Slainte!

On Tuesday, Zack and I ditched work to hang out in front of the Oakland Arena from 11 a.m. on, enjoying what I have dubbed an "Irish afternoon." We were, of course, waiting in the General Admission line for the evening's U2 show.

11 a.m.? You wonder why. Ahem.





Yeah, I don't like the bandana either, it looks real dorky, but hey, we were in the second row. No, we did not get into the ellipse - those coveted spots were selected through random lottery, but we were right up the ellipse rail, 5 feet from Bono, Larry, Edge and Adam intermittently throughout the show. Not too shabby.



What made our afternoon Irish? It's only vaguely connectly to U2. An Irish afternoon is somewhat related to Mimosa Sunday. Once we settled into our spots in line, it became clear that the group of fellows next to us were Irish. Very kind, very generous, hilarious and entertaining Irishmen. They also fulfilled just about every stereotype of the Irish that's out there. Drinking, swearing, storytelling and singing seemed to be their favorite activities. Based on some of their stories, I suspect that fighting was another favorite activity of our new friends, but everybody was generally pleasant and laid back, so there was really no opportunity for it. Zack especially enjoyed our company, immersing himself fully in the Irish afternoon. [Sidenote: "Slainte" is what the Irish say when they toast each other - it's Gaelic. There's also another toast they use, but I'm not going to spell it out here. Let's just say it's four letters and it begins with "c". (Refer back to favorite activities)] The Irish afternoon culminated with public urination into a plastic cup as we were about to enter the arena. Now, I've lived in Berkeley long enough that public urination doesn't faze me, even if it's right next to me. However, the jostling and pushing that happens in any long line of impatient (and drunk) people combined with the urination directly behind me was a little disconcerting. Also, the color of the red bull and vodka consumed all afternoon was not unlike urine, and I found myself fearing a possibly disastrous mixup of fluids.

Anyways, there was no mixup, I was happy to see that our a couple of our Irish line buddies lucked on and got into the ellipse. They made our afternoon very fun. Oh yeah, and the show totally rocked.