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Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Happy Holiday!

"Are you sick of this noise yet?"

I took my trash downstairs to the dumpster a little while ago and encountered a couple of peeps from the neighborhood.

First there was the young guy standing on the sidewalk staring at me as I meandered across the parking lot to our aesthetically appropriate dumpster concealed behind a lovely white fence. Growing up a young American girl in Southeast Asia as I did, I'm still a little sensitive to the stares of male strangers, and I wanted to say, "What?! You never saw a frizzy-haired white chick take her cat poop and corn-on-the-cob husks out to the trash before?" As I came almost up to the edge of the dumpster fence, my sidewalk buddy's friend came around the corner zipping his pants. I slowed down and stepped lightly so as to avoid any puddles as I tossed the trash. The guys went off to replace their discarded fluids with a little more drinkies, I guess. Happy 4th. Hey, where I grew up I'm not sure they would've even bothered taking advantage of the fence's privacy, so there's that.

Heading back toward my building I met a woman cutting across the parking lot with a bottle in a paper bag. "Are you sick of this noise yet? It just goes on and on." I agreed - the fireworks had continued all through the night last night. And apparently that was just the soundcheck. As I type, I don't think I've been able to hear my own thoughts for a good half hour, and I'm pretty sure I'm getting both the originals and the echoes of at least three surrounding towns' festivities. "When you work a 12 hour shift, the last thing you need..." I nodded to my new parking lot buddy. "I guess it's the last night for it at least." She shook her head ruefully, "Let's hope."

I sure hope you're all enjoying the Boston Pops concert on TV, because 8-10 miles from the site I can't hear it on my own set. But, for the fifth night in a row, I can see fireworks out just about any window of my house. Buddy alternates between enjoying the show from the window seats and hiding under the couch. Georgie, of course, has snored through the whole thing. And I'm thinking, what am I doing in New England for Independence Day?! It's Out Of Control. Celebrate, good times come on.

Peace out.

2 comments:

Rini said...

I'm not totally delusional - I do know that you're all not watching the Boston Pops, you're watching the World Cup, because you're much more global minded. But, c'mon, it is America's Birthday, which only comes five days per year; let the soccer rest for a minute.

And just now watching the Boston Pops during the 1812 Overture I was reminded of back in the day when Luther used to do his Patriotic Duty as a member of the Armed Services shooting off the canon for the Fort Monroe celebrations. Good job, soldier.

Anonymous said...

Well, we did see the Macy's celebration in New York, some fantastic fireworks, plus music, alternated that with Los Lonely Boys in Houston. Then over to the Ford Theater where Bush and Bush entertained, then back to New York for Lisa Minelli. And somewhere about then the noise got louder, and we grabbed a few chairs, ran down to our special watching spot and saw great Duncanville fireworks. Daniel was heard to exclaim, cool, that's my favorite and so on.