St. Patrick’s Day

So many ideas come at me when I am about to go to sleep. Unfortunately I don’t write them down, I just hope I will remember them in the morning. I sort of do remember the ideas from last night. One was about writing a play, simple enough. I even had an idea for a plot but that is what has fallen by the wayside. It was almost like a Pinter play but also more than likely stems from watching a biopic on Sean O’Casey yesterday on St. Patrick’s Day. So scenes from The Plough and the Stars wound up in my head.

Or at least the movie version scene of The Plough & the Stars as shown in the movie. I do remember something else which could be related to the play I was thinking about before drifting off, about a relationship between a very tall man and a very short woman. I wrote Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Shirley Temple. Of course Shirley Temple did grow to the full height of an adult, so I was merely using her height as a child to put as a reference. This is why I keep a notepad next to my bed on the nightstand. ♫ Between the click of the light and the start of the dream ♪

Perhaps they’ll come back to my head again tonight, or soon. Saturday into Sunday I slept exceptionally well, waking up happy and with a smile on my face which is not the norm around here for me. I had hoped for the same last night but apparently you can’t force these things and though I did sleep relatively well, I woke up tired and in need of more sleep than I achieved. Speaking to Bill later on, he suggested I just go back to sleep. That was a very good idea which I took under consideration.

But having had a few cups of coffee after showering earlier allowed just about five minutes of eyes being closed. I was also active already, having put a bunch of old clothes in a bag to be collected by a cystic fibrosis organization on the front steps of my building. I lay in bed reading some more of Barney Hoskyns Led Zeppelin book which is a great book. Now I am just killing tome before I go out later this afternoon.

Bill is managing a staged reading of Shakespeare’s The War of The Roses tonight and put me on the list. I make it a point to see all the plays Bill is involved in and this is the latest. We invited Juan to come along and he said he was interested but said it would be best if he met me at the theater since he will be running around, or perhaps still in Philadelphia. Once we heard that plan Bill and I realized that Juan will probably not show up at all, which is fine.

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day and around the Hoboken/New York City area it was St. Patrick’s weekend. I didn’t go out much on Saturday since it still resembles amateur night for drinkers. There was a plan to go to Maxwell’s and have a pint and some Shepherds’ Pie but looking in my wallet I realized that it would be smarter to get a few cans of Guinness and make dinner at home. And I did not make Shepherds’ Pie.

Camera shy Isis

St. Patrick’s Day snow

Over the Hills and Faraway

A happy St. Patrick’s Day to all. It’s a Saturday this year and the weather was most cooperative. I’ve been through St. Patrick’s Day in the cold, in the rain, but today was very agreeable. Not pleasant enough to motivate me to head into the city to see the parade. Those days are long gone. No more hoping on a NJ Transit bus with my brother Brian, or with Paul Hanley who I went to high school with for two years.

No, today was spent in Hoboken. I slept enough and woke up, made some coffee and showered. Bill came home a little after that, Kelly green tam-o-shanter and an Ireland scarf with one of my green ties. He looked so cute and so tired. Almost immediately Bill was in bed, sleep apnea mask in place and sleeping soundly, as soon as his head hits the pillow.

I did some laundry and posted a slew of Irish musicians on YouTube to my Facebook page. Boomtown Rats, Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, the Undertones, the Pogues, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, stuff like that. The Kate & Anna McGarrigle was also for my sister who had gone to Mendocino last weekend.

I also posted John & Yoko singing the Luck of the Irish on the Mike Douglas Show and Macca’s Give Ireland Back to the Irish. I don’t think George or Ringo had any Irish/Ireland themed songs. And I threw in Public Image Limited, Rise. The line May the Road Rise with You is the chorus lifted from an old Irish blessing which we have here hanging on the wall of our apartment.

Bill slept and after the laundry died I was out and about. A trip to the dry cleaners and then the bibliothèque where I picked up a book of Kurt Vonnegut from American Classics. I never read Kurt Vonnegut before but I had seen him enough times when I used to drive for HBJ and he was living on 48th Street.

And he was also one of the speakers at the Evening of American Satire that Bill and I attended in 2005 at the Society for Ethical Culture. He is the reason I eschew semi-colons. And it was soon after that evening that I decided to start this hear blog. So perhaps blame could be laid at the feet of Kurt Vonnegut. Or Art Buchwald, Barry Crimmins, Paul Krassner or the more than likely culprit from that satirical rogues gallery, Lewis Lapham.

While walking around Hoboken I did run into my friend Lois who was returning from the veterinarian with her cat. She looked great with her new pair of glasses which are similar to mine. She has some socks for me from a job she worked on and we made plans to meet up for a pint at Maxwells later on.

She mentioned that Maxwells was hosting a Shamrock & Roll karaoke in the back room, which is free and seemed most interested in going to that. That wasn’t in my plans but after a pint or two who knows?