the search has ended!

For those of you who have followed the saga of my search for a new coat.... I have found the perfect one! And I got it for better than 50% off. (Which is good cause it's from JCrew.) It's chocolate double cloth, made in Italy, and it has thinsulate. (Which is "the original warmth without bulk" and is 1 1/2 times warmer than down!) So next winter when I'm back in frigid Ireland I'll be warm and toasty in my lovely coat! (Also it's pretty classic so I can wear it for years to come until it falls apart, bonus!)

a warm wool coat

I've been looking for a long winter coat for at least a year. When the temperature dropped here the last couple weeks the search began again in earnest. But I couldn't find anything in the shops, charity or high-street. So I decided to look on ebay. I was a bit wary of buying clothes on ebay. I mean with other things it's pretty straightforward, but clothes not so much. You can't return them if they don't fit. But I decided to give it a go. This afternoon I bought this beautiful coat by Max Mara for probably about a tenth of it's original retail price. (I've never owned real designer clothes before so I'm rather excited!) Crossing my fingers that it fits, and planning which hat/scarf/mittens will look best with it.

looking backwards and forwards

I'm going to do something I don't do very often and write a (potentially) long post. I don't normally do this because I almost never read long posts on other people's blogs, at least not in their entirety. (sorry friends) I've just been thinking about somethings lately that I want to say. And it all stems from the election of our new leader.

First, I've been thinking of Former President Bush. As I watched the inauguration yesterday one of my many emotions was sadness for him. Here is a man who took on an extremely difficult job and did it to the best of his abilities and according to what he felt was right. Even if we don't agree with his decisions maybe we can acknowledge that he made them according to his personal convictions. And yet he has been the brunt of scorn, ridicule, and hate. In the process of our new beginning personified in President Barack Obama it seems as if we have already forgotten what and who has gone before. This is not a place to nitpick through Bush's 8 years as president, nor am I the person to do so. I just wanted, in some small way, to honor this man who stayed true to himself and his sense of right and wrong.

In the current edition of Relevant magazine (with Pete Greig on the cover !) the editors note is called The Untold Story. In the opening paragraphs editor Cameron Strang says this, "Recently, I was reminded of one of the most significant untold stories of our generation, and it happens to center on our outgoing president. It's a story so important that I contend a hundred years from now, it will actually be the primary thing history uses to define President George W. Bush's administration. And it has gone virtually unreported by the media."

Strang goes on to tell the story of PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). PEPFAR has increased the number of people in Africa living with AIDS who receive anti-retroviral medication from 50,000 in 2003 to surpassing the original goal of 2 million people in 2008. As a result of the medication and simultaneous education a further 8 million people have not contracted the disease who otherwise would have. "PEPFAR is touching every aspect of African society, it's changing the course of Africa's future." The success of the program led to Bush pushing through a tripling of its funding this past summer.

"A president must have a firm set of principles from which he will not deviate. I believe in the universality of freedom, and I believe freedom is universal because of an almighty God. It's not just freedom from tyranny that the US must become involved in, I believe it's freedom from disease, freedom from hunger, freedom from deprivation. If you believe in the universality of freedom, then you should not shy away from doing your duty." -George W. Bush

That's all for looking back, now for looking forward.

I was very moved watching the inauguration yesterday. So many things were vying for my attention. I was constantly reminded of my third grade teacher, Elise Johnson now Foster, who taught us about many American heroes during Black History Month in February 18 years ago.

I was challenged by President Obama's focused and almost militant speech. Phrases like, "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." and "Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. "

I am looking forward with hope that our new president will be more than someone who inspires and gives good speeches, but that he will be a true leader, a man of action and determination. I am looking forward to seeing a new birth in our country, let us "be the participants in making it so."

I know that some of my friends from other countries were probably cringing at some of President Obama's statements, and I understand those cringes. But deep in my heart I am still proud to be an American. I believe in the strength of a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." I look at history and I see how my country was the first of many to embrace these ideals. And yes, I know that the road has been rocky and we've had to backtrack now and then. But we continue to move forward, we do not give up. And I am proud to be from the "land of the free and the home of the brave."

Here is a slideshow put together by a childhood friend of mine, actually the son of my third grade teacher, who is an amazing photographer of election night in Grant Park in Chicago.

I guess that's all.

4 hours and 22 minutes

That's the time it took my sister Emily to run 26 miles and 385 yards. Today was her very first marathon and we spent the morning driving around to different spots in Charlotte to cheer her on.

(Just before the finish line, surrounded by friends and one other random runner)

At our last stop before the finish line, somewhere between mile 18 and 20 she handed me an empty water bottle and said, with the pain on her face, "I feel like hell." But though others around us were walking or even taking a pause to stretch she never stopped running. Em, I'm so proud of you!

a summation of my journey over the last several years:

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." ~Albert Camus

I am, besides, the only one
Who can be bright without the sun.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

the sound of music

I just bought the most beautiful Violin. An Eastman Fiddle to be precise. She is so lovely. A beautiful, rich tone to her voice, simply beautiful. I have never played a violin like this. I don't feel worthy... yet. But I do feel inspired. She makes me sound better. My playing level hasn't increased, but she is so wonderful that it sounds like it has.

I'm learning a lot about not giving up. I've been renting a violin for 2 years and have played it less than 50 times. I just sound so horrible I can hardly stand to listen to myself. And with this move to London I was just going to give it up. Put the violin on the shelf and forget about it. But I have wanted to play the violin since I was four years old. This is my truest life-long dream. It began before any other. And I can not turn my back on that. I will not turn my back on that.

So, with patience and perseverance I am going to become a violinist. (Or a fiddler, who knows!)