The worst times, naturally, are those when I just really don't want to be out in public at all. It's not that I'm in a hurry — but people make me impatient and angry when they do stupid things.

I can sometimes get into a state of mind where I "know" that somebody's going to be annoying, even before I'm in their proximity. I can see a couple of ladies ahead of me, ambling along their talkative way, and I just know that one or both of them is going to veer into my pathway, just cutting off my trajectory to the point where I cannot pass without saying something... or waiting, until they shamble back to the other side.

Normally — in the Irish way — one simply says "sorry," which means "excuse me" — there's really no need to get upset or to be rude. Irish culture is based greatly upon patience and politeness.

But I feel how I feel. I try to be friendly. I am friendly.

But sometimes these little offenses really get me irritated.... The woman with her pram (baby stroller,) stopped right in the middle of a wide doorway during the busiest time of the day at the supermarket, me right behind her stopped waiting for her to adjust her whatever-it-is-this-time, absolutely and happily oblivious that she is totally blocking the use of the entryway....

I stop. I stand. She never does see me. She never has any idea that I was there, nor that anybody might have been....

Sometimes it makes me just want to go back to my apartment and be alone.