Welcome to Gaia! ::

*Walks in, carrying a fiddle and guitar and, after inspecting the room for a brief moment, moves toward a large booth and sets the instruments down.*

*Several more trips of this sort are made, adding a mandolin, bodhran, twelve-string guitar, banjo, harp, and assorted flutes and whistles to the collection of instruments.*

Right. I'm claiming this booth as my own little nook in the pub. It is from this place that I will be doing most of my barding. As I do now.

*settles herself in the booth with her guitar and begins to play*

When Irish eyes are smiling
Sure it's like a morning spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter,
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.

There's a tear in your eye, and I'm wondering why,
For it never should be there at all.
With such power in your smile, sure a stone you'd beguile,
So there's never a teardrop should fall.
When your sweet lilting laughter's like some fairy song,
And your eyes twinkle bright as can be,
You should laugh all the while and all other times smile,
And now smile a smile for me.

When Irish eyes are smiling
Sure it's like a morning spring.
In the lilt of Irish laughter,
You can hear the angels sing.
When Irish hearts are happy,
All the world seems bright and gay.
And when Irish eyes are smiling,
Sure, they steal your heart away.

And now, finally, I don't want anybody to be shy about coming round here and singing songs at me, or telling me jokes that I haven't heard before. They don't even have to be Ireland-themed, just keep things clean enough - no need to get disgusting or anything.

It's my birthday! Yay!

*sets out a ginormous plate of yummy cookies for everyone to have* I like cookies better than cake... but you know what's better than cookies?

PIE!!!

*sets out lots of yummy pies too for everyone to have*

Yay! I'm 22! I'm freaking old, folks! Yay!

And now, for your non-consumable enjoyment, I found a number of Irish birthday toasts that I will now share for you all!

May you live to be 100 years, with one extra year to repent.

We drink to your coffin. May it be built from the wood of a hundred year old oak tree that I shall plant tomorrow.

May God grant you many years to live, for sure he must be knowing, the earth has angels all too few and heaven is overflowing...

May the doctor never earn a pound out of you.

May the good Lord take a liking to you...
But not too soon!

May you die in bed at 95, shot by a jealous spouse.

*eats pie and drinks more brandy - do they go together?*

Happy birthday Addy......and hon, you're not old until you reach my age. sweatdrop

Heheh, I tell you what, though - despite being old as sin right now wink it was a pretty good birthday. Like in the top five.

I managed to wake up before my alarm went off, and just had so much energy that I got up and started doing things. I got a lot of laundry done (still have about 3 loads left to do, but that has to wait until payday) and basically just tidied my awfully messy apartment. It's still not clean, but nobody expects miracles in that area, least of all me.

I've been seeing this guy for the past two and a half months or so, and he came over that evening with flowers mounted on top of a candle (it's really neat, when the flowers die (which will be soon - my cats like to eat them) I will have a large candle to burn!) and a painting (ok, a print, lets not go crazy here, we're still both college students) from an artists I really really love. I have two prints from that same artist that I got for myself the year before, and he didn't even realize it. He just saw the artist and said to himself, "Ooh, pretty colors and dragons, Andrea will like this!"

So then he and I and a friend of mine went to dinner at a good restaurant downtown where we all had fantastick dinners (and I had two raspberry daiquiris! YUM!!) and the dinner conversation was awesome. Afterwards, I gave my kitties some catnip for the occassion (you know, that whole me not accidentally dieing for another year) and the three of us went to a bar. Got myself a big big Killian's on the house, smoked a very nice Cuban cigar between the three of us, and a few of my friends showed up. Afterwards, Nick and I spent the rest of the eveniing at my place. smile

It was definitely a great birthday!

An Irish man shows up in a pub one day and orders three pints of Guinness. He takes sips from each glass until they are empty and calls the bartender for three more. The bartender says, 'Sure it's up to yourself, but wouldn't you rather I was bringing them one at a time? Then they'll be fresh and cold.'

'Nah...' your man says, ' I'm preferrin' that ye bring 'em three at a time. You see, me and me two brothers would meet at a pub and drink and have good times. Now one is in Australia, the other in Canada and I'm here. We agreed before we split up that we'd drink to each other's honour this way.'

'Well,' says the bartender, 'that's a grand thing to do, all right. I'll bring the pints as you ask.'

Well, time goes on and your man's peculiar habit is known and accepted by all the pub regulars. One day though, he comes in and orders only two pints. A hush falls over the pub. Naturally, everyone figures something happened to one of the brothers. A group of the regulars corner the bartender and finally persuade him to find out what happened. With a heavy heart, the bartender brings the two pints and says, 'Here's your pints... and let me offer my sincerest condolences. What happened?'

The Irish man looks extremely puzzled for a moment, and then starts laughing.

'Oh, no, no, no! 'Tis nothing like that. You see, I've given up drinking for Lent...'

*makes herself a Gin and Tonic*

An Irish man shows up in a pub one day and orders three pints of Guinness. He takes sips from each glass until they are empty and calls the bartender for three more. The bartender says, 'Sure it's up to yourself, but wouldn't you rather I was bringing them one at a time? Then they'll be fresh and cold.'

'Nah...' your man says, ' I'm preferrin' that ye bring 'em three at a time. You see, me and me two brothers would meet at a pub and drink and have good times. Now one is in Australia, the other in Canada and I'm here. We agreed before we split up that we'd drink to each other's honour this way.'

'Well,' says the bartender, 'that's a grand thing to do, all right. I'll bring the pints as you ask.'

Well, time goes on and your man's peculiar habit is known and accepted by all the pub regulars. One day though, he comes in and orders only two pints. A hush falls over the pub. Naturally, everyone figures something happened to one of the brothers. A group of the regulars corner the bartender and finally persuade him to find out what happened. With a heavy heart, the bartender brings the two pints and says, 'Here's your pints... and let me offer my sincerest condolences. What happened?'

The Irish man looks extremely puzzled for a moment, and then starts laughing.

'Oh, no, no, no! 'Tis nothing like that. You see, I've given up drinking for Lent...'

*makes herself a daiquiri*

Some Guinness was spilled on the barroom floor
when the pub was shut for the night.
Out of his hole crept a wee brown mouse
and stood in the pale moonlight.
He lapped up the frothy brew from the floor,
then back on his haunches he sat.
And all night long you could hear him roar,
'Bring on the goddam cat!'

*pours herself some whiskey*

I was told by my aunt,
I was told by my mother
That going to a weddin'
Is the makings of another.
And if this be so then
I'll go without a biddin',
Oh kind providence
Won't you send me to a weddin'

Chorus
And it's Oh Dear Me! How will it be,
If I die an Old Maid in the Garret?

Now there's my sister Jean,
She's not handsome or good-lookin'
Scarcely sixteen
And a fella she was courtin'
Now she's twenty-four
With a son and a daughter,
Here am I at forty-four*
And I've never had an offer!

Chorus

I can cook and I can sew,
I can keep the house right tidy,
Rise up in the morning
And get the breakfast ready,
There's nothing in this wide world
That makes my heart so cheery
As a wee fat man to call me
His own dearie!

Chorus

So come landsman, come townsman,
Come tinker or come tailor,
Come fiddler, come dancer,
Come ploughboy or come sailor,
Come rich man, come poor man,
Come fool or come witty,
Come any man at all!
Won't you marry out of pity?

I'm kicking around an idea of an art quest. A quest to get pictures of Addy singing, playing instuments, drinking. I'm going to kick this around more today, but yeah! Should make life interesting.