Irish Eyes are Smiling

I still don't really know why, out of all the hundreds of Catholic saints, we Americans celebrate Saint Patrick. However, I don't really mind--it's a fun holiday. And, like many other holidays, we don't celebrate the historical aspects of Patrick's life (driving the snakes out of Ireland would make for kind of a scary parade theme). Instead we rejoice in leprechauns, the color green, and getting drunk. I'm talking about Americans, not myself personally, of course. You ought to have seen 5th Avenue today!

So, my roommates and I decided to have a St. Patrick's Day themed party, and we decorated our apartment very festively. Our living room is encircled in a gigantic, neverending rainbow! We had our party on Saturday night, and although nobody really came (it was a really busy weekend for everyone--even I left my own party early to go to another activity), we had a great time. And our treats were delicious, so for all of you who didn't come--come to our next party! Stefanie's cookies are the most delicious cookies I've ever had in my life. And mine were a version of my tried-and-true chocolate chip cookies, but with green M&Ms instead of chips. In order to get all green M&Ms, I had to go to the M&M store in Times Square. I'm not sure why there is even an M&M store, but apparently there are enough people in this city who want backpacks and hairbands printed with the images of scary anthropomorphized candies that an entire store can exist and afford Times Square real estate prices. The best part of the store is the huge wall of tubes full of colored M&Ms, where people can fill a bag with whatever color or colors they want. Because we all know that the colors taste different. Also, there are specialty mixtures like "Central Park" which is a combination of green, light green, gray, and brown M&Ms. So I went over and filled up my bag of green ones, watching as little kids tried and failed to use the dispensers. The stray candies they dropped rained down through strategically placed grates into a Willy Wonka-esque trap door, where they mysteriously vanish, safe from kids that might want to gobble them up. What a pity. It was then that I realized why these "bulk" M&Ms were $12.00 a pound. At home, E and I figured it out to be 2.4 cents per M&M. Now you'd think they'd be cheaper in bulk, but no. A regular pack at the quickie-mart across from my workplace costs a dollar, which makes those M&Ms cost 1.8 cents per candy. Out of the city, you could probably get a pack of M&Ms for 75 cents at a drugstore and they'd be 1.36 cents each. It's splitting hairs, I know, but it's kind of fascinating to see how things can be so much more expensive in some places than they are in others. Which has nothing to do with Saint Patrick's Day...

Back at the party, we ate green foods, applied Irish temporary tattoos, video-taped stuff, and generally just had a fun time.