Greatest Moment Ever

Happy 2011! It’s a bit bittersweet really. Not that I don’t have high hopes for the New Year, but 2010 was truly one of the best years of my life. I mean, I lived in and visited beautiful and exciting places, met amazing people, watched two of my friends get married, ran a triathlon and a half marathon, and got a Masters degree… to name but the big highlights. So while I wait to see what new adventures 2011 brings I thought I’d catch you all up on some of the things I didn’t get a chance to share last year. Enjoy!


Last February I went to London for Allie’s birthday. We got all dressed and sparkled up, and with the rest of her roommates went to O’Neil’s, an Irish bar/club near Piccadilly Circus (http://www.oneills.co.uk/oneillssoho/findus/). Being a Saturday night in downtown London it was packed. Not just busy packed, but the kind of packed where in order to move you mostly have to wait until you get jostled in the right direction. Luckily the jostling tended to be in the direction of the bar.

Having made it to the bar and been given drinks, we were trying to figure out how to get away from the bar without have our drinks knocked about when we found ourselves surrounded by a group of Irish men. Being February, the Rugby 6 Nations tournament was well under way and Ireland had suffered a loss earlier in the day. Meaning our new friends needed distracting and consoling. Well, who were we to deny them?

The guys paired us all off, in that mysterious way boys in bars do, and started dancing. I was with a guy with very bright blue eyes from Galway. It was Epic, and not just because he was attractive. I never learned his name, and he was eventually lost in the crowd, but I came away from the bar saying it was the Greatest Moment Ever. Not that I’m one to tend towards hyperbole…but seriously.

Out on the dance floor, we were all over the place. At one point, Galway twirled me out, pulled me back and dipped me. At the exact same time, the guy behind me was jolted causing his Jack & Coke to go flying. How do I know it was a Jack & Coke? Well. Somehow everything came together perfectly; I mean, this was ‘couldn’t do it again if I tried, straight out of a movie’ perfect. As I dipped back, I opened my mouth just as the Jack & Coke came splashing down and I caught it. Like, in my mouth. Galway pulled me back up and I just stopped, eyes wide in disbelief. Then he swung me around the other way and off I went! I generally make no claims at being smooth, coordinated, or graceful, which is fine because usually that makes for the best stories, but that is also why this moment was a little bit magical. No whiskey in my hair or down my dress and I didn’t just topple over? Totally empowering. No one puts me in a corner…

So that is just one of the many smaller moments that made 2010 so special. Here’s hoping 2011 brings just as many more. And if a few of them could involve blue-eyed, dancing, Irish men? Well…I guess I would be ok with that.



Happy New Year!