Does anybody read these?

'Tis a blessing to be Irish!

I'm not nearly as Irish as other folks, but I am as proud of my heritage as anyone else with just a little Irish blood. Plus, I heard once that everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day!!!!

If nothing else, it's a good excuse to drink Guinness, green beer or Irish whiskey, wear green, eat corned beef and cabbage and recite limericks and rowdy Irish drinking songs! Of course, our Bishop didn't give us a dispensation here, so our family is having a big St. Patrick's day celebration at our weekly family dinner on Sunday. Grandma is so hard-core that she's making me bring Watergate Salad, because while it's not Irish, it's green. I wanted to bring pineapple upside-down cake, so this was a compromise. It has pineapple, at least.

I thought about going out tonight. I won $20 on an instant lottery ticket (although not the pot of gold one in the ultimate irony) and all the local pubs have merriment planned for the evening. I thought about going to find some fish and chips, but then I realized that's extremely fattening, and I've had a very good eating day. So, I guess I'll stay home and make the Shrimp Scampi I'd planned on before I realized that March 17 was a Friday.

When I was growing up our church, St. Patrick's, had a huge to-do every year. Of course EVERYONE went to mass and then the Men's Club threw one helluva party in the Parish Hall afterward, complete with green beer. When Luke was in the 7th grade he got a week's worth of detentions and countless Hail Marys for getting caught drinking the green beer. He and his friends had all gotten the most coveted Altar Boy gig of the year, and totally blew it when they got caught green-handed, so to speak.

If I were in Detroit, I'd be headed over to Royal Oak to Duggan's or to the Old Shillelagh Downtown. You'd have to get there early, but you never knew who you'd run into once you arrived. Oh, the great times. A few times I just went across the street to Fibber McGhee's Irish Pub in the strip mall by my apartment (this was very handy for stumbling home drunk after one, four, five too many Guinnesses!)

Anyhoo, I am going to leave you with some words of Irish wisdom. If I like you, the first one's for you. If I don't ... well, you still get a St. Patrick's Day present!!!






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posted by Laura at 2:25 PM