BRENT WILSON

Ireland wooo!

2008-03-27T11:25:53Z

so, after a year, here i am. back on live journal.

current location: 43 Castle Road, Dundalk, County Louth, Republic of Ireland.
current employment: full time volunteer for the Simon Community of Dundalk, working with homeless individuals, most of whom have mental illness, drug addictions, or are alcoholics.
current beverage: cold instant coffee
current clothes: jeans, button down shirt, hiking boots, athletic socks, and an old green jacket that i found here at the volunteers' house

cruachan @ 2007-04-30T15:20:00

2007-04-30T21:25:31Z

i've been at work for 8 hours. i'm just going to wait for 10 more minutes to see if i get a response to my last email. every minute or so i hear one of the kids downstairs say something about a train. kids emphasize the strangest things when they speak.

had a great day yesterday. katie picked up breakfast. stayed in bed until mid morning. had fresh fruit smoothies. hung out at the coffee shop reading the paper. ate chinese food. drove in the mountains. saw a movie. a pretty darn good day.

the last month was a little stressful, but things have calmed down a good bit. i was typing that life in bozeman has its ups and downs, but cut into "not in nottingham" from disney's robin hood. you know "every town has its ups and downs. sometimes the ups outnumber the downs. but not in nottingham". okay, got the email and i'm out of here.

cruachan @ 2007-03-23T00:46:00

2007-03-23T06:54:51Z

it's nearly 1 am. i've been looking at research on homelessness in scotland, and found a full time volunteer opportunity in cork. i'm really enjoying my job. homelessness seems to be the issue of 2007 here in town. i'm helping to keep family promise of gallatin valley inc updated on the new shelter the potter's house. i even got to plug our program at a panel last night. met some great people from the national coalition for the homeless. it's fun to see how much easier networking gets, how much easier it is to call people, to hand out my business card to half the people i meet. i see a definite change in myself over the past 2 months, which is nice. i know i never really follow through on my plans, i only act when i feel there's no other option (see applying for americorps and beginning to move out of my apartment 1 month later), but i can see a career coming out of this. maybe. at least i've got goals to shoot for.

that sort of worked last time. i gave myself a year to settle into a real job and then a year to prepare for the peace corps. ended up being americorps and didn't take nearly as long to apply and get ready, but still 5 days before my 2 years at rtpfcu were up, i was gone to volunteer. so, i sort of got right. hopefully i'll have my applications in by the time i leave Boz Angeles.

dook sucks

2007-03-16T06:44:20Z

i'm now bald. picture up soon on www.stbaldricks.org. it's all for ole St. Baldrick's, but I couldn't make the event in NC and the one in Bozeman is during the UNC game, so I had to go to the barber shop. The girl cut me a deal though, so it was only $10.95 with tip. I did have to bic it myself when i got home, though.

oh, and as soon as dook lost tonight (fourth in a row and the only upset in the first round of the ncaa tournament, woo-hoo!), i called Umur in Atlanta and left a message, my girlfriend Katie here in bozeman called, and then my dad called. 3 different people. 3 different parts of the country. all basking in the joy of dook's loss.

cruachan @ 2007-03-07T16:54:00

2007-03-07T23:56:11Z

so, i signed family promise of gallatin valley up for goodsearch.com. All you have to do is choose us as the charity you wish to support, and we'll get 1 cent from every internet search you do on the site. if enough people do it, it'll add up. i'm going to take paddington bear and go home now.

cruachan @ 2007-03-05T15:29:00

2007-03-05T22:29:38Z

snow shoes get a thumbs up

"i don't mean this in a bad way, but genetically you are a cul-de-sac"

you should be happy, now that you have your tuba

2007-03-02T06:25:41Z

thursday night in bozeman. i'm going to listen to some music, watch an episode of the british sitcom spaced, and then go to bed. it's been a busy week, meetings on three of the four nights so far. there was a meeting tuesday about getting a homeless shelter started, 75 people showed up. it'll take a while to get things going, probably won't have anything started till the end of the year or so, but it's nice to get started. family promise is the only homeless shelter of any kind in bozeman, and that desperatly needs to change. we had a tramp (apparently that's what they call themselves) die after trying to sleep in a uhaul on a freaking cold night about a month ago. while there was a lot of desire to get something started before that, it was the catalyst that was needed. apparently the guy was only weeks away from getting a lot of money from social security, money he had been trying to collect for about the past 8 years.

but tonight was the americorps vista meeting for national and global youth service day on april 21st. we're trying to get a project started, and it looks like it will be working with the community garden at msu that's getting started. i'm going to try and use my connections to the local churches to get their youth groups involved. the meeting was at the local coffee shop sells beer, because one of our vistas is part of the old time/bluegrass group that has a session there every thursday night. i love hearing a good trad session, even if its not celtic.

i'll be using snowshoes for the first time on saturday. woo-hoo!

cruachan @ 2007-02-26T21:34:00

2007-02-27T04:36:22Z

was drinking with some friends 2 weekends ago. a buddy of mine slipped into an irish accent, and i followed him in. i think we pissed off the girls we were with. been trying to stay out of it since then, but it's bloody hard.

cruachan @ 2007-02-24T16:00:00

2007-02-24T23:10:42Z

4 pm
30 degrees, sun shining
got about 4 inches or so from the last storm, i guess. i've no real way to measure these things. there's a giant north carolina flag beside my bed. went to ash wednesday mass at 7.00 am at the cathedral in helena. the lieutenant governor was there and my friend katie was a bit too excited to share the peace with him. 4 of us went and spent ash wednesday with crosses on our foreheads. i gave up fast food and drunkenness, which meant i was dd wednesday night and watched a friend of mine eat burger king before we went to a movie on thursday.

the training was good, but the real thing was hanging out with all the vistas. somebody said it was like being college freshman again. everybody's going through the same things and wants to be with people who know what its like. you also need to relax after a day of meetings, so you go out together. and at least 5 of 40 vistas are from north carolina, and more have connections. a wee bit strange....

again

2007-02-16T01:24:44Z

hey y'all. I'm doing the St. Baldricks thing again. This time it's on March 24th in Cary. I'll be back in the state that week, so it works out. Check out the site:
http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/shavee_info.html?ShaveeID=4527#

I'm using the old Psycho Brent photo from last year, too!

cruachan @ 2007-02-11T17:23:00

2007-02-12T00:24:36Z

I've a bed!!!!!

and a new address
409 South 20th Ave
Apt A
Bozeman, MT 59718

and a cold

chief justice

2007-01-25T05:36:48Z

I'm sitting in my living room in Bozeman. It's 10.30 pm. I'm dead tired. The last 3 days have been full of training, group discussions, coffee, food, and tons of awesome people. Our team of about 25 won the Riley's Irish Pub of Downtown Helena Tuesday night Pub Quiz last night. By one point. Today at about 1.45 we solemnly swore to defend the constitution (the same oath the president and i guess other federal officials take) in front of 5 Montana Supreme Court justices. The oath was led by chief justice. It's really hard to believe I'm here and starting to work at 8.30 tomorrow morning. oh, yeah, Bozeman seems to be just about the only place in the state with snow on the ground, and it seems to be melting fast.

address

2007-01-21T18:11:05Z

913 Apt D
South Black Avenue
Bozeman, MT 59715

house

2007-01-21T00:45:40Z

sitting in my house. that's a nice thing to say. i'm in montana and i am not homeless!

cruachan @ 2007-01-16T21:45:00

2007-01-17T04:01:22Z

sioux falls south dakota. 2 degrees or so. beautiful sunset tonight. the fields of south dakota are covered in snow, the wind blowing ghosts across the highway. its cold and dark out, and this driving makes me tired. too cold to try and find the actual town. maybe sheridan wyoming will be better tomorrow. but to be honest, it's nice to be travelling across this country. i-29 rides the iowa/nebraska border, and though i've never set foot in nebraska, i have now seen omaha. ah, t'was a beautiful sight.

notes: there's a dj in missouri that sounds like willie nelson; missouri has "riverboat" gambling, so if you want to build a casino in the middle of the state, you have to build a pond to put it on; western iowa has hills, eastern nebraska doesn't; 2 degrees ain't bad if you're only out for a few minutes; every hotel should be required to have a bar; searching radio stations is much more fun than cds on long solo drives; truckers are crazy; the "big deal" at jackinthebox is really is a good deal; celtic winds, on 88.7 wncw on sunday afternoons rocks.

Greetings from Clarksville

2007-01-15T02:46:58Z

Clarksville, Tennessee. Well, just outside. In the dark and the rain, it doesn't seem to be much of a town, although one would assume they have a train station. Days Inn by I-24 has wireless internet, HBO, and Cinemax. That space cowboy flick Serenety is on right now (I think that's what it is). But 8 hours of hard driving was a lot today, and I'm pretty durn tired. It's a strange feeling right now, tired from driving, but anxious about Bozeman. I can hear the trucks going down the road outside my room. Tomorrow I drive through the leftover ice and snow.

cruachan @ 2007-01-01T17:22:00

2007-01-01T16:22:09Z

collards on the stove, pork in the oven. it's almost time for that traditional new year's meal of pork, greens, and black eyed peas. my family's never been much for resolutions, but we know what to eat on new year's day.

ave maria

2006-12-30T04:15:45Z

harry connick jr's version of ave maria came on my yahoo radio. 2 memories popped into my head. 1- sunday mornings in cork wandering the south bank, light rain, ave maria on repeat on my cd player. never made it to church, but nothing could match the feeling of those early morning walks through the mist. soft irish days with the holy spirit. 2- driving home to woodcroft singing it over and over after eating chicken and drinking champaign with Mae, Atin, and their friend Jeff. Mae had just gotten back from India, and i think it was the first time i met Atin. no piece of music touches my heart like this song.

friday night

2006-12-30T03:48:10Z

it's friday night and i'm drinking carlsberg and goofing on the computer. got the LJ cleaned up and ready for posts from montana. even got new tires on the car, so i'm slowly getting things ready. the countown to january 14th begins.

saturday in edinburgh

2003-06-14T20:49:01Z

managed to walk to the top of relatively high mountain, walk along a sandy beach and boardwalk, and get sunburned all in the same day. also heard some good advice "when heckling, say it loud, in english, and keep it concise and funny"

by the way, i came to the realization today that, even though i am a proud american of scottish heritage, a proud kilt owner and at times a proud kilt wearer, so many men wear kilts around here that it just looks like a bunch of guys in skirts.

woo-hoo!

2003-05-29T15:38:40Z

monkeys monkeys monkeys

got that last pay check
finally passed the 1000 quid mark
approximately £700 as things stand

so, finishing last night
read some alan watts on meditation and dreamt of a strange magical connection between my apartment complex-thing and the railroad tracks behind harris teeter in carrboro, but alas, as i walked towards elyse's house, i was suddenly in disney world
the dream ended with me making love to a beautiful african woman, in a building in disney world

i wonder what that means.....

weird day

2003-05-29T13:06:40Z

yesterday, got up, did the old chinese breathing exercise that i don't do quite right, probably. having watched the actual tape in about a year. and decided to put off the shower till after i checked my email at the university and had breakfast. unfortunately, my inability to find a left-leaning british newspaper in any of the reputbable cork city newsagents frustrated my plans. essentially, i gave up, went home, had breakfast and spent the next 6 hours discussing politics, law, and that greatest of all chain restuarants WAFFLE HOUSE with my 38 year old, disabled, law student roomate from tralee in county kerry who spends his summers in a small town in the ozarks in arkansas. he's a big fan of a waffle house, where you can get a cheap t-bone steak with 2 eggs, grits, and all the coffee you can drink 24 hours a day.

then a great soccer match that went to the last penalty kick, after 2 overtime periods of course ended 0-0.

so far, the day was a bit unusual, but not entirely weird.
but ah, here it begins.

i take the trash out at midnight, on my way to a phone booth to call the us of a. cbs news starts at 12.30, so i've got time.

but oh no, it seems the trash bins are full. looks like a trash bag leaning against the window of that apartment.
hell, i'll check the bins anyway, don't want to have to walk over to the other side of the complex. hey this trash can has room. and suddenly i look up. what i thought was a trash bag was actually a girl with her head stuck trying to get into the window.
i spend the next hour with the incredibly drunk girl, who goes by the name "ermine" i believe. hell, something like that. i don't do irish names very well. got another friend named niamh, pronounced neve. anyway. she's incredibly drunk, asked my name 4 times. we begin to talk and she says, "you're american. i don't like your politics"
says i look like clark kent, but if i shaved my head and got contacts i could look like robin hood. i give her a cookie and let her use my bathroom. she failed 2 exams that day, because she'd been to 2 lectures since october. what do you expect. "peter" was the name of the guy whose room she was trying to climb into, but he wasn't there, and she didn't know his phone number, as her mobile was dead. conversation included poetry, buddhism, catholicism, loneliness, and numerous questions as to what my name was and unsuccessful attempts to get a light from someone.
finally, sitting on the sidewalk waiting for her to be able to walk home, she says "you know, i don't like americans" and jumps up to catch a cab.

weird night

cruachan @ 2003-05-05T16:57:00

2003-05-05T15:59:54Z

the hunt for the golden ticket is on
i have in my pocket a candy bar wrapper, a wonka bar wrapper in fact, telling me that 5 golden tickets exist and are just waiting to be found
i could be charlie, meet oompah doompahs, drink from a river of chocolate, hell, willy himself may even give me his factory
ah...