"When the moon is in the seventh house..."

I had no idea what the title of this blog post meant until today. Now? I have *some* idea.

I was drawn in by the title of an event at the Galway Fringe festival called "Matchmaking with the Stars". With the scant explanation on the website, you could interpret that it meant "this is a dating/speed dating opportunity" or for instance "this was a chance to learn about dating through horoscopes".

Really, what they should titled this was "chance to hear incomprehensible rambling about Indian astrology from a crazy old Irish lady". And I still would have paid 8 bucks to go! They don't let you take pictures, but I tried to surreptitiously capture the crazy.

So much purple.

Here is my artist's interpretation:

Anyhow, there's 10 people there including myself in a theater meant for 30-50. You'd figure she'd play to her audience and stop rambling about how "Venus rules semen in the male" and the importance of the first house, but... no.

At some point, I decide to actually try and get something out of this and give her my necessary info to do my horoscope in front of the other strangers. For those not familiar with the South Indian horoscope, you need your place of birth, time of birth, and birthday. That way, she can tell you what "eclipses will rattle your soul, etc.". Mine came out something like this:

Please don't let anyone ask me what this means.

So my first house is a Libra, which means I seek compromise apparently, but for matchmaking purposes, you always look for someone opposite you... so boxes 6 or 7 for me above (7th house, as per the song, is where your significant other is supposed to be). So Rahool (or something) rules that house.

Look, I didn't understand this at the time, and asked her to simplify, and she clarified that "I need to find me a fiery woman". Now this stuff is finally starting to make sense!!! Before leaving, she did let us all know that a major eclipse is happening on Christmas this year... so be forewarned. Not quite sure what that meant.

All this newfound confidence in my romantic prospects meant I was going to treat myself, and yes, cheat the diet for a day. Why? Because I don't want to leave here without trying everything possible! [esoteric reference alert] The explorer Ibn Battuta once said "never take the same road twice", and applying that to restaurants, I was starting to run out of good roads here! So I wanted to treat myself to beer, ice cream and pizza, and rectify it the next day on my road to a fiery lass.

OK, so the best part about cheat day-- Murphy's ice cream! JAYSUS CHRIST if you are in Galway or Dingle or any western Irish place that has this, drop your cell phone taking pictures of weird signs and go get yourself some brown bread ice cream STAT!

Brown Bread, Sea Salt, and Honeycomb Caramel Ice Cream

I already felt so full of sugar-- I mean the other flavors were ok and subtle and nuanced, but brown bread ice cream (apparently sourced from McCambridge's up the street) had all the texture of crunchy sprinkles from the granular brown bread, salty sweetness, and if I cheat again on this frigging diet before I leave it's gonna be with this.

Then it was time to lean in-- pizza. I hadn't had pizza in... I don't know how long. I passed up many an Italian Store and other opportunities, but Dough Bros was one of the last restaurants Lara my guide gave me on my second day here, and you know what? IT WAS MY BEST MEAL HERE.

A delicious spicy sausage pizza ("Peter Stinger") prepared by the newsie hat boys. This place was crowded with locals and tourists alike, and lived up to the hype. Another must for Galway if you're in town.

For my final hurrah tonight, went to the Tig Ceoli for live music. This place is packed to the gills... couldn't even get any pics of the band, which was typical trad with a fiddler, guitar guy, and weird drum player. More stunning than the music were two items:

1) A rude guy from Minnesota! I swear, every person I've ever met from Minnesota has been the kindest person ever in my life. Til last night. He orders "two black and tans" from the bar, which if you read my blog, you'll know is not a great thing to do in Ireland. Bartender fires back, "no way, we threw those bastards out a hundred years ago". Guy is undeterred and says "yeah but I want it!". I turn to him quickly and say "hey, just fyi, from someone with my accent and all, they really hate when you order that here... you know, you wouldn't order an Irish Car Bomb cause it sounds bad, and it sounds that bad to them". He reiterates he doesn't care, asks where I'm from, then shits all over Buffalo. I'm done with this conversation.

2) . speaking of Buffalo...

Not one, but 2 Buffalo badges at this bar! Amongst the Tazmanian Police and other shields.

Stayed for a few more songs at the Tig, then took the long walk home along the sea. Pretty much it for that day.

The next day was so promising. I was supposed to have both a whiskey tour and a talk on Shakespeare. Sadly, the whiskey tour was canceled at the last minute, so I treated myself to a "handsome burger" who's logo is an awesome ripoff of a Claddagh ring

Like it, Love it, Protect it. I think that's what the claddagh thing symbolizes? but it's been 2 weeks since I learned about that.

Refueled, I was ready to hear about how Shakespeare impacts American culture today. Got to get my learn on!

Context: Part of the GIAF (Galway International Arts Festival) is a number of talks hosted at the university here, NUIG. All of them, in some way or another, converge around talks about borders.

Again, they really don't like you taking pictures... this was the best I could do.

This was a chat between NUIG's professor and some bigwig Jim Shapiro from Columbia about how Shakespeare can be applied to a divided America. A few takeaways here:

-Irish people really like Henry V, which is barely taught in the US, and mostly because it has an Irish character in it.

-Mr. Shapiro, while very knowledgeable on Shakespeare, clearly had no plan for bridging a divided America through it. He did, however, talk about how he helped encourage stoking the flames at a production of Julius Caesar right after Donald Trump got elected at Shakespeare in the [Central] Park

-Never underestimate the ability of a spouse to get you to come to a festival you otherwise would have had nothing to do with, as Mr. Shapiro's wife was Irish and presenting at this festival.

I have a lot of other thoughts here... but for sake of keeping it light, and not going on a rant about people living in their own echo chambers, I'll glance over it. Enjoyed engaging the old brainbox!

Wandered through the town, around the cathedral, and back to Eyre Square, which is now unrecognizable from when I first got here. For the festival, I think they're constructing a cardboard model of St. Paul's Cathedral by hand which is pretty cool.

The people are literally lifting it up from the ground as they add each layer! It was pretty cool to watch. Also, the square, normally just a spot for lying out, meeting friends and socializing, is filled with food, music, and festival art installations.

I ate some crappy Mexican keto surprise for dinner, and unsurprisingly, it is *not* Chipotle. If Chipotle ever reads this, my dream job is to manage any Chipotle franchise for you overseas. I have zero restaurant management experience, and likely very little first hand knowledge of the country for which I'm asking to open a restaurant. Still, not sure how you can turn this amazing offer down.

*Not* Chipotle

After that, and some brief watching of buskers, it was me taking it easy for tonight.

Watching random people play music is pretty much my every day now!

Random Things:

-Not looking good for my prospects to find a piano practice room here... asked a couple of music stores and the university, and no dice.

Cool Claddagh thatched roof

-Supposedly, there's another arts festival in Clifton (about 1.5 hours away) in September that's a less commercial version of this one... so, let's add that to my calendar?

-According to crazy Irish lady, the Sanskrit word for Mercury also means "sexual intercourse". I tried to research this online, but found no other evidence, so I'm just chalking this up to #irishfacts

Moment of Zen