March Roundup

The ending of March is always bittersweet.

On one hand it’s my favorite month: St. Patrick’s Day, parade season, the Easter break (this year at least), and my birthday.

On the other hand, I ate too much, drank too much, slept too little (I know, first-world, self induced problems–you don’t feel sorry for me) and am now 27.  People (especially students at work) are increasingly wondering (aloud) why I’m not married and settled down by now.

I didn’t really have anything productive to post on here during March because essentially, March turns me into a hardcore creature of habit.

The first weekend of March, I usually do Erin Express in Philly.  This year they downsized it to only two weekends, so while I ended up in Philly one night, it was more in the vein of pregaming at my friends’ house for hours before hitting up a few bars that we could walk to.

The second weekend was the Scranton St. Patrick’s Day Parade. There’s not really much to add about the parade because I do almost the same thing every year and I have very few pictures because it’s an early start and my phone’s normally dead by 2 or 3.  As per usual, we stayed at the Scranton Clarion, which I believe is the best value for Parade Day (most of the hotels jack up their prices).  I spend the bulk of my time at Goodfellas, Cockeyes, and Oscars (Cockeyes and Oscars don’t have websites to link to, so you know they’re good), all mostly college bars somewhat removed from most of the festivities going on downtown, and ended our tour for the second year a row at Whiskey Dicks.  The only notable differences from years past was that this parade had the fewest of my college friends attending (which goes along swimmingly with the whole March-is-when-I-turn-old-theme) and I actually managed to make it down to see part of the parade (a first in 6 years!).

Rumor has it that NYC, Boston, and Scranton are the three biggest St. Patrick’s day parades in the country.  I grew up going to Scranton, didn’t see the actual parade but had a successful trip to Boston last year, and so decided to conquer NYC this year.  I didn’t see the parade either.  I only saw the inside of The Blarney Rock.  I arrived in Queens on Friday night and instead of being responsible and adult about having to wake up at 8:00 to drink all day, we went into the city, things escalated quickly, and my night ended circa 3:30.  My only redeeming move was that I finally got to say I had a green beer.

Needless to say, the next morning was a little rough, but we were up and heading back into Manhattan around 10:30.  The funny thing about NYC’s parade festivities is that NY is just way too big for it to consume the entire city.  Scranton’s green outfits and carbomb specials extend all up and down the Lackawanna Valley.  If you’re in Philly during Erin Express, you’re aware of it because you see fellow revellers on the subway, in the streets, and in restaurants.  Boston was similar.  Everyone was in green.  We were the only ones dressed like assholes on the train in New York.   The Blarney Rock was our first stop, and I’m not sure whether we planned on leaving at all, but we had a great crew and the next thing I knew, it was 8ish and we were ready to turn in for the night.

I spent most of actual St. Patrick’s Day (which was a Sunday for those ignorants out there) in bed swearing that I was done with alcohol.

I should have more time to post some items of actual interest now that it’s April, and have several trips/excursions in the works that you’ll be hearing about.  I also think that now’s as good a time as ever to start making preparations for next year.  I’m thinking a return trip to Boston might be in order, but we’ll see.  Any suggestions?