London Homesick Blues

First, raise your hand if you have any idea what the title of this post means.

No?

Didn't think so.

It's a song! In fact, I two-stepped to that song with Tony Varisco once when Gary P. Nunn played the Broken Spoke! (I'm wondering what percent of people reading this think the previous sentence sounds like a foreign language?)

Unimportant. The POINT is, I went to see Atonement a few weekends ago with Holly and Bree. (Holly's post-film summary: "That was good, but I kind of feel like I could have stayed home and punched myself in the face and it would have been the same thing.")

Strangely, even though I've read the book and knew all the depressing things that were going to happen, I still could barely look at the screen when they did. It was rough.

Of course, as soon as I got home I did the requisite google-stalking about the film, the author, etc. etc. and found this clip of my new boyfriend James McAvoy (who apparently was recently married but that's really not a problem for me) on Craig Ferguson. Adorable.

After watching this, I've been reminded of my enduring love for all things Scottish. I mean, seriously... I heart Scotland. Even though I was only in Edinburgh for a long weekend many years ago, it was still one of the best trips I've had. Scottish boys. The Military Tattoo. Edinburgh Castle late-night disco. And Scottish accents. Also it was the only time in my life when my friends couldn't spot me in a crowd, because my people are from Scotland. Do I need to say more?

The summer after I graduated from UT, I spent six weeks doing a summer program in Oxford, England (an important distinction since I could be talking about Mississippi, ya know.) One of the boys who worked at the college that summer was a student there during the school year, and was from Scotland. Like every other Texas girl there for the summer, I had a huge crush on this boy - maybe because he smart, and funny, and really cute. It didn't hurt that he nicknamed me Scully the first day and smirked at me through his long lashes every time he looked at me. It's possible that my last night at the college, I might have had a few pints of Strongbow too many and knocked on his door sometime in the wee hours to say goodbye. It's possible.

(We wrote letters back and forth a few times before we lost touch, and it's been years since I've thought of him - until I just heard that Scottish accent. So now, thanks to my freaky memory and the magic of the internet, I remembered his full name, AND found him online! He's a lawyer in London, and used to work in New York. How insane! I'm so glad Al Gore invented the internet. How else could I stalk former international crushes?)

ALL OF THIS TO SAY... I have strict rules about travel-planning, and since I've already been to Scotland, I have to pick another country I haven't been to. Ireland has been at the top of my To-Visit list for some time, and even thought it's not Scotland, it's the U.K. and the accent will do just fine. And I just watched Once which is set in Dublin so now I'm even more excited about this trip.

So thanks to my fond memories of Ciaran K. from Brasenose College and James McAvoy's fine performance in Atonement, I just convinced my roommate to go with me to Ireland for a quick trip in April, and WE JUST BOUGHT OUR TICKETS!!

'Cause I'm hot for a fictional character from a movie and fondly remember a cute boy with an accent I met over a decade ago, that's why. Got a problem with that??

PS - Since you were dying to know, here's Gary P. Nunn singing London Homesick Blues, which is the name of the song. How this relates to my love of things Scottish and my upcoming trip to Ireland, I don't know. It's a U.K. thing. And what did we do before youtube? (The best part of this one is that is was filmed at a Hog Festival. I'm not making this up.)