It just isn't St. Patrick's Day without a good fight.

St. Patrick's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. It's a pretty big deal here in KC, for those who don't know. There's a huge parade through downtown and always a big celebration in Westport (an area downtown that has a bunch of different bars all within a few steps of each other) afterwards. It's been a big tradition for my friends and I to skip work that day and spend the day having a fabulous time.

The past couple of years, however, I just haven't been feeling it. The parade has gotten dangerous with riots and gang fights and I dunno, I guess I'm old and just don't want to take those kind of risks anymore.

But this year was different! My friends and I did skip the parade but decided to all meet up in Westport a bit later in the afternoon. Because we wanted to avoid the physical violence. Funny.

The meeting spot was supposed to be at The Cactus Cafe around 4ish. A small group of us met up outside the bar and waited in line for 30 minutes or so to meet up with the people who were already inside. We finally made it to the front of the line and as we were paying, a huge fight broke out inside the bar. I was far enough inside to get the hell out of the way but as the bouncers were kicking out about 15 different people, some of MY people got pushed around and scraped up a bit. It was minor but not the best first impression of the bar you are about to hang out in.

So we finally met up with the rest of our people and one of the girls phone rang. Well, come to find out, one of our friends was in the middle of that huge fight. Her husband had just been arrested and she was leaving with another friend of ours to go bail him out. This is NOT the way I like to start my day of partying, ok?

After all that drama, we headed to a different bar to change the atmosphere a bit. We ended up at the Beaumont Club and had a really good time until the very end. After quite a bit of drinking, one of our guy friends got into a huge fight with his brother's wife-it included some slapping. I didn't SEE this one happen but when I got back to where our group was, there was drama. His brother's wife had already left but it was still a bad situation.

IN BETWEEN those two dramatic events, we did really have a good time. I saw some people that I don't get to see very often, drank some beer that I don't get to drink very often and slept in that next day like I don't get to do very often. So overall, I'd give this year 4 stars. But NEXT year, we are making tshirts!