So how was your St. Patrick's Day?

As long as you aren't that couple that I saw meandering (to put it kindly) through oncoming traffic on Forest Ave by the 295 overpass, sporting shiny green bowlers and 3lbs of green flashing beads around 1PM (assumedly having come from Bubba's or Ricky's and headed for..... oh I don't know - down 295 on foot toward Brunswick maybe - I'd love to hear from you.

A good day for all, I trust. In aforementioned typical March fashion, mine was chock full of varying activities and responsibilities, some conflicting and some related. March is just crazy, it's an overlapping of sports seasons, weather patterns, beer styles, and emotional states (seasonal affective disorder meets spring fever).

Have I mentioned that the Red Sox open one week from tomorrow at 4:05PM?

Anyway, the overnight snowstorm was likely a rough start for many - hopefully the fine establishments that rely on that day's wages weren't hit too hard. I myself was a much later than is traditional arrival to Brian Boru. It was of course still worth the effort, and played out just fine in the end. Great company, great music, great food, and great drink - Guinness Stout (I kind of wish they still had Murphy's too) and Magner's Cider. It's all that I ask.

I REALLY wanted to get over to Gritty McDuff's for some of their small batch pours only available, well pretty much right now - Irish Red Ale (or IRA, very clever) and Strong Oatmeal Stout (or SOS, to continue w/ the acronyms), but just couldn't pull it off with the short window that I had. They were also going to have the Kora Temple Bagpipers in for a blow, which would have been a treat. Love to hear from anyone that got to hear those with a pint of IRA or SOS in their hand. If you did, who was better than you last Saturday? No one, that's who.

My good friend dragged me out of Brian Boru for a few minutes to meet a friend of his over at Rivalries. Rivalries? Dude, it's St. Patrick's Day not Opening Day. Nonetheless, I gave in - only to walk in with one minute left in regulation of the Ohio State/Xavier game. That was almost one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tourney history. Almost. So that became a worthwhile stop at least. Back to Boru for one more and a quick dose of live music befitting the day, and then home to prior commitment, more responsible type plans for the evening. Kind of had that Thanksgiving Day feel for me this year - a few hours of early revelry and then on to more responsible fare (kind of).

March is just one of those months. There's so much going on - it's busy, it flies by, but it's really a great month. Just think about the flurry of activity in March - high school state championships all over the place, college hockey playoffs (as a UMaine fan, it was hard to bring that up - sorry), NCAA March Madness (including local D-III women - Bowdoin and USM), college baseball gets underway, Red Sox spring training (and all the panicking and predicting that comes w/it), Daylight Savings Time, St. Patrick's Day (my favorite - someday I will spend it seeing Dropkick Murphy's in Boston and my life will be complete), first day of Spring, last day of Winter, the Ides of March (sorry Gaius), the end of the Quarter for anyone with their fingers on some sort of financial/sales results, the salmon return to Capistrano (Lloyd, Dumb & Dumber - 1994), and I know, I know - it's the anniversary of the discovery of Uranus.