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Holy shamoly this is going to be a crazy, amazing day! Shannon and I are currently on a ferry to the isle Inis Oirr to attend a traditional Irish wedding ceremony of one of Shannon’s childhood friends daughters. I have always wanted to attend a traditional Irish wedding and also a wake and this fills one of them! The day has started with more color and flair then we could have imagined as we all (the entire wedding) boarded a shuttle bus to take us to the ferry bringing us to the big day, which happens to be a Thursday! The bride is marrying an Irish lad who is born and raised here in the area. So when we say a traditional Irish wedding, it is traditional! The groom is one of 13 and is a full of color, fun group that as the day progresses I can’t imagine the fun. As the ferry was starting to depart the groom, his father, and I am assuming uncles, pose for a picture and as someone hollers to smile, as up come the middle fingers on cue. As you can see we happened to catch it just in time. The family love on the groom is fun to watch, especially since the mother was tragically killed a year or so ago. One of the best parts we are noticing so far is the attire. Wow...I have obviously witnessed a lot of weddings in my day, especially in the last six years and I have never seen anything of the sort. It’s crazy and will totally make you smile. The only uniform or semblance of uniformity is comfort and perhaps favorite pieces of clothing. Tattoos, piercing and more are celebrated and welcomed. Love it! I noticed the first beer being drank starting around 10:45 am and the reception is supposed to go until the sun comes up. Ferry is pulling up to the island and we are on to the next adventure!! 11:45 2:03. Well...we are all officially sopping wet , the couple is married, and we are back on the ferry and beyond thrilled to get back to land and dry clothes after the most amazing, unique experience I may have ever been witness to.  As we all exited the ferry and started off we all were wondering where the next shuttle was. Well, there wasn’t one! We watched as the bride and the priest pulled out their umbrellas and started the trek, uphill, in the rain. It literally may have been a mile walk up the road in the driving rain. Watching the massive of line of us crazy nuts walking in this was fun and hearing the banter was the best, not to mentioned everyone taking pictures of the crazy wedding party. Especially as we are walking up this hill towards what looks like a cemetery! We knew the grooms mom had been killed recently while she was walking to prayer so we thought perhaps it was traditional to visit her grave and bring the wedding party along. Nope! In the middle of the cemetery is an historic chapel set down in the middle where the wedding party and family climbed down to partake in the ceremony (I’ll find out more details for history buffs and share when can). The best was as we are walking up a gentlemen in front of us leans over to his wife and says, “we aren’t heading to the graveyard right?”  After the ceremony we then walked half the way to a local pub at which we all had pints before the ferry back. Granted we didn’t know we were supposed to eat so our nap time will also include lunch time! Although we are literally ringing out our clothes and have a full ferry full of soggy Irish and Americans, it was spectacular and will definitely go down as the most memorable wedding thus far. Ferry boat is another hour ride back and then shuttle to one local drop off and then another shuttle back to the Airbnb. We will dry off, change clothes, regroup, eat, disco nap and make our way back to the first of three receptions. I’m going to sign and try and catch an extra few winks before we make it back to dock. I’m not the best Irish day drinker so my half a cider will make my nap much easier. Xoxo Jenny  Life is good! So many times people will tell me I sure know how to adult. I try!! I am a single, divorced woman who loves to travel and experience life and I only have to worry about myself and my sweet little dog and she is as game for an adventure as the next. Well, as long as there are treats involved. I am currently sitting on a plane on my way to Dublin, Ireland, via Reykjavik, Iceland. I am heading overseas for my friends Shannon’s god child’s wedding and of course, I wasn’t going to miss the chance to attend an authentic Irish wedding! As I started to type and kick off my trip I realized, wait! There are so many other amazing things I have had the chance to experience since my last blog I figured I should share a few highlights of life before I jumped into the next adventure!! I started to scroll thru pictures to see what to not leave out and realized I have had quite a few things I have forgotten to share so we are going to do some abbreviated sharing!
CONCERTS! I obviously love to get out and support live music. Regardless of the size of the audience, supporting musicians and getting to enjoy their passion and talent has always been something important to me. I have attended all kinds of concerts starting as a child from Alabama and Kenny Rogers to Ozzy Osbourne and Guns and Roses and my list keeps growing. Sometimes performers on my list are bucket list performers and then there are some it’s an experience, I love their music or I had the opportunity to go. Kesha & Macklemore was a fun one I was able to see in Cincinnati, Ohio with Shannon and a crew. I actually brought two of my employees to Ohio as a reward trip and had my step daughter Addison and her partner Liz join us for the event. They were able to drive over from Lansing, Michigan where Addison is attending graduate school. Plus, my neice Megan happened to be traveling cross country so I kidnapped her to join us for the fun. The energy of this concert was so much fun, especially the people watching!!
 Melissa Ethridge was another concert I had the opportunity to go check out. She happened to be in Ohio over Shannon’s birthday so of course we had to go check her out! That was another fun people watching concert, and of course her being a Kansas girl gives her a special place in my heart. Seal/Eric Wortham II was the third concert which was a bucket list concert. I have always wanted to attend a concert at the famed Red Rock in Colorado, so when I had the chance to cross off a Red Rock concert in addition to watching my incredibly talented friend Eric play for Seal, I can’t complain!! I did have the opportunity to catch this tour while they were in England and I must admit it was such a different feel! They changed the play list and added a few songs, but the performance to an outdoor, sold out crowd under the Colorado sky was breathtaking. 
 My sister was able to go to this concert with me and was quite the sport. As we rolled into Colorado, the rain started to pour. We had literally prepared for 94 degree weather as a torrential rain came down instead. Patti was a fair enough sport and made the trek with me to Red Rock. We found rain ponchos as we entered the venue and prepared for a fun night!! Eric was able to come say hello before the concert and he was able to check out where we were sitting so could monitor our enjoyment of the concert.   If you have followed along on my other journeys you will see Eric has quite an good eye while center stage playing piano. So good if you make dumb moves or face the wrong direction or don’t pay attention, he will catch you and call you out! So…we behaved and had a wonderful evening although we did sneak a few pics of the view Eric and Seal were able to admire. Our goal was to try and catch Eric at the end of the concert before he was heading out to continue the tour when we basically got in a hospitality room with a few other band members, fans and Seal!! Yup, as Patti and I are sitting there waiting, Seal himself walks in to greet some fans and grab a cup of coffee.(Patti swears he smelt like a strong pot of coffee) Realizing we might look like assholes trying to excuse ourselves from the meet and greet of Seal to catch up with his pianist, we did introduce ourselves and had a quite wonderful chat with him about his children and life.    I’m going to sign off for now. The flight attendants have out their duty free and are hitting the aisles and I hate to miss a good deal. Lots of love, Jenny |
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