Summer of Excitement: Independence Weekend - [a case of the summer]

As one might expect, the aforementioned excitement that occurred last week centered mostly around the activities of July 4th weekend.  I actually took off July 3rd (Thursday), although not for exciting reasons.  I had a dentist appointment at 10:00 (which I incorrectly thought was at 10:30, so I was a half hour late.  Oops), then dropped by my parents' house to do some laundry, and then finally went to the barber to get a haircut.  That evening I also decided to grab a few more things for the apartment (including a TWO TIER fruit bowl!) at which point it started to absolutely pour out.  Like, blankets of water falling from the sky.  Within minutes streets and parking lots were literally flooding.  I don't think I've ever gotten THAT drenched in such a short amount of time from just being outside for less than a minute at a time.  It was ridiculous.  Unfortunately, I was so massively uncomfortable that I couldn't meet a few friends later, so that ended up being a relatively tame night.  But that's okay, because there would be more fun later.

On Friday, my friend had people over for an intended BBQ.  However, since it was raining, we ended up having everybody inside (using the toaster oven in place of the BBQ), which was just fine.  However, when I walked in, I noticed three of my guy friends all wearing the USA World Cup Jersey with matching shorts, in addition to American Flag bandannas.  They explained that they went to the dollar store down the street and, on a whim, talked the guy down to $24 and got everything.  Not to be left out, I went to the very same dollar store and did the same.  He even remembered my friends, which meant I got the same discount.  And so we spent the whole afternoon wearing our matching outfits, and then went to the bar doing the same.  Somehow, we managed to pull it off and had a great time.

Saturday was our yearly tradition of taking my nephew and nieces to the boardwalk in Point Pleasant.  It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun, but holy hell was it crowded.  And I was exhausted, too.  Plus we didn't even eat until, like, 3:00, and I don't like to be kept from food.  But, of course, it was nice to have a beautiful day.

Sunday was a beautiful day as well, as we went to my aunt's house for a BBQ.  A day in the pool with lots of food (see, told you I like food) and family.  Oh, Margaritas too (those are American, right?)  A very nice time.  It was certainly a long, tiring weekend, though, and I didn't feel especially good on Monday!