Half of Me Wishes All of You a Happy St. Patrick’s Day
The other half is of Lithuanian descent, and while it wouldn’t necessarily go around willy-nilly wishing people Happy St. Patrick’s Days, neither would it mind throwing a few back on a Tuesday night during the thawing of an endless winter.
As I look back at this date through the years, memories come not fully formed but in shards…
…in seventh grade, my mother surprised me and walked into my room, opened my closet, and took out a bright green, corduroy kind of shirt, one that I didn’t wear particularly often. She placed it on my bed, without fuss and without words but with the clear message that I’d be wearing that shirt that day…
…in eighth grade, our one-off English teacher kept saying “Top of the Morning!” A hilarious, genuine guy. That day he welcomed everyone into our classroom with a “Top of the Morning!” and let fly another “Top of the Morning” in the cafeteria after he had led us down there and bought everyone his/her choice of a bagel, or a hot chocolate…
…in twelfth grade, when Joe dyed his goatee green… incidentally, I grew my first goatee the following summer but it was the only color any of my more recent goatees have been: “rich auburn”…
…in my junior year of college, when I had a nasty cold but soldiered over to my old roommate Ed’s off-campus place, where he was hosting a party, to say hello… many pitchers of beer later, I was not feeling sick anymore. It’s still the origin of my stance on drinking while under the weather (for strength!)…
…in my senior year of college, going on a fantastic Green Line pub crawl through Boston, Allston and Brighton, MA – extant unscanned photos include one of me lying across the T tracks – and also having one of the most seldom and complete moments I’ve had in life, at Big City, pausing during a game of pool and soaking in the cigarette and the pool cue in the one hand, a Carlsberg (made green with food coloring) in the other, and a girl (that one long since departed) tucked under my arm…
…in 2005, what I’ve already immortalized here …
…in what must have been 2006, nearly busting some plaid-shirted, lacrosse-hat wearing frat guy’s head open after he shoved me after I told his boozy friend not to keep running into me in a bar too crowded with boozy frat guys for him to be taking up so much space poorly dancing with his girlfriend/hooker, knocking into me and spilling the expensive drink I’m too busy not enjoying because I want so much to throw the beer in the one guy’s face and smash the glass across the other’s… luckily for them, it didn’t come to that… the 6’10”, 280 pound, impeccably dressed African-American bouncer held me back (came to my rescue) in time for me to leave the bar with my posse and all the dignity of Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen sobbing his way out of the Hill Valley Festival… I had a smoke and went right across the street to the Slaughtered Lamb, which despite its kitschy décor was unjustifiably empty, especially in the downstairs, where our group of 12 drank away the rest of the night by ourselves.
…in 2007, walking up 3rd avenue in the early afternoon, it being the weekend, and seeing 21-year-olds throwing up their brunches in phone booths – clearly the reason why there are so few phone booths anymore… then thinking every bar in the area WOULDN’T be crowded… getting mauled by the crowd at the Black Sheep… finally just going for it and grabbing fistfuls of Best Wingers and gorging ourselves on many kinds of chicken and World Famous Potato Wedges while watching BC rather unfortunately losing to Georgetown in the NCAA tournament…
…in 2008, driving home from work on a day where the weather is as beautiful as Ireland itself…
For each of these grains of memory lie five more colorful ones undisturbed… Cheers to those as well…
Enjoy the day today… enjoy the night tonight… and after you’re done remembering what you’ll remember, please don’t forget to forget…
