Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Green



This is down Bethel Beach, and I chose it for today because it is the only picture I can find that has green in it. Rather, I could very easily post something from last summer that would have been loaded with green, but in the doldrums of winter where Cold is still gasping her last breaths there's very little green other than pine and cedar trees. Here, however, we see some green slimy stuff on the water's edge. Green slimy stuff is a technical term I learned back in Miss Gibbs' Earth Science class. Or maybe it's seaweed or kelp or some strange bay grass. Or maybe--just maybe--I don't have any idea what I'm talking about.

Hey, I never claimed to work for VIMS
.

Evidently today is St. Patrick's Day. I say "evidently" because if a woman I work with hadn't greeted me yesterday with shamrocks that she wanted me to tape all over my office door, I would have been none the wiser. May I also mention that I would never decorate my office door with anything other than the scorch marks from the flames that are at my heels every day at 4:00 p.m. when I knock people over to get out of there? But I do give her an "A" for effort. She means well.

St. Patricks Day was good for pinching, but not much else until I moved away from Mathews. In college, beverages enhanced with food coloring superseded pinching in importance. Then in Northern Virginia and DC the whole day became a cult-like experience shared by hundreds of random strangers packed tight as sardines in a matchbox listening to what might have been a band but which couldn't be heard over the din of a crowd which exceeded the population of Dublin.

In any case, Happy St. Patricks Day. And thanks, Lady at Work, for reminding me.

Now let me take down the shamrocks from my office door and put the scorch marks back up.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! I smartened up years ago and quit wearing green to work so the men would pinch me. The same men whose wearing of the green was usually their skivvies.

mmm said...

Pinch me.

Mental P Mama said...

I forgot all about the pinching business! I am wearing anything but green today;)

IslandGirl said...

HAPPY Patty's Day to all!! Grandma J did you observe those skivvies you are speaking of? Today I am thinking more of the color yellow for the sun. I would love to see that big yellow ball in the sky today. Too many days of gloom here where I am.. need some good ole vitamin D. CBW, I know what you mean about the scorch marks on the door from your shoes... mine are from coming in(always late) and going out... to all a good day.

Meg McCormick said...

crack me up. there's always one coworker who insists on decorating her door.

my mother-in-law has hung plastic eggs on the shrubbery in front of her house, a rural PA phenomenon which I have yet to understand, despite having grown up there.

Re pinching - when i was growing up, we did NOT wear green on Thursdays for fear of being pinched. HARD. By the boys - who everyone knows had cooties.

Anonymous said...

Oh the days of Miss Gibbths....I was in class (Earth Science) with CB Mid Sis and we talked constantly (imagine that). Miss Gibbths (per her pronunciation) wrote on both of our report cards that "We talked more than any white girl that she had ever known." We both decided that she was just mad that we never paid attention and she still had to give us an "A" on our report card.

GJ-you are so funny! I look forward to your comments daily.

Happy St. Patrick Day to everyone!
Do we have in any Irish in the group?

Hang in there-I think we might get some rays of sun tomorrow-can't wait......

Angela said...

This is all very strange to me. What is a shamrock? And what skivvies? And why would you get pinched on St.Patrick`s Day? I thought Mr. Patrick was a Saint? Not one who installed the pinching of girls?
But I know about the eggs in the shrubbery! PA is full of German inhabitants as you can tell from the names (and the Amish) and they did not only bring the Groundhog Day with them (only it was a badger on MariƤ Lichtmess), but also the custom of blowing out eggs, color them and display them outside for the Easter bunny to see and bring more. Plastic was not the idea, of course. And Bunny was suposed to bring chocolate eggs! Why in the world ever...

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

This just might have been the longest day in the record of days, and certainly it was one of the worst work days, but nevermind all that it's OVER (just about), and I survived it (just about).

Howdy to everyone, and Happy St. Patricks Day.

I did want to take a minute to respond to Angela (to everyone else - Hey! Thanks for commenting! I'm too tired to respond! Much less write a post for tomorrow! Let's see how many exclamatory remarks I can make in one paragraph! Wow! This is a lot!) since she's in GErmany...

Angela - A shamrock is a clover with three leaves, and my co-worker (who by the way showed up today with a tattoo of one on her neck, temporary tatto, but still) pushed a bunch of card board decorations in the shape/color of shamrocks at me yesterday. We're supposed to wear green on St. Patricks Day, and as kids (and sometimes as adults in the workplace, although it can get dicey unless your name is Grandma J.) if you forgot to wear green (or opted not to), you were pinched. Skivvies...are underwear, or as we say here in Mathews "drawers" which is pronounced "draws." As in "Put on some clean draws."

How fascinating about the German link/origin of eggs hanging from trees. And here I just thought my neighbor was out of her mind. (Actually....)

OK, it's dangerous for me to get on here when I"m this tired. I've got to get out of here for a bit and figure out what in HAY I am going to put up here tomorrow....maybe I'll throw out a question to you all and make you do some writing. Or, maybe I'll look in my archives and see if I can repost an oldie but not-so-goodie. Or, maybe I'll put one of Chesapeake Bay Mother's stories up here....decisions, decisions.

Have a great, restful, pinchless evening.

Angela said...

Thanks for your answers, Janice, even in such a tired (and pinched?) state, remarkable! I hope you did not forget to put clean draws on this morning!
If you visit my virtual school class, you might learn even more about funny German customs?

foolery said...

I wore mostly black on St. Patty's Day. Why? Not because I'm urban, because I'm not. Not because I don't like green, because I do. Not because I'm not Irish, because really? Who isn't at least a little Irish? Those Irish blokes have always been charming, after all. ;)

No, it's because I'm a crabby non-celebratory I-dare-you-to-pinch-me WENCH.

Happy St. Stephen's Day. I just made that up, but I think he was stoned.