Ok, so the first 12 days were really crazy so I’ll blame it on that. However, if you really want to see what we were up to Lou was much better about all of that and you can find the other blog here at http://thefoolsgoldtheatre.blogspot.com/

So, we’ve been in Athlone for a few days now after spending the first week-ish in Dublin. Dublin is a wonderful city with a nice, easy but steady energy. I liked Dublin, and our proximity to the city center. Rita’s wonderful sister, Elaine, housed us in her home while she stayed with her brother. I hope that I can, some day, be as selfless as that. Her house is located outside in Balleyfermot, an adorable little township that welcomed us all with open arms. They put us on the radio, in their newspaper and they gave us cookies. Honestly, who could ask for much more!

My favorite part of Dublin was our first gig, wait for it…Improv! Lou and Laura popped their big-time Improv cherries and they did it with style! I am so proud of all of the fools for their performances.

We are now in the center of Ireland, Athlone, at Rita’s mother’s home. Mary, her mother, left to go to Dublin and left us here for the better part of the week. Athlone is ADORABLE. I would love to have a house near here some day, you know, just to come to when I tire of the hustle and bustle of the glory and fame.

We have been knee deep in rehearsals all week, with three full shows to rehearse plus two smaller scenes plus improv we have been one busy group. The weather has been our best friend through it all though. Every person, every SINGLE person who talked to us before we left warned us of the cold, terrible, dreary weather. Well, the 80 degrees we’ve had the past few days beg to differ. I know the weather might get dreary and rainy soon but that’s Ireland for you, that’s what the postcards show. For now, we’ll take the sun as a loaner blessing from CO.

Today we experienced a lull in our shows. Laura is sick so we took a day to gather props and work on set pieces. I started off the day with my long run. Honestly, running has been quite a task here in Ireland, I don’t know if it’s the additional drinking (I’m sure), time change (possibly), or the fact that we’ve been running our minds non-stop but running here is hard! Not physically, although it was when I tried toe strike running, but mentally waking up and getting back into my groove has been incredibly difficult. Anyway, back to the day Austin and I had a peaceful day visiting the small farmers market they have in town on the weekends next to the castle. Take that Cherry Creek Farmer’s market. We gathered costume pieces and various other fun objects for the days soon to come. We grabbed a small bite to eat and headed to the park by the water. A little ladybug decided to join us!

Then we went on super-undercover-best-friend duty. More to be revealed later…

While we were out Lou and Laura were busy painting the scene for Selggin and the Battle of the Mollinduffs. It’s a great set, very simple to set up so we can do it on limited time and in limited space.

Laura has a way of summing things up very well. As she sits here, hacking into her old man cough she sweetly said…”Ann, you are as restless as a cat in a swimming hole”. It’s true folks, when I don’t get walked and fed regularly I’m an antsy mutha’. I need my runs and I need to somehow, take more pictures on these runs.  I’m going to try and get some more pics on this blog ASAP. For now, I have to finish watching Britain’s Got Talent. Oy