Happy St Patrick's Day

My friend Paul called me tonight to wish me a Happy St Patrick's Day. Working nights, I completely lose track of the days and I completely forgot the holiday was today. I am one quarter Irish...along with equal parts English, Czech, German. My grandfather bragged that our relatives on the English side had arrived on the second trip of the Mayflower. It is definitely possible, but I am a skeptic. My grandmother was a proud Irish woman born in 1898. She died at the age of 93 and I remember her proudly wearing green each St Patrick's Day. As I am not a huge fan of drunken brawls, my enthusiasm for these holidays is somewhat tempered. The only reason it seems people celebrate St Patrick's Day in this country is to drink green beer and get plastered. Not that Americans have ever needed a reason or an official holiday to do that, mind you.

I visited my brother, his wife, and my niece and nephew in Seattle last weekend. We had a terrific time visiting and catching up before they head back to Japan. They actually live a good distance north of Seattle, closer to Vancouver. Washington is very pretty and the area where they live is quite striking, but it poured down rain for the majority of my time there. The rain briefly cleared on Monday which gave my sister-in-law and I time to check out downtown Seattle. I have not been back to Seattle since I left the airlines in 2004, but it has not changed much. We visited Pike's Market and the first Starbucks in the world. After this, we headed over to Capitol Hill for some Thai food and window shopping. I always like being with Y and in turn, she loves being my hag for a few days.




It is hard to believe that my niece will be entering her senior year in high school next year! I remember when she was not yet two playing with the tv remotes in my parents house. Witnessing a conversation between my brother and my niece about what college she will attend and what she wants to be when she grows up was eerily similar to many conversations my father and I had around the same age. My brother and my father are have the same voice and they look and act a lot alike. I am much happier witnessing that conversation than being on the receiving end, that is for sure! A small amount of kids know what they want to do with their lives, but for the majority it is a long and arduous voyage of self discovery in your teens and early twenties. It was not until I reached my mid to late twenties that I settled into being comfortable with who I am. Still, I am very happy with the choices that I have made and I have had an incredible life with few regrets. I know a lot of people have a list of things they want to accomplish before they die. My list is fairly short. Not that I have plans to check out anytime soon or anything, but you know what I mean.

Anyhow, I hope you all have a great St Patrick's Day weekend.

Cuidate.