Cast of Characters

So who am I sharing this house with? Well, it depends on the day of the week and sometimes even time of day.

Let's see if you can follow the white rabbit through this course:

For most of the past year, the house had four occupants: Aoife, Kesstan, Conal and Brendan. Kesstan moved out a few months ago; Brendan moved out shortly before I arrived. Aoife was on the road for a bit, so for my first week, it was just me and Conal. Aoife returned...then left again for an internship in Sligo for a few weeks. I left for Italy. Kesstan returned to sublet Aoife's room. At some point while I was in Italy, Brendan apparently returned and left again. For this weekend only, Aoife was back in town, crashing in the spare room, giving us a full house (me, Conal, Aoife, Kesstan) for the first time since I've been here. Over the next week and a half or so, Kesstan's leaving again, Aoife's returning, Emma's moving in and Conal's moving out. Beyond that, I haven't a clue, save the possibility that Meg may move in around the time I'm shipping out, but I think we currently have one room unspoken for once the dust settles so someone else may yet move in.

Okay, got the timeline? Good. Here's the cast:

Aoife - hails from New Haven, CT, but turned tales when it came time for college and went to that *other* school up in Cambridge, Mass. (Not cool enough to follow in her father's footsteps and matriculate to that humble little school Ann Arbor, apparently.) She is currently pursuing post-graduate studies in theatre at NUI Galway and running a theatre company which, among other accolades, will be putting on a production at the Edinburgh festival later this summer. She also acts as sort of the de facto 'house mom'/'property manager' in lieue of our absentee landlords.

Conal - in west Philadelphia, born and raised. The playground is where he spent most of his days. Actually, I'm not sure which side of Philly he's from. He's the smart one who decided to do the year-off travelling thing in between high school and college. He's a fine traditional Irish fiddle player, (and has sounded good dabbling with banjo and guitar) and has a wealth of knowledge of the particular styles and musicians of the genre, which has been both enlightening and educational to me. He's heading back to the States in a couple weeks, but is likely returning in the fall for college, probably in the music program at the University of Limerick.

Kesstan - originally from Vermont but has been in LA for quite some time now. She's finishing up her dissertation and tried to explain it to me one night. I smiled and nodded a lot. She decided that while working on her dissertation, her only real requirement was to be close to a good library, so she decided to come out here to do it and just hang out. She makes a killer toasted walnut, cranberry, bleu cheese and pear salad!

Emma - I met Emma for the first time last night, and she is a crazy, spastic little ball of energy and is going to be a riot to have around. She's friends with Aoife through the theatre company, and is originally from County Laois, making her, if you've been paying attention, the first non-American to live here since I've been here. (And I never met him, but I understand that Brendan was American as well).

So there you have it... If I go crazy before I return, those are the individuals most responsible. Seriously, they're all fantastic and we've all gotten along just great. Its been fun living with each of them for whatever sporadic periods of time we've each been together here.