Day 18 in Ireland

I overslept.  I wore jeans and the shirt and I was sleeping in to mass.  I felt guilty, but I figured it was better to dress sloppily than to not be there at all.  Irish Catholic masses are different than American Catholic masses.  For one, they only last about a half an hour, and secondly, no one sits in the first fifteen rows.  It is the most bizarre thing to me.  After mass Oisin brought me back to the house, and I spent most of the day reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.    At four thirty, I did my two hour duty of milking the cows, and once I was finished, I hurried back to the house to shower and get changed to go to Niamh (pronounce Neeve), Peter’s 15-year-old daughter’s, performance.  The event was vastly different than a play at Plymouth High School.  For one, the doors didn’t open until the event was supposed to start.  That gave Gingie and me plenty of time to walk around Mountrath, the city the play took place in, and to take scenic pictures.  At seven, we sat down with Mary, Peter’s wife, to watch Niamh’s performance.  There were eight rows, not with raised seating, and the biggest man sat down right in front of me just as the play was beginning.  The play took place in a church parish center, and they did not use the stage.  There were roughly 30 kids, ranging from 5 to 16 years old, and it was more a variety of separate performances than a play.  Some of the kids recited poems, some did comedy performances, several sang, and one group even played the guitar while singing an original song.  The performances weren’t cohesive, and there wasn’t much scenery, but I enjoyed myself all the same.  Intermission consisted of someone running to the front to turn on the lights, and there was nothing said at the start or the conclusion of the performances.  Throughout the routines, I pondered the most insane thought.  Brendan and I are closer to be the age of people who have five year olds than we are to being a five year old.  I know; I know; we’re growing up, but to think we’re closer to being parents than to being kids is the craziest thought to me.  After the performance, Mary dropped Gingie and me off at the farm house, and we promptly fell asleep.