happy fourth

so me and a friend of mine went to the parade down spring street today and it was surprisingly excellent - veterans, lots of fire trucks (who knew we had so many?), tractors, ponies, horses, covered wagons, goats, bicycles, brownies (the girl scouts, not the food), antique cars, and more that i'm forgetting. as we sat there, we did a lot of people watching waiting for the parade to start and get to where we were sitting on the curb. sooo many people on spring street, it was crazy. but anyways, we talked about how all the little kids were dressed up in their patriotic red, white and blue, but probably had no idea of what they were celebrating. things sort of get less exciting once you get to the point where you actually know what they're about - when you're little everything's really exciting or really sucks. at least that's the way it seems.

in any case, i realized that though i'm truly not patriotic at all, this was a fourth of july that i have, so far, enjoyed. it was great to see all the townsfolk who seem to be almost non-existant during the school year except for at a rare few moments and even if i'm not patriotic, i'm glad that i live here and that we celebrate this even if i only say that because it brings people together. despite the screwed up government (which, fingers crossed, is getting better) and the huge problems that never go away (think isms), i can't think of somewhere that i would have rather grown up. i don't know what it's like to live in another country but if i'm honest, i liked growing up here - i like the freedom of speech even to stay stupid things, that i could vote in the last election, among other things. living here, i've been blessed and altogether luckier than i should have been.

so on that note, happy fourth! and enjoy the fireworks! (even if they are bad for the environment =] )