62. March 17th, 2011 Picture.

For the record, I never consider March 17th to be the actual Saint Patrick's Day - at least I haven't since I moved to Southie.  St. Paddy's, in my opinion, is the day of the parade, which is either the Sunday before or the Sunday after, depending on what day of the week St. Paddy's falls on that year.  This year it fell on the Sunday after, since St. Paddy's was on a Thursday.


Last year, Ratty and I went out after work for 'a few' beers on Landsdowne street to celebrate.  The plan was to keep it slightly low key, since it was a school night, but of course one thing led to another and I stumbled home at 2am.  ON A WEDNESDAY!  Who does that?!  I mean, I have but those were during my college days when Wednesday night was Greek night at Bogarts, or post-college when I was one half of the trivia duo 'The Ligers' and we'd play every Wednesday night at Game On.  I'm not sure where I was going with that, but what I DO know is that I haven't stayed out until 2am on Wednesday in a long time.  


Well, since last year was SO much fun, we decided to do the exact same thing this year.  Since I now work literally right down the street from Landsdowne Street, as does Ratty, we walked over right after work and grabbed a spot on the patio at Landsdowne Pub.  Aside from it being St. Paddy's, it was also a Thursday and we were thinking that the place would be absolutely mobbed, and we were right.  Thankfully we got a seat about 3 minutes before a massive lined formed.  LUCKY!


The weather was unseasonably nice, which is why we opted to sit outside and watch the sunset over the Green Monster.  At 4:46pm.

While we were sitting outside, a bus full of bagpipers arrived, and they all lined up outside the bar.  Ratty and I debated on whether or not they were headed into our bar, and by debated I mean that I thought they were and he thought they weren't.

They were.  I win.  They were awesome.  I love bagpipers!

After eating dinner we headed back inside to listen to some live music and drink some beaaaaaahhhs.  We learned from last year that the wait at the bar is absolutely miserable, so once you do finally get waited on, you need to order 2 beers apiece.  This may have been the downfall last year - we'd each go to the bar and come back with 4 beers.  Bad news, people!  I learned my less though, I was determined not to repeat the same mistakes as last year.

Everyone was decked out in green and going absolutely bananas.  I had a hard time accepting that it was St. Patrick's Day, mainly because I feel that it, once again, is parade day.  

That didn't stop me from wearing some flair and having a great time listening to the cover band and drinking some overpriced Bud Light bottles.  The only time I was annoyed was when a girl spilled an entire bottle of beer all over my black dress pants.  Literally, all over.  I was sitting in a chair and her full bottle went right into my lap.  I made it a point to move to a new spot after that!

We didn't stay as late as last year, which was FINE by me.  Man, I'm getting old!  The cover band was crazy good, playing a mix of pop, rap and hip-hop, which meant Ratty was in his glory.  There had been an acoustic Irish band in the bar earlier in the night, but once they packed up I didn't hear another Irish song again.  I love clapping along to Wild Rover and singing Black Velvet Band and I seriously might lose my mind if I hear Galway Girl in public.   Not hearing a lot of Irish music might have been another reason it didn't feel 100% like St. Paddy's.  I guess I'll have to save all my jigging for the real St. Patrick's...er...parade day!