So, St. Patrick's Day! The day of all things Irish, and many things we just pretend are Irish so everyone can wear very sparkly green things and get very drunk. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind- I didn't have the green beer myself, but I did make a chocolate Bailey's milkshake. It was delicious.
Green patterned tank top - Anthropologie
Denim jacket - Gap
Caramel khaki pants - Spoon Jeans
Braided headband - H&M
Green scarf (not pictured- it got too warm and I took it off) - scarf booth in Hollywood
Clover Emblem necklace - RockLove Jewelry
The necklace also gets a special mention here. RockLove is an independently owned jewelry company completely run by one of my college friends, the lovely Allison Hourcade. I met her my freshman year when we were the only two people on our floor for Winter Term, and we shared tea. She's an extremely talented designer and silversmith, and I highly recommend you check out her site.
As the title indicates, I do in fact have a bit of Irish in me. My great grandfather, James Moran, came to the United States from Dublin during the 1916 revolution by stowing away on a boat because his best friend got caught in the crossfire and died, and he just wanted out of the country. He ended up getting a guilty conscience and turning himself in, but the immigration folks just told him he could go live in Canada for six months and then come back in the right way. Imagine that happening anymore.
I never really knew Grandpa Jim, as he died when I was just a baby, but I know him through my dad's stories. He was the family prankster. He put coffee in a Coke bottle to fool my coffee-hating uncle into drinking it. At my parents' wedding, he pretended to have a wooden leg, and had the pastor fooled for almost the entire time- until he accidentally switched which leg he was hobbling on. He walked with the Mayor of Chicago in the St. Patrick's Day parade because he went one year and just decided he wanted to. The security folks were dubious, but the Mayor quickly figured out that this random guy was very Irish, and let him walk with him for a block or so.
He also worked as a set builder at the old MGM studios for a little while, which is very special to me because the old MGM lot is now owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is the company I work for. I don't actually work on the main lot, but I use the gym there. It's very cool to think, when I walk through the lot, that my great grandfather was there some 75 years before me. Especially since the rest of my family is still back in Michigan. Grandpa Jim didn't stay here long, since Grandma Grace didn't care for Hollywood, but it is good to know I'm carrying on one family legacy.
The rest of me is English and Scottish, but I like to think I mostly got the Irish genes.
I hope you all had a very celebratory day!
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