The weekend that almost wasn’t

I talked to Jill Friday night and told her I had found out Dar Williams was playing Saturday night and eddie from ohio were playing Sunday afternoon, both about an hour from Holyoke. She said efo was during the parade, but we could probably borrow her parents’ car to go see Dar, so I should go ahead and buy tickets.

I got up Saturday, made breakfast and packed. I got to Dulles around 1:15, and the only parking left was way in the back, in the Purple lot. As I was in the bus about to stop at the terminal, Jill called and started telling me about cancelled flights. I had to call her name 4 times before she paused for breath, so I could tell her I’d call her back in a couple minutes after I got inside. Once I did, she told me that she and Robin were stuck in Minneapolis because their connecting flight to Hartford had been cancelled. They had already tried to get on one flight out with no success. She thought I might want to stay home if they couldn’t get a flight out until the next day, like they were telling her. I told her to go out to the ticket counter and ask to be put on another airline, if they couldn’t get her out that day.

I went through security and got to my gate. My flight was on time, then it was delayed by 30 minutes. Jill called me back and said they’d got on a flight, but it wasn’t going to get in until 10:30. My flight was supposedly on time, so I got on board. I told Dave to pick me up in Hartford 15 minutes late. Good idea, because we ended up waiting for a couple connecting flights and got in just about 15 minutes later than scheduled. Jill and her mom told me I was welcome to drive one of their cars to the Dar concert if I wanted to go by myself, but I decided it wasn’t important enough to go on my own. Sue offered Dave the chance to go, but he demurred. She eventually told me she’d go, though I told her she didn’t have to, I would just take the loss.

In the meantime Dave and I went to the liquor store to stock up on beer. I got some Magic Hat – #9 of course, and a new seasonal ale. Much to Jill’s eventual disappointment, it was a very hoppy pale ale, something she’s not fond of. We got some tasty pepperoni pizza for dinner, then Sue and I went off to Pittsfield. We got there a little late, but she did have an opening act, and we got to see one of his songs. Dar was great, as usual. It was just her and her guitar. She played a couple new songs, but didn’t play my favorites (“Iowa” and “I Saw A Bird Fly Away”). Sue enjoyed it, and we got back to her house before Jill and Robin. They had some pizza, then everyone went to bed. Sunday morning Jill and I were late risers. Sue and her mom and Dave had finished cleaning and were busy cooking. We had some breakfast and went to the St. Patrick’s parade with Robin.

The parade is enormous. The second largest in the nation, it’s 3 hours long. We parked and met up with some of Robin’s friends. Jill and I went looking for someone she knew, but couldn’t find her. The parade was fun (some pictures here). We were right next to a bunch of guys that had been there all morning and had consumed mass quantities (to an older gentleman with a picture of the Virgin Mary on his shirt “Hey dud, who’s the hot chick on your shirt?”, not to mention yelling “Light it up!” every couple minutes). I had prepared well (had long underwear), but Jill and Robin got cold after about 2 hours and we left. We feasted on corned beef and cabbage while we watched the rest of the parade in front of the TV. I grabbed a corned beef and cabbage sandwich before we left, then we waited in the (stifling hot) Hartford terminal for our flight home. We got home around 9, and dumped our stuff and relaxed a little before sleeping.