The Irish Fest!

This year marked the 25th Anniversary of the Cleveland Irish Cultural Festival (www.clevelandirish.org); the festival that my grandparents started after immigrating to North America and wanting to keep the true Irish culture alive. It was held this past weekend and we were blessed with beautiful weather and record sized crowds (my aunt estimates around 50,000 people)!

Having been promoted to oversee CD and "merch" sales from the celtic rock bands, my main job was to deal with the bands, one of them being Gaelic Storm. I've never listend to "the storm", nor will I in the future.. Let's just say, their egos are quite a bit bigger than their bodhrans. Biggest jerks I have ever dealt with.. Keeping my gossiping to a minimum (I've already done enough today), just know: I. Was. Disgusted.

Over the course of the weekend we made a little video of the festival for my grandparents with messages from all the grandkids and the volunteers. It was really cute and ended with my cousin filming the crowd from the rock stage while they cheered "Happy 25th Anniversary!" We haven't shown our grandparents yet, but we're sending them the video as soon as my cousin copies it. I think they'll be really pleased.

It was a great weekend but I missed my own bed and my roommates. I'm still not back in my own bed because I'm staying at my parents (the family is still in Cleveland) with Murphy. Poor dog. She gets sooo depressed when the kids are gone. I imagine that it would be like one of those movies where someone wakes up and every person in the world is gone, you know? It's all cloudy out. You see a lone swing blowing in the wind and walk down a vacant street, passing empty cars with the doors still open and swaying street signs.. I'd be depressed too if I was all alone and used to the constant buzz of a household of 10! Anyway, I do have my roommates back; as at least one has stayed with me at the Beardmore home each night I have been back. We had a cookout and watched half of DreamGirls.

On a side note, I went to see HairSpray! GO SEE THIS MOVIE! It was a blast and once again, I dreamt of life as a musical! Heck, most of my life already is, as we Beardmore kids break into song regularly. But I couldn't help but think of my school/work life with back-up dancers and jazz hands.. What a dream!! And I'll only say this.. If life had been a musical this past weekend, my dealings with Gaelic Storm would have been best expressed in a song called "You Spit When You Yell (Reprise)".