A wee bit o'fun

St. Patrick's Day is one of my fave holidays. First off, green is my favorite color--like I need another excuse to wear it, but I love seeing it all around me. Secondly, leprechauns make me laugh. Thirdly, bloody mary's are one of the best drinks around and I rarely drink them (the best ones are at Thrusters in Pacific Beach). Lastly, pinching people is funny as well.

All that said, New Haven has it's own pretty good St. Patty's Day celebration. It happens the weekend before the official holiday. They have a parade (although this is the second year in a row I have not seen it) and Anna Liffey's has Irish bands and makes for a perfect stomping ground. So Liffey's and not viewing the parade is our new tradition.

I believe I posted about last years St. Patty's Day shenanigans, so I won't go over that whole story again. This year my brother and his friend were visiting so we planned to meet up with the everyone at Wendy & Michael's house. Actually, Jeremy invited all of us over, so we were actually overtaking their apartment. We brought breakfast and morning adult beverages to satisfy everyone's needs. Needless to say, the morning started off with a bang!

We all headed to Liffey's with the intent of actually seeing the parade this year. The weather was mild and the sun was out. After some more drinking of adult beverages we all decided that the entire parade would be coming through Liffey's anyways...so why move. Plus we had mad a new friend, Leroy. We couldn't just leave Leroy...the drunk older man wearing a hat for people to do shots out of. Leroy also shared his sandwich with us...so we were indebted to him.

The Irish band was just as good this year as last year, actually I'm pretty sure it was the same band. The day concluded with the consumption of Modern pizza. Hey- we had to show the boys from Cali how pizza is really done. The East coast does have the pizza thing going for it! We also watched (feel asleep) The Big Labowski, some ate some corned beef and cabbage, and I requested a cake...so Michael made one.

All in all we had a great deal of fun and since we were asleep early, I think everyone felt pretty ok for Monday. I really think next year we should actually make it to the parade route. That is our St. Patty's goal for next year!!!!

I will update with pics soon!!!

FYI- on the actual St. Patty's Day, I wore green, but consumed no alcohol...no green beer was in my presence...well except for a 2am text of a green beer from Jeremy's mom. Thanks Tami!!!

A Little Spring in my Step

I hope with all my heart that spring is truly knocking on our door. We have been fooled before by the nice sunny skies and warmer temps, and then two days later…snow storm. Lately though, there has been a steady rise in temp and the 40’s seem to be sticking around. Now, I know 40 is not really warm at all, but when you are use to the 20’s, this is a giant leap. Actually this past weekend it was in the 60’s. That is just CRAZY!

With the warmer weather comes a more positive attitude. The cold weather, snow, and overcast skies can really make you feel tired and despondent. I don’t mean to sound like I have been so depressed lately, but the weather has really been affecting my mood. It’s not like I feel like I need to slit my wrists or anything, but I have just felt really off. I’ve been snappy, tired, and basically horrible. Before you think it—no, it has not been related to PMS. I can’t really say that anything has triggered me turning into some kind of mess except for the winter months. Well, that and my overall annoyance with the “east coast attitude”.

The winter this year has been harsher than last year and while I have gotten use to the abrasiveness of the East, I have decided I just really don’t like the attitude. Not all people from the East Coast succumb to this attitude. I have actually met some supremely nice individuals! It’s just that all the honking, all the negativity, all the people saying things “just to get your goat”, strangers passing on the street and never smiling--everything is just really taking a toll on me. I just don’t understand why people are so rude and obnoxious. Why ask me what I think and then make fun of me for it? I really miss being able to be myself and not have to worry about how someone will make fun of me or just make me feel like an all out idiot.

I had a dream last night that I was back in Morro Bay and our friends, Laurie and Myles, owned the house we use to live in. I was so excited to be there and a we were going to get a veggie burrito from Taco Temple. The dream seemed so real!!! I was getting money from the ATM at the grocery store across the street from Taco Temple, when my alarm abruptly woke me up for cycling class at 5:15am. No veggie burrito for me!!! Ah, the days of the beach and Taco Temple…I do yearn for them. Just last night Jeremy and I were reminiscing about “The Temple”. I am sure that is why I dreamt about it.

Anyways, enough of my depressing ranting and raving about the East. Things are looking up and Spring may be here to stay!! That is enough for me to turn my frown upside down. I’m sure Jeremy will appreciate my new outlook the most, considering he gets the brunt of my craziness.

Here’s to the sunshine!

Bonspielin' It

So we ventured to Boston two weekends ago for the curling bonspiel. The guys & Christen did great! They were playing against people who had been playing 5 years or less (they have only been curling for about 6 months) and they got 4th place out of 16 teams. Pretty impressive to say the least. There was some curling drama along the way.

We left on Friday afternoon for Boston. After getting to our hotel and settling in a bit we made our way down to The Country Club. Yes, it was called "The Country Club", very snobby and pretentious. At The Country Club they have a curling arena...very impressive next to the one we go to in Bridgeport. When you walk in you are on the ice level and then you can go up the stairs and there is a bar, a fireplace and a glass wall so you can watch what is happening below. Pish, posh! You were not allowed to wear jeans, so everyone is in the Sunday best upstairs, while everyone downstairs on the ice is in sweats and shirts.

The team had dinner to go to and Wendy and I (Wendy goes to school with Jeremy and her husband is on the team) went to dinner on our own...we weren't allowed to hang with the curlers. We had a great dinner, with a fab waiter and were very happy and then we went to The Club to be supportive wives and cheer on our men. All of us didn't really expect our team to go far since this was their first bonspiel...boy were we wrong!

During the gang's first game everyone was super excited because it was a really close game. There were 4 teams total from Bridgeport, so while our team was on the ice everyone was upstairs watching. If you don't know it yet, curling is synonymous with drinking. So everyone was upstairs, watching behind the glass, and enjoying some adult beverages. The curling peeps from Bridgeport were a little loud and rambunctious. They started getting really into the game, there was some yelling, there was some waiving, and then there was one really mad dude down on the ice.

Dan Nailor is a skinny little dude who got very, very angry. Like I said, it was getting pretty loud upstairs and the Bridgeport curlers didn't like the calls that our skip was making. I don't know if you could hear them down on the ice, but Dan looked up and shot us all the death glare and put his finger up to his mouth as to say, "Shut the hell up!" He would have actually probably yelled this if curling wasn't such a gentleman's game. Actually he looked like he was ready to run up the stairs and strangle someone. Needless to say, it was an extremely close game and came down to a single shot...Nailor's shot. Nailor ended up tying in that end and really even without the so-called "coaching" from upstairs, that is really all his team could have done. So it came down to one last end and our team pulled it out and won. Well, Nailor was such a poor sport and wouldn't sit with his team and our team after the match. This is simply rude. In curling, after the match is done, both teams sit at a table and the winners buy the losers first round. It was not a great end to an awesome game. Jeremy and his teammates didn't do anything wrong, but Nailor was just an ass. He tried to get the game overturned, but was unsuccessful. Really, the Bridgeport people were not coaching the team downstairs. They were loud and should have known better, but what can you do?

Anyways, we were pumped that our boys and Christen won their first game Friday night. On Saturday the team went back to the ice to play two more games. Wendy and I tooled around Boston and had a fabulous day. We were excited to learn in the early afternoon that they had won their second game and would be playing again on Sunday...possibly in the finals. The team lost their third game, but played well so they were happy. Fun was had by all in downtown Boston on Saturday evening. Sunday morning we all got up and went to the Country Club. This was a big deal. Our team was in the finals!!! It was very ceremonious. There was a bagpiper that lead all the teams down onto the ice. Everyone proceeded to march around the ice and then it was ended with a shot of Drambuie.

I have to mention that Jeremy was the sickest I had ever seen him on Thursday before we left, but he rallied and would not have missed this bonspiel for anything. Another teammate was sick as well. I don't think the shot did either of them any good. The team looked drained out on the ice. Wendy and I were frustrated just watching. Needless to say, they got creamed in their last game, but still came out overall in fourth place. Not too shabby for their first bonspiel!!! Everyone was happy with the way things turned out and then I got to drive a car of sleeping sick people home in the rain.

Since the bonspiel, life in CT has been pretty quiet. We just hung around last weekend and nothing exciting happened. We thought Spring was on it's way, but we just had another snow storm that came in Sunday night. Hopefully it is the last snow we will see, I really can't take any more!!!

It also needs to start warming a bit because I am sick and tired of running on the treadmill. I am training for a half marathon on April 5th and almost all of my runs have been done at the gym. Running for over an hour on a treadmill is not exciting in the least, but I just can't bear to run outside yet. It is still cold and snow is on the ground. I miss SD and the ability to run outdoors year-round. You really don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. Anyways, it's cold. I know...I need to get over it. Hopefully Spring will decide to start soon!!!