jianantonic | Happy 30th of June! Concert recap and bonus feature: The Goat Story

Since the 4th is in the exact middle of the week this year, several places in the area held their usual festivities a few days early so they could do it on the weekend. Last night was the celebration at Wintergreen, featuring a free concert from Eddie From Ohio (marking the 5th anniversary of the very first time I saw them - also at the Wintergreen 4th of July fest) and fireworks. I'll talk about that later. First I want to tell someone else's story.

mczen and I planned to go to the show together, but we decided to make a whole day of it. We started with a raid on my parents' garage to pick up camp chairs for the show, only they didn't have any there, so I just took some random other stuff (most of which was mine anyway) instead. Then we were off to Harrisonburg so I could use my $80 Costco gift certificate before it expired. I was hoping to buy camp chairs there, but they also didn't have those, so I just bought a random assortment of shit I don't really need instead. We had lunch at Romano's and were planning to go to my farm and hike somewhere in Nelson County before the concert, so we decided to take Skyline Drive all the way out there. It was pretty, as always, as was the farm, and after a short but very, very hot walk, we turned back to the car and went to Colleen for some provisions before heading out to WG. It was on the drive to the show that we passed a goat farm, and the following conversation happened:
Meg: Hey, check it out - goats!
McKenzie: ...
Me: Goats are so cool.
Mc: I hate goats.
Me: Why?
Mc: One time I came home from school and two of them were blocking the door to my house and wouldn't let me in.
Me: What? You didn't grow up on a farm, did you?
Mc: No.
Me: Did you have goats?
Mc: No.
Me: Whose goats were they?
Mc: I don't know.
Me: Did your neighbors have goats?
Mc: No.
Me: WTF? Were you on LSD?
Mc: No.
Me: What were they doing there?
Mc: Shitting on the porch.
Me: (at this point, I'm laughing pretty uncontrollably) What happened?
Mc: Every time I tried to make a move for the front door, they made threatening noises at me and looked like they were going to charge.
Me: They're just little goats.
Mc: I was just a little kid.
Me: So how'd you get inside?
Mc: After a while, I just decided to run at them screaming and see what happened. They moved and I sprinted inside and locked the door behind me as fast as I could.
Me: (the mental image is almost killing me here) So then what happened?
Mc: I don't know.
Me: How long was the standoff?
Mc: It felt like days, but I think it was about 90 minutes.
Me: !!!!
Mc: What? It was terrifying.
Me: What did your parents say about it?
Mc: "Why is there goat shit all over the front porch?"
So that's the very funny story of why McKenzie hates goats. I don't know that I've ever laughed harder. I seriously could not control myself for at least 30 minutes, and even now, just retelling the story has me in stitches. I think it's a combination of the hilarity that two goats would just randomly show up on someone's front porch and the fact that McKenzie would be afraid of them. I guess he was smaller when he was 12, but I didn't know him then, so in my mind, he's the 6'5" giant that he is today, running screaming at a couple of goats. Maaaaah.

After hearing this story, I now think goats are even cooler.

So, EFO. They were fucking great, as always. Julie looks really great. Mike's sporting a short 'do, which just doesn't look like Mike to me, but they were fun as ever. They played a long, 2-set show, featuring a good many of the favorites. Ahren, Emily, and Les joined us for the concert and fireworks. Toward the end of the night, Dr. Jo, one of my absolute favorite profs from BC and my adviser, walked by, so I ran up to talk to him. His daughter is starting kindergarten this year. Holy shit. That means Ben is like 8 or 9. Holy shit.

After the show, the fireworks started right away. They had some ridiculous recording of some marching band playing some stupid patriotic song that they just played on repeat for 20 minutes while the show was going on. We all could've done without that. The fireworks were being launched from just down the hill from us - we could actually see where they were lighting them, and ashes kept falling on us all throughout the display. There were several mishaps where the firework exploded on the ground, which scared the shit out of me, but apparently that's just business as usual, because no one else seemed bothered by it. I'd just never been so close to the actual launch point before. It was pretty cool, but I'd have preferred less ash and less crappy music.

So it was a really, really fun day yesterday. As much as I love EFO, though, I have to say that the highlight of it all was that goat story. Thanks,

mczen.

Peace.