A November to Remember: Part 1

So, Will has been all over me to update my blog, here.  I guess it has been a while.  I'll fill you in on what's been happening.  While, in October I was pretty bummed, hating my job and all, November brightened everything up!  I had three straight weeks of exciting events.  What a great way to raise my spirits!

The first exciting event was our Celtic Thunder concert.  In case this is your first visit to my blog, or in case you don't know me very well, you can check out the music of Celtic Thunder (CT, cuz I'm already getting lazy) right there in the upper-right hand corner.  This was the third CT concert I have been to, the first being right after Thanksgiving in 2008 and the second being in LA in early November of 2009.  This concert I would be joined by my best friend, Nicole, of course, as well as Kim, who came to LA with us last year, and Heather, Nicole's younger sister and Becki's best friend.  (Becki, in case you were wondering, does not share our enthusiasm for CT, and missed out on this remarkable experience.)

This concert snuck up on me, because I forgot to ask for Wednesday, November 10th off.  By some miraculous occurrence, my boss scheduled that as one of my days off, as well as the next day, Thursday.  Nicole had no classes scheduled for every Wednesday that semester, and so she was free as well.  We decided to make the concert an entire-day thing, and I texted Kim to let her know to come whenever she had free time.  Lo and behold, Kim's class was cancelled.  I called it fate, she called it luck of the Irish, but either way, it was amazing.

I had this idea that we should spend the day making Shrinky-Dink rings.  I had never worked with the stuff before, but I thought it would be fun to show our CT spirit.  So a quick trip to Hobby Lobby, and we were on our way!  Nicole had a slight mishap with the crayons...

 

That last ring was a tribute to Damian McGinty, the youngest and my favorite member of the group, whose song Puppy Love got me hooked on CT for the first time two and a half years ago.  Remember it; it's important to the story.

So after ring-making, it was time to get ready, which was an adventure in and of itself.

 

All ready!

So, after a minor miscommunication about our directions and a car ride full of pent-up excitement, we made it!

We headed straight for the merchandise, of course.  Gotta get the swag.  I ended up with a souvenir program, as always, as well as a Damian poster and a new T-shirt.  Then it was time to take our seats.

This CT tour consisted of three parts.  ONE, a brand new selection of traditional Celtic songs as of yet unreleased on CD.  TWO, "It's Entertainment," the selection of songs released on CD in early spring of this year that pays tribute to different music genres through the years.  And THREE, the Christmas music, released on CD in October.  The way the tour works was as follows:  Before Thanksgiving, the shows would consist of ONE before the intermission and TWO after.  After Thanksgiving, the shows would be TWO before the intermission and THREE after.  Kinda sad because there was no way to hear all the music without traveling somewhere else for a different show, but we were glad we got to hear the songs we had never heard before.

Our favorite one from the new songs was when they sang "Place in the Choir,"  about how all the animal noises make up a symphony.  It was fun, and Damian sang the bass part all by himself.  His voice was so low, it was hilarious.  My concert-mates misunderstood the words, and thought that the word 'place' was a much dirtier word.  They were baffled to hear the lyrics "All of God's creatures have a p*** in the choir..."  I, however, have a much more refined mind, and did not make that mistake.

Other than that, nothing about the concert itself was very notable.  We were very disappointed with the crowd.  They were not enthusiastic at all.  We wanted to be screaming and cheering and standing up, but the atmosphere was not right.  I guess that's the risk you run when you like a band who gets all their publicity from PBS.  Sometimes the audience is just a bunch of old farts.  The most excited they got was when Keith messed up in the song "Hallelujah" and started laughing.  But the boys performed well and it was so exciting to see them.

After the concert, we rushed back to the backstage door to watch them come out.  We had done this in LA last year, and all it got us was sore feet, frostbitten noses, and lots of disappointment.  After standing for 45 minutes, they just got into a van that was parked inside a garage (so we didn't even see them) and drove away.  This year, however, I was lacking the uncomfortable shoes, the weather was pleasant, and there were no garages in sight, so our hopes were high.  Well, except for Heather.  She didn't outwardly complain, because she knew nothing she said was going to move us from the temporary fence they had set up, but she did say she thought the endeavor was a waste of time.  "They're just going to walk five feet from that door to that bus," she said.

"You never know," I replied.

Paul was the first one out.  We yelled his name with the rest of the crowd as he loaded his bag onto the bus.  Then, he dug through it to find a Sharpie, and started heading our way.  OMG, it was a freak out moment for all.  Paul Byrom, THE Paul Byrom, was coming to give us autographs!  I opened my program to his picture and thanked him profusely for his signature.

He left, and we were all still hyperventilating when George Donaldson came out and followed suit.  This was too good to be true.  Paul AND George, both giving us autographs???  We were so lucky!  George, the oldest of the group, was very friendly and actually held several conversations with us.

"Have any of the other lads come over here?" he asked.

"Just Paul," we answered.  I added, "But George Donaldson is the best one!"

He laughed and answered, "That's just because I'm the one that's over here!"  A true statement.

He also wanted to know who had traveled the farthest to get here, and we told him about our previous year's trek to LA.  There was also a point where he was signing and the whole crowd was silent, watching him, and he said, "This is the quietest I've ever heard a group of people," to which I quipped, "That's because we think if we don't scream, you'll stay longer."  He laughed and admitted that was true.

We asked to get a picture with him, but he told us since people pay for Meet and Greet tickets through PBS, it wouldn't be fair to them if he took pictures with us too.  As he was finishing up, Keith AND Ryan both come out of the backstage door!  By this time, we were all thinking how great it would be to get autographs from all of them, and they did end up coming over!  Ryan and Keith must have been ignoring the PBS rule, because they both took pictures with us.  I pushed Kim through the crowd, which was quite sizable at this point, to get a picture with Ryan because he's her favorite.

Finally, there was just one more member left: My favorite, Damian McGinty.  And guess what.  He came over too!  I was so excited!

Sadly, he sided with George on the picture issue.  However, I really wanted to show him the Damian ring I had made.  My time with him was running out, and I couldn't think of a casual, witty way to bring the subject up, so I said what was certainly the dorkiest, most stupid thing I've ever said to a celebrity, but I just couldn't let this opportunity slip through my fingers.

"Hey, Damian!  We made Celtic Thunder rings today, wanna see?"

Well, idiotic as it sounded, it got the job done.  After looking politely at my Celtic Thunder ring, he squinted at my Damian ring and (contrary to what the girls had been telling me all day, that it would freak him out) he yelled "Yeah!" and gave me a high-five.  That's right.  Damian McGinty high-fived me.  Suck it, girls!

After Damian left, we were visited by Neil Bryne, which was an unexpected surprise.  He had been with CT from the beginning, playing guitar and doing back-up vocals for the singers, but lately he's been getting his own solo songs too.  It was icing on the cake.

And so ended one of the greatest nights of my life.  It was the definitely an evening I won't soon forget.