St. Patrick's Day in the Valley...

After the wild weekend that was, I was looking for some R&R (golf) and having Steve in town was a bonus. We played a couple rounds (game is still coming around--need to tweak a few things in the swing) with one of the guys I work with and I bought some corned beef and cabbage to cook... (Steve had never had it before--poor deprived man). I thought I would have the week off, but scheduling called and asked me to work the opening round NIT (National Invitational Tournament which is really Not In Tournament) game between ASU and Jacksonville on Tuesday night. We were scheduled to do bag checks from 6pm til 8pm when the game started (2 hours work for 4 hrs pay) but by the time they called us to go home it was 9:45... (what the client wants the client gets). I was then scheduled to work an Irish concert (Flogging Molly) at Tempe Lake Park on Wednesday for St. Patrick's Day from 3:30 til 11pm. So I cooked my corned beef and cabbage Wednesday morning and put it away for Thursday.

The game was an inside gig where I just oversaw two other bag checkers and handed out programs. After some of the shifts I had been pulling lately, 4 hours was a cake walk. On Wednesday after cooking I put my green Made In Ireland t-shirt under the purple and khaki and made my way to Tempe Lake Park. The park is built along the banks of the the man made Tempe Town Lake (which was the site of the Ironman race and PF Chang's marathon). They had vendor booths and a huge stage and I was assigned to be a roamer at first but then was given a scanner and I scanned internet tickets at the main gate...(at least I could hear the music from my position). The bands started playing around 5 and Flogging Molly (who have a huge fan following) went on around 8. People continued to come in (the fashionably late) and since there was no re-entry there were some arguments when some inebriated fans wandered out the gates, but nothing that we couldn't handle. The show ended at 10 and the security inside herded the patrons to the exits where my crew and I did alcohol control (no liquids other than water leave the park). There were cabs and bicycle taxis for the totally gone and many revelers walked to their next destination... (flashback sequence-- Stumbling to the bar after the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade was over, then taking the train to New Jersey for more bars and Irish festivities). The crowd was fairly obedient and no one caused any trouble. Got home around 11:30 after dropping a co-worker at home... (at least he lived on my way home).

I then got a call from one of the hosts at E&A asking me to fill in for him at the Suns-Jazz basketball game on Friday night...(he had to return to Portland for a family issue). Free ticket to the game? Sure I'll fill in. Then I get the call for work asking me to work an event in Chandler all day Saturday... (9:30 am to 9:30 pm). Security man is in high demand and I love working gigs in my hometown... Thursday afternoon during the NCAA deluge of games, Steve and I enjoyed my corned beef and cabbage and potatoes and Irish soda bread...