My St. Patrick's Day

I was thinking of the best onomatopoeia to describe my St. Patty's Day but I can't decide between "bleh", "yeesh" or "meh". After joyously pinching hordes of unsuspecting Korean students for their lack of green and general knowledge about the Irish holiday, it seemed as if the sky was the limit this time around.
It was going to be hard to top last year's celebration. I went and had a great swim practice at Westwood, got an early start on downtown Austin with Alex H. and Nick M. and generally lazed around all afternoon playing bocce ball at Joe's Bar (by Frank & Angies). This was followed by a bottle of wine at home with Emily after she got off work. I would tend to call it my best St. Patrick's Day yet. The road ahead for me this year was bound to be long and arduous if I was to make it the best.

First stop after school: a faculty dinner at a sushi place near where I work. The food was excellent and the soju flowed freely. I must say (imitating my mom), I had a really good time at this dinner. It was a "Welcome New Teachers" party which was great because it really highlighted my position as an old teacher. In welcoming those new to the Hae Song family, I realized that I had firmly made my claim. I didn't have to go into the dinner worried about all the right things to say or how to make the best impression. I was relaxed and felt like I was among friends, or at the very least people I see rather often. What was I saying about the soju flowing freely?? Oh ya.. it did! Early and often! The whole affair wrapped up around 8 PM (lasted about 3 hours).
The words that are many men's undoing: "I have enough time for a short nap." I woke up again, 8 hours later, at 4:30 AM. The night had completely passed me by and on top of it all I was restless and awake with 3 hours before I actually had to be up. Inane internet activity kept me busy but I was really excited about wearing a new St. Patty's themed UT hat (thanks Mom!) and paying dividends to my Irish ancestry. I'm sure I saved money, but at what cost?? Though I tried it probably figured as my worst SPD thus far.

Random Note -- my Girl's Generation trading card collection (yes, they take their pop groups seriously). I'll claim ownership but not the purchase. My friend Joe got these for me knowing my true love of SNSD (Girl's Generation).