Bagpipes Rock

Well, the weekend we had been eagerly awaiting for many months finally arrived. It was something so anxiously awaited that I, yes I, was willing to go outside and stay there for more time than it takes to walk from my car into a store. I was willing to do this not once, but thrice! That's right...it was the 2008 Texas Scottish Festival featuring SEVEN NATIONS!! Woohoo, I say; woohoo! It was extra exciting because baby sister, Ani, flew in from Maryland to visit and join us on this epic adventure into the blazing furnace of searing asphalt and UV poisoning that is a Texas summer.
Friday night, Kyr went over to spend the night at Terri's since we decided 2 late nights in a row was a bit much. Rob, Ani & I headed over to Arlington for the 10:30pm show. It still amazes me how hot it can still be that late at night. Argh! We caught the end of The Killdares which was pretty fun. Turns out their piper, whom we thoroughly enjoyed, is our brother-in-law's bagpipe instructor. Cool beans.
Seven Nations' show was awesome as we expected. We were all having fun being hyper-spastic. Of course, it was so hot that it probably looked like we were just sitting in our chairs, bopping our heads to the rhythm but we can't help it if that's how it came out. :-) Then, it was time for the sing-a-long song. They asked for some volunteers to come up and be part of the choir. I could tell Ani really wanted to go up but kind of didn't dare. So, in crazy big sister fashion, I told her I'd give her $20 if she went up there. It took a few more seconds to decide that would do it and up she went. You can see pictures of this and other amazing adventures here: [PICTURES OF THIS AND OTHER AMAZING ADVENTURES] Ani had lots of fun while surrounded by crazy & weird people. After the song was over, she asked Scott (the piper) if she could touch Kirk's hair. So Scott says in the mic that this young lady would like to know if she could touch Kirk's hair. Kirk laughed as did many audience members and leaned over for her to touch his hair. Ani said it was very soft, for any one who was curious. As she walked away, Kirk reached out to touch her hair but she was accidentally too quick for him and now curses her speedy steps. She walked off the stage and rushed over to me...and tripped and slammed into her chair. It was pretty smooth and suave...for a rhinoceros. The show was awesome and we really enjoyed it. We got to hear a song off the upcoming album which is always fun.
The next day was the main day of the festival. Seven Nations had their first set at 4pm so we weren't in a rush to get over there too early. I mean, there is other fun stuff to see but not fun enough to brave the aforementioned blazing furnace of searing asphalt and UV poisoning that is a Texas summer (which we'll now abbreviate into "summer" as most people do). We headed out after lunch to make the drive and check into our hotel. Yes, we know we only live about 80-90 minutes away but we decided to get a hotel room to hide from "summer" between sets. We stayed at the official hotel of the festival. This turned out to be an insanely good idea that we will repeat any other year we go see them during "summer". We checked in to the fully booked hotel and dropped our stuff off. We made sure that the a/c was cranked and headed over to the festival.
We caught the tail end of The Killdares' set so we got to watch all the silliness of watching 7N set up. They did a repeat of the previous night's set so we got to hear the new song again. After I'd paid Ani the night before, I told her that part of the point of the $20 was so she'd be brave enough to go up again that day and take Kyrie with her which she did. They had lots of fun. Kirk remembered Ani. He also teased Kyrie by asking her if the water at her feet was her puddle. Ha, ha! (It was actually the condensation of a nearby drink.) He teased her that they'd clean it up for her, don't worry.
After that fun, we went to a favorite restaurant of ours, The Ocean. Yummy, yummy Chinese food. It's been so long since we lived in Arlington that I thought it couldn't be as good as I remembered. So wrong on so many levels. It was the best Chinese food I've had that cost less than $20/plate. It was funny to still remember so many of the employees as well. It was fun to have a good dinner and cool down.
We went back to the hotel where I hung out in the a/c while Rob, Kyr and Ani went swimming for a couple of hours. That really made the day seem so nice instead of non-stop "summer".
We headed back for the 10p show and it was even better than the earlier ones. They did a lot of different songs than we've heard before. Kyrie and Ani hung up right at the stage with a bunch of other youth types. I will confess that part of our own amusement came from the horrifically embarrassing antics of the drunk 40-50-yr-old ladies by our seats. Wow! That was bad. We saw some absolutely gorgeous little children of varying ages of 2-8 or so doing Irish dance to the music. It was so cute.
After the show, I took Kyr and Ani up to say hi to the band. Ani had printed off a picture of her and Kirk on stage the night before and brought for him to sign. He kindly obliged. We got pictures of the girls with each band member (except Kyr with Kirk) which was fun. Kyrie also got them all to sign a white t-shirt she had which will become a decorated shrine to them...all in good fun of course.
It was an awesome weekend full of fun and awesome music. We're so glad we went and really glad we got to bring Ani with us.
This is already way longer than I meant it to be but I have to share a bit of the experience that was of a romantical nature. 7N has a beautiful song called "Twelve", a lovely ballad with soaring runs on the fiddle and lyrics of the shock of surviving a painful breakup. It's very touching and the kind of thing a girl like me enjoys a slow dance to. When I first heard them perform this song live, it was 1999 and Rob wasn't with me. When they went to play it, they said that everyone should grab a partner and have themselves a dance. I, who love to slow dance, thought how much I'd like to dance with my boy, if only he were there. Well, our first chance at that came in Austin last fall. I grabbed Rob and danced with him only to discover near the end of the dance that he was kind of embarrassed. He doesn't usually get embarrassed very easily but that day was an exception. We had been unusually wild so I can see why he would have felt that way. I felt bad that I hadn't caught on earlier. I later explained to him that I'd been waiting a long time to dance that song with him. He said that, in that case, he was sorry he'd gotten embarrassed. Isn't that sweet?
Well, fast forward to this fun weekend of ours. Friday night, they played "Twelve". I didn't really say anything to Rob because it wasn't a big deal to me if we didn't dance and I didn't want him to feel bad if he didn't want to. Jump to the Saturday afternoon show when they played it again. We were up by the stage making fools of ourselves when they broke into the opening runs of "Twelve" again. Through a few people, I feel a hand grab mine and pull me to the side. It was my sweet romantic boy who remembered how much I liked the idea of dancing with him to this song. What a nice boy. He grabbed me again that night when they played it but nothing quite matched the thrill my heart got when I felt his hand grab mine that afternoon. Oh, I do like that man of mine!