The Fourth of July

Into the car in the morning and my mom and I drove up to Columbus, Ohio for my cousin's wedding.

As we were driving up, I was telling my mom about John From Cincinnati, Marty and my beloved show. Animatedly of course. It's hard to describe John to someone else, really. You have to see it. And you still may not get it. But as we're driving along, coming up to a bridge over a wide river expanse, I say, "Oh, what's this city?" She said, "Speaking of Cincinnati...." Heh. Not that Cincinnati actually had really anything to do with the show, but still.

We got to Bexley and the "block party" that my cousin had set up was going on. A fun affair of kids and a large moonwalk bouncy thingie in the middle of the street. This is one of those old upper middle class neighborhoods, where the houses are different, separated from each other with front and back lawns, kids riding their bikes on the sidewalks and streets, neighbors chatting with each other on their front porches, people wave when they go by. Idyllic. The "real" old American Dream.

My poor Aunt had fallen and dislocated her shoulder, badly bruised her knee, wrist and face. We were waiting for her to get back from the hospital which she did in short order. Ouch, she looked a mess. She was supposed to ride on the police department float in the Fourth of July parade (remember, Uncle Bob was a cop and this is his wife). The Chief of Police came by later, all gussied up in his bicycle cop outfit to check in on how she was doing. Again, the idyllic old American Dream at work.

Then I met my "long lost cousin" in a bit of an embarrassing moment. Really, I should have an excuse, the last time I saw him was 19 years ago when he big enough to hold in my arms and was slobbering on the laces of my hiking boots, just a bare six month old infant. So when a handsome young man following on the heels of a family member, well, I thought he was a friend of the family. He came in for a hug and hey, I'm about the hugging, I love to give hugs, so I didn't think anything of it. It was kind of noisy and I missed his name. We part from the hug and I say politely, "I'm sorry, I missed your name?" He gives me a little laugh and says, "It's Harrison." I think my mouth dropped and I probably was a little speechless for a moment, feeling a bit dumb. Harrison. Of course you are. But damnit, really... last time was 19 years ago. He seems to be quite a good egg, very talented.

Harrison, Maia (who IS a friend of the family) and I all played Frisbee out in the street in front of the house. Ouch, I think I'm feeling my age. Wait, I've always been feeling my age. Well, if you add on about 15 years to my age! Body aching but so much fun!

Then off to fireworks with family and friends. Maia wanted to hold my hand and proclaimed me her "Friend". We got up right against the safety fence and watched the fireworks from ground zero. Wow, they were pretty prolific and loud for a small suburban area.

I am going confess something Weenie Status about myself now.

I get all weird and patriotic on the Fourth of July.

I was a little teary this Fourth of July. I notice I have been teary past several years on this day. I see the fireworks in concert with the anthems playing and the cheesy Lee Greenwood song "God Bless the USA". Please forgive the utterly cheesy video I found on Youtube.com.



This is the one day that I am both very proud and very ashamed to be an American. We are a great nation. Well, we COULD be a great nation. We could be even an even greater country and sometimes I feel so sad that we hold ourselves back, that we don't have the support of our government and all our citizens to become one of the greatest nations on the face of the earth. A nation that could engender so much amazing change and positive creation, but instead so much energy goes toward destruction. But we have an amazing amount of social consciousness rippling through our country currently and that gives me some sense of hope.

Then off to White Castle with friends of Leah and Matt's, just those two and Harrison and I. He'd never had White Castle. I hadn't had White Castle in years. You know, those little mini "burgers". I wasn't missing anything, really. Ick. Grease and possible un-meat galore. But we had a nice conversation and got to be side ring to a fight that was happening outside. Hmm... fun.