St. Patrick’s Day Blog Hop

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You may not know it but Denver, Colorado has a large Irish population. At least on St. Patrick’s Day. We have the second largest parade in the country. Second only to New York City. Everyone wears green or ‘Kiss me I’m Irish’ buttons, hats or T-shirts. All the bars, taverns and restaurants serve green beer and corned beef and cabbage.

In my younger years, I call them my wild years, before my husband and I got together, I celebrated at a bar named Clancy’s. I didn’t start celebrating the holiday until I started working for the assessor’s office. My boss loved St. Patrick’s Day and always gave his appraisers the day off to go to Clancy’s. I was the first female appraiser in the county’s history so I went, too. I’d be damned if the men did anything that I didn’t. I was determined to prove myself to be ‘one of the guys’.

My mistake this particular St. Patrick’s Day was in wearing all black except for a green leaf in my hair. Now in a dark bar, in my dark hair, a dark green leaf doesn’t really show up much. I got pinched a lot. I’m surprised I didn’t have bruises. I did, however, notice that the men who weren’t wearing green didn’t get pinched. And I seemed to be the target of serial pinchers. I caught a couple of the guys pinching me more than once after they knew I was wearing green. I think they were getting back at me for entering what had previously been an all boys club.

It wasn’t easy being the only woman in an all male profession. To say all eyes were on me is not an exaggeration. Men and women watched me. Both having a stake in whether I succeeded. Both sides having persons for and against me. Now you’re probably asking why this has anything to do with St. Patrick’s Day. Well this was the first time I was interacting with many of my co-workers on a non-working basis. This is where I either made it into the club or not. How I behaved that day would determine the rest of my career in that office. I had to be able to be “one of the boys” if I was to succeed. It wasn’t about drinking beer or eating corned beef. It was about camaraderie. It was about trust. Could they trust me to be one of them. To be in the trenches with them. To have their backs if needed.

I guess I had what it took. I was invited to join them in other after hours activities and I later became the first female appraisal department head and later then, the first female Chief Deputy Assessor. None of which would have been possible without passing the test on that first St. Patrick’s Day.

I will be giving away to one lucky commenter the paperback volume of my Centauri Series, which contains all three books, Centauri Dawn, Centauri Twilight and Centauri Midnight.  The paperback will be mailed to anyone in the US.  If the winner is outside the US, I will give them ebook copies of the three books.


http://carrieannryan.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-st-patrickss-day-bloghop-sign-up.html

130 thoughts on “St. Patrick’s Day Blog Hop”

  4. I don’t really have a St.Pattys day tradition (other then wearing green since I am part irish lol) but I plan on going out with friends tomorrow to a local pub for a party!

    I guess I like the holiday alright. I make sure I wear green that’s for damn sure lol.

    Great post!

    Happy St. Patricks Day (One day early)

    ~*Drea*~
    dreabecraft(@)aol.com

    Reply

  6. Thanks for telling us your story, enjoyed reading your post. Have a great St. Patrick’s Day!
    skpetal at hotmail dot com

    Reply

  7. Good Story. I might have been kicked out of that bar for clocking a guy who pinched me more than once. Glad you founf another way to handle it.

    nayjf at yahoo dot com

    Reply

  8. I didn’t know that about Denver, somehow my family (have a bunch on CO) never mentioned it, and I was too young when I lived out there. Thanks for the story 🙂

    Thanks for the great giveaway. Happy St Patty’s Day!

    Hillary
    hillacurr@gmail.com

    Reply

  10. Congrats on breaking the glass ceiling in your office and surviving the abuse. Thank goodness things are a little better now.

    acm05atjuno.com

    Reply

    • I look back now and am very proud of what I accomplished. There are many female appraisers now and most don’t remember a time when it was a “man’s” job.

      Reply

  12. I enjoyed your story. How wonderful for you for being able to rise up to where you needed to be! Enjoy your St. Patrick’s day!

    Reply

  14. Those first tests are always something to remember. They’re also great stories later on…isn’t hindsight wonderful?

    Reply

  17. About all we do is wear green around here (my favorite part is dressing the toddler up for holidays!). Thanks for joining the blog-hop! This is the first time I’ve followed one and loving finding new (to me) authors!
    Congrats on passing the St. Patty’s day test with those guys and making such big accomplishments 😀

    Reply

    • Thank you and I agree totally. That’s why our parents and grand parents stories of surviving the Great Depression are such good stories.

      Reply

  19. I did not know that Denver had such a large population of Irish. Learn something new everyday! LOL
    Thanks for participating in the hop.

    Reply

  20. I dont have much St Pattys Day traditions, but I know I always hated getting pinched as a kid !

    Happy St Patty’s Day !
    ~Kym
    flwrs4ever(at)yahoo(dot)com

    Reply

  23. Happy St patrick Day
    thanks you a lot for opening this to international tooo ( pft copies i hope^^)

    all the best

    isabelle(dot)frisch(at)gmail(dot)com

    Reply

  24. If you win and are international, I’ll give you Smashword coupons and you can download the format that you need. Good luck and Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

    Reply

  26. I’m sure they were just pinching you because you were the cutest one in the bar. 😉

    Thanks for the contest!
    ashley.vanburen[at]gmail[dot]com

    Reply

  28. Kudos for getting in there and breaking into the “boys club” and achieving your goals. It is funny how taking those steps that take us outside our comfort zone will lead to whole new paths. I am excited to have the opportunity to win these awesome books and thank you so much for the opportunity. Don’t forget your green LOL
    dz59001[at]gmail[dot]com

    Reply

  29. Damn, girl! Way to go in breaking through those walls! WOOT!

    Thank you so much for participating in this hop and for the amazing giveaway chance! I can’t believe all of your books are together now – I’ve been dying to read them 😀

    Stalking you on Facebook: Gena Robertson
    & Twitter: @mystchevia

    robertsongena@hotmail.com

    Reply

    • Thanks Gena. I know my Mom was particularly proud of me. She was a very independent woman and seeing her daughter go places she wasn’t able to made her proud.

      Reply

  31. Wonderful post! Id love to read your books. They sound great! 🙂 Thanks for sharing and for the giveaway! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

    Reply

  34. Really? Denver is not a place I considered to have a large Irish population, but I suppose they were migrating west as much as anyone else.
    Funny about the pinching! I usually get pinched because I always forget my days. I know its coming, but I’m such a fuzzy head in the morning that I don’t think about it until I’m out or at work.

    Thanks for participating in the hop and for the giveaway opportunity.

    Reply

    • I’ve got my green prepared for tomorrow. If I set it out tonight, I won’t forget, otherwise I’m probably going to get pinched…again. LOL

      Reply

  35. It is great that you were able to pass the test and be accepted in the “boys club” and then succeed so well in your career. I will be wearing some green tomorrow, but that will be as far as my celebrating goes.
    June
    manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com

    Reply

    • Thanks for commenting June. If my husband cooks, then we’ll be having corned beef and cabbage. If I cook, we’re having Stouffers frozen dinners. LOL

      Reply

  36. Great story! At least you passed muster and became one of the guys. It is amazing how one little incident in life can help push on to another.
    Thanks for being on the hop!
    Mel
    bournmelissa(at)hotmail(dot)com

    Reply

  37. Congratulations on making it where you did. Our Assessor’s office here is a good ole boys club unfortunatly. Small towns gotta love em!

    proudarmymom32(at)yahoo(dot)com

    Reply

    • Hi Sue,
      I think that a lot of them are still those “good ole boys” clubs. Hopefully they will come into the 21st century soon.
      Thanks for commenting.

      Reply

    • Wow! You had it tougher than I did. 236 men!!! I only had to get the acceptance of 20. Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

      Reply

  42. Nice story. Thanks for the awesome giveaway. Hope you have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day! cheryllynne(at)rocketmail(dot)com

    Reply

  44. I don’t have any traditions and don’t like green so I won’t be wearing it. I might go out drinking this year.

    ainfingeratcomcastDOTnet

    Reply

  48. Well, it’s not really a good story…but when I used to work in downtown KC…me and my coworkers used to sneak down to the parade on our lunch hour and share a ‘green beer’…or two. 😉 Happy St. Pat’s Day…thx for the giveaway op!

    barbbattaglia @ yahoo.com

    Reply

  52. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I have to say congrats on your career! Great job. I could only imagine how hard you had to work to get there.
    Thank you for the giveaway and HOP!

    trb0917 at gmail dot com

    Reply

  53. thanks for the hop and i am going to st pat fair
    and then wishing a happy bd to my little siter

    luck of the irish

    desi the blonde at msn dto com

    Reply

  60. I didn’t know Denver has such a prominent Irish population. I wonder how they celebrate there. I plan to spend the day with my family and for me that feels lucky already.

    Cambonified(at)yahoo(dot)com

    Reply

  64. I never knew you could pinch or be pinched for not wearing green on St. Patty’s Day. Now I know so watch out!

    beckerjo at verizon dot net

    Reply

  65. I am 1/4 Irish and proud of it. I always wear green for St. Patrick’s Day and usually a button that says “Kiss Me I’m Irish”. I’m loving this Blog Hop thing.
    Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

    Reply

  69. Winner of the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet:
    #136 from Carrie Ann Ryan’s
    Melissa L
    Congratulations Melissa!!

    Winner of the $90 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
    #4186 from Wendy Smith’s Blog
    Shadow
    Congratulations Shadow.

    Winner of my Centauri Series book is Sara. Congratulations Sara.

    Reply

  70. This is so interesting and informative for me. In my country the ST. Patrick’s Day is not celebrated. I wish I would be in States right now, witnessing the celebration. maybe one day I will manage to come to see the celebration.
    Wish You the Best,
    Adila

    Reply

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