HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!! (HUH?!!)

Top o' the mornin' to ye, I be here to be explainin' a bit abou' St. Patty's Day. 'Tis a wonderful holiday, and it be a pity tha' the folks across the sea aren't a wee more knowing 'bout it.

*Clears throat* Please excuse me for that feeble attempt at a written Irish accent. I apologize to the people of Ireland and anyone with red hair. But I can assure you that my odd start to a post will quickly segue into what I would like to write about.

St. Patrick's Day. That decades-old holiday which originated in the land of leprechauns and has worked its way overseas to America. (It pains me that America now looks strange to me when spelled with a "c" instead of a "k," lol) I'm guessing that it probably started to really come to the United States during the Industrial Revolution and the Potato Famine, during which many Irish people immigrated to America to seek better opportunities and basically not starve.

Every year since before I can remember, I have worn green on St. Patty's Day to celebrate the day (and avoid getting pinched! YIKES!!). My freshman year of high school, I had an orchestra competition on that day. I had to come to school ready to drag myself on that awful school bus and go to where the festival was being held. Okay, now I'm going to give you all a minute to thing about typical orchestra attire. When you go to a concert, what are they usually wearing? (Band uniforms don't count. A common mistake, but seriously, people, there is a difference between a flute and a cello, sheesh!)

BLACK, we're always wearing BLACK. Sometimes we really go out on a limb and wear a white top with black slacks, but that's about as colorful we get. I have no idea why we all dress like we're going to a funeral, probably supposed to appear sombre and therefore professional.

Anyway, the night before the festival (and St. Patrick's Day), I was about to lay out my clothes when I thought, oh, this is just grreeeaaatttt (think Frosted Flakes, only Tony the Tiger has suddenly turned into a sarcastic leopord), I am going to get pinched until I'm black and blue tomarrow. But not to fear! Converse Girl has the superpower of creativity!! So, dedicated as I was, and still am, I made myself a green necklace and earrings for the next day. (I didn't have a green shawl, and this was like 9pm, but nice try, guys, lol.)

In case you missed the point of the story (which probably wasn't very difficult to do, considering that my CDO seems to be creeping up on me again...), it's that I like holidays. I like celebrating holidays for the sake of celebrating, and I'm dedicated to that. So this St. Patrick's Day, I was one of the half a dozen or so kids at school who were wearing green. (Take note that at least a third of that half a dozen just happened to be wearing that color today, lol.)

I talked to someone about St. Patrick's Day and they were entirely oblivious to it. I must admit that at times I miss the apparently American mentality of "Let's go crazy and celebrate for the heck of it!" This is why I'm glad that I'll be home in time for the 4th of July. Because sometimes being the insane American is great, but to be considered moderate sometimes is just fine by me. ;)

I suppose at least one thing that I've come to learn about myself during this trip is that I don't have fun standing on the sidelines or sitting around at a party. I don't know if you'd still recognize me if we randomly met at a dance. I'm that girl who's having a good time dancing her socks off and who really doesn't Frankly Miss Scarlet what anyone thinks. And if you don't care, other people don't care either. Trust me, it's a lot more fun to just recognize the fact that, yes, I am a geek, and yes, I am cool with that. TGWTC, decked out in green.