Oh Happy Day!

 Well, today is the big day!  It is the release date of

my first book American Homestead Quilts!

It takes a long time to make a book from start to

finish.  We first started talking about a book about

21 months ago and it has been 18 months from the

contract to the book.  What an education it has been.

Since I publish my own patterns and do everything

in that process except the printing, I had no idea

about how many people were involved in the

publishing of a book and I'm sure there are people

involved in this process that I never even heard of.

But it was fun to work with other people on a project.

For example, to know someone was going over all the

technical aspects was a great feeling.  I'm sure most

designers spend a lot of time proofing their patterns but

since we are so close to the project, sometimes we miss

mistakes ~ and ohhhh, that hurts.  You want everything

to be perfect.  By having your own technical editor, you

have someone going through everything with a fine

toothed comb.  I felt Ann made my quilts in her head.

I have to wonder, did C&T Publishing set the release

date for my book on March 17th because my name

is Murphy?

And that brings up another reason to be happy on

this day ~ it is St. Patrick's Day!  And when you

are the granddaughter of a person named

Nellie O'Rourke, you will be celebrating on this

day.  When my Mum was in Ireland and she

would tell people her Mother's name, people

would say, "Aye, Lass, with a name like that, you

need to open a pub!".

So, I thought I would tell a story today about the

first St. Patrick's Day I spent with Mr. Wonderful.

Of course, he wasn't Mr. Wonderful yet, he was

just McCutie.  It was 32 years ago today (yeeps)

and we were a couple of poor college students

who had been dating for just a few months. 

Wonderful had started a job that week at the

Town Pub, a local bar/restaurant, his job was

helping prep the food for the big St. Patrick's Day

bash that was happening that week.  The new job

of course meant new money and we planned to

spend some of it on St. Patrick's Day.  We went

to school on top of a mountain overlooking

New York City.  That meant, on March 17th we

would be on our way to the big city.  We had

both gone to classes and then caught the bus to

Manhattan, we walked over to 5th Ave and stood

along the fences of Central Park and watched one

of the biggest parades in the world.  If you have

never seen it, it is a spectacle.  Yes, there are the

typical high school bands from all over the country

(imagine how exciting it must be for them), there

are politicians waving and shaking hands but it is

the amount of police and firefighters that can

completely blow your mind.  Can there really be

that many police and firefighters in this area and

if they are all marching, then who is minding the

store.  Do you think all the Italians work on St.

Patrick's Day and the Irish all work on Columbus

Day so everyone gets a chance to be in the

parade for their country?  Row after row after

row of uniformed men and women.  And then

if you were not already blown away, marching

along were the Emerald Societies, the pipe and

drum corps.  They are decked out in their kilts

and the fabulous sounds of the bagpipes sends

a shiver down every Irishman's spine.  McCutie

told me how special it was to see this since

Grandpa Murphy had been a New York City

policeman and Uncle Jack Murphy was a New

York City fireman.

After the parade, we headed downtown and

McCutie bought me a corsage, a carnation

sprayed green for the special day.  We went

to McSorley's, it is said to be the oldest Irish

pub in NYC, it has been around since the mid

1800's.  I was a McSorley's regular, I went every

Sunday night.  I was introduced by a guy I dated.

I gave up the guy but kept the bar.  I generally don't

like bars but since this is so Irish, I always felt the staff

was looking out for me.  In fact, some nights the guys

would walk us to our car to be sure we got home safely.

(Don't worry, we had designated drivers).

Of course the line to get in was long on this day and as

we were standing there the manager, John stepped

outside for some fresh air and spotted me in the crowd

and came over to give me a kiss, I guess because I'm

Irish.  McCutie was impressed, wow he said, I guess

you really are a regular.  We ate some of the best ham

sandwiches on the planet, very simple, ham on rye

with raw onion and the hottest mustard you can imagine.

Yum!

This image was found on Google images.

Later we walked back to the West Village and I spotted

a place called Googie's, one of my friends had been there

and she said they had great Long Island Iced Teas.  We

decided to try them.  Ok, I wasn't much of a drinker then

or now and I honestly had no idea what a Long Island

Iced Tea was.  I guessed it had some alcohol in it but

I really thought it was mostly iced tea ~ really...

So we talked and had another and talked and had

another and then we realized we had to get back to the

Port Authority Bus Terminal in Times Square to catch the

last bus of the night back to school.  And then I stood up

and found out those drinks were not mostly iced tea...

We caught the bus in time and settled in for the 20

minute ride home and somewhere in there we both

fell asleep.  As a businessman was getting off the bus

many miles away in a neighboring town, he saw us and

figured we were from the college and woke us up. 

And there we were, after midnight, tired and cold and

having to walk all the way back home.  On the next block

over from where I lived was a big cemetery and McCutie

thought it would be much shorter to cut through it to

get to my house.  At this point he was starting to be not so

cute.  Do you know that scene in Notting Hill when Julia

Roberts and Hugh Grant climb the fence into the park late

 at night?  Yeah, it was something like that except we had

had a few Long Island Iced Teas...  Finally, we made it

home and I realized I lost my corsage, I had wanted to

save it as a memento of the day, it probably fell off in the

climb into the graveyard.  I still think back on this as one

of the top St. Patrick's Days!

May you always have walls for the winds,

a roof for the rain, and tea beside the fire,

laughter to cheer you, those you love near you

and all that your heart might desire.