Help Me Get To Ireland?(!)

Hello, dear friends, teachers and people I’ve only met once or twice but have maintained some sort of established communication due to the wonders of modern technology, this is a stick up. OK, not really. I’m not Dillinger, partly because I look ridiculous in those coats and tommy guns weigh too much. However, I am asking for money!

I am trying to go to Ireland during the Christmas holidays to see Claire as a Christmas present to her. Well, both of us, really. Ireland, by the way, is not some idyllic vacation spot. It's where she lives. She's Irish. You know, the sort of people who have a reputation for eating potatoes and getting shot at by the English. I’ve begun pulling in extra hours at all my jobs (when possible), trimming my food budget, restricting my driving to reduce gas usage, and cutting unnecessary spending. Honestly, it doesn’t look too far from what everyone’s been doing lately to deal with the economy, but I’ve been making an effort to stretch it even further.

Unfortunately, with rent, bills, student loans, and the gas/food that I need to buy, saving the considerable sum of money required to fly to Ireland in time is becoming an increasingly improbable goal. The ideal plan is to leave right after Christmas, while the school I work for is still on break, and return around the 3rd of January. While, I’m well aware this is an extremely busy and expensive time to travel, this is the best time slot for me to take this trip since most of my jobs will be out for the holidays or will not need my services as much.

The average price tag for the trip during this time period, as far as I’ve found, is around $1,100, and not getting any cheaper.

So what I’m asking you, dear friends, teachers and people I’ve only met once or twice but have maintained some sort of established communication due to the wonders of modern technology, is to help me out if you can. I know money’s tight and the Christmas season is upon us (earlier every year, I swear), but anything you could donate would be amazing. There are around 480 people on my “Friends List.” Hypothetically, if everyone of those people were to donate $2, I’d be sitting pretty close to the goal.

Realistically, that’s not going to happen. I only imagine about 30 of you fine folks read this far.But the problem and plea remain the same! I figured PayPal would be the best method to take donations, and I can promise that not a cent of anything given will be touched until it’s time to buy a plane ticket.

My e-mail address for PayPal is seiithesunrise@aol.com. And you can just use this address you I provided to the ‘Send Money’ function: http://tinyurl.com/ks23mn (used TinyUrl make the longer address shorter. No tricks here!) or just go to PayPal.com.

Anything you can do would be greatly appreciated by Claire and myself. Even if it’s just $1. It’s a dollar a didn’t have before. And I know my quest is not a charity or orphanage, so if helping my in anyway impedes you from any sort of holiday donating, please donate to charity instead. I wouldn't give it a second thought and I'm not trying to get in the way of that. But if you have anything to spare, send it my way, if you don't mind.

Daniel McAbee, owner of the Tangled Web, donated a shocking amount of $40 this weekend. In a (very) rare moment, I was rendered speechless. So any Christmas buying you have for any comic book-loving people on your list, please give The Tangled Web a visit!

Thanks for taking the time to read this, everyone. I can’t express how much it’s appreciated. I’ll let you know how the quest goes!

[Also, forgive typos/language. Couldn't afford an editor;) ]