If my parents had loved each other more, my last name would be Patrick, so I have a lot of conflicting feelings about St Patrick’s Day. This morning I had a meeting in a cafe, and I wore a green sweater and the waitress put green food coloring in my hair because apparently having pink hair gives people license to touch you, so when I got home, I changed into something not green, and then Brendan pinched me during a fire alarm, and also I’ve been hungover all day, and I think there’s still some glitter on my face, so, like, thx heritage?
Also we’re Lutheran (I say “we” as in like my family, the constructed version of me, the version my grandmother prefers), not Catholic, so I dodged a bullet there. Irish Lutherans still binge drink but for different reasons than Irish Catholics do, and probably if I were Irish Catholic I wouldn’t have considered green skittles vodka an appropriate holiday beverage.
Once I told my (very Irish, functioning alcoholic) uncle that my favorite drink was jack and coke, and he slapped me on the shoulder and told everyone how proud he was, so now the only thing I want to drink is coconut rum or something.
My gramma didn’t send me a chain email about St Patrick; should I be worried?