St. Patrick's Day Shenanigans
The day began early for me. I got up around 6:00 and completed some school work before getting ready to head out for the day's events.
The ground breaking at St. Patrick's home was really touching. All involved are so commited and investing in the new project and it's nice to see that they take the time to ensure our senior citizens have a dignified place to live surrounded by friends and family. Unfortunately, do to time constraints, I did not get to stay and see the first mound of earth moved...I was so looking forward to getting a token "look at me, I'm digging all this out for the foundation - wearing heels" photo. Aw well!
At 11:10 I rushed to my car and drove (of course obeying spead limits at all times) across town to Rogers TV. I arrived at 11:27! Success!
I got mic-ed and we were on at about 11:40. They asked a series of pretter standard questions:
What's the history of the festivale?
Is it a pageant?
What does the selection process involve?
The story behind why Laura chopped off all her gorgeous long red locks
What I am up to next...
etc.
All in all, it went very well - please let me know if you saw it, I unfortunately did not get to see it...and my mother missed it too so I really don't know.
Then I raced to St. Brigid's for lunch with the National Irish Canadian Culture Centre group (NICCC was my sponsor in the "competition").
We had a lovely lunch filled with gorgeous dancing by the SFH Irish dancers and fiddle players Matt Pepin and ...? I'm so horrible with name, I apologize, but you were both fantastic.
It's quite amazing to see some of the dancers that were 7 or 8 when I danced for Sue and are now headed into their teenage years - my how they've grown!!
I then got ready for the reception at the embassy.
Curling my hair was a nightmare...for anyone who saw me - it was not a good day in the hair department.
I wore a black pencil skirt and a green blouse (...I know I know but I had to!).
There was a harpist playing background music all night. I was explaining how the harp is tuned, what the coloured strings represent etc when I suddenly found myself seating behind the harp and playing...don't ask me how it happened - but it did.
I stopped taking lessons years ago, but this weekend has made me consider going back.
We all have more to learn in everything we do and I have noticed that my ability to read music has slowed over the years. I can still play along with a piece right away by looking at the sheet music, but not like I used to!
Following our time at the embassy, we headed back to Kait's aunt and uncles house to change quickly before heading out to the Heart and Crown.
The girls and I wanted a night out together (without our sashes and my crown!)...and that's exactly what we got. Laura's lovely roomate drove us there and we may or may not have peer pressured her into staying with us :)
We had a great time dancing the night away despite the crowd! What a busy spot!
The other girls headed home and Kait and I stayed and enjoyed the remainder of the night together teaching young men and women alike to Irish dance and reminding the boys that showed up with pipes that pipes are scottish - that being said...it didn't matter, at long as you're loud (which the pipes definately are!) St. Patty's Day will welcome you with open arms.
We ran into many a friend and had a night we will not soon forget.
I explained the Rose of Tralee festivale to a number of people and earned the nickname Long Stem by the end of the night...how elegant! haha NOT
All in good fun.
The night ended well with a long chat with the friendly doormen at the Heart. Despite the rain it was a good night to be a doorman...nice and warm!
Thank you Kait for the mid morning tour of your aunt and uncles house - Chris was very impressed and I'm glad he got to see the place, it's really something else. We discussed what a morgage would be on a house that price and determined we will never live in a house worth 1.6 Million...how upsetting hahaha I still can't believe that the apartment in the basement rents for twice the price of our morgage!!!
Anyways, I'll leave it there. All in all it was a fun filled and exciting day. Now, it's back to reality! I have two exams next week and two GIANT final projects to write all in the next couple weeks. It's crunch time! I'm SO excited to be done this undergrad chapter of my life though. Don't get me wrong it has been great, but I'm ready for something new.
OH also, I should note that in June I have a couple of lovely people that may follow me all the way from Canada to Port Loeis, Ireland for the Regional Finals!!
Kait, my roomate from the selection weekend and partner in crime (I mean adventure), my mother, and one of my dance students and her family may come and join me either in June or August (if I make it through the regional round)!
Also, my very best friend Laura Gall and I plan to take an extra week and travel around following the Regionals :)
I'm sooooo excited for June!!!!
Thank you to everyone for the continued love and support.
If you don't hear from me over the weeks to come it is simply because I don't want to bore you with the details of my projects, labs, and studying extravagazas...I'm aware that stuff is only interesting to me!
I hope you all had a lovely St. Patrick's Day filled with good music, a few good brews, and lots of cheer!
Enjoy the warm weather if you're in Ottawa!
-Eat your veggies & drink lots of water!
Kate
No comments:
Post a Comment