I was in Chicago for St.Patrick’s; there we go, now I don’t feel that bad for skipping my local friends who are busily intoxicating in the local Irish pubs. The green river was worth it, yes it was, who in their lives get to see a damned river go green for a day, that would be me and the select few blessed by Zeus. I did learn two important facts though, St. Patrick was not actually Irish (he was English, and not a Manchester United fan that too) and second, there are way too many Irish in the United States than there are in the rest of the world (more like ten to one).
Regardless, we did manage to storm through the somewhat rainy somewhat chilly Chicago weather to actually go see the parade. It never ceases to amaze me how the city can pull something like that so easily, such chaos that is, and so organized was that presentation of chaos. The Guinness might have had something to do with it, but somehow every Irish guy, dame and brat from every nook of the mid-west was there, touting their wares, whether bagpipes or some homemade float, they were there. So many random greenish people walking everywhere, some heading to the parade, some escaping it, the chaos as well as the overreaching show of pride was inescapable. That we can celebrate the heritage of a full ten percent of the country’s people with so much revelry is a show of celebration that the majority embraces.
After the parade, I had the fortune to taste some of my dame’s homemade spicy pasta, and by jove was it sumptuous. Reminded me yet one more time how fortunate I am that my wife is dexterous enough to embrace something so non-desi and come out on top. Like there wasn’t enough action for a weekend, I finished all seven of our tax returns the same day, thanks to a miraculous product called turbotax. Gone are those days when I was paying hundreds of my sweat-and-blood dollars to tax consultants, turbotax definitely stands out as one those products that I deeply admire and envy. And so was this good, productive and gleeful weekend, and so I raise one to my Irish brothers.
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