Friday Dance Party: Missing the Green

It seems impossible to miss St. Patrick's Day around here, but miss it I did. Or at least, I didn't do any celebrating, which is a bit unseemly, as I have at least a drop of Irish blood. I'm told I'm Scotch-Irish on my mother's side, which I think means we will drink Scotch, Whiskey, or anything in between.

And though I was surrounded by people all day yesterday, most of whom were very anxious to Party with the Green, I kept forgetting that it was in fact St Paddy's. Our production of Joseph... performed the first of several school matinees yesterday, at the unholy hour of 10:15 AM. For a sung-through musical (read: "pop opera"), that's a pretty tough time to Go Go Go Joe.
But our cast, despite much groaning, pulled off a great show, and the kids were highly enthusiastic. We had a whopping seven and a half hours before we were due back at the theatre, and I think my castmates spent the time planning their benders after the St. Pat's evening show. Here's a shot I swiped of four of my wives (I have six) in their green drag:

After the morning show, I darted over to BWI Airport to pick up my father and stepmother, who flew in from North Carolina to see the show last night. I was pretty surprised they took the time and effort to do so, but they had not seen my work in a couple of years, so I was pleased. We drove up to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore for lunch overlooking the water.


We had a lovely time until the sushi place next door started their outdoor entertainment: an Irish band. Sushi...Ireland...they go together hand in hand, don't they?

I checked my folks into their hotel, and myself too, as I was staying the night. We returned to Olney, but not before our unexpected detour to the employee entrance of the NSA headquarters. I took the wrong off-ramp and landed at the front gate, confronted by some severely bored security guards who nevertheless take their jobs very seriously. We were detained about 10 minutes while they checked my ID for outstanding warrants and, I suppose, whether I was on the "No-Fly" list. We finally got to the theatre, where my folks thoroughly enjoyed our Joseph. We adjourned to our Baltimore hotel, where we stopped into the bar to enjoy that most Irish of dishes, nachos. I had a beer, but it was not green.

Because I missed all the St Patrick's day hoopla, let's end it all up with a lovely rendition of the song just about everybody in the world thinks they can sing, but alas, can't. But these dudes can. A day late, wishing you the luck o' the Irish for this week's Dance Party (and aren't you glad this is not a clip of Riverdance?):