I stayed up very late cleaning the majority of the house, packing, and of course messing around on facebook. I started to make a playlist of hilarious cover songs including "Gin & Juice" by The Gourds and various Richard Cheese songs. I didn't go to sleep until roughly 2:30am.
I got up about 2 hours later to get ready to leave. Neil was kind enough to get up with me even though he didn't have work on Friday, and he drove me all the way back over to East Bay for my 6:45am flight out of Oakland. The trip was very smooth because, as planned, I slept pretty much the entire way. Fell asleep as we taxied out, and woke up without opening my eyes thinking "Have we really STILL not taken off? What is the hold up?" only to open my eyes facing out the window and see clouds everywhere. You know, I've flown literally 100's of times but I can still be stunned by some of the gorgeous views from the plane. I don't bother to try to take pictures of them; the camera never captures it. It was still nice.
So I fell asleep taxing out of Oakland and woke up landing in SLC. I also slept for about half the trip from SLC to StL but for my waking hours I worked on what is going to be an epic playlist for my upcoming road trip from StL back to San Francisco.
Jack picked me up from the airport. :)
We went back to Mom's house, hung out with everyone (including BALD JULIE), and bought ingredients for spinach sausage loaf, which I will make today. We showed Everett the literal version of Total Eclipse of the Heart (which everyone should see) and watched some Dan band videos, laughing pretty hard.
Then, in the evening, Jack and I drove down to the MO river waterfront for the fireworks show. It was supposed to rain so the place wasn't quite as slam-packed as it had been last year. Jack found a great parking spot and we walked to the center of the crowd and to the edge of the water, found an open spot to sit. The weather was great--overcast but not dark, breezy but not cold, and there was a band playing various bluesy-songs in the background.
July 3, waiting by the MO river for the fireworks show.
We just sat next to the river talking and people-watching. I think if I ever have kids one of my favorite parts will be re-experiencing the holidays through them. Seeing other families setting up their blankets, wearing red white & blue, playing with glowsticks & eating funnel cakes--it all reminded me very much of 4th of July in Folsom when I was a kid. There were also little ones getting excited about throwing rocks (really clumps of hardened dirt) into the river. I was not as thrilled about this because each toss left a spray of dust in the air and all over my face, so I told them to go away. Otherwise they were cute.
Awhile after it had gotten dark Julie, Denny, Tiffany & Aaron showed up (that is, Denny and half of Hellion). It was good to see all of them; I hadn't seen Denny in months. We joked around until the fireworks
display.
JULIE IS BALD. It's fun to rub her head.
The show was excellent. We were near enough that we felt the booming in our chests. We were near enough that the ashes fell all around us, and we had to look nearly directly up to watch some of the fireworks. Somewhere vaguely in the background there was patriotic music playing, but mostly you heard the fireworks and children screaming (delighted, cheering screaming, not terrorized screaming. I think.)
Overall it was a great night. Great to see Jack, great to see my family and other friends, great to visit the familiarity of the suburbs and experience actual weather. There are supposed to be thunderstorms today. Missouri thunderstorms. San Francisco never really has thunder storms. Should be spectacular.
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