St. Paddy's Day Celebration

When it comes to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, I don’t think there’s a more festive place – apart from the Emerald Isle itself – than the Big Apple.

I was gleefully reminded of this yesterday, as I strolled around Midtown and the Upper East Side after work, encountering plenty of paradegoers festooned in St. Paddy’s Day attire. From green eyeshadow and hoodies to the requisite shamrock-adorned hats and t-shirts, nearly everyone in NYC had gone green in celebration of Ireland’s patron saint.

The fun continued when I met up with PR galpals Andrea and Lauren and some of Lauren’s friends at the C Squared Group’s shindig.

All Smiles: Andrea and me with a few touches of green

Held at the Empire Hotel’s rooftop bar, the party was something of a departure from the group’s typically A-list events. Between watered down cocktails, a jazz band that played anything but and an eclectic crowd, I wasn’t surprised when I overheard someone say--

“Maybe if we have a drink, this place will look better.”

Determined to find a more spirited celebration, the six of us walked north a few blocks to P.D. O'Hurleys, an Irish pub on the Upper West Side. As expected, the place was brimming with firefighters, green attired folks and yes, even bagpipers too.

The St. Patrick’s Day scene at P.D. O'Hurleys

I filled the girls in on my most recent experience of outrageous online dating behavior – a JDate.com guy who claimed to be intelligent and have “varied interests,” yet could only manage to say “Nice t*ts” when he emailed me. I quickly reported his antics to the JDate.com profanity police. Whatever happened to just saying hello?

From P.D. O'Hurleys, we walked over to Papaya King, an NYC staple since 1932 that serves up a mean hot dog. It was the perfect punctuation to a memorable St. Paddy’s night out. Erin go bragh!