“But You’re a GIRL!”

I am Irish. Very, very Irish. I don’t take my Irish-ness lightly. If you’re Irish, I like that we have that in common. I know many bloggers will be sharing tasty green recipes with you today, so I figured I’d switch it up. Why not tell an embarrassing story about my Irish pride?

I’m Catholic, and in 8th grade I was Confirmed. I’m not going into detail about Confirmation, but it’s a big deal. The whole jist of it is that you pick a Saint you want to be like, and this Saint’s name sort of becomes like your second middle name. Sounds weird. I’m only telling you this to set the scene 😉

As you can imagine, St. Theresa was popular in my 8th grade class. As were Saint Ann and Saint Clare. Those are all pretty names.

The process goes like this. It’s a Mass, if you can believe that 😉 At one point of the Mass, each kid getting confirmed walked up to the Bishop and handed him an index card with his or her Saint name written on it and he confirms you – or something like that. It’s been awhile.

Everything went smoothly – until the Bishop got to the end of the alphabet and wound up with me. I handed him my card, eager to be confirmed.

He (with a microphone clipped to his chest for the whole congreation to hear) says “And I bless you, Saint..Patrick?! But you’re a GIRL!” Come on, Bishop! You make a living hearing confessions and this is what you’re going to geek out about!?

Whatever. I made a sign of the cross and went on my merry way. Did people laugh? Yes. Did I want to cry? You bet. Was I the only girl who picked a male Saint? Of course. For the win? It was one more Irish thing under my belt. (Yes, I know St. Patrick was not Irish himself)

A little fun fact. My first name is actually Mary. After confirmation my friends in school would tease me and call me Sister Mary Patrick – from Sister Act?

This made me terribly self-conscious. Did they think I was fat?

So, on St. Patrick’s Day I will always wear green. I will always eat obnoxiously green food and drink yucky green beer. I will always pinch someone if they lack a green piece of clothing. And, yes. I will always remember being embarrassed in front of all my friends and their families for being the girl who was a little too obsessed with her Irishness 😉

PS – We have a winner for the Gnu Bar Giveaway!!

YAYY!! I’ll shoot you an email so I can get these bars to you pronto! 🙂

Have a great St. Patrick’s Day, friends!

Let’s chat – What green are you wearing today? I have a green sweater. I didn’t have much to choose from. It’s my favorite color, but not really “my” color, if yaknowaddaImean.

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