I wish I could tell you I went to bed early last night, but at 7 p.m. I got my second or third wind. M suggested Indian takeaway, because we felt it would be a great experience to get takeaway, because Americans do take-out and our takeaways are lessons not dinner.
And Spice & Rice had fal— an extremely spicy item.
He did not order fal. He ordered spicy chicken vindaloo and I ordered lamb korma, which shocked him because I don’t normally do mild dishes. I got the meal for one deal for 20.95 euros, which included a drink, a starter, a pilau rice, a naan (I got mango peshwaari)and poppadom. So much food. I don’t know how they consider that meal for one. That is easily meal for two.
We wandered down to the restaurant around 7:30 p.m. and it was dead, enough so that M was nervous that maybe the food would be bad. While the food cooked, we meandered to the end of the block to Peader Brown‘s, a traditional Irish pub that has a history of Irish Republicanism. They had several televisions visible from the tented outdoor area as they were at capacity because of the World Cup Qualifying match between the Czech Republic and Ireland.
The moon was bright and the game was amazing, each time we went to return for our takeaway, the Irish team scored. We wondered if maybe we were a good luck charm.
We read the pro-Palestine posters, and M even noticed a Palestinian flag across the street. That’s not surprising as the Irish are acutely aware of the politics of ownership by occupation.
We also started calling the Czech team and each other feckin eejits as I had stopped at a curiosities shop earlier in the day where they had some interesting mugs and dirty feckin eejit soap. (“Weird is wonderful,” the window said.”
This also led to M and I conversing about why Ireland has such a “cussing culture” and my hypothesis went to the idea that the Irish have a long history as a working class culture, people who have survived on an island for a very long time (in Dublin’s case 900 years).
Speaking of oddities, I saw a sign in the window of the barber:
“Spectacles and Wooden Legs always Wanted.”
We brought the takeaway back to our room where we stuffed ourselves with a delicious feast that we could not finish. So we piled it into the fridge, but we have no microwave so we may need to reheat it with some creativity with hot water from the electric kettle.
And then we turned on the game.
Now we were exhausted and stuffing our faces with Indian food, but the Irish team was giving it their everything. And we couldn’t stop watching.
The game remained 2-2 and went into double overtime, and an Irish player and a Czech player collided so hard the Irish player left on a backboard. (I have to Google that and see if he’s okay.) Those boys were tired, sweaty, covered with grass stains and still playing an intense game.
And then it went to penalty kicks. M tapped out. He can’t handle penalty kicks. But I had to know who won. The Czech team missed the third kick. The Irish team missed the fourth. Then the Irish team missed the fifth and the Czechs did not. The Czechs won the game on the fifth penalty kick.
First off, forgive any typos or strange word choice in this entry as we came to Dublin via a Delta flight from Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., to Logan Airport in Boston, and then the transatlantic (in coach) to Dublin. The first flight left D.C. at about 6:30 and landed a little after eight, and the second flight left a little after 11 p.m. Eastern Time and landed at 8:45 a.m. Dublin time.
I thought it sounded like plenty of time to sleep– but I didn’t account for the four-hour time difference (which changes back to five hours Sunday) which meant the plane technically left at a little after 11 p.m. and landed at 4:45 a.m. eastern time. And on top of that, they did a dinner meal service right after take-off (which M and I both skipped) and that meant we couldn’t recline our seats until midnight.
Not that reclining our seats added comfort. Those seats felt like sitting on a boulder and today my ass hurts.
And then they did a light breakfast and drink service at the equivalent of 4 a.m. eastern.
If you were good at falling alseep on planes, you are looking at 4 hours of sleep on this flight. I am not good at falling asleep on planes. My watch says I got one hour and 18 minutes of sleep, but M and I think that figure might be closer to two hours.
But enough bitching. I’m thrilled to be here and having a great time, even if my meager nap got interrupted meaning I only gained another ten minutes of sleep.
That is also why I am not dealing with too many photos right now. I will do a photo gallery later.
Also: random side note– the European Union rules on how web sites can collect data are very different from the United States so I am constantly reviewing cookies and practices that I use every day at home as if I am seeing them for the first time. Accept cookies?
We are staying in the Hyatt Centric, The Liberties, Dublin. My room has a pod-fed espresso machine, an electric tea kettle, a selection of teas, unrefrigerated milk in a glass jar, and a bottle opener. I wondered if I needed it for something– the bottle opener– but then I realized:
I’m in Ireland. The assumption is everyone in Ireland needs a bottle opener at some point of the day.
M. mentioned to the immigration officer at the airport that it was colder than he expected. And the officer replied:
“It’s always warm in the pub.”
M thought he said “in the pool.”
I reminded him we were in Ireland. Not pool.
The main event today was touring Trinity College with M’s family member doing her graduate work here.
Door at Trinity CollegeParliament Square at Trinity
The tower in the one photo from Trinity houses a bell, and there’s a superstition that if you walk under the bell and it rings, you will fail your exams. And the bell rings at random intervals, according to our student attending, so you never know…
View from my room
M and I have separate rooms and I chose this one downstairs– and it does not have the traditional desired view. M’s room looks to the street and St. Patrick’s Catherdral.
But I like this view, the angles of the hotel, it’s modern lines, and the traditional brick building in the distance.
Doors seem to be a theme for me on this initial day of wandering 10,000 steps around Dublin. So here’s another… for all my classic punk fans…
Today is technically day five of my Spring Break tour to Washington, D.C., and Dublin, Ireland. I have been here at my friend M’s house since Sunday, where Eva and I spent the day at the Smithsonian National Zoo.
Despite the fact that this is a vacation and a visit with a friend whom I have not seen recently, we also both have to work. And once we head to Dublin, hopefully the real vacationing will begin.
The dining has been superb, even though I have not left the house since I returned from the zoo. We all love food here. Sunday we had pasta with a vodka-style cream sauce (without the vodka), Monday we had grilled cheese on rye with gruyere and a lovely tomato soup that reminded me of the Pacific Foods cream of tomato I used to enjoy (which was the only tomato soup I’ve ever liked), and last night we had blackened tofu with cheesy grits and a side of carrots. Breakfasts have consisted of various cheeses on toast– from reaper cheese to truffle cheese.
M. and his family moved into this house eight years ago, and Gayle gave him tea towels her sister had crocheted. They are still in daily use.
On Monday, I never got out of my pajamas. On Tuesday, I showered and got dressed. Today I got up, dressed, and combed my hair. And I packed. I have my ancient carry-on bag with the leopard print exterior, and in that is my man-bag crossover purse, and I plan to take my laptop bag/backpack on the plane.
I have dressed extremely comfortably, and have a sweatshirt for warmth with a raincoat and scarf in my backpack. I try to be practical and prepared without hauling too much shit. Once we get to Ireland, I will reorganize everything so I have my purse ready for outings and my backpack stays at the hotel.
Last night didn’t go exactly as planned… there was a horde of children ages 5 to 8 and even kids in arm floaties in the hotel pool loudly playing Marco Polo at 8:30 p.m.
So Eva and I got our massive can of bar nuts out of the car and watched Treehouse Masters on HBO Max. Apparently, that’s one of her favorite shows from middle school that she used to watch when she slept over at her grandmother’s house.
Departing DoubleTree
We got up this morning and headed to breakfast– which made Eva very excited as they had a nice selection of bread and smoked salmon. I found it rather mediocre, but perfectly serviceable. It was not included with the room, but I paid for the add-on, so it was $25 for the two of us.
The server was delightful, and when I asked him about my breakfast with the room, he asked for my coupons, which they did not give me when I checked in. We went to the front desk and got them. He was very attentive and tried to find Eva dill pickles when she requested them, and he must have thought he succeeded because he brought her a very substantial pile of more bread and butter pickles.
Now, if I had to leave a review for this particular Doubletree, I would give it a three out of five stars. Do not compare this rating to any guidebook or official system. It was a decent hotel. It also smelled amazingly clean. But there are a few things that disappointed me:
They charged me twice for parking. I guess I’m going to have to sort that out.
They forgot my breakfast coupons.
They did not have towels in the pool area, despite stating we did not need to bring ours from the room.
The rooms seemed small.
My past experiences with Doubletree felt more full-service. More amenities, more things to do, better dining and room service, which this hotel did not have.
They had specials at the bar advertised that had ended three days prior.
The refrigerator didn’t seem very cold.
In general, I don’t like the coffee at Hilton. Especially the coffee left in the room.
We did not stick around so Eva could take her swim, and digital checkout (and parking right next to our room) made leaving a breeze.
“Hurry up!” Eva told me. “We have relaxing to do.”
I do lament we could not try the taco truck across the street as it had very good reviews on Google maps.
We checked the oil in the car, and at 9:15 a.m. we headed to CVS. We purchased an eclectic variety of items, not because we needed them on this trip but because we were curious what selection they might have. And they had soooooo many hair products for my curls and I had coupons…
We left CVS at 9:36 and arrived at M’s house at 10:15. By 11, we were in the car because Eva wanted to visit the National Zoo.
Smithsonian National Zoo
The Zoo parking was full, so we set the GPS for M’s old apartment and decided to try our luck at the back entrance to the Zoo. Eva found a spot on street that we thought was nearby. It ended up being almost a mile, and an uphill walk. But we certainly got our steps in!
But we did get to see this beautiful mural of Marilyn Monroe. We passed a Nando’s.
The Zoo was crowded. It was also everything Eva remembered. She spent most of her time commenting about the habitats and how well the zoo provides enrichment for the animals.
The exertion made my walk a tad unstable and I experienced some exercise-induced asthma and some high heart rates. Probably got some sunnburn too.
And then Eva got the idea maybe we could leave from the back of the zoo and not have to walk back up the hill.
We could not.
We were also pleasently shocked to see how many alcoholic beverages were available at the zoo– and how many moms with open cocktails were chasing toddlers.
We left the zoo at 2:45 to return to M’s house. We stopped at Manhattan Market for beverages. And I showed M my DK travel guide to Ireland from 20 years ago and my Irish/English dictionary.
Eva and I are traveling to Washington, D.C., so that I may grab a flight to Dublin with my traveling companion M on Wednesday.
M. and I have not traveled in about a decade, and this is probably the first time we are traveling someplace where they are not shooting each other.
But that’s another story.
Eva is on spring break and for some strange, serendipitous reason, she has no pet clients this weekend. She’s exhausted after finishing her home renovation project on our hallway.
I could have taken Amtrak from Philly to D.C., as a matter of fact that is how I am getting home. But Eva wanted to visit D.C., and thought it might be nice to visit the National Zoo. She had hoped she could introduce her boyfriend to our friends in D.C. but he is traveling to a welding competition.
Now, Eva didn’t want to make the 3.5 hour one-way trip to D.C. and then turned around a few hours later and drive home alone.
But we learned none of our friends would be home Saturday until late.
So we booked a room at the Doubletree in Gaithersburg, MD, basically because they had a breakfast, an indoor/outdoor pool and who doesn’t love the warm cookies?
And Eva never had the warm cookie experience.
So at 9:30 we checked the old in the car– she’s an old girl and has been acting a tad funny lately about her oil. It disappears and then reappears. Maybe she has some build-up. We know she’s burning some… but to be safe, we check her often. And today we checked her cool in the flat garage
She looked good. But we have oil with us just in case.
We headed to Sheetz, and by then I already needed to pee. Eva put gas in the car. I hoped to find the cookies and cream puff things but every since I decided to try them, they never have that flavor.
Next, we went to Grocery Outlet. I need my famous $7 pen set. This cheap set of gel pens comes in a plastic case and I love them. Each set lasts about 6 months before my favorite colors start running out.
Meanwhile, Eva was in charge of road trip snacks. She selected:
2 C4 energy drinks in zero sugar, very fruity flavors. I find these are easier to stomach than coffee or soda when temperature can not be maintained. Plus we both like them so we can share, and save space in the cupholders.
A present for someone’s birthday that has nothing to do with this trip
sunglasses
A massive can of bar mix nuts
A fairly big box of those nutty buddy style wafer bars that Little Debbie makes but instead they were made by Nature Valley and trying to be fancy. 20 of them.
A bag of beef jerky– some plain, some ranch, some buffalo, all mixed in one bag
We were on the road by 10.
Around 11, we got a phone call– the dog had bit the neighbor and the neighbor went to the ER. Now, it was a minor bite, but it broke skin, and the neighbor wanted to make sure he didn’t need shots/antibiotics. But that’s another story. But it sure did put a stressful spin on the next couple hours.
At 11:30, we arrived at Midtown Scholar Books, once voted bookstore of the year by Publisher Weekly. See my review here on the Parisian Phoenix blog. (It was $4.35 to park for 90 minutes in downtown Harrisburg.)
Eva had a doctor appointment via Zoom at noon so she took that in the car and then we visited Broad Street Market. Apparently, oldest market in America in continuous operation. We weren’t hungry– all those road trip snacks but they had all kinds of ethnic food from Chinese (I think) to Korean, Jamaican to African.
1 p.m. We crossed the state line into Maryland while on the phone with Larry Sceurman.
At 2:10 we arrived at Doubletree Washington DC North in Gaithersburg MD (about 40 minutes from M’s house). We got our cookies and our parking pass. We didn’t really need our keys because I used Hilton’s digital check-in, chose my room and they had emailed me that it was ready and activated my digital key which I can use from my phone.
I picked a room on the end of the lower level, away from any noise but fairly close to the indoor/outdoor pool.
And there’s a frozen yogurt vending machine in the lobby.
Panera and CVS are within a third of a mile and there’s a food truck in the shady looking parking lot across the street that has good reviews on Google Maps. I wonder what time they open in the morning… They don’t… the internet says they are closed Sundays. I might have to head out there tonight…
Eva and I went to Habit Burger and Grill because it was three-in-the-afternoon and we were hungry but not insanely hungry and while it is a chain, it’s not one we knew. I saw it had a free self-serve pepper bar with jalapenos, banana peppers and pepperocini. So we had to investigate.
I had a nice fish sandwich and limeade.
We came back to the hotel and I did some stuff for the business while Eva did some schoolwork. We plan to go swimming tonight.
Last week, while I was at The Write Stuff writers conference hosted by The Greater Lehigh Writers Group, my daughter and her boyfriend embarked on a project to refinish my upstairs hallway.
Our house is nearly 100 years old and the walls are lath, plaster and horse hair. Everything in this house has settled, leading to bubbles everywhere. There are patches from all the trouble we’ve had getting stuff up and down the stairs.
Eva pulled out all the plaster the first day.
Her boyfriend put up drywall the next.
Then, she spent a day spreading joint compound, followed by her boyfriend sanding.
Then a day of painting, and a day of stripping paint from the molding.
Then, painting the molding.
And wallpaper.
And trim.
And laying down the new rug.
Which her boyfriend kept getting splinters so she bought the rug which spurred the whole six day project.
Otherwise known as how Eva spent her spring break.
It looks amazing. And she never hung wallpaper before.
I peeked inside the drop ceiling over the stairs when a piece of the tile had slid. Eva took them all out so I could get a good look at the cavernous space.
The ceiling and trim are pristine.
And that is all above my head over the stairs. It’s huge.
I asked if we could fix it up and leave it exposed and the boyfriend said, “All you need is an extension ladder and a couple of OSHA violations.”
The 2026 Write Stuff conference featured Kristin Bair O’Keefe as the keynote, kicking off with a full day workshop Thursday and two half-day each sessions with Donna Galanti (middle-grade author) and publisher at Sunbury Press, Lawrence Knorr, on Friday.
Even though I am in my third consecutive term as president of the host organization Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group. member of the conference committee, and the creator and organizer of our Friday night Genre Chats networking event, I could not afford to attend all three days. I was not the only one among the board and conference committee who had this problem.
My daughter had given me money for Christmas to get a hotel room at the venue, which proved a relaxing treat indeed (and one she enjoyed by taking a dip in the pool for an hour when she dropped me off).
Saturday registration includes Friday night activities: the Genre Chats networking event, our signature Page Cuts critique sessions where attendees can have their first pages anonymously critiqued by the conference presenters, and an evening social with an impressive spread of hummus, olives, vegetables, fruit and cheese (and a cash bar).
The Saturday sessions kicked off at 8:15 a.m. with three simultaneous presentations to cover different aspects of writing. This year topics ranged from creative-nonfiction to humor, characters to queries, and information on queries, genres and word counts. We offered individual appointments with a fiction agent, Ronald Gerber, who possessed a quick wit and knowledgeable demeanor, and nonfiction niche agent Kelly Bergh, who despite her relative youth had a comprehensive understanding of the industry and the ability to convey information in a relatable fashion.
After two morning sessions, we returned to the main ballroom for a lunch of salmon or filet mignon while Kristin presented a keynote celebrating the lifesaving powers of the maker-uppers. Gayle Hendricks attended the event as Parisian Phoenix author Larry Sceurman recently had a knee replaced and could not use his seat. She found the sessions on creative non-fiction relatable to both her life experience and her career as a graphic designer.
At the end of the day, we participated in the book fair, showing off our Parisian Phoenix titles.
Angel and SheenaGayle, Eva Parry, and Allison Stein
It was also our first time using our new tablecloth, which looked very pink, in the best way possible. And our new friend and author Sheena Stimpfl stopped by with her daughter to present me with a special gift– a custom bookmark.
So, that’s some of the official notes… but a conference like that is also full of connecting with friends, finding renewed inspiration, and perhaps even finding oneself with a drink ticket or two and whiskey sours made by a bartender who wrote a nonfiction book about overcoming mental health issues and trauma.
It’s about learning more about people you’ve known for a long time… And sometimes you find a book about finding freedom from demonic possession on Friday the 13th in the stall in the ladies’ room.
I also had time to chat with Andy Laties, the owner of Book and Puppet Company. And I even found occasions where I was able to trade for books.
In the lobby over hotel breakfast– where I ate more fruits and vegetables than I have in a month– I chatted with other attendees enjoying a custom-made spinach omelet, but I never had the downtime I had hoped for to proofread my manuscript for Absolution now that Gayle had laid it out.
Because I review so many books on Amazon, and use reviews as a way to maintain my own memory of things I ordered online, Amazon invited me to be a product reviewer several years ago.
I do my best to take my work seriously, and today I wrote a review I enjoyed reading.
(If you are here looking for more information on the writer’s conference that concluded yesterday, that’s what I’ve been trying to write when I got hungry and sidetracked by adjwa dates.)
Hard to believe that a small fruit can travel halfway around the world into my mouth… I love dates, and a good medjool date is my favorite. Or so I thought. So as someone who occasionally suffers from anemia, I love incorporating dates into my diet for the iron. As someone who loves sugary candy, dates are the perfect food to compensate for those sweet cravings. I had never had an ajwa date. At first, the small size intimidated me. The pit-to-date ratio was more pit than fruit, but once I tried the date, the sweetness and texture surprised me in the best way. They were chewy and firm enough to have a great mouth feel, and also properly giving and moist. Each one turned out to be the perfect bite-sized treat. The package is gorgeous and provides information about the type of date itself, the nutritional information and the company information. These are highly specialty dates cultivated in a certain region of Saudi Arabia (Medina), so it’s more like buying a specialty imported cheese or wine than a simple fruit. In that way, the price seems reasonable. (Think of it like “champagne” technically only refers to sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France or the cheese from the caves of Roquefort.)
It has been more than two months since I wrote a blog entry.
Now I’ve maintained my weekly Substack and done a multitude of other projects in that time but two months…
And that is pretty much how long it took my thumb to heal, and for the emergency room bill to come in.
But right now I am sitting in a hotel room at the Homewood Suites by Hilton, enjoying my second whiskey sour of the evening. It’s the middle of The Write Stuff conference hosted by the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group. Normally I might say that this is the closest to vacation that I come, but I am headed to Dublin at the end of the month.
At home, Eva is working hard on removing the plaster from the walls of the hallway in our 100-year-old house.
In 2023, I had two falls close together (two bouts tumbling down the stairs in two weeks) and in general, I tend to fall more in winter (and not even outoor falls due to weather and ice). These two factors and my hospitalization with AFib after my falls in 2023 led me to go to the emergency room yesterday because of my fall at lunch time on Wednesday.
I just wanted to make sure that this fall didn’t lead to a sequence of falls.
In similar cautiousness, today I visited my old ortho practice from when I broke my ankle in 2016. That’s the infamous “I broke my ankle and went to the Chinese buffet before heading to urgent care for an x-ray” incident. Read more about that here.
I felt silly, because my injury is pretty minor compared to other orthopedic cases. The ER told me that if it didn’t feel better in two weeks to follow up with ortho.
But I know from past breaks that the first two weeks is when the healing really solidifies and if it heals wrong, I would have more problems. And I wanted better direction on how to splint it, a better splint, and confirmation it was broken.
It is. In two places in the knuckle.
This is my right hand. At this point only one finger of my right hand has not been screwed up in some capacity.
And the doctor seemed to agree with my fastidiousness. He gave me a better splint and some first aid tape and told me to come back in four weeks for a follow up and new x-rays. His assistant gave me some Coban tape and some buddy strips for the splint.
I have a high-deductible insurance plan and I do not have an HSA, so I know I will pay more than I want to for this, but it’s my dominant hand and I need it to work.
Angel Ackerman 