62. March 20th, 2011 Picture.

Here we are, we're FINALLY at the OFFICAL St. Patrick's Day parade post!  Yesss!  I am sure you've all been waiting with baited breath for this one, and I don't blame you!  I've only been talking about this day for weeks...and here we are.


So, in all honesty, the day is somewhat of a blur.  That's what happens when you put 8:30am as the start time for a party and people actually show up on time.  Lina arrived with her cooler while I was standing in my kitchen, sopping wet in a towel.  I love her commitment.  I am going to throw up all my awesome, hilarious photos and just let you all marinate in the crazy awesomeness of the South Boston St. Patrick's Day parade.  It is the second largest St. Paddy's day parade in the country AND the longest running.  So yea, it's nothing short of amazing.

Me making my signature punch, dubbed Leprechaun Piss at the inaugural event 5 years ago.  It's transformed somewhat over the years, but here is the basic recipe, if used, I demand credit.  Not really, but it would be nice!  For a huge bin of it, like the one shown above, I use 2 handles of the cheapest vodka you can find, 2 jugs of either green Cumby's juice, green Mondo [I'm still not 100% sure what this is] or green Hawaiian Punch, and yes, they make green Hawaiian punch.  I then add 1 bottle of Sprite, a gallon of water [this is my trick for not getting everyone black out drunk off one glass], followed by some powered lemonade mix.  I've also been known to throw in gummy sharks.  For fun.

This is serious business!

Here's Becky being our shot girl and passing around a cutting board full of Jello shots.  Our friend Annie got in the habit of making LOTS of color coordinated Jello shots for the parade.  This started when she lived around the corner from me and the tradition has stayed put even though she moved about an hour away.  Girl is dedicated - she transported over 250 this year!

And this is how she did it!

The very first year of the party we had t-shirts made, and this being the 5th anniversary of the party [and most likely my last as hostess with the mostess, more on that later...] we decided to make shirts once again.  The original ones had the saying 'you're not drunk if you can lay on the floor without holding on', and this years' shirts said 'because you can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning'.  Don't you love them?!

Kevin came all the way from NYC for the party, which was absolutely awesome.  Here he is rocking a shamrock.  I mean, why not?

Erin, Lana and myself, the Vegas crew.  We went in March of 2010 and spent almost every night at the Nine Fine Irishmen bar in the New York New York hotel.  Seriously, we leave Boston, one of the most Irish towns in America, and spend every single night in an IRISH bar.  God, we're so predictable.  Here Lana is rocking her shirt from said Vegas Irish Bar that says 'My Shams Rock'.

Of course MahkG is the only one paying attention.

Oh hay Kevin!  I love all the flair.

Something up in the sky must have been riveting.  Me, MahkG, my old coworker Drew and his friend Russ.  I love when they make it to my parties!

Let's play flip cup!  It's so much better when the weather is nice and people aren't playing beruit and flip cup in my living room.  That is an absolute nightmare to clean up!

Then one with just me and Jamie in front of my Irish flag I had hanging from the staircase.  It's a funny story how I acquired that flag: I was living at 4 O Street, my second apartment in Southie, and my bed room window faced the alley between our house and the one next door.  We had a locked gate at the front but that didn't stop me from thinking someone was going to break in almost every single night.  For weeks the sensor light had gone off outside throughout the entire night keeping me awake and making me seriously paranoid.  I eventually chalked it up to a squirrel or skunk setting it off, but the fact of the matter was that I was still being kept up all night.  At some point I walked passed the alley during the day and saw that the upstairs neighbor had an Irish flag sticking out his window, flapping in the wind.  Every time that thing moved it set off the sensor light and my bedroom was filled with light.  I got so fed up that night I opened the top section of the window, grabbed the two corners of the flag and just pulled down as hard as I could.  The sensor never went off again and I was the proud new owner of a full sized Irish flag.

Thankfully the weather this year was gorgeous, so lots of people walked the one block over to the parade.  Every year the weather is a crapshoot, since March is so unpredictable in New England.  I've watched the parade while it was so cold it was snowing, when it's been 75 and sunny, and last year when it legitimately monsooned all afternoon.  I gave all the girls sweatpants and hoodies while I dried their clothes in our dryer because we were soaked from head to toe.  At one point I looked around the party and realized that everyone was wearing something of mine.  Yea, that year was an absolute mess.  This year it was a tad chilly, but sunny, which meant that everyone was outside on our patio or down on the parade route.  That makes clean up the next day a touch better.

I know 2 people in this photo.  We always make friends!

I love bagpipers!

And this was when all our friends got written up for public intoxication.  During the past few years they've really cracked down on drinking at the parade, which is absolutely fine, it just means that you have to be a little sneaky when bringing a beer down to the route.  Solo cups just don't cut it anymore.  Thankfully no one got an actual ticket, which could cost upwards of $400, they all just got warnings, which mean absolutely nothing.  At one point this cop had about 10 people in line waiting to be written up.  If it wasn't tragic it would have been hilarious.

There are always Chinese Dragon Dancers.  What this has to do with St. Patrick I have no idea.

Work it girl! 

My cousin Sue and some of her coworkers.

And scene!  This is the last photo I took that day.  This is definitely where the wheels started coming off and pictures were put on the back burner.  Please note my awesome knee highs.  They are amazing and I need to find a reason to wear them again, SOON.  

Usually after the parade the crowd starts dispersing.  Lots of friends live in Southie, so this is when most people start party hopping and walking around to other apartments.  If I had to guess I'd be that this photo was taken around 3pm.  Most people cleared out of the party by 5pm and Ratty and I walked down the street with my cousins to a friends house.  We only stayed about an hour or so and headed home to relax and wind down after the crazy day.  I love this party, which I'm sure comes as such a surprise to you all, but I have to say that it's a lot of work and I am a tad tired of being in charge.  I'm sick of the shopping before hand and all the clean up after, but the party in the middle is totally worth it.  Maybe someday I'll be a guest at a St. Paddy's day party and not the person making the plans.  Does this make me sound old?  Probably, but that's what happens when you hit 27.  It's all downhill from here.