St. Patrick's Day.

I found a hat. It’s shiny. And green. And it’s a bowler. This was just after purchasing some amazing ice cream—the flavor? Sunshine Mango.  It was truly amazing—several of the friends I was with tried bites and the critics were in agreement: I’d picked a winner. This was the beginning of how I spent my St Patrick’s Day evening.

To give a little back story, flash back with me to lunch this afternoon. I was just eating my corned beef sandwich (perfect meat choice for St Patrick’s Day!) when my phone buzzed. “Huh! A text?” I thought. And I discovered that Rachel was suggesting a journey to a pub in The Rocks for St Patrick’s Day. In that moment, I thought, “Sounds like an adventure!” And so I agreed. Then I asked who else was going… and Rachel didn’t really have an answer, but she told me to spread the word.

Well, I talked to a couple people who weren’t really that interested, but figured that didn’t matter too much, that Rachel would gather a decent group. Thus, I headed to Circular Quay this evening to find out whom I was meeting. And the group was great: Rachel, Tess, Liisa, Kara, Toby, and me. I must admit, I thought of my old group of friends back at Milligan, those wonderful girls I affectionately once called The Harem.

We were all quite relaxed and out to have a good time and that we did. We went to a pub—no worries, we all kept our bargain and didn’t drink anything with alcohol; though Kara stumbled a bit right by the bouncer and almost got denied entry because he thought she was drunk; quite funny if you know Kara—where we danced and mingled. A live musician played several classic songs, which we generally sang along with (as did most the crowd). Drunken guys hit on the girls some, but it was all harmless fun. The music was loud. The crowd was tight. And we all had a blast.

So, yes. I spent the evening of St Patrick’s Day at a pub in Sydney. And I got a shiny hat. That I wore all evening. Total win situation.