). When we first met Blazej, we found out right away that he loved Callie’s blond hair and he loved the idea that we were from the United States. Right when he walked in we all got quiet. We did introductions and then he told us that he was meeting some friends at a pub that was close by. He wanted to know if Callie wanted to come and said Josh and I could join too. The conversation then went as followed:

Me: Yeah that would be fun, where would we go?

Blazej: A place called Fibber Magee’s.

Me: Sounds Irish, I am in.

Callie: Kennedy we should think about this, we don’t know him and I don’t want to go.

Me: He said it was close we will be fine, we have Josh.

Josh: I don’t care what we do.

Me: I want to go out.

Callie: I don’t want to go out, I am tired (Typical Cal) .

Blazej: Callie you either stay with me here alone or you come out with all of us (in a polish accent).

Callie: Ok we can go out.

Blazej: Good I will buy you all drinks.

This started one of the weirdest nights of my life. So right away there were RED FLAGS.

1st Red Flag – Everyone in Europe dresses up when they go out, he was in jeans and a sweatshirt and was ready to go.

2nd Red Flag – He said it was a close pub, 15 min later and counting while still in the cab we were all thinking “Where are we going?” “Was this stupid?” “What street is our hostel on?”

On a side note, I love all kinds of music, all kinds but heavy metal/screaming music. So we walk into Fibber Magee’s and we find a spot to sit right away which was good. We all sit down and Blazej ordered the first round of drinks for all of us. We drank a lot of Rebel beer and took different shots all nights (grass weed shot?).



So everything was fine and then Jared and Josh2 showed up who were Blazej friends. Jared was from Poland and Josh2 was from Spain. Right when they showed up Blazej came back with some shots and said, “Oh great, the live band is starting". All of a sudden the music started and it was death metal. Now the sweatshirts made sense.



It was a good thing we were far away from the music because I don’t think I would have made it very long if we were close. After I got past the screaming and the EXTREME amount of gothic people walking in the door, I started to have more fun. In the middle of the night as Blazej had his arm around Callie the conversation went as followed:

Blazej: Callie I love you.

Callie: Josh please make sure he doesn’t rape me tonight.

Josh: What do you want me to do sleep with my eye open?

Blazej: Let me buy you all another shot.

Callie: Kennedy whatever happens I am not taking the shot he gives me it has a date rape in it I know it does.

Kennedy: Just switch the shot around.

Blazej comes back and Callie makes some comment and he turns and she switches his shot with her so that she won’t get the date rape shot. Soon after he wants to take a picture with Callie to remember the “love of his life”, the picture is as followed:



This might be my favorite picture of Callie ever. When I looked at these pictures the next morning I laughed so hard. Her face about sums up our night . Now I know that Callie would be mad if I didn’t tell this story. The story is as followed:

Callie really likes popcorn and I am not really that big of fan of it. At some/most bars in the states if they have popcorn it’s free. At this heavy metal Irish pub it was not free. She got popcorn at the bar for everyone to share and once it ran out she asked me if I would go get her more. The conversation went as followed:

Callie: Kennedy please go get me more popcorn.

Me: No I don’t want any popcorn you can go get it.

Callie: Please Ken just get me some more.

Me: No, you can go get it.

Callie: Ken you don’t have to pay for it its free refills.

Me: Yeah I am still good you can go get it.

Callie: Come on please.

Me: Fine!! I will go get you some freaken popcorn Cal.

Me (to the bartender): Hey my friend got some popcorn and this is her tub and she wants me to get her, her free refill.

Bartender: What are you talking about? (Irish accent).

Me (yelling over the yelling): My friend Callie she is sitting right over there and she ordered this and wants her FREE refill.
Bartender: Why would I give you free popcorn, we don’t have free refills, you have to pay for more popcorn.

I look over and the whole table is laughing at me. Let’s just say Callie got her own popcorn after that and everyone was laughing at me the whole night. That was one of my random nights while in Dublin Ireland.

The SPK hits again…or does it?

I have never been a fan of scary movies but I have always been a fan of shows like Law and Order, CSI, and Criminal Minds. Lately Hulu.com has become one of my new friends. I started watching Criminal Minds the other day, and 2 episodes and 2 hours later I realized I have not showered and I have not even been outside. I heard Darla whimpering so I decided to cave in and take her on a run so we could both get some fresh air. Now I am not sure if any of you watch Criminal Minds but it’s a show about the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). The team's focus is on serial killers, but they tend to concentrate more on the criminal and not the crime itself. Let’s just say the show is intense.

I grab my keys to lock the door and let Darla out. So Darla and I start off on our walk, we both have done this walk a lot so we both know the drill; she heads to the right and we walk from there. If she doesn’t go in the street I keep her off the leash. We go on our walk and everything’s fine. We do our normal sprints at the end of the run which is more or less me sprinting for like 3 seconds and her shooting past me. Then I turn around like, I am going to run fast again, and she sprints past me again. I have to say my sprints are getting longer though.

I see another big dog coming down the street and that’s when I decide its time to head home. I call Darla and like a good puppy she comes running, probably because she was as thirsty as I was. I come around the corner to see my house and there’s a white painter van and trailer in front of my house that wasn’t there before.

I will be honest, my first thought was, “That van is dirty”. My second thought was, “Holy cow there is a serial killer in my house who is acting like a painter”. My third thought was, “Crap I didn’t lock the door”.

I look around to see if I can see a neighbor that I could give that, “Please help me look too in case something happens”. I don’t see anyone; I then have this conversation in my head.

“Kennedy stop being stupid, no one is in the house.”

“Some people who have painter trucks are really painters.”

“At least I have Darla in case something happens, maybe she will save me and then she could get on TV as the Dog that saved the girl from the (SPK) Serial Painter Killer.”

I get to the door and walk inside. I say, “Hello”. No one answers back. I tell myself to stop being silly and just walk around the house and make sure. I acted calm and collected having Darla by my side going into each room and basically saying “clear” like they do on TV.

I last looked in my roommate Jenna’s room when I hear a knock on the door which basically makes me pee in my pants like I did when I was a little kid playing baseball and was up to bat for the first time. Okay, I didn’t actually pee in my pants today but the knock on the door did get my heart pumping again. I go to the door and Darla is barking which is weird because the dog doesn’t usually bark. I look through the door and see the “painter”. I thought to myself, no way is he going to take me hostage right at my door step. I take a moment and then open the door. The conversation goes as follows.

Him - “Hello, How are you doing today?”

Me – (hum, maybe he’s not a painter) “Fine, how are you?”

Him – “What’s your name?”

Me – (Why do you want to know?) “KC” (that’s what I tell people when they ask me at the door because it’s not really lying but its not giving the whole truth)

Him – “Well KC, have you found Jesus?”

Me – (So I have been waiting for someone to say this to me ever since the movie New In Town came out. I wanted to say and I quote this from the movie “I didn’t know he was missing”, that’s not what came out) “Yea we are tight” (I think we were both taken back from this answer)

Him – “Well that’s great. I am from the Loomis United Church of Christ inviting you to come to one of our services”

Me- “Thanks, I have been there”

Him – “Oh that’s great, I hope to see you there on Sunday”

Me – “Ok” (I didn’t have the heart to tell him I go to St. Peter & Paul)

So it ends up there was no serial killer in my house that was disguised as a painter. The moral of this story is don’t watch Criminal Minds and then leave your house unlocked with an unmarked white van in front of the house. The end.

Mini, How-to’s

So when I moved to California, one of the first things I started to realize is that weather people in California must not have a very exciting work life. In Wisconsin you have huge storms, snow, rain, cold, high winds, crazy temperatures etc. In California it’s usually sunny, sunny with some clouds or light rain. So it was very funny when it snowed the other night for the first time in many years in the Valley. It made me smile not only because I feel like it's not the holidays without snow, but also for those weather guys and giving them the opportunity to say something other than sun. That being said, that has nothing to do with what I am going to write about today. Today I am going to write on different small HOW TO topics.

How to Tell Someone you're Not Interested
1. Make yourself scarce – hide and avoid them
2. Tell them it’s just not the right time in life right now for you to be in a relationship.
3. Be Honest – say you don’t like them.


How to Greet People at Your First Introduction
1. Smile
2. Say Hello, how are you?
3. Be the first to start up a conversation about a small topic i.e. weather
4. Be yourself
5. Don’t let your attention drift onto something else, stay focused
6. Find common ground or a common interest
7. Give off positive vibes and make the other person feel special


How to Play Fantasy Football
1. Find a public league to join or create your own private league – leagues can be formed at NFL.com, yahoo sports, and or CBSsportsline.com.
2. Figure out as much as you can about different players. This can be done by going online and seeing projected stats of who’s hot and who is not.
3. Draft your fantasy team according to your league rules. The standard line up is usually one quarterback, two wide receivers, two running backs, a tight end, a kicker, a team’s defense and then 5-6 people on your bench. You can have anywhere between 6 to 12 of your friends/strangers playing. Each week you play a different team/person.
4. Pick your starting lineup each week based on what team in your league you're playing and take into consideration the opponent's of your individual players.
5. Whatever site you create your league on then tells you how many points you get each week. For example, lets say the running back you picked ran 10 yards that equals one point. If your quarterback passes a touchdown that is 6 points.
6. You will receive points for your offensive and defensive players based on things like touchdowns, tackles, sacks, catches and yards run.
7. Win by getting more points that your opponent for that week. Then you have playoffs to determine the champion of the league.


How to clean up after you put dish soap in the dishwasher
1. The way you tell you put the wrong dish soap in is when there are suds and water coming out of your dishwasher.
2. Turn off the dishwasher and get things under control.
3. You grab a bunch of towels and soak up all the water and suds.
4. Open dishwasher and try to scoop out as much water and suds as you can from the back.
5. Sprinkle table salt into the suds.
6. Drop ice cubes into bottom to cool the water
7. Put a cup or two of white vinegar in the dish washer
8. Run dishwasher and hope for the best, you may have to run the dishwasher a couple of times.


How to Jump Start a Dead Car Battery
1. Line up both cars as close as you can to each other, but not touching. Make sure both cars are in park and turned off with everything unplugged.
2. Open up the hoods of the cars. Find the positive (+) and negative (-) terminals on both cars. They should be clearly marked. Usually positive is red and negative is black.
3. If the battery is cracked you need to stop and just get a new battery.
4. Get your cable out of your trunk. Connect one end of the positive cable (+) to the other end of the positive dead battery. Do the same for the negative (-). Start with the good battery and then connect it to the bad battery so no sparks are created.
5. Start the “good” car and let it run for a couple minutes. You may need to adjust the jumper cable to get better results.
6. Try to turn on dead car and hopefully it will start. You should then run your car 7. for awhile to get the juices flowing. A new battery may be needed.


How to eat healthy
1. Protein (found in fish, meat, poultry, dairy products, eggs, nuts, and beans)
2. Fat (found in animal and dairy products, nuts, and oils)
3. Carbohydrates (found in fruits, vegetables, pasta, rice, grains, beans and other legumes, and sweets)
4. Vitamins (such as vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K)
5. Minerals (such as calcium, potassium, and iron)
6. Water

*Eat a balance of 1-6 and you will be a healthy eater.


How to fall asleep fast
1. Let yourself clear your mind and try not to think of problems or issues going on.
2. Close your eyes and breath in and out for 3 seconds then repeat.
3. Release the stress in your body. Tighten up your face for a couple seconds and then release your face muscles. Do this for the rest of your body. Continue to focus on breathing.
4. Continue until you fall asleep.

Things That Dont Make Sense!!

So I am going to answer some questions people have asked me, hope it helps.

1. To be a follower means you like to follow my blog, it’s really not hard to set up so feel free if you would like. Just click follow button.

2. I found out that when I publish a new blog I can have a message sent to your email address. So if you do like my blog and want to know when I publish a new one please let me know and I can add you to the list.

3. Anyone can comment after a blog even if you are not a follower.

4. If anyone wants me to write about something specific please let me know.

This blog is going to be a little bit different than the rest. I am still going to be doing research but its going to be more or less research with friends. If I asked you and you gave me your input in regards to this blog, thank you. I was lying in bed the other night trying to think of new things to write about. Sometimes I think of an idea but I have to ask myself would others be interested in this. I was lying in bed and I was starting to think about candy canes and how great they are and then I thought about what I am going to dream about tonight and I hoped that candy canes were in my dream. Then that turned into me wondering if blind people can see their dreams? Here is to my first random blog!

That being said here is my list of things that don’t make sense:

1. Why people in the NBA get paid so much yet they really only play the last 2 minutes of each game. Teachers work so hard all day and get paid very little.

2. Why Facebook changes its format once people are finally used to the new one. - RJ

3. Why whenever you see construction workers working, there is never a time when they are all working at one time, one or more or all are always on a break.

4. Why people who say they are in love with someone would cheat on them. Don’t get it.

5. What Balloon Boy and his family were thinking.

6. People who say, “I feel badly” it is I feel bad. You don’t say I feel madly or I feel sadly do you. (Cough Steph)

7. Why Miley Cyrus is so famous.

8. Why when you are chewing food and think of something to say, it then take you longer to chew that food than normal. - Dan

9. How about in the winter when it's not snowing you can always find a snow plow, but when it is snowing and you should see them out and about they are nowhere to be found. – Liz

10. This kid on YouTube - (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM) You have to check it out!!

11. Why do toothpaste commercials never show people actually brushing their teeth with toothpaste. – RJ

12, Why someone would take a medicine that has side effects which are worse than the actual thing they are taking the medicine for; like an asthma medicine that increase your risk of dying from asthma attacks. - Matt

13. Whenever someone is comparing two things that aren't alike someone will always chime in by saying, "That's like comparing apples with oranges", as if to say you can't compare those things because they aren't anything alike.

14. The phrase - Pleased as punch – don’t get it.

15. Why there is no light in the freezer.

16. Why young or old everyone still loves to push the elevator buttons.

17. If the temperature is 0 out today and it’s going to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold will it be? – Rachel

18. If Barbie is so popular, why do we have to buy her friends? – Kate

19. Why Twilight is very addicting. I have some serious doubts about the quality of the writing or the originality of the plot lines. - Emily

20. When you blow in a dogs face he/she moves away, doesn't like it. The moment you get into the car the dog sticks his/her head out the window.

This wine is Dynamic, wouldn't you say?

(Wine Part 2 brought to you by Quamut)

Do you ever listen to people talking about wine and say to yourself, “What do you mean the structure has body? Or the wine has an unripe texture?” These are both different ways to talk about wine. Do you try wines sometimes and when someone asks you what you like about it you can’t really describe it? Well I am here to share with you different ways to, “talk about wine” or a quick blast of wine terminology. This way maybe at your next party when you’re with your friends you can be the one saying, “the firmness of this wine is great”. Alright, so the book says that there are four main “sensations” to describe wine: structure, aromatics, texture and overall experience.

Structure: (sweetness, acidity, tannins and alcohol) These are all qualities that make the structure of the wine; the best wines will have a combination of all four of them.

Sweetness – Wines can be sweet and then wines can also be dry, “off-dry” wines are in-between the two extremes.

Acidity – This is an important aspect to both red and white wine, although it’s more important to white wine. Acidity is sometimes said to be the “backbone” of the white wine because it’s what gives it its “firmness”. The terms usually associated with white wine are “tart” or “crisp”. If a wine has very little acidity it’s called “soft”. Not enough acidity is “flabby”.

Example:

Me - “Trudy how do you like that white wine?”

Trudy - “Well it’s a great summer wine, very crisp”

Tannins – So acidity is to white wine as tannins is to red wine. I am going to take this right from Quamut. “Tannins are molecules that exist naturally in grape skins, stems and seeds; they give red wine its trademark puckering sensation in the hollow between your cheeks and gums”. “Astringent” is when a wine is high with tannins, if they are in the middle its “hard” or “firm” if a wine has low tannins its known as “soft”. Hopefully you guys are still with me.

Body - The next is the body or the alcohol content. The amount of “honk-a-hall” as my sister used to call it, determines the body or weight of the wine. The higher the amount of alcohol you say, “This wine is full of body”. There is full bodied, medium bodied or light bodied wine.

Example:

Me – “Trudy how do you like that red wine?”

Trudy – “Well Kennedy, I like this wine a lot, I can already tell it is very full bodied”

Aromatics:
When you attend a wine tasting, they always tell you to smell the wine before you taste. This is because wines are very complex. When you smell a wine it “goes through your nasal cavity at the back of your mouth”, so it is important for when you do taste the wine. There are so many different terms used and it is so complex that they still don’t have a universal standard for wine aromas. So until they do, you are able to say whatever flavors come to mind when you smell a wine.

Common ones are: burnt, floral, fruity, herbal, earthy, cinnamon, grass, rosemary.
Uncommon ones are: horsey, manure, stewed.

Example

Me – “Trudy do you like that wine?”

Trudy – “Thank you for asking Kennedy, yes it has a very woody taste to it”. (That’s what she said)



Texture:
Texture is also known as “mouthfeel” is the tactile sensations you feel while drinking wine. The Australian Wine Research Institute came up with different ways to describe wine:

-Particulate: talc, wed clay, powder, dusty
-Surface Smoothness: furry, fine emery, velvet, suede, silk
-Complex: soft, supple, fleshy, rich
-Drying: numbing, parching, dry
-Dynamic: pucker, chewy, grippy, adhesive
-Harsh: hard, aggressive
-Unripe: resinous, sappy, green
-Weight: watery, thin, full
-Texture: syrupy, creamy
-Heat: hot, warm
-Irritation: chili, pepper, tingle, prickle

Overall Experience:
The overall experience is what allows someone to describe all three of the items listed above. It is something wine-o’s like to talk about. The “complexity” of a wine is how it can change or grow over the time it takes to swallow or the idea that wine is so multi-layered that textures can change over time. A “straightforward” wine is a wine that doesn’t change a lot. That being said, both are good wines it just all depends on what you like.

The “length” is very distinct in a wine. When a wine gives you a blast of flavor but then it dies as you swallow it's called “short”. When a wine gives off an after taste or lingers it’s called a “finish”. The “depth” is the dimension and power of it's flavor. Both of the wines (complex and straightforward) can have depth as long as the flavor is thriving and strong. The “typicity” is if a wine is in the same family or same type i.e. sharing basic characteristics vs. an outlier wine that is more or less on its own.

Me: “Trudy do you like the wine?”

Trudy: “Yes Kennedy, although I wish the finish of the wine was stronger.”

I will also add in because people have asked me before, “How can you tell if I wine is bad?”

Cork is shriveled or wet
Smells like rotten eggs
Smells like nail polish remover
Smells like card board
Tastes flat, dusty, stale, rotten or vinegary


*All information can be found on Quamut.com

New “Funemployed” in the United States

Unemployment is one of the hot topics in today’s economy that everyone is thinking and talking about. Slappy White says that the, “Trouble with unemployment is that the minute you wake up in the morning you're on the job.” Right around this time last year I came to California not knowing anyone and without a job. Some people thought I was crazy, and well I thought I was a little crazy too. As my dad has always said to me, “Kennedy it’s not what you know, but who you know.” So what do I do? I move to a place where I didn’t know anyone.

When I first started looking for jobs last year, I looked at all of the normal job sites and I drove around and asked people if they were hiring. I was luckily able to find a job shortly after I moved out here. Once I found a job, ironically job searching became my full-time job. I became a recruiter for an IT Company called One Stream. Not knowing anything, I learned from the ground up. I became specialized in sourcing, networking and building/maintaining relationships with IT Professionals (Software Engineers) throughout the Bay Area.

I would like to give helpful insights and tips for the unemployed from what I have learned. That being said, being jobless is hard. It’s very embarrassing, somewhat boring, discouraging and scary. I came across a good article while doing a little research on people who are unemployed today. It is about 7 different people and their lives and how they are dealing with being jobless in different ways. Here is the link so you can read their stories.

http://nymag.com/news/business/53153/

Some of the information below comes from my own experience, but some is also from other people I have spoken to or read about.

For those of you who are unemployed I will try to give you some hope:
-As Alan Greenspan said, “I’m pretty sure we have already seen the bottom," so the only way to go now is up. Working for the staffing division I know that a lot of people are now starting to hire or will be hiring this New Year.
-When you are unemployed you have a lot of time to think about what you really want to do and you find out a lot about yourself, both good and bad.
-You have more free time to get things done that you have put off. i.e. work out, finish that project, go back to school
-You’re able to reinvent yourself.
-Gain the realization of what is really needed and who is important in your life.

Tips for the unemployed:
-Try not to put too much pressure on yourself.
-Remind yourself that you only need one job not a million. It may only be one phone call or one interview away so try not to get discouraged
-Keep your head on straight with a realistic sense of optimism. Keep focused on the goal at hand
-Schedule your job search like you would schedule a meeting everyday. Make a goal of how many jobs you’re going to apply for each day. In today’s economy they say that for every 15 jobs you apply for you will hear back from 1 or 2.
-Make yourself stand out. The hardest part of the job search is just getting the initial interview. You need to let that person know you want the job and why you are good for the job and you can start yesterday.
-If you know you want to work for a certain company call them and talk to their HR person. If they are not hiring keep in contact.
-Let people know how to find you. LinkedIn, Facebook, phone number, email address etc.
-Network!!! Keep in touch with people; you don’t realize how many people you know until you think about it.
-Remind yourself that it is your job search, not your friends' or your family's, but yours. In the end you have to do what you have to do.
-Have Faith and don’t give up.

I asked a few people how to avoid unemployment:
Jason- “Stay in school...be on the 10 year program.”
Johanna - “The way to avoid unemployment is to go live in another country."
Becky – “Find a good company and work hard.”

These are just some helpful hints that I wanted to pass on. For those of you who are working, keep it up and for those of who you are not, remember it just takes one call. It’s a hard out there, but there are jobs, they just need to be found.
.