St Patrick's Day 2010

We went out to Shannon Rose last night for Wednesday night trivia. Turns out they've been celebrating St Patrick's Day at that Irish pub in Woodbridge all week, which meant trivia night had been replaced by live music. We stayed quite a while and enjoyed drinks and some good company.

This morning I inadvertently commuted to work on what could only be called the St Patrick's Day Parade train. Revelers on their way to Manhattan for the famous parade filled the train. They were packed in the aisle 25 deep just at my end of the car. They were all dressed in green, wearing hats and buttons and t-shirts, some tossing back their first rounds of beer, most hooting and hollering like they were at a football game or New Year's Eve in Times Square. The din grew louder and louder as we neared the city. I found a small section of wall to lean against as I stood on the train from Aberdeen-Matawan station all the way to Newark. While it was great seeing them enjoy themselves, I was glad to get off and find a comfortable seat on the PATH train for the rest of my ride.

To continue our St Paddy's Day odyssey, I took a couple of hours off and came home early. My wife picked me up from the train. She has been during her civic duty waiting in the jury pool down in Freehold this week, so it was nice to be able to celebrate her getting excused from jury duty today by going out to Court Jester in Aberdeen for some corned beef and cabbage. The place was packed but the wait wasn't too long and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

We took the opportunity to toast my dad, Pat, Sr, who was born on St Patrick's Day in 1923. I've only confirmed recently that his father grew up in Enniskillen in what is now Northern Ireland. He and his brother George both left Ireland for work aboard passenger liners and ended up living in the US. My grandfather surely celebrated having a son born on the one universally recognized Irish day of the year.