Irish Celebrations & Amish Living

The Big Irish Fair in Irvine is becoming our new family tradition. Although I drank too much beer to remember it last year, I was very much so looking forward to it this year. Mom, Dad, and I suited up in green and drove out to Irvine Lakes to celebrate our heritage (Well, Dad doesn't count. He's mostly Polish. There aren't many Polish fairs. We should fix that).

What in the hell...

Dad wanted to eat as soon as we got there (unsurprising) and I too was hungry (I didn't eat in the morning because I was recovering from a severe jmeoww attack). For some reason, I was really drawn to the fish and chips, which is British, in case you forgot that. I haven't eaten fish since before I hit puberty. It was a decision I made when I decided I wanted to be a marine biologist. But lately I've been envious of the fish tacos I see my friends eating. So for the first time in many years, I tried battered fish. It was okay. I think I like malt vinegar much more than fish.

After walking around the trinket stands (which were few and far between, unfortunately) and grabbing some beers, we settled down in the shade to watch one of our favorite Irish bands, Brick Top Blaggers. These dudes rock it out. Besides the incredible lead singer and the guitar player that sometimes sings in Russian (which makes NO sense), the band includes a banjo player, a fiddler, and an accordion player (who also plays the bagpipes. Which instantaneously makes my mother cry).

Upon arrival at home, we discovered the power was out. Most of my parents' cul-de-sac had lost power. We thought we would kill time going out to dinner, but when we got home we were still powerless. So what else would we do in a situation like that? We went SHOPPING! My sister Brooke and I tortured my mom throughout H&M, Victoria's Secret (semi-annual!), Bath and Body Works (half-yearly!), and Forever21 (where I found 1 of 5 dresses I need for summer weddings!). During our extravagant and unnecessary venture, the power was restored temporarily while a contract company worked on fixing the major problem (a blown transformer...). We were able to watch The Departed, which I was forcing my parents to watch after much inspiration from the Irish Fair. Right at the most pivotal point in the movie, the damn power blew again. So we hung out by flashlight for a while before heading to bed.

These guys made some serious OT cash money.

I tend to panic during emergency situations, but I kept it pretty cool this time. However, we did have our moments. We thought we could go in the spa. We thought we could bake cookies. We turned on the light switches more than once or twice. Brooke didn't want to go to sleep in the dark. She also wanted to wake our Dad up to tell him the power was out. I guess you tend to lose your senses during a late night power outage.

Luckily when we woke up, power was restored and all was well. Which was fortunate because Dad had plenty of NASCAR and golf to watch.