thank god i'm italian

"..and the almighty said, don't fuck with the irish..." I'm not so sure it's a good thing to be taking life lessons from Braveheart. St. Patty's day in Saint Louis is nuts!!! I can only imagine what Mardi Gras is like in New Orleans. Now I understand my perspective could be tainted having lived in Utah for the last 1 1/2 years, but still...Yesterday actually reminded me of a Notre Dame football game...thousands of people wearing green and drunk...all by 10am!!!

I had 1 appointment yesterday at 9am, and when I looked out the window I decided I needed to ride the bike to work. There was no way I was about to drive and lose my parking space. So I get dressed, and shit balls it was cold....it started to snow. After my appointment, I rode home, dropped my stuff off and continued riding for about an hour or so. This is when I realized St. Patty's day is crazy...people were tailgating for a damn parade.

I got home, showered and had a small lunch, and waited for the mayhem to begin. Mike, Ben, and Jen (roommates) all ran in the St. Patty's day 5 miler, so I figured it would get started when they got home. Well the parade started at 12:30 and Mike didn't make it to the house until 2:15 or so. I just sat there...kind of. About 1:45 or so, Marcie Boyer (Head SLU Field Hockey coach), Melanie Hof (Athletic Trainer), and BIG Andrew (strength and conditioning coach) all walked in the house. No worries...I put the porn away by then ;) We started drinking, and then Brian Lyons and his wife, Margaret, along with their baby girl Lily showed up. Finally Mike Nelson showed up, and so did Joe Connelly, and pretty much the rest of the Big River racing team.

Well a couple of beers later, we all made our way to Tamm Ave...where I asked Mike, "Do they care about open containers today?" His answer was an emphatic, "Fuck NO!!!" So this clan of tiny male distance runners and female distance runners, and 1 small cyclist wandered the drunken street of Tamm. We definitely felt safe, as we constantly reminded each other (amazing how a little booze makes you repeat yourself endlessly) we could get in a fight because we had our muscle with us. Yes, our muscle was Big Andrew(6-8, 320), and Arlee Smith(6-4 280). Both Andrew and Arlee threw for Missouri Southern University. If fact they were both all-american throwers, one in the shot, the other in the disc. So they were our muscle. We managed to find a place to socialize and people watch. It was right in front of a house where the owners decided to put a stereo system on an outside balcony and play dance music. Somehow the techno just wasn't catching the Irish spirit..I don't know why? As our people watching continued, we played the "would you do that person game". Mike in his drunken stouper annouced to everyone he would do a woman with a mo-hawk, and I shit you not, 30 seconds later a woman with a mo-hawk walked by...and she might have the ugliest person in the world. Everyone in the group lost it, because we all thought the same thing!!

We ended up back at our place with even more people than we started, all of whom I had no idea who they were. The flip cup tournament started, right in my bedroom or the dining room...whichever you prefer. This lasted for most the night, until we went to Nick's Irish Pub, and continued with the drinking. I ended up walking home, because you guessed it...I had to open the gym. That's where I am now writing this. If any of this sounds like a drunken rambling, well it probably is. I can not tell if I'm still drunk, tired, or hung over. This probably means I am still drunk. Opps.

I do have to give a congrats to my roommate Ben who did win the 5 miler yesterday in a time of 24:00...he won by 55 seconds. Also have to congratulate Katie Sutton for winning the women's race. It was a pretty good showing for the big river running company!!

I guess I might try and ride later today...I might just sleep though too.