an update -- not as frequent as promised, but here. :)

Aha. Clearly you shouldn't take my promise for more frequent postings too seriously.... Sorry. :S

So, A's still around. We had a review today, with her social worker, and agreed that A should try to cooperate a little more within the community. She's very good at participating when she wants, and shutting it all down when she doesn't. Which I'm not really judging her for -- coming from all the crazy places she's been in, I'm sure it's really hard to adjust to the life-sharing we do here. I mean, it's hard enough for me. Anyway, we'll see how it keeps going (there's another 2 months of the trial period to go). I think I'm at the point where I'm just going to leave it up to her, and not stress myself out over wondering why she's not listening to me/getting up/walking/etc. The bit I still find quite hard is that she doesn't understand my need for personal space. I guess I'll just have to keep explaining why I don't like it when she pats my arm or pets my hair or rubs the back of my neck. Urg. Look: This is my dance space, A, and this is yours.

M's also still here -- until the end of the month, as far as I know. She's still quite lovely -- we share chocolate, and clothes, and movie nights. She vents a lot to me, too....which I half-love and half-don't. I mean, I really like being there to listen for people when they need it, but at the same time Come On. It's hard when the people they're venting about are the ones I live with too. I guess I'll just have to find a balance between being there and taking time out so my views of people (specifically R) aren't too biased.
Yeah.
Still, I'm glad she's here. :)

Also, I've just found Mika (the artist, thanks to Una) and I'm really enjoying him. It's all really happy music that isn't depressive break-up songs or sappy love songs or anything. Just happy. :)

Also, the parents visited this last week -- Dad was teaching ("Celtic Spirituality") in Dingle, on the west coast. They came here for a weekend, then I went to him for most of the week (Mum in Brum visiting Al) and then she came here for this past weekend. It was lovely -- Dingle is beautiful, especially with the sunny weather we had, and the long walk along the beaches with the class (renewed my love for sun and wind and the sea, as a combo), and the aquarium (sharks and rays and a Nemo tank. Mwaha. Lovely. :)). And then I missed my bus back here cause I was looking at the wrong times, so I got to stay another day and went to a traditional music concert with Dad before coming back a day later. And R was fine with me being stuck there (as she'd have to be), and I really didn't feel bad at all. C'est la vie, and it made me really happy that Dad was all excited to have me around for another day. Yay! (And the feeling was mutual, of course) :D
And then I got to show Mum all the little places around Mountshannon that I was sure she'd love -- Woodpark, the harbour, the Aistear (park/maze/labyrinth). It was awesome -- and then we went to a concert here, of a community choir and then a Dublin guitar quartet. Both were lovely, and I love how into the choir Mum was (of course -- she stood up really quickly to see the pianist when the keyboard started. :) And we both listened to the children next to us cry "Mummy! I can see Mummy!" and remembered the good ol' days of Alfred in KW. :)
All in all, an awesome visit -- and lovely because I got quality Dad time and then quality Mum time. It worked out perfectly. :)

But, bien sure, now I'm homesick. I'm trusting it'll pass faster this time, though, because I'm already settled here.

And that's about it. As with life anywhere, the days here swing between really good (quiet communal times in the garden, or outside on the weekends) and not-so-good (conflicts that inevitably arise from people living in close quarters with the same other people 24/7). I think I'm hitting a good balance, though, overall.

So, yeah. 'Tis grand, so.
'Tis grand.

:D

LOVE.