a revival

today was the first time i've ever been away from home, family, and friends on the 4th of july. it doesn't seem like a big deal and perhaps it isn't, but it was certainly a change. i think the strangest thing was not watching the pinehurst fireworks, which i think i have done every single year since we've always lived so close to pinehurst, plus being at the course for them last year.

despite not being in colorado, i still had a pretty good day. i relaxed last night and watched a movie and was able to sleep in until 9 this morning. i moved all of my stuff out of steph's room (which i had been using as storage for the stuff i was too lazy to unpack back in may) and into mine. i wrote the two exam essays that are due tomorrow and then i watched the italy-germany semifinal match. it was an uneventful game until the last 2 minutes of overtime (over 119 minutes into the match) when italy scored twice. even though i dislike a lot of the german players, i am still disappointed they lost since i am, indeed, part german.

after the game, i headed over to the farm (my great grandma's old farm where charlie will soon live and my aunt audrey's modular house is going up next door to charlie's house) for the baber get-together. i had a lot of fun...more, in fact, than i had expected. we grilled burgers and hot dogs, rode the go-carts, played badmitton (is that spelled correctly?), played volleyball, and tried unsuccessfully to keep the small children from interfering with the "big kids" badmitton games. once it got dark, we started the fireworks show, which was quite dramatic....

a few minutes in, tom (one of my second cousins) lit a big triangular artillery block with 10 shells. the first one went off fine and was pretty sweet. all of a sudden, the second one shot out of the side of the block, ricocheted off of the kids inflatable pool, and headed towards the picnic table where carolyn (charlie's girlfriend), max (my 6 year old third cousin), and i were sitting along with the huge box of fireworks. it landed at carolyn and my feet and then exploded again where it burned our legs and shot up at our faces. carolyn tried to push max away while i ran around to the other side of the table to get him. as i grabbed him and started running around the other side of the house, another of the shells (or perhaps the same one...no one really knows) exploded in front of us and i had to just run right through it. it was crazy. max was freaking out, as well as all the other moms on the other side of the house. luckily, there were only a few minor injuries...small burns on my legs, and a cut/bruise on carolyn's leg where she ran into the picnic table when she was trying to get max. needless to say, it made things pretty interesting. but after that, max and his little brother simon refused to sit outside to watch the rest of the fireworks, so they sat in joe's jeep and watched from there.

one of the good things about nebraska is that the cool fireworks (ones that actually leave the ground, etc) are actually legal. but at the same time, i don't remember ever having to run away from sparklers and crappy fountains back home.

happy 4th. remember what's been sacrificed for us to live the way we do...integrity, ethics, and the lives of the countless people we have taken advantage of over the years.