Happy St. Patty's Day!

Well, it's here - the day we celebrate all that is Irish! We write poetry, we eat potatoes, we dye our hair red. Then later tonight, we'll drink too much, fight about religion and talk about how much we hate the British (though really it's the French we hate...do the Irish hate the French, too?).

I have plans with my friends tonight to venture downtown. It's going to be a madhouse. My stomach is much better today, but I may take it easy on the boozing. I don't feel any great desire to be hungover tomorrow. Not my favorite state of being. I find as I get older that the hangover thing is less and less appealing all the time. But I enjoy "the drink" (as the Irish would say) in moderation, so I'll probably have me a little green beer. Mostly the appeal will be just going out with my friends and people-watching. And believe me, there's plenty of people-watching to do in this town right now. SXSW brings an interesting crew.

In fact, I've compiled a list of a few things one can see while tooling around town during SXSW:

- An overabundance of black clothing.
- An unusual number of men in tight, very form-fitting clothes.
- An unusual number of really skinny men...most in tight, very form-fitting clothes.
- Women with loud colors, like hot pink or blue, painted into their mussy hair (has anyone told them that the '80s are over? Flock of Seagulls has left the building?)
- An unusual number of men with elaborate hair.
- Large, obvious badges worn proudly to denote status to other badge-wearing, posturing tourists.
- A lot of t-shirts for bands no one has ever heard of.
- A lot of cars inching down streets they're unfamiliar with, hitting their brakes every two seconds to read signs and try to decide if this is where they should turn, deciding it's not, then changing their mind, then giving up and inching down to the next street...while a local fumes behind them because they have to get somewhere and they actually know where they're going. I should note that this local was very patient and friendly the first few days, but now they're tired of all the dyed, arrogant, drunk 20-somethings stumbling around town and jay-walking in the path of their car, so now he/she is just counting the days until it's over.

Good times. Now, go get your green on and enjoy the day!