Freetime Management

So it appears that I'm not very good at structuring my time, now that most of my academic commitments are over. Not only are my papers in, but most of my tutorials have wrapped up, and I'm having some of my final lectures this week. I've been trying to fill my free time with cultural stuff--i borrow tons of movies from the Trinity library and supplement these with knitting projects (I just finished the second of a pair of Latvian mittens I've been working on: the first took three months, the second took one week), or I browse around the internet looking for concerts and Dubliny things to do. The sun's out almost every day now, spring has come full-force to Dublin, and I sit in a park almost every day for about an hour as I eat lunch. This week I've also been very into museums, as Dublin has a great number of the Irish national museums that are free, if not very good. Still, I get to a point in the afternoon where I wonder, what am I doing here? What is my purpose in staying here for so long? What am I accomplishing, really?

I think I had productivity on the brain this weekend when I visited Caitlin in Galway. For instance, I went to the Aran Islands and came back, not with a fisherman sweater, but with two kilos of yarn. To knit my own. I also spent a lot of money on presents--not souvenirs, but presents for events in the near, and far, future. For instance, I bought my parents books of love poetry for their upcoming 25th anniversary (Neruda for Mom because she knows a little Spanish, Yeats for Dad because Yeats is the best, obvi) and a flashy vest from this place called River Island for my sister's birthday on July 18th. A fun fact about me: I plan presents obsessively, almost as obsessively as I plan halloween and theme party costumes. When I was in high school, I was one of those girls who gave every single one of her friends very thoughtful trinkets for Christmas, all very carefully wrapped. I've learned better by now, because those gestures are rarely returned and buying presents for your 30 closest friends becomes expensive, but at the same time I can't help but fixate on those more mandatory presents. I've been visiting a book about the Wild Women of Irish History, planning to pick it up for my Nana for Christmas... I'm ridiculous.

Today I went to the Chester Beatty Library, a museum full of Chester Beatty's medieval Iranian manuscripts, Chester Beatty's Egyptian papyrus scrolls, Chester Beatty's very old fragment of one of the earliest bibles. Chester Beatty wasn't famous for any reason other than having all of these very old books. He really made a name for himself. I wonder if I'll ever have something that grandiose to offer the world.

SEE WHAT I THINK ABOUT WHEN LEFT TO MY OWN DEVICES?

I also feel like I'm in a state of flux. I was away last weekend to Galway, the weekend before to London (which was lovely and which I'll try to write about someday but maybe I'll never get to it so just check out my facebook photos if you're interested in the meantime). This weekend I'll be in Belgium with Sally, and the weekend after that, Paris with my flatmates. There's the whole existential crisis of feeling unrooted, sure, but there are sensible implications as well. For instance, I've been having a very hard time shopping for groceries, because anything perishable I'll have to consume before the next weekend or it'll go bad. It's extra hard because I've been trying to eat well (or at least better), and foods that are good for you are often the first to go. I've never missed McEwen so much as I do now--I'd kill for a salad bar, sandwich fixin's, all of that at my fingertips. Variety is difficult to aquire when you're eating alone.

That's about all for now. Maybe I'll just do posts like this for the rest of the time, no big lists, just spontaneous impressions.