17 Greats of St. Patrick's Day.

1. Mr. Umbrella playing the pipes, again, at 3 different locations including a bar, a hired gig, and an after party.

2. Meeting some new people and some new friends and really missing my old friends and past St. Patrick's Day love.

3. A really pretty girl was totally wearing my brand new cocktail dress. Total confirmation it was a good purchase.

4. Crashing a party that had non-Peja beer and Yellow Tail wine.

5. Running into the guy who held up our bus back from Belgrade because he was still "caught up" with his one-night-stand. Let's just say he was back on the prowl on Saturday...

6. Gorging on a traditional Irish dinner which included soda bread, cabbage, beef stew, corned beef, Baileys with coffee, and Guinness. {and NOT waking up the next day with a green tongue. I think I prefer non-green beer after all. }

7. Dance party with Yohnk-adelphia, late night.

8. Listening to Kosovo police officers tell me that they would like to take a picture of Mr. Umbrella, so they can hire a painter to turn it into a canvas portrait. {?}

9. Singing Irish songs very loudly with the leaders of various international missions.

10. Mr. Umbrella attempting to help the dinner party host, whom he doesn't really know, get the room quiet for said Irish Sing Along. "Helping" included standing stoically in the center of the room wearing a kilt and holding the song lyrics. {It didn't really work, but let's just say the scenario still causes random fits of laughter from me.}

11. Discovering Stone Castle Chardonnay -- so much better than the 2 euro "white wine" version.

12. Hearing the Airborne Toxic Event song that always reminds me of Nick and our BFship. You can read about him here, on his fiance's blog.

13. Dinner partying with a guy we met previously and very randomly met at a Serbian border crossing.

15. First haircut in Pristina. It was a success and much needed.

16. Realizing that the work we're doing over here is really good work. Hard and deserving of some cold beers during non-work hours, but good. And being surrounded by people, all night, living similar lives, fighting similar fights.

17. Running into one of our students with Mr. Umbrella wearing a kilt. Said student just stared open mouth. Absolutely priceless.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!