Brrrrrrr! Sometimes this town is as cold as the weather.

Today was one of those days when it seemed nothing was getting done, but I was busy all the time!    I have been working on insurance problems, paying bills, yada yada,    Rusty and I did play trivia tonight and through some pretty sophisticated  strategy we won!   First time we won at Peter's Place and we had fun!   I met some new people who were relatively new to Dublin.  It is funny that after all these years I still don't feel like I am "from" here.   They talked about that strange phenomena of being in the "Dublin Bubble".    That is a pretty good way to describe it.   There seems to be a very different way of life , although very subtle.  You are either from here, or not.    I have watched this for many years.   It is hard to describe this.  People who are from here don't know that it exists.  They assume it is normal.  People not from here know very clearly that it exists, and in fact without an exception talk about the difficulty of being accepted.   I doubt it is unique to Dublin.  It is probably just a phenomena of a smallish rural southern town.  Some people who have lived in other deep south towns do think it is stronger or more unique here.   I do feel like I am at peace with it after all these years, but I still feel better when I leave and I almost never look forward to coming back "home" after I have been gone.   I feel proud of the fact that I have adjusted, and have made my place here.  I think most people would have left, and in fact a lot of 'imports' do leave within a few years.   I think it takes about five years to make a crack in the network.   It is an exclusive club.