St. Patty's Kickoff

Every year around this time, I get super excited for the holiday in which I can proudly support my favorite color in the most obnoxious sense and everyone is OK with it!  That's right folks, I love the color GREEN and I love the Irish.  It's a win win situation when it comes to St. Patrick's Day.

Last evening, I recieved a phone call from a friend to head to the local botanical gardens, creatively named The Domes (not at all in the sense of creativity - the darn building is literally made of 3 dome shaped greenhouse environments, and it was built in the 70s, so you can imagine the lack of beauty of the architecture).  Apparently, the Domes periodically host concert series in the infamous "Show Dome" that houses a garden that made me feel as though I stepped into Shakespear's A Midsummer Night's Dream.  At the far end of the Dome (can there really be a far end since it's a round room?), there was a stage and upon that stage, an Irish Band belting out some tunes.  What increased the cool factor even more: they have a man performing Irish dance to the beat of their tunes.  Very Michael Flatley.

Honestly, listening to that music made me reminice over the few times I've been able to travel over to the beautiful country of Ireland and made me want to very strongly watch the movie, Once.  Side Note: If you have not watched this movie, I suggest you do - in a sense it's a modern musical, but not in the jazz hand, jazz square sort of way.

The Domes have kicked off my weekend of everything Irish and now I'm going to top it off by making a little trip back to the Eastern side of Pure Michigan to ring in the holiday with my best friend from college.  So, here's to the Irish!