Flashback: St. Patrick's Day, 2002

So a couple of years ago, I was in Virginia on a business trip. It was my first time on the east coast, and so my co-worker and I decided to make the most of it and stay over the weekend. Here's the story, interspersed with quotes from my email to Jeff when I go home.

"...I just got back from partying myself practically into a coma all weekend on the east coast. I gotta tell you that there's really nothing like St. Patrick's Day out there. And there's also nothing like hot HOT military guys all over the place. I kissed a cute little marine on Friday night and a super hot navy guy on Sunday. The few, the proud, the really hot. God Bless America. As a result, I am having a hard time both staying awake today and forming coherent sentences. It's not a pretty sight."

The party began Friday night. We went out for some St. Patrick’s Day fun at a bar in D.C. There were a million people there and what I remember most was being mesmerized by the hot singer of the band there and also drinking. Oh, and because we were hungry, we finished off these people’s nachos. No, we didn’t know them, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

So. Drunk, out late, jet lagged, drive to NY the next morning with my (non-drinking Mormon) co-worker and his wife. Get to NY right in the middle of a giant St. Patrick’s Day parade. The street we were on was blocked off, so Wife and I got out of the car and wandered down to the corner to see the parade. We got separated, and when I looked around for her, realized that traffic on our street was moving. Ran back towards our car, and see that Co-Worker had no choice but to go with the flow of traffic. I run up next to the moving car, wife reaches behind her and opens the back door, so I jump onto the running board, grab the roof of the car, and swing myself in. Awesome. Very stunt-like. Go to see "Aida" on Broadway that night, come back, sleep for a minute, and then drive to Philly, where Co-worker and Wife are visiting friends and I’m catching the train back to D.C., where Laura will pick me up. By the time I get there, I’m wrecked. In two nights, I had slept maybe a total of six or seven hours, plus the jet lag was totally kicking my ass at that point.

"Laura and I decided at about noon on Sunday to go get some lunch, so we walk across the street to get some lunch. We did not notice that the place we went to was an Irish pub, but we soon figured it out. Because it was called “Murphy’s” and everyone was drunk. So we left and went and changed into our greenest and went back to Murphy's where I proceeded to drink a lot of beer. Here’s where it gets REAL fuzzy."

There was a lot of beer for not a lot of money. There were a ton of people there, most of whom were obliterated because they’d been drinking since early that morning. It was 2 in the afternoon at this point. So Laura and I get beers (I can’t remember if we ever ate) and head upstairs. We talk to all the drunk people and laugh and get more beers and somehow end up in the middle of a crowd of six Navy EMTs. NICE. We end up hanging out with them the rest of the time we’re there and having a great time. If I hadn’t lost my camera, there would be great pictures, one of which was me kissing one of them on the cheek but then him pulling the old “turn my head” trick and so I’m kissing him square on the mouth. The next picture was most likely me NOT COMPLAINING. And then kissing him again. And again.

"The one I kissed was named John and just to give you a little picture of how hot his body is, well, he used to be a stripper. He's ok if you like that type. Turns out I do."

Well, after about six hours and six beers, I was very close to hitting the wall. Actually, I kind of passed the "wall hitting" point and was at the "passing out cold at any moment" point. So we decided to leave. And the EMTs decided to leave with us. It actually turned out to be fortuitous, because I had to be carried to the hotel and up to my room.

"John was their designated driver and so when we finally decided to leave, they all came to my hotel (yes, another beer induced great idea) and when it became clear that I was not going to be staying awake much longer, John put me in my bed, brought me some water and put a note by my head with his phone number on it. And then he made everybody leave. "

The next day, flying home was no fun. And judging from this email to Jeff, the following days weren’t much better. However, also judging from this email, it was TOTALLY WORTH IT.

"Anyway, I have many other stories, but am quickly losing my ability to create decent sentences, so I should go now. Talk to you soon!

Your little military supporter

Amber"