St. Patrick's day is my second favorite holiday. The fourth of July is my first with Christmas coming in a distant third. Yes I like Christmas but by the time it is over with, I can't help but feeling like it is about time and good riddance for another year.
For as long as I can remember I have taken the 18th of March off from work to recover from my Saint Paddies festivities. One year I actually pre-emptively called in sick. It was January and a couple of employees and myself were going over schedules for the coming months with the boss. I stated I needed March 18th off and my supervisor said no. I then said I was calling in sick that day and to go ahead and mark it in the calendar. She didn't understand what I was up to and was starting to get angry. I smiled and said, I was being pro-active and was calling in sick today in advance of March 18th. In exasperation, she finally asked how I knew I would be ill on that day. A buddy of mine had been listening and we both erupted into gales of laughter. Through tear blurred eyes and sporadic guffaws, I promised my boss that without any doubt whatsoever, I would be sick on 3-18. I waited for a few moments and then explained that it was the day after St. Patrick's day. It all became clear after that, and being the good person my boss was she took it well and laughed, but also said I couldn't have the day off. Needless to say, I was not there on March 18th.
In years past I made home made potato soup from scratch with real cream and butter. I cooked corned beef and cabbage and enjoyed Guiness and Harp and Bushmills. The night would usually be filled with bar hopping goodness and a drunken public sing along. I would stagger home festooned with cheesy green bead necklaces and other chachkis proclaiming one beer brand or another. The most inebriated I have been in my 41 years was on that special march day about 8 years ago. I was blind, literally, and probably should have died. That was a great St. Patrick's.
This year the Pope threw a monkey wrench in the works. Because Monday the 17th is a Holy day leading up to an early Easter this year (no I have never understood why Easter moves around so much) the Catholic church has decreed that this year St. Patrick's day will be on Saturday the 15th. Well I just learned this and I have already made careful plans to weave a drunken good time around my obligations to my employer. Half the fun is jetting early from work on St. Patrick's and pounding beers at 3 in the afternoon.
I can just have two celebrations, or go out on Saturday instead of Monday, but what if I go out on Monday and the bars are empty? What if I am the only one that stubbornly decided that St. Patrick's day should remain on the 17th. I must choose which day I am going out, I have made other plans for Saturday that involve my daughter and not drinking myself into a giggling, chatty oblivion. I must choose, but choose wisely.
I have some phone calls to make.
Addenda, Minutia, Miscellania and Stuph.
2 comments:
Every Calendar I own has St. Patrick's Day on Monday the 17th. Including my Gunsite Calendar, and I am not going to argue with those folks. Apparently The Pope didn't get the word out. And what does Easter have to do with anything? I say go with the 17th. That's what I'm doing. Besides, I'm not Irish or Catholic. My guess is that the bars will still be packed on Monday with non-Irish non-Catholic fat white guys like myself.
Although I have to have my celebration on Sat (no doubt by myself) being my only nite off during the week, my heart will remain with monday and I will be thinking of the multiple Saints days we have had in the past. Great friends, great food, great times, the psyche that keeps pseudo Irish like myself coming back to this holiday year after year to create a short term illness from sheer bliss.. You'll get no more this evening so you bastards bugger off ..
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