Writer's Block: Paint the town green

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What an ironic question; St. Patrick's Day is already over for me, and this is probably the most non-St. Patrick's Day St. Patrick's Day I've had in my life.

Part of my heritage is Irish (and Catholic), but mostly I'm just a sucker for holiday camp and any excuse to celebrate something. I always wear green-- and, ever since 4th grade, a shoelace with shamrocks printed on it in my hair, lol. Admittedly when I haven't had anything properly green in my wardrobe (which has happened!), I've fudged it by wearing teal-- and I've still gotten pinched for it. (And the irony is I'll be in a solid teal shirt with my shoelace, and they'll just have like a miniscule emerald necklace or *supposedly* green underwear and act like they're so superior. I WAS CLEARLY TRYING. Harrumph).

My meal of choice for the holiday is of course corned beef and cabbage. My mom used to always make it, and freshman year of college I made it myself and it turned out really well. I also am amused by randomly green food, like when our babysitter made us green macaroni and cheese and Mom once dyed the milk green. (I seem to enjoy very elementary school-style celebrations, lol-- let's decorate with shamrocks everywhere!). Weirdly, I have never done much drinking on St. Patrick's Day. I never drank until college, and then in college the holiday was always over my spring break, which limited my opportunities for drinking since I wasn't legal yet. I went out for the holiday when I was in Kyoto because at age 20 I was legal there; I had my first Guiness and some fish and chips but didn't go crazy because it was a weekend. It was a weeknight again last year, so all I had was the school-served corned beef dinner (which actually wasn't bad) with Keith after a long day of student-teaching and a three-hour class. There was no drinking because I had to be up at 6:00 the next morning. (Though later that week Lisa, Brandy, Henry, and I went out to a pub and had a little more exciting rendition). So I have literally never been drunk on St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day is kind of a funny holiday. It's not very connected to Ireland itself, it's about Irish heritage, but I think it's interesting that it seems exceptionally popular above a lot of other heritage-based holidays (probably because of the drinking?) and people with no Irish heritage whatsoever will join in. I'm cool with that, though; I like it when the celebration is not considered exclusive to one group of people, even if it started out that way. (Who's up for having a universal drinking or culinary holiday for every possible hyphenated heritage? Me! Me!). I guess you could argue that makes the holiday very shallow, but the people who are really interested in investigating the real history and culture will do so no matter what so I don't think anyone really misses out.

This year my St. Patrick's Day was not very festive. I wore green and my shoelace and briefly mentioned in my classes that it was a small holiday in the US called St. Patrick's Day today. (After the fuss about Groundhog Day I feel a little guilty getting too into all the holidays). I thought about attempting to make corned beef from scratch or perhaps adapting nikujaga (which literally means "meat and potatoes") for a sort of Japanese spin, but Charles called and was making homemade pizza so he, Rachel, and I did that. (And it was good pizza!). Maybe I'll do it this weekend instead.

Writer's Block: Paint the town green

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What an ironic question; St. Patrick's Day is already over for me, and this is probably the most non-St. Patrick's Day St. Patrick's Day I've had in my life.

Part of my heritage is Irish (and Catholic), but mostly I'm just a sucker for holiday camp and any excuse to celebrate something. I always wear green-- and, ever since 4th grade, a shoelace with shamrocks printed on it in my hair, lol. Admittedly when I haven't had anything properly green in my wardrobe (which has happened!), I've fudged it by wearing teal-- and I've still gotten pinched for it. (And the irony is I'll be in a solid teal shirt with my shoelace, and they'll just have like a miniscule emerald necklace or *supposedly* green underwear and act like they're so superior. I WAS CLEARLY TRYING. Harrumph).

My meal of choice for the holiday is of course corned beef and cabbage. My mom used to always make it, and freshman year of college I made it myself and it turned out really well. I also am amused by randomly green food, like when our babysitter made us green macaroni and cheese and Mom once dyed the milk green. (I seem to enjoy very elementary school-style celebrations, lol-- let's decorate with shamrocks everywhere!). Weirdly, I have never done much drinking on St. Patrick's Day. I never drank until college, and then in college the holiday was always over my spring break, which limited my opportunities for drinking since I wasn't legal yet. I went out for the holiday when I was in Kyoto because at age 20 I was legal there; I had my first Guiness and some fish and chips but didn't go crazy because it was a weekend. It was a weeknight again last year, so all I had was the school-served corned beef dinner (which actually wasn't bad) with Keith after a long day of student-teaching and a three-hour class. There was no drinking because I had to be up at 6:00 the next morning. (Though later that week Lisa, Brandy, Henry, and I went out to a pub and had a little more exciting rendition). So I have literally never been drunk on St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day is kind of a funny holiday. It's not very connected to Ireland itself, it's about Irish heritage, but I think it's interesting that it seems exceptionally popular above a lot of other heritage-based holidays (probably because of the drinking?) and people with no Irish heritage whatsoever will join in. I'm cool with that, though; I like it when the celebration is not considered exclusive to one group of people, even if it started out that way. (Who's up for having a universal drinking or culinary holiday for every possible hyphenated heritage? Me! Me!). I guess you could argue that makes the holiday very shallow, but the people who are really interested in investigating the real history and culture will do so no matter what so I don't think anyone really misses out.

This year my St. Patrick's Day was not very festive. I wore green and my shoelace and briefly mentioned in my classes that it was a small holiday in the US called St. Patrick's Day today. (After the fuss about Groundhog Day I feel a little guilty getting too into all the holidays). I thought about attempting to make corned beef from scratch or perhaps adapting nikujaga (which literally means "meat and potatoes") for a sort of Japanese spin, but Charles called and was making homemade pizza so he, Rachel, and I did that. (And it was good pizza!). Maybe I'll do it this weekend instead.