St. Paddy’s Day, Bobcat style

You may have noticed by now, I’m kind of a numbers junkie. I like numbers, they help me make sense of things. I love to find random facts and see how they fit into my life, albeit, sometimes it’s in an off-the-wall way, sometimes in a very spot on way.

So it should come as no surprise to you that I am going to share some St. Patrick’s Day facts from my trusty source, WalletHub.

I’m one of 33.1 million Americans that claim Irish heritage. Thus, I don’t need one day a year to celebrate my Irish-ness, I express it all year, ever year. To start with, I have three Irish-related tattoos (for now), my cat’s name is Clover and my last name is Collins.

One Irish trait I didn’t inherit was the drinking gene (and it’s not because I’m a goody two-shoe, it’s because I don’t have a taste for alcohol or beer. I know this because I tried to acquire the taste.) Some say this is grounds for revoking my Irish card. I say it’s one less person competing for the 13 million pints of Guinness consumed during the worldwide festivities. And before you judge my sobriety – do you know how much fun it is to be the only one who is able to recite the shenanigans from the previous night. I hold leverage over some people because I was the sober one and they were not. Think on that.

The average St. Patrick’s partier spends $35.40 on green entertainment and nationally, people will spend $4.4 billion this year. Not to mention, the leprechaun’s pot of gold is worth $1.2 million. If this leprechaun just happens to become my sugar daddy, does that make me a gold digger?

Another WalletHub report names Buffalo, N.Y. the second best place to celebrate your Irish ancestry. (Not surprising, Boston was ranked No. 1.) I lived in Syracuse for a few years and while their shamrock festivities were decent, I didn’t realize the No. 2 party nationwide was just two hours away. Buffalo, who knew?

When I lived in Allentown, Pa. that city marches a three-hour long parade the weekend after St. Patrick’s Day each year. Three hours, no joke. I don’t know if that’s a record for the longest parade, but I certainly tested my endurance a few times to outlast it. On the other end of the spectrum, Hot Springs, Arkansas steps up with the shortest parade length at 98 feet.

I’ve also hit up Philadelphia to show my green, the fourth best place for St. Patrick’s Day. This year, Greensboro, N.C. is my locale and it’s rated the 78^th best place to celebrate. We’ll see how it compares.

To tie this up Nice Girls style, how does this relate back to television? Well, did I not just binge watch five seasons of Blue Bloods, a show about an Irish-American Catholic family? (Read about my BB binge here). From what I’ve seen so far, the show hasn’t had a St. Patrick’s Day episode yet. It should.

To win back some Irish cred, Boondock Saints is a favorite movie of mine. The movie features Norman Reedus, who stars in one of my current favorite TV shows, The Walking Dead.

See how this is all fighting together?

However you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, wear green and have a drink for me. Sláinte!

Top photo: Clover the cat.

Bottom photo: The last Allentown St. Patrick’s Day parade I attended.