Nearly Beltane. Time to get my kilt ready. Time to head to the town of my birth and celebrate my Scottish heritage by drinking copious amounts of scotch, watching huge men toss telephone poles, and listening to to incredible bagpipe and drum precision,

What an exhausting couple of days. Went up to my old stomping grounds of Scotland, USA for their annual Highland Festival (and annual chance for me to bust out my kilt). Then spent all night saying goodbye to my parent’s house with my seven brothers and sisters and in-laws and various children and infants and cats and dogs. Every childhood home/old house has a million stories, but with that many siblings everything was amplified and it was very teary. And also very drunk. Didn’t want to move the extensively old liquor in my dad’s liquor cabinet so we took out everything that was half empty and threw the caps away. Walked around the house (a big, old farmhouse built in 1894 but we still all had to share a room growing up) and told drunken tales of every square inch.

Feeling very emotionally spent and and also very, very hungover today. But worth it.

City of Chicago Pipe Band warming up before competition

(via mescalitozen-deactivated2012100)