Saturday Clothing, A Non-Holiday and Leftover Cake

Two Saturday's ago the temperatures were mild. At that point on the calendar, I think it was declared the "warmest" day so far. It was by no means WARM, but very pleasant. Yet the hoards of people at Walmart wearing shorts and tank tops made me crazy. It was not short and tank top weather-and I became irritated at myself for allowing myself to be bugged by the fashions of those around me.

This last Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, I found myself at Walmart again. It wasn't shorts and tank tops that were making me absolutely crazy, it was the the green everywhere I looked. Everyone (but me!) was wearing green! Guess I should consider myself lucky nobody pinched me, because as a result of everyone else's green clothing, I was in less than a pleasant mood.

 I'm not sure what I can deduce from either of these scenarios--either the fact I think St. Patrick's Day is a silly holiday or the fact I really should avoid Walmart on Saturday afternoons.

Even though leprechauns don't come to our house, we don't wake up to any pots of gold, and Lucky Charms (the sugar cereal) are par for the course around here, my mother does a "Green Dinner" every March 17th. After the year she colored the fettucine alfredo green, that few of us could stomach (even Mike turned his nose up at it) she switched the menu to hamburgers with green buns (thank you local bakery) and a pretty fancy rainbow colored jello.

My BFF Melanie, greeted me at the "Green Dinner" as though I'd committed a personal attack on her for showing up wearing absolutely nothing green. It turned into a brief, yet heated discussion about St. Patrick's Day. She argued for it, I argued against it. (Growing up in England my best friend growing up was Irish, and all I ever remember is a St. Patrick's Day greeting card or two sitting on their television set.) Our argument ended about as quick as it began and we both shut up and turned to the business of eating.

Had Ellie been listening in on my and Melanie's discussion she would clearly have sided with Melanie. After all, it was Ellie that said to me on Friday night when I reminded her I was working at the temple the next morning, "On St. Patrick's Day? You are going to the temple on St. Patrick's Day." I reminded her it wasn't a "real" holiday. I wish I had a camera to have recorded the disgusted look on her face when I told her I would be arriving home sometime during Saturday Cleaning Hour. What?? "You mean we have to do chores on St. Patrick's Day?" "Yes Ellie, St. Patrick's Day is a regular day," I reminded her.

Adding to my St. Patrick's Day disdain, Megan made this beauty of a cake for the "Green Dinner". She MADE the cake 100% by herself. Unfortunately I can't say she put that same effort into the clean-up.

Sunday evening I went down into the kitchen to this:

Yes, that would be three forks, a spoon, a sharp steak knife, and a chair surrounding the left-over cake.  I was horrified to admit I lived with a bunch of ill-mannered pigs, until I remembered it was me who left the first fork there after a quick after-church snack, and obviously set the tone for the others to follow suit.

Actually now all this is said and done, I'm not sure what I am more disgusted about. The fact we each piggishly picked at the cake all Sunday afternoon or the fact I just did a whole blog post about a "holiday" I can't stand.