saint patrick's day

it's saint patrick's day. i feel the need to comment on this holiday (is it really a holiday?) given the name of my blog. i don't really know much about the meaning behind saint patrick's day and i don't really need to. i like it well enough without getting bogged down in the details. green is my favorite color, beer is my favorite beverage and who doesn't love leprechauns or anything with an irish accent. however, there is something missing from my celebration this year. friends. as much as i want to have at least a two-beer lunch, doing this alone seems unacceptable - unless you live in a big city or you are in the airport. although i am not sure why there is an exception for big cities - is it because you are less likely to see people who know you? i started to wonder if my views on drinking were skewed by my small-town-in-south-georgia upbringing. when it came to alcohol though, my family may not have been typical for our town. my mother's family is catholic (and at one time irish), so clearly they had no qualms about drinking. and my father's family, while baptist, at one time owned the only two liquor stores in our town and completely coincidentally have each spent at least a little bit of time at greenleaf (aptly named), the nearby addiction treatment facility. so my parents drank regularly - blowing that theory that if you don't make a big deal about drinking your kids will be less likely to sneak around and drink. with the exception of a few nights in high school and college though, i generally don't drink in excess. for me, it is less about the quantity of alcohol that is consumed and more about the occasion and the ritual of drinking. for instance, today, it is not my plan to go out and get drunk at lunch for st. patrick's day - although as we all know, after a couple of beers, plans can change. but more importantly, it is about going out and celebrating the irish and the other things, whatever they are, that this special day is all about.