Experience

On some rare occasions, my life does not revolve around food.  Friday, July 12 is one of those occasions.  What could eclipse the thoughts of food that dance around in my head?  The Beatles.  I love  the Beatles, and have since I was a kid.  A few years ago I was having a particularly difficult time training for the Shamrock Half Marathon (a race I began running in 2006 and aim to participate in annually provided my body will let me).  I tried all sorts of things to help my training along, but nothing worked.  I was in a funk.  Finally I made an all-Beatles playlist for my iPod.  It contained over three hours of my favorites, naturally.  And before I knew it I was running.  The Beatles carried me through the training months, and then through the 13.1 mile trek on that cold race day in March.  Their music brings me to a happy place.

So you can imagine my excitement when the opportunity arose to see Paul McCartney in concert!  I called some of my Beatle-minded friends and our road trip to Washington, D.C. was born.  The experience is one I will not soon forget.  Paul played for roughly three hours, a nice mix of his solo work, Wings and best of all the Beatles.  It was a dream come true, not to mention that we had absolutely dreamy seats inside Club 3 at the Nationals Stadium.  Our "suite" friends felt just as fortunate to catch the show, so the night passed in blissful enjoyment.  His boyish charm, anecdotal stories in between songs, enthusiasm on stage and best of all his beautiful voice belting out songs like Get Back, Day Tripper, Paperback Writer and the final montage from Abbey Road...came together for a spectacular performance that still lingers in my head.

Stadium snacks on our private ledge

Sir Paul McCartney

Three enthusiastic Beatles fans