happy 4th!

Considering how much I hate winter, summer is by default my favorite. Yeah, yeah, I hate the humidity and especially the mosquitoes, but I love the beach, ice cream cones, and flip flops. And the 4th of July is the holiday that epitomizes summer. It is a day that reminds you that you still have a full two months off until school starts. I have fond childhood memories of summer barbecues, backyard sparklers, and lying on picnic blankets at the local high school while waiting for the fireworks show to start.

So, you'd think that I'd be all over celebrating the 4th as an adult. The truth is, this holiday always sneaks up on me. It's June and then BAM! it's the 4th and I'm unprepared. When I lived in South Arlington it was easy to walk down the street and watch the DC fireworks from the Air Force Memorial. But now that we live in the 'burbs it takes more effort than we can muster to get off our butts and witness the fireworks in person. Sadly, we haven't seen the DC fireworks since we moved into our house. On the 4th in 2009 we were painting our kitchen. (Yes, alcohol was involved, but still - do we know how to party or what?) In 2010, we did actually see the fireworks at our local high school. Last year? We were driving home from our vacation at Luminhaus. And this year? Too lazy. We spent our day running errands (two mattress stores - no, we still haven't decided, the liquor store, and the fireworks stand) and then I mixed a cocktail and headed into my studio to work for a bit. I've been working on my Things That are Awesome illustration for the past two weeks and it is taking forever. I can't wait to finally unveil it at Artscape and in my shop. Larry says this illustration is a peek inside my OCD brain. He also wonders why toilet paper isn't on the list.

Anyway, before I knew it, it was 8:30 pm. We hadn't eaten, I didn't make a red, white and blue dessert, and we didn't even have people over for a 4th of July party. So the two of us grilled sausages, drank beer, watched fireworks from our backyard, and set off a few of our own...

Setting off fireworks from home (safely, with adult supervision) was always a part of my childhood in Virginia, but Larry grew up in Maryland where all consumer fireworks are illegal. He was never interested until we picked up a few from a local fireworks stand last year and now he is obsessed. His inner pyromaniac has been awakened!

But even better than our backyard pyrotechnics was nature's fireworks - an amazing display of heat lightning that we watched from our back porch. 

Truly awesome. Happy 4th! (And next year, I will make a red, white, and blue dessert!)