What's the Rumpus?

Yesterday was the final day of Celtic Classic in Bethlehem. We've been dying to see Gaelic Storm at the annual festival of all things Celt, and this year we finally got our wish when organizers invited them as the closing act.

I'm still not sure they knew what they were in for when they booked them. Audiences at Bethlehem's music festivals tend to sit in folding chairs, tapping their feet, and letting kids run and play in the dance areas near the stage - unless someone plays the chicken dance, and then the dance floor turns into a festival of clucking and shaking of rumps.

We had a pretty good idea of how Gaelic Storm would change that demographic, so we showed up about 5 hours before they were scheduled to hit the stage. This of course meant that we had to sit through several other acts.

First up were "The Barley Boys". At the risk of being rude, let's just say they weren't really our style. Oh, what the heck - let's be rude and say their accents were as fake as the Rolex watch you can buy on the street corner in Times Square. I don't have a problem with Americanized Celts - I AM an Americanized Celt. I have a problem with them pretending to be authentic. Especially when their songs wax poetic about the IRA. Seriously, has anyone NOT figured out that being associated with terrorists is a bad thing? Their fiddler had skills, though.

Next were some cute dance numbers by the Highland dancers of a local school. We grabbed some food while we watched. Speaking of Americanized (or perhaps Mexicanized) Celts, "Irish Nachos"??? Kairi ordered them anyway and enjoyed the nacho toppings on - what else? - fried potatoes. Nicky got pork barbecue, which was just completely wrong, and Scott and I shared a shepard's pie that wasn't half bad. He also got a beer and a meat pie, but I didn't like either.

The final act to take the stage before Gaelic Storm was called "Town Pants". They were quite good. One of their songs had a cute chorus which went something like: "I said I loved you. I was drunk, but I meant it anyway." They had a really high-energy style and the guy on the tin whistle was astounding.
Now we had staked out "good" seats in the second row. But it became rapidly evident that this was NOT going to be your average sedately seated Bethlehem crowd, so we ditched our seats to head for the front of the stage when we realized that standing was going to be the order of the evening. We were a bit late on the draw because security had been discouraging people from moving up, and we weren't sure if we should give up our seats. But we were still only one line of people back from the stage. Unfortunately, that line of people was much taller than our two, but they were able to peek through the gaps of people to see as Gaelic Storm took the stage.

What followed was an hour and a half of singing, shouting, carousing, dancing, laughing, and generally causing a rumpus. The band has several sing-along numbers, but we sang along with everything. (Until they threw in a cover that threw us for a loop - we have every Gaelic Storm album and suddenly we were the ones with blank faces - what the heck is this song??! - turned out to be "Leaving on a Jet Plane" but we're a bit young for that, sorry.) They played a great set. We knew "Born to Be a Bachelor" was coming up when Patrick said, "I DO know where I am, but I have to ask, is this Steelers country or Eagles country?" Our shouted replies had him going, "Steagles??" but he eventually decided Eagles fans outnumbered the Steelers fans and replaced the words of the song "I'll be scullin' the pints down at the pub, I'm watching the football (Eagles) game." We also got to hear Kelly's Wellies, Scalliwag, Darcy's Donkey, What's the Rumpus, The Night I Punched Russell Crowe, Beggarman, and Johnny Tarr, along with some great instrumentals. There were probably a few others I'm forgetting now, but it rocked. Here are some photos - sorry for the lousy quality. The drum/box solo at the end of the set before the encore was beyond amazing - check out Ryan playing the box in the photos below.
When we left, Nicky said, "Can we come back next year, even if Gaelic Storm isn't here?" From a kid wearing a signed Gaelic Storm t-shirt, I think that's a pretty good review!

The Boos

My sister's daughter Juli has been known as "Boo" since she was tiny. We all thought she looked just like Boo from Monsters Inc. and the nickname stuck. But Faith is so close to her sister and small for her age that Juli's nickname started to leech over onto her as well. Now it's become a family saying - "Are the boos coming over?"

The boos have been coming over a lot in the past few months. Sadly, their mom and dad are splitting up. They've needed some extra childcare help, so we've gotten to know what our family would be like if there were four kids instead of just two.

For one thing, we'd go to the playground a lot more:





We'd also bake more cookies - especially the chocolate chip kind!


We'd try to go to a football game and pick apples and get rained out both times:


So we'd end up spending time at that last resort of families with young children: Chuck E. Cheese.



Kairi and Nicky would play with actual toys more:





And tutus would be appropriate to wear at any time!

Having the boos around certainly keeps things interesting!

BaltiMORE

We weren't done with our trip to Baltimore when we won the huge shiny trophy. We still needed to stay entertained for the rest of the overnight trip. (Although we're still not sure why the trip needed to be overnight in the first place.) First stop was the docks at the Inner Harbor, where we boarded the Spirit of Baltimore for a cruise around the harbor. Here's a few obligatory pictures of all of us on the boat:
We saw a much cooler cruise pass us while we were out there. A full-fledged tall ship, full of tourists, passed us twice. If we go back to Baltimore as a family, this is the cruise I want to take! Our timing was perfect to see the sunset as we headed back to the docks, though. Next, it was off to ESPN Zone.

They had worked a great deal for the band. $10 got us 1.5 hour play cards and a buffet in a private room.The food was just okay, but it was super nice of them to accomodate us so cheaply, so no complaints here! I'm sure their regular menu selections are much tastier. Although this helmet was in poor taste if you're a Packers fan facing this season!Our accomodations for the night at the LaQuinta Inn were fairly nice, again considering how cheaply they were obtained. Unfortunately, none of our key cards worked the first time we went up (which is a hassle when you're dealing with 30+ rooms) but it was sorted out and everyone was in their rooms - if not asleep - by 11:30. Scott and I lucked out and got a huge room with a king sized bed - guess they are trying to convince us to chaperone again.

The next morning we headed out on the buses again. Here's the only shot I got with Kairi near the trophy. I know, pathetic:We headed for Fort McHenry where we saw a moving presentation that ended with the curtain opening to show us the flag flying over the fort to the sound of the Star Spangled Banner. (Fort McHenry is the location where Francis Scott Key looked to see if the flag was still flying when he wrote our national anthem.) I thought it was moving. Scott thought it was cheesy. Can't please everyone! Still, it was a gorgeous day, and Scott did enjoy walking around the fort.

Look! Our kid actually stopped to read the signs. This time. Then she ran off with her friends and crawled into all the bunkers and hid under staircases. Ah well.These barracks still look really small to house 16 men. Especially since they were jammed in two to a bunk. We explored Fort McHenry for about an hour... ...tried to leave Kairi there... (no lock, drat)

And headed back to the Inner Harbor. Kai stuck with us for lunch and then found some friends and ran off. Lunch was delicious sandwiches at Potbelly Sandwich Works - good thing I looked at the nutritional information AFTER we ate. Left to our own devices, we decided to take the elevator up to the top of the Baltimore World Trade Center and check out the view.

Turns out the pattern on the plaza where we always walk is really cool from 27 stories up. And the rest of the view wasn't bad either.

Our chaperoning duties were far from arduous, but we were still glad to get on the bus and head home. It was a very tiring weekend. We were also glad to get back to Nicky, since we had worried about leaving him home sick, but he was fine. All in all, I think we'll chaperone more overnight trips, but it will be better when Nicky is in marching band, too!

SVMB Rocks Baltimore

Continuing from our previous day, we had to be up early to get Nick over to my parents' house. This was because we needed to be at the High School by about 7:15. We got Nick comfortable, dropped off hims stuff, and told my parents to give him his Tylenol Cold but to wait to hear from us before giving him the TamiFlu.

We didn't quite make 7:15, but we were still there before 7:30, which was key. Jenn and I were chaperons, and had to help check bags. We, along with the other chaperons had to look for contraband and hang up uniform bags. I thought the girls would feet a little weirded out with me checking their overnight bags, so I mostly dealt with uniforms and carryon bags. We didn't find anything, which was no surprise, and most of the kids were checked in and ready to practice at 8AM. A few stragglers came late, but I by that time I had to leave to take the dog to the kennel.

I picked up more batteries at the store, and a Saucon Valley hat since I had nothing with the school name on it. I then grabbed the dog and dropped her at the kennel. Jenn called and asked me to bring a cooler for food, since the cooler the band committee had was too small. But, by the time I had gotten back, they found another one, so we left ours in the car. I then helped get uniform bags in our charter buses. The kids put in their own bags, and we staked out seats 3/4 way in the back of one of the buses. We were across from some of the drummers, and in front of most of the seniors. Before we left, Jenn called the urgent care facility, and found out that, luckily, Nick did not have the flu.

The kids were all on the bus and we were leaving by around 10:30. Something I noticed about these students was that they were pretty much always on time. If the band director said to be somewhere at a specific time, they were usually all there 5 - 10 minutes early.

The students were pretty quiet on the trip down. Jenn and I read books or shared her iPod earphones most of the way. We stopped at a reststop in Delaware for lunch for about 45 minutes. I got Kai a Pumpkin Spice Latte and Jen a Chai Latte at Starbucks. Jenn's Chai had sour milk, and she threw it away since we didn't have time to get another one. Kai said she liked her Pumpkin Spice Latte just fine.

We arrived in Townson (just north of Baltimore) for the USSBA Marine Corps Invitational, and the kids got changed into their uniforms. Kairi was excited but nervous, and most of the other kids looked the same way. I helped taking equipment onto the field with the roadies and Jenn sat up in the bleachers with the rest of the chaperons.

I moved up to sit with Jenn and watched the group play their hearts out. Musically, they did just as well as on Friday with each song. They played loudly and confidently. One of the trumpets had a solo and small dance during "Maria", and the entire band had a dance-off against the twirlers during one of the songs (I forget which). I didn't get to see the next band because I had to help get equipment back to the truck.I did finally make it back over to see the host high school band play. They did a baseball theme about iron men (Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripkin). There was a lot of choreography and props and stuff, but not really that much music involved, oddly.

Jenn and I moved over to be with the band as awards were announced. There were four divisions in total, and we were in the third division. There were three bands in our division, and I listened carefully as scores were called out. First, third place was announced with a score of 67 point something. I held my breath until we heard the name of another school. While I feel bad for those kids, I was happy we didn't come in last. Then they announced second play, with a score of 68 point something. Again, they didn't call our school. I think our children were in shock. Or maybe they weren't sure. The band director had enough time to signal to our kids to hold on. Finally, they announced that with a score of 70.67 (the second highest total school in all divisions), and sweeping all captions (best drum line, flags, etc., etc.) was, of course, Saucon Valley. Everyone was thrilled. The band director mentioned that while he had one first place with other bands in the past, this was the first time in his 33 year career he had a group that one 1st place in a USSBA competition.


Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to celebrate. After rounds of applause and hugging, we had to hurry back to the buses. by this time, it was almost 5PM, and we had to be to Baltimore's Inner Harbor in time for our 6PM boat tour. Congratulations, Panther band! You were incredible!