Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Luck o' the Irish

Evidently I've been hiding under a rock. That or I don't spend enough time looking down.

I had no idea that a) NYC had a St. Patrick's Day parade, 2) it was a big deal at all or iii) that the marching bands were lining up just outside my window all day. Sure, I could hear the occasional sound or burst from the crowd floating up 10 stories to my office all morning, but this is New York. It tends to be noisy.

Fortunately for me, a few folks around the office, my significant other included, were much more hip to the Irish scene and knew we needed to get out and survey the festivities on our lunch.

It reminded me a little of the parade scene on Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Growing up, my friend's mom always commented on that scene - "if there is something going on that's big enough for a parade of that size, what are kids doing in school anyway?!" That was totally me today. How was I inside oblivious to the mayhem below? And why don't any of those 2 million parade-goers have jobs? (Insert insensitive to the recession comment here.)

Bag pipe bands, a borrowed green scarf and St. Patrick's Cathedral on March 17. That'll do.

I did wear a green top today (it's under the coat... don't pinch!) and thought I was pretty festive until the rowdy Guinness-induced crowds called me out in my lameness. They didn't literally call me out. I just felt a little overdressed, and somehow underdressed, for the occasion.

Next year I'll take some wardrobe advice from the crowds surrounding everyone's favorite Daily Show correspondent, John Oliver. (Yeah! First celebrity spotting in NYC! Unless you count the time we walked past the Morning Show with Mike and Juliet and Brett Michaels was on...)
Black tank top - check. Green wig and sunglasses - check. Fightin' Irish fist - check.

7 comments:

Ashley said...

I love John Oliver, sweet! Wow, if you had that irish fist and fightin' spirit this year, you might have been on the Daily Show!

Natalie | Make Today Great said...

Sweet! I love the Daily Show!

Missy said...

John Oliver is my favorite correspondent too! What a great St Pat's for you both!

Heather said...

I was wondering if you'd seen anyone famous yet. How fun!

If it makes you feel better, I didn't know 'gateway' had a St. Patrick's Day parade either. I went shopping on Saturday and couldn't believe how many people and green-painted dogs there were.

Jacob R said...

There is nothing wrong with being unemployed and hanging out at the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade in the middle of the day on a Tuesday.

At least that's what I've been told...

Whitney said...

you can totally count bret michaels through a window! hello, rock of love! and john oliver, great job! darn you for seeing some celebrity sitings and i didn't see any when i was there! :)
i loved your longest comment ever! it was so good seeing you! my sis in law said, "she is really sweet and so nice!" and i replied, she totally is!
we went to the st. patrick's cathedral and it is crazy! i never knew they had that cathedral and we just went this past weekend. it's really beautiful and remarkable between all the big buildings. glad you went to the parade!

Claire said...

wow, that really is the perfect storm of amer-irish symbols there.

And also... how could you NOT count Brett Michaels?