St. Patrick's Day Weekend

March 16, 2025

Embracing our shared Irish heritage on St. Patrick’s Day weekend with friends is always a blast!

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St. Patrick’s Day weekend is always one of those holidays that is a bit hit or miss in our family. Some years we have a ton of things going on, others we barely seem to do anything at all.

This year we found ourselves invited to a party at our friends Mike & Jill’s house on Saturday. I was particularly excited for this as it gave me an opportunity to get together with my old Army National Guard friends.

I don’t know why, but we never seem to get together enough, so when we do, it’s always a big deal for me. I think something I have learned in life is that for most people the friends we have who are truly long term, have been forged in different crucibles we have lived through.

One such group is my friends from my childhood neighborhood. It included people from the neighborhood and connected to the neighborhood by way of my friends Jim and Keith’s house where we all hung out and acted as a central point in space that rooted us all together.

Another are my friends I made in the Army National Guard. Over the course of my six years in the guard we went through a lot of good times and shared suffering out in the field. It really cemented our friendships.

You know the kind, where you get together and haven’t seen each out for months or years, and it doesn’t feel awkward or as if any time has past at all. Just the best if you ask me.

So off we went to party with Mike, Jill, Dan, Julie, Brian, Fran, Tom, John, Keo and Rachel. Along the way we drank too much, ate too much and just generally had a blast.

But at our age, my wife and I can’t party like we used to, so come 9PM we were saying our goodbyes and heading back home. Well worth the trip.

Sunday started with a good cup of coffee and some breakfast to get us moving again. Karin is our neighborhood Democratic precinct person, and we are sending out a mailer to our Democratic neighbors to remind them about the upcoming election and to encourage them to vote!

It’s more important than ever for people to exercise their rights and vote, if these letters even get a few people motivated to vote it will be worth the effort to get these almost 300 letters mailed.

Then it was off to the grocery store to get supplies for the week and dinner – Corned Beef & Cabbage! Add to that some homemade beer bread and we are in for a feast.

Honestly it’s been a long day and a lot of work, but the week ahead will be even busier. Mia is headed out on a school trip to New York on Thursday, so there will be a flurry of prep work to get ready for her leaving.

It seems like so long since we signed her up for this trip, for it to finally be here is unreal!