What Goes Down Must...

Go.....
!!
Today was a much and I do mean a much better day than yesterday. Want to know why? I will tell you why. It's because of one person and one person only: Kevin. I really don't know what I would do if he hadn't come back when he did. Kevin is the other Pharmacist that works right along with this other man that I can't stand. Kevin is my knight and shining armor; he is there for me just when I think that no one else will be there for me. He is and will always be a Godsend.
I think because Kevin was there today, the other Pharmacist wasn't rude to me or anything. As a matter of fact, he was quite nice to me . Considering that he had a lot to do today, I think that he put that behind him and just focused on what he needed to do so that's all what matters and not to mentioned that I prayed about this long and hard before I went to bed last night as I went to work this morning. Well, tomorrow our BIG BOSS i s coming and I can't wait for that to happen. It just sucks that I come in later and knowing me, I will miss meeting him/her. I am hungry so I will sign off for now. Until the next post (it will be in a new month, too) have a good night and God Bless!

What Goes Up Must....

Come down... a
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t
h
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w
a
y
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Today wasn't your typical day at work. Then again, it was until the last three hours. Let me start at the beginning. For some reason, the Pharmacist that I work with does not and I do repeat DOES NOT like the group, Led Zeplin. To this day, he still hasn't told me why (although I think he has told the other Technicians why he doesn't like the group). So, today at work, Led Zeplin was playing on the radio and the Pharmacist turned it off. I asked him if it was ok if I turned it back on only for my ears to listen and not his. That's when he went off. He then told me that no one in the 25 years that he has been a Pharmacist that someone (meaning me) has defied him and listened to something that he didn't want to. He was red as a tomato and I felt (still do) completely bad for what I have done. I just got done talking with my mother-in-law about this whole situation and she thinks that this particular group has some strange effect on him and that I shouldn't worry about it.
That's just it, I can't stop worrying about it. I hope that tomorrow everything works out for the best. I mean I know that he can't write me up for this, but I do know that he won't take any more crap from me anymore. To quote him, "you want games, it's on! We will play all the games you want". I really didn't mean to do this to him and again, I really didn't think that it would effect him this, but it did. I don't know how many times I am going to apologize to him, but I think that make that I am done apologizing. I will just let God take of the rest.
I think that he was in a bad mood because of the fact that we were also short staffed (a technician called out today) and not to mention the fact that it was really busy and there was nothing he could do because he was by himself and didn't like it. Like he said earlier, this is going to be a long week and I just hope that this will be water under the bridge and we can look back on this day and laugh.
Until the next post, have a good week and God Bless!

Should I or Shouldn't I?

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now" -Goethe
Sometimes I wonder if I will ever go back to school. I know that I said that I will be applying for the Spring 2010 term, but it used to be the Fall 2009 term. I don't know why I keep on procrasinating. I do know this for sure is that when James and I are settled in our new home, I will get everything taken care of. When I wanted to apply for the Nursing School in the community college here, I found out that I need to re-take some of the classes that I have already taken due to the fact that I have been out of college for so long. You can see this as a negative or you can see this as a positive. The negative part is the fact that you have to do it again and the positive part is that you can change the grade that you had in college to be a higher and better grade so you can get into the school that you want to (really don't think that made sense just now). All I know is that I do want to go back to school before I am 35 and considering that I will be 30 this year, I have five years to do this (not like I am counting or anything).
I really hate procrasinating when it comes to something that I really want to do in my life. Nothing is really holding me back, but I just feel that after James and I move things can get started sooner than later. When I do apply to the school and actually get in, I know that it will be shocking not only for me, but for James and my family as well.
Spring is around the corner and you know what that means...don't you? You will be seeing the following: ,, , , and . Granted here, in Ithaca, New York I see more squirrels and crows (mostly squirrels) than I have ever seen in my life. They are out and about no matter what the weather is (even though when it was in the single digits, I didn't see one). Considering that I going past the subject that I was once talking about, I guess I have nothing else to talk about. Until the next I write on here, have a good day and God Bless!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Like the title says, Happy St. Patrick's Day! As you can see, I am typing in green just for the occassion. Work was outstanding today!! I was right; we had a full house and everyone had a good time (which is the norm when you don't have a LAZYPharmacist working by himself)! At work, we have to wear a blue shirt and khaki colored pants so it gave me the opportunity to pinch some of my co-workers that didn't wear green. I know what you are thinking, they can't wear green anyways due to the dress code so why pinch them? The answer is quite easy, management told us that we could wear try to find a way to wear green without getting out of dress code (some people were wearing green necklaces and some people were wearing green earrings) so since some people didn't care if they were pinched or not, I pinched them (don't worry, it wasn't hard or anything). Nothing much happened today because like I said it was a fun and relaxing one, there's nothing to complain about! Since I have nothing else to write about, I thought that I would entertain everyone with information about Saint Patrick's Day. So without further ado....
Here's the History of Saint Patrick's Day or something like that courtesy of Wikipedia: Saint Patrick's Day (Irish: Lá ’le Pádraig or Lá Fhéile Pádraig), colloquially St. Paddy's Day or simply Paddy's Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (circa AD 385–461), one of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on March 17.
The day is the national holiday of Ireland: it is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland. It is also a public holiday in Montserrat. In Canada, Great Britain, Australia, the United States, and New Zealand, it is widely celebrated but is not an official holiday. St. Patrick's feast day was placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early part of the 17th century, although the feast day was celebrated in the local Irish church from a much earlier date. St. Patrick's Day is a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. The feast day usually falls during Lent; if it falls on a Friday of Lent (unless it is Good Friday), the obligation to abstain from eating meat can be lifted by the local bishop. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. St. Patricks Day is very occasionally affected by this requirement. Thus when March 17 falls during Holy Week, as in 1940 when St. Patrick's Day was observed on April 3 in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and again in 2008, having been observed on March 15. Here's the celebration of Saint Patrick's Day (also courtesy of Wikipedia): Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide by the those of Irish descent and increasingly by non-Irish people (usually in New Zealand, Australia, and North America). Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and, by association, the colour green. Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food and/or green foods, imbibing Irish drink (such as Irish stout, especially Guiness, Irish Whiskey or Irish Cream) and attending parades.
Saint Patrick's Day parades have a long history in North America. The Irish Society of Boston organized what was apparently the first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the colonies on 17 March 1737. Other sources cite later parades as the first. For instance, some[who?] claim that the world's first St. Patrick's Day parade (not just the first in the Colonies) was held in Boston in 1761, organized by the Charitable Society. There is a competing claim that the first recorded parade was New York City's celebration which began on March 18, 1762 when Irish soldiers in the English military marched through the city with their music. The New York parade is the largest, typically drawing two million spectators and 150,000 marchers. The predominantly French-speaking Canadian city of Montreal, in the province of Québec has the longest continually running Saint Patrick's day parade in North America, since 1824; The city's flag has the Irish emblem, the shamrock, in one of its corners. Ireland's cities all hold their own parades and festivals, including Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford. Parades also take place in other Irish towns and villages. The St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, Ireland is part of a five-day festival; over 675,000 people attended the 2009 parade. Other large parades include those in Savannah, Georgia, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, New London, Wisconsin (which changes its name to New Dublin the week of St. Patrick's Day), Dallas, Cleveland, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, London, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Jackson, Mississippi, Boston, Buffalo, Rochester, Houston, Chicago, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Rolla, Missouri, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Baton Rouge, Pittsburgh, Denver, St. Paul, Sacramento, San Francisco, Scranton, Seattle, Butte, Staten Island, New York, Bayonne, New Jersey, Detroit, Syracuse, Albany, Newport, Holyoke, MA, New Haven, CT, Norfolk, VA, ,Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Columbus, and throughout much of the Western world. The parade held in Sydney, Australia, is recorded as being the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
As well as being a celebration of Irish culture, Saint Patrick's Day is a Christian festival celebrated in the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, and some other denominations. The day almost always falls in the season of Lent. Some bishops will grant an indult, or release, from the Friday no-meat observance when St. Patrick's Day falls on a Friday; this is sometimes colloquially known as a "corned-beef indult" . When 17 March falls on a Sunday, church calendars (though rarely secular ones) move Saint Patrick's Day to the following Monday—and when the 17th falls during Holy Week (very rarely), the observance will be moved to the next available date or, exceptionally, before holy week. The public holiday in Ireland does not move and always remains at March 17, being fixed on the State calendar.
In many parts of North America, Britain, and Australia, expatriate Irish and ever-growing crowds of people with no Irish connections but who may proclaim themselves "Irish for a day" also celebrate St. Patrick's Day, usually with the consumption of traditionally Irish alcoholic beverages (beer and stout, such as Murphy's, Beamish, Smithwicks, Harp, or Guinness; Irish whiskey; Irish coffee; or Baileys Irish Cream) and by wearing green-coloured clothing.
2007 marked the first annual St. Patrick's Day parade and festival in the Scottish city of Glasgow. In North American communities with large populations of persons of Italian descent, St. Patrick's Day celebrations are often combined with those of Saint Joseph's Day, which takes place on March 19, two days after St. Patrick's.
Here's the history or lack of wearing green: St. Patrick's Blue, not green, was the colour long-associated with St. Patrick. Green, the colour most widely associated with Ireland, with Irish people, and with St. Patrick's Day in modern times, may have gained its prominence through the phrase "the wearing of the green" meaning to wear a shamrock on one's clothing. At many times in Irish history, to do so was seen as a sign of Irish nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic faith. St. Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish. The wearing of and display of shamrocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiquitous feature of the saint's holiday. The change to Ireland's association with green rather than blue probably began around the 1750's.

HISTORY
In the past, Saint Patrick's Day was celebrated as a religious holiday. It became a public holiday in 1903, by the Money Bank. (Ireland) Act 1903, an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by the Irish MP James O'Mara. O'Mara later introduced the law which required that pubs be closed on 17 March, a provision which was repealed only in the 1970s. The first St. Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defence Desmond Fitzgerald. Although secular celebrations now exist, the holiday remains a religious observance in Ireland, for both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Church. It was only in the mid-1990s that the Irish government began a campaign to use Saint Patrick's Day to showcase Ireland and its culture. The government set up a group called St. Patrick's Festival, with the aim to:
—Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebrations in the world and promote excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity.
—Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent, (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations.
—Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new millennium.
The first Saint Patrick's Festival was held on March 17, 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long.
The topic of the 2004 St. Patrick's Symposium was "Talking Irish," during which the nature of Irish identity, economic success, and the future were discussed. Since 1996, there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive notion of "Irishness" rather than an identity based around traditional religious or ethnic allegiance. The week around Saint Patrick's Day usually involves Irish speakers using more Irish during seachtain na Gaeilge ("Irish Week"). The biggest celebrations in Ireland outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, County Down, where Saint Patrick is rumoured to be buried following his death on March 17, 461. In 2004, according to Down District Council, the week-long St. Patrick's Festival had over 2,000 participants and 82 floats, bands, and performers, and was watched by over 30,000 people. Belfast City Council recently agreed to give public funds to its parade for the very first time. In previous years funding was refused by pro-British Unionist councillors in the city for not being inclusive of Unionist citizens, the refusal to fund it was labelled as "anti-Irish racism" by Nationalist Belfast councillors. Since the 1990s, Irish Taoisigh have sometimes attended special functions either on Saint Patrick's Day or a day or two earlier, in the White House, where they present a shamrock to the President of the United States. A similar presentation is made to the Speaker of the House. Originally only representatives of the Republic of Ireland attended, but since the mid-1990s all major Political parties in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are invited, with the attendance including the representatives of the Irish government, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Féin and others. No Northern Irish parties were invited for these functions in 2005. In recent years, it is common for the entire Irish government to be abroad representing the country in various parts of the world. In 2003, the President of Ireland celebrated the holiday in Sydney, the Taoiseach was in Washington, while other Irish government members attended ceremonies in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Buffalo, San Jose, Savannah, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Diego, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Korea, Japan, and Brazil. Saint Patrick's Day parades in Ireland date from the early 18th century. Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularisation of St Patrick's Day. Writing in the Word magazine (March 2007), Fr. Vincent Twomey stated that, "it is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival". He questioned the need for "mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry" and concluded that, "it is time to bring the piety and the fun together". Outside of Ireland, here are what other states or countries do for Saint Patrick's Day:

IN CANADA:
Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Montreal
The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day parade in Canada occurs each year in Montreal, Quebec. The parades have been held in continuity since 1824; however, St. Patrick's Day itself has been celebrated in Montreal as far back as 1759 by Irish soldiers in the Montreal Garrison following the British conquest of New France. In the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the date was observed as a public holiday until 1992, although the provincial government itself continues to observe it as a paid holiday for government employees. In any event, St. Patrick's Day is still widely celebrated throughout the province. In the province of Manitoba, the Irish Association of Manitoba runs an annual three day festival of music and culture based around St Patrick's Day.
In 2004, the CelticFest Vancouver Society organized an annual festival in downtown Vancouver to celebrate the Celtic Nations and their culture. This event, which includes a parade, occurs the weekend closest to St. Patrick's Day. In the City of Toronto from 1919 to 1927, the Toronto Maple Leafs were known as the Toronto St. Patricks, wore green jerseys. In 1999 when the Leafs played on Hockey Night in Canada (national broadcast of the NHL) on St. Patrick's Day, the Leafs wore the green St. Pats retro jersey. There is a large parade in the city's downtown core that attracts over 100,000 spectators. Although the baseball season is still in the spring training phase when St. Patrick's Day rolls around, the Toronto Blue Jays wear green uniforms for the occasion. The Toronto Raptors professional basketball team also wears a green alternate uniform to celebrate the holiday. Some groups, notably Guinness, have lobbied to make Saint Patrick's Day a federal (national) holiday. In March of 2009, the Calgary Tower had changed its top exterior lights to new green-coloured CFL bulbs just in time for St. Patrick's Day. The lights were in fact part of the environmental non-profit organization, Project Porchlight, and were Green to represent environmental concerns. Approximately 210 lights were changed in time for St. Patrick's Day and almost resemble a Leprechaun's hat during the evening light. After a week, regular white CFLs took their place, saving the Calgary Tower around $12,000 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 104 metric tonnes in the process.

IN GREAT BRITAIN:
2006 St Patrick's Day celebrations in Trafalgar Sq, London
In Great Britain, the Queen Mother used to present bowls of shamrock flown over from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards, a regiment in the British Army consisting primarily of soldiers from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In 2002, London mayor Ken Livingstone organised an annual Saint Patrick's Day parade which takes place on weekends around the 17th, usually in Trafalgar Square. In 2008 the water in the Trafalgar Square fountains was dyed green.
The horse racing at the Cheltenham Festival attracts large numbers of Irish people, both residents of Britain and many who travel from Ireland, and usually coincides with Saint Patrick's Day. The largest Saint Patrick's Day parade in Britain is held in Birmingham over a two mile (3 km) route through the city centre. The organisers describe it as the third biggest parade in the world after Dublin and New York. Other Saint Patrick's Day parades take place around the country including in London where the largest minority community is Irish. The Scottish town of Coatbridge, where the majority of the town's population are of Irish descent, also has a St. Patrick's Day Festival which includes celebrations and parades in the town centre.
Liverpool with its geographical location as a major port leading to the Irish Sea has the largest per-capita Irish population of any English city. This has lead to a long standing celebration on St Patrick's Day in terms of music, cultural events and the parade. Manchester hosts a two week Irish festival in the weeks prior to St Patrick's Day. The festival includes an Irish Market based at the city's town hall which flies the Irish tricolour opposite the Union Flag, a large parade (claiming to be the biggest outside of Dublin and New York based on entrant and float numbers) as well as a large number of cultural and learning events throughout the two-week period. The festival promotes itself as the largest in the UK.

IN MONTSERRAT:
The tiny island of Montserrat, known as "Emerald Island of the Caribbean" due to its foundation by Irish refugees from Saint Kitts and Nevis, is the only place in the world apart from Ireland and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador in which St Patrick's Day is a public holiday. The holiday commemorates a failed slave uprising that occurred on March 17, 1798.

NEW ZEALAND:
As in Australia, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated. It is tradition for people to wear green items of clothing, and the streets are often filled with revellers drinking and making merry from early afternoon until late at night.

IN URAGRAY:
Celebrated in Montevideo and Punta del Este. The weather in March is warm. People dance and drink beer throughout the night until seven or eight in the morning. The tradition of mocking those who do not does not exist. Most people wear something green. Irish music is played in Bartolome Mitre street and Sarandi street, downtown Montevideo, where there are several Irish pubs.

IN THE UNITED STATES:
Irish Society of Boston organized what was the first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the colonies on 17 March 1737. The first celebration of Saint Patrick's Day in New York City was held at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1756, and New York's first Saint Patrick's Day Parade was held on 17 March 1762 by Irish soldiers in the British Army. In 1780, General George Washington, who commanded soldiers of Irish descent in the Continental Army, allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence." This event became known as The St. Patrick's Day Encampment of 1780. Today, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike. Americans celebrate the holiday by wearing green clothing. Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green-coloured clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched. Some cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1961 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and got the idea to turn the river green for St. Patrick's Day.Indianapolis also dyes its main canal green. Savannah dyes its downtown city fountains green. Missouri University of Science and Technology - St Pat's Board Alumni paint 12 city blocks kelly green with mops before the annual parade. In Jamestown, New York, the Chadakoin River (a small tributary that connects Conewango Creek with its source at Chautauqua Lake) is dyed green each year.
Many parades are held to celebrate the holiday including the cities listed below:

Postcard mailed in the United States in 1912
The longest-running Saint Patrick's Day celebrations in the U.S. are:
Boston, Massachusetts, since 1737
New York City, since 1762 (247th Consecutive Parade in 2008)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1771
Morristown, New Jersey, since 1780
New Orleans, Louisiana, since 1809
Buffalo, New York, since 1811
Savannah, Georgia, since 1813
Carbondale, Pennsylvania, since 1833
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since 1843
Chicago, Illinois, since 1843
New Haven, Connecticut, since 1845
Saint Paul, Minnesota, since 1851
San Francisco, California, since 1852
Scranton, Pennsylvania, since 1862
Cleveland, Ohio, since 1867
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, since 1869
Kansas City, Missouri, since 1873
Butte, Montana, since 1882
Savannah, GA, boasts the unofficial largest attendance with 750,000 in 2006. Unlike other cities, the parade in Savannah takes place on the actual day of Saint Patrick's Day, even if that day is during the work week. However, the 2008 parade took place on Friday, 14 March, to honour Holy week in the Catholic faith. In 2006, the Tánaiste was featured in the parade. Since the parade travels through Savannah's Historic Park District, one tradition that has developed has been the official "dyeing of the fountains" which happens several days before the parade. It has also become tradition for women spectators to kiss the Armed Forces Units and other military organization's male members. Savannah does not have an open container law so there is a proliferation of alcohol on River Street, Bay Street and in City Market.

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISANA:
New Orleans, Louisiana, the parades include the influence of New Orleans Mardi Gras, with float riders throwing spectators strings of beads, cabbages, and potatoes.
Hot Springs, Arkansas
Perhaps the smallest notable parade World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade, is said to take place in Hot Springs, Arkansas in the United States annually held on historic Bridge Street which became famous in the 1940s when Ripley’s Believe It or Not designated it “The Shortest Street in the World.” Boulder, Colorado claims to have the shortest parade, which is also less than a single city block.

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK:
In the city of Syracuse, NY, Saint Patrick's celebrations are traditionally begun with the delivery of green beer to Coleman's Irish Pub on the first Sunday of March. Coleman's is located in the Tipperary Hill section of the city. Tipperary Hill is home to the World famous "Green-on-Top" Traffic Light and is historically the Irish section in Syracuse. Saint Patrick's Day is rung in at midnight with the painting of a Shamrock under the Green-Over-Red traffic light. Syracuse boasts the largest St. Patrick's day celebration per-capita in the United States with their annual Syracuse St. Patrick's Parade, founded by Nancy Duffy, an honored journalist in the Central New York area and an active community leader. "The parade remains a major annual event, typically drawing an estimated crowd of more than 100,000 visitors to downtown Syracuse, as well as 5,000 to 6,000 marchers."

NEW YORK CITY:
The New York parade has become the largest Saint Patrick's Day parade in the world. In a typical year, 150,000 marchers participate in it, including bands, firefighters, military and police groups, county associations, emigrant societies, and social and cultural clubs, and 2 million spectators line the streets. The parade marches up 5th Avenue in Manhattan and is always led by the U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment. New York politicians - or those running for office - are always found prominently marching in the parade. Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch once proclaimed himself "Ed O'Koch" for the day, and he continues to don an Irish sweater and march every year up until 2003, even though he is no longer in office.
The parade is organized and run by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. For many years, the St. Patrick's Day Parade was the primary public function of the organization. On occasion the order has appointed controversial Irish republican figures (some of whom were barred from the U.S.) to be its Grand Marshal. The parade has also drawn controversy for many years for its exclusion of openly gay organizations. The New York parade is moved to the previous Saturday (16 March) in years where 17 March is a Sunday. The event also has been moved on the rare occasions when, due to Easter falling on a very early date, 17 March would land in Holy Week. This same scenario arose again in 2008, when Easter fell on March 23. The festivities went ahead on their normal date and had record viewers. In many other American cities (such as San Francisco), the parade is always held on the Sunday before 17 March, regardless of the liturgical calendar.

HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS:
This Western Mass factory town was the site of massive Irish immigration in the 19th Century, and hosts a Parade its organizers claim is the second largest in the United States. It is scheduled on the Sunday following St. Patrick's Day each year. Attendance exceeds 300,000, with over 25,000 marchers, through a 2.3 mile route in this city of 40,000. A 10K road Race and many events create a remarkable festival weekend. Each year an Irish-American who has distinguished himself or herself in their chosen profession is awarded the John F. Kennedy National Award. JFK was a National Award Winner in the 1958 Holyoke Parade. Other winners include author Tom Clancy, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, and actor Pat O'Brien.

SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA:
Due to the rich history of Scranton participation in St. Patrick's Day festivities it is one of the oldest and most populated parades in the United States. It has been going on annually since 1862 by the St. Patrick's Day Parade Association of Lackawanna County and the parade has gotten attention nationally as being one of the better St. Patrick's Day parades. The parade route begins on Wyoming Ave. and loops up to Penn Ave. and then Lackawanna Ave. before going back down over Jefferson Ave. to get to Washington Ave. Scranton hosts the third largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the United States. In 2008, up to 150,000 people attended the parade.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON:
Due to Seattle's northern state climates, like Ireland, the city received many Irish immigrants. So many that Seattle and Galway are sister cities. Every year on St. Patrick's Day, the Seattle Parade starts at 4th Avenue and Jefferson to the Reviewing Stand at Westlake Park, ending officially at the Seattle Center. The annual Irish Week Festival is enormous, including step dancing, food, historical and modern exhibitions, and Irish lessons. This is all celebrated on St. Patrick's Day and sometimes carries on until the 15, 16, and 17 March.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA:
The Southern Nevada, (formerly Las Vegas) Sons of Erin has put on a parade since 1966. It was formerly held on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, later moved to 4th street. Since 2005, the parade has been held in downtown Henderson. It is one of the biggest parades in the state of Nevada. It also consists of a three day festival, carnival and classic car show in Old Town Henderson.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND:
The festivities of the St. Patrick's Day Parade (since 1956) include a 5K race with a finish line at Power Plant Live! and a brunch (both on the day of the parade) plus numerous fundraisers in Baltimore's Irish restaurants, leading up to the event.

ROLLA, MISSOURI:
Rolla is home to the Missouri University of Science & Technology (formerly known as University of Missouri-Rolla, and Missouri School of Mines), an engineering college. St. Patrick is the patron saint of engineers, and the school and town's celebrations last for a week or more, with a downtown parade held the Saturday before St. Patrick's. A royal court are crowned, and the streets of the city's downtown area are painted solid green. In 2008, Rolla celebrated its 100th St. Patrick's Day festival. In previous years, a pit of green liquid was made by students as part of the festivities, and named 'Alice' -- stepping into Alice was a rite of bravery. In recent years, however, the university faculty has banned the practice out of health concerns.

BASEBALL:
Although the baseball season is still in the spring training phase when St. Patrick's Day rolls around, some teams celebrate by wearing St. Patrick's Day themed uniforms. The Cincinnati Reds were the first team to ever wear St. Patrick's Day hats in 1978. The Boston Red Sox were the second team to start wearing St. Patrick's Day hats in 1990. any teams have since started wearing St. Patrick's day themed jerseys, including the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1980s and Boston Red Sox in 2004. Since then it has become a tradition of many sports teams to also wear special uniforms to celebrate the holiday. The Los Angeles Dodgers also have a history with the Irish-American community. With the O'Malley family owning the team and now Frank McCourt, the Dodgers have had team celebrations or worn green jerseys on St. Patrick's Day. The Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies also wear St. Patrick's Day caps and jerseys. Other teams celebrate by wearing kelly green hats. These teams include: the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, the New York Mets, the San Diego Padres, the Atlanta Braves, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Kansas City Royals, the Seattle Mariners and the St. Louis Cardinals. The Washington Nationals have fan green hat day on September 17 to represent 6 months to St. Patrick's Day.
Nearly all major league baseball teams now produce St. Patrick's day merchandise, including Kelly green hats, jerseys, and t-shirts.

BASKETBALL:
Between March 15th and 17th of 2009, a number of NBA teams wore green jerseys in recognition of St. Patrick's Day including the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors and Dallas Mavericks. The Boston Celtics, whose home jersey is green, wore a specially designed green and gold jersey.

Well, I am going to sign off for now. Have a good Saint Patrick's Day everyone and God Bless!

Two Heads are Better Than One

"...Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle. Pray earnestly." - Thomas S. Monson
If you notice this picture to your left, you see that the Pharmacist tends to the customer, looks at the prescription, process it, gives the drug to the customer (of course in the prescription bag), and sends the customer on her way (by the way, this was done pretty fast, but I think you get the point of it). Today wasn't a good day at all. The Pharmacist that I was working with blamed on the fact that we were short staffed (because one of the Technicians is out due to the fact that she had surgery), but I think today wasn't a good day because of the fact that Pharmacist didn't help me one bit. He didn't move from his station and watched me fill, input the prescriptions, and run the register (if I had more than two arms, I think it would've helped). It was chaotic from start to finish. When the other girl came in, (she usually just runs the register) she had to help me fill and let me tell you, if it weren't for the fact that she came in, I don't think that I could have handled it the way that I did. While she was filling, I was trying to input more prescriptions since the Pharmacist wouldn't and apply the drug orders that came in (thank goodness they were small ones) all at the same time. When I went to lunch, it didn't help that the girl is still new to this and again, the Pharmacist wasn't helping her so I came back to a mess a BIG mess. I wasn't mad at her, but I just wish that she knew a little more than she did (then again, if the Pharmacist HELPED THIS WOULDN'T be an issue). When I went home for the day, I told the other girl to hang in there and that everything will be better tomorrow because we have a full house (meaning that besides us, we will have the not so LAZYPharmacist and we will have another Technician too) and the look on her face was priceless. It was as if she didn't want me to leave her with this Pharmacist but I couldn't stay because of overtime.
Plain and simple: if the Pharmacist would've helped the other cashier and myself, it wouldn't have been so busy as it was. I left today knowing that tomorrow would be a better day because like I mentioned before, we will have a full house and I have faith that it will be better. I know that I haven't written on this blog since the first of March, but I have been busy working and whatnot so I am sorry that this entry is about work. I hope that it didn't bore anyone, but I just had to vent and this is my only way to (well, I could vent to God, but He is always listening). I guess I am done venting so until next time, have a good evening and God Bless!

Hello March

It's March 1st and it doesn't feel like Spring will get here here in Ithaca, but I do have faith that it will...like in 20 days...who am I kidding? Anyways, I just wanted to write that I am getting make that I am feeling much better than I have in the past few days and I am glad too because like I have mentioned on my previous blog(s) I hate being sick while I am at work.
As everyone knows, I am a huge KU basketball fan and today was a good day to be a !!! KU trampled Missouri today: 90-65 and I couldn't be happier than I am now. March Madness is around the corner so I can see people filling out their brackets and seeingif their bracket will win anything. Today at work was quite relaxing considering it was the first day of the month. I know that this week will be a crazy one, but I don't really care because time will fly and when it flies, it's fun! Today also marked a first in the making. My mother-in-law joined Facebook. Who could have thunk it? I am sure that she will quite addicted to it because her brother, sister, niece, nephew, and brother-in-law are also on it, too and not to mention that they will get her "hooked". Well, dinner is calling my name (sorry, had to put that in) and I have no idea what I am going to make. All I hope for is that it's good not to mention edible. Until next time, have a wonderful week and God Bless!